Repent Ye Sinners

I'm trying to get back into God's word and seek him daily. I have started a study on commands Christ gave us. Jesus said many times, if you love me keep me commandments, so I thought it might be a good idea to know what those were. First one I saw in Matthew today was "Repent ye sinners, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." I find it interesting that people today always talk about doing things the way Jesus did, love people like Jesus did, help people like Jesus did, but if you told them what Jesus told people they would find it too harsh. Jesus dished it out, and didn't joke around. He found a perfect balance in truth and grace. He love them all unconstitutionally but didn't back down from the truth. But also it applies to me. I need to have a repentant heart, because the Kingdom of Heaven isn't far away. I need to have a kingdom of heaven focus, and be aware of my decisions.

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.