I'm taking a different approach with this post, and perhaps some others in the future. I've decided this time to express some of my thoughts in poetry, or in this case what might be termed "free verse". That is, I like to write sometimes in a way that doesn't necessarily have the rhyme or tempo of traditional poetry, although there are hints of them here and there.
I've found this to be an extremely effective way to basically throw some of my thoughts into words when I'm having a time of intense or abundant thought - when I can just close my eyes and type them out at break-neck speed (in my case around 70 words per minute) and not worry about making complete sentences.
For future reference, any post that I write in poetry will have the title IN BOLD LETTERING like this post. Here goes, and may God speak to your heart about what you read ...
The Blind Leading The Blind
Oprah Winfrey doesn’t have the answers
Eckhart Tolle doesn’t have the answers
Stephen Hawking doesn’t have the answers
Rhonda Byrne doesn’t have the answers
If they did, then why do they still seek?
Why do they never find?
Why do they lack peace?
Books and magazines
“Today’s special guest”
Self-delusion makes a name
Mass-delusion makes a profit
And the masses follow
Blind and led by blind masters
Too busy to seek Truth
Seeking riches, seeking youth
So they accept the lies of others
Without question, without thought
Together they stumble
They wander ever closer
To a pit, The Pit
Truly, they have their reward
Their reward is near
Nothing eternal
They live for right here
Choosing the wide path
That leads to destruction
God is too inconvenient
Bad for their name
Bad for profit
So they keep up the game
Of delusion, denial
“Put Him out of your mind
He’s dead, He’s blind
As if I’ll stand before Him one day
The Bible’s a lie”
Or so they say
They may be here now
But what about tomorrow?
What about death?
What about you – Who do you choose??
Showing posts with label eternity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eternity. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
A happy ending
It's hard to imagine anyone but the most hard-core of people not liking stories with a happy ending. It seems as though everyone I've ever met or heard about seems to like them. Whether it's a huge volume like Lord Of The Rings or the Narnia series - the books or the movies - or whether it's something very Hollywood like Pretty Woman or wonderfully inspiring like Rudy or the recent movie The Blind Side, there's just something that draws people of all cultures, belief systems, and socio-economic status to stories like this, real or fictional.
It's almost as though we all have this built-in desire for true justice and for things to work out right in the end. But as soon as the book is shut or the final movie credits start to roll, we're forced to come down off the high and step back into reality. 'Too bad things couldn't be that way in my life', you might think, or 'If only things like that could really come true'. Sadly, these are thoughts we're more apt to think in our youth. By the time most of us reach our thirties, we don't even entertain thoughts of any such wonderful things happening in our lives.
But is this true? Is there really no happy ending for our lives? (Most of you know where I'm going with this, but bear with me.) Is life really nothing more than "death and taxes"? You know, even speaking as a Christian, there are days when I lose perspective and really get bogged down and even depressed about life. Hey, I'm only human after all - even the most spiritually inclined people can get down about things.
Before I decided to put the full weight of my trust in the promise of the Bible - eternal life to all who believe in the name of Jesus Christ - I must admit that I had no hope of anything and I got regularly discouraged and depressed. Thoughts of suicide entered the mix on occasion. Sure, I was working toward a university degree and my future was full of promise, but because I thought I'd be extinct at the end of my life span, I didn't know what I was ultimately working toward.
What was the point if this life here on earth was all there was or would be? What would be the point of trying to leave a legacy when I would have no recall of it once I died?
But now, seeing things through the lens of the Bible, I see this life entirely differently. I've never really had a "bad day" since I asked Jesus to forgive me and to become the Lord of my life; it's more like a "few bad hours" at most. And I realize that life is so much more than money and achievement, although at times it's easy to lose perspective of the important things in life.
The non-believer thinks that people like me are living a fantasy, trying to think "happy thoughts" to ease the pain and burden of this life through belief in a make-believe deity, a figment of my imagination. I've never been a happy-go-lucky sort of person, but rather a deep and reasoned individual. I devote a great deal of time and energy into things before making a decision about them, and my decision to accept God's gentle nudges in my life in order to believe in him - as much as I tried to resist at first - were no different. God was gently pounding away at my thick, narrow-minded, assumptive skull for about two years before the reality of his existence became glaringly obvious to me. And once that occurred, only then did the promise of eternal life - of the greatest happy ending imaginable - also become glaringly obvious to me.
I know that non-believers think people like me are deluded, brainwashed - whatever - to believe in what the Bible has to say about anything, let alone this promise of eternal life to those who put their faith in some historical figure named Jesus. But even though I've mentioned this in a previous post, it bears paraphrased repeating now:
What if the Bible is for real? What if its claims are actually true? If this is the case, what do I have to gain by believing what it says about Heaven and Hell, for example, and what do I have to lose by not believing?
