Why don't people believe? Part II

Part I of this topic explained how some people don't believe in God because they like to do things their way, regardless of how immoral some of these things are. And people will do the immoral things ("evil", according to God's definition) because they "love" living in "darkness" apart from God instead of in the "light" of God's forgiveness and presence in their lives.

With this recap, I will suggest another reason why some people don't believe in God (or more accurately, choose not to believe in God). Some people simply get upset by how Jesus claims to be the only way to know and come to God. Jesus explained it this way:

"I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through Me." (Capitalization added for emphasis.) -- John 14:6

The hornets' nest is stirred up even more when they read claims like:

"The one who has seen Me [Jesus] has seen the Father [God]." -- John 14:9

Jesus equates Himself with God even more blatantly in the following passage:

"The Father [God] and I are one." -- John 10:30

As you can imagine, most Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and followers of other religions and cults who don't use the Bible as the scriptural basis for their beliefs are upset - and some even completely outraged - by such statements. They accuse the Christian of being "exclusive" and "narrow-minded", among other things. They accuse Jesus of being a fraud and of being delusional. Such statements also fly in the face of modern spiritual thinking that there are "many ways" to God instead of "the way" that Jesus Christ claims to be.

So who's right: Is Jesus the only way to God, or is He not?

There are so many ways that this question can be explored. One can look at the mountains of archaeological evidence that give credibility to biblical names and places and use this to conclude that the Bible and whatever is written therein must be true. One can look at the extra-biblical accounts of Roman concern over the unrest caused by the ministry and teachings of Jesus and use this for evidence in His existence and in biblical credibility and teachings. One can look at the number of biblical prophecies fulfilled by Jesus and the infinitesimally small possibility of them being fulfilled by one man alone and use this to form the basis of their faith in Jesus. (Here's a great article about the odds of Jesus being this man.)

But rather than going on a search for evidence at this point - something that you can embark on if you wish - let me instead suggest that you first consider the following:

What if Jesus was right?

What if He was actually for real and was actually in the presence of His Father God in heaven, since before the dawn of time, before being placed into the womb of a Jewish teenager and living on earth as simultaneously the Son of God and the Son of Man for 33 years before being crucified on a Roman cross (according to God's plan and purpose) then bodily rising from death from a guarded tomb and appearing to 500 of His disciples at one time - and also His apostles, including one who actually touched one of Jesus' crucifixion wounds - and others over a 40-day period, then taken up into a cloud into heaven in the presence of several people and even two angels? (Whew!!)

Is it possible that all other religions of the world and the cults have gotten it all wrong? Is it possible that all of their attempts to worship and please their gods are totally in vain because their gods do not even exist? Well, according to the Bible and the words of Jesus, these things are the case!

The saying "Pride comes before a fall" is taken from the book of Proverbs, chapter 16 verse 18 (Proverbs 16:18). Humans love to acquire wealth and power and prestige and self-achievement and so on, and the root and result of these things is none other than pride. Pride likes to thumb its nose at others - and God - and say, "Look at what I have done. Look who I am. Look at what I have accomplished." Pride makes dependence upon anyone else - especially God - impossible. Pride also never wants us to admit that we might actually be wrong.

The reason why so many people throughout history have been insulted, angry, and even enraged to the point of murder about the claims of Jesus is not so much because they fear Him being right, but more so because they fear being wrong. They simply don't want their pride to be dragged through the mud of truth. In the case of people who have risen to religious prominence apart from the teachings that Jesus is God and the only way to come to God and that the Bible is infallible, they also risk the loss of wealth and power and prestige if Jesus is proven correct. The hyper-religious Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' time are prime examples, and they stopped at nothing to kill Jesus (or so they thought) and his followers. Modern-day Pharisees live on in the form of the non-Christian religions and cults of this day.

Before you decide to protest or complain about what you have just read, just remember that it's no use shooting the messenger, me in this case. I'm only re-stating what Jesus said and what the Bible records. Your real issue is not actually with me or with this blog, it's with God. Your anger is actually anger towards God, whether you believe in Him or another god or not.

