Deceptions

Clearly others often try to deceive us, buy a car.  Interestingly, deceiving ourselves is also something we can do.  The sign for that is excuses- justifications of behaviors with blame usually applied to someone or something else.

So who can we trust?  Parents? - what if they have deceived themselves and in the process of raising their children with the very best of intentions are in fact deceiving their children.  It happens.

Can we trust others?

Can we trust self?

The only one we can trust tis our Creator who knows the beginning from the end and is ever present.  The good news is, he wants relationship to us.  He wants us to get to know Him.

Come quickly.

Imagine

Imagine a world where people don't look out for number 1. They let others do it for them. In fact if we concentrate our efforts into looking out for those in our lives, we won't have time to worry about what is happening to us.

Who are we that makes us special? That makes us rank above anyone else in the world? - answer nothing.

If we concentrate on meeting the needs of others and not worrying about our own - will we be taken advantage of by others? Almost assuredly, there are people with a self focus that will take advantage of others. They aren't better than us, or more deserving they just don't know any better.

I believe a world where we look out for others is the world God intended. After all Eve was a "help meet" for Adam, her job was to help meet his needs. Not think about her own. Adam recognized Eve as being a part of himself, the part that he should concentrate on meeting her needs. What a beautiful thing God created. As people we are to look out for the needs of others rather than our own.

If you think we do OK in that area currently, look around. Look in slums, countries where people die of starvation, and quit kidding yourself. Quit justifying your own selfishness.

the world's problems

I can't help but think that all the world's problems are a result of our human selfishness. Its easy to point fingers at others, but how is our personal relationship to our Creator. After all we didn't create ourselves.

A lot of people wonder why God lets "bad things happen". The reality is that we make those things happen through our selfishness. When we have relationship with Him, He watches and keeps us. When we do our own thing He turns away, and that is all He has to do. He has created things to go in the manner He desires since he made it all. When we deny Him in favor of our plan, and go against His plan, what do we expect will happen???????

In our powerlessness and selfishness in the reality we blame God, rather than considering our own state or our own part in it.

Thoughts

The Bible is a representation of God's heart. These will be random thoughts, but they are ones that have pressed on my mind of late.

We are truly wicked, and by that as people we put ourselves first, our wants and what we think is our needs. When we do this, we are in sin. We should put others ahead of the things of this world. Money is a thing of this world and yet we constantly put our finances ahead of serving others, or use money as an excuse for why people have to suffer. In the safety course I'm teaching lack of funding is often cited as the reason that things aren't as safe as they could be. The great OSHA feels underfunded, so they can't do what they feel like they should. Money ahead of people is sin. God teaches in His word a better way, and its free. We should put the needs of others above our own. We should serve others, and focus on what we can do to meet their needs.

Imagine a world where that is done. People concerned with making sure others have a dry warm place to sleep, plumbing, food. Instead of the self focus we often see where "our home is our castle". We often justify our actions by saying our work ethic is somehow better than another's. Now we are comparing ourselves and we are becoming a respecter of men. God isn't.

We as people tend toward selfishness, wanting our way, wanting ease, looking for the path with the most return for the least amount of effort. Self focused. What we don't realize and we should probably be made aware of is that any good we ever do, any unselfish act, is not out of any goodness we have but rather it is Christ shining out of us in some way. We can let Christ shine through us in some areas and be completely selfish and un-Christ like in others. Since without Christ we are selfish and wicked, then what do we deserve? What is just for us? We have it usually far better than any of us really deserve, and yet we aren't satisfied because we are selfish we are quick to see where "improvements" could be made and those improvements need almost invariably to be made by someone else. Them doing one more thing for us, because we have an elevated view of our self.

Its not the heart of God that we should take part in another's misfortune, or try and benefit from it. We should seek God's guidance (plan ahead), put the needs of others above our own, that costs nothing but a change of our heart away from self focus, and not be afraid serve other's needs first. When we have disputes we should focus on God's ways, realize that what we actually deserve and what we think we have deserved have gradually separated. Pray for others, that they will grow closer to God, and not necessarily that they see your way.

The Kingdom of God

I've been trying to catch a vision of what the kingdom of God would look like.  A kingdom we can have now, if we just get out of our own way.

Think about it, more later.

The new year

I used to read the Bible through every year, I've taken about the last two off.
I miss my friend Job- He is early- in the middle of Genesis- kinda a break.

With all the various things going on in my life particularly at work and church it is time to get back to the basics.  I heard a very appropriate quote the other day, "read God's word- not what others think about it".  I've had that same thought.

I didn't create this world, I kind of just became aware of it.  I think at that level we all have the same experience.  We also were at one time completely helpless.  I often think about things like that and then am comforted by the One who knows all generations.  In a way that is His witness to everyone, as much as we like to think it sometimes, we are not self sufficient.

Oh well there is reading to do.

December 26, 2009

December 26 2009,

I couldn't sleep last night, and as is my custom I started praying. I
usually follow the outline of the prayer where Jesus taught His
disciples to pray. Often I never finish. Last night I got caught up in
the magnificence of God. He put the vast universe together, and vast in
a major understatement. He knit each and everyone of us together. Every
cell He thought of while putting us together. Again a major
understatement to think of the attention He pays to the smallest detail.
With it being Christmas time I was reminded that He came to earth as a
human to got through our experiences in this world - His world.

I got caught up in the recent thought I had that we often are afraid to
submit to God and do things His way because we are scared of what that
might mean. Of course we are afraid "I" don't know what God wants us to
do and "I" fear it. This "I" is the part of us that the devil appealed
to in Eden to get Adam and Eve to fall. This "I" is the part of us that
sees our life going a certain way- namely our way and not His. So fear
is certainly expected.

In thinking about who He is, and what He knows it became apparent to me
that not submitting to His ways is like trying to drive a twisty
mountain road blindfolded. A wreck is almost a certainty, and when we do
things our way we will assuredly wreck.

God will allow us to wreck as well. If we really want to be god in our
lives He won't prevent us. It will mean heartache and disappointment
because we are not God. If we through our choices decide we want to be
miserable, He will let us.

He does not desire that for us though. He is about justice and
righteousness. He is about fairness. That is His heart, and as God He
makes things fair and just in His way and not in the confines of our
human existence. We need to submit our "I" to His will, and obey.