I realized that if I was wrong and the Bible was right, then I'd be paying the price for an eternity, one of separation from God in a place the Bible calls Hell. Could I have rationalized Hell out of existence if I didn't want to believe it wasn't for real? Likewise with Heaven? Did I want to take the chance and not believe in God and the Bible because I was arrogant, prideful, or afraid of what others might think of me?
I eventually decided that I'd rather assume that God and the Bible are for real - the price would be too great and horrible not to! - and in so doing I accepted Jesus into my life. Since then, the confirmation of the reality of God and his unfathomable love (not fear of him anymore!) and the absolute truth of the Bible (and no other documents claiming to be "scripture") has been very real and very immense: God's Spirit living within me has been fast at work revealing these things ever since. And therefore I have the most unshakable, most confident assurance that by one simple act of faith several years ago - a moment, really - my existence will indeed have a happy ending on the basis of the claims of the Bible, not on fantasy.
Although this conclusion seems foolish to many, I live day to day with this assurance that they will never have apart from Jesus Christ, and therefore I don't fear death - or life - like they do (even though they don't admit it). If this hope is my "crutch", so be it. But I'd rather have a crutch like God in my life than the meaningless and non-eternal crutches like status, possessions, career and/or climbing the corporate ladder, drugs, self-help books, atheism, evolutionism, New Age gurus and the like that non-believers put their faith and trust in.
It's almost as though we all have this built-in desire for true justice and for things to work out right in the end. But as soon as the book is shut or the final movie credits start to roll, we're forced to come down off the high and step back into reality. 'Too bad things couldn't be that way in my life', you might think, or 'If only things like that could really come true'. Sadly, these are thoughts we're more apt to think in our youth. By the time most of us reach our thirties, we don't even entertain thoughts of any such wonderful things happening in our lives.
But is this true? Is there really no happy ending for our lives? (Most of you know where I'm going with this, but bear with me.) Is life really nothing more than "death and taxes"? You know, even speaking as a Christian, there are days when I lose perspective and really get bogged down and even depressed about life. Hey, I'm only human after all - even the most spiritually inclined people can get down about things.
Before I decided to put the full weight of my trust in the promise of the Bible - eternal life to all who believe in the name of Jesus Christ - I must admit that I had no hope of anything and I got regularly discouraged and depressed. Thoughts of suicide entered the mix on occasion. Sure, I was working toward a university degree and my future was full of promise, but because I thought I'd be extinct at the end of my life span, I didn't know what I was ultimately working toward.
What was the point if this life here on earth was all there was or would be? What would be the point of trying to leave a legacy when I would have no recall of it once I died?
But now, seeing things through the lens of the Bible, I see this life entirely differently. I've never really had a "bad day" since I asked Jesus to forgive me and to become the Lord of my life; it's more like a "few bad hours" at most. And I realize that life is so much more than money and achievement, although at times it's easy to lose perspective of the important things in life.
The non-believer thinks that people like me are living a fantasy, trying to think "happy thoughts" to ease the pain and burden of this life through belief in a make-believe deity, a figment of my imagination. I've never been a happy-go-lucky sort of person, but rather a deep and reasoned individual. I devote a great deal of time and energy into things before making a decision about them, and my decision to accept God's gentle nudges in my life in order to believe in him - as much as I tried to resist at first - were no different. God was gently pounding away at my thick, narrow-minded, assumptive skull for about two years before the reality of his existence became glaringly obvious to me. And once that occurred, only then did the promise of eternal life - of the greatest happy ending imaginable - also become glaringly obvious to me.
I know that non-believers think people like me are deluded, brainwashed - whatever - to believe in what the Bible has to say about anything, let alone this promise of eternal life to those who put their faith in some historical figure named Jesus. But even though I've mentioned this in a previous post, it bears paraphrased repeating now:
What if the Bible is for real? What if its claims are actually true? If this is the case, what do I have to gain by believing what it says about Heaven and Hell, for example, and what do I have to lose by not believing?
I realized that if I was wrong and the Bible was right, then I'd be paying the price for an eternity, one of separation from God in a place the Bible calls Hell. Could I have rationalized Hell out of existence if I didn't want to believe it wasn't for real? Likewise with Heaven? Did I want to take the chance and not believe in God and the Bible because I was arrogant, prideful, or afraid of what others might think of me?
I eventually decided that I'd rather assume that God and the Bible are for real - the price would be too great and horrible not to! - and in so doing I accepted Jesus into my life. Since then, the confirmation of the reality of God and his unfathomable love (not fear of him anymore!) and the absolute truth of the Bible (and no other documents claiming to be "scripture") has been very real and very immense: God's Spirit living within me has been fast at work revealing these things ever since. And therefore I have the most unshakable, most confident assurance that by one simple act of faith several years ago - a moment, really - my existence will indeed have a happy ending on the basis of the claims of the Bible, not on fantasy.
