The Most Important Things We need to Know

Am I the only one, or does it seem to you that our world has gone completely mad? It seems that so much just doesn’t make good, old fashion common sense anymore. It seems like the more technically advanced we become, the dumber we become. Our technology has overran our common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what it means to be human. As human beings, I think we have a basic set of questions we wrestle with at some point in our lives. Times change, theories change, governments change, economies change. One thing that DOES NOT change is human nature. We do the same dumb things over and over. We lie knowing we are lying, we destroy our lives with foolish, lustful behavior. We hurt others, we wage wars, we kill each other, we let the lust for greed, money and power ruin nations, the list goes on and on. We don’t seem to have a proclivity to learn anything from our own mistakes, or the lessons of history. Something is desperately wrong with mankind. The reason for this is sin in the human heart that leads us to rebel against the very One who created us and gives us life.

Study history. There has never been any such thing as a model nation or kingdom. Utopia has never existed. It is a fantasy. Nations and kingdoms rise to power, enjoy a relatively short-lived cycle of prosperity, and then implode. Granted, some nations are destroyed by other invading nations, but the majority collapse after a period of self-indulgence, sin, debauchery and the lust for greed and power. The United States of America is no exception. Our nation was founded on a rock-solid constitutional order, that if followed, could ensure a safe and prosperous life for many. The model was great, arguably the best that has ever existed in history as we know it. I believe it was inspired by God. The Founding Fathers were flawed human men, but God uses flawed human men. That is all He has to work with. However, words don’t mean anything if you don’t live by them. Promises mean nothing if they are not kept. Marriage vows mean nothing if they are not honored. The constitution doesn’t mean anything if it is not followed. Far too many people, for far too long have sought political positions of power for purely self-serving purposes. Our once great nation is imploding under the weight of her own corruption. The “American Dream” has become a nightmare. With that in mind, we need a deeper meaning to life, a meaning that is greater than the simple “get married, get a good job and a nice house, and have some kids” mentality that pervades so many people’s simple way of looking at life. I honestly think we have crossed the Rubicon in the United States of America. I am tempted to follow that last sentence with the phrase, “not to sound pessimistic”, but it is difficult for me to do that. I am pessimistic about our ability to turn this nation around at this point. The hope for America is not in political solutions anymore. We are way beyond that. The corruption is staggering. We are standing on the precipice of judgement. Our only hope as a nation is widespread repentance before God. I am not referring to Christian Nationalism or any such thing as that. Repentance must always be on a personal level. We can’t just declare a decree of national repentance. Repentance is between the individual and God. We may not be able to save our nation, the economy, or our planet with windmills and solar panels, but we can seek salvation for our own souls. We can seek a better place of peace within our own hearts and minds to deal with all life’s challenges.

Some of these basic questions I mentioned are what follows. I do not claim that this is a comprehensive list, because there are many more. Our questions are endless. I just want to start with the basics. I would like for you, the reader, to contemplate these questions as you read, and think about how you, individually answer these questions. Be honest. Write it down. This is for no-one but you, individually. It is not a test. It is an exercise in thought. For what it is worth, after we have examined these questions, I would like to offer my responses, in the hope that it may be beneficial to some. My job is to prod you to think for yourself. Take your own notes as you go and answer the questions.

Questions:

What is the meaning of life?

How do you answer this question: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why do I, or anyone else for that matter, even exist at all? Why is there something instead of nothing? People have wrestled with the “meaning of life” question since the beginning of time. Many people’s attempt at answering that question consists of nothing but linguistic and philosophical gymnastics that lead to no answer at all, an avoidance of the question, or some silly rationalization for their actions. Science can’t answer that question because science, rightly understood is simply the observation of repeatable patterns and repeatable experiments producing predictable results, and how we can understand and manipulate those patterns, and the results of the experiments to our advantage. What can be repeated to the extent that the outcome can be expected to be consistently the same? No doubt, the patterns can be extremely complicated, but the outcome can be understood to be repeatable and predictable. Science is the understanding of “how” things work. Much that we hear and read that incorporates the word “science” is not science at all. The word “science” can be used in all kinds of unscientific rhetoric, just to make it more official sounding, when in fact what is being stated is not science at all. Science can’t answer the “why” questions. The answer to the “why” questions must come from the originator of the thing in question, the first cause. If life has any meaning, it must be derived from the agent of life, life’s first cause.

Let me give you an example of what I mean by “first cause” (the reason). A good mechanic may understand how an automobile works, He can explain how the engine, transmission, braking and steering systems of an automobile all work together to produce a functioning whole. He can know how to fix the automobile when it needs repair. That is the “science” of the automobile. That is the “how”. What the mechanic can’t do with this knowledge is answer the question of why the automobile was invented in the first place. Only the inventor of the automobile can answer that question. What was the motivation? The desire for a more efficient method of moving people and things other than the horse and buggy most likely. The inventor is the original “first cause” of the creation of the automobile. The “why” originated in a mind looking for better transportation methods. The “why” questions of life’s meanings and origin are under the purview of theology, the study of God, the original first cause.

How did it all begin?

If nothing is the absence of something, and something exists, when and how did the existence of something begin? When, and how did nothing become something? Why did it begin? Science and anthropology can’t answer these questions. All they can do is offer unprovable speculations. We were not there. We simply can’t answer the question of origination for the universe and the planet we live on by science. It is not an experiment that can be repeated, so evolution can only be rightly classified as speculation and theory. There is no way for us to know unless it is revealed to us by “the first causer”, in other words, GOD. Evolution was the prevailing, and mostly unchallenged theory in atheistic academia for a long time, and still is in many places. However, today there is ample and scientifically provable evidence to refute the claims of Darwinian evolution for anyone who is willing to look at the actual evidence, which did not exist when these theories were first espoused. Darwin knew absolutely nothing about DNA. That is not true for today’s scientists. DNA looks very much like a code written by an intelligent mind. Willful ignorance is now the only excuse for those clinging dogmatically to evolutionary rhetoric. People like Richard Dawkins who are now beginning, slowly, to see the weakness of the evolutionary explanation, will say things like “earth was visited by extra-terrestrials thousands of years ago.” This does not answer the question of origins, all it does is kick the can down the road. And simply resorting to browbeating and insinuating that those who believe in Creationism are ignorant and stupid does not answer the question either. Basically, you can either believe in evolution of some sort, or creation of some sort, generally-speaking. Some people may offer different theories, but those are the basic two. Reincarnation doesn’t really address the issue of origins. It only puts things into a never-ending cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

Why is there so much evil in the world?