And you need to ask yourself why, exactly, you are mad at God: Are you mad at a Christian or someone else who claims to know God who wronged you at some time in the past? Are you mad at the suggestion that you might actually be wrong, whether you're an atheist or a member of another religious group? Or are you mad at the possibility that God actually did make Jesus the only means by which we can come to Him and know Him?

If you disagree with the claims of Jesus, what I suggest you do from here is really start to ask some serious questions about your current beliefs. If you decide to close your mind and live and die on your current assumptions that you're right and God/Jesus/the Bible is wrong, then the consequences for you as outlined in the Bible will be eternal, and I wouldn't wish these on anyone.

Please don't assume these claims aren't for real without giving them a serious look. Please don't let your pride lead to a fall that will last for an eternity.

Why don't people believe? Part I

There are many reasons why people don't believe in God, specifically in Jesus (who claimed to be the Son of God and the only mediator between man and God, or the only "way" for us to come to God).

One huge reason why people don't believe in God (or Jesus) is addressed by Jesus Himself while answering the inquiries of a man named Nicodemus, one of the top religious leaders of His day who came secretly to visit Jesus one night:

"Anyone who believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God [Jesus].

This, then, is the judgment: the light [good news, or "gospel" of Jesus] has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed."

When I first came upon this passage in the New Testament of the Bible, in the book of John chapter 3, versus 18-20 (John 3: 18-20) after I had decided to become a believer in Jesus Christ, it explained to me the main hang-up that I had had with God before I came to believe.

Before I wanted anything to do with God, I completely ignored anything to do with God. This is because I knew that if God did exist, then I for sure was doing things He didn't like and I didn't want to face His wrath and judgment. So I thought that ignoring God was the best way to deal with this. If there was a heaven and hell, I reasoned, I would try to explain to Him at the "Pearly Gates" all the good things I did while alive so that He might cut me some slack and let me live a peaceful eternity up there in heaven.

I didn't realize at the time that only the forgiveness of Jesus would get me there, not my pathetic attempts at being good! I also didn't realize that only perfection gets one into heaven, and that Jesus becomes our perfection for us - our representative before God - only once we ask Jesus to forgive us for all the things we've done to displease God (our "sins").

Besides not wanting to face God and be accountable to Him for what I did, I enjoyed the things I was doing: the pornography, the relationships with different women, swearing in ways that would make a trucker look like a saint, getting drunk, and so on. If I allowed God into my life, I reasoned, then I wouldn't be able to do any of these things and life wouldn't be "fun" any more. I even went so far as to assume that believing in God (which I wrongly equated to "being religious") would mean becoming and hanging-out with Ned Flanders-types around a campfire and singing Kumbuyah.

Basically, at that point in my life, I was fulfilling scripture, I was confirming and validating the words of the Bible. I loved darkness rather than the light because my deeds were evil. They weren't evil in terms of modern human standards, but they were evil in the eyes of a perfect God! I hated what God had to offer me through Jesus and therefore avoided it because I didn't want the things I did to have to be dealt with and changed. Only now can I look back on this mindset and realize how closed-minded and naive I was, forming stereotypes and assuming things about God that were not true.

But a funny thing happened while I was trying to avoid God and live life my way. I started reading some self-help books because I knew there were things wrong with my life, but I didn't know how else to go about changing them. I was unhappy and unsatisfied, and there was something missing that I couldn't find in all my pursuits because the pleasure was always so short-lived and empty feeling. There was no long-lasting peace or joy that came out of these things. So I decided that these books had the answer, and I started reading classics like "How to Win Friends and Influence People" because, for example, I thought more friends and success would give me the peace and joy I was missing.

As I got into more books, I remember one time reading one that mentioned the word "God" on the second page of the book. I was so enraged that this author was trying to bring God into the mix when all I wanted to learn about was success and wealth that I returned the book! If you've read this blog or just this post so far and think that I've always been a believer, I can assure you that few who have ever lived were more violently opposed to anyone trying to tell me about God than I was!

