We all know the story. There was a tree in Eden loaded with forbidden fruit. The fruit was knowledge……of good and evil. Along with that knowledge came choice and along with choice came power…….and responsibility. Satan manipulated Adam and Eve to steal the fruit, eat it, and enter the world of knowledge, choice, power, and responsibility. The fall.

Did you ever picture Eden before the fall? Adam and Eve lived a simple life. They named and cared for God’s creation. They ate the produce of the garden. They met with God, talked to him, walked with him, and enjoyed the good life……..in an intimate relationship with their creator. But, if you think about it, they had no choice. In a word, they were automatons. Your laptop runs programs. You enter an input and it spews out a response that is exactly what you programmed it to do. It does what you ask. It never surprises you. It never gives you anything that you didn’t put into it. Adam and Eve were like that. They performed exactly as God had programmed them to……no surprises.

I’m going out on a limb here. I wonder if God found Adam and Eve to be a little dull……even boring. They certainly were predictable. After all, they were running God’s program.

Then, one day, they took off on their own. They started making decisions…….choices. Some of the choices were good……others, not so much. And that is the world that we live in. We do good……we do bad……and God watches and intervenes from time to time.

Before the fall, things were calm. I suspect that God watched his well oiled machine purring along. He probably didn’t have much to get worked up about, good or bad. I wonder if he found his creation……well……a little stiff and unsatisfying. But then, all hell broke loose……literally.

Suddenly, God is faced with a creation that is doing as it pleases. I’ll skip over the minor details and jump to the one big question. What does all of this mean…..in the context of our relationship with God. After all……that is the reason for all of creation. That is the reason for our very existence.

At the fall, mankind faced a fork in the road. Seek out a relationship with God…….love him, or reject a relationship with God……ignore him…..deny him.

Suddenly, after the fall, God is dealing with two populations of mankind that didn’t exist before the fall. One of them loves him and intentionally seeks him. These people are actively pursuing a two way relationship with God…….a good working definition of love. This must please God. This population must be more satisfying for God than the automatons he dealt with before the fall. It is not hard to say that this population is much better in relating to God than Adam and Eve. The other population ignores God at best. Some of them actively hate him. This must be extremely disappointing for God……much worse than the automatons.

And so……each of us faces a decision.

Deny God
Ignore God
Love God

So far so good.

But there’s a problem.

This is not a one-off decision that you make at your baptism, your confirmation, or sitting on a mountaintop somewhere at sunrise. It is a decision that you must make thousands of times every day. This is hard work. It is disruptive, even dangerous. Most Christians ignore God half of the time. The very best ignore him 10% or 20% of the time. Some people choose to hate God……because of something that has happened in their lives. You will choose one of these three paths in your relationship with God.

It’s your call…….compliments of Adam, Eve,………and the serpent:

Deny God
Ignore God
Love God

Well?

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah, 6:8 ESV

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Deuteronomy, 6:5, ESV

The darkness can be scary. The world closes in around us. There are things going on out there, in the dark, that we cannot see…… that we cannot understand. We tend to see darkness as bad and light as good. The darkness can be physical or it can be metaphorical.

But, darkness is not always a bad thing. In the past, I have talked about lights in the darkness. This morning, I am sitting on my patio looking out into the dark. It is hours before sunrise. I can see across a valley to the dim outline of the Santa Rita mountains. They are majestic…….the handiwork of the creator…….my creator. There is a mining company over there, tearing away the side of one of the mountains. They are building a dump where they will dispose of the debris from the open pit mine that they will soon dig. They are destroying the mountain. They are hard at work……24/7. During the day, it is very hard to see what they are up to…….primarily due to the distance, about 15 miles. But, this morning…….actually every morning…….I can clearly see the lights of the machines that are killing the mountain. Paradoxically, I can see the damage that they are doing more clearly in the dark than I can during the day.

In the bright daylight of the good times, there isn’t much contrast between the goodness of God and the “good life.” This is the world that we live in as Americans. The reality is that even on our bad days, we have it better than 80% of the people on the planet. When you look at the world as a whole, Americans don’t see much darkness. We are fat…….and happy. And, often, we are blind to the work that God is doing. We push him off into a corner……and party on. In many ways, the people suffering in the “third world” can see God more clearly than we do.