Man’s inhumanity to man seems incomprehensible. The history of mankind is a never-ending cycle of war and murder. From a human perspective, it makes no sense. Today we live in a world with so many nuclear weapons in many of the world’s nations that we probably have enough firepower to destroy the whole solar system 10 times. Every day we live, we are only one step away from a horrible nuclear disaster that could wreck the entire planet. It seems like global conflict between opposing nations grows stronger every year. Many people believe that we are on the edge of World War III, a global conflict unlike anything in scope and magnitude of any previous wars. I can’t say I disagree with that conclusion. We are truly living in dangerous times. We live on this big, beautiful planet with millions of different forms of life, and enough natural resources to do basically anything we want, and yet, with all our modern technology, we still behave like blood thirsty barbarians. In addition to the threat of nuclear war, we also face the terrifying threat of chemical, biological and EMP (electromagnetic pulse) warfare. None of these things should have ever been invented. Something is desperately wrong.

Plans and dreams for a utopian society, where people get along in peace and prosperity always fail, and eventually turn into hellish nightmares. That is because the human heart is filled with wickedness. Isn’t it ironic that during this era of so much advanced technology, the last 130 years in our history have proven to be the bloodiest and most destructive time in human history? That may sound like a simplistic answer, but history proves it to be true, over and over. We can’t invent and educate ourselves out of this conundrum. The problem is at the core of our nature, our soul. The soul is deprived of divine light.

What do you believe to be true, and why do you believe those things are true? What are your beliefs based on?

We all have a basic set of assumptions about life. This might be called our world view. We have a basic set of assumptions about ourselves, others, and the world we live in. Some people don’t think too deeply about this, but we should. It controls everything in our decision-making process, and how we treat other people. Is there any basis for what you believe to be true, or is it just your opinions? Everyone has opinions. Many people’s philosophy of life merely consists of an incoherent hodge-podge of ideas and opinions about things that they have not thought through very well. Do you value the viewpoints of other people, or do you think you have all the answers? If the viewpoint of another contradicts your viewpoint on some matter, and their viewpoint can be proven to be true, are you willing to admit you are wrong, and change your way of thinking and behavior? If you refuse to admit you are wrong about anything when the evidence proves your conclusions to be wrong, you are a narcissistic fool.

What gives you hope?

Life can, at times, seem overwhelming and hopeless. We all go through these times in life. I remember a song I heard many years ago. Part of the lyrics were “without hope, you cannot start the day…” People try to use all kinds of coping mechanisms to deal with life’s stress. Sadly, for some that is drugs or alcohol (which is a drug). Some people turn to pornography, or illicit sexual encounters. Some people are under the delusion that a massive amount of money is all they need to solve all of life’s problems. News flash: Some of the most wealth people on this planet are miserable, proving money can’t make anyone happy. It seems that our government operates under the assumption that if you throw a big enough pile of money (which we don’t even have) at any problem, you can make it go away. That is why our nation is currently in excess of 34 trillion dollars in debt and sinking further and further with each passing day. Some people turn to entertainment, the list goes on and on. There are many destructive things that can be named, but none of these things offer hope. They merely dull the senses or provide a temporary distraction. They do nothing to change the circumstances or make things better. Only hope can make a better way forward. Hope must be grounded in faith in someone, or something. Everyone has faith in something. To say that we don’t isn’t true. Faith is merely what you believe. It is funny to hear Ray Comfort (a street evangelist in California) ask people who say they do not believe in God, say they “believe” in evolution, or they “believe” in science. In other words, they have faith in Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins and Anthony Fauci! Everyone chooses for themselves what they believe. If you choose poorly, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Where is your life headed?

I remember my last year in high school. About half-way through my senior year, it suddenly dawned on me that I had no idea what I was going to do after I graduated. I had just been going to school, doing my thing, and working a part time job. You know the old saying, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” News Flash: Your life IS going somewhere. You need to decide where that is, or it is not going to turn out well.

Why do you struggle to do what you know to be right?

Regardless of whether you consider yourself “religions” or not, or even if you think you do not believe in God, your conscience bothers you sometimes about the things you do. If it doesn’t you are a sociopath! If there is no such thing as a standard of morality that originates outside of our own mind (or heart) then none of us has any basis for judging the actions of others that we consider to be morally wrong or unethical. Everything becomes subjective, a matter of individual preference. When any society abandons a universally accepted standard of right and wrong, (objective, not subjective), that society is in grave danger. From that point on, anything goes. I fear that our country, and many other places in the world are seeing that very mentality become a reality. Many of the things that our society used to take for granted regarding issues of ethics and morality are now being challenged and society is becoming increasingly more dangerous and criminally oriented. The rule of law is no longer the place of safety it used to be in our country. Our judicial systems have become corrupted by greedy, evil men and women who no longer serve the interest of the people, but instead our institutions have become weaponized to suite some political or ideological agenda. Everyone does what they think is right in their own eyes. That is why the world seems so chaotic and out of control.

Facts:

—We are all born under circumstances over which we had no control: A specific time in history, a specific geographical place, (political rule, etc.), a specific family with a specific socio-economic standing, and a specific worldview of life, a specific gender and other immutable characteristics over which we had no say so or control. We are who we are. It can’t be changed. Jealousy and envy are a futile waste of time and energy. If you are jealous and hostile towards other people whom you consider to be more fortunate than yourself based on any of the things I have just mentioned, you are only destroying yourself. We must all accept “the hand we have been dealt” and do the best we can with what we have been given. That does not mean that we succumb to a life of hopelessness and merely give up. We can all certainly work to improve what we have, and do better, but we do not live in denial of who we are at our core. We should never envy others and focus on what we don’t have. We should make a realistic assessment of what we do have and seek to make the best out of it by using ti for good instead of evil. Being comfortable in our own skin, as the saying goes, is one of the highest forms of self-love, not in an egotistical or narcissistic way, but in a way that conforms to reality and gives life. I am a 5’6” man who can’t change his height. For me to envy a 6’4” man because I have a desire to be tall is a complete waste of my time. There is nothing I can do to change who I am. I am sure we have all been made painfully aware of the horrific ideology that states gender is merely a social construct. The thinking is that you can identify as the gender you think you are supposed to be, while ignoring or denying the basic biological truth that gender is a reality that can’t be changed with operations and hormone injections. I will simply say I am happy with who I am, and will do the best I can with what, and who I am and not deny reality. I refuse to pretend I am a tall man by wearing platform shoes, and I refuse to pretend I am young in this, my 64^th year of life by dying my hair, and stretching the skin on my face with unnatural, and often unflattering surgeries!

You should take a nice, long look in the mirror and learn to love who you are. You are exactly who and what you are supposed to be! You can’t change it, so live with it and be happy and productive.

—We die. We don’t like to talk about death. We may say we know and understand that we will die someday, but most everyone lives as if that is not so. When you see a tragic wreck on the highway, does it motivate you to want to be a safer driver, or do you just think that could never happen to you? Does it make you grateful for the many thousands of miles you have driven in your life without being in a serious wreck? I think it is healthy to keep our own mortality always on our minds, not in a morbid depressing way, but in a way that makes us appreciate life and value the good things. We use all our time and energy pursuing things that ultimately do not matter. No one starts off knowing when and how they will die. If you have a terminal disease, you may know the general timeframe, unless you can be cured. Death is an unwelcome intruder for us at any time, whether it be our own death, or the death of a loved one. Another question most people wrestle with, that I did not include in my list is: “What happens after death?” The fear of death holds a tight grip on us. Most religions have some basic idea about what will happen after death. It usually involves a judgement to determine if the person will be rewarded in the afterlife or punished. Atheists believe that man is nothing but a highly evolved animal, and nothing happens after death. Our bodies simply rot and go back to the elements, (ashes to ashes, dust to dust.) Then there is the notion of reincarnation that ties in with the idea of some eastern religions involving karma (Hinduism for example). To me, this idea makes no sense, and here is why: The notion is that your reward, or punishment after death is determined by your karma. If you did lots of good things, and established good karma, then you will be reincarnated to a higher state. If you establish bad karma, you will come back in a lower state as punishment. The odd part of this is that the religions that adhere to this belief do not acknowledge a transcendent deity that makes this determination. (Who, or what holds the scales?) Sure, many follow some god or goddess, but there is no transcendent deity that rules over all as the ultimate judge. Who, or what, determines if you come back as a rabid raccoon, or as the son of royalty?

Most cultures work very hard to preserve the bodies of their dearly departed in some fashion. We embalm our dead, place them in their finest clothing, put them in a fancy, expensive coffin which is placed in a cement vault in the ground, or in an above ground tomb, for maximum preservation. Oddly enough, even atheists do this. If human life means nothing, and there is no hope of anything after death, why not just use cadavers as fertilizer? There is also the option of cremation, simply burning the body, and making a keepsake of the ashes to honor the dead. That is what I want done to my body when I die. What is the point of my wife or children spending an exorbitant amount of money to decorate and preserve my corpse in the ground? If God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, making him a living being, He is certainly capable of recreating me in a glorified body when the time of the resurrection comes.

So why all this talk about death? There are several reasons. First, we need to come to grips with our own finitude to learn to love and cherish the life that we do have. This helps us learn to value what is most important in life for the small amount of time we have on this earth. For those who believe in an afterlife of some kind and adhere to an understanding of judgement, it keeps our behavior in check. We know instinctively that there are some things we should and should not do.

Let me ask you a question: Do you personally want justice to come to evil doers? If you knew of someone who did some horrendous thing, like for example, a deranged person going heavily armed into an elementary school, and killing innocent children, would it bother you if that person were put on trial, with an insurmountable pile of evidence against them, and the jury declared them innocent and let them off scott-free and they never suffered in any way for the atrocity they committed? If that act did not personally affect you in any way, why would you even care? The answer should be obvious. There is something built into our human nature, our DNA if you want to use that term, that wells up inside of us, demanding justice. But why? Where did that come from? If we are simply highly evolved primates, as the evolutionists contend, then it all comes down to survival and reproduction. But we don’t behave like that. We want justice! (We just don’t want it dished out if it pertains to us! Justice for everyone but me. I want grace!) I will get more into this later. I remember a conversation I had with one of my co-workers years ago. He said something along these lines: “If there is a God, and He is good, why does He let priests get away with molesting little boys?” I responded: “Just because you do not get the satisfaction of seeing God’s justice enacted right now, does not mean that it won’t be.” News Flash: No one really gets away with anything, they just think they do because we do not see justice served instantaneously. Think about this for your own life. Do you want to see God’s instantaneous judgement in your life? I certainly do not. In that system there is no place for repentance and forgiveness. I have done many things over the course of my life that I am not proud of. If God decreed instantaneous judgement, I would have been dead a long time ago! We are all capable of changing, many times we choose not to because we want to keep enjoying the momentary pleasure of sin.

If there is a judgement, (which I certainly think there is,) we better start doing some digging to find out how to be ready for it and on the right side before we step through death’s doorway.

There are many things we encounter in life either positively or negatively over which we have no control. We are in a constant state of adaptation. Suppose you have a job that you love in an industry that has been stable and secure for a long time, and you are making good money. You and your spouse buy your dream house with a mortgage you feel you can afford. You live in the house for 10 years with a 30-year mortgage. In the 10^th year, the industry you work in experiences a massive downsizing due to unexpected economic factors. You lose your job. You search for months for a job in your field, or in another comparable field, and you do not land the job quickly enough. You get behind in your mortgage, and eventually you start getting foreclosure notices from your mortgage company. You risk losing your home, and all the equity you have put into it since the inception of the mortgage. In this scenario, you are now in a royal fix, and it may or may not be due to anything you have done. It might be the result of poor actions and choices on your part, or it may not be. It might just be the result of unfortunate circumstances over which you had no control. You may have had no control over what happened, but suddenly your life seems as if it is wrecked. You have had the rug jerked from under you as the saying goes. I speak from personal experience because a scenario very much like this happened to me. We must all learn to be flexible and be willing to change courses when life demands it. Many other examples could be given about how things over which we have no control affect us, but you get the point.

Nations rise and fall. Mankind has been engaged in futile war and murder since the beginning of time. In our age, the military-industrial complex is perpetually promoting needless wars simply for the massive amount of profit that can be made by the selling of arms.

It should be obvious to any observant person that something is desperately wrong with mankind that no amount of money, resources, education, political maneuvering or technology can fix. So how do we make sense of it all? It seems impossible. We look at known history, and what we find is a catalogue of societies, kingdoms and empires rising to the pinnacle of pride, self-indulgence, lust, envy, greed and perversion, and then collapsing. The cycle repeats itself over and over. Nations can be established on the highest of ideals: peace, liberty and justice for all, and yet, eventually corruption sets in, and the society crashes to a grinding halt, and it starts all over again. This process usually takes around 250 years or so. The United States of America, once one of the freest and most prosperous nations ever to be established, is approaching her 250^th birthday in 2026. (This is being written in 2024.) It seems to me, in my 64^th year of life, that the United States of America, not to mention many other empires over the world, are teetering on the brink of disaster. After two horrendous World Wars in the 20^th century, and many other wars on a smaller scale, we are at a stage in history once again where things could quickly escalate to an all-out global conflict once again. The casualties in human life, and damage to the planet would be far greater that all the previous wars combined.

