Yes.  He did.  And we are here, only by His gracious act of creation.  If you have been following along with the posts and especially the commentary the last couple of weeks you are aware that creation has been discussed and I hope will continue to be.  No one is denying the fact of creation, just how to interpret the narrative we have that portrays it.  This post is not about creation in a wider sense.  It is about the many questions I have read out there in cyberspace asking what God created.

There is the question asking, did God create evil?  Another asks, did God create sin?  What about, did God create time?

Some believe He created evil and sin for example, so that we can experience good and His mercy.  Some believe He had to create time because He does not experience duration or sequence because He is infinite, but because we are finite we had to have time created to experience the same.  Some of these concepts are definitely brain twisters and the most vocal of the believers in these things end most of the discussions with the argument of God being so far beyond, above, mysterious, and such that we should not attempt to even ponder them.  Logic seems to have no place for determining what God is like.

I have other questions.  If we need evil to experience good, then how in the heavens are we going to experience good in eternity?  Isn’t the promise that evil will be gone?  Is evil a noun; is it something with independent existence?  Or is it just what occurs when Gods ways are not followed? The same goes for sin.  Isn’t it really just a turning from the path God set before us, missing the mark, as it is defined?

God is good because he said so.  Good has independent existence because God exists.  But God never, ever, said He was evil.  Isn’t evil really just a measurement, as is sin, of how much we are unlike God or how far we or our actions are from Him.  Did God create large, small, sweet, sour, pretty, ugly and such, or are these just descriptives and measurements of the things He did create?  Evil and sin are not things.  They are what things that are created do.

Time is in the same ballpark.  It is a measurement of sequence and duration.  Again, do we say that God created height, or depth, or diameter?  Or aren’t these just concepts that we use to relate to creation?  To me, time fits this description.  I once thought of God as timeless and above and outside time and it gave me nothing but headaches.  Upon further study, prayer, reflection and discussion I have come to the conclusion that this is a manmade concept and is not only unbiblical, it actually goes against much of the biblical witness.

As I read the love letter to mankind that we call the bible, I see a God that desires relationships with His creations.  I see a God that experiences sequence and duration.  A God that asks things like, how long?  How much?  When?  All of these things point far away from timelessness.  In eternity, if God does not experience time, meaning duration and sequence, then how will we relate to Him then?  It will be no better than it is here.

God is everlasting to everlasting.  God simply always was and always is and always will be.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, which are actually finite terms meaning the beginning and the end.  These do not point to timelessness either.  They actually point us to the fact that we find our beginning and ending only in Him.

Did God create…?

As far as evil, sin, and time go, I say no.  It just does not fit the picture of the Father that Jesus painted for us.  Instead we find that He is good, He is perfect, and He will be there with us and for us.  Hallelujah.

Love you all

Tags: alpha and the omega, Beginning, Bible, Creation, Discussion, Ending, Eternity, Evil, Father, God, Good, hallelujah, Heaven, jesus, King, Mercy, Perfect, relationship, Relationships

You probably read the title and might be wondering what in the world I am talking about.  Atheism was not as hard as what?  The answer is atheism was not as hard as Christianity.  At this point some of you are probably thinking I am crazy, but hold on.  Am I?  Do you find Christianity easy?  If you do then I simply have to ask which Jesus you are following.

I know, before some of you even say it, loving a wonderful, merciful, savior is easy.  Loving God as Father is easy also.  He is so very easy to love when you get a taste of His incomprehensible mercy, amazing grace, and unsurpassable peace.  The very real fact that He rescued me from the jaws of death, literally, and an eternal destination far from Him, and even from enslavement by sin and service to the enemy makes it easy for me to love Him.

But is that all Christianity is?