Anyhow, as I delved deeper into my self-help journey, I came to realize (with much resentment at first) that all success principles have their origin in the Bible. I was surprised by this because I thought the Bible was only about God's wrath and judgement, but here I was being exposed to a loving God that actually wants the best for us and wants us reconciled to Him so that we can have an eternal relationship with Him and not apart from Him in the "other place".

Over time, I began to open myself up more to God and what the Bible had to say. I began to think deeply about my assumptions about the origins of life, for example, and while looking at my hand and it's intricate musculo-skeletal motions began to wonder how something so complex and precise could have possibly arisen from blind, random evolutionary processes apart from a creative force like that of God. I thought about the human creative design poured into things like a watch or a camera, things far less complicated than the human hand, and realized that it was foolish to assume that the hand was not created by something far more powerful than the human mind.

But the kicker for me was the realization that I had to stop always assuming that the Bible was wrong or only half-true and instead realize that perhaps I was wrong. I did not want to take the chance of assuming that hell wasn’t real only to end up there someday. If I did, it would be a mistake that I would have to live with for an eternity with no way out. I did not want the Bible to prove me wrong after it was too late.

So what really happened after I finally broke down and decided to come to God through Jesus and ask to be forgiven for all the things that I had done to displease Him (my "sins")? Did my life suddenly fall apart as God said "Aha!!" and began to punish me for all the sexual immorality and drunkenness I had committed? Did I get the sudden urge to give away all of my possessions and move to the tropical rain-forest and preach the Gospel to a cannibalistic tribe while living a life of celibacy and self-denial?

Actually, much the opposite happened. I felt a sense of release and forgiveness and peace unlike anything I had ever experienced. I sensed a great love from God, not a feeling of guilt and condemnation. Whenever I went back to those habits that had caused those temporary feelings of happiness before, I instead felt a great sense of meaninglessness and emptiness and I would actually get depressed. But whenever I would pray or flip open the Bible - which actually made sense to me now that God's spirit (the Holy Spirit) was living inside of me, teaching me how to interpret the Bible - that sense of forgiveness and peace and love would return.

The neatest part to this story, however, is how God eventually replaced my old habits with new ones that give me far more satisfaction and happiness! I no longer feel the urge to engage in any of the sexual sins (marital sex is not a sin, by the way!) or the drunkenness that I used to want so much.

So this was a much longer version than I had anticipated about explaining why people don't believe, because I also wanted to explain what wonderful good can happen when a person decides to get over the objection or stumbling block to their disbelief. In other posts, I will discuss other major reasons why people don't believe in God.

"The End"

Most people generally don't like to think about what will happen after they die. I know people in the insurance industry who find that one of the hardest things to do is bring up the topic of life insurance with people. Some people are simply too pre-occupied with life, but most want to sweep the topic of death under the rug and avoid dealing with it for as long as possible. People tend to do this with things that are too mysterious or especially that they lack control over. They get scared if they think about the idea of their own death too much, so their typical defense mechanism is to ignore it altogether.

But there is a great danger in ignoring this reality. While they're alive, people risk their loved ones suffering hardship if they fear death to the point of not getting a will made up or setting up a life insurance policy. But the Bible speaks of a far greater tragedy if the reality of death is not addressed on this side of eternity. And even those who do take care of things like life insurance aren't really better off if they don't come to God to set up what I like to call their "death insurance" policy.

So what about you? When the credits in the story of your life roll to a close and the words "The End" appear, what will be your fate? Will it be what the atheists assume (with nothing to back it up), and you'll no longer exist in body and soul? Will you just extinguish? If so, then all your pursuits for pleasure and wealth are all in vain. They have no meaning whatsoever. You'll just live it up in this life, die and be extinguished forever, and therefore have no memory or enjoyment of all you strived to be and to do. What good was it that you enjoyed pleasures apart from God if you won't remember them? What a great thing to look forward to (not)! And to think that people consider Christians weird because they place their hope in a future beyond this life.

