God Knows What is in Store of Us: It is Good

He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. (Rev. 21:6)

I really have not written as much as I like here and hope to increase my posts as my time frees up. But my real reason for the blog is to help my spiritual and education growth by actually putting my ideas down in an organized fashion. My ideas are, in most cases, not original, but it helps my journey.

Over the last few years, I have been pondering fate. I acknowledge that God is omnipotent, but does he know the future and is this future set in stone? The obvious response is, “Of course! He is God and as such is all knowing – perfect.” Yet, does this not contradict our understanding that God has given us free will, our opportunity to choose our actions even then they are against the Will of God? If our actions are predestined, how much free will do we actually have? A known future means our will has already been decided…where is this freedom supposed to be? Over this time I have tried to rationalize this idea that while God has the ability to know the future, he also has the ability to not know the future by choice so that he could grant us ultimate free will. Yet, as I read through the Bible from beginning to end, I cannot reconcile this idea because of the vast amount of prophesy proliferated throughout the text. Hmmm.

This Sunday during our Sunday School session called W.A.I.T.T. (We’re All In This Together), the topic was grazed upon while we were discussing Leviticus. I really cannot remember how were arrived there, but we mentioned God’s awesome power and how he can see all and know all. He knows the future of us getting to the Promised Land and knowing what laws we need and when we need them. He already has this whole thing planned out. Suddenly, it was like the heavens opened up and clarity shined down upon me. I pray that everyone can experience this feeling at some time. It was a mixture and excitement, warmth, and peace all wrapped up into one. God does know the future, does acknowledge it, and the future is amazing; it is just a matter of time. He knows that we will succeed and we will Love in a Christ-like manner – we will eventually win over sin (Hmmm…T-shirt idea?). Humans using their own free will shall walk in the Kingdom of God as Kingdom People. This will apply to all humans as they realize the Power, Love, and Peace of Christ. It is the one of the most spiritual and optimistic moments I have had in my life.

God is Love and all of God’s actions originate out of Love. God as the Alpha created us out of Love, and it was great. We, as humans, screwed that up right away and turned to sin. We, out of our divinely given gift of free will, tarnished the first pure Love given to us. As such, we turned to jealousy, violence, etc. Then, God gave us Jesus out of Love for his people, the embodiment of Himself as a human, and created the mold of the perfect person that all of us need to imitate to purely walk as Kingdom People. So, we did what we humans tend to do with gifts as pure as this; we turned to our old friends, jealousy and violence. We crucified our Lord, who in turned slapped us back with his Love and that Love is what has saved us from our sins. Yet, we continue to fight wars based out of jealousy. Have we learned anything?

Don’t fret because God still has the last turn as the Omega. God is Love; God only acts out of Love; and as such the end will be Love. Therefore, God has already foretold us our best prophesy, that the end of days will be basked in Love. God knows already that humans will eventually “get it.” We will figure out one day that jealousy and violence only begets more jealousy and violence. The vicious cycle is continual and helps no one. At that point, we will turn to the Love of God waiting for us to embrace it. God’s promise is that it will still be there for us when we are ready for it…this is our Salvation. God does know the future, and we win. No matter how much we hate…fight…blastphemize…and stray from the Word, God knows that we will eventually get it right. We were created out of Love in God’s image and as such we will end in Love. God knows that our free will cause us to make wrong turns, but God also knows that our same free will brings us back to him – we just need to stay true to the journey. How uplifting is that!

Peace, Love, and Joy

Sam

Searching...