And yet, even in America, we all pass through dark times……dark places. It could be illness, death, financial setback, or any one of a number of problems. It is often during these times of darkness that we see God best. The contrast between God’s work……God’s love……and the darkness of a bad situation is much greater…….if we only look for it.

I know a man who is in a dark place today. He sees himself surrounded by threats……demons. Neither he nor I can tell if the demons are real. They certainly look real to him.

There are a couple of possibilities:

The demons are real and are a manifestation of Satan.

The demons are real and are the work of man…..evil men.

The demons are not real.

But……there is a light in his darkness…..if he and I will only look for it. And that light is God. In many ways, God’s love shines brighter in his dark place than in my bright open airy place. I cannot rescue him. But, I can pray for him.

My prayer is this:

If this is from Satan…….drive him away.

If this is from evil men…….disarm or destroy them.

If this is not real…….heal him…….with the light of your love.

We are called on to fix the things that we can fix.
We are called on to pray about the things that we cannot fix……to give them to God.

We must focus on the pinpoint of light that stands out against the darkness. Our hope lies in the tiny spot of light…….not in the vast expanse of the darkness. Our only chance to grow is the light……God’s love. There is nothing in the darkness that will help us to grow.

Unfortunately, there is also very little that will help you grow in the broad light of the good times that we enjoy in this country. But, even in the good times, the light is there. You just have to look harder.

It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick.

Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

A demon explaining sin and darkness, “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S . Lewis.

My grandmother was a survivalist.

She lived on a small farm in western Kentucky. She and my grandfather raised pigs, butchered them, smoked the meat and lived off of it. She kept a garden that fed her family. Much of what was in her house…..she made. She got her water from a hand pumped well on her porch. She sharpened her knives on a rock in her yard. I have no doubt that she and my grandfather could have gotten by if the rest of the world vanished. She was an amazing woman. I’ve not met as capable of a human being since. In a small way, I too have some of her survivalist tendencies. I am trying to learn how to keep a garden. I store water and food so that my family can get by if the local groceries close down. I am negotiating with my wife over a few solar panels. But, at best, this is short term physical survivalism. The most committed “survivalist” can only survive physically for a year or so after the “doomsday scenario”. You have to ask yourself, “what’s the point?”

But there is more to it than that. It turns out that you can be a survivalist too.

I’m not talking about physical survival. None of us will survive physically. Physical survival is impossible. As Jim Morrison said, “no one gets out alive”. I am talking about spiritual survivalism. The Bible teaches that you have a physical body and you have a soul. There is no arguing about your physical body…….it will not survive. Your body is going to die. Your spirit…….your soul…..will live on. No matter how good or evil you are. Like it or not. Your soul will survive……forever. Sounds pretty good…….so far. But, to hijack a well-used metaphor, “The devil is in the details”. What will your experience look like after your physical death?

What sort of ecosystem will your soul live forever in? The Bible teaches that the home for our souls will be customized. I can’t address the details. But, I can say that the destination for your soul will fall into one of two categories…….really nice and really not nice.

Which brings me to the point.

Regarding the long term job placement for your soul, you have four options to choose from…..four belief systems:

I want the nice place and I will do what it takes to get there. I am a survivalist.

I can handle the not nice place…..heck, I might even enjoy it. I’ll live as I please…..for now. I’ll worry about the not nice place later. Maybe I can be a precinct chairperson in the not nice place. I too am a survivalist.

It’s all a big myth. When I die physically, the lights will go out and it will be over. I am not a survivalist.

I’ll just ignore the whole problem. I am not a survivalist

So…..how do you live your life? I doubt very seriously that you are planning to go to the place that is not nice. Even if it is only half as bad as the Bible says……it doesn’t sound like any fun. If you are a survivalist, then you plan ahead, you study the ground rules and you prepare yourself……spiritually. If you are not a survivalist, you live as you please. Be good if that is what turns your crank. Be evil if that gets you ahead. Either way, it doesn’t matter. When you die physically……it’s over.