In addition to all this, there currently exists an elitist class of high-minded people that want to rule and control the world. They think they are smarter than the rest of the ignorant mass of humanity, and their plans for our future, if they get their way, is horrifying. If you don’t believe this to be true, simply look up “World Economic Forum” and familiarize yourself with their ideas and plans. There are other classes or organizations with similar plans, but simply starting with the World Economic Forum will give you a good start in understanding this world dominion insanity.

Where does one go to find answers to life’s challenging questions? Where do YOU turn for answers? Give that some thought. Many people go to the internet. Admittedly I go to the internet for answers to simple questions: “Where is the Dollar General closest to me?” “How do I swap out the cylinder bearings for our clothes dryer when it starts making a racket?” Stuff like that. But I do not search Google or DuckDuckGo for the answers to life’s deep questions. Many times, on the internet, because you are constantly being profiled, algorithms run to put you in a confirmation bias loop. You are fed narratives that feed into or confirm conclusions you have already drawn. In other words, you are just being told what you want to hear. In political jargon, you are surrounding yourself with YES men. That is NOT the way to find real, honest answers. Honesty and Truth require work and time! And to make matters worse, you may even be given answers that are generated by artificial intelligence. You might be asking questions to a machine!

Some people go to pastors, counselors or therapists. That can certainly be a beneficial option, provided you investigate the credibility of those individuals. I go to the Bible first. That is my source for security and insight. The perspective the Bible gives us is that there IS a grand reason for everything, and it originates outside of us. The explanation for it also originates outside of us. If you think about it, that is the only way it makes sense. If we are the creation, the creation can’t explain itself. The Creator must explain the reason to us. You can’t look at a great painting and ask the painting to explain itself to you, you must ask the artist that created it. The painting can’t look at itself in a mirror and ask itself its meaning. I know that is a silly way of explaining it, but you get my point. We can’t explain the reason for the universe by asking the universe or dissecting it any more than we can explain the meaning of a painting by analyzing the canvas and the oil.

The reason we exist, the reason anything exists, starts with God, the Creator. To make sense out of life, we can’t look within ourselves. We can’t simply look at the material world and dissect it. We must look to the Creator, the Originator, the Artist, the First Cause. In the end, it doesn’t matter what we think or feel. It doesn’t matter what our opinions are about anything. God runs His creation. It is His. He rules it, not us. If our beliefs, actions, and lives do not align with what God says about what is His, we lose in the end, plain and simple. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God did not give ownership of the world to mankind, He made us to manage it. But we act as if it is ours.

People will say, “Man wrote the Bible, not God.” The Bible is not a typical book in the sense that we understand books. The Bible is a collection of books, or writings, 66 to be precise. The writing dates span over thousands of years. The writers come from many different backgrounds and occupations. The authors wrote under the guidance of the Spirit of God, because that is how God, in His ultimate wisdom, chooses to communicate with mankind. There is a consistency, and an over-arching theme that becomes apparent to anyone who willfully chooses to look and study. This had to come about by supernatural working of God, not simply by men writing a bunch of separate stuff. People who know virtually nothing about the Bible or what it says will criticize it and criticize the people who read and believe it. They will say it is not true, and not even know what it says, or they will take bits and pieces out of context and use isolated words or phrases to try to prove that the Bible says something that it does not say. This is the pinnacle of stupidity. I know absolutely nothing about performing surgery. Suppose I went into an operating room in a hospital where a skilled neurosurgeon was performing a very complicated operation on a patient, and I shouted out, “You are doing it wrong!” That would be stupid. The people in the operating room would think I was a moron and call security to get me out of the way. Anyone who criticizes something, or someone that they know nothing about is a fool.

Are you a person who hasn’t read or studied the Bible very much or not at all? If so, why not? What do you have to lose? If you spend thirty minutes or an hour a day reading the Bible you can finish the whole thing is less than a year, and probably much less. If you read the whole thing and conclude that it’s all poppycock, what have you lost? But don’t be one of those people that approaches it half-heartedly, or with a cynical attitude that you are going to prove the book and all those who believe it wrong. You have probably read tons of other things over the course of your life, that haven’t benefitted you. The Bible is the most widely read and published book throughout the course of known history. Aren’t you a little curious as to why?

I remember when I wasn’t a Christ follower at all, but I was curious. The small town that I have lived in for most of my life is full of churches. Our joke as kids was that the town had a bank and a church for every family there were so many churches and banks, or at least it seemed so when I was growing up. Neither of my parents were religious. They took us to church as small children for a little while, but that did not last very long, so I just thought it was boring. They bought a large family Bible from someone selling books one day that they put on the coffee table in the living room. I don’t recall either one of them ever reading it. I think it just served as a decoration for visitors to make us look like a normal family. But it made me curious, and as a kid I would look at the strange old classic paintings of Biblical characters and events and wonder what it was all about. I would see phrases like “Lord of Hosts” and wonder what that meant. As a professing atheist I found myself getting mad at a God that I professed not to believe in when things didn’t go the way I wanted them to. That makes no sense. How can I be mad an a non-existent being? People who profess to not believe in God say all kind of foolish things that make no sense, for example: “Good luck”, “The universe is against me!”, “Go to hell!”, “Mother Nature is being wicked today” and other such nonsense things. All these things imply that there is someone, or something behind what goes on in the world, not just man’s actions. Inherently, at the core of our being, no matter what we say with our words, our consciences know that there is a God, a Creator, a Judge. It comes out in the nonsense things we say.

The majesty of the earth, and the surrounding atmosphere and heavens beyond, all the intricate life forms, both animal, plant, insect and even microscopic organisms, the complexity of things on the molecular level, the complexity of your own body, and the bodies of all living things, the complexity of the universe as we can know it, declare the reality of a Creator. How stupid people are to look at things we use every day, our cellphones, our computers, our automobiles, our homes, robotic machines that assemble and build things, understanding that none of these things came into existence by the blind forces of random change, but that they were the result of thinking minds, planning and building, and then turn right around and attribute the complexity and design of living things to blind, random chance, as if they just accidently came into being for no reason. If I drove up in your driveway in a brand new, finely tuned Corvette and said, “Well, a bunch of metal, wires, electronic components and paint were just sloshed around for a long time to make it. Luckily, it came out like this, instead of just a big mess”, you would think I was insane. But that is exactly what so called atheists do when they deny God, the designer and Creator. They look at this majestic creation, and attribute it to blind, random chance. To me, that is the pinnacle of stupidity, and a denial of reality. That is just plain, old-fashion common sense, something that seems to be sorely lacking in our day and age.

