An Atheist's Anthem ...

 “If I only saw a sign, I would believe.”  This is a familiar chorus I have heard from nearly every non-believer I have encountered.  Sadly, it is also a familiar refrain I have heard from many Christians.  We look for the impossible to validate a faith that does not make any sense.  We ask to see the impossible for ourselves, unwilling to take the words or testimony of others on this account.  It needs to be personal.  It needs to be tangible.  Or else, how could I believe?  And in this we destroy our journey-of-faith and wish for certainty in its place.  But be honest, how could you ever be certain, of the impossible?  Even if you witness a single incident of it, will one witness be enough to believe in all the others, and for the rest of your life?  So if you must witness more than one incident, how many will be enough?  All of them?  Would it really take time travel to finally make us believe that what is recorded in scripture was real?  If you are looking here, you are cheating yourself.  There is another venue, and something a lot more personal for each of us.

To begin, certainty is not the goal.  If I asked you to trust me, how would you go about it?  You might evaluate our interactions, our history together.  You might conclude that if my behavior was always in line with your expectations, that you could extend trust to me, and then see what happens.  But therein lies the catch.  No matter how I have behaved with you in the past, no matter how consistent our history may be, each time you extend trust to me, you take a risk.  If past is prologue, then you may believe the risk to be low.  But that “belief” is still a “belief” you hold about my trustworthiness, based on a myriad of factors, but none the less a “belief” that I will not let you down.  This is how trust works. 

You may trust your mom for example, because your mom has demonstrated that she loves you.  Even if she screws up, she still loves you, though her mistake proves her human.  You may even elect to extend trust to her again after a huge mistake, because there has been only one (or few you know about), and generally she does not make them.  But even with mom (mistakes or no), every time you extend trust, you hold a “belief” that it is worth it, to trust her.  Certainty is impossible.  Because you cannot absolutely predict what anyone else (including God) may do, or why they do it.  In the end, you have ideas about it, guesses about it, even educated guesses about it.  But behavior is a tricky thing to absolutely predict, and so people surprise us sometimes (for better or for worse).  To trust anyone, is to embrace “belief”, at the exclusion of absolute certainty.

But where God is concerned, it is more blame that goes around, than trust.  That has directly to do with our picture of “who or what” God is.  The media, our parents, our church, our friends, our professors, may have all played a role in forming an image in your mind about who God is.  Suffice it to say, it boils down to one of 2 main images.  Most folks think God is a version of Santa Clause.  We go to Him to ask for stuff.  We are happy when we get it.  Mad when we don’t.  But are generally quick to ruthlessly blame God for anything bad that happens, under the logic that Santa should have been watching and been able to prevent the bad stuff before it ever happened.  After all, He has done it for others, why not me?  Way too many Christians have this exact image of God, despite all the scriptures.  Most Atheists just don’t believe in any kind of Santa Clause, or any god, but if there were a God, He would be to blame for everything.

In the Santa Clause picture of God, no trust is required.  Neither is certainty.  If you get the stuff you asked for, hallelujah.  If not, it must not be in God’s time yet.  So Santa has a slot machine sort of response to what you ask for, the odds are low, but you never know.  How could faith ever grow in you, if this is the image of God you believe in, or have the most experience with?  And believe me, Satan is WAY too happy to keep this image of God in your mind.  Perhaps enough to grant you some of those wishes himself, in order for you to never shed this image of the God you pray to.  But our real God, needs us to trust Him.  That trust is a critical component of His ability to save us – from us.  Denying yourself to let some random God you don’t really know remake who you are, is just not likely.  Better to keep the Santa image, and just hope for the best.

So God’s problem is getting you to stop thinking of Him in terms of doling out rewards and punishments, and start thinking of Him for the Being He truly is.  The other image of God (a saving God).  God wants to save you, from you.  He loves you (being the primary and singular motive of His).  God sees sin as the punishment and the addictive disease.  And He has only one way to rid you of it.  But for that to work, you have to trust Him enough to let Him do it, in spite of how it looks.  Trust, in spite of common sense.  Trust, in spite of what everyone else tells you.  Trust, that He is able to do the impossible in you, where history demonstrates, you are clearly unable to do it.  So if that is His mission, and trust is what He needs from you.  Offering you certainty does nothing to accomplish it.  If you witness a 1,000 different acts of the impossible, all you will have learned is that it is possible for God to do the impossible.  You might have already imagined that.  But you will still have no reason to let Him reconstruct who you are.  A thousand elements of certainty do not build trust, they build resentment.  Back to the Santa Clause image – now that I have seen 1,000 impossible things – I intend to open complaints about why I did not benefit from any of them.  A thousand acts of love and impossibility for others, does me not one bit of good.  So now I am mad at Santa, because there was only coal in my stocking, while my neighbor got Barbie’s playhouse.

The first problem with asking for signs, is that it does not bring trust.  The second, is that it will only make you mad they were not for you, or selfish if they were (who does not want more miracles in their own lives).  And lastly they are usually requested as a condition of belief (instead of a result of it) doing nothing to foster trust, so there will never be enough of them, to really make a believer out of you.  You will either find a way to let your skepticism reduce the impossible, to a scientifically explainable trick (or perhaps a random set of circumstances that worked out just right despite the incredible odds, like say the hypothesis of evolution) - or you will find you have an insatiable appetite for more signs, at the cost of what you profess is a belief.  In any case, the mission God has to save you, from you, by remaking you fails because He grants your wishes for signs as a condition of belief.  A change in thinking, on the other hand, will pull back the veil that has blinded your eyes to the impossible.  What you witness after a change in how you perceive life, is going to be mind blowing.  Sounds crazy right now, but that’s the point.  It is crazy.  But it is also real.  And it will be a lot more personal to you than you could possibly imagine now.

Take as a case in point the story of two types of people in the gospel of Matthew the 27^th chapter.  Picking up in verse 38 it reads … “Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.”  You could argue these men might have been believers in the Jewish faith (though obviously not perfect observers of the Law).  It is not known exactly what they believed at least from Matthew’s account.  However we know from other versions of the good news, that one repented before he died, the other did not.  Dieing in the company of known criminals tends to make one look like a criminal even if this is not true.  This death will do nothing to uplift the reputation of Christ.  But Jesus does not care about His reputation.  In His trial all manner of lies were told about Him, and His response was perfect silence.  No condemnation, no calling people out on their sins, only silence.  But Jesus was eager to speak to anyone who seeks salvation.  When the dying theif seeks Jesus, Jesus responds, no matter what kind of physical pain He was in.  When that same theif was hurling insults at Him, Jesus remained silent.