So……..are you a survivalist……..a spiritual survivalist?

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus, telling us how to live. Matthew 6:19-21,ESV

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Jesus, describing paradise. John 14:2-3, ESV

and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’

Jesus describing the experience of a man in hell, Luke 16: 23-24, ESV

She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.
She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
and portions for her maidens.
She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
She dresses herself with strength
and makes her arms strong.
She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of snow for her household,
for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant.
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

King Lemeul describing my grandmother, Proverbs 31: 10-31 ESV

First let me clarify.

I am not saying that there are ONLY three ways to be a Christian. I am not saying that one of these paths is better than the others. It may be that each of us is suited to one of these paths more than the others. These 3 paths are the paths that I have seen other Christians follow. I have spent time on each of them………possibly only a minute or two…….but enough time to sense how they feel. I am beginning to wonder if there are other paths that I do not know……yet. But, that is a topic for another day. I suspect that we may learn from the path that we are on and then shift to another path. I also suspect that we may find that the path that we are on is not satisfying us…….and reject Christianity altogether. If you have rejected Christianity because the path that you were following was not satisfying, perhaps you were not on the path that you were created for. If your walk just feels stale and lifeless, perhaps you need to seek another more suitable path.

So……what do these paths look like?

The path of forms:

This is the Christianity of rites. We go to church on Sunday. We get baptized. We tithe. We sing the songs. We try to follow the rules. Then we walk out of church at noon and re-enter the world of secular humanism………which us pretty much where we live. This path isn’t too demanding. Fact is, it’s pretty easy to keep God at arms length……where he can’t interfere with us.

The path of the intellect:

We read the Bible over and over. We pore over every word. We go to Bible studies. We dig into the rules to learn how to live. We parse out the prophesies to see what is ahead. We tell others when they are failing to fulfill the teachings of God and of Jesus. We strive to approach God on an intellectual basis. We try to understand God and to prove him to non-believers…….with logic. We can hold our own in an argument with a secular humanist. We can lead others to Jesus. We can strengthen other Christians. We can minister to others. This is noble…….but it is heavy lifting. And it is easy to become self-righteous.

The path of love:

There are the Christians who have confused me for most of my life. These are the Christians who leave a great job…..a successful career. They get on a plane, fly halfway around the world, settle into a place with dirt floors, a place with little or no health care, where their baby’s diaper…..if they have one……is full of worms, where the government is openly hostile to their faith, and sometimes they give up their freedom or even their lives. These Christians amazed and confused me. For a period in my life I turned away from Christianity out of fear that this might be my calling…….the fear that God would say to me…..”Byron, drop what you are doing, sell your stuff, go to Africa, and wait for my instructions”. What, I asked myself, were these Christians thinking? Frankly, there have been times when this path of Christianity has terrified me. There have been times when spending eternity worshipping God……..just didn’t seem like any fun at all. Worst of all…….the people on this path often seemed just a little wierd.

So……I return to the question, “What are they thinking?”

And today, during my morning meditation, for about a minute, I found myself on their path. Don’t get the wrong idea, I fell off pretty quickly. But I was there long enough to sense the wonder of it. And I think that this is where I want to go…….possibly where I was meant to be. This third path is a path defined by love…..for the man……Jesus. Nail this down…..and all of the rules…….all of the prophesies……suddenly make sense. This third path stops being weird and instantly becomes……..comfortable. I’m not sure that I am up to it…….but I will try to spend more time on the path of love.

I’ll keep you posted.

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Jesus, John 14:21, ESV

As an American, I live in and enjoy a culture where I have a lot of freedom:

Freedom to speak my mind
Freedom to move around
Freedom to create
Freedom to destroy
And the most curious freedom of all…..the freedom to be stupid. “Hey guys, hold my beer, watch this?!?”

In Christian literature, we call this free will. After life itself, it is arguably the most valuable gift from God in the old testament. There were two named trees in the Garden of Eden:

The tree of life
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil……essentially the tree of free will.