Although this conclusion seems foolish to many, I live day to day with this assurance that they will never have apart from Jesus Christ, and therefore I don't fear death - or life - like they do (even though they don't admit it). If this hope is my "crutch", so be it. But I'd rather have a crutch like God in my life than the meaningless and non-eternal crutches like status, possessions, career and/or climbing the corporate ladder, drugs, self-help books, atheism, evolutionism, New Age gurus and the like that non-believers put their faith and trust in.
Friday, January 15, 2010
The gullible ones
(This post is not intended to make fun of or insult non-believers; it has not been written in a sarcastic tone. Rather, some observations will be made about how they view believers in God in order to set the stage for my main points later on. So if you're a non-believer, please note this and maintain an open mind as you read this post.)
Non-believers make some pretty interesting assumptions about believers in God, one of them being that only gullible people would put their faith in some unseen entity and give it a title like "God". It's as though a non-believer making such an assumption thinks that some Bible-thumping preacher did some 'ooga booga' sort of brain-washing speech that caused people to believe in and follow God like blind, mindless robots. They assume the believer left their brain at the door and are now under the control not of an infinite Creator, but rather a figment of their imagination that allows those preaching the message of this God to exploit believers for the sake of mind control and financial gain. (Lest non-believers think that they are not under such exploitation themselves from non-spiritual interests, I'll tactfully discuss the blindness of non-believers later on.)
What I also find interesting is how non-believers will never sincerely ask just how such people came to believe in God for fear that the message they hear might cause them to get "sucked in" themselves. To avoid this possibility, they instead stand at arm's length and make assumptions about this God and those who are his followers. Unfortunately, their assumptions are made with an air - even an arrogance - of authority, as though they could possibly know more about God than those who actually follow and claim to have an intimate personal relationship with him. This is no more outlandish than someone assuming that a complete stranger to you and your friend knows more about your friend than you do. And what's worse is how the masses of non-believers will buy into these assumptions rather than, as mentioned above, objectively asking the believer about what brought them to faith.
In other words, non-believers accuse believers of gullibility, but aren't they ultimately the more gullible? They are basing their beliefs about God upon false information borne out of a lack of experience and relationship with him. They haven't walked both sides of the "spiritual fence", so to speak, like a believer has, yet they talk as though they know what being a believer is all about, as though they've 'been there and done that', spiritually speaking.
I have also noticed how nearly everything a non-believer mentions about a believer is negative. Countless believers throughout history have given testimony of the power of God to heal broken lives, bodies, and relationships - in many cases baffling the intellectual powers of their day (read the book of Romans, chapter 1, in particular verse 22) - and yet the non-believers have constantly tried to find human or tangible explanations for these miracles. The idea of an unseen entity, mysterious and more powerful than them, is scary because they cannot explain or control it, so they do their best to try to discredit it. Because God can't fit into their "box" of understanding, in their minds he therefore must and should not be for real. They want control because they think being under the control of the one who created them is somehow a bad thing.
They also only see man's religious attempts to please God, the "he loves me, he loves me not" sort who think they're believers, and blind themselves (or are blinded?) to those who enjoy the non-religious relationship of grace through Jesus Christ that God originally intended for everyone, the one which only becomes real to those who want and accept this relationship (these are the true, "saved" believers who have put their faith in Jesus Christ). Therefore, in the eyes of non-believers, nothing good can come out of believing in God despite testimonies of true believers that indicate otherwise because all they see (rather, want to see) is the pious, holier-than-thou, religious attempts at living up to a system of man-made do's-and-don'ts and the hypocrisy of failure when they don't live up to it.
(If you're a non-believer and anything I've written so far is offensive or questionable to you because you've assumed I've just pulled these thoughts out of mid-air, don't take it personally. I haven't invented these notions of how non-believers view believers in God; I've simply tried to state the mindset I had while I was a non-believer for the first 22 years of my life. Your mindset may differ from my old one on a few specific points, but overall your view of God and his followers is probably not much different, but I digress ...)
If I've seemed surprised at how non-believers make assumptions and accusations about believers and seem to be blinded to the truth of who God really is, I'm actually not. It doesn't surprise me in the least because I was once a blinded assumer and accuser myself. I was deceived into thinking that I was under nobody's control - man's or otherwise - when in reality I was under the total and absolute control of the enemy of God who wants nothing more than for all humans to believe that he and God do not exist.
This enemy, who goes by the name of Satan or the title of "Devil", does everything possible to keep full control over us without us even knowing it. Why would he want such control? Because he wants to drag us along with him into the eternal punishment and torment that he knows he has earned through his rebellion toward God. Why does he not want non-believers to know that he exists and controls them? Because he wants them to live under the illusion that they are in control. Then they won't resist when he leads them around like puppets on a string, distracting them and leading them ever further from the message of Jesus. For if they hear this message and put their faith in Jesus, they will have found the one and only means by which they can forever escape Satan's control and find eternal life rather than endure eternal punishment and torment. (Read about Satan's ultimate demise in the book of Revelation, chapter 20.)