Matthew continues in verse 39 saying … “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, [verse 40] And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  Dying in the company of thieves, and up on a Roman cross, was decidedly NOT the sign the Jewish people were looking for where it comes to proving Jesus was God.  These were believers.  These were those who studied scriptures.  And yet their ideas about what God was supposed to do – that is, to throw off Roman oppression and setup a Kingdom that would last forever – overpowered all the other texts and prophecies that predicted exactly this part of the mission of God to save us.  “Believers” who desired something else of God, and refused to accept what God was actually doing to truly answer their prayers.  When Santa does not behave how we want Him to, what good is Santa right?  And so in this case, the very fact Jesus was actually fulfilling prophecy, was the very fact that disqualified Him as being the Messiah in their minds.  Sound familiar?

How often do we ask God for a thing, and threaten Him that if He does not do it, we will believe no longer?  Save me.  Save my child.  Save my spouse.  From the disease and death that stalk them.  If the results are not what we expect – we become angry and decide there cannot be a God – or else why did He not answer my prayer.  But perhaps He did, just not in the way you expected.  Perhaps from Gods point of view, saving you, your child, your spouse, for eternity is most important to all of you.  Should earthly life end today, and infinite life begin tomorrow, reunited, with infinite love in all of your hearts – is this not the preferred outcome all of you would want, even if it comes at the price of shortening how long you live in this world today?  Let’s say instead of focusing on the eternal, that God allowed you the answer to your prayers, and saved that life in the here and now.  As time passes, you, or your child, or your spouse, begin to change (not for the better).  Perhaps over time, one of you decides there is no God at all, and if there is, He is not worth following.  Sin is more “fun”, instead of the disease it truly is.  If that is how you meet your end in this world, and the eternal world is sacrificed in the process.  Did God really do what was in your best interest all those years ago when He saved you only to meet this new end?  And God knows what you will choose long before it happens.  Santa might let this play out.  But God would rather it didn’t.  God would prefer to cherish you while your free will choice reciprocates that love, rather than let you exist long enough to discard it under the weight of sin’s embrace.

So because God does not do what we want or expect, does not make Him any less trustworthy.  Keep in mind Jesus was doing what ALL of us need for salvation.  Not trying to prove Himself to nay-sayers at the time and place of His death.  Matthew continues in verse 41 saying … “Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, [verse 42] He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.”  And there we have it, the Athiest’s Anthem coming right out of the mouths of the very top leadership of the church at that time.  What image of God do you suppose they had, the one of a saving God who would die in our place, and fulfill prophecy – or the one of Santa who doles out punishment and reward emphasis on punishment.  And had Jesus descended off that cross in front of their eyes, gliding right down in front of them fully healed, what do you suppose their response would have been?  They would have hated Him all the more, because now Roman oppression still abounded, and Jesus would be impossible to kill after all.  Think about it, they already had ALL the previous miracles Jesus did to consider in weighing whether or not He was the Messiah, and NONE of them changed their course of action or belief.  They chose to dismiss every previous sign and still pursue killing Him.

And should Jesus have chosen to assuage His own ego, by proving to these priests He truly did have this power, what kind of God does that truly make Him?  A God of ego?  Who would gladly sacrifice our eternal considerations for those of the moment?  How could we be saved then?  It is often our expectations of what God should do, that could never be met anyway.  Because we come from a place of ego and selfishness, where God comes from a totally opposite perspective.  Jesus believes it is better to die to save all of us, than to do anything shortsighted, and gain nothing.  Jesus never used any of His power to benefit Himself.  Instead He used it unceasingly on us, the objects of His love, restoring us, removing the pain of sin and death from us.  Our restoration tops the mind of a saving God.  Not just getting rid our physical diseases, but getting rid of the way more deadly sinful disease of bad motives driving bad choices we continue to embrace.  Curing us of our desire to sin, is way more important.  Saving us from an eternal perspective way more important than saving us in the moment.

The ridicule continues as Matthew writes picking up in verse 43 saying … “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. [verse 44] The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”  Matthew hears the mockery of the thieves, but misses the repentance of the one.  Here we have an example of Jesus suffering the same fate as we do from time to time.  Jesus trusted in His Father.  And yet, He was dying, very painfully in this world.  The Father had NO interest in seeing His Son be tortured and die.  But the Father had a GREAT interest in seeing all of humanity be saved and reconciled unto Himself.  The death of His Son was that price.  In order that the need for Justice be satisfied.  So Jesus dies, in extreme pain we inflicted.  And the Father must sit there in silence and watch.  The eternal salvation outweighing the salvation of the moment.  This is how great our God desires to save us in the eternal realm, not just the here and now.  It is a different way of thinking.

So the repentant thief represents one kind of person, the mocking priests another.  For those mocking priests, no sign would ever be enough.  And frankly the next section of texts are going to have some doozies.  For the repentant thief however, for those of us who seek salvation from Jesus, what will happen in us is a change.  You will note that repentant theif was NOT saved from the cross.  He died in this world, but with certainty about his own place in the next one.  And change began to occur even in the worst dying circumstances any of us can imagine.  We too will become different than we are today.  Not because we work for it.  But because we begin to choose to trust Him, and allow Him to remake us however He sees fit.  Then change is surely on its way in us.  We read scripture differently.  We begin to see love as the primary motivation, instead of some wild afterthought.  We begin to reason differently.  And over time, the blinders of bad choices, the blinders of doubt, fall away – and what is revealed is a regular diatribe of the impossible happening all the time.  For example, the changing of hearts.  Not just of others, but of my own.  Learning how to love differently, and more deeply, than you had ever imagined.  No seminar could ever get this done.  But allowing Jesus full access sure does.  Without Jesus, things tend to degenerate.  But with Jesus, things tend to improve, especially in areas where it matters the most.

