For the purpose of this discussion, let's set aside for a moment the argument about whether or not the Bible is literally accurate.  Instead, let's assume that some biblical stories are metaphor.  I know it sounds heretical, and I don't personally believe it, but for this discussion, let's assume that some of the stories are metaphorical life lessons.  I just don't want you to get distracted from the point of this post.   We can debate later about biblical accuracy.

We humans are funny creatures. 

Adam and Eve had it all.  They had everything that they needed.  God, the supreme Creator of the universe, created them and provided for them as only their Creator could.  He knew what they needed.  He knew what was best for them.  And until the serpent came along, they thought they had everything that they wanted. 

But Satan came along and planted a little seed of doubt.  "Surely God didn't mean that you couldn't eat fruit from that tree, did He? That makes no sense.  Why would God create a tree for you, if He didn't want you to eat from it?  You know what?   I'll bet He's worried that you will become as powerful as He is.  Yeah, that's it.  He doesn't care if you eat the fruit- He just doesn't want you to have what He has." 

And blah, blah, blah.

A number of generations later, God has freed the nation of Israel from Egyptian slavery.  Formerly slaves and at the very bottom rung of the hierarchy, now, they were free.  God had delivered them from Pharoah and his army.  God parted the Red Sea, allowed Israel to cross, and closed it back up on top of the Egyptian army.   They didn't even have to worry that Pharoah would come after them.  God had taken care of them.

As part of their Exodus to the Promised Land, God provided them with a heavenly food, called "manna" to eat.  Manna doesn't exist today, but based upon the biblical description, it appears to be a flour or meal of sort, from which cakes were made.  It may not have been prime rib, but it was what they needed to survive.  God had instructed them not to store any of it.  Instead He would  provide for them on a daily basis. 

It wasn't enough.  Eventually, the Israelites complained to their leader Moses.  They were sick of manna.  But some of them decided that they would save it, just in case.  "What if God skips a day with the manna?  How will I feed my family?  What if He doesn't give me enough?  I should save some up, just in case.  Sure, He said for us not to do it.  But He couldn't have really meant it.  Who does He think He is anyway, God?"

And blah, blah, blah.

We might read these stories and say, "I would never do that.  If God told me to do something, of course I would obey Him."  We might look at the Israelites as prideful and foolish.  After all, how smart is it to disobey God?

Here's the point.  We all do exactly the same thing.  We do what the nation of Israel did, time and time again.  God provides exactly what we need, but it isn't enough.  We have to take matters into our own hands, just in case He doesn't. 

God wants one thing from us.  He wants us to have faith in Him.  If we have faith in Him, the rest of it- obedience, resisting temptation, loving others, dealing with all the bad stuff- anger, lust, gluttony, you name it; it will all take care of itself.

I do it every day.  Actually, I'm kidding myself.  I do it every hour.  Maybe even that is an exaggeration.  I fall out of faith and turn to myself to deal with something, about every ten seconds. 

The hardest thing to do, but the most important thing we can do is to remain in a faith relationship with God.  We have faith in His plan.  His plan required His Son to be sacrificed for the sins of all mankind.  We have faith that Jesus paid the price, for every single sin I have committed and ever will.  That faith frees us up to have faith in God for every single step that we take, from that point forward.  If our sins are forgiven, and our eternal salvation is assured, then the rest of our lives are simple window dressing by comparison.  Sure, we want to live as He wants us to live while were here on Earth for 70 or 80 years (assuming that we die of natural causes).  But in the grand scheme of things, our eternal life with Him, makes this life pretty unimportant, by comparison. 

So we respond in gratitude to Him.  We live as He wants us to live.  We read His word and pray to Him, to try and discern how He wants us to live.  And we try to do it every single second of every single day.

Anything else is like Adam and Eve.  Or, it's like the wandering nation of Israel, grumbling about manna.

And blah, blah, blah.

You are probably familiar with the story of Jesus walking on water.  It's one of those stories that many people think of as a metaphor.  The term "Walking on water," is used as shorthand for someone who is pretty close to perfect.  

But if you read the account in the fourteenth chapter of Mark, it goes a bit deeper than that (no pun intended).   Jesus' disciples had taken a boat across the sea of Galilee.  Incredibly, they see someone walking across the sea.  Peter was apparently unsure that this was in fact Jesus. He was clearly afraid.  He said that if it is really Jesus, then he should tell him to step out of the boat and come to him.  [1]  Jesus told him to come.[2]  Peter stepped out of the boat onto the water.[3]  

Peter had good reason to fear.  At its deepest depth, the Sea of Galilee is about 150 feet.  Imagiine yourself in this situation.  The feeling beneath your feet is almost surreal, not exactly like standing on  solid ground but more of a mushy feeling, sort of like foam rubber.  This  feeling is nothing like you have ever felt before. Maybe, you think, I am  dreaming.

Thanks to your impulsive exuberance, you find yourself standing in the middle of  the Sea of Galilee during a violent storm. You are buffeted by waves and soaked to the skin.  Perhaps a lightning bolt  flashes, followed by the loud rumble of thunder.  Suddenly, the weird  feeling of firmament beneath your feet gives way.  

Water is  up to your knees and you are sinking  quickly.The boat is now far behind  you.  There is no way that you can reach it to save yourself.   What have I  done, you think,  I am going to drown.  What a stupid way for it to  end.    

At that moment, Peter’s faith enabled him to overcome his fear.  And for a moment, Peter walked on the water![4]  However, the howling winds and enormity of his situation got the best of Peter.[5]  He again was terrified and cried out to Jesus to save him.[6]

And frequently, this is exactly  how many Christians respond to fear and worry.  Initially, we trust the Lord with the issue.  We give the problem to  Him.  However, when the problem is  not solved according to our schedule or plan, we begin to doubt.   We allow Satan to whisper his lies to us.   Perhaps the Lord didn’t hear my prayer.  Or, perhaps He thought my prayer was  self-interested and unimportant. 
Or perhaps the Lord’s will is for me to suffer. 

We are so close to this threatening forest that we cannot see the
trees.

 Anytime we are faced with a fear that threatens to compromise our  faith,  we should declare that:  “I will  not sink.”  We should think of Peter,  exuberant and faithful, stepping out of the boat towards Jesus.   Had he continued to his destination in faith, unwavering and  unintimidated, there is no doubt that he would not have begun to sink.  We need to develop an intellectual  alarm that sounds whenever we begin to feel afraid.  As soon as it happens, we remind ourselves that through faith anything is  possible, including resolution of the threat at hand.  
 
Once you give a fear or worry to the Lord, don’t take it back.   He has heard your prayer.   He will deal with the issue, often in ways that we could never have
imagined.  Don’t allow Satan to  fool you into believing that the issue is not important enough for God, or that  God expects you to do something else.   Continue to pray and listen for God’s response.   Above all else, let it go and quit worrying about it.

I will not sink.
 
 
[1] Matthew 14.


 
[2]Id..



[3]Id.



[4]Id.



[5]Id.



[6]Id.

I'm beginning to think that jealousy, envy and bitterness are the most destructive emotions a person can have.  It's so easy to fall into the trap.  Life is hard.  There are so many disappointments.  And the older we get, the more we begin to realize that we've only got so much time left.  One by one, we begin to write off the dreams of our youth. 

We look back on our mistakes.  That one bad turn we made twenty years ago has turned into a labyrinth of disappointment.  "If only I hadn't . . . . .", we think; or "If only I had . . . . ".  And then, there are those fortunate ones.  They are the people who have it made.  For every wrong move we made, they made three right ones.

We think, it's not fair.  I deserve better.  Somehow, the self-dialogue takes on a different character.  It becomes envy.  And the envy becomes hatred.  We begin to believe the lies whispered from the darkness.  It's like some evil yeast, fermenting in our hearts.  It grows and grows until we are consumed with bitterness.  And the pain is almost unbearable.

But here's the thing.  We've all only got a few years in this life, especially when you compare it to the timeline of eternity.  When we die, that's the end of the pain, at least in this life.  The things that we have (or don't have), as compared with those of others is immediately irrelevant.  You can't take your BMW, or your nice house with you.  You can't take your prestigious career with you.  You can't take your body with you.  And yes, even your family stays behind (at least until they reach the end as well).

And by the way, the folks that you were so envious of face the same thing.   We all go through the same gate.

So, whatever you are going through in this life is, relatively speaking, unimportant.  All of your problems will be solved soon, relatively speaking.  Conversely, your eternity becomes, relatively speaking, extremely important.

This raises the question of exactly how you will plan for your eternity.  Forget the last will and testament, and the side-by-side cemetery plots.  Even those are temporary.  Instead, think about what your options are and which one you will exercise.  They are all mutually exclusive.  Unlike the market, you can't hedge your bets.  You can only pick one.  One option is to do nothing and hope for the best.  Another option (which I many people choose by default) is to hope that your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, and that there is some sort of cosmic tally being kept.  The third option is simply to open up a Bible and begin reading.

It doesn't matter what preconceptions you have.  It doesn't matter if you have a real problem with religion.  All that matters is that you simple open it and begin reading it at the beginning.  The Bible purports to tell you what you need to do to make it through that eternal gate.  You can decide for yourself whether it makes sense for you.  A caveat: the Bible isn't an easy read, like many of the "fast food" books found today, purporting to provide spiritual insight.  You may have to wrestle with it a bit.  But if you do it with an open mind and heart, I think you will find what you are looking for.

And, by the way, if you find what you are looking for,  it might even help with all the other stuff.

My daughter Meredith was in kindergarten in 2008, the same year of the presidential election.  She came home from school one day in early November, very excited.  "Daddy, we voted for the president!", she exclaimed.  Her school had held a mock election, to give the kids a fun and practical civics lesson. 

I asked Meredith who she voted for.  She replied, "Marack Obana," which I thought was a pretty good facsimile of the candidate's name for a six-year old.  I then asked why she voted for him.   I'm not sure what I was expecting.  I know it wasn't, "Because his economic policies will ensure future economic security," or "I really like his stance on Afghanistan."  But her answer still caught me off guard.  In her sweet little voice, she declared very seriously, "He had the best smile."  I thought about it for a minute and had to agree with her.  If the choice of presidents was based upon the relative smiles of the candidates, Obama would be pretty hard to beat.  The guy had a great smile.

And as I thought about it, I realized that her comment was actually pretty insightful.   A lot of people would likely vote for Obama because he was more youthful, better-looking and simply projected better than his rival.  In America, many people consistently vote based upon what is referred to as the "party line."  If we view ourselves as Republicans, we tend to vote for Republicans.  And we tend to forumulate our opinions about things based upon what the news folks tell us, good or bad and depending upon how our political views jive with theirs.  In other words, we make decisions based upon someone else's opinion, rather than digging in and doing the research ourselves.  We vote, a very important decision, based upon unmeaningful criteria.

If you voted in the 2008 election, think about it.  Did you research either candidate's congressional records?  Did you review any of their writings, speeches or other materials which could reveal their consistency on issues?  Did you develop your opinion based upon any firsthand, direct information?  I'll confess that I didn't.  I'll further confess that my mind was pretty much made up long before the election, simply based upon my own preconceived notions.

And of course, we know what happens when we make decisions this way.  We can make bad decisions.  We shortchange ourselves.  And often, we later regret those decisions.

Which brings me to the point.  And it's an entirely different point, but it stems from making a decision without having all the facts.  Or making a decision, based upon someone else's opinion.  I'm talking about making a decision about God.

Certainly, you may not at this moment feel compelled to make any decision about God.  Your life is pretty good.  You don't see anything problematic on the horizon.  So, why not just keep cruising along in life as you are?  The issue is that, sooner or later, we are all faced with either a crisis in this life that cannot be resolved by natural means.  Maybe it's that call from the doctor's office with the biopsy results.  Maybe it's the loss of a job, or worse, a loved one.  But eventually, something will happen to you that will force you to face the fact that you only have so many years on this planet.  And once you do, you have to decide whether there is anything after.  Do you simply die and that's it?  Or does something else happen.

A decision not to decide is a decision in and of itself.  And a lot of people make a default decision about God.  They decide by default that God isn't really in control of things.  They come to believe that God didn't really create the heavens, the earth or mankind.  They aren't really athiests, but they don't really want to believe in the God of the Bible.

The problem is that they make this decision without really understanding the source document itself.  The make a decision, based upon what they've heard from others. Sort of like Meredith, they voted based upon a criteria that at least to an adult, didn't mean very much.  And like many adults, they decided without digging in and formulating their own opinion.  They didn't actually read the Book itself.

The Bible puts forth God's story.  For now, if it makes you feel better, let's refer to it a "theory" of who God is and what He wants from us.  There are several central components to this theory.  The first component is that God created everything.  The second is that God created mankind as a loving act.  The third is that He sought to have a relationship with mankind, but mankind rebelled against its Creator.  And the final chapter describes how God remedied this rift once and for all.  It's a pretty fantastic finale- God sends His Son, in human form, to teach mankind about Him and ultimately to pay a price so that mankind could have a relationship with Him forever.

If you've made a reasonable effort to read the Bible and compared it's characterization of God with your own life, and concluded that it is a book of fables, then so be it (I'm talking about beginning with Genesis and reading it all the way through to Revelations).  I applaud your initiative and respect your conclusion.  You came to this conclusion based upon the facts and derived your opinion about the Bible's validity based upon those facts.  You are entitled to your opinion.

But if you have come to a conclusion about God without an earnest effort to read the Bible, I would respectfully suggest that you reconsider.  If the Bible is accurate, it describes an eternal and everlasting consequence of your conclusion.  For that reason alone, it's worth careful consideration.  And if the Bible isn't accurate, then the most you've lost is your investment of time to read it. 