Life itself is terribly precious…..terribly valuable.
Free will is terribly precious…..terribly valuable.

We exercise this gift every day. We enjoy it immensely. I cannot imagine life……without free will.

The greatest triumphs of mankind arise from the exercise of free will.

The greatest tragedies of mankind arise from the exercise of free will.

So…..you have to ask…..what was God thinking? I hate to second guess my creator. But, you have to admit……this world would be a lot neater, a lot more organized, certainly a lot more peaceful……without free will. Even if the revocation of free will only applied to rules number one and number two…..Love God….Love everybody else………. this world would be an entirely different place…….a much nicer place. This world would be a much better place………if God revoked free will and forced us to love.

And that brings me to the crux of this post:

Why did God give us free will?

To let us wear a Hawaiian shirt to work (I have).
To let us paint the kitchen dark purple. (I have not).
To let us use the copier at work for personal jobs.
To let us lie to our parents when we miss curfew.
To make war.
To commit genocide.

Not likely.

I believe that God gave us free will for one and only one reason:

God gave us free will so that we could choose to love him………choose to honor him……..choose to recognize his sovereignty.

Or not.

All of the other choices that we make…….are just “collateral damage”.

So we go through our lives making choices……exercising our free will. We really need to keep our eye on the most important choice we will ever make……..in the eyes of God……..the decision to give to God or to withhold from God…….the one thing that he wants from us most of all…..the thing that he wants so badly that he gave us the freedom to keep it from him:

Our Love.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah, 6:8, ESV

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord,

Deuteronomy 10: 12-13, ESV

This week I want to expand on last week’s post. The gist of my last post was that the flood and the ark were a “mass extinction event”……..a “return to factory settings”. God intervened in a massive…….some would say a catastrophic……way and cleaned up his creation. He eliminated a large number of creatures……..and a large number of people that just didn’t fit in with his plan for his creation. He preserved a small number of people and “kinds” of animals that fulfilled his vision for his creation. This wasn’t a punishment. It was God simply redirecting his creation in order to get it headed to where he had intended it to go from the beginning. God engineered a “return to factory settings” in the form of a “mass extinction event”. He sent the flood…….destruction……and the ark……salvation. This historical event is described, in detail, in Genesis.

And that brings us, mankind, to where we are today. The first book of the Bible describes in real terms God’s first “mass extinction event”. The last book of the Bible describes in largely symbolic terms…….apocalyptic literature…….God’s last “mass extinction event”. The middle of the Bible deals with the world we live in. The middle of the Bible tells us how to live and thrive in God’s creation. It tells us what we must do…….to meet God’s expectations…….of us and of his creation.

So, what about the coming “mass extinction event”?

Revelation is a notoriously difficult book to interpret. It could be literal, but most scholars say that it is largely symbolic. The details of the end of this world cannot be clearly interpreted from Revelation. Especially, the timing of the end cannot be predicted. But, three things are clear:

The end will be unspeakably horrible.

When it is over, there will be a new world that satisfies God’s original plan…….God’s plan, not yours, not mine.

This new world will be populated with people who satisfy God’s expectations of mankind. And what are those expectations? Love God……love everybody else. Those who do not satisfy God’s expectations will be sent somewhere else…….and it will not be pretty.

This “mass extinction event ” will be the second coming of Christ.

And what that will look like……to you……is completely in your power.

Use your power well.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8, ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16, ESV

I have struggled with Darwinian evolution for my entire life. I have often said that Darwinian evolution will be responsible for more souls in hell than any other idea in human history. My understanding of Darwinian evolution has “evolved” over the years:

Intelligent design explains it all….evolution is not true.

Evolution explains it all….intelligent design is an allegory.

God used evolution to acheive creation.

If you must choose between the Bible and “The Origin of Species”….choose the Bible.

On the issue of life, our culture has split into two camps: Intelligent design and Darwinian evolution.

Either……Or.

That is pretty much where the argument stands today. Each side thinks that the other side is naive, foolish, just plain stupid, or……worst of all……damned.

My Bible reading today is Genesis…….the history of the flood. Noah, his family, and a bunch of animals get into a big boat and survive a catastrophic flood. Then, they climb out and repopulate the earth. I believe that every word in the Bible is important. There is one word in this passage that is critical…….”kind”. The animals in the ark consisted of pairs of each “kind” of animal. Understanding the ark requires an understanding of this one word…..”kind”. Fortunately, the Bible defines it for us:

“every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.”

Genesis 7:14, ESV

So…..in Genesis, a “kind” is a representative of a class of animals. The seven pairs of birds on the ark were representatives of all winged animals. And there is the rub. How do we get from 14 winged animals on the ark to the ten to twenty thousand species of birds on earth today?

Enter Darwin.

The Bible and Darwin both have something to say. They are both silent on other areas. The Bible gives a comprehensive explanation of the origin of the universe, of the creation of life, and of the rescue of “kinds” on the ark. It is silent on how we got from a quite limited number of animals on the ark to the incredible variety of life on earth today. Darwin provides a comprehensive explanation of the variety of life forms that we see today. He is silent on the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and the flood.

What if……instead of either/or……..it is a case of both/and?

What if, the ark wasn’t full of dinosaurs? What if the lizard “kind” was a pair of iguanas? What if God turned evolution loose after the flood to create the awesome variety of life that we see today from a much smaller number of “kinds” that survived the flood. What if millions of species, including the dinosaurs, perished in the flood? This reconciles the small number of “kinds” on the ark with the amazing variety of life today. It also fits the fossil record.

There is another side of the flood/ark. The ark contained a small number of species compared to what we see today. In a post flood world, Darwin’s theory primarily describes the creation of new species……not the replacement or modification of existing species. That means that “survival of the fittest”……the improvement of existing species……the accidental creation of new species…….is a minor aspect of Darwinian evolution. Because this eliminates the need for a new adaptive mutation to work its way through the entire planet, replacing a weaker species, this is a much much faster process. This eliminates one of the biggest problems with Darwin……the fact that there just hasn’t been enough time.

The flood and the ark clearly represent a global reset.

In your cell phone, there is an icon that says “return to factory settings”. Touch the icon and your phone returns to the condition it was in when you bought it. All of the layers of apps and shells are deleted. So are all of the pieces of malware that you have accumulated. So also is all of your data. We tend to think of the ark as the preservation of life. We don’t consider that the flood destroyed an enormous variety of life forms. We understand that the ark preserved many “kinds” of creatures, including a righteous man and his family. But, the flood also eliminated a vast population of bad people. The flood also eliminated a great many species that God saw no value in. In modern parlance, the flood was a “mass extinction” event…….a “return to factory settings”. A great many species, perhaps most species, were eliminated. The ark preserved a small number of good “kinds”. The flood wiped out a large number of “bad” species. Today, we find evidence of them in the “fossil record”…….but they no longer roam the earth.

I think that the failure of our understanding of Darwinian evolution is that we push it beyond its limits. We use it to explain everything. We extrapolate the post flood development of new species to the creation of all species from non-living molecules…..a topic on which Darwin was, in fact, silent.

The failure of our understanding of Darwinian evolution is that we use it to eliminate the need for a creator, God. Instead, we could see Darwin’s theory as a tool, used by God, to expand his creation. Perhaps God uses evolution to give us the vast variety of life forms in the post flood earth.

It is not the theory of evolution that damns us. What damns us is that we use the theory of evolution to eliminate our need for God.

And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis, 1:25, ESV

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?

A warning about the created judging its creator,

Isaiah, 45:9, ESV

I generally try to cook complicated topics down into a few simple concepts. It is a whole lot easier, in the crush of daily living to remember…….and act on…..a few simple concepts rather than to follow 625 laws.

So what are the core ideals of Christianity…….concepts that we can…….that we must…..focus on and obey?

Love
Humility

I have tried to fill out the list. But, everything I find actually grows out of those two tenets.

Love is easy to identify as a core value.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus summarizing Christianity in four sentences.
Matthew 22, 37-40, ESV

Love is easy to identify as one of the core values of Christianity.  But, to act on that love……all day, every day……is hard. Fact is, none of us can consistently pull it off. But, at least, we know what the goal is. We know what is expected.