That sign, that impossibility, is very personal, very tangible, and you will live with its benefit every day of your life.  Does it cure your cancer?  No.  It could.  But it does not have to.  It fixes something more important.  The quality of your days expands exponentially, whether you are beset by physical pain and disease, or whether you are healed from them.  Keep in mind, disease does not exist in heaven.  So whether here or there, you are destined to see disease, pain and death no more.  And what happens to the desire to see a sign now?  You lose the selfishness part of that.  Instead of asking for goodies for yourself, you have no thought of yourself.  But you are swamped with thoughts of others.  You want to BE a sign for someone else, help them, meet their need if you can, no matter how you are feeling at the time.  And where you are powerless to meet their need, you do ask God for the impossible.  Not as a condition of belief, but because you are SURE He can, and will do what is right for that person’s eternal interest.  Where it comes to the removal of sin, 100% guarantee He wants that.  Where it comes to all the other worldly stuff, His gifts must fall in line with our salvation.  Knowing He longs to give them, and knowing He must hold them back, if they would add to our downfall.

Life, instead of existence, is a very tangible, and personal thing.  No one else can define it for you.  No one else can deny the impossible you are witness to in your heart and life.  For you know what is true for you.  You see what God does in your life.  What you suffer from in the eyes of others matters not.  Whether you are burdened with wealth, sickness, persecution – those do not represent the favor or curse of God.  They represent the danger of evil in this world, and are used by Satan to try to get people to believe in a Santa Clause image of God doling out rewards and punishments.  But for the one who truly believes, and chooses to truly trust, the curtain is pulled back – and the impossible is revealed every day no matter what our circumstances or positions may be.  Certainty has never been the goal.  Trust in spite of not knowing has always been it.  That kind of trust prevents the next Satan in the world to come.  And creates a new creature of you in the world we live in today.

 

Bad Crap for Christians ...

Why do bad things happen to good people?  So that premise is off right from the start.  There are no “good” people, there are just people.  But surely there is a difference between an old fart who has lived a long life and done many misdeeds; and some innocent child who has yet to explore their potential for good or for evil.  Surely the innocent child deserves better outcomes, less pain, less trauma, less anxiety, and a lot less death.  None of us want the old guy to contract cancer, we sympathize with him.  But compare that feeling of empathy with a picture of a toddler in a pediatric oncology unit at a hospital and I dare you to hold back the tears.  Now compound the feeling by imagining that toddler to be your child.  That kind of pain is likely as bad as it gets.  As a parent you would do everything in your power to prevent that scenario from ever happening.  But how?  That disease does not know who you are.  It does not care who you are, or that it is your child who will contract it.  There is no taking their place, because the disease does not move from one victim to spare another.  It stays there, until it kills its host, and never so much as bats an eyelash.  A fully indiscriminate killer, on a murder/suicide mission, with no conscience, and no empathy with which you could plead your case.

Part of the pain you suffer as a parent is helplessness.  Your total inability to do anything to prevent it.  Your total inability to redirect the outcome.  You can participate in treatment.  You can do everything right, and still suffer that ultimate loss.  Where is God then?  Christians who do not understand the nature of God make a distinction between believers and non-believers in cases like this.  Yes, there are Christians who think the value of a believing child is worth more, or deserves more, than the child who does not believe yet.  The disobedient parents must somehow bare responsibility for the suffering of their child.  As if Christian parents make no mistakes, or worse, make the same mistakes as those who do not believe in Jesus, continually.  But this is all wrong.  Cancer does not care if you are a Christian or not.  It ignores belief systems, and lifestyles.  It may be brought on by certain behaviors.  But it is not prevented by any of them.

The vegetarian may avoid the cancers that lay in the meat the rest of us eat.  But the cancers that come from pollution in soil and water, get right into the same food supply we are all eat anyway.  Radiated stuff gets us all, and no government is truthful about where it is, or how well it is controlled.  Sure, smoking is a veritable death sentence from lung cancer, and nearly as lethal is second hand smoke.  But not all air you breathe is as clean as you would wish.  Healthy lifestyles bring a better life, but do nothing to prevent cancer or many other diseases of a lethal variety.  Genetics trumps nearly everything.  You would think Christians can beat most of this, by the power of prayer if nothing else.  And sometimes this is true.  But not ALL the times, so what then.

But if you think your powerlessness is bad, imagine having all the power in the universe, and then dealing with it.  Imagine being able to fix it, but knowing that fixing it now, breaks it later.  Case in point; Joseph the earthly father of Jesus must have been very loved by our Savior.  It is believed Joseph died at some point in the life of Jesus, before His ministry begins.  Jesus could raise the dead.  Why would He leave Joseph, His own earthly dad, to rot in the earth?  Mary would suffer because of this.  There would be less provisions for her because of this.  Do any of us seriously believe Jesus left Joseph in the ground, because of lack of love?  Why not just pull him out like Lazarus, and just keep on going.  Do it quietly, in secret.  Or at least heal Joseph from whatever disease he had before it got him.  But Jesus does not, despite how much He must have loved Joseph.  He left him in the dirt.  You can bet the heart of Mary broke when Joseph died.  You can bet she wept for the only man who ever believed her and “knew” her story was true.  It appears she never remarried, preferring to wait for reunification in heaven at the end of all things.

We should have thought about this case, and realized the outcomes we would want, are not always the outcomes we get.  What if Jesus raised Joseph, and late in life, Joseph abandons his faith?  You could argue that it is the free-will of Joseph to make that choice.  But the same free-will choice Joseph made at the time of his death, was also his choice, and perhaps then he chose to cling to his faith.  Perhaps if Joseph did not see a decade or two more of Roman horror he remains faithful.  But once raised from the grave the horror of life then changes the mind of Joseph over time.  When is it better for Joseph to die, sooner when he believes, or later when he does not?  Hezekiah begged for more time, and got it.  He did not lose that faith, but his heart was broken by what he saw in the lives of his sons, and his nation.  Was it better for Hezekiah to find a peaceful sleep in the Lord earlier, or cling to life and witness the horror of evil so close to home?

We hate the suffering.  So does God.  God sees how evil is responsible for all the suffering.  For everything from the greed that leads to pollution, to the weakness that embraces self-destructive behavior, to the virus’ and diseases that should have never existed.  God sees how hate leads the powerful to destroy the weak for no reason that could ever matter.  God sees the cycle of sin, that begins so small, and ends so horrifically.  And the mind of God must then be on how best to eradicate sin forever in the universe.  God does not just want to kill the patient, but to kill the sin within the patient, and keep the patient alive.  And God does not just measure life in this world, He measures it in the eternal world as that is the ONLY place that actually matters.  As hard as it is for us to taste death in this world, or see our family taste it, it is a far worse thing to see that become something eternal, instead of something so brief.

