One line from my daily prayer.

Let me start out by saying that I have been blessed. God has opened many doors for me.

I believe in God…….a God who loves me, who has promised that he will take care of me, who has me in his hand.

Please don’t get me wrong…….I’m not looking for sympathy.

But……..God has also closed a lot of doors in my life……..more than my share, it seems.

Some of the time, this has sent me in a new direction that turned out well.

But, a lot of the time, even after waiting for decades, I just can’t see the silver lining.

For the life of me, I cannot see the upside of the illness, injury, and death that has stalked my family.

What to do?

Deny God? I could say that if God really cared about me, he would never have allowed this. So….either he doesn’t care…….or he doesn’t exist.

Hate God? I could accept his existence, but lash out at him for the closed doors……the bad things that he has done…….or at best has allowed to happen.

Suffer in silence? I could box God up in a corner and never go there…….isolate my pain from my creator. Blame it all on fallen man…….or Satan.

Scream at God:, “What in the world were you thinking?”, “Why did you throw my family under the bus?”, “Why aren’t you on my side?”

Or I could open up a conversation. Pray……..read the owners manual. I could try to see the big picture. I could try to look at this from God’s side.

And I would learn a few things about God……my father……..Abba.

He loves me.

Abba loves ME.

He has plans……..for me…….for my well-being.

He has prepared a place for me, an open place…….when he is finished with me…….in this place.

He also has plans for you……..and for several billion other people that neither of us has ever met…….or even imagined.

God, Abba, is weaving a giant tapestry of billions of lives…….and I can only see a few threads of it. Perhaps the black thread that runs through my family is there to support and contrast a golden thread nearby. Maybe my pain…….is helping somebody else.

So……..I will trust God.

I will trust in his love.

I will trust in his promises.

If my thread today is black……….I will trust God…….
I will serve my place in God’s design.

The key to successful living in hard times is to understand and accept that we are not at the center of the universe…….we are a tiny part of something much bigger……..that a creator who loves us is building something that we can neither see nor comprehend.

But God can see it all………and he loves you and me…….and he has promised that he will take care of everything……..in the end.

the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

David, NIV

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Jesus, NIV

There is a lot of bad teaching going on out there.

I’m not talking about the toxic preacher raining hell and brimstone down on “some other guy”. I’m talking about teachers……in our schools telling our children stuff that is just wrong. I’m talking about bad ideas being sold by the media and by our popular culture.

I have grand-daughters. One of them came home from her public school. She was talking about some LGBT issues and it was clear that she was being taught that this is normal and OK.

I need to make 2 things clear from the start:

First …….as Christians we are required to love our fellow man. This is not a recommendation. This is not optional. It is REQUIRED. This includes the loving the LGBT community.

Second……..school is a place for our children to learn facts and ideas that they will need to function in society. It is not a place to conduct social engineering. It is not a place for “educators” to sell their political views…….their opinions on sex.

This leads me to the point for this week. Our culture is constantly teaching us things that contradict the teaching of the Bible.

For example:

A gun is a good problem solving tool.
Sex outside of marriage is good clean fun.
A well crafted lie can get you out of trouble or solve a problem.
Lying to your parents is normal….they are not too bright anyway.
Christianity is narrow minded.
Christians are hypocrites.
Abortion is a civil right.
An unborn child of not a real human being.
Rules are for saps…….they limit your style.

How should you and I react when society teaches us something that contradicts the teaching of the Bible?

I believe that the Bible is often the direct words of my creator, God. The rest is at the very least inspired by God. There are parts of it that are clearly symbolic. But, there are parts that lay down very clear rules. Taken as a whole, the Bible, gives us extremely clear guidance on what is right and what is wrong…….on how we should live our lives. And, more and more, the teaching of the Bible is at is odds with what our culture is teaching.

When the Bible speaks directly, we need to pay attention and to follow its instructions. When the Bible says something……and our culture, our political party, our friends, or our teachers tell us something different, we must choose between the Bible and the popular culture.

I believe that the Bible trumps our culture. I believe that “Love God…..Love your neighbor” is a far better credo than the ideas being peddled by our culture today.

The culture says, “it is your right to kill your unborn child”.
The Bible says, “before you were formed in the womb, I knew you”.

The culture says, “any form of sex between consenting adults of OK.”
The Bible says that sex is for one man and one woman within the confines of marriage .