Humility, on the other hand, is much less obvious.  Even worse, humility runs counter to our basic instincts.  It is fairly easy to love. I love my wife. I love my family. I even love my dog. But, if I am being honest,  humility is not always at the top of the list of considerations in my relationships.

So…….today, I want to explore humility…..in the context of our relationship with our creator.

Humility,  at its core is the understanding that the other entity in a relationship is superior to me……to us. The concept is simple. The application of it, however, is tough. Humility……actually, the lack of humility…….is the main reason that secular humanists reject Christianity. Even worse, lack of humility is a failure that plagues many, if not most, people who identify as Christians.

First, the non-believer……the secular humanist. He denies the existence of a “higher power” outright.  Any data point that implies that there is an entity on a higher plane than mankind…….he rejects outright, typically without investigation. He then assembles a construct that tells him that he is the apex being……the top of the pyramid. He martials science and observed fact to support his position at the apex. He fills in any gaps with extrapolations, assumptions,  and theories…….whether there is any proof to support them or not.

Then, the person who identifies as Christian. He  checks the boxes, gets baptized, goes to church, participates in the food drive, etc. But, when he reads the  “owners manual”,  if he reads it at all, at the end of every line, he asks, “do I believe this?…….do I agree with with this?……do I approve of this?” In a word, he gives himself the power of a “line item veto” over the word of God. How can he do this? Simple.  In his heart, he does not accept God’s sovereignty…….God’s absolute sovereignty…….over his life. Rather, he assumes the position of absolute sovereign. His failure is a failure to subordinate himself to his creator. At its core, this is a failure of humility.

His mantra?

“You are not the boss of me!……nobody is.”

I believe that this is the single greatest failure among professing Christians.

So…..What is the solution?

Love Jesus…..God……and act on that love every day because you recognize his absolute sovereignty……his absolute authority over every facet of your life.

Love and humility. This is Christianity.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul describing God’s love for us, Romans,  8 38-39, ESV

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Daniel explaining man’s relationship with God, Daniel 4:35, ESV

I generally try to cook complicated topics down into a few simple concepts. It is a whole lot easier, in the crush of daily living to remember…….and act on…..a few simple concepts rather than to follow 625 laws.

So what are the core ideals of Christianity…….concepts that we can…….that we must…..focus on and obey?

Love
Humility

I have tried to fill out the list. But, everything I find actually grows out of those two tenets.

Love is easy to identify as a core value.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus summarizing Christianity in four sentences.
Matthew 22, 37-40, ESV

Love is easy to identify as one of the core values of Christianity.  But, to act on that love……all day, every day……is hard. Fact is, none of us can consistently pull it off. But, at least, we know what the goal is. We know what is expected.

Humility, on the other hand, is much less obvious.  Even worse, humility runs counter to our basic instincts.  It is fairly easy to love. I love my wife. I love my family. I even love my dog. But, if I am being honest,  humility is not always at the top of the list of considerations in my relationships.

So…….today, I want to explore humility…..in the context of our relationship with our creator.

Humility,  at its core is the understanding that the other entity in a relationship is superior to me……to us. The concept is simple. The application of it, however, is tough. Humility……actually, the lack of humility…….is the main reason that secular humanists reject Christianity. Even worse, lack of humility is a failure that plagues many, if not most, people who identify as Christians.

First, the non-believer……the secular humanist. He denies the existence of a “higher power” outright.  Any data point that implies that there is an entity on a higher plane than mankind…….he rejects outright, typically without investigation. He then assembles a construct that tells him that he is the apex being……the top of the pyramid. He martials science and observed fact to support his position at the apex. He fills in any gaps with extrapolations, assumptions,  and theories…….whether there is any proof to support them or not.