So Jesus cannot always do what He wants for us in the here and now.  But He ALWAYS does what we need in the eternal point of view, the one that matters.  And as hard as it is for us to endure the bad crap that comes our way, it is harder for Jesus to see us endure it, and let it happen, in order that it works together for our more important good.  Harder for Him, because He has the power to fix it now.  But must delay, in order to fix it forever, later.  Matthew tells the story of a loss like this.  And it is not just some random friend of Jesus, but His cousin.  This was the first Christian.  This was the first person to carry the gospel to the river Jordan, and cry out to the nation to repent, and make straight the way of the Lord.  John had fire.  John was a prophet.  John was the most effective preacher ever born.  He lived His message.  He was absolutely humble.  He recognized Jesus for who Jesus was.  John believed Mary.  John sent his own disciples to follow Jesus.  John nearly convinced Herod to do the right thing.  But for all his belief, John still died, beheaded as the first Christian martyr.  Sometimes bad crap comes right to your doorstep.

Matthew picks up in chapter fourteen of his gospel beginning in verse 01 saying … “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, [verse 2] And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.”  This begins as a ghost story.  Herod thinks Jesus is actually John the Baptist back from the dead, doing miracles only a supernatural being could ever perform.  And Herod is afraid, perhaps very afraid.  Miracles tend to unnerve the guilty who have no way to explain them, and every reason to fear them, particularly when they have yet to repent, and yet to change what they were doing wrong in the first place.  Who but a ghost could pull off the deeds of Jesus in the mind of Herod?  Herod missed redemption entirely, so fear alone gripped him for the guilty conscience he held to.

Matthew enumerates further in verse 3 saying … “For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. [verse 4] For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. [verse 5] And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.”  Herod did not enjoy being called out publicly as an adulterer.  At first he was mad and would have killed John to shut him up.  But having John in prison allowed Herod to come visit him, and the more Herod listened to John, the more he became convinced John was right, and he needed to do something to fix the situation.  While the crowds delayed the hand of Herod at first, a growing conscience within him delayed it later.  And that became a situation considered way too dangerous by the adulterous woman to be tolerated.  Herod may no longer have wanted to kill John, in fact he refused to.  But Herodias wanted him dead on a silver platter.

Matthew continues the story in verse 6 saying … “But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. [verse 7] Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. [verse 8] And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.”  Salome asks her mom what to ask for, likely interested in jewels or land.  But evil mom knows the truth, if John lives, and Herod repents, they will be sent back to Phillip with nothing, likely ostracized, perhaps stoned.  So if Salone wants to live to spend the wealth Herod may still bestow on her later, they need John dead now.  And a young girl asks for the most horrific thing sin always results in, death.

Matthew continues in verse 9 saying … “ And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. [verse 10] And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. [verse 11] And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.”  Herod was sorry.  The king was sorry.  This was not a gleeful Herod bathing himself in the blood of the man who called him out for his sin.  This was a king worried too much about going back on his word, to do what he knew was right.  So for sake of ego and reputation, Herod did the unthinkable to Herod.  And John was beheaded alone in prison.  Bad crap coming the way of John through no fault of his own.  Unless shutting up is considered the alternative by modern Christians.  Better to shut up than lose life, or jobs, or promotions, or friends, or position in society.  Better to keep your Christianity on the down low than lose what you have through the loss of favor with the world.  But when a Christian loves the non-believer, they are compelled to love them.  How can you keep your mouth shut then?

John had a higher mission of conversion and ironically he was right on the doorstep of success with Herod.  It was the wicked women who had no use for God that wanted him killed.  Imagine if this story went differently.  Imagine if Herod had the strength to throw those witches out on their butts, and truly repent of what he was doing.  Herod would have become the first Christian King.  And perhaps the sequence that ended the life of Jesus would have had to leave Herod out of the whole thing, lest Herod protect the Jesus, cousin of John, who John introduces Herod to.  Instead of being part of the bad crap that came to Christ, Herod might have had no part in it at all.  But Herod succumbs to his carnal urges, all too easily satisfied by women seeking to protect wealth and standing.  And John dies now, Jesus later.  And faith altogether is lost.

Matthew concludes in verse 12 saying … “And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.”  And here begins the worst kick in the faith His disciples will ever suffer.  Dude!  Dude this is your cousin, the greatest preacher this nation has ever seen, until You that is.  Just go put his head back on his body, and breathe life back into him, and let’s get going again.  We know You can do it, we have seen You do it for other folks.  Over time the disciples will do it too.  So why not just resurrect John the Baptist and show the nation how great You truly are.  We know You care about him.  We know You love him.  He is Your cousin for goodness sake.  And while we are at it, let’s go raise up Joseph too, and make a real showing of how great Your power is.  How can You just sit there?  How can You do nothing for one of Your own?  How could You let this bad crap happen to John, and Joseph, and have the ability to fix it, but do nothing … at least now.

But this is where the lens of the vision of God is so much wider and farther than our own.  Jesus knows He will see Joseph again because He intends to raise him up Himself, in just a little while (from His perspective).  Jesus knows He will raise John again, because He intends to do it Himself, in just a little while.  Both of them raised to perfection to a home in heaven, that will forever allow them to be close to Himself.  He will shower them with love.  And no one will ever be able to stop that shower again.  No more bad crap ever.  Raising them up to a world steeped in Roman horror would not be a favor.  Having them face the decades that follow would not be a benefit to them, only a selfish act to Himself so that He could reduce the pain of their loss in the short term.  It was not best for John, or Joseph.  They would sleep and in the blink of an eye find the glory of His second appearing.  They had no concept of the passage of time.  It would be immediate for them, as it is for every believer who has ever died in the 6000 years of our history.  Dying sucks.  But being dead, is like having fallen asleep at night, in the blink of an eye the morning is here, and you wake up.

Cancer sucks.  The suffering it brings sucks.  Cancer was never supposed to exist, and it is decidedly not the will of God, but the invention of His enemy.  As is all disease and suffering and decay and death.  The pain sin has brought to this world, and to us, is the natural result of turning away from the perfect happiness of God to find “another way”.  Here is where “other” ways end up.  And while bad crap does happen to Christians.  There is something Christians have that is an advantage our non-believing friends so desperately need.  While we may sit in the same oncology units, and even mortuaries, we have a hope and a view of the final state of things not everyone else understands.  We know we are loved, even in our pain, by a God who feels every tear ten times more than we ever will.  Our true “Dad” longs to see our pain gone forever, and He is working to see that occur for us, and in us, and in the patient beside us who may have never heard that hope that way before.  Whether He heals us or them now, or drives all the pain away when we wake up in that resurrection morning, there will come a time of no more pain, no more death, and no more bad crap ever again for anyone.  Perhaps our hope is the testimony the patient beside us needs more than anything else in their world, and we have it to offer today.  Can we shut up, and still say we love them?

