Sin, part 1: why is there so much crap in the world?

Sin. The word we do not speak of. Which is actually the reason this world is in the state its in. Sad thing is, a majority of people who call themselves “born-again Christians” are living their every day life as if they are actually atheists. Think about that statement for a second…  Atheists believe in nothing bigger than themselves, so they obviously must have no fear because they have no authority figure. As Christians, we know God is much, MUCH bigger than ourselves, so why are we living a hunky-dory life filled with sin, having no concern of the future judgment we ‘believe’ in? Sin. Let’s speak of it.

 

1.) FREE-WILL

• Everyone has heard of ‘free will’. The idea is that from the very beginning, God intended for this world to be filled with nothing but His glory, meaning His creations all living for Him, everything the way He planned it, and all within His perfect Will. This meant NO sin, ever. No shootings, no evil. No pain, physical nor emotional. No death. Everything complete in perfection. Earth was meant to be the only heaven we would ever need. A place we could cuddle with lions and never have to count a calorie. Wouldn’t that have been grand! Well, back to the idea of free will. Because God created us in His image (Genesis 1:27),  He gave us freedom. The same way we have the choice today to indulge in personal sin or to not. So yes, God knew beforehand that Adam and Eve would sin. He knows all, before we even make the decision to sin. But He did give us free-will to choose. It’s up to US to live our life according to Him and when we sin, we are so blessed with this thing called conviction that allows us to choose ‘rebounding’. We are to confess that sin to Him (not priests- if you have questions about this, please contact us) and we are then back in His Presence and are to learn from that and move on. His forgiveness for us is based on nothing but MERCY! Gosh, lucky us.

 

2.) YOUR DREAM HOME… FOR FREE!

• Imagine being placed in front of a brand new, GORGEOUS, cotton white two-story home with a perfectly dreamy wrap-around porch (rocking chairs, blue shutters and all), flawlessly plopped on 10 acres. We can get even more creative here… Walk around back and there awaiting you is a cascading rock waterfall pool, a twisting slide coming from the fascinating treehouse above your head, a humongo already hot Jacuzzi tub, surrounding outdoor television screens, a trampoline, and my personal favorite, the 100-year old oak, dropping a shiny new tire swing. Continue on with the tour and there’s a brand new hot rod sitting in the huge garage, a fully stocked pantry in the cozy custom made kitchen, and (remember this is my dream) a FULLY-STOCKED, well-lit, organized craft room. I’m talking PERFECT! So then you’re told its yours! No bills… no mortgage… just live in this dream home with the love of your life, no need to work because its already paid for; just start discovering your hobbies and favorite past times and get to living! Uhhh… okay…? Sooo, what’s the catch? But, there is none. There is one small rule though, but trust me, this one rule is not going to even slightly hinder your happiness here. There’s one itsy bitsy closet in the attic you are not allowed in. Don’t worry though, there is nothing in there for you anyway, plus.. look at everything you’ve been given, for FREE, no strings attached! Who needs the measly little closet anyway? We probably cannot even imagine this perfection because it seems so far from reality.

 

3.) INSTEAD, THEY CHOSE PRIDE

• Well, that was exactly what Adam and Eve were given and believe it or not, were STILL unsatisfied. When God placed the two of them in the Garden of Eden, they were told they could not eat the fruit from ONE tree, among the thousands, maybe even millions, they could choose from. When the nasty serpent slithered his way in, he finally had the opportunity he had been long awaiting for quite some time. He was now ready to move in on them, beginning his attack on God that he is still running rampant with today. He was ready to start deceiving mankind, and he knew exactly what to lure them in with. By eating the fruit from that one tree that God told them not to, Satan told them they could become equal to God. Here came to be the newly discovered emotion that is the pit of our world’s evil: pride. With that one decision, the only restriction imposed upon them at their creation, they chose sin. It didn’t matter WHY they were given this rule. It just mattered that they were. In that moment, they chose their fate, and because of that, everything had to be changed.

 

Genesis 3:16-19:

Then God said to the woman,

“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth.

And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.”

And to the man He said,

“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you.

All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.

By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made.

For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”

 

Sooo… thanks a lot Eve. I mean Adam, too, but after all… if I have a baby, it will be my rage towards Eve regarding Genesis 3:16 I’ll be screaming about during those pains.

 

So there we have it, the introduction of sin that is cause to the state of the world we live in today. The next few parts of this ‘sin’ section will further explain these questions many are probably stumped about:

 

• If God is all-powerful, couldn’t He have made a way to void all of this and give us a do over?
• Why am I still being punished for Adam and Eve’s sin?
• So, what now? Is there any sort of way around this; hope despite being able to live a sinless life? Forgiveness?

 

Until the next post,

C

Part 3: Who is God, anyway?

God.

I believe there are probably lots of people that have a very specific picture in their minds when they think of “God”.

For some, maybe that picture is of an intimidating old man, looking a lot like King Triton. For the clueless out there, that’s Ariel’s dad. Yes, like the Little Mermaid. Ariel. Sure, they see, A big strong man. But, Perhaps more than that, they see the scary beard, the power and authority in the crown that is bound to produce arrogance. but mostly, they see the scary, pointy, weapon he’s always holding. I mean…That trident is pretty scary. What’s the purpose of that thing anyway? Just to be all high and mighty and threatening? Sadly, that is exactly the vision of God they have stored in their mind. (well– Minus those insane abs).

Okay, so maybe that’s just the vision I used to have of Him.

So maybe you still see an old guy, but in a totally different way. Maybe what you envision is the elderly man buried underneath a heavy, white flowing toga. Maybe you visualize that same old white-bearded man perched high atop an elaborate golden throne with chubby, naked cherubs bouncing around His head feeding Him grapes and massaging His feet to the sound of glorious notes floating out of a giant harp. It is possible it may go even further for you! Maybe you picture this scene I’ve described, but He’s got a giant Mac-Book sitting in His lap. (Whether or not heaven has Mac-Books- still in question.) So the computer game, The Sims is open on His screen. We are the Sims and there He sits, toying with those measly little hearts of ours, allll at His disposal. There He sits, controlling our situations, and often times, curls over with all his angel friends, roaring in laughter at the situations he puts us in just waiting to see just how we are gonna get ourselves out of this one!

Us. His tributes in His custom made Hunger Games, in the arena called earth. all for His own sick form of entertainment. If any of these are some sort of way your mind has come to see God, listen verrrryyy carefully, now. . .

YOU. ARE. NOT. ALONE.

(obviously.)

Here’s the thing: To grasp the concept of God and who He is, along with all of His majesty, mysteriousness, omnipresence, etc. etc., is not a slice of pie for most people. And when I say most people, I mean basically everyone. As a matter of fact, our human brain was not even made with the capability of understanding even close, the fullness of God’s wonder. I believe this was pretty dang smart on His part, because truthfully, if we could understand that in its completeness, we couldn’t function. We would all just be falling flat on our faces in awe everywhere we went.

• So Creation happened; we were made in His image. We will talk later about what exactly that means.

• Adam and Eve and the doggone enemy enter the picture. Ruin things. We’ll talk more about those jerks later. But because of their mess-up, sin appears. From then on out, humans can no longer live out the perfect, overly-abounding-in-joy-life that God originally intended for us. This will be clarified later, too. – questions you’re probably thinking like… “if God is God, why didn’t He just reverse things or give us a clean slate?” There is an answer, promise.

• Low and behold… enter the Hero. The Cross. The sacrifice given by our forgiving and merciful God gives us who believe, surrender, and commit, a happy ending. The HAPPIEST of endings.

I will let you in on a little ‘secret that is actually not a secret at all: once we begin to seek a relationship with Him more and more, our eyes begin to shed the scales that the world has caked over them. When you allow that to start happening, although His LOVE for you is something of great magnitude and depth, you are going to begin grasping its realness without effort. So now, while the whole ‘God thing’ may be a foreign language to you, as you go deeper and deeper, it all will start making much more sense.

And I will tell you from experience: Once that starts to happen, you just can’t get enough.

“Sims” images from:

http://www.the-beheld.com/2011/08/whats-in-your-bag-revisited-sims-my.html

http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Gravestone

http://gothsanity.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html