Time X Infinity...

In a comment to a recent post one of my nephews addressed the concept of free will in relation to our infiniteGod... In my response I said, in essence, that my desire in that blog was not to limit choices, but to start people thinking in a new direction, to see there may be more choice than merely the conventional ... How we think definitely colors our perspective of God, for we have a finite, created mind and God is the infinite Uncreated, and the created cannot ever fully comprehend the Creator. It is our very view of time that limits and distorts our understanding of God, the Timeless.
We measure time by a succession of events along a line, and define time by the relative proximity of each event to another. To us Time is linear. We are bound dimentionally in our thinking, by time and space... Our finite minds operate three-dimensionally, yet God exists in and beyond our finite understanding of dimension... He is outside of time and space, for indeed, these are two concepts he created. In our linear thinking, God is at the first event of our timeline, and the last event, and each one in-between, all at the same instant. It is God's transcendence of time and space that fetters our minds and makes us captive to only those concepts of God that are digestable to our finite minds, rather than allowing the possibility of God being in complete control of his creation and still allowing his createds the ability to have free will, or free choice in their lives. To a finite mind these are contridictory, but to God they are not only possible, but exist according to his Word... An example of our finte thinking: An atheist friend once asked me that old conundrum, "If God can do anything can he make a rock too heavy for him to lift?" And I answered an emphatic "Yes!". Of course the argument followed, if he can make the rock he can't lift it, or if he can lift it he can't make the rock. My answer was simple: I believe God can do anything, and that means he can make that rock, and he can lift it. I went further to say that the average person uses ten-percent or less of his brain; if there is ninety-percent of our brain, our understanding, left unused, did my friend really want to make a definitive statement that something was impossible based on a 10% understanding? The question is linear, the answer is faith in God outside the constraints of linear finite thinking. It can be done. We need to think of God outside the constraints of finite linear thinking, then we begin to see, to understand in some small measure the awesomeness of our Creator, then we begin to realize and understand the true depth of worship. We need to think outside the box...
(Nate, if or when you read this, I hope it clarifies somewhat my mindset. As the commercial kind of says, "This blog's for you!)

Love Thy Enemy...

No one likes having an enemy, and yet each and every day we are faced with an enemy... Every time we start a new day, when we stumble into the bathroom and look in that mirror, we face our own worst enemy... When we do something wrong, it's his fault; when we say the wrong thing, he's to blame; when we lose our temper, it's all him; when we lust, envy, procratinate, hate, judge, condemn, show bias, bigotry, show prejudice- all can be laid at the feet of that man (or woman!) in the mirror... We are our own worst enemy...
More specifically, our mind is our enemy, for our body merely follows the direction it's given. It is our mind that directs inappropriate responses, it is our mind that sabotages our efforts to do or be good, for our mind is the home of our ego; a sadly flawed and desperate creature, wanting happiness, contentment, satisfaction for itself without the ability to achieve it by itself... That is why Paul admonishes us, as Christ followers to constantly "renew our minds" (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:12) or set them on those heavenly things... Our minds, without the Spirit, are deceitful and corrupt, and can be decieved...
One of the great deceptions of our mind is often so subtle we don't even realize it, or if we do, we do too late. It is in the area of relationships. We build in our mind the perfect mate, the one who has all those characteristics we think will make us happy, the one who meets our heart's desire, and there that person lives, in our mind. When we meet people we compare them to our ideal, and when we find that person that seems to meet those reqirements, we commit. Yet oft times what we want so overshadows reality that disappointment is inevitable, for no one can be ideal all the time. No one measures up to an ideal; no one can hope to accomplish what our mind desires. For in our mind our ideal makes us happy without effort on our part, and in reality that just doesn't happen. So we experience disappointment, and we move on, for it is the responsibility of our mate to measure up, and they just don't (or so our mind tells us). Or, we look for someone who's close to our ideal and we begin the process of trying to mold, or change them to meet our expectations and, if successful, often find what attracted us to them is now gone... Our mind says it is not our fault, for they didn't measure up.
Reality says we need to love and accept each other for who we are, what we are, and in those areas that we don't mesh well don't look to change the other, rather change "me", for ultimately I am responsible for me. It is not easy to accept responsibility for ourselves; it is so much easier to blame others, to blame society, to blame God. Yet it is essential that we learn to accept responsibility for ourselves, for accepting ourselves, warts and all, is the first step to learning to love ourselves. If we can't love and accept ourselves how can we expect to love and accept another?

The Mask of Maturity...

Matt 18:2-6 He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.(NIV)

Luke 18:17 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."(NIV)
Wow. How powerful is that. It is clearly important that we re-learn our perspective if we truly want to enter the kingdom of heaven. The concept of learning to accept or view as a child must be very important, for Jesus repeated it several times and at different places in the scriptures. So what is a child's perspective? How is it that Jesus wants us to act or live?
Children are open and authentic. The younger the child the more genuine their emotions. I believe that is why Jesus called a "little child" to himself to make his point. There is no question as to the emotional state of a child. if he's happy we know, if he's unhappy we really know. But there's no hiding the feelings, no deception, just authenticity and openness. This is how we are to be; open and authentic if we want to recieve the kingdom of heaven. So why do we lose this openness as we grow older?
I think people learn to hide their true emotions as a defense against vulnerability. Quite simply, the more open you are the more vulnerable you are. Rather than expose ourselves to the possibilty of someone hurting us because we've exposed our vulnerabilities we learn to mask them, to hide behind a false facade; we control what they know, so we limit the amount of hurt that they are awaere of. All too often we are deeply hurt and no one knows; we suffer alone, in anonimity, because we are hiding behind a mask of false bravado...
We also learn that, to hide our true emotions, can allow a measure of control over others, and they way the respond to us. We can maniplulate the reactions of others toward us by our emotional responses. We can dictate, we can control. Just the opposite of what Jesus calls us to do. He wants us to surrender control, to allow his Spirit to lead and guide us. He wants honesty, and authenticity to be our response, vulnerability to be our goal. For in his kingdom, in his perfect creation, it is the willingness to submit to the Father, the open vulnerability to his will that leads to perfect community with him. We must be willing to give up control of our lives, stop thinking that we, in our flawed and finite state, know what is better for us than our perfect and infinite all-knowing Father, and allow him to guide us in our few short years in this world... It amazes me that, in our arrogance, in our limited knowledge, that we assume to know what is better for us than does God, and that some are willing to gamble their eternity for the sake of the illusion of control in their life right now.

Father, please instill and grow in me an eternal perspective. Allow me to see what is really important eternally, and not be blinded by the temporal distractions of this world. I love you, because you first loved me. Amen.

How big is your God?

I was told recently, that I don't make a very good "Calvinist", because I questioned whether God really chooses to know everything that happens on this earth... Now, don't get me wrong, I believe God has the power, the capability, of knowing all that will and does happen, but does he truly exercise that power?
I believe God created man for community, for fellowship with Him, but he also desired man to want to fellowship with him, therefore he created man with a free will, with the ability to choose to fellowship with God. Now, if we are to truly exercise a free will, then God knew there had to be choice, for without choice there is no free will. God did not create sin, or evil, but he did create an environment where, if man chose not to choose God, and good, then the flip side could be the creation of sin, or evil, not from God, but out of man's choice to disobey God's directives.
Yet, if God knows all, and sees all, and exercises this power, then we can assume that God knew man would choose to disobey, and therefore man was created to fall. This is so contrary to the perfect nature of God, that he would intentionally create an imperfect creation. And, taking this line of reasoning a step further, if God knows all and sees all then he knows before we decide what we will choose. This then, would mean we really don't have a free will at all, for if he knows our choices before we choose then we really aren't choosing at all; we are merely playing out a preordained order of events.
I believe God has such power to know, but is big enough to intentionally restrict himself from knowing, so that we can choose according to the free will that he created in us. His desire is that we come to him willingly, that we desire His fellowship, and that cannot happen for him if we do not have the free will to choose. The key to God's perfect community was, and is, free will. The key to man's fall, to sin, and evil, is free will. It is the choice that had to be possible for God to achieve his community with man as he so desired.
Why then, is this such a stumbling block among believers? I propose that it is much easier to have a God who knows all, sees all, and controls all, for when things don't go as we might wish we can defer blame from the true source to God. You see, if we have free will, then the responsibility for bad things does not rest on God; rather we must look at ourselves, and our decisions as the possible cause. We must look at those around us, and the manner in which their free will decisions ripple on our life, and see if they aid or cause of our pain. And we must consider the free will of those in the spiritual realm, (angels and demons) and consider how their wills may impact our life. If we are to believe the Scriptures are the holy and inspired word of God then we must believe that God has instilled in us a free will, and further, He does not impose his will on us, rather he waits patiently and lovingly for us to return to him.
So the question is, "How big is your God?" Is he big enough not to know your decisions before you make them? Is he big enough to intentionally restrict himself to allow you to grow or fall on your own, based on your free will decisions, or does he have to be in total control, running everything all the time, as you just live out our pre-orchestrated path to whatever fate awaits you? What really scares me about that line of thinking is that, for some, who don't know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, for those who don't have a personal relationship with God now, for some of those there is no hope of heaven, no hope of being redeemed for eternity, for they are merely living out a preordained path which will take them to hell... Now what kind of merciful, loving, all-powerful, perfect God could ever do such a thing to one of his createds? Food for thought...