Read these words from the first chapter of the book or Romans, written by the Apostle Paul, and let it resonate with your soul:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Even without the written Word, without any recorded knowledge of God’s moral law, without any prophecies, without any taught knowledge of God through the priests and the prophets, without any revelation from God of Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, our common sense should look at the elements of His created order and know that there is an intelligent designer! His Creation speaks for itself.)

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

As I said, I go to the Bible, God’s Book, for the answers to my life’s questions. I will now address the original questions I asked you to consider in the beginning of this book.

How I answer these questions:

What is the meaning of life?

The simplest and best way I answer that question is best summed up in the Westminster Catechism as follows:

What is the chief end of man? (Wouldn’t our chief end be the meaning, the thing we are created for?)
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

Firstly, we do not create the real meaning of life. God’s reason for our existence is the REAL meaning of life. We may make up our own meanings, but they don’t mean anything because our meanings, apart from God, are all based on lies. There is no such thing as “your truth and my truth”. Everything that is true originates with God. “Your truth and my truth” as the phrase commonly used, just means “your opinion and my opinion”. Our opinions have no bearing on truth. A thing is either true or it is a lie. What we think or believe about it doesn’t change anything. Believing a lie does not make it true, and denying the truth does not make it a lie. What does it mean to glorify God? You can’t glorify anyone if you don’t know anything about them. How do we “know” God? The first step in that process is to obey your conscience when you intuitively know something is either right or wrong. You must settle in your own mind and heart whether it makes more sense for you to believe in a Creator, or simply buy into the notion of evolution and believe there is no reason for anything, and it is all just blind chance. You decide that. I must assume if you have read this far, you want to consider the possibility that God exists, and knowing that must mean something for your life.

Knowing God should be much easier for people in our generation, because we have the full canon of Scripture, which has been inspired by the Spirit of God. We have access to as much knowledge about God as we care to take in. Because of this, to reject and deny will bring greater condemnation on this generation than to people of other times who did not have the availability to know God that we have. People who never had the written Word of God are still responsible for their response to what they have been given. (Romans 2) The Scripture tells from the very beginning that God is good, all the time. He does not change. His judgements are always right, fair and deserved. Everything God made and will make is good. Nothing in all creation is inherently bad or evil in and of itself. Genesis 1 tells us God was pleased with all He had made and pronounced it good. The problem is not with God, it is with us. We mishandle and mismanage God’s good creation that He has put us in charge of. He has given it to us to manage, not possess. Our circumstances do not change God’s goodness. Our bad decisions and actions, and the bad decisions and actions of others that affect us do not change God’s goodness. God’s Word is good. Our lack of understanding, or our misinterpretation of it, or the misinterpretation of other people that we listen to, does not change its goodness. Our disappointment in ourselves, or in others does not change God’s goodness. Our sin, and the sin of others does not change God’s goodness, it simply makes our lives more miserable. God is never the author or originator of sin, we are, because we disobey Him, and move away from Him, the source of all life and goodness. Bad churches, heretical teachers and cults do not change God’s goodness. God is good, all the time. We are not! Spiritual laziness is not an excuse for sin. If we know something to be inherently wrong, and we do it anyway, we are sinning and walking in death. We have no one to blame but ourselves. **********

Glorifying God means wanting to know about Him. It means being thankful for all the goodness He has provided for you. It means loving and honoring your Creator and obeying His commandments that He has given to us for our own good. For the last 2000+ years, honoring God also means acknowledging God’s revelation to us of Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. There is no way around that. The 10 commandments are the foundation of God’s moral law, by which all things are governed. They are the bedrock of all human morality.

The Bible paints a picture for us of God, who is good, benevolent, merciful, just and fair, unlike the tyrannical and warlike gods of mythology and pagan religions. The Bible paints a picture for us of God’s creation that is good, life-giving, beneficial and meaningful.

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)

So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:17)

God is eternal (immortal). As beings created in His image, we were created with the potential for being immortal also. The Tree of Life mentioned in Genesis represents the potential for immortality. Since the beginning of time, mankind has been fascinated with the possibility of obtaining immortality. Ancient cultures buried the dead with what they considered to be their prized possessions, thinking they could take their stuff to what awaited them on the other side of death. Even the professing atheists fear death. If we were created to be immortal, and we desire immortality, something has gone terribly wrong. The Bible explains this for us.

God’s creation is governed by His moral law. God’s moral law is the standard by which we are judged. Would you rather live in a society where there are no laws where everyone is free to do whatever they want, with no consequences, or a society with just and fair laws? I think most sane and rational people would prefer law and order over chaos and anarchy.

The two greatest commandments, according to Jesus are “Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor (meaning everyone) as yourself.” If we simply live by these two commandments, obeying all the rest is easy, because you desire to obey the commandments regarding both your relationship to God, and mankind.

How did it all begin?

Simply stated, God willed to make it, and He made it. For those of you with an artistic bend, let me ask you a few questions: Why does a musician create music? Why does an artist create art? Because creativity is built into our nature as human beings. That is part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Animals don’t produce art and music. Animals don’t build things. Animals don’t work to solve complex mathematical equations. God created because He is a Creator. The Creator. It is impossible for a Creator to not create. You can listen to thousands of so called “scientists”, academics and the like trying to explain the “Big Bang Theory”, life evolving from single cell organisms, and on and on it goes, and none of it makes any sense. You choose what you believe. Look around you at the vast, beautiful and complex world in which we live. Does it look like something that just happened to come into existence for no reason, just time and chance, or does it look like something that was intentionally made? Use your common sense, not your proud intellect. That is a question you must answer for yourself. The opening chapters of Genesis do not go into detail in the scientific sense of “how” God did it. He just did it. You can spend the rest of your life and drive yourself mad trying to figure out and explain how matter and life just came into being for no reason if you want to. I choose rather to honor the One who made me and gave me life. Honoring God means acknowledging Him as the source and reason for all things.

