Trust

Trust can be a real issue for a lot of people. We don't trust each other, we don't trust our government, we don't trust anybody. Even people that mean well will eventually disappoint, or let you down because they are people. We are only human, none of us is perfect.

We are taught in the Scriptures that God is our Father. This can be problematic, at least for some people, because human fathers are, well, human. To compare God to a human father risks attributing fault to God. Even our own natural fathers are human and prone to failure; but the relationship we are supposed to have with them is similar to the relationship we should have with God. We as human beings have a bad tendency to attribute human qualities to non-humans. Sometimes we even humanize objects (that's easy to do with computers, but sometimes we even blame a piece of furniture for being in the way as if it had moved itself from where we left it--sometimes we even assign it a motive for moving...). Someone asked the question, "Why does a mirror reverse left and right and not up and down?" Let's do a thought experiment: Suppose that you are lying on your left side, facing a mirror; now left is down, and right is up. Move your right arm (your 'up' arm). Now, does your reflections 'up' arm move, or does its 'down' arm move? (If you have a hard time imagining this, try it and see how it comes out.) The 'up' arm, of course, because mirrors don't reverse up and down. Now, consider for a moment, isn't the arm that moved on your right (remember, right is up)? The problem isn't that mirrors reverse left and right, it's that we expect them to reverse left and right (the reflection looks like another person, and that other person's right should be to our left, but it isn't) and they don't reverse anything. This is just us, humanizing our own reflections.

We should not attribute human qualities to God, however. Aren't we created in God's image? Yes, in the sense that we are immortal souls, but, unlike God, we have mortal flesh that doesn't always agree with what is best for our souls. Voltaire once commented that, "If God created us in His own image, we have more than reciprocated." There is a certain logic to the idea that if God created us in His own image, then God must look like us, yet, most of what we think of as our defining characteristics aren't common to all of humanity. Some of are fair-complected, others are dark complected, many others are somewhere in-between; so what color is God? Again, God is a Spirit, He is not flesh and blood. We can, and should, trust God, because He is not a man, that He should lie; He is not a man that He should repent (or have anything to repent of, except for creating us). Don't misunderstand me, I know that there are times when God has changed His mind (usually because of something than one or more of us human beings has done), but as far as Him having done something evil and having to repent of that, no, that's never happened.

Silly Questions

Dave Barry once wrote that "a woman is someone who, when asked what is wrong, says, 'Nothing.' A man is someone who, when he asks a woman what is wrong, and she says, "Nothing," believes her.

Really, I think that it is not so much that we believe her. I know that on more than one occasion, I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get a woman who was obviously troubled, to tell me what was wrong, only to come to the conclusion that she wasn't going to tell me until she was ready. So, after exhausting all known methods for extracting information, I decided that is was best to go along with the game and pretend that nothing was bothering her. Apparently, women find it considerably more satisfying to lower the boom on someone who appears not to realize that she is upset. I'm not sure why that is, but that understanding can be a real timesaver.

God sometimes doesn't answer right away, either. Maybe that's where women get it, I don't know. Oftentimes, we pray to God, expecting a yes-or-no response, and the answer we get is, "Wait." And we ask, "For how long?" and we get no response. And a lot of times, when the solution (finally) arrives, we realize that God set the answer in motion before we even asked. Is that because He knew that we would, or just that time is meaningless to God? I'm not sure.

You've probably heard the story about the man who had a conversation with God and was asking silly questions:

"God?"

"Yes, my son?"

"How long is a million years to you?"

"A million years to me is like a second to you."

"Oh. (long pause) God?"

"Yes, my son?"

"How much is a million dollars to you?"

"A million dollars to me is like a penny to you."

"Oh. (long pause) God?"

"Yes, my son?"

"Can I have a penny?"

"Certainly, my son. Just give me a second..."

Money is certainly meaningless to God, and I suspect that time is, too. We know that He knew the end from the beginning; some say that it is because He controls everything, but I believe that He has given us freedom of choice. I believe that God knows everything that will ever happen because He is not constrained by the flow of time the way that we mere mortals are. He can see what is going to happen, without guessing, and without manipulating. Oh, don't misunderstand me, God does manipulate things sometimes, but only for the greater good--and, usually, because one of His children has asked Him to.