I have to agree that "Marack" has a great smile.  And if I were six, I'd likely vote for him on that basis alone.  But I'm not six and I owe it to myself, my family and my country to vote for him, or someone else, for reasons beyond his apparently excellent dental hygiene.  Instead, I need make an informed decision.  Similarly, when it comes to deciding who God is, my decision should be based upon more than a superficial understanding, without having invested any time in the literature that purports to explain it.

What if Heaven was like a hospital?  The hospital is filled will all kinds of sick people.  Some of the patients are seriously ill.  These people have cancer.  The hospital does all that it can to treat them.  Doctors administer chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  In some cases, radical surgery is necessary.   Organs are removed in order to give these victims a chance at life.  But nothing seems to be working.  The cancer simply and relentlessly keeps coming back. 

Eventually, the patients grow weary of the exhausting and debilitating treatments.  They begin to give up hope.  For them, life ibecomes a constant state of dread, sadness and worry.

But one day, something miraculous happens.  On that day, every single patient is cured of cancer.  Through testing, the doctors confirm it.  Each one of the doomed people is now somehow and inexplicably cancer-free.

Imagine how these formerly terminal patients would feel.  They have been given new lives.  Hopelessness is replaced with an incredible sense of joy and wonder.  Now think about their problems.  They probably still have mortgages and car payments.   People still cut them off in traffic and conversations.  There lives are, in a way, exactly the same as they were before their illness.  They still have problems, worry and fears.

But something has changed.  Their problems just don't seem the same as they did before, in comparison with what they were facing when they were sick. They find themselves willing to forgive others more readily.  In a way, they won a lottery of sorts and everything else pales in comparision.  They didn't do anything to earn their healing.  It was a miraculous free gift.

What if you were suddenly given a similar gift?  But instead of being a gift of life, it was a gift of eternal life.   What if Someone gave you a free ticket to an eternal life of happiness, comfort and peace in an almost indescribably wonderful setting?

Chances are, the things of this life would concern you less.  You would probably realize that, relatively speaking, you would have only a few years left here on Earth.  You would most likely begin to anticipate your afterlife.  When people cut you off in traffic, or in the middle of a sentence, you wouldn't mind as much.  You would probably put it all into an eternal perspective.  Knowing that your eternal destiny was assured, you wouldn't sweat the small stuff, or much of anything else for that matter.

One other thing:  if this happened to you, you probably wouldn't be able to contain yourself.  You would feel compelled to share this almost too good to be true news with others. You'd  want them to take advantage of this free gift..

What if?

What if Heaven was like a train station?  All day long, passengers come and go.  Conductors announce departures and people scurry to get onboard.   Everyone is so caught up in the events of the moment, that they get on and off trains without even thinking about it.

As the day draws to a close, there are some passengers remaining.  They aren't in any rush to catch their trains because they think that they have plenty of time.  If they miss one, there will be several more later.  Some people are busy with important telephone conversations.  Others are napping before their departure, with the confidence of knowing that their trains won't leave for hours.  Still others are grabbing a bite of dinner at the concession or a cocktail at the bar.

And suddenly, it's midnight.  It happens without any warning.  The remaining passengers look around and realize that they are the only ones left in the station.  It seems so much larger, now that most of the people have gone.  One of the napping passengers wakes with a start and looks around.  The station has changed, in what seemed like an instant.  Once hustling and bustling with activity, now it seems empty and foreboding. 

The passengers make their way to the departure platform.  Every destination on the board is now black.  There aren't any more trains leaving.  The passengers look around helplessly.  The hadn't expected this.  There are no more trains.

Ever since the very beginning, God has beckoned mankind to join Him.  He did it throughout the Old Testament.  And in the New Testament, He paid mankind a personal visit, in the form of a Man.  He fed people.  And He healed them.  He had friends.  And he told them that eventually, He would have to die in order to fulfill all righteousness.  He would be sacrificed for the sins of all mankind.  It was His gift.  For the first time, mankind would have a choice.  Rather than slaughtering animals in vain efforts to somehow make themselves right with God, man could simply accept the gift through faith in Him.

What will happen to you if the train leaves next month?  What if it happens tonight?  Do you plan to be with Him?  Do you know how?

I would think the lonliest feeling imaginable would be to wake up in the train station and realize that there would be no more trains.  Ever.   And any chance you had of getting home is gone forever.

If you don't know how to make that trip, there are plenty of people who can tell you how.  Churches are filled with them.  And I'd be happy to explain it to you as well.  Just send me a message through the contact form on this website.