Then, the person who identifies as Christian. He  checks the boxes, gets baptized, goes to church, participates in the food drive, etc. But, when he reads the  “owners manual”,  if he reads it at all, at the end of every line, he asks, “do I believe this?…….do I agree with with this?……do I approve of this?” In a word, he gives himself the power of a “line item veto” over the word of God. How can he do this? Simple.  In his heart, he does not accept God’s sovereignty…….God’s absolute sovereignty…….over every aspect of his life. Rather, he assumes the position of absolute sovereign. His failure is a failure to subordinate himself to his creator. At its core, this is a failure of humility.

His mantra?

“You are not the boss of me!……nobody is.”

I believe that this is the single greatest failure among professing Christians.

So…..What is the solution?

Love Jesus…..God……and act on that love every day because you recognize his absolute sovereignty……his absolute authority over every facet of your life.

Love and humility. This is Christianity.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul describing God’s love for us, Romans,  8 38-39, ESV

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Daniel explaining man’s relationship with God, Daniel 4:35, ESV

Separation…….from Jesus……from God.

We all experience it. In the “Screwtape Letters”, C.S. Lewis describes our separation from God to be the ultimate goal of sin……..of Satan. We need to take a good hard look at separation. We need to study it closely because every last one of us is separated from God to one degree or the other. One of the goals of Christianity……one of the goals of this blog……is to diminish the amount of this separation from God in our culture as a whole. And we must begin with ourselves. We can’t really help others with their separation problem without understanding and battling with our own separation problem. This is a good working definition of hypocrisy.

So……. what does separation from God look like? I think that there are many different “flavors” of separation from God:

Never heard of Jesus
Never give Jesus a thought
Science worship
Hate Jesus
Don’t have time for Jesus
Disagree with the teaching of Jesus
Agree with Jesus….but just can’t keep up
Love Jesus but fail……every day

Never heard of Jesus. This is extremely rare. Far more common is mistaken understanding of his teaching. We can fight this by modeling love, studying the Bible, and gently teaching others.

Never give Jesus a thought. This is very common, even among those who identify as Christians. We just get busy and stay that way. We were meant to have an ongoing conversation with our creator……you can call it prayer. It should feel like an exchange with an intimate friend, someone who knows everything about you……because Jesus does. If you are thinking about something, God is interested.

Science worship. We test everything that comes into our consciousness against the tenets of current scientific thought. We ignore the gaps in this knowledge. We accept all of the assumptions and theories of science, including those that have no factual basis (the origin of life, the origin of the universe). Anything else, anything that science cannot explain we reject as myth whether it is true or not.

Hate Jesus. This is pretty rare. It is best described in Dawkin’s book. “The God delusion”. This is very scary. Because in order to hate God…..you must first recognize his existence.

Don’t have time for Jesus. This is a cousin to never giving him a thought. You recognize Jesus as God, but you are busy…..distracted. You go to church on Sunday, sing the songs, put a couple of dollars in the tray, and then say goodbye till next week. This is arguably the most common form of separation. You are a nominal Christian. But, you are missing out on the true power of Christianity.

Disagree with the teaching of Jesus. You start building your character by asking the wrong question. You ask, “do I approve of the teaching of Jesus…..of the Bible?”….. when you should be asking, “Is Jesus true, is the Bible true?” Because, if it’s true, then the fact that you don’t approve…….is irrelevant.

Agree with Jesus, but can’t keep up. There is a lot of stuff in the Bible. Let’s face it, it’s a huge book. The only way to learn this faith……the only way to “keep up”…..is to read the “owners manual”. And that is hard. If you don’t read the owners manual for your car, it’s not surprising that you haven’t read the Bible. There is an old saw.

How do you eat an elephant?……one bite at a time.

Read a little bit every day. Start with the book of John.

Love Jesus……but fail every day. Welcome to my world. Christianity is about love. Sounds simple, but it is not. In your thoughts and in your acts, you will fail every day. Don’t be discouraged. You are a human……not Jesus. Do the best you can and try to improve.

“The saints are just the sinners who fall down……and get up” Bob Carlyle

So……where are you? What flavor of separation do you live with?

Can you improve?

Can you do your bit……to lower the level of separation from God in our culture?

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul, Romans 8: 38-39

the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God). It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick.

A demon explaining sin, C.S. Lewis, “The Screwtape Letters”