The Name of God

God actually has many names. In the Old Testament, the Israelites refused to call God by name at all, for fear of being found guilty of taking the LORD's name in vain. The name that they knew God by, even though they refused to speak it, is usually translated as Jehovah. That's not really a correct translation: The Hebrew word has only four letters, and is referred to as the Tetragrammaton. Properly translated, the Tetragrammaton means, "I Exist" or "I Am", in reference to what God told Moses, when Moses asked, "Who shall I tell Pharaoh hath sent me?"

In the New Testament, however, Jesus tells us that He came in His Father's name. Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus ever use the name, "Jehovah." Further, Paul writes in Ephesians 3:15 that the whole family in Heaven and earth is named for Jesus (or, maybe, he's saying the whole family is named for the Father of Jesus, which would include Jesus as being named for the Father, which would make the Father's name Jesus, also. Sorry about that. I promise not to write anything else that confusing in this post). In Acts 4:10-12, Apostle Peter refers to the name of Jesus, saying that there is none other name under Heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. That makes that name pretty important. In Colossians 3:17, Paul writes that we should do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Interestingly enough, when the angel appeared, he told Jesus' parents to name the child Jesus. Two verses later, it says that the child's name shall be called Emmanuel, meaning God with us. Some have criticised, saying that this is a contradiction. It's not. The angel said to name the child Jesus, but people who later came to know who Jesus actually was called Him Emmanuel (God with us).

The point is, that the family of God has one name, and that name is Jesus. We are called Christians because we follow Jesus, and we try to live the way He did, or at least, the way He would if He were walking around as a flesh-and blood being today. In doing so, we lift Him up, and by lifting Him up, we draw men (and women) unto Him.

The Temple of the Holy Ghost

In First Corinthians 6:19, Paul makes an interesting statement: He tells us that our bodies are each, individually, temples of the Holy Ghost. When I was young in the faith, I had someone try to misread this scripture to me. He was trying to make the point that our souls are spiritual bodies. Not bodies in the sense of flesh and blood, but bodies in the sense that they are self-contained, distinct entities. I couldn't grasp that concept at the time, and some of the things that people said to try to explain it to me really didn't help. Anyway, he said that Paul wasn't talking about our physical bodies, he was talking about our spiritual bodies; he said you could tell, because it says, "...your body, which is in you..." except it doesn't. It says, "..the Holy Ghost, which is in you..." So, even though his point was correct, and my thinking was wrong, the fact that he misused that scripture just further convinced me that I was right, and deepened my confusion.

There are other, similar references: First Corinthians 3:16, 2 Corinthians 6:16... Peter refers to the body as a tabernacle in First Peter chapter 1. Personally, I find it interesting that in First Corinthians, Paul tells us in chapter 3 that our bodies are the temples of God, but in chapter 6, the temples of the Holy Ghost. Jesus also prophesied His resurrection, referring to His own body as a temple in John 2:21. I think that it's important to note that we, as fleshly beings, have a hard time (at best) discerning spiritual things. So the people that walked with Jesus saw His physical body (His temple), but couldn't perceive His Spirit. In John 10:38, Jesus said that the Father was in Him. In Colossians 2:9, we are told that in Christ dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead, bodily. Jesus knew our limitations, and understood, that we, as humans, saw Him as human, with a flesh and blood body much as our own, but we should not worship that flesh, in any form (not the babe in the manger at Christmas, or the thirty-three year old man on the cross at Easter...); we should worship the Spirit of God.

By the way, a little side note, here, I know that a lot of people have taken John 2:21 as a prophesy that must be fulfilled before the Lord returns. Books have been written about how Solomon's temple must be rebuilt before the rapture of the church. Read John chapter 2. It specifically says that it isn't talking about Solomon's temple, it's talking about Jesus' resurrection. "Oh, but I think there are some Old Testament prophesies about the temple being rebuilt, too." Yes, there are, but where was Jesus when He was talking about His temple being rebuilt? Look back up to verse 14: He was in the temple. Actually, the temple has been rebuilt, more than once. Look, I'm not saying that the temple won't be rebuilt (again) before Jesus comes again; what I'm saying is that if you get caught up looking for signs, you may find out that the things that you were looking for have already happened and you haven't noticed them (possibly before you were born, and the people that should have noticed them then, were asleep at the switch). Even if they haven't happened yet, who's to say that you will live until Jesus comes again, anyway? You have no promise of tomorrow, so do your best to be ready today.