So what is this future that Christians have their hope in? Well, the Christian who wastes this side of eternity consumed with chasing pleasure and wealth will also be disappointed by not being able to enjoy any of these things or take them into eternity. However, they will still be ushered into an eternal existence with God because they had asked for Jesus to forgive and cleanse them at some point during their earthly existence, when they were in the right frame of mind and not chasing after the wind.

Did you get that? The Bible makes it clear that a decision to accept the forgiveness of Jesus must be made while a person is still alive on this earth. Doing it while face-to-face with Jesus would be a no-brainer. Therefore, God requires us to have faith, to trust in what is unseen on earth before it is seen after our body dies. And by the way, even the most hard-core atheist or devil-worshipper will be meeting Jesus face-to-face after they die physically to give an account of their lives to Him. (I wonder what they'll say once they meet the very One who created them yet denied the existence of?) The Bible even states "every knee should bow ... and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:10). Some translations replace the word "should" with "shall". Also notice the emphasis on the word every (as the atheist and non-Christian squirm ...).

Some non-believers might have the mindset that this won't happen if they choose not to believe in what the Bible says about life after death. The might be like me who, while I was making every effort to reject God in my life, had the self-conceived notion that people will experience life-after-death according to what god or system (or lack thereof) they believe in. So, for example, I thought that the atheist would be granted their belief of non-existence after death, and the Muslim or Jew or Christian their idea of eternal life after death. In other words, I had the fool-brained notion that our thoughts would somehow have the power to dictate our reality after death. As for my reality, I didn't know where I would go because I didn't want to think about it. I was too scared of the idea of my own death and trying desperately to enjoy my life apart from God, so I chose to ignore it.

But I'll say the same thing I've said in a previous post and which I'll repeat in future ones: you can deny, refute, and ignore the Bible all you want, but what if you're wrong? What if the Bible is for real, and what if everyone does end up in eternity, either heaven or hell depending on whether or not they accept the free gift of salvation that Jesus offers while still alive here on earth? Can you afford to be wrong?

Because "The End" isn't really the end after all. The Bible makes it clear that we live on in spirit after our body dies. The person who chose to get right with God and get their "death insurance" policy while still alive on this earth will live an eternity in His presence free from the pain and frustrations of the existence they had on earth. But the person who chose to ignore God and the reality of death will live an eternity separated from His presence - away from His acts of kindness that He showed to them on earth, shown so that they would come to Him. That person will instead be at the mercy of Satan and all his angels ("demons") - along with all people who rejected God - in a place of eternal torment and regret that the Bible calls "hell". A place where no good and all bad occurs, all the time and forever.

By the way, whoever has the idea that they'll get to see their friends and relatives in hell has no basis for this assumption. You can bet that God's enemies will all be working together to ensure that every other soul there with them will not be able to have any of the good that they've been denied.

So what will your end be? Actually, the choice is up to you, not God. God doesn't send people to hell, but we choose whether we go there or not. God has given us this power of choice because he wants our obedience to Him to be chosen and not forced. Now if that's not love, then I don't know what is!

Again, our end depends upon whether we want to accept God's forgiveness through Jesus or not. I sincerely hope that any non-believer reading this will make the right choice.

Faith involves the unknown

I made the argument in a previous post that everyone has faith, but that not everyone has faith in God. At the end of that post, I brought up the objection that some non-believers make about how it's hard to believe in a God that you can't sense and experience, one that you can't see, touch, hear, taste, or smell.

The problem with us as humans is that we rely too much on our five senses. Unless we can quantify something and wrap our brains around it and neatly 'put it in a box', we tend to dismiss it altogether. We call it myth, or folklore, or superstition and the like. So because God doesn't make Himself known through our five senses, because He isn't quantifiable, because what we read about Him in the Bible is so mysterious and unlike the ways of mankind, and because we can't boil Him down into a formula or simple means of understanding and put Him in a 'box', we relegate Him to being the figment of an over-active imagination. We make fun of his believers as needing a "crutch" like their imaginary God to get them through life instead of bucking up and fighting through it on their own strength.