Our Fast-Food Society

I think we live in a "fast-food society where that mentality extends far deeper that our culinary desires... We are a people driven by instant gratification, whether it be food, or goods, or relationships, or whatever. We've come to expect what we want, and expect it now. We want things faster and faster, and it doesn't matter if we can afford it or not, for we have "instant credit" or "no money down"...
Is instant gratification good? What harm does it cause to get now, instead of later? I propose that the harm is far deeper, more subtley devistating than people ever realize. From a financial stability standpoint alone the effects of buying on credit are devistating. To be fair, a credit card should be renamed a "debt card", for you don't gain credit, you gain debt. The extent that people are willing to extend their debt is frightening, and, if it were not so lucritive and profitable credit card companies wouldn't vie so hard for our business. The desire for "have it now" has spawned many, many "cash stores", or instant loan establishments that reap fees and interest in excess of 100 to 400% just to feed our desires. But outside of the financial devistation what does instant gratification do to us?
The biggest effect is our inability to learn patience, which affects our very core existence. Patience allows for error in life, in relationships, for forgiveness, and for reconcilliation. When we learn to be patient we develop the ability to savor, to appreciate, to experience at a deeper level. When we learn patience we learn responsibility, we develop respect, compassion, and self-control. With self-control we learn that those spur-of-the-moment desires are often fleeting, and unnecessary, and we can do without them and never miss them in the long run. We also learn that not everything is about "us" and meeting our desires, that the focus doesn't have to be "me"... We begin to notice those around us, and the needs of others become more important than personal desires. (Those desires that are important are more appreciated when achieved when they're affordable).
Another area we are totally blindsided in with our desire for instant gratification is in the area of relationships. Any relationship, if it is going to last, needs time and commitment (among other things, like communication, honesty, fidelity, trust), to build a firm foundation. Today we have "speed dating", "internet dating", instant relationships... Just as quickly as we jump in, we find our partner isn't all we expected and off we go, on to the next. Divorce is at an all-time high, co-habitation is rampant, infidelity accepted as a norm... All because we have to have it now. What if we spent time learning about our prospective mate, their likes and dislikes, their attributes and faults; what if we compared who they are with who we are before entering a "committed" relationship (which isn't much of a commitment at all usually!) to see if we are really compatible? Imagine how many "mistakes" would be avoided... But it takes time, and commitment, the very enemies of our "fast-food" society...

A Love Test...

What is Love really? How do we define love? Is it even definitve? Can we put a relationship "to test" to see if it exemplifies "love"?
There are three types of love that I see in our our society. First there's the "I love you if..." style where love is conditional on specific action happening. "If you do (whatever) then I love you." Then there's the "I love you because..." style, again conditional on action, but usually already done. "Because you did (whatever) I love you". Last, there's the "I love you in spite of..." style, the unconditional love that says no matter what you do I will love you. This is that "agape" love that Jesus Christ exemplified and taught. So, how can we determine if this is the type of love we practice, or do we "conditionalize" our love? Put your love to this test:
1. Do you find yourself getting impatient with your partner?
2. When you argue do you bring up your partner's past faults or failings? Do you argue "the past"?
3. Are you selfish, or do you put your partner before you?
4. Do you get angry easily at your partner?
5. Are you envious?
6. Do you remain gracious, even in a dispute, or do you get rude?
7. Do you "remind" your partner how good you are?
8. Are you kind to your partner?
9. Do you protect your partner whenever possible?
10. Do you trust your partner?
11. Is the truth important to your relationship, or is honesty not a big issue?
12. Will your relationship perservere through trials?

We find perhaps the best definition of love in I Corinthians 13, verses 4-7. It says: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perserveres." If we can examine ourselves, and our relationship, and model this definition of love how incredible our relationship would be.
Unfortunately, too many relationships sadly fail because the "love" is self-seeking, and selfish. In our "instant gratification" society, our "fast food" lifestyle, we've come to expect instant chemistry, instant "love", and aren't willing to invest the time and effort to grow something solid, something special. Infatuation is instant, and just as quickly the bloom can fade, but love, true love takes time, and withstands the tests of time. Time and commitment. The exact opposite of what society demands... No wonder divorce is such an attractive option today...