God Will Not Share His Glory

I was listening to a song this morning that has a line in it, "You will not share your glory with another." From what I understand, the story behind the song is a little complicated. It was written by a worship leader at a church, after a brief mandated suspension. The pastor felt that the worship team was getting kind of a collective big head, as in, they had a general attitude of 'look what we can do' rather than an attitude of glorifying God. That sort of defeats the purpose of the worship team. Anyway, the pastor talked to them about it, and asked them to take a break from leading worship. During this time, they reflected on their collective attitude, and realized that the pastor was right, and made a commitment to use worship for worship and not for self-promotion. The first several times that I heard the song, I thought that line had to do with the fact that there is no other God but God, but then I heard how the song came about and realized that what they are really saying is that God won't even share His glory with someone making a show of serving Him. You either are serving Him legitimately of a pure heart, giving all honor and glory to Him, or you are serving yourself.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus did a good job of explaining this: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Your light, meaning your example, so shine, that men may see your good works, and glorify your Father. Seems kind of backwards, doesn't it? But it isn't. Remember that we can do nothing of ourselves, so if what we are doing is really good works, then God is the one actually doing the work, anyway (I have blogged about this before). In John 12, Jesus says that if we lift Him up, we will draw others to Him--that's what we, as Christians are supposed to be about, anyway.

Computers, Death, and God

There's a bumper sticker out that says, "We are Microsoft. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." When things like this and this show up in the news on the same day, I really think that bumper sticker is not so funny. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want ads in my applications, even it does allow me to get free Wi-Fi access.
We now have a computer that can play checkers (draughts in the UK) and never lose, and a car with AI.
I'm curious as to how a goddess can sin. Shouldn't their goddess being telling her priests what is, or is not, a sin?
Meanwhile, a couple of thought-provoking things in Newsweek: I See Dead People, and Rabbi Marc Gellman's take on near death experiences. Rabbi Gellman postulates that research into NDE's is dangerous from both a religious and a scientific standpoint. I have read his arguments, and I have to disagree. I don't see any danger to either. Quite frankly, I do think that it is a waste of time and money, but I fail to see the danger. I don't expect that the research will ever find definitive proof one way or the other about the afterlife. That is a matter of faith. There is the idea of placing objects in the ER out of sight of the clinicly dead individual, to see if said individual remembers seeing them in their recollections of their out-of-body experience. Interesting thought, but a good number of NDE'rs don't report seeing the ER from the ceiling, and most of the ones that do are focused on their own bodies, with some attention given to the medical team attempting to revive them. If someone does get revived, and then recalls seeing the number for Dial-A-Prayer written on the top of the ER room light fixture, is that sufficient proof that they had an out-of-body experience? It would be quite a stretch to consider that proof of life after death. I must admit, I have a certain amount of curiosity as to whether the experiences reported by NDE'rs are real, or simply elaborate hallucinations, but, IMHO, it really only matters to the people who went through it.
I do appreciate the fact that Rabbi Gellman states that Genesis tells us why we are here, while Darwin tells us how we are here, and goes on to say that they do not conflict. I'm not entirely sure that they don't conflict, but they can co-exist. The bottom line is that religion tells us that God made the universe, and then made man; science attempts to explain the process by which God did that. I do think that people on both sides tend to get a little too serious. There has been some discussion as to whether the 6 days mentioned in Genesis are literally six twenty-four hour periods of time. It seems to me, that since God didn't create the sun and moon until the fourth day, that isn't talking about a day in the sense of sun-up to sun-rise. Also note that in 2nd Peter 3:8, the scriptures tell us that, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." So, am I saying that creation actually took 6,000 years, instead of six days? No, I'm saying that time, with God, is pretty insignificant, even though, with us, it seems vastly important. 6 days, 6,000 years, 6,000 millennia; it's all the same to God. At the same time, the evolutionists insist that mutations happen randomly, but when a random mutation happens to benefit the species, then the mutant strain becomes dominant. If the mutation is not beneficial, then it quietly fades away. They readily admit that most mutation are harmful. That makes evolution a painfully long process, doesn't it? Quite frankly, the odds against humanity evolving by the process of natural selection would seem to be astronomical, and yet, the evolutionists tell us that this must be the case. Look, it's a theory. Granted, right now, that's the most plausible scientific explanation for how we came to be here that anybody has been able to come up with so far, but it is a long way from being considered scientific fact. Don't get all in an uproar if some people challenge its veracity. I can understand that some people are still upset that Galileo Galilei was placed under house arrest by the church for suggesting that the earth orbited the sun (even though I still haven't found any scripture that contradicts him), but that was a long time ago, by people that didn't like having their beliefs challenged. You should be able to empathize with that.