If a non-believer ever gets the nerve to question me about my level of intelligence and/or degree of integrity, and/or accuses me of gullibility because I believe in God - in particular Jesus - I hope I will have the ability to calmly and rationally ask them if they've ever been fully a non-believer AND a believer like I have. I have the right and the authority to state what I claim to know about God/Jesus because unlike the vast majority of humanity, I've lived fully immersed for several years on both sides of the "spiritual fence". Any non-believer simply does NOT have any such authority because they cannot speak objectively about what it means to be a believer - they simply haven't walked a mile in my shoes or those of any other believer, so their arguments frankly lack any and all credibility.
Non-believers can make all the assumptions they want about me, but they can never change or take away the account of how I lived when I hated and rejected the notion of God, how this God chose to make himself known to me and begin to change my heart, how I eventually accepted this loving God and his free, no-strings-attached offer of forgiveness and eternal life, and how my life has been all the better ever since. In other words, non-believers are unfortunately the gullible ones - not believers - and I say unfortunately because their non-belief has them headed straight to a horrific eternity unless they choose, only while still on this side of eternity, to accept the free gift of salvation and the resulting eternal life offered only through faith in Jesus Christ.
Non-believers make some pretty interesting assumptions about believers in God, one of them being that only gullible people would put their faith in some unseen entity and give it a title like "God". It's as though a non-believer making such an assumption thinks that some Bible-thumping preacher did some 'ooga booga' sort of brain-washing speech that caused people to believe in and follow God like blind, mindless robots. They assume the believer left their brain at the door and are now under the control not of an infinite Creator, but rather a figment of their imagination that allows those preaching the message of this God to exploit believers for the sake of mind control and financial gain. (Lest non-believers think that they are not under such exploitation themselves from non-spiritual interests, I'll tactfully discuss the blindness of non-believers later on.)
What I also find interesting is how non-believers will never sincerely ask just how such people came to believe in God for fear that the message they hear might cause them to get "sucked in" themselves. To avoid this possibility, they instead stand at arm's length and make assumptions about this God and those who are his followers. Unfortunately, their assumptions are made with an air - even an arrogance - of authority, as though they could possibly know more about God than those who actually follow and claim to have an intimate personal relationship with him. This is no more outlandish than someone assuming that a complete stranger to you and your friend knows more about your friend than you do. And what's worse is how the masses of non-believers will buy into these assumptions rather than, as mentioned above, objectively asking the believer about what brought them to faith.
In other words, non-believers accuse believers of gullibility, but aren't they ultimately the more gullible? They are basing their beliefs about God upon false information borne out of a lack of experience and relationship with him. They haven't walked both sides of the "spiritual fence", so to speak, like a believer has, yet they talk as though they know what being a believer is all about, as though they've 'been there and done that', spiritually speaking.
I have also noticed how nearly everything a non-believer mentions about a believer is negative. Countless believers throughout history have given testimony of the power of God to heal broken lives, bodies, and relationships - in many cases baffling the intellectual powers of their day (read the book of Romans, chapter 1, in particular verse 22) - and yet the non-believers have constantly tried to find human or tangible explanations for these miracles. The idea of an unseen entity, mysterious and more powerful than them, is scary because they cannot explain or control it, so they do their best to try to discredit it. Because God can't fit into their "box" of understanding, in their minds he therefore must and should not be for real. They want control because they think being under the control of the one who created them is somehow a bad thing.
They also only see man's religious attempts to please God, the "he loves me, he loves me not" sort who think they're believers, and blind themselves (or are blinded?) to those who enjoy the non-religious relationship of grace through Jesus Christ that God originally intended for everyone, the one which only becomes real to those who want and accept this relationship (these are the true, "saved" believers who have put their faith in Jesus Christ). Therefore, in the eyes of non-believers, nothing good can come out of believing in God despite testimonies of true believers that indicate otherwise because all they see (rather, want to see) is the pious, holier-than-thou, religious attempts at living up to a system of man-made do's-and-don'ts and the hypocrisy of failure when they don't live up to it.
(If you're a non-believer and anything I've written so far is offensive or questionable to you because you've assumed I've just pulled these thoughts out of mid-air, don't take it personally. I haven't invented these notions of how non-believers view believers in God; I've simply tried to state the mindset I had while I was a non-believer for the first 22 years of my life. Your mindset may differ from my old one on a few specific points, but overall your view of God and his followers is probably not much different, but I digress ...)