 

Bleeding and Dying No More [part two] ...

We define our own limits.  We tell ourselves what is “possible” and then live our lives within the confines of the limitations we have set for ourselves.  But our definition of “possible” has been set by a very human perspective, and perspective is not the same as reality.  Because you have never seen a thing, or heard a thing, does not mean that thing does not exist … it is merely something you have never seen or heard.  Others may have experienced it.  So for a witness to this event, it is very real … for the person who has never encountered it, it remains only theoretical.  Our imaginations are the gift that enable us to briefly look beyond the limitations we set for ourselves, and dream or imagine what might be possible beyond the reality our minds have proscribed for us.  Our imagination questions our limitations, and poses the most important query to our self-imposed limitations … what if? 

For the Christian, for the believer in a God of infinite Love, a God who wrote the rules of science, any “limitation” at all, is an oxymoron.  Indeed self-imposed limitations are nothing more than chains that bind and limit the potential of a life that might otherwise be an existence our dreams could hardly keep up with.  What we define as limits, were never really limits at all.  They were self-imagined constrictions “we” placed on ourselves, not impositions our God placed upon us.  We are the ones who tell ourselves “no”, and “it cannot be done” and “there is no way”.  Like a contagious disease, we allow our lack of personal witness, and the limitations others have proscribed, to join and form our own ideas.  We adopt the limits others have dictated until we join them like mindless Borg drones, unable to break free of the collective.  Our educational systems are built around the idea of conformity, not individuality.  Our society is based on cooperation, and perpetuates “group think” over “unique think”.  So mostly every influencing factor around us from our media to our pulpits encourages us to be part of something larger, and if that means we limit ourselves and our potential, in order to stay in line with the rest of the drones, then so be it.

But for the believer in a God of infinite Love, why do we continually “limit” what infinite must mean?  Does our uniquely human power to say “no” to God and thus thwart what He would otherwise do for us make us think we have some power of our own?  Our sole ability to refuse love has been translated into thinking that saying no equals the end of possibility and potential.  But it does not.  What happens when we change our “no” answer to a “yes” answer to God’s love?  The change in our response becomes and is a life altering experience.  When we look from His perspective at our own limitations we begin to understand they were never limitations in the first place.  They were only ever the result of saying “no” to God over and over again.  When “yes” is our response to His love, what we thought was impossible becomes possible, achievable, then history, then even routine.  All of the sudden, miracles are not the unusual, they can become the common place.  Our imaginations must then work harder to dream beyond what the reality of our lives are.  For what we imagine Love to be, is never really enough to define, what Love can truly be.

And you or I, will not be the first believer to discover this truth.  Peter refers to another, he lists her only as “a certain woman”.  She has no name that he can recall, perhaps he never heard it, or knew it.  In recalling the story of Jesus’ third hit in the spiritual grand-slam going on near the edge of the Sea of Galilee to John Mark in his gospel in chapter five, Peter does not know the identity of this woman.  Perhaps this was by intent from God to you and I.  Perhaps Peter is unable to personalize this story by listing the woman’s name, because God wanted for you to substitute your name where Peter and John Mark say simply the words “a certain woman”.  If only our own imaginations could allow us to dream past our limitations the story of this woman might actually be the same as our own.  Imagine for a brief moment, that you are her.  Imagine for a brief moment, that the biggest challenge of your life could be substituted for the one she was facing.  Then using your imagination, see if how she conquered her own problems, might not be exactly the same as how you see your biggest challenge overcome in an instant.  How hard it is to imagine, might be an indication of how deeply you have limited your ability to really live.

John Mark picks up the story in verse 25 saying … “And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, [verse 26] And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,”  This woman was likely a hemophiliac.  She had a degenerative health condition which in her time had no cure, nor effective treatment.  She was losing blood constantly over a twelve year block of time.  She did not take this ailment without attempting to fix it.  She did what all of us do, she went to the doctor for it.  But when the first doctor failed, she got a second opinion, and then a third, until she had seen every doctor she could find.  And in the end, all of her best efforts, all the best of humanity had to offer, was only a further level of misery from the original condition she faced.  How many times, have you faced a challenge in your life, and done your best efforts to meet it, only to find you have actually made things worse?  The temptation to give up all hope becomes even stronger when everything you do, only makes it worse.  But for her to give up, meant to die, so giving up was not an option for this certain woman … or perhaps for you.

Mark continues in verse 27 writing … “When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. [verse 28] For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.”  Here is where a certain woman puts me to shame.  No one told her this would work.  No one had ever tried it.  No one had ever experienced it.  In point of fact, she concocted this idea completely in her own imagination, and set about to carry it out.  There were no sermons outlining a 5 part plan that begins with her own acknowledgement of her need, a donation into the offertory, and then an effort to touch the hem of Jesus’ clothing.  This idea was crazy, and had never been done.  It was going to be a first.  It was the product of her imagination.  But it was something more than that.  This woman did, what you and I, have refused to do.  She let go of her limitations.  She determined that her problem not only could be solved by Jesus, but that it was going to be solved by Jesus, and all she had to do was imagine that truth. 

If she had shared her plans with the other drones in her life, they would have surely and universally, condemned it.  Just like your family and friends would do to you, if you came up with such a clearly hair-brained scheme.  Her pastor or Rabbi, would have pointed out to her, that NOWHERE in scripture (at least up to now) has this EVER been tried, let alone been successful.  There were ZERO documented cases of people walking around that had personally experienced any such thing, and many, many, people had touched Christ before on their own, without any such results.  Up to now, Christ had to make some sort of effort to heal people.  They did not just encounter him anonymously and walk away healed.  They had to interact with Christ, talk to Him, ask Him for what they wanted, and then wait for Him to respond.  Her plan was completely different.  She would not bother Him to talk to Him.  She would not even ask Him to stop doing what He was doing, or going where He was going.  She would just attack Him from behind, get a quick anonymous touch of His clothes, and then resume her life in complete secrecy. 