Does God Really Answer Prayer?

The big news this past week was the death of Ruth Bell Graham, wife of Billy Graham. I just recently heard an interesting quote from her. She said, “If God answered every prayer of mine, I would have married the wrong man seven times.”

I was taught in Sunday School as a kid that God answers every prayer, but sometimes the answer is 'No' and sometimes the answer is 'Not now.' We colored a picture of a traffic light with the green light marked 'Yes,' the yellow light marked 'Wait,' and the red light marked 'No.'

In the movie, "Bruce Almighty," Jim Carey's character is given God's powers for part of Buffalo. This includes hearing and answering prayers. Bruce finds out quickly that there are a lot of people in Buffalo that pray an awful lot. Still being somewhat self-centered, he worries that "this is going to suck up my whole life!" so he simply answers everyone's prayers, "Yes." Soon there is rioting in the streets. And with good reason. (By the way, I avoided seeing this movie for a long time, because it seems to me that Hollywood makes enough fun of religion, and because I think Jim Carey has a bad tendency to go way overboard with his characters.)

There is a quote going around something to the effect that you must be gullible if you believe that God answers prayers, even though he only answers .001% of yours, and the rest of the time, 'it just wasn't God's will.' I think that it's easy to scoff at such things, when you are predominantly looking at quantity, rather than quality. I will admit that most of my prayers are of the "Please let that light stay green until I get through it" variety. And most of those, the answer is a resounding, "No!" Big deal. It's easy for me to look at situations like that and say, "Well, that just wasn't God's will." It's harder, when a loved one is severely sick or injured and one prays for a healing, and the person dies anyway. At the same time, this world would be really overcrowded if God only let people die that nobody was praying for. On the other hand, it's really exhilarating when the doctors have done all they can do, and the church joins together and prays, and that person walks out of the hospital. Granted, that's generally not what happens, but when it does happen, it becomes hard to deny that God answers prayer.

We have a man in our church who, several years ago, had heart problems. His doctor got him on the list for a heart transplant, but it looked like it was going to take awhile. The doctor tried not to talk about what his chances were, but it was pretty clear that the doctor didn't think that he was going to live long enough to get a new heart. We prayed for him as a church. After his next examination, the doctor took him off the transplant list. He said his heart was fine.

I've been healed, myself. I don't really talk about it, because it's kind of silly. To be honest, I was being kind of stupid. But, anyway, here it is: I grew up a very nervous individual. I learned to direct my nervous energy into things that were socially acceptable; things that most people wouldn't find annoying. One of my nervous habits was chewing on the insides of my cheeks. By the time I finally made my personal commitment to follow Christ, I had a line of scar tissue down the insides of both cheeks. One day, I accidentally took a chuck out of my right cheek, about the size of a dime. I suppose I could have gone to the doctor about it, but I was afraid that He was going to pull together the edges of the hole and stitch it up, leaving me with a deformed cheek. Of course, I knew I couldn't just put a band-aid on it. So I prayed about it. The next morning, I woke up with a mouth full of blood. So I prayed some more. And the next morning, I woke up with a mouthful of blood. So I prayed even more. And the next morning, I woke up feeling that something was different. It didn't register right away, but there was no blood in my mouth. When I did realize that I wasn't bleeding, I checked the inside of my right cheek. It was perfectly smooth. Not only was there no hole, but all the scar tissue was gone. I actually tried to convince myself, at the time, that I had not been healed, that I had just healed. After all, it's been three days. But there was a hole there the night before, and it wasn't there that morning. And that wouldn't explain the scar tissue being gone either. It occurred to me that the scar tissue has had years to heal, so I checked my left cheek. The scar tissue was still there on that side of my mouth. Now I know I've been healed. I prayed a little bit more, just telling God that I felt stupid with scar tissue on one side of my mouth. A few days later, the scar tissue on the left side of my mouth disappeared.

So, okay, it's kind of a silly story, it's not nearly as impressive as the guy waiting for the heart transplant that suddenly didn't need it anymore, but this happened to me. How can I doubt that God answers prayer (even if the answer to most of my prayers is "No.")?