I find it interesting how people will dismiss the existence of God for these reasons, but they'll believe in alternate theories about why we're here, even when there is minimal "evidence" to support that theory and the proponents of the theory are greatly divided in their stance.

Perhaps you know where I'm going with this, so here goes. The most popular theory that non-believers use to explain the origin of life is the Theory of Evolution. Non-believers will tend to accept what its proponents say without question because, among other things, it gives them an excuse to reject the Biblical notion that they are created beings accountable to their Creator. They can reject the Biblical teaching about how they will meet God face-to-face at the start of eternity and have to give an account of their lives. They can reject what the Bible says about how we need to be forgiven of our sins by coming to Jesus - God's only appointed mediator between God and man - and asking to be forgiven. They can reject the Biblical description of heaven and hell and instead assume that we have no soul or spirit and will eventually die out and become nothing, much like a dead flower or blade of grass.

They will grasp at anything that stands defiantly in the face of God, thinking that some body of man-made thought will somehow destroy this God or render him impotent.

To believe in the Theory of Evolution takes a great deal of faith, and the evolutionist has made Evolution their god inasmuch as the believer has made God their god. The evolutionist has made the assumption that the believer has operated strictly on blind faith, when the reality is the evolutionist is the only one who has done this.

That the meagre scraps of inconclusive evidence and non-cohesive assumptions collected over 150 years have yet to elevate this theory to the level of the "Fact" or the "Law" of Evolution are evidence that faith involves the unknown. The evolutionist simply cannot go back in time and prove that their assumptions are true; they can only have faith in them. They have to assume that this-or-that fossil represents proof that one species suddenly decided to become another even though no conclusive evidence has ever been found of a "transitional" species. But on and on they plod because the death of their belief system would mean only God will be left standing.

The creationist also cannot go back in time and prove that by simply speaking, God caused an entire universe to leap into existence. One can, however, look at the enormous body of evidence - provided mostly by non-believers like archaeologists - that give credibility to the places, names, and events of the Bible and use this to give credibility to the Bible as a whole. In fact, it is no exaggeration that the body of physical evidence to support the Bible far exceeds that used to support the Theory of Evolution.

Don't want to take my word for this? Then simply WITH AN OBJECTIVE MIND start to research this evidence for yourself. Many have done the same and concluded in God's favor, but perhaps you have that special edge that will finally - after thousands of years - conclusively disprove God, the Bible, and Jesus and the miraculous transformative power of them in peoples' lives. A power that operates worldwide regardless of race, socio-economic status, political system, or a person's background. A power that is the envy of psychologists and psychiatrists the world over.

So although you can't see, touch, hear, taste, or smell God Himself, the evidence of His handywork is all around us, according to the Bible: The complex yet perfect intricacy of ecosystems and the creatures that live therein. The structure and operation of the human eye, which no amount of human creative effort has yet to duplicate in the form of lenses and cameras. The intricacy of musculo-skeletal movements and their interaction with the brain that still leave computer programmers, engineers, and the medical profession dumbfounded. I could go on and on.

If these enormous creative attempts on the part of humans in no way duplicate what is found in nature, then who are we to think that nature has come about apart from creative forces? And who are we to think that these forces operate on random chance without a Creator behind them?

We don't need to see the Creator Himself because the evidence of His work alone should be all we need to believe in the existence of this unseen God. With evidence like this, faith in His existence isn't really too difficult after all!

Everyone has faith

One reason that non-believers use to not be open-minded when it comes to reading or thinking about the God of the Bible is that "I don't have enough faith to believe in that God." I won't go into all the other objections in this post that people use to close their minds and reject God (which frankly I've found are based purely on emotion and ignorance rather than exhaustive research and fact - my life before God is a case in point!).

Instead, I propose the notion that everyone has faith whether they believe in God or not. In fact, every member of the human race - past, present, and future - has faith in many different people and things. Before I continue, let's look at one definition of faith: "complete trust or confidence in someone or something". In other words, to believe in God (or a god) requires more than belief, but a total trust or confidence in that god. Now let's apply this definition to the "something" category.

