Wednesday, March 7, 2012

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