No, it is not.  Christianity, no matter how a postmodern society and church defines it, is really about or should be about, following, serving, and doing as that easy to love Savior-King, Jesus, commanded us.  And He commanded us not only to love Him but to love everybody else too.  We must love our spouses as He loves the church-His body and bride.  We must love our families by obeying our parents and caring and instructing our children.  We must love our brothers in the family of God because anyone that hates his brother is a murderer.  We must love our neighbors even as we love ourselves and we know that we love ourselves very dearly.  We must even love our enemies and show it by turning the other cheek and giving them our coat when they steal our shirt.

This is a love that goes against our very natures.  When someone does not love us like we love them we tend to draw away, to hold back.  But this is in direct opposition to our instructions.  When I am faced by someone that does not reciprocate the love I try to develop I must try even harder.  When I am faced with bitter words coming from a loved one I am to keep quiet instead of retaliating.  When I am faced by ridicule, slander, or hurtful invective I am supposed to pray blessing upon that person.  None of this is easy.  But it is necessary.

It is necessary if we are going to be effective in our mission.  It is necessary if we are going to help win some to the cause of the Kingdom.  It is necessary if we are going to achieve unity in the Body.  It is necessary if we are going to be like our King.

Yes, atheism was easy in comparison.  All I had to do was be self-centered and admit it instead of deny it like we seem to do when we are born again.  Joining Christ’s cause did not automatically take away my self-centeredness.  I also recognized that I pretty much hated everyone and cared little about anyone except sometimes in a self-centered way.  Hate is easy but the eventual destination is not anything I would wish on my worst enemy.  And that is what love is all about.  It is about being truly concerned for the eventual eternal destination of everyone we know or meet.  But loving everyone in a magnanimous, sacrificial way is so very hard at times.

Atheism was not this hard.  But where was the challenge in it.

Love you all

Tags: amazing grace, Atheism, Christian, Christianity, Church, Death, Enemy, Father, God, Grace, jesus, Kingdom, Lie, Mercy, mission, Murder, neighbor, Self, Service

It has been a long week.  My pastor is retiring in a little over a week and we have had to be at church almost every night for interviews with prospective pastors.  We have three Godly men to choose from and that in itself is not an easy task for all of us.  We also have a special baptism service tonight to attend.  It is great to be a part of the Kingdom but it is sometimes work.  But it is work that has eternal benefits.  It is awesome.  It has also not left me as much time as usual to write anything substantial for this blog.

Last night as my wife and I were coming home though, we were a couple of cars back from a teenager that lost control of his automobile and spun out, crashed into a guard rail, bounced off, spun around, careened into the opposite guardrail and finally came to a stop, sideways in the right lane of the interstate.  We eased around and stopped because the car was still in the road and we wanted to make sure nothing was wrong with the occupants, and to see about getting the car out of the road.  It was dark and I was afraid that someone else was going to come crashing into it.

All of this worked out and is not really why I am writing about it.  I am relating it because of what was going on and being said by the three teenage boys that were out of the car.  They were freaking out.  They couldn’t stand still and all were on phones already.  But the driver was calling out a couple of things over and over.  He was saying that his father was going to kill him and he kept asking everyone if his car was totaled.

I understand his concern.  I unfortunately had a number of accidents when I was younger also.  I am sure that I freaked out back then also but I do not remember exactly what I was concerned about.  But I haven’t been able to stop thinking of this young man’s concerns.  His father’s reaction and the state of the car was the main things he worried about.

I hope that my kids would not be concerned that I might kill them if they lived through an accident.  I hope that they know that I am only concerned with their health and safety.  I need to make sure they know this.  I also hope that they are not just concerned with stuff also.  This teenager asked at least seven or eight times if his car was totaled.

I do not know if it was just a reaction to what had happened or if this kid really was concerned only about his father killing him and the state of his car but I wish we all would get concerned about what really matters.  What I believe really matters are things eternal.  The work of the Kingdom.  The spreading of the good news that Jesus is the Christ and He reigns right now.  That the fields are ripe and we need to be making disciples.