As to the “why” it all came into being, I will pose some of my own observations. The Bible presents a concept to us that is defined in Christian Theology as the Trinity. God is presented to us in the Scriptures as a Triune (three in one) being consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God, by His nature is a relational being. He creates other beings to be in relation with. Apparently, God made celestial beings before He created mankind. God wants to be with us, but on His terms. God is holy (pure), so nothing, or no one who is in sin can stand in His presence. The first humans (Adam and Eve) were created in a pure state, but they were given free will, the right to choose. They could choose to love and obey their Creator, or go their own way, which, as they were told, would result in their deaths. Every sentient being God created in His image, angelic or human, has free will. While it might be argued that animals are sentient beings, Scripture nowhere says that animals were created in the image of God. There is a vast difference between animals and man. Personally, I think animals do not experience contemplative thought as humans do. I do believe that they have emotions to a degree, but not in the sense that humans do. They exhibit muscle memory to a degree. That is why it is possible for us to train animals, but animals don’t seem to have contemplative thought in the sense that humans do. Aniimals do not create and build things. That is merely my observation for what it is worth. I do not profess to be an expert in these matters, but that conclusion makes sense to me. God did not create us to be robots. The Bible says that God is Love. Love desires to be loved. There is no such thing as coerced love. No one can force you to love them. Love is not a feeling or emotion. It is a choice. We choose to love and obey God, or we choose not to. All of life, for all of us, is a series of choices and the repercussions of those choices.

How did it all begin? God willed it to be so, and it was. That is the best explanation I know of.

Why is there so much evil in the world?

Simply stated, mankind is lost. Genesis 3 gives us the account of how the first two humans had the opportunity to live in paradise in God’s life-giving presence, or disobey Him and bring upon themselves, and us, the curse of death. They chose the latter. They bred, and produced children in their fallen image, the original image of God in man was marred because of their willful rebellion. This is what is referred to in Christian theology as original sin. Since that happened, we are all born with a bend in our nature that leads us away from God, the source of life and all good. The Genesis 3 account of the fall is played out in each of our lives, and the general pattern is repeated over and over throughout Scripture. Let’s look at some of the basic points:

Genesis 2:

Then the Lord God formed a man^[^c^] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (God is the source of life. Science can’t explain why or how life even exists.)

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (A perfectly delightful place for man to live that met his every need. Man can’t create this by his own efforts. Every time mankind, without God, tries to create some utopian society via his own intellect, it always devolves into a hellish nightmare. There are no exceptions to this in history. The World Economic Forum of our day is animated by men with grandiose ideas of using technology to create the perfect society, on their terms of course. Unless these men are stopped, they will surely usher mankind into a time of horror, the magnitude of which we can’t imagine.)

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (The Garden is not given to man to own and possess. It belongs to God. The man is to take care of it, not possess it as his own. The world and everything in it, and the whole of creation belong to God, not us. We are not free to do whatever we want to with it. We have done a terrible job.) And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (In other words, enjoy it all, but do not partake of this one thing. Why is it that we are always attracted to the thing that is off limits to us? Why are we never satisfied with what we do have, but always wanting more? We may have never thought about possessing a certain thing, but then when we see that our neighbor has it, we act as if we can’t live without it.)

(I am skipping some of the verses here to get to the main point. Please go back and read the whole thing for yourself.)

We have the perfect man, placed in the perfect place. So far, so good, but then look at what comes next:

Genesis 3:

Now the serpent was more crafty (cunning) than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (The serpent was one of God’s creatures that is being inhabited by Lucifer, the fallen angel. There is more about this in other parts of the Bible. Notice his approach. It happens over and over. First, he questions whether God really said it, then he misquotes God. He makes God sound unreasonable. People, inspired by their father Satan, do this all the time. They question the validity of what God says, then they misrepresent the character of God. The serpent was crafty or cunning. Some translations say “wiser”. Many ungodly people are very intelligent as human perception goes. Your IQ has nothing to do with your moral character. I think that intellectual pride is one of mankind’s most heinous character flaws. People will go to great lengths to try and prove they are right.

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, (Notice what she does here. She adds to what God said. God does not need for us to embellish His Word. Just speak it. The Word does its own work.) or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” (Now Satan is flat out calling God a liar.) the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (This insinuates that God would be made to feel threatened by the humans. Trust me, the One who made us and gives us life is not threatened by our actions! He can take our life away at any moment He chooses. Besides, they were already “like” God in the sense that they were made in His image. This implies that the eating from the forbidden tree would put them on a level with God. The thing that is made can never be on the same level as the One who made it! The forbidden fruit can also be applied to people using illicit drugs such as hallucinogens in an attempt to obtain spiritual enlightenment. All that happens with hallucinogens is a distortion of the mind. It does not change reality one bit.)

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. (The lure of materialism is something we always battle against. The temptation of money, nice things, power and what the world perceives as success will drag a man’s soul to hell. The desire to “know everything”-Onmiscience, a characteristic that only God has.) She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Misery loves company as the old saying goes. It wasn’t enough for Eve to be deceived by the devil’s lies. She pulled her husband into it also. He could have said “no”. But he didn’t He went along with the woman. MEN! Don’t ever allow some gorgeous and smooth-talking woman to lure you into sin against God. The Bible is full of men who have wrecked their lives over seductive women.) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Sin brings shame. We feebly try to cover our sin up, but it never works. This reminds me of camouflage, the way hunters and soldiers try to disguise themselves to keep from being seen. They were vainly trying to hide from God, who knows and sees all.)

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (We always try to hide from God, and others when we sin.) But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” (God is omniscient. He knows all and sees all. He did not need to ask Adam where he was. He already knew. In asking this question He was giving Adam the opportunity to confess and repent, but like all foolish men, he doubled down on his lie. God is always nearby, waiting for us to reach out to Him in confession and repentance.)

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

God is not responsible for all the evil in the world, man is. Astonishingly though is that God is willing to forgive us if we confess, ask for forgiveness and repent. That message is laced all throughout the Bible in the Old and New Testaments. God has already provided forgiveness for us in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is up to us to ask for it, repent and apply it to our lives. Knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING for anyone. The reason that there is so much evil in the world is that mankind has lost the life of God in the soul.

What do I believe to be true, and why do I believe those things are true?

Again, to that I will answer with something that is not my own words, but it answers the question for me in words that I can’t improve on:

The Apostle’s Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

First and foremost, I believe this because Jesus Christ changed my own life drastically. I experience the lived truth of this reality every day of my life. I am not a perfect man. I am not a sinless man. I strive to live as Christ lived, but sometimes I fail miserably. That is why I am eternally grateful to God for the forgiveness of my sins and the new life He gave me when I was 24 years old.

I believe this because I have seen it in many other people’s lives as well. I believe in the Triune God because that is what the Bible reveals. I believe in God as the Creator of all because no other answer for the existence of life itself and all of creation makes any sense. We are created, we did not evolve from slime. I believe in all the Scriptures that tell us of the divinity of Christ, His oneness with the Father and the Holy Spirit. People witnessed Christ in the flesh as the Jewish Messiah, Savior of the world. People witnessed Him be crucified, buried, and then rise from the dead three days later. The Apostles chose to die by martyrdom rather that denounce their faith in the risen Lord. They saw something that was real, and it rocked them to the core of their being.

I believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, not only because of the change He made in my own life, but because of the change He has made in millions of other people’s lives down through the ages, and the impact that Christianity has had on the world for good.

I believe that human beings are born in original sin, the corruption of our nature that makes us bent towards sin by default because of the sin of our first ancestors, and the passing on of that sin nature to all mankind. No other answer makes sense. Mankind is lost without a Savior, and the whole world is under the deceptive power of Satan. The way people act and behave makes no sense otherwise.

What gives me hope?

The world’s attempt at answering the questions I have posed do not give me any satisfaction or hope at all. Knowing that human beings are not ultimately in control of the world, or history, but that the Creator of everything, and all mankind is the reason for our existence, gives me hope. The purpose for our existence originates with God, not with ourselves. Knowing that the reason for our existence lies outside of ourselves gives me hope, because mankind is basically selfish, evil and greedy. History proves time and time again that mankind, apart from God, always makes a royal mess out of everything.

In our circumstantial way of looking at things, knowing that there is a much grander purpose for everything outside of what we can experience with only our five senses, gives me hope. Knowing that there is a spiritual realm that we are involved in makes things make more sense. There are spiritual forces at play that we can’t see or experience simply with our five senses. Seeing things in this light helps me to make sense out of why people act the way they do. They are being influenced by spiritual entities that they are not even aware of, and God has the final say so in how all this turns out.

It gives me hope to know that this short span of life we experience while we are on this earth is not all there is to the picture. If all we have is the short 70-90 years (at best), and then just dying was all I had to look forward to, I would rather have never even been born. People work so hard to build a life for themselves, establishing their marriages, careers, families and homes. Most of our time and energy if focused on this. If it all just ends, and we get to that final end as our bodies wear out and become pain riddled, and then we just die, it all seems pointless. But we have the promise that death is not the end, death is simply the doorway into our eternal state, which will either be blessedness for eternity, or eternal damnation and misery. What we do with this short life determines all this. That motivates me to be a better person. It motivates me to be kind and loving to others. It motivates me to give of my time, energy and resources to make things better for others. It gives my life purpose and meaning.

Knowing that God is in control of His Creation means that justice will be served. No wicked person that has caused untold grief and misery for others through their evil actions will not go unpunished. It serves justice, which in our worldly systems seems to be sorely lacking.

Where is my life headed?

Simply put, my life is headed towards being in the presence of a good, loving, and creative God for all of eternity in His eternal Kingdom. I know that my good works will not get me there, for my works will never be good enough, or deserving of God’s favor. That does not mean that I will not try to be the best man I can be, I will, but I know I am prone to weakness and failure, just as we all are. But I know that I am forgiven and covered by the blood of Jesus Christ which puts me in right standing with God. It is HIS work on my behalf, not my own goodness.

Many people ask the question: “What is God’s will for my life?” The answer to that question does not lie in what our career is, who we marry, how many children we have, what our ministry is, etc.” Those are all circumstantial issues. That doesn’t mean those questions are not important. They certainly are, but the will for all of us is love and holiness. God’s will for all of us is to be conformed to the image of Christ, no matter how that plays itself out in life. All of life for each of us is a journey, and our final destination will either be one of two places: Heaven or Hell. Because of Original Sin, by default, we start our earthly lives out on the path to Hell. That is a harsh reality that many people find hard to accept, but it is the truth. Mankind had the opportunity to live with God forever in a paradise. All we had to do was obey. But Adam and Eve, the first man and woman plunged themselves, and consequently their offspring, the entire human race, by their willful act of disobedience, into sin, misery and death.

The Good News (Gospel) is that the direction (or the trajectory) of the journey can be changed. God has provided forgiveness and restoration to us in the person of the God/Man Jesus Christ, who died to pay the penalty for our sins on the Cross at Calvary. Have you ever started out on a trip, and then suddenly realized that you are going the wrong way? You need to change directions, reroute. Only a fool would stubbornly keep going in the wrong direction, knowing full well that the route he was taking would never lead to his desired destination. That is exactly what billions of people do every day. Like that nagging voice of the GPS trying to get you to make a U-turn, our God given conscious tells us over and over to turn around. We have had the message of salvation now for over two thousand years, and yet day after day people willfully ignore it, all while traveling everyday into their eternity, Heaven or Hell. The lost will have no one to blame but themselves.

Why do I struggle to do what I know to be right?

I struggle to do what I know to be right for the same reason everyone else does. I was born with the sin nature of Adam and Eve, a bend in my nature in the direction of sin. I was born in a state of depravity. When I use the term depravity I need to explain what I mean. I do not adhere to the doctrine of “total depravity”, meaning everything anyone does is totally seeped in sin. We are made in the image of God, but because of sin, that perfect, holy image has been corrupted. Some of God’s image remains. That is why people who do not believe in and obey God are still capable of doing many good things. What I do mean by depravity is the bend in our nature that leads us to go away from God’s goodness and it leads us to think we can manage our lives on our terms, and our standards are what determines what is best. Our individual actions at any given point in time can be either tending towards good or tending towards evil.

The spiritual side of our nature, the part that tends towards God and what is good battles with the carnal side of our nature that wants immediate gratification and fleshly pleasure. The Apostle Paul does a very good job of explaining this in the book of Romans in in chapter 7. He sees the same war raging in his own life, but in Romans 8 Paul explains how this battle can be won by putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If you have never done so, please read these two chapters. We must die self to live for Christ, and His nature becomes manifest in our mortal bodies. Jesus talks of this many times in His teaching to His disciples. He, through the Holy Spirit, will live in and through us, and we will be His witnesses to a lost and dying world.

Romans Chapter 7:

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. (Paul is using this as an analogy to get to a more important point, so hang on, he will get to it.)

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh,^[ the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Our freedom and new life comes through a relationship, not through strict obedience to a set of rules. Not that the rules are not important, but through that relationship, we have no desire to break the written rules. Take for example, if you are married, and you truly love your wife as you should, you have no desire to go outside your marriage to find pleasure in any other woman.)

The Law and Sin

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^[^b^] But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. (Notice, in a very real sense, what Paul is saying here mirrors the Genesis account of the fall. Adam had the ability and opportunity to obey God, as Paul describes the commandments we should be keeping, but aren’t. The sinful desire to take of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is always present with us, as we are lured into the temptation of disobeying God for immediate pleasure, and desiring what is forbidden, instead of taking pleasure in the abundance of good that God has provided for us to enjoy.)