Her challenge, or issue, was a lethal one, and she had already exhausted all her money, time, and effort on conventional means with only worsening results.  Human limits had been fully employed and fully failed.  Perhaps it was only in this condition, that she was able to imagine a solution beyond human limits.  Must it be so with us?  Must we face a life threatening issue before we even begin to imagine a solution to our problems beyond the limits of humanity?  What if the fact that there is NO money, and NO prospects to finding any, or finding enough; was NOT the limitation we chose to impose on ourselves when it comes to spending on a ministry for others?  Or putting what we have in the offering plate.  What if our very real looking human limitations, could be seen through the lens of imagination, and faith in a God of infinite Love.  Could we too come up with a plan where God solves our problems without so much as a formal request to do so.  The plans of this certain woman were banking on God’s love and ability to solve a problem He would not even have to slow down to do.  That is some radical faith folks.  That is some life altering ideas there, and reflects a complete lack of self-imposed limitations.

So how does it turn out?  Mark continues transcribing in verse 29 saying … “And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.”  It worked.  This crazy plan worked.  Her challenge was overcome by a Divine power of infinite Love, that could work even without a formal request for it.  A miracle could happen just by following the crazy plans of her imagination, combined with a belief that “no” was not the answer from God in this situation.  She did not do this plan thinking “maybe” it would work.  She did it, believing there was NO limit to the love of God, that God’s Love could flow to her just by touching clothing anonymously in the crowd.  And it worked.  What if we put the money we cannot afford to give in the offering plate when it passes by?  Would we find ourselves destitute as a result, or perhaps blessed beyond what we could have imagined instead?  What if our church spent money it does not have on missions for the poor and those in need, instead of heeding the limits of frugality and financial responsibility it self-imposes?  What if, instead of being devastated by our diagnosis, we imagined that just a mere prayer to our Lord, could heal us of whatever illness we faced, with 100% certainty?  Would we find our crazy imagination was more real than our limited and self-imposed reality we too had constructed?

It is our limitations, that cause us to think, there is only one way we can be healed by God.  It is our limitations that cause us to think, that God often says “no” to us when we face a challenge instead of “knowing” He has an answer for what our collective human might could not solve.  The entire Bible is a series of stories of how God solves problems we could not, including our redemption and reclamation.  Yet we believers are content to construct limits on how God can and will interact with us.  We see limits in our lives when no such limits even exist.  We construct limits, instead of seeing beyond our perspective, that from His viewpoint no such limit exists.  What for us is difficult, is for Him child’s play.  But Jesus did not want this incident to be a private one.  He wanted you and I to know that crazy imaginations can and will be real.  He wanted you and I to know that “we” can be a certain woman who ignores her own limitations and those of her family and friends and see done, what no one believed could be done.  So Jesus decides to see this story recorded.

Mark continues in verse 30 saying … “And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?”  So one crazy plan deserves another.  The very nature of a press, is that people are pressing in on you, they are touching you, crowding you, and in effect are all over you.  They are patting Jesus on the back, trying to hug Him, trying to be as close to Him as a person can be.  They touch His arms, try to hold His hands.  They just want to be close to Him.  This is what a press is by definition in this instance.  And in the midst of His walking with Jairus to the home of Jairus to heal His daughter, Jesus pauses to ask who touched His clothing?  The question makes NO sense to anyone there … except this woman.  She knows, that Jesus knows, what she has done.  But the disciples have no clue.

John Mark continues in verse 31 saying … “And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?”  The disciples decide to take on the role of Captain Obvious, and ask the question, “what are You talking about?”  A thousand people are trying to get close to you and touch you, and you want us to identify everyone who might have been close enough to do so, a moment ago?  But the disciples are viewing this question through the lens of humanity, Jesus is viewing it through something wider than just this view.  Mark continues in verse 32 transcribing events … “And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. [verse 33] But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.”  Jesus begins looking at the crowd to find this woman.  It won’t take Him long.  But the woman realizes her anonymity is not going to last.  The idea that God did not need to be bothered to see her healed was actually not as true as she had imagined.  God wanted to be bothered.  God wanted her to know, He had the time to make time, just for her.  She too was special to Him.  She too mattered.  Just like you do.  Just like I do.  He wants to slow down to meet our needs, He is willing to be delayed in going where He is going, to take a minute for us.  She needed to know this.

So Jesus reveals a deeper truth to her and us about the nature of His infinite love to her beginning in verse 34 saying … “And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”  He does not refer to her as “a certain woman”, nor does He state her name.  Instead He has a much more intimate term for her.  He calls her Daughter.  He has made her family.  He has rewarded her imagination with more than just a physical healing, He is adopting her into His family, and making her know just how important she is to Him.  He is not humiliating her, He is uplifting her.  He lets her know that He knows exactly what she was healed of.  He lets her know that He wanted all along to bring her and you and I this kind of healing.  We too can be healed of our plagues.  We too can see our challenges melt away, if we are willing to embrace the crazy.  If we are willing to let our imaginations become our reality, instead of denying His love and power because of our ideas of facts.  We need to be like a certain woman, who recognized the power and magnitude of His love was big enough to reach her in an unconventional means.  It did not take a pastors intercession, or a group of prayer warriors, or a donation into the plate.  It only took a crazy scheme she made up in her head, that banked on the size of His love for her.  Perhaps our own crazy ideas about how much God loves us, are not so crazy after all.

But the spiritual series of miracles had one more hit to yet put on display …

 

Disease of the Mind ...

Evil defies logic.  It makes no sense.  Therefore our embrace of evil is a mystery that can never be fully understood.  As God is love, He embodies all that any sentient life would consider good or of value.  To stray away from God can only lead in a direction away from all that is good.  In God we find life, love, joy, and fulfillment – therefore to wander away from God we can expect to find only misery, pain, hate, and death.  The consequences of wandering away from the source of love are not a punishment; they are simple laws of logic.  If I look away from love, what do I expect to find?  If I run away from life, where else could I be heading but the opposite of life?  As most of us would expect self-preservation to be at the top of our to-do list, running away from life is not logical, nor does it make any sense.  So why do we do it?  What is more, even when we are made aware clearly, that a pursuit of selfish ambitions will only lead us to pain, why do we continue to do it?  Evil defies logic, as it defies love.