We have an opportunity to choose a new pastor Sunday night.  I hope we choose wisely and that the one we do choose knows what really matters and can bring the members of my church to a consensus about how to reach and keep a community of lost souls that surround us.  I hope my kids do not have any more accidents but if they do I hope they know what really matters.  I hope the people of God that make up the whole body of Christ learn what really matters because if the evidence shows anything, it shows we have a lot of problems knowing-

What really matters.

Love you all

Tags: automobile, baptism service, Body of Christ, Church, Father, godly men, Kingdom, pastor, teenager

Jesus began his ministry in prayer and ended it in prayer.  He prayed in the mornings and He prayed in the evenings.  He spent days in prayer, and He prayed at all the crucial points in His life and ministry; at his baptism, at his transfiguration, at his death.  Jesus wanted to maintain the relationship He had with His Father.  And He knew that while He was here, prayer was the only means for this.

Does prayer matter?

Jesus believed it did.  He prayed about everything and he prayed all the time.  The Romans of the time prayed and kept charms for good luck but they didn’t really expect their prayers to do anything.  The Greeks derided prayer, weaving crude, ridiculous and sometimes obscene prayers into plays and theater to bring out laughter in their audience. But those stubborn Jews believed that they followed the supreme and loving God and that He did hear and answer their prayers.  Prayer matters because we need that communion with God.  It matters because without it, God will ultimately not be able to bring about His will in our lives.  The Bible is the place we go to understand and get a glimpse of the mind of God.  But prayer is where we get to know His heart.

Jesus offers us no metaphysical proof of the effectiveness of prayer, but He not only prayed, He told the disciples on at least one occasion that they failed in their attempts to heal a boy because of a lack of prayer.  If we are going to believe Jesus then we must believe that prayer works and it matters.  Just not necessarily in the way we want at all times.  If we pray we may not get what we want, but oftentimes we get something we need.  Peter once prayed for food and got a lesson in racism, Paul asked for healing and received humility, we ask for relief and get patience.

Are prayers always answered?

No.  I know they are heard but that does not mean they are answered.  Jesus prayed that we would all be one as He and the Father were one yet we have over 34,000 distinct and identifiable denominations and sects of Christianity today.  Sometimes we ourselves hinder even the prayers that God would love to bring about. Unanswered prayer sometimes shows us a God that actually restrains himself due to the freedom he has granted us.  God respects our free will so much he allows things to play out naturally sometimes.  Even though when we are faced with some seriously dire situations we sometimes would like to give up that very freedom.

In God’s creation project, He built in this component that we call free will so that we could share in the maintenance and direction of the project.  He knew we could, and I think He knew we probably would; fail in our area of authority.  But He wanted free, loving relationships with us above all else.  And no matter how happy a five point Calvinist gets at the thought of God’s Omni-control, that just does not show us a loving God.  It shows us a puppet master instead.  God really wants relationships with real people not puppets.

Jesus taught us that prayer was necessary to maintain this relationship with our Father.  Prayer is ultimately only a method of communion with God and this is what Jesus modeled for us.  God desires a dynamic relationship with all of us and the only way that will occur is with consistent, persistent prayer. We pray to involve God in our lives.  Ministry, family, jobs, etc are all areas where we ask God to be there for us and to strengthen us.  But sometimes it has to be just about being with Him.  Our ministries are our calling but our callings came after the Fall.  Before that we had fellowship with God.  We were created for fellowship with God.  And since the Fall, prayer is the method of maintaining that fellowship.

Prayer involves an effort of will.  I must decide to do it and like anything else, doing it consistently will make it become a habit instead of a planned event, a joy instead of effort.  We must all pray and we must do it our way.  If I try to pray like Pastor or some of you I am only setting myself up for failure.  And while I believe it is good to start the day off and end the day talking to God it is not always that deep meaningful communion that I desire.  That has to happen when each of our hearts and our lifestyles dictate.

But it must happen.  Have you talked to your Father today?

Love you all

Tags: Bible, Calvin, Christ, communion with god, Father, Fellowship, Free will, greeks, Love, Prayer, Relationships, romans