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. (Paul understands that there is now something drastically wrong with human nature that required divine intervention to fix. When we do wrong, we intuitively know it, but there is the pride in man, due to the corruption of our nature that causes us to want to justify our sinful actions. The power of sin is a strong pull in this lost world.) For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.(Paul repeats this phrase. In today’s vernacular, we would say he has a monkey on his back.) So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! (How many of us have known the drug addict or alcoholic, or perhaps battled with this themselves, who want so desperately to break free from the addiction, yet find themselves going back to it time and time again. From the human perspective, it makes no sense. But it is the power of sin that we must be broken out of. We can’t do it on our own.) Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Jesus Christ is the rescue! But we must surrender to Him, confess our sin, repent of it, as best as we are capable of doing, and He has promised to infuse us with His divine life, the Holy Spirit, when we confess Him as Lord and Savior. Think about it. When we are going off the rails in our own lives, we need help. We need to reach out to someone who can help us. Who better to reach out to than the very one who created us and gives us life? )

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful naturea slave to the law of sin.

Romans Chapter 8: (Here comes the good part!)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you^[ free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. (The battle is in our mind. Who, or what controls your thought life? Something, or someone is controlling it. It is never neutral.) The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. (Stop for a few minutes and examine your own desires, in other words, your wants. What do you want for yourself and your life? Do those desires fall in line with God’s desire for us? God’s desire for us is holiness, purity in thought and action, manifested through acts of love and truth to our fellow human beings.)

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives lifebecause of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because ofhis Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.^[^f^] And by him we cry, “Abba,^[^g^] Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Present Suffering and Future Glory

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

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. (This does not mean that everything we experience as we live our lives for God is pleasant. It most certainly is not. It is often difficult and heart wrenching. But the end result, the outcome is good.) For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[^j^]

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[^k^] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I started off this section by saying I struggle to do what is right for the same reason everyone else does: because of the sin nature that I was born with. But through Jesus Christ, and His Spirit living in me (the new birth), I have the power to overcome sin, and you can too. We must submit to the life of the Spirit. God does not force it on anyone. It is a decision and choice that each of us makes for ourselves. Our parents can’t make the choice for us. Our children can’t make the choice for us, nor our spouse, our friends, no one.

In their eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve decided to take it upon themselves to determine what is right and wrong. In other words, they would be their own gods, their own authority. That, in a nutshell is the crux of all human sin. We choose to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, instead of obeying God. You hear it all the time in the things people say: “That may be wrong for you, but it isn’t wrong for me.” “That’s your truth, but it isn’t my truth.”

Our world is a fast moving, and increasingly more dangerous place today. The signs of imminent collapse are all around us. We see it in the news every day. Global tension between nuclear armed nations is on the rise. We are at an impasse that no political agreements can solve. As we see the rise of gender confused youth, it seems as if people have lost their minds. The corruption of our so-called political leaders is exposed more and more every day. It seems that the vast majority of them are only self-serving in their quest for wealth and power. Most of the major news networks are not accurately reporting the news, instead they are simply promoting some political or ideological agenda. It is hard to know if what you hear and read in the news is true. I believe most people can sense this. We may not say it out loud, out of fear of being mocked and ridiculed, but we see it in the faces of loneliness, depression, hopelessness and despair of many. It is hard to make sense out of many things that are happening in our own country. People seem more divided now than ever.

The level of degradation in humanity seems to be rapidly increasing. We see images on the news of naked and sexually perverted people prancing around in front of little children in parades. It is truly sickening. Spiritual evil is a very real force in the world that can’t be ignored.

We need answers to the deep questions of life. The Bible gives us the answers that we seek. It gives us the reason and purpose. It makes things clear in a way that no amount of human reason and speculation can. It allows us to see “the big picture”. It confronts us. It exposes us. It judges and condemns us, but it also gives us the way out. It offers forgiveness and the promise of restoration. Things are not supposed to be the way they are now on this earth. The overarching theme of the Bible puts things in their proper perspective in a way that no amount of human philosophy can. Our society purposefully ignores the significance and the relevance of the Bible’s message to our own peril. It shows us that all who align themselves with God’s truth and righteousness win in the end. Those who align themselves with and are ensnared by the wickedness of this world’s sin meet their end in horrific and eternal damnation. Those are the facts, like it or not.

When we compare our individual lives to God’s moral law, enshrined in the 10 commandments we see that we have failed miserably, and in fact, deserve damnation. We stand judged and are pronounced guilty by our good, holy and righteous Creator. Remember, God told Adam and Eve if they chose to disobey Him and eat from the tree they were not supposed to eat from, that they would die. Obviously, they did not fall over physically dead in the sense we understand death. Adam lived another 900+ years before he died, according to the Genesis account. But the process of death was set in motion by that act. Death reigned. Their once perfect bodies began to deteriorate. They passed that deterioration, that corruption of nature, onto their offspring, you and me. Their corruption also passed into the created order, as Paul explains in the chapters of Romans previously quoted. God did not create this glorious planet and cosmos to produce earthquakes, storms, famines and disease. With sin and death set in motion, the whole of creation began to crumble slowly. This is man’s doing, not God’s. We can never blame God for any of the evil we see occurring in the world. We brought it on ourselves, and we continue to ruin it. We were created for immortality and glory yet in or pride, we set ourselves up as gods by choosing to decide for ourselves what we took to be right and wrong, instead of obeying our Creator, who is forever blessed and only good.

But the Gospel message brings hope and a second chance. It brings forgiveness and restoration. Read. All throughout the pages of Scripture, we see, over and over, God calling out to His people to repent and turn back to Him. He has sent prophets to warn us and call us back to Himself. He has caused all of this to be recorded over thousands of years in a miraculous way. He has come to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, the God/Man who came to bear the death that should be ours. He has raised from the dead to show that He, and only He has the keys to lose us from death and resurrect us back to life to be with Him once this world’s history has run its course.

We are without excuse if we choose to ignore and deny such a great offer of hope and forgiveness. We will not get it anywhere else. Most people who are alive today have heard that message presented to them at some point in time. Most people choose to ignore it because they want to remain in their sin and think they are having their own way.

We have come to the end of this journey, for now. You do not have to be one of those people. We all make the decision for ourselves. There is so much more I want to say, but I wanted to make this brief and get to the point. There is no time to lose. Now is the time. Today can be the day of salvation for you. We read these words in the book of Romans, chapter 10, verses 8-10:

“The word is near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith we are proclaiming, that is, if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

Believe

Confess

Repent.

What are you waiting for? The clock is ticking in your own life, and in this world, which is soon to fall. Time is NOT on your side. That old song by the Rolling Stones is a lie.

For more of my writings, go to Danny’s Stump – Danny’s Stump (dannysstump.com)

Present Suffering and Future Glory

More Than Conquerors

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