Evil is the anti-God.  God offers us love.  In so doing, He gives us the freewill choice to return His love or not.  If we did not have the choice, what we offer could not be called love at all.  It requires our choice in order that what we offer be a real love.  So what God is really establishing is our freedom.  We are free to love, and in love that freedom is boundless.  There are no limits to how much we can love another.  As God has shown us in the life of Jesus Christ, there are no limits to how much God will love us.  And it is His choice to love us, as it is our choice to return love back to Him.  In the expression of love to others, there are no laws required to follow.  There are no prescribed lists we must check off every day, rather our responses and our desires are liberated to bring joy to others as much as our imaginations can conceive.  In love there is absolute freedom.  But evil is the anti-God.  Where God offers us freedom of choice, in order that love can truly be love; evil is interested in no such thing.  Evil is all about control, not freedom.  Therefore evil has no qualms with slavery.  Satan in his embrace of evil so long ago has so been warped that he is no longer interested in your love of him, only in his control over you.  He makes no attempt to win your loyalty; rather he makes every attempt to enslave you into his following.  It was the introduction of evil into the universe that prompted the requirement of laws.  God had to set boundaries to evil in order to help define it, and as a guide for those who embraced it, to see what evil was while being warped by the disease of evil.  Where love needs no laws to constrict it, evil requires laws or it would bring non-existence about to everything it touches.

Evil is addictive.  Evil is degenerative.  The first sin in heaven was not murder, nor adultery, nor homosexuality; it was a break in trust with God.  Lucifer began to wonder what would happen if instead of loving others, he loved himself for a while.  Seeing his own image and marveling at his own beauty, he turned his natural inclinations to please others inward to see about pleasing himself.  God knew where this would lead, and tried to counsel Lucifer to avoid this idea and resume his love to others, not to self.  But Lucifer broke trust with God and continued on his path of self-exploration.  Upon doing so, he realized there was a difference between Christ and himself.  To this point, he had been largely unaware that Christ was the actual son of God, and he was merely the arch angel or angelic leader.  God loved all His creation so much, that none perceived a difference in how God felt about them.  But in his mind, now beginning to yield the effects of self-pursuits, he became jealous of the relationship between Christ and God.  Eventually he became jealous of God Himself, and scripture tell us he thought to become “like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14).  He began to enlist other angels in his newfound philosophy.  He pointed out to them, that they should be free not to love God, without necessarily having negative consequences.  But this thinking was in error.  He refused to trust the God who created him, and thought only to love.  He embraced his freedom not to love which no one had ever done.  And his path was set.  Eventually there would be war in heaven between him and his followers and Christ and his.  Lucifer, now Satan, would be cast out forever more.  What started as an interest in loving self, ended in war in heaven, later it would kill Christ on Calvary.  Evil is both addictive and degenerative.

There is no version of expression of evil that is not both addictive and degenerative.  Perhaps the best example of the path of evil is the dead junkie on the side of the road.  At one time, that person had a life, a job, a family, and a reason to get up in the morning.  But for whatever reason, perhaps to experiment, or to open their mind, or to join their peers, or simply to “feel good”; they decided one day to sample a chemical hallucinogen.  And for a brief time, the death of the brain cells and accompanying euphoria gave them a moment of perceived pleasure.  In point of fact, they were damaging their own brains and bodies, but were unable to perceive what was really going on.  A few repeated incidents of these actions, and their bodies developed a chemical addiction for it.  Now their priorities get rearranged by their bodies chemical demands – their jobs matter less, their possessions matter less, eventually even their families matter less.  And the need for the drugs becomes greater and greater requiring stronger versions dispensed more often in order to meet the “need” they have developed.  It reaches a point where most finally meet their demise through an overdose; ending their lives with nothing else left to lose.  A junkie simply cannot just say “no”.  A junkie will not refuse more drugs, he will instead pursue them.  A junkie trusts no one but the drugs.  And without outside intervention, death is the verifiable end that every junkie will meet.  This is the very nature of evil.  But it is not limited to merely the “evil” of taking chemical stimulants and hallucinogens.  It works the same way with every type of evil expression.

Pedophiles, rapists, and various other sexual degenerates do not simply wake up one day, throw out everything they ever knew, and become the degenerates they are today.  Instead, it is a process, where appetites are developed over time.  It may begin with nothing more than a simple curiosity about sexual expression outside of what God has outlined for us.  But like Lucifer’s first questions about love to self, the exploration of sexuality outside of Gods intentions leads to greater and greater deviance from “normal” over time such that the definition of “normal” itself is remade again and again.  Eventually the pedophile believes there is “nothing wrong” with what he is doing and it is no-one else’s business.  The rapist believes his victims deserve it, and secretly want it, and he derives pleasure from the control (sound familiar) over his victims in the process.  Both define societal evils for which both would be jailed if caught.  But what is more interesting is that both reach a point where they do not comprehend why their actions are indeed evil.  They see them as their version of “normal”.  Those folks who are Christians today, and have not reached the point of being a rapist or pedophile, but still think it wise to indulge pornography, or flirtations and innuendo with people other than their spouse, are on the same road, to the same evil, that will cause pain, and eventually death.  The difference is that each person sees evil only in the actions of those who are perceived “worse” than they are.  At least I don’t rape children, says the serial adulterer.  At least I don’t have affairs, says the serial pornographer.  At least I don’t look at porn, says the person with great lust in the heart.  No matter where they are in the process of evil, they do not perceive it in themselves only in those they believe are worse off than themselves.  Part of the danger of the degenerative nature of evil, is that it blinds those engaged in it.

There is only one punishment for evil, as there is only one destination where ALL evil winds up – in death.  It is easy to see how a junkie winds up dead.  And it is easy to see how a pedophile or rapist might be caught and killed for what they do.  But what about a gossip?  Or how about someone who is merely arrogant or simply an over-eater?  Why should they die for their sins?  Satan presents the God of the Bible as looking to kill all those who disobey His laws.  He presents God more like his own characteristics than those of truth and love, for Satan has no truth or love left in him.  But there is a difference between consequences and punishments.  If I run out into the middle of a very busy highway, chances are I am going to be hit by a car.  Is it the car’s fault?  If I jump off of a very high building, gravity will carry me to the ground, is that the fault of God for inventing the laws of physics, or refusing to alter them based on my own decisions and stupidity?  Gravity exists, to pretend it does not, and jump off a building will only offer a few seconds of regret.  Love too exists.  When we move away from it, we find only evil.  As evil is degenerative, it is not content to merely “maintain” itself at some seemingly innocent level.  It degrades, further and further into more and more depravity until killing the author of love sounds like a good idea.  Evil does not want to be contained by laws, and could care less who it hurts in its endless empty pursuits of self-discovery and fulfillment.  Indulging a sense of pride may not seem like much, but it leads to greater and greater self-indulgence – just a quick look at Satan shows exactly where it leads.  To diverge away from the source of life can only inevitably lead to death.  This is the path of evil.