The culture says that it is OK to lie to accomplish something important.
The Bible says, “do not lie”.

The culture says it’s OK to lie to your parents.
The Bible says, “honor your parents”.

The culture says, “hate the other political party”.
The Bible says, “love your neighbor”.

Clearly, this means nothing to you…….if you think the Bible is just an old collection of stories………a popular mythology.

But, if you are a Christian…….then it’s time to start paying attention. You cannot discard a part of the Bible because you……or your political party, or the popular culture, or your friends, or your teacher…….don’t like it. Neither you nor I are smart enough……wise enough……..righteous enough…….to make that distinction.

You are either a Christian first……….or a Republican first…….or a Democrat first………or a teacher or media syncophant first.

Life is not a buffet. The Bible is not a buffet either.

You don’t get to pick out the ideas that you like.

You don’t get to discard parts of God’s teaching because you don’t like them…….because Donald Trump doesn’t like them…….because Nancy Pelosi doesn’t like them.

Because you are not God.

You are not in charge here.

If there is a part of the Bible that you reject……..because some talking head disagrees with it……. If there is a part of the Bible that you reject because you favorite politician rejects it………please reconsider……..because, in the final analysis, you will not answer to Sean Hannity or Jim Acosta or Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi.

Take all that you can of this book upon reason, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man. (When a skeptic expressed surprise to see him reading a Bible)

Abraham Lincoln

Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.

God, NIV

Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”

Jesus, NIV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Jesus, NIV

Interesting word.

Whether you think about it or not, you deal with impossible all day, every day.

You come to a stop sign, look left, look right……there are no cars in sight and so you pull out into the intersection.

But you didn’t look up……. Why?

You didn’t look up……..because it is impossible that a car could come zooming down from the sky to hit you.

We constantly make decisions based on a set of assumptions that operate in the background…….. assumptions that never enter our consciousness. These assumptions make life easier…..and they usually work…….but not always.

Impossible is impossible…… usually……..but not always.

We believe that impossible is a black and white issue. Something is either possible……or it is impossible.

The trouble is that what we call impossible is based on a set of beliefs…….and more importantly on a set of assumptions. Those beliefs and assumptions change over time. Many of them are not correct in the first place. Many, that are correct today, may be incorrect tomorrow.

The simple truth is that the list of things that are impossible changes daily. Things that were once impossible are now possible. You can travel across the entire continent of North America in a few hours………not too long ago that would have been laughable.

In our secular world, an infinite universe operating on an infinite time frame is considered possible……..but the eternal life of your soul after your death is impossible.

So…….here is the moral of the story.

Impossible is a slippery concept to build your life on.

Impossible is a very dangerous concept to build your eternity on.

Galileo, among others, noticed that Mars sometimes moved backwards in its orbit. The culture of the day taught that this was impossible because the earth was the stationary center of the universe…….because everything orbited around us. Galileo was excoriated by the popular culture of his age………but he was right. He was right and they were wrong because the assumptions made by the culture were wrong.

Columbus sailed west and didn’t fall off the edge of the earth. This was thought to be impossible because the earth was thought to be flat. He was laughed at…….but he was right. The assumptions made by the culture, again, were wrong.

When I talk to a non-believer, they often will say, “you can’t possibly believe that the earth is only 4000 years old.” The subtext is, “you must be brain dead”.

Christianity is impossible because current science cannot account for a young earth……..or the resurrection of Jesus.

So……when someone tells you that something is impossible….when they laugh at you for the impossible thing that you believe………just remember Galileo.

If an idea is terribly important, don’t be put off……….because someone tells you that it’s impossible. Impossible just means that it is in conflict with the set of assumptions that they have made……..a set of assumptions that they probably can’t even list.

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Mark Twain……..et al.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Paul NIV

“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Jesus, NIV

What is it about rules?

We know that we need them….don’t put your hand in the fire.

But, we chaffe against them….sex is for husbands and wives.

Give us a list of 20 rules and we will find 10 of them that we just don’t like.

Our inclination is to honor the rules that we like and ignore the ones that we don’t like. This way we get to do as we please.
This often doesn’t work well for those around us. Sometimes it doesn’t even work well for us. Ask any woman with an unwanted pregnancy that resulted from “recreational sex”.

In essence, we build a personal list of rules that we like…….a list that doesn’t restrict us from doing the things that we really want to do. Then we try to enforce that list of rules on everyone around us. And don’t kid yourself…….secular humanists are just as guilty of this as Christians.