Searching…

I have spent a lot of time lately searching. Searching for what? I am not too sure. An answer of some sort I guess, the problem is that I really do not know the question (O.K., no Hitchhiker Guide jokes out there!). I want something to tell me it all in one simple format, and it needs to make sense to me. In science, there is the search for the “Everything Formula,” all of the secrets of the universe, wrapped up into a neat package. In literature, there is the perfect “Great American Novel,” one of struggle and failure, but perseverance and self-awareness conquers all. It inspires change in all and speaks to every reader. It is a unanimous selection as the best. In sports, there is the search for the “Dream Team,” a team of modern and classical players that not only were the best at their position, but would work perfectly as a team. I want my Christian “Everything Formula,” “Great American Novel,” or “Dream Team.” I want something to stand out and scream at me, “I am the answer and this is why!” Where are you?

My relationship with Christ has always been faithful. Growing up in a very “milk toast” community, God was just assumed to be there. I attended a Christian pre-school, prayed before dinner, but never attended church on any regular basis nor did we read the bible at home. Then, my good friend at the time invited me to a church based group called Awana. Even though I was Christened in the Lutheran Church, I felt compelled during this meeting to raise my hand to say I did not have a relationship with Jesus. That night, I truly met God with this group of youth leaders and confessed my faith and accepted Jesus into my heart. I was an emotionally awesome moment for me that I will never forget. As a 12 year old, I cried after my acceptance, and I felt great about it. I would love to say that my life was completely changed from this point, but I would be lying. True, I received my first bible for Christmas that year and tried to read it…failed. True, I began attending church with my friend on occasion, but on my own…failed. Many times I have been given perfect opportunities to disciple Christ to others…failed. While it was definitely a dramatic change in my life; I thought that accepting Christ as my Lord and Savior was supposed to solve all of my problems. Try again.

Fast forward a bit…the college years. During this time, I was a very conservative, right wing republican. You know…for God and County. Yeah, that type. I did not attend church, but still had my Student Bible and actually read a little bit now and again…the good parts (Genesis…Jesus…Revelations). Still, I was more interested in politics and how religion fit into that mold and not the other way around. It was simple…America is God’s country. So, when you think you know everything, life has a way of turning things on its head – I met a girl. To kill the suspense, she is now my wife. She was not too different from me, actually. We both knew Jesus as our Lord and Savior, pretty conservative, white picket fences, 2.5 kids, yadda, yadda, yadda. Yet, she WAS an avid church goer growing up…and her heart ached to go back. So, we began going to our current church home, and THAT is what has changed my life. The friends we met there are more family than friends – this is truly home. I have served on the Church Council, Bell Choir, Vocal Choir (they must have been VERY desperate), and I even teach a Sunday School class (again, they must be pretty desperate). My whole life basically revolves around church, family, and work, in no particular order. In fact, my whole world view is different than before and I consider myself much more socially liberal than I ever thought possible. With a consistent fiscal conservative nature of a banker, I am more Libertarian than anything. I feel that Jesus’ Love for us is perfect and the only way we can show appreciation for that love is to pass it along to all we know, friend or foe. Yet, something is still missing…an answer…THE answer.

This brings me to today. I continually scour the internet for blogs, articles, book suggestions that have the answer (think Matrix...kind of). There are thousands of different interpretations of the intentions of various passages in the Bible. Is there a Hell? What do we do about Gay Marriage? Islamic extremist terrorists want to kill us, is a good offense our best defense? Why did God create us, what was His motivation. Is God actually a He? Intelligent design? 7 days or billions of years? AAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Someone has the answer that make rational sense to me, I just have to keep looking.

Then tonight I had what a friend of mine would call a “God Winking Moment.” He told me, “Stop asking.” He directed my thoughts to what I have been studying in Genesis and Exodus – God’s plan can never be understood by us and we are just wasting our precious time trying to figure it out. Plus, in the end, it does not matter because He will always love me and take care of me because I am his faithful servant. Exodus 33:19 reads:

And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

In other words, stop worrying about the details, God has it figured out for me already. All I need to do is have faith in Him and follow his word – God is the judge, not me.

Like that night at Awana, I feel like this is a changing point in my faith journey. While I may stub my toe again or may lose my way, I will never be the same Christian again. Praise be to God. Peace and Love Forever.