But the knowledge of evil is NOT enough to prevent or deter it.  Logic would dictate that having made this discovery about the nature of evil, one would simply refuse to ever embrace it again.  If I know where gossip will lead me to, I simply quit gossiping.  The same is true of any other form of evil is it not?  Logically it makes sense to simply just say “no” to self.  But logic is almost invariably not enough to combat our genetics, and learned behaviors.  Saying “no” to one’s self looks like the opposite of fun, it looks painful, ugly, non-desirable.  So we say “yes” to me; and the heck with the other guy.  Most of us rationalize that by saying “yes” to me, no one else is really getting hurt.  But this rationalization rarely reflects reality (say that 3 times fast).  Instead we indulge our desires to please self, leading us to make these decisions easier and easier in the future.  Much like the hard core drug addict, our brains develop chemical pathways that become habit to us, instinctual, easy, and preferred to the alternative.  And very quickly we become the wind-up toys for evil that require little maintenance or encouragement by the evil one.  It is natural for us to engage in comparative analysis of evil; in short we gauge evil on a scale that weighs our own evil as negligible compared with the evil of others we know.  But all evil leads to the same place, so what is the difference other than where we are on the journey?  Knowing how evil works is just not enough for us to defeat it.

There are those who believe they are strong willed enough to decline from doing evil.  This might be a die-hard married spouse who despite temptation has never given in to physical infidelity.  They may make it all the way to the grave without ever having been unfaithful to their spouse.  But upon closer examination, does this reflect a victory over sin, given to them by Christ in recognition of their surrender to Him on this topic?  Or is it more likely, that while they have never physically fallen into the trap of adultery, their minds have wrestled with desires to do so, every day of their lives.  Modern social norms dictate that masturbation is a “normal” part of life.  However self-gratification can rarely be achieved with an “empty” mind.  Lust requires an object, even if only in the mind, to achieve its selfish goals.  Another social norm is the idea of fantasizing during the act of intercourse.  Men and women do not like talking about such things, but engage in it more often than they would ever admit to their partners.  In so doing, lust is engaged; love or concern for another is discarded in an attempt to please self.  While never actually committing adultery with another person, it is possible to harbor inappropriate feelings, thoughts, and lust on a daily basis that is never seen in physical action by those who believe they have strong will.  It is not a victory.  It is instead a struggle, and a needless one.  What must be changed is not half as much as what we do, or refrain from doing, as HOW we think about it.  Our actions merely reflect our desires.  If our desires were remade to be holy, our actions will follow suit.  If our desires remain impure, our actions will eventually catch up with them.  It is not a matter of how strong our will is; it is a matter of recognizing our disease.

Evil is more than a disease of the body, it is a disease of the mind.  Evil warps the minds of those who embrace it to believe that what they do is not really evil at all.  Evil has a way of rationalizing anything.  Most of the dictators and despots throughout history never thought of themselves in those terms.  Instead they truly believed that what they did, no matter how horrific it seems to us, was in the best interest of their countries, or people at the time.  6 million Jews murdered in Nazi Germany in the 1940’s and more than one person believed this was a good idea.  6 million more gypsies murdered in the same period and even fewer mourn these deaths today.  Yet to listen to Hitler, you would think he was nothing more than a patriot who invented a “solution” to the problems of Germany of his day.  We would call him deluded, but examine our own evil on much more friendly terms.  After all, we did not kill 6 million anybody’s this year, so we can’t be all bad right?  Hitler was not lying when he considered himself a “good” person, any more than you look in the mirror and lie to yourself about your own “good” nature.  But all of us are self-deluded.  It is a characteristic that marks evil.  When evil is embraced it becomes harder and harder to see it as evil.  It begins to look more and more “normal”, eventually it looks to us as if the evil we do is actually “God’s will” for us.  Scripture might point out our folly, but few consult it to see the error of their beliefs.  Instead we open the word to validate what we already think, and evil wins again.

Though it seems unbelievable, there are those who can validate any evil in their lives, by combining various thoughts, passages and ideas from scripture to fit how they believe.  Murder is justifiable as self-defense, or to eliminate the infidel, or to protect the honor of God, or in response to another victim of murder.  Lying can be justified if it serves the greater good, keeps us from offending our brother, etc.  We can break the Sabbath if we are hungry, or helping someone else, or traveling at the time.  We pay tithes and offerings only on our increase, if I am in debt, I have no increase therefore I need pay no tithes.  Any doctrine, teaching or law that may have been given to us as a gift to eliminate pain from our lives can easily be discarded in “light” of our modernized theology and scriptural interpretation.  And as a last resort if the wording is just too clear to dispute, we tone it down, by saying that perhaps the real meaning was lost in translation many years ago by some overreaching scribe who did not copy it down exactly.  The net of all this exercise is nothing more than to nullify any counsel that would point out the evil we have come to enjoy embracing in our lives.  We do not want rebuke, if it might mean looking at our behavior through the prism of needed reform.  It is wonderful to rebuke another, or judge another, or condemn another – but the guy in the mirror is off limits.  Evil can rationalize anything.

Self is simply not able to defeat self.  We are unable to remove the disease of evil from our minds, or our bodies.  We need outside help.  The condition of evil is terminal.  It leads to death.  It is not a light matter or one of inconsequence – rather it is one of life and death.  Everything we would truly desire – life, love, fulfillment, compassion, grace, mercy, forgiveness – cannot be found associated with evil.  Evil only brings their counterparts.  To find life and love we must begin with realizing our condition, our disease is one of the mind.  It will require a complete makeover, a complete re-do of how we think.  We must become someone other than who we are.  We must be reborn, remade, or recreated.  The sooner this process begins the better our lives will be.  We do not need or desire to wait to put off the cure for pain and death; we need it now, ASAP.  We need it STAT.  It is our very existence we are discussing, whether to reduce the pain and eliminate the death, or continue on the path of pain and the highway towards our demise.  A simple choice, we must have a cure.  And the cure is only to be found outside of ourselves and our own efforts.  This disease must end and for that to happen, we must submit to our Master Physician and re-creator.