I just finished watching the movie 'Into The Wild'. It left an impression. One thing really caught my ear. To paraphrase, if you don't forgive, you can't love. I thought how true. They kind of cancel each other out, don't they? You can't really love someone that you are holding something against. In not forgiving, you reap the results. Jesus said that if you didn't forgive men their trespasses, God would not forgive yours. Now I think I get it. After all, God is love, and he who lives in love lives in God and God in him. If you aren't living in love, you might say that you are reaping the whole God not forgiving you in a way, because you are not able to walk in His presence in that state. This comment by Jesus could well have been about the present, not necessarily judgement day. There may be something huge here. The keys to the kingdom. What you bind on earth you bind in heaven. What you loose on earth, will be loosed in heaven.
Everything that happens, happens for a reason...
I do believe, though, that good can be a result of an evil or painful encounter in life (for those who believe), but evil cannot come from good. God is not the author of sin.
The wisdom of God...
Just a couple of examples of the wisdom and love of God. God says that we should not seek revenge. He says to leave that to Him (Romans 12:19…Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord). Someone might think that God loves to take revenge. My Christian interpretation would be that I don’t think so. God knows what revenge and vindictiveness feels like and what it does to a person and He wants to protect us from it. He knows that it is poison and asks you to hand it over to him…to rid yourselves of it...to cast your burdens on Him. In like manner, in the Old Testament God forbid the Israelites to eat fat (Leviticus 7:23…Say to the Israelites: ‘Do not eat any of the fat of cattle, sheep or goats’). The fat belonged to God. Why? Was it because God coveted the fat for Himself? Did God so love the fat of animals that He didn’t want to share it with us? Today we know that the fat of animals is not healthy. Once again, God was trying to protect us. This is the theme throughout the Word of God. Is not every commandment of God really an attempt by God to help us, to protect us, to bless us?
Trials and Tribulations...
Life is not discriminatory. If you live it, at some point, you will be challenged by it. God doesn’t play favorites. It would appear that part of the reason for living is the challenges. Most likely, a huge part of the reason for living is the challenges. It’s as if God is asking if we will remain faithful in all and any circumstances. For some, when life is going along without a hitch, that is a challenge. A challenge to their faithfulness. Will they stay focused on God when things are going so well, or will they find their focus is on other things. For others, it's when life is difficult that they may find themselves at odds with God and turning away from Him. It doesn't always work that way, though. As the bible teaches, God would actually draw the Israelites to Himself through hardship. They would turn back to God when things got tough.
Capitalism 101...
On the plus side, capitalism creates incentive, incentive breeds competition, and competition breeds innovation. Capitalism motivated by a base nature of greed, selfishness, and vanity, is the counter weight to another base nature component of selfishness...laziness.
So here is the crux of the matter. Capitalism is inherently shortsighted. It’s about making as much money as you can as fast as you can. It’s about you, it’s about now. That makes for lousy planning for the future and future generations.
Have you ever witnessed an incandescent light bulb glass break while it was turned on? The now exposed element burns very bright for a couple of seconds before burning up and going out. That is my analogy of capitalism. Societies built on capitalism can indeed burn brightly for a moment in time, but then they will fall.
It's an interesting thing...
It’s an interesting thing…this thing called vanity. We can see the one that dresses up, albeit, with long hair or a beard or a mustache or a tattoo or body piercings or green hair or name brand clothing or expensive shoes or belt buckles or ball caps or jewelry, etc. Their costumes say ‘look at me’…I’m special…I’m cool…I don’t give a damn…I do give a damn….I’m a rebel…I’m successful, etc. This outer adornment may seem prideful on the surface, but sometimes this adornment of the outer is but a cry for self worth and approval. This one that dresses up may well be lacking in pride.
And then there is the one that may misjudge those that are decorated as being prideful. And though they that judge may not be dressing up, they too are caught in vanities snare.
No room for pride...
Joh 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
1 Cor 3:6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
2 Tim 2:25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
Ex 33:19 And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Gal 3:2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing— if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
1 Cor 1:17 ¶ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel— not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things— and the things that are not— to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God— that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
Lu 18:17 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Personally, I find real wisdom in the way God has chosen to do things. He has effectively removed all room for pride, which surely is our greatest stumbling block. That is why it so often seems to require a complete breakdown, a humbling to the core, before we are able to receive Him. I wonder if the greater the pride, the greater the trauma that’s required to break it? When I look at the scripture about being ‘born again’ I can’t help but see that I, personally, had to suffer a form of death before that miracle born again experience occurred. In a way, you could say that I had to be ‘broken’, completely humbled, and then I had to cry out for Jesus before Jesus came in and laid that new foundation. I was born again at that moment, I was a new creature, old things had passed away, all things had become new (John 3:3, 2 Cor 5:17).
There are a few obvious issues that some people take exception with. First off, as a few of the scriptures above testifies to, God chooses. God has to choose you, has to draw you to Christ, has to ‘give the increase’ regarding believing faith. That can tick some people off. There is no room for them to glory in themselves. They aren’t in control. They see that as unfair. They aren’t willing to give God the credit for their salvation, but they are ready to blame God for not necessarily choosing everyone. They aren’t willing to accept that maybe…just maybe…God knows what He is doing and they don’t. That’s pride. I like God’s response to Job (38:1). Another issue people have is the defining of sin. God makes no bones about what is right and what is wrong. He defines morality. That can be confining, and/or convicting and uncomfortable, and people generally don't like that. Their general theme is 'I want to do what I want to do, and don't tell me I can't or that it's wrong'.
There are literally millions of people who can personally testify to the miracle of Jesus. Could they all be deceived? When they believed the report, when they accepted the gospel…truly accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, a miracle occurred. That miracle validates the scriptures. Not just the words of Jesus, but the words of all the NT writers, and many of the old.