If I've seemed surprised at how non-believers make assumptions and accusations about believers and seem to be blinded to the truth of who God really is, I'm actually not. It doesn't surprise me in the least because I was once a blinded assumer and accuser myself. I was deceived into thinking that I was under nobody's control - man's or otherwise - when in reality I was under the total and absolute control of the enemy of God who wants nothing more than for all humans to believe that he and God do not exist.
This enemy, who goes by the name of Satan or the title of "Devil", does everything possible to keep full control over us without us even knowing it. Why would he want such control? Because he wants to drag us along with him into the eternal punishment and torment that he knows he has earned through his rebellion toward God. Why does he not want non-believers to know that he exists and controls them? Because he wants them to live under the illusion that they are in control. Then they won't resist when he leads them around like puppets on a string, distracting them and leading them ever further from the message of Jesus. For if they hear this message and put their faith in Jesus, they will have found the one and only means by which they can forever escape Satan's control and find eternal life rather than endure eternal punishment and torment. (Read about Satan's ultimate demise in the book of Revelation, chapter 20.)
Even though Satan tries to keep people from knowing about and believing in Jesus, people unfamiliar with the Bible might be surprised to realize that even Satan and his demonic agents know about and believe in the existence, power, and true identity of Jesus. Here is one such account:
"In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice, "Leave us alone! What do You have to do with us, Jesus - Nazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are - the Holy One of God!"" (Luke 4:34)Jesus also had a lot to say about Satan's control over unbelievers while he was here on earth. Here is just one passage:
"Why don't you understand what I [Jesus] say? Because you cannot listen to my word. You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He ... has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars. Yet because I [Jesus] tell the truth, you do not believe me ... If I tell the truth, why don't you believe me? [Because] The one who is from God listens to God's words. This is why you [non-believers] don't listen, because you are not from God." (John 8:43-47)In other words, the Father of the believer in Jesus Christ is none other than God himself, whereas the father of all non-believers - and non-Christians - is none other than the Devil himself. So again, non-believers don't understand believers nor do they really want to understand because they are under the controlling lies of Satan - according to this and other Bible passages - who wants them to remain blind to the truth of God, a truth that if accepted means forgiveness and eternal life from God that Satan once had but no longer has. Satan is like Adolf Hitler at the end of the Second World War, who wanted to drag everyone else down with him instead of signing a peace treaty because he knew his end was near. He wants as many gullible non-believers as possible to share in the eternal suffering that he knows is awaiting him.
If a non-believer ever gets the nerve to question me about my level of intelligence and/or degree of integrity, and/or accuses me of gullibility because I believe in God - in particular Jesus - I hope I will have the ability to calmly and rationally ask them if they've ever been fully a non-believer AND a believer like I have. I have the right and the authority to state what I claim to know about God/Jesus because unlike the vast majority of humanity, I've lived fully immersed for several years on both sides of the "spiritual fence". Any non-believer simply does NOT have any such authority because they cannot speak objectively about what it means to be a believer - they simply haven't walked a mile in my shoes or those of any other believer, so their arguments frankly lack any and all credibility.
Non-believers can make all the assumptions they want about me, but they can never change or take away the account of how I lived when I hated and rejected the notion of God, how this God chose to make himself known to me and begin to change my heart, how I eventually accepted this loving God and his free, no-strings-attached offer of forgiveness and eternal life, and how my life has been all the better ever since. In other words, non-believers are unfortunately the gullible ones - not believers - and I say unfortunately because their non-belief has them headed straight to a horrific eternity unless they choose, only while still on this side of eternity, to accept the free gift of salvation and the resulting eternal life offered only through faith in Jesus Christ.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
What is love? Part II
The following passage on love is a favorite at most weddings:
I thinks it's great that this passage is so popular even at these kinds of weddings. But I wonder if either marriage partner actually thinks that he/she believes they can be consistent at living out more than a couple of these characteristics over a long period, especially if the true source of love - God's spirit, or the Holy Spirit - isn't living within them? So although it's nice for a couple getting married and their audience to learn about the characteristics of what true love really is, living it out is very difficult - even for Christians.
In my previous post on this topic, I mentioned near the end how true love is choosing to stick with and support a person and deciding to serve the needs of that person. In other words, it is a selfless act of service to another person, even when it's inconvenient and even painful. Now I didn't just pull these observations out of thin air. "The Love Chapter" is but a small taste of what the "Book of Love", i.e. the Bible, has to say on this subject. So no, I'm not some kind of 'love guru', but I'm merely relating concepts recorded in God's word (the Bible) by the source or originator of love, God Himself.
So where am I going with all of this? Well, since the Bible is authored by the source of love (men did the actual writing, but God revealed to them what they should write), then it should contain the best and most comprehensive examples of what true love is and how we should live it out - whether we're believers in God or not. In other words, what's the point of having a passage read like the one above on a wedding day with no follow-up on what it is and how to live it out? An understanding of this could save many marriages from disaster.
