What Willl We Do Without God?

It is a simple question. What will we do without God? The depth of the need in the human soul goes beyond the fathom of our own understanding. We were created to need. We were created to desire. We were created for HIM! Creation, separated from God by the sin of the human race, groans for Him, waiting for the revelation of the Sons of God and the redemption that will mean RE-creation and final, total liberty from decay.

Every dysfunction in the universe flows from this one thing: disconnection from God. The deepest and most foul of these dysfunctions living in the hearts of men. So here we stand desperately in need of God but what do we do? We RUN! We hide! We accuse Him for all the things that result from our lack of Him. A lack deepened and sustained by OUR disobedience and rebellion! Oh how blind we are!

Into the midst of our dilemma steps Jesus. The one we need beyond our own capacity to comprehend comes now to us, and robed in our own flesh. The form of man has been taken up by Him. He has become our kinsman redeemer. In Him was life and that life was the light of men! In a shocking display of compassion, love and mercy the creator God reaches out to rebellious man, but in the climax of our defiance we crucified the one who came to save us; proving beyond doubt that we were eternally lost.

It was then out of the ashes of our greatest self destruction that the brightest revelation of glory broke through. Jesus rose from the dead.

The death WE inflicted upon Him became the tool of His greatest victory as Sin and Death died with Him on the cross. He removed our final enemy as he triumphantly became the first born from the dead; that in all things He might have preeminence!

Jesus the creator has proven again that He is all we need and I ask you one more time.

What will we do without God?

The Cry for Beauty

I love the soul’s ache for beauty. I hear a song, or read a good book, see a movie or a piece of art and I feel my heart stir. I so desire beauty. This is my desire for God, and this is how God would meet me. It is no mistake that these things stir me. It is the echo of beauty in them that I hear. It is the imprint of the originator, the deep calling out to deep. Art is not beautiful so much as it is a cry for beauty. We need something we don’t have so we try and create it, and the things we create have an earthly beauty to them but mostly they either carry the cry for beauty or they don’t. I think often we ignore these longings or even call them evil, but we shouldn’t. The Holy Spirit speaks in such diverse and beautiful ways. Our ears should perk up at the ring of His voice and follow it with joy. I so often hear people disregard beauty because of the through whom it came. “That artist is a homosexual” or “that person is an atheist” etc. Does that mean that they don’t long for God? I rejoice to see these crying for beauty. They can only find it in Him.

I want to know how this is all supposed to work!

Why didn’t the world come with directions!
The world is broken, everyone knows it. Everyone bemoans the fact and everyone thinks the problem is too big for them to answer. I know there is no simple answer. My question is not so much, “what is the answer” but “IS there an answer?” We all believe there is, at least until we have been thoroughly convinced by curative doses of pain, sorrow and frustration that there is NOT. Of course I would love to be ridiculous and say something stupid like, “the answer is Jesus” but that doesn’t really help does it?
I may be as right as anything but it is still a stupid thing to say if it isn’t followed up with more. It doesn’t matter how true that statement is (and relax people you know how deeply I believe that statement is fact), the problem is that just saying something like that doesn’t fix anything; and lets be even more honest here. The church is just as screwed up as the rest of the world. I AM NOT SAYING WE DON’T HAVE THE ANSