Right vs Wrong?

I haven't written anything on here in a while but it's not because of a lack of thoughts, not really even because of a lack of time, but mostly because of a lack of knowing what to say and how. Over the past year I have been studying something that has been a controversy in Christian circles for hundreds of years. Christians have discussed, debated, cast out of the church, hated each other, persecuted, and in some extreme cases killed each other over these issues. So how do I write about something like that? How do I write about something knowing that other God fearing Christians could possibly hate and debate about it which would not lead the church into a closer relationship with each other and Christ but away from each other as it has done for so many years.

So the questions stands, how can I proclaim what I have learned and what could possibly be helpful to others without causing the debates and problems that have ruined Christ's name for hundreds of years? My goal is not to bring strife among other Christians but to cause them to consider what they believe and why they believe it so that when questions come they can stand strong. Not in arrogance of knowing the truth but in love of those seeking to know.

As you might have already guessed or known, my study has been of what some would call Calvinism and Arminianism, although I don't like this terminology it is the most well known. I don't like it because many that claim Calvinism do not hold to the beliefs of Calvin at all and the same could be said of Arminians. Some people like to call it God's sovereignty vs. man's free will. I also find this distasteful because it starts with the presuposition that the 2 are contrary to each other, thus making it a deductive study rather than inductive. Some would even go as far to say it is a study of Grace vs. Works salvation. I would say this person has not really put any time or effort into studying the different opinions and therefore has little to say on the subject worth listening to. If all you are ever told is that cows can fly and all you ever read are books that say that cows can fly and only hang around people and listen to speakers that say cows can fly then you will most likely believe it. But if someone else tells you they can't fly, and you never give them the time of day to explain why they think so, and consider their opinion valid then you have no place saying they are wrong. How can you say they are wrong when you don't even know what they are wrong about? If I lost you on that rampage of an analogy just skip it and forget it. I was only making a small point.

Profound thoughts come hard.

"You can’t see anything properly while your eyes are blurred with tears. You can’t, in most things get what you want if you want it too desperately. Anyway you can’t get the best out of it." C.S. Lewis – A Grief Observed

To want something doesn't mean that you are to have it. To have something doesn't mean that you are to want it. Contentment doesn't mean that you have all that you want, nor does it mean you want all that you have. True contentment can only come when you have found satifation in something beyond your desires. And only then can you really enjoy that which you have to the fullest

Thoughts on man's spiritual condition.

To fully understand man's current condition I think it is important to understand God's purpose in the very beginning. God had a reason for creating man and a purpose to his existence. This must be considered before moving forward because God still has that same reason and purpose for man now.

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God.... It is very clear in scripture that God always has been, always is and always will be. Before time and space God existed and needed nothing. He wasn't lonely because within Himself existing the relational trinity. He didn't need to create the world and universe but He did. He didn't have to create man, but He did. There are many debates concerning why He wold create man and I don't think we can ever fully understand why. Some say for His glory He created man, others say for His pleasure within a relationship. I don't think this neglects God's glory in the least but rather increases it all the more. God desired to create a being that would love and worship Him. That desires to be with Him and to continually strive for a deeper relationship with Him. Just as it gives you pleasure to be loved by your children, it gives God pleasure to be loved by man. This being said, God of course deeply loves His creation and has always desired the best for it. If you don't believe that look at the stars or any part of creation. God put so much detail into it for our enjoyment. Even what we see today is only a shadowed glimpse of what the world was like before the curse of sin.

God created a perfect world, a perfect garden with a perfect man that knew no evil. God, although totally separate from evil, knew what evil was. God didn't have to, but He chose to love the man and woman He created. God also wanted man to choose Him in return. God could have created a world with no opportunity to choose something separate from God, but without the ability to choose something other than God, man would never have the option to choose God. The very idea of a choice implies more than one option. What could bring God more pleasure in his creation than that it would choose to return His love in kind. The idea of love is meaningless without the ability to choose it.

So God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden and instructed Adam not to eat of it or He would surely die. God gave man the ability to choose God. One of the most precious gifts ever given to man, because with it comes the ability to truly love. But man failed and chose something other than God by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. At this time man died as God had said he would. It may be tempting to stop there and move to Romans for Paul's explanation of death but to understand Paul we must first read further in Genesis. As soon as Adam ate the fruit God's glory left them and they knew they were naked and went and hid themselves when God came looking for them. Although man had died, he still had an understanding of both good and evil. This is the reason God removed them from the garden. Lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever. Man knew good and evil (Gen 3:22). Man was spiritually dead and would one day physically die. The natural tendency to sin was to be passed down through the man. Although man has a natural bend toward sin, he still has an understanding of good and evil. This is evident in Cain and Able and throughout the old testament. Anytime God' s glory is ripped out of something it can be nothing more than dead. Yet with God's goodness all around, it is obvious that something is missing. In Ecclesiastes it says that God placed eternity in our hearts. We know that something is missing, something isn't right. Look at the world around you and see people continually trying to find satisfaction and pleasure in something. Trying to find something to fill the longing for something more.  

The Truthful Lier

Have you ever notice that most of what the serpent in the garden said to Eve was true. Everything he said was true except one sentence and even that was partly true. He still deceived Eve, but the best lie is one that is mostly true. What was it that he told Eve? Gen 3:1-6 the serpent starts out by asking a question causing Eve to consider what she believes. “"Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" A seemingly innocent question and one that Eve should have been able to answer. But what was her answer? She said "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." Then the serpent responds with his beautifully crafted lie. "You will not surely die.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."All of that was true. Her eyes were opened and she did become like God the fact that she knew good and evil. (Gen 3:22) Now before we go any further in the story there are some things I want you to notice. First, Eve has not sinned at this point in her life. She has not disobeyed God and has not done anything wrong. Second, she has added to what God actually said. God only said not to eat of the fruit of the tree. He never said that they could not touch it. Why would Eve say something like this? We really don't know. Maybe she and Adam had decided to not touch the fruit, maybe they had set some boundaries as to how close you could get to the tree, maybe Adam had told Eve not to touch the fruit of the tree. We really don't know, but we do know that the direction to not touch the fruit was not commanded by God, and that it was not sinful to set that standard.

I'm trying to be short so I'll get to my point. First, we need to know where the line is and what God really said. The line was drawn in the sand “Do not eat the fruit”. Technically it was ok to sit under the tree, play with the fruit, put it in your Christmas basket on the table, draw paintings of the fruit, collect the fruit and whatever else. The actual command only said do not eat it. It important that we know where that line is in our walk with God. We need to do the research and find out what is sin. At what point are you being disobedient? Second, we need to see that setting boundaries isn't a bad thing. If seems as though that is what Eve had done. God said don't eat it, but they had set a boundary far away from the edge of the cliff. “don't touch it”. But we need to keep in mind the difference between our set boundary (maybe even at God's direction for us personally) and what God has actually said is sin.

Lastly I want to point out what happens next in the story. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Eve made her decision based on emotions. The fruit looked good, her surroundings told her it was good, it felt good, it would have a good impact on her life. (or at least so she thought) This fruit by all appearances was a very good fruit. Many times things in our life will be the same way. It feels good, it looks good, everybody is saying it is good, it will help my life, make me smarter, but God said NO!. This is where faith has to take precedence over experience and emotion. It's not always going to make sense in your head. Satan is good a what he does, he always has been and after 6000+ years he is only better at it. If you base your understanding of right and wrong on your personal experience or even on what your emotions are telling you, you will be standing on a continually moving moral foundation.

Find out what God said is true, right and good. Setting boundaries to avoid the sin is good, but know the difference. Don't determine good and evil, right and wrong, good and bad bad experience and emotion but by the Word of God. It is the only firm foundation to stand on.

Desires (part 2)

Just because I post a first part doesn't necessarily mean I know what the second part will include. Many times I write on inspiration but only have the first part thought out. Which usually means all I really know is the question but am still working on the answer. This was and is the case with this subject. I haven't figured this one completely out and I don't think I ever will. Sometimes God works in ways that are far beyond my understanding and ability to understand. My hope in considering such subjects is to get at least a small shallow view of the God I love, so that as I follow Him I have a better understanding of where He leads. 
Many times thoughts like these come from either my experiences or the experiences of those around me. I usually already have a perspective on the subject and a worldview through which I perceive my experiences. But then God allows something to happen that challenges my understanding of who He is. At this point I have to make a decision. Either my intellectual knowledge is wrong or my understanding of the experience is wrong. I know, I'm probably being confusing so let me see if I can explain through an example. In fact the very example which drove me to question and search for something deeper in the first place.
Most reading this have probably heard the verse Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. There are 2 ways of looking at this verse. One way is if you delight in the Lord he will give you whatever desires are in your heart. The other way is if you delight in the Lord the desires your heart has will be from the Lord. I guess I always had a combination of the thoughts for my interpretation of the verse. I believed that if you are truly delighting in the Lord He will fill your heart with His desires. As you come to know Him more, you will become more like Him. But also in the back of my mind I told myself that if the desires I have are from God that He would fulfill those desires.
Now that you have a little back ground into my pattern of thinking, this is the situation I found my self in. Without a doubt, I know that God had lead me in a direction. I knew that the desires I had were from Him without question. He had confirmed that many times. But then I also came to a point where I also knew that desires would not be fulfilled. This was confusing to say the least, because why would God give me desires that He never had the intention of filling. So still in my Ps 34:7 mindset I told myself that if I give focused on God and continue to delight in Him that these desires would change. The opposite happened. I focused on God, continued to follow Him, and serve Him in any way I could and the desires grew. I didn't know what to do or where to turn. I actually pulled away from God some, hoping that the desires would diminish, and it did, but then I would be telling myself the whole time that it wasn't right. No desire would ever come between my relationship with God.
So what now? What could I do? I was at a proverbial stalemate. The desire finally left, but I really wasn't sure why or how. So it was at this point I wrote the first part of the note. I really didn't have a direction I was leading, and I didn't know the answer. Your comments helped because it showed me that I'm not the only one with seemingly superficial desires at times. It also helped me to see that sometimes we decided what the fulfillment of a desire is without ever contemplating what the true desire is in the first place. I might desire money, but usually that is the fulfillment of a desire for the feeling of security. A sense of knowing that everything will be alright and will workout.
And then it hit me. Maybe there is another deeper way of looking at Ps 37:4 that I had never truly considered before. Maybe it's that as we delight ourselves in the Lord He becomes the fulfillment of the desires of our hearts. Maybe Jesus fulfills every single one of our deepest desires. Maybe if we trace each of our desires back to the root, and what it really is we want, we will find the feeling, that emotion, or knowledge, fulfilled though God.
Even though I was delighting in God I was still looking for a material fulfillment of that desire. I wasn't looking at God as the fulfillment. As you find desires that you have, whether they be serving Him in Africa, having enough money for the next mortgage payment, the ability to withstand temptation in the mist of fire, a thirst for knowledge or wanting to see you children grow up Godly. Think about that desire and what it really is you desire. Accomplishing your purpose on earth, a feeling of security, strength in weakness, more wisdom, or knowledge that God is in control and see if through Him the root of that desire is not fulfilled. And then through the peace of Christ live a life of victory fulfilled in Him. My material desire wasn't fulfilled but the deeper desire was filled long ago, I just didn't know it.
So the question still remains. Why would God allow us, or even lead us toward a material desire if He has no intention of giving it to us? I don't really know. I probably wouldn't be writing this note now if things had been different. But I do know that my god wasn't big enough. I had put Him in a box that said if He leads through desires, He must fulfill that material desire. When in reality He will do what ever needs to be done to gain a deeper relationship with His children. Boundaries can be found at which we can know God, and know His character but we need to be sure those are the boundaries He has set and not us. I would write more, but this note is long enough as it is.