I'm sure most people have heard the phrase, "God is love" (I John 4:8), and the Bible is filled with examples that prove this. Here is what God's Son, Jesus Christ, has to say about the ultimate gift of love to mankind:
But later on in the same book of the Bible, John's Gospel, Jesus gave a command to his disciples during the last meal He ate with them before his crucifixion:
By voluntarily being nailed to a Roman cross and dying for the sake of all humanity, Jesus performed the greatest act of love in history. I'm sure that other people throughout history have sincerely given their lives in order to save the lives of others, but only Jesus' death meant something beyond this life: if Jesus didn't die in our place to pay the penalty of our sins, NOBODY would be acceptable before a perfect, holy God and therefore nobody but Jesus would be able to enjoy an eternity with God after their bodily death. Jesus' death was the fulfillment of God's love for humanity. There is certainly no better example of sacrificial love than this!
Now that we know what true love really is and who the source of it is, let's relate this to how we should live it out while here on earth.
As I alluded to before, a person is truly incapable of loving another person apart from the help of God's Holy Spirit living within them. And the Holy Spirit only comes to live within a person once they've been cleaned or forgiven by God. How is this done? Again, believing in Jesus to forgive you of our sins is all it takes: no religious rituals, no regular church attendance, no amount of trying to be clean or perfect, no amount of giving or serving. If you've done all this and not asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you'll be one of the flabbergasted and horrified try-hards that Jesus describes in Matthew 7:21-23!
So does this mean that only Christians - those with the Holy Spirit living within them - are capable of expressing true love? No, but it's a whole lot harder to express it without Him living within you! I guess my real point here is that Christians have a much better understanding of true love because they've read many examples in the Bible of what this is and how to live it out. I'm not saying that Christians are much better at living it out - God knows how selfish people professing to be Christians have withheld love and even harmed others throughout history. I'm just saying that Christians should know better because they've been exposed to so many teachings about it.
Even if you're a non-Christian or non-believer, learning to better express true love to others involves opening your mind to some of the lessons in the Book of Love, the Bible. You don't need to read or believe the rest of it, but the following passages might be of help in learning how to express true love to others:
"Love is patient; love is kind.
Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited;
does not act improperly; is not selfish;
is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs;
finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things."Some people are surprised to learn that this beautiful passage is from the Bible. Actually, it is an excerpt from an entire chapter of the Bible, referred to by some as "The Love Chapter" (chapter 13 in the book of I Corinthians), with this excerpt being the most popular portion of the chapter spoken at weddings. Despite being in the Bible, this passage is so popular that I've not only heard it read aloud at non-Christian weddings, but even at weddings where neither spouse is a believer in God.
I thinks it's great that this passage is so popular even at these kinds of weddings. But I wonder if either marriage partner actually thinks that he/she believes they can be consistent at living out more than a couple of these characteristics over a long period, especially if the true source of love - God's spirit, or the Holy Spirit - isn't living within them? So although it's nice for a couple getting married and their audience to learn about the characteristics of what true love really is, living it out is very difficult - even for Christians.
In my previous post on this topic, I mentioned near the end how true love is choosing to stick with and support a person and deciding to serve the needs of that person. In other words, it is a selfless act of service to another person, even when it's inconvenient and even painful. Now I didn't just pull these observations out of thin air. "The Love Chapter" is but a small taste of what the "Book of Love", i.e. the Bible, has to say on this subject. So no, I'm not some kind of 'love guru', but I'm merely relating concepts recorded in God's word (the Bible) by the source or originator of love, God Himself.
So where am I going with all of this? Well, since the Bible is authored by the source of love (men did the actual writing, but God revealed to them what they should write), then it should contain the best and most comprehensive examples of what true love is and how we should live it out - whether we're believers in God or not. In other words, what's the point of having a passage read like the one above on a wedding day with no follow-up on what it is and how to live it out? An understanding of this could save many marriages from disaster.
I'm sure most people have heard the phrase, "God is love" (I John 4:8), and the Bible is filled with examples that prove this. Here is what God's Son, Jesus Christ, has to say about the ultimate gift of love to mankind:
"For God loved the world in this way: He gave His Only and Only Son [Jesus Christ], so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish [spiritually] but have eternal life." (John 3:16)So God's gift of love to us is being able to live forever simply by believing in the One He sent to earth for us, His Son Jesus Christ. One definition I've heard of "believing in" is putting the full weight of your trust in someone or something, in this case in Jesus Christ in order to save you from the penalty of your sins: eternal punishment/damnation.
But later on in the same book of the Bible, John's Gospel, Jesus gave a command to his disciples during the last meal He ate with them before his crucifixion:
"This is My command: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:12-14)There's so much that Jesus tells us about His love for mankind in this passage, but the main thing is that the greatest act of love one can do is to die for someone else. We've all heard this in many love songs and poems, but it's one thing to tell someone you'll die for them and entirely another to actually do it! Well, Jesus actually did it, but not just for the sake of those disciples that He was eating with at the time, but for the sake of everyone who has ever lived.
By voluntarily being nailed to a Roman cross and dying for the sake of all humanity, Jesus performed the greatest act of love in history. I'm sure that other people throughout history have sincerely given their lives in order to save the lives of others, but only Jesus' death meant something beyond this life: if Jesus didn't die in our place to pay the penalty of our sins, NOBODY would be acceptable before a perfect, holy God and therefore nobody but Jesus would be able to enjoy an eternity with God after their bodily death. Jesus' death was the fulfillment of God's love for humanity. There is certainly no better example of sacrificial love than this!
Now that we know what true love really is and who the source of it is, let's relate this to how we should live it out while here on earth.
As I alluded to before, a person is truly incapable of loving another person apart from the help of God's Holy Spirit living within them. And the Holy Spirit only comes to live within a person once they've been cleaned or forgiven by God. How is this done? Again, believing in Jesus to forgive you of our sins is all it takes: no religious rituals, no regular church attendance, no amount of trying to be clean or perfect, no amount of giving or serving. If you've done all this and not asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you'll be one of the flabbergasted and horrified try-hards that Jesus describes in Matthew 7:21-23!
So does this mean that only Christians - those with the Holy Spirit living within them - are capable of expressing true love? No, but it's a whole lot harder to express it without Him living within you! I guess my real point here is that Christians have a much better understanding of true love because they've read many examples in the Bible of what this is and how to live it out. I'm not saying that Christians are much better at living it out - God knows how selfish people professing to be Christians have withheld love and even harmed others throughout history. I'm just saying that Christians should know better because they've been exposed to so many teachings about it.
Even if you're a non-Christian or non-believer, learning to better express true love to others involves opening your mind to some of the lessons in the Book of Love, the Bible. You don't need to read or believe the rest of it, but the following passages might be of help in learning how to express true love to others:
"Husbands, love your wives, just as also Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Ephesians 5:25)In other words, husbands need to express love for their wives in a selfless, serving, sacrificial manner. I'm pretty sure that God would want wives to likewise love their husbands.
"... husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we [Christians] are members of His body." (Ephesians 5:28-30)I've always chuckled as I read this verse, because Paul here is playing on the vanity of men. Come on guys, I'm sure most of you have struck a pose in the mirror many times! You've either checked out your hair or looked at what effect a workout (hopefully) had on you. But all this passage is saying is that you need to also get your eyes off of yourself and onto the love and care of your wife.
"To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband." (Ephesians 5:33)Even though these last few passages have been geared toward married couples, it is my hope that believers and non-believers have been encouraged by learning about true love and how to live it out with all people, not just their spouse. There's no question that our world would be a drastically better place if each one of us would strive to show just one act of true love per day.
Friday, August 28, 2009
"Absolute futility"
My family recently spent a couple of days in a small city famous (or infamous, depending upon your perspective) for its acceptance and promotion of New Age philosophies. Stores and shops abound that cater to books, clothing, counseling services, and so forth that reflect and promote these philosophies. Several of the citizens also have the modern-day "hippie" appearance that is often associated with the New Age lifestyle.
Being the deep thinker that I am, I was struck by the profound thought at one point about how these folks, just like me, are seeking answers through spiritual means. However, unlike me, they are looking to every form of spirituality apart from that set out in the Bible. (As an aside, New Agers that do look to the Bible minimize Jesus to the status of prophet or 'wise teacher' as opposed to the one and only representative of God in the flesh - and one and only mediator between God and mankind - that the same Bible describes Jesus as.)
With this thought in mind, I looked around and wondered how their spiritual quest was working for them. What I saw is the same thing I see everywhere else: people who were no closer to finding answers than those not seeking spiritual answers. If they were finding answers, there wouldn't be the diversity of paraphernalia and services that the New Age movement provides to its followers. Instead of a multitude of books on eastern religions and philosophies, there would be only one source like the Bible is for believers in the one true God. It seems instead that New Agers have no one source for answers, which makes their quest nothing more than a crap-shoot of try-this and try-that until a person finds what 'works best for them', even though most answers are never found and any feelings of peace and fulfillment last only for a time.
And the saddest part is that no god or gods or philosophy they choose to follow apart from the God of the Bible can usher them into an eternal existence after this one of bliss and oneness with their Creator that most of these folks seem to be longing for.