So…..each of us operates on a home grown set of rules that doesn’t unduly restrict us……..that doesn’t stop us from doing as we please.

But…….is this honest………is this true?

A great deal of the rancor in our world today grows out of the conflict that arises from all of the different lists of personal rules that we each operate under………..and try to enforce on others.

Abortion is murder……..Control of my body is my right.

We must love and care for our fellow man……..we need a wall to keep them out.

How can what is right for you but wrong for me……be true?

I believe that this way of living is intellectually dishonest. We follow a custom set of rules that doesn’t inconvenience us……and we tell ourselves that we are “a good person”……..that we are living a righteous life. But, in fact, we are committing the most dangerous of all crimes……..we are lying to ourselves.

How do you know if you are guilty of this?

There is a fairly simple test. If your set of rules rarely tells you not to do something that you really want to do……if your set of rules rarely tells you to do something that you really don’t want to do……then you are probably dealing with a home grown, custom, set of rules………a set of rules that you have created that doesn’t interfere with your doing what you want. You are probably being dishonest with yourself. Either that…….or you and your set of rules are perfect.

Watch the talking heads on TV tonight. They are all trying to sell your their list of rules……..because, in their hearts, they think that they are right……that they are perfect…..that their set of rules is perfect……or at least close to it.

I don’t trust myself to make the rules…….and neither should you. We are both far too skilled at manipulating others……..of manipulating ourselves…….. to produce a set of rules that is honest……..that is true…….a set of rules that consistently tells us not to do things that we want to do…..that consistently tells us to do things that we don’t want to do.

How do we handle this?

The honest answer, the true answer, is to look outside of ourselves for a moral code.

In my life, I have used two different external moral codes. I won’t pretend that I have always followed them……..but I have tried. You can judge me for how they have worked.

I began with the Bible. In high school and college I drifted away and began using the Boy Scout oath and the Scout law. As an adult I have turned back to the Bible. Both of these moral codes are similar. On balance, they have both served me well.

Why have I settled on the Bible?

The first reason is that it is by far the most widely accepted moral code on the planet. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all use it……or at least parts of it.

The second reason and the more important reason is that Jesus used it.

Jesus died……a squad of Roman soldiers made sure of it. This is a historical fact.

The apostles and hundreds of witnesses saw him alive later on multiple occasions.

The resurrection of Jesus means that he was and is more than human…..that he was and is God.

So…….. if the Bible is a good enough moral code for God……then it is good enough for me………even the parts that I don’t understand…….even the parts that restrict me and my appetites.

I encourage you to explore the Bible as an external moral code……..unless you are already perfect.

The Cliff notes version?

Love God…..Love your neighbor.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness

Paul. NIV

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Jesus, NIV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus, NIV

It’s the 3am phone call that every parent fears.

We all know about accidents. We’ve all had accidents……more than we care to remember.

Accidents come in many flavors……but the vast majority of them share some things in common. Something good, possibly something beautiful, maybe even something that you will find it hard to live without, is damaged, destroyed, perhaps even killed.

There is the rare instance of serendipity……..the accident that turns out well. But, let’s face it, you don’t get up in the morning hoping that you will have an accident.

Science has codified this into a law…..the law of entropy. This law says that, barring the input of energy, the disorder in a system will increase. I would add that the energy must be applied in an intelligent manner. If you put enough thermal energy into your house, it doesn’t remodel your kitchen…….it burns your house down.

So what do accidents have to do with Christianity?

Absolutely nothing.

But, accidents are central to the other great religion in our culture…….. Darwinian evolution. There are two key tenets of DE:

A random accident causes an improvement in a living organism.

That improvement gives the organism a competitive advantage that then spreads through the entire ecosystem.

In essence, DE teaches that this entire beautiful, incredibly complicated and interconnected planet and every ecosystem in it are the result of a series of trillions upon trillions of sequential, positively adaptive, interconnected yet random accidents. Sort of like putting a box of hampsters on top of a tower, letting them get hit by lightning or cosmic radiation for a long time and expecting to go back and find Angelina Jolie.

There is no other idea in the entire realm of human thought that asks us to believe that random accidents over time lead to the improvement of a system.

And, in our heart, we know this. Accidents destroy, they do not create.