When you step into a car, you generally don't think twice about the hundreds of moving parts designed by imperfect beings that are about to propel you down the highway at 100 km/h. You step in and away you go, often without a second thought. You have faith in that car that it's going to get you to where you want safely and without incident. Your faith is even more evident when you let someone else drive, especially if you don't know them that well and more so if you decide to take a nap while (s)he is driving.

You might argue that this is a foolish argument for faith. Perhaps you're the type (sort of like me) who always has the thought in the back of your mind that the car could break down at any time, or that a tire could burst and you could sail off the road, or that some other driver could smash into you. But in nearly all these cases, don't you still get into that car and start driving?

People who put their faith in a "someone" like God often have a level of overall faith absolutely no different than even the most angry disbeliever and hater of God. The difference with believers is that they have simply put the bulk of their overall faith in God, although God actually wants us to put all our faith in Him (which is hard for even the most faithful of us imperfect beings to do!).

Frankly, when one starts to put out of their mind every stereotype and pre-conceived notion about God, it's much easier to believe in Him than anything or anyone else. And actually, most people don't have a problem with the idea of God, per se, but rather with those who claim to be His followers who have tainted the image of God; that is, it's even easier to accept and believe in God when one decides to ignore their experiences with such people. We've all heard too many stories of church leaders who've tried to look and act so godly on the outside - in front of an audience - but then resort to violence, robbery, and even rape behind the scenes. I'm sure they are what Jesus would call "modern-day Pharisees" in the worst sense.

Some of you at this point might now see the validity of my claim about everyone having faith, but you might now be thinking, "Well, it's easy to have faith in something I can see, touch, hear, taste, or smell. But it's different with God. I really can't believe in something I can't see and feel. I mean, I can't see the wind, but at least I can feel and experience it."

Oh boy - I think I've opened up a whole new can of worms! This is definitely a topic for another post. Stay tuned ...

Who's your god?

I dropped a rather interesting statement - perhaps even controversial - in my first post (which I think you should read to find out what this blog's about):

"... everyone's already brainwashed by something, and everyone already serves a 'god' of some type - either spiritual or material, and whether or not they realize it or like to admit it (sex, money, job/career, education, gambling, shopping, drugs, etc.)."

If you're a non-believer, you might think this is completely ridiculous. You might be thinking something like, 'I'm in control of my own life. Nothing controls me, and I'm in charge of my own destiny.' But the fact is, we're all controlled by something - "brainwashed" - no matter how independent or strong we think we are.

For example, if you spend countless hours climbing the corporate ladder or building your business at the expense of time with family and friends, you might think you're totally in control of the situation. However, the reality is that you serve - dare I say "worship"? - your career or business. The drive to succeed actually controls you. Various life experiences and influences have you convinced, and you are likely trying to convince others around you, that this is the right thing to do. Therefore, you are brainwashed whether or not you realize it or like to admit it. In essence, you've made this relentless pursuit your "god".

I can only imagine a believer reading this post and self-righteously thinking that you're glad you're not like that non-believer trapped in the pursuit of "false gods". But is the God you claim to believe in and to serve and worship truly your god?

In this day and age, there are far too many believers who say one thing then do the other regarding their belief in God; these are the "hypocrites" that continue to give God the bad name to non-believers that He in no way deserves. They show up at church and put on their "Sunday best", appearing and acting as though they're a spiritual pillar, but become a totally different person outside of church for the other six days of the week. They don't stand out in any way spiritually from the world around them.

People like this may claim that God is the one and only thing they serve, but they might actually be caught up in materialistic thinking ('Our _____ isn't big/new/cool enough any more. We really need a bigger/newer/more cool _____.'). Or they may be trying to get a bigger piece of the pie at work or in their business through deceitful practices. In reality, their god is not the God they claim to believe in but rather materialism or greed. Fortunately, God is quick to forgive and heal believers who sincerely come to Him with regret about putting other gods before Him.