Some people might argue that if Christianity and the Bible alone provided all the answers, there wouldn't be the enormous diversity of denominations, books, and ministries devoted to providing answers to its followers and followers-to-be. But any of these things that are truly Christian have as their foundation the one source - the Bible - that is able to allow them to provide answers. They simply seek to break down and explain the teachings of the Bible in ways that an enormous diversity of personalities can try to understand.
As I watched people go about their daily life in this city, I thought of the opening passage of the book of Ecclesiastes, authored by a man perhaps never excelled in wisdom and wealth by anyone else in history. Most Biblical translations from the original Hebrew and Aramaic into English use the word "vanity" in verse 2 of Chapter 1 as follows:
Jesus, however, invites everyone (drug-free or not, virgin or not, criminal or not, rape victim or not) to
So I guess to avoid futility, you need to choose who or what you will believe and serve. Will you ignore or reject the God of the Bible and live in futility, never truly finding what you're looking for, or will you accept this God and find answers and lasting peace? Obviously, the choice is yours since God is not a tyrant but a gentlemen who doesn't force Himself on anyone.
Being the deep thinker that I am, I was struck by the profound thought at one point about how these folks, just like me, are seeking answers through spiritual means. However, unlike me, they are looking to every form of spirituality apart from that set out in the Bible. (As an aside, New Agers that do look to the Bible minimize Jesus to the status of prophet or 'wise teacher' as opposed to the one and only representative of God in the flesh - and one and only mediator between God and mankind - that the same Bible describes Jesus as.)
With this thought in mind, I looked around and wondered how their spiritual quest was working for them. What I saw is the same thing I see everywhere else: people who were no closer to finding answers than those not seeking spiritual answers. If they were finding answers, there wouldn't be the diversity of paraphernalia and services that the New Age movement provides to its followers. Instead of a multitude of books on eastern religions and philosophies, there would be only one source like the Bible is for believers in the one true God. It seems instead that New Agers have no one source for answers, which makes their quest nothing more than a crap-shoot of try-this and try-that until a person finds what 'works best for them', even though most answers are never found and any feelings of peace and fulfillment last only for a time.
And the saddest part is that no god or gods or philosophy they choose to follow apart from the God of the Bible can usher them into an eternal existence after this one of bliss and oneness with their Creator that most of these folks seem to be longing for.
Some people might argue that if Christianity and the Bible alone provided all the answers, there wouldn't be the enormous diversity of denominations, books, and ministries devoted to providing answers to its followers and followers-to-be. But any of these things that are truly Christian have as their foundation the one source - the Bible - that is able to allow them to provide answers. They simply seek to break down and explain the teachings of the Bible in ways that an enormous diversity of personalities can try to understand.
As I watched people go about their daily life in this city, I thought of the opening passage of the book of Ecclesiastes, authored by a man perhaps never excelled in wisdom and wealth by anyone else in history. Most Biblical translations from the original Hebrew and Aramaic into English use the word "vanity" in verse 2 of Chapter 1 as follows:
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." (NKJV, New King James Version)However, a newer translation that claims to have benefitted from more recent advances in translational accuracy renders this verse in a more interesting way:
"Absolute futility," says the Teacher. "Absolute futility. Everything is futile." (HCSB, Holman Christian Standard Bible)In other words, as I watched those citizens of this city who hold to the New Age philosophy, I thought of their absolute futility, the total pointlessness of their trying to seek spiritual answers outside of those provided in the Bible. I could just tell by their behaviors and the looks on their faces that they 'still hadn't found what they were looking for.' I knew this because they were just like me many years ago, although I was agnostic and proud of it, seeking answers and never finding them - or at least the right ones - and going through the turmoil and depression that characterizes those who seek but never find. Even though they tried to hide it, again I could see it on their faces and by how they behaved.
Jesus, however, invites everyone (drug-free or not, virgin or not, criminal or not, rape victim or not) to
"Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you ... If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:7, 11)It would seem to me that no other spiritual leader in history ever offered such a promise to anyone! This passage, when taken in context with the surrounding verses, seems to indicate that God is promising answers to those who ask Him, to those who
"... seek Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29)But Jesus makes it clear that He is the only means - the only mediator - through which we are supposed to come to God (see I Timothy 2:5), and not just to find answers:
"Everyone who drinks from this water [in the well] will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give them will never get thirsty again - ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life." (John 4:13-14)Again, taken in context, this passage not only indicates that Jesus will provide answers, but also peace and satisfaction and the ultimate: eternal life. He alone provides the "nirvana" sought by Hindus and Buddhists that they will never find. He alone provides the "paradise" sought by pleasure-seekers that they also will never find.
So I guess to avoid futility, you need to choose who or what you will believe and serve. Will you ignore or reject the God of the Bible and live in futility, never truly finding what you're looking for, or will you accept this God and find answers and lasting peace? Obviously, the choice is yours since God is not a tyrant but a gentlemen who doesn't force Himself on anyone.
"As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
"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.
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.
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