Accidents are, on balance, even after factoring in the rare instances of serendipity, destructive…….they do not improve anything.

To believe that this amazing world is an accident is the same as getting that 3am phone call……..and reacting with joy because you believe that your son’s SAT score will go up because of it.

DE is clothed in a lot of science. It is also built on a stack of theories, many of which do not have a scintilla of hard evidence to support them. We like it because it allows us to believe that we are the ultimate life form……that we only answer to ourselves. And yet, if we honestly consider our experience with accidents……..we must have some doubt.

These two great religions offer you a choice:

You are an accident……and you can do whatever you please.

You are a child of God who loves you….and he has expectations.

Now choose.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Paul, NIV

“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

God, NIV

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew a you, before you were born I set you apart”

God, NIV

I often talk to people who reject Christianity.

When I ask them why, I get a long list of objections. They don’t approve of what a church did, what a pastor did, what an individual Christian did……….of what God did or didn’t do………or even worse…….of what he is doing right now in their lives.

Their objection usually includes some version of this complaint:

“I refuse to accept a God who would allow_________!”

The things that they disprove of are legitimate. A lot of things happen out there that cause us pain……..and some of them come from Christians. There are a lot of Christians out there who just don’t do it well. There are a lot of Christians out there who are quite simply………toxic.

A Christian should radiate love.

A Christian should be NICE!

But let’s face it, we often aren’t.

There are a few Christians who are never nice. And ALL Christians are not nice occasionally. Some of the things I have said to the tools in my woodshop simply cannot be repeated in polite company.

Christianity is terribly important…….. considering the eternal implications. So……the question of its validity is a terribly important question. It is a question that each of us should take very seriously because the consequences of getting it wrong could be catastrophic. This one question is potentially the most important question that you will deal with in your lifetime. And a great many of us have never seriously investigated it.

Have you seriously considered the most important question of your life?

The first problem is that you must ask the right question. And most of us don’t ask the right question. And that is the heart of this post.

We typically ask ourselves, “Do I approve of what God…..or some Christian somewhere……..did or didn’t do……..or is doing?”. Does the practical application of Christianity in this world agree with what I believe………what I want? The trouble is that this is not the correct question.

The correct question is this:

“DID JESUS DIE AND COME BACK TO LIFE?”

I think that we can all agree that human resurrection is simply impossible. And that is the entire point. If the resurrection occurred, then Jesus is not simply human…….he is divine…….he is God. And if he is God, then what he said……what he is still saying……..is not negotiable. It is not subject to your approval…….or mine.

What God did…..what he is doing in your life……what he is doing in the world is not subject to your approval.

To put it simply…….if Jesus rose from the dead, then he is God
……….and his teaching……..eternity, paradise, hell, love God, love your neighbor is unassailable. The fact that you object to what he said, or did, or is doing…….or to what some current Christian said or did, or is doing………is irrelevant. It is irrelevant because he is God……and you aren’t.

And we desperately want to be in charge. We desperately want to be God. Even though the evidence in our world clearly shows that we aren’t up to the task.

So, take some time today. Seriously investigate the most important question that you will ever ask:

“Did Jesus die and then rise from the dead?”

Don’t reject this idea because it is “impossible”………that is the entire point.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!

Luke, NIV

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus,NIV

“Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Jesus,NIV

Life stinks.

Fair warning:

The first half of this post is not going to make you feel good. You need to commit to reading it all………or just change channels and load up a you tube video of puppies.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks in my family……no need to go into details.

It seems as though the rough patch is not limited to my family. It’s been a rough decade for us all………and I can prove it:

In spite of what the right says, we have poisoned the planet with greenhouse gases, plastic, and other waste. In spite of what the left tells us…….there is no cure.

We legally kill 3000 children every day.

Gun violence permeates our cities.

By the time Covid-19 is finished nearly a million Americans will have died from a disease that was probably created by man.

We are in a continual state of war.

Social Security, Medicare, and the entire federal government is teetering on the brink of insolvency.

Drugs and overdose related deaths are rampant.

Violent crime is at a multi-year high.

Clean water sources in the major food production regions of America are threatened.

Today, refugees are fleeing bad governments. Soon they will be fleeing water and food shortages. American will not be immune to this next wave of “climate and resource refugees”.

I could go on……… I’m sure you can add to the list.