(There were some good comments on facebook. Check it out if you have a page.)

Desires (part 1)

Happy Birthday to you.........now make a wish and blow out your candles. How many times have you heard this, how many times have you said this? How many times have you really thought about it. What if it were true? What if when you blew out your candles you could have whatever you wished for? What would it be, what would you most desire? If you ask some blond haired beauty queen she would probably stumble around trying to say something about such as world peace, but lets be real here. Nobody would seriously wish for world peace even if it was possible, because that would mean we can't be jerks to anybody anymore. When they get your coffee wrong at Starbucks you would have to nice and respectful. So what would it be? What is your utmost desire?

I got thinking about this around my birthday (for obvious reasons) and the thought has never really left me. What I'm talking about is your desires. When all the distractions are stripped away and really have time to think, what is it that you desire most? And don't just scream out JESUS like some kind of Sunday school poster child, because I'm mostly talking to people who already have Jesus.

Some people might say heaven. I just want to be in heaven, I'ma just passin thru and all that jazz. But if you really think about it, we were never meant to be in heaven. The fact that we spend any time in heaven at all is because of Adam and Eve jacked everything up in Eden. And when everything is said and done and all prophecies are fulfilled we are going to be on a new earth not in heaven. So lets try to stop over spiritualizing this and really think about what it is that we desire. What do we long for from day to day?

How far is the West from the East

(written earlier today)

I'm sitting in the Salt Lake City Airport waiting on my next flight out to Atlanta. FYI: The Delta crown room at this airport is pretty amazing. They even have a small putting green in case you are in to that sort of thing. But you still have to pay for Wi Fi which I really don't understand these days. It's an easier and cheaper service to provide than coffee, but they make you pay extra for it.

The past few days have been pretty awesome. Getting to see the contrast between the west side of Washington and the east side of Washington was incredible. The west side had a lot of mountains, was very green and covered with clouds all the time. You might see children jumping up and down playing in a ray of sun light that happen to make it to the earth for a few precious minutes. On the east side you would see very few trees, a few mountains but not near as many, almost no grass, maybe a few clouds in the sky, but the sun shining brightly.

Saturday morning I got up and went for a morning hike up Wallace Falls. It were three waterfalls over a 3 mile hike to the top. It was a moderate hike with some great views. Waterfalls are kinda of like sunsets for me, I just have to stop and watch a little while and take in the wonder of it. Water is so diverse in it's nature it is mind boggling. The very essence that gives life to the creatures of this earth can destroy anything and everything in it's way when given the opportunity. It's not something I try to fully understand because to believe that I could fully comprehend it would be to take the wonder and excitement from it. I would hope that I never lose the wonder of watching the stars in the sky, the sun setting in the west, or water cascading over a seemingly random and yet beautiful path.

Saturday afternoon I started my drive over to the east side of the state. I had many people tell me I would love the drive, but I had no idea what to expect. What I saw during that 3 ½ hour drive was the most beautiful portrayal of God's diverse landscape that I had ever seen. It was one of the best parts of my time here. The weather was perfect as I drove down the scenic highway with my sunroof open, the windows down and the music turned up. Starting out in the rolling green hills of the west and watching the slow transition to the rocky clay of the of the east. I wish I could have taken pictures to reflect the inspiring wonder laid out before me, but there was no way that it could be accurately captured in a 5”x7” frame. (Plus I was driving and enjoying it too much to stop.)

Sunday was somewhat of a rest and relax day. I went to Faith Baptist church in Spokane in the morning and randomly ran into a guy from ALERT. He went through unit 32 so I had never met him before, but what are the chances, right? I mean, how many ALERT guys could be in Spokane and I happen to go his church. That gave me an “in” to the church and was able to meet a few of the other young adults there. Nice people, good church. I would go back if I was ever in Spokane again.

Overall I had a great time and wouldn't trade the memories for anything. I think God knew I needed a break and it worked out perfectly. The west side was fun and exciting, the east side was nice and relaxing. Now back to Atlanta where reality and life start happening again.