I know who my god is: I believe in the God of the Bible. Now before I continue, I just want to clarify that I'm not trying to be "preachy" here. I'm simply laying my cards on the table and explaining exactly who my God is so there can be no confusion on the issue, so you can know where I stand for real. You don't have to agree with it, but I'm just asking you to bear with it! (Remember about being truly open-minded, as I discussed in my first post?)

Specifically, I don't just believe He exists, but I've voluntarily placed my life into His hands. The Bible instructs me that the only way to do this is by placing my faith in Jesus, who the Bible says is the only mediator ("the Way") between God and mankind (yes, this word is politically incorrect, but isn't the word "man" still part of the word "woman"?). This may sound like a strange thing to do, but Jesus made it clear that He and His Father (i.e. God) are one in nature - Jesus is the "Son of God" - so by placing my faith in Jesus I've automatically placed my faith in God. This is what getting "saved" is all about. But salvation is the topic of a whole other post!

So why would I do such a thing? Why would I place my life into the hands of God/Jesus? Where's my backbone? Why would I want a "crutch" like some god in my life?

I can assure you that if I didn't have God as my "crutch", if I wasn't "brainwashed" into believing in the God of the Bible, then I would have something else as my crutch. And this is the whole point of this post. We're all brainwashed by something, and whatever we're brainwashed by becomes our 'god'. For example, while I was giving God the stiff-arm in my life, I was brainwashed to believe that education, making lots of money, and acquiring a lot of possessions were the keys to success and happiness in life. So therefore my gods during that time were education, money, and materialism.

So once again, who's your god? Hopefully now you realize that we all serve one whether we believe in God or not.

But I guess the more important questions are: What will be the end result of believing in your god, and will it be there for you after you die physically and enter the realm of eternity? Perhaps these will be other post topics.

A greeting (and a challenge!)

Are you open-minded? If you truly, really, honestly are, then you won't turn a blind eye at the mention of the word "God" and you'll read on.

Many non-believers label believers in God as being "narrow-minded", among other things, but if you decide that you're above reading a blog like this because you think God is not for real and that you don't need to learn anything about Him then perhaps, just maybe, you're also as "hypocritical" as non-believers also accuse believers of being - that is, perhaps you're just as narrow-minded as they supposedly are!

On that warm note ;0) I officially welcome you to this blog! (I'm really not that much of a bear!)

So why am I starting it? There are times in my life when I'm just blown away by something that I've realized about God, something that I'm convinced He's allowed me to realize, but I forget to write or type it out. This blog is one man's attempt to record some of these things.

What's my goal? My goal is NOT to tell you what I think you should believe. Believe me, I know from experience how annoying it is to be force-fed something I don't want to deal with or think about! Besides that, everyone's already brainwashed by something, and everyone already serves a 'god' of some type - either spiritual or material, and whether or not they realize it or like to admit it (sex, money, job/career, education, gambling, shopping, drugs, etc.). Therefore, my main goal is simply to get you thinking by being straight up and honest with you. Where you go from there is up to you.

If you're a non-believer, I hope you'll start thinking outside the box you already know. I started looking 'outside the box' in my early 20's because I wasn't satisfied with what life - minus God - was offering. (By the way, I was looking for everything but God at that point, but perhaps I'll explain this more in a future post ...) I wanted something more but I wasn't finding it through what I knew (and thought I knew). But if I had stayed inside that box because of narrow-mindedness, my life wouldn't have been transformed so radically and permanently for the better.

If you're a believer, I want you to develop a personal passion for God like you've never known before - a real, genuine, deep relationship with your Creator that gets people wondering about what makes you tick. Far too many believers today either wag the finger, or even worse they blend in with and take on so much of the world's characteristics that people can hardly tell them from a non-believer. The latter base their faith on what their family, co-workers, and so-called "friends" think instead of desiring what God thinks!

So put on your thinking cap and leave your narrow-mindedness at the door. It's time to learn some cool stuff about God that He's allowed me to realize over the past several years!