The only conclusion that I can draw is that we have failed as a society, as a culture, and as a species. There is a line from the Matrix. An alien speaking to a human says, “you don’t inhabit this planet……you infest it.”

There is no reason to believe that things are going to get better.

If this depresses you, I’m not surprised. If this was the end of the story…….. I’d be depressed too.

But, I’m not depressed.

Why?

Because, my death…..your death……..even the death of this planet is not the end.

Based on the testimony of the apostles and hundreds of witnesses. Jesus was crucified. He was dead as a doornail. Then he came back to life. That can only mean one thing. It means he was not simply a man. He was God. That means that we must take what he said….what he taught……seriously.

He taught us to love him……..he taught us to love each other…….he taught us that for those who acknowledge him, that life continues after we die…………and it gets much better.

All of this because of the gift of his grace…….his unearned favor.

So I am not depressed. In fact, I’m joyful. I will enjoy the time I have left in this dying world, but even more so. I am looking forward to the life I will have after my death…….in a world where death does not exist……in a world where death has no meaning.

And more than anything else………I want you to be there too.

If you are interested in learning more, my church is beginning a series………it is pretty much First Church of Christ 101. Here is a link to the first talk in the series……..a talk about grace which is a cornerstone of Christianity. It will take about 30 minutes of your time…….a small investment.

https://firstchurch.me/media/925684-3895413-13549108/fc-worship-online-10-24-21

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus speaking to a criminal who acknowledged him, NIV

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

God, NIV

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—

Paul, NIV

You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that
I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 

Jesus, NIV

Last week I got some bad news.

I have prostate cancer.

Conventional teaching says that there was no disease in Eden……that disease came along with Adam and Eve’s sin…….that disease is, directly or indirectly, the work of Satan.

We generally don’t attribute disease to God.

But, there can be no question that God tolerates disease. This week I am going to upset a lot of you……..by raising the possibility that God created a disease………specifically prostate cancer.

Bear with me.

The first people on earth, Adam’s children, grandchildren, etc. lived a long time……hundreds of years. Methuselah is the poster child for this longevity……969 years. Many others lived almost as long.

Prostate cancer is a lethal disease of old men. 80% of 80 year old men have it. The number is likely much higher for 100 year old men. Prostate cancer could not have existed in the era of Methuselah. It is inconsistent with that kind of longevity.

What happened?

I’m not sure why, but in Genesis 6:3, God decided that we would only live 120 years…….and it’s been downhill ever since.

Fast forward a few centuries and nearly all men 80 years and older have prostate cancer. In summary, a lethal disease that could not have existed in the era of Methuselah is ubiquitous among old men today. And our decreased longevity reflects it.

It is quite plausible that God created prostate cancer as a tool to limit our longevity…….to achieve his goal of 120 year lives. And, if God created prostate cancer, could he have created other diseases as well…….perhaps breast cancer……..heart disease?

By now you may be ready to post a red hot rebuttal. But, the reason for this post really has very little to do with prostate cancer…….or any other diseases for that matter.

We have a tendency to ascribe everything that we like in this world to God…….and everything that we don’t like to Satan. The corollary is that, in our minds, we don’t allow God to do anything that causes us pain. Instead, we blame it on Satan……or Adam……or the other guy’s free will. Because, if something causes us pain, it must be evil…….and if it’s evil, it must come from Satan……or Adam………or the other guy………anybody but God. In other words……….God wouldn’t dare do anything that I don’t like! I won’t allow it!

In a way we indirectly censor God. We erase anything that we don’t like from God’s CV.

This is precisely why we like the New Testament so much better than the Old Testament.

This mindset puts us in charge of God’s history……and we love being in charge.

But, this is backwards…….God is in charge of our history………both the good……..and at least some of the bad.

Please don’t get me wrong here. God tolerates all of the bad things that befall us. But, he does not cause them all.

And here is the key point.

God loves us. He loves us when he tolerates our misfortunes……and he loves us on those occasions when he orchestrates them. In all of this God promises us a good future……because he loves us.

And here is the hard part.

We need to trust God and his promise.

This is easy when you get the big promotion…….the new car…….when your child is born. It is much much harder when your child dies…..when your wife gets cancer……..when you get old……..when you get prostate cancer.

I believe that God values our love. I also believe that our loving God and trusting in his love is far more valuable to him in our times of pain……when disaster strikes…….because it is so much harder for us to do. Trust, in the face of disaster, is much rarer than in the good times. That makes it more valuable…….to God.

So…….disaster strikes……..and we cry out….WHY????

And he whispers……..trust me……I love you.

And then he waits to see how we handle the disaster.

Father, please strengthen me…….so that I can trust you and love you…….in the good times…….but even more so………. in the storm. Amen

I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the Lord, do all these things.

God, NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Paul, NIV

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

John, NIV

Evil

We encounter it every day…….all day…….. everywhere. And yet we don’t talk about it very much. We rarely call it by its name. The only time we mention it in passing is when someone we don’t like does something we don’t like. It has become one of the taboos of our modern society. No matter what the other guy is doing…….no matter what you are doing…….you never look them in the eye and say, “that is wrong…….that is evil”.

You never tell yourself, “that was wrong……that was evil”.

Evil, is arguably one of the two most important forces in our world. Good would be the other.

We talk a lot about good……and the people who do it. This makes us feel hopeful. But I think it’s time we looked under the rock and studied evil for a bit.

Evil comes in three flavors. Evil in the people around us. Evil in ourselves. And, ultimately, evil that exists independent of mankind. As you can see evil permeates every aspect of life.

I could have a field day discussing the evil in the people around me. It would be a lot of fun. But there are plenty of people in the various media platforms that have that base pretty well covered. Besides, the evil in my fellow man is highly resistant to my efforts to defeat it. So……I don’t spend a lot of effort on things that I cannot change.

I could delve into the evil that lives inside of me……and you too. But, I think I’ll put that off for another day.

Today, the topic is the evil that exists independent of mankind.

We live in a physical world, limited by space and time. But there is also another realm that exists alongside the physical world. It is governed by an entirely different set of rules…….space and time are not nearly so important there. We know relatively little about this other realm. It is largely hidden from us. It is occupied by beings who are not physical. These beings are spiritual. They are not constrained by space and time. Because of this, we can’t see or measure them. Because they don’t operate by the “rules” of our physical world many of us deny them or ignore them. That doesn’t make them any less real. Yahweh……..God……is one of them…….but there are others.

This spiritual realm can be divided into good and evil. We talk a lot about God because he runs the good part of the spiritual realm. He loves us and wants us to succeed. His ultimate goal for you and for me is relationship……a relationship based on love…….very much like a parent-child relationship. His goal for us is joy. Sometimes God does send pain into our lives. But pain isn’t his ultimate goal. The pain that God sometimes sends is a side effect…..a necessary intermediate step in his plan for our well being…….for our long term joy. Sort of like a flue shot.

But what about the others……..the spiritual beings on the evil side……… demons…….evil spirits. We don’t like to talk about them. Many of us deny their very existence. People will make fun of you if you bring them up. You are considered immature, naive, if you believe in the “Boogeyman”. But, these evil spiritual beings are real……and there are many of them. They may be independent operators or they may be organized. They operate beneath the surface in our world…..all day……every day.

The key feature of these evil spiritual beings is this:

Just like God……..they have a plan…….a long term goal.

And the plan is simple……..they want you in pain. They can do this by sending pain directly into your life as they did with Job. But, it seems to be far more entertaining for them if they can set it up so that you cause the pain yourself. As with God, they can send you joy. But, the joy that they send is a temporary side effect on the path to their ultimate goal for you……pain. Any cigarette smoker can tell you that they really enjoy that first cigarette in the morning. But, the long term result is pain.

Joy and pain……. Good and evil……health and illness.

You cannot deny their existence though you can ignore them……for a little while.

So…..how do you deal with them……in concrete terms?

You have to choose……you have to decide what side of the joy/pain spectrum you want to live on.

As you go about your life……in every thing you do, even the tiny seemingly inconsequential things………you can either create long term joy…..or long term pain………for yourself…….and for others. And that is how you decide whether you want to operate on the good side or the evil side of the cosmos.

So……..try to grow joy in every thing that you do. If you mess up, take a deep breath, relax, and start all over.

Know this.

The surest path to joy is to grow your relationship with the ultimate source of joy……God…….Abba…….. Father.

And that includes trusting him and accepting the temporary painful side effects that sometimes come our way.

This is the best description of evil and pain that I have ever run across. It is in “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis. It is a letter from an old demon counselling an apprentice demon whose job is to lead a man…….. his client……. to hell.

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, 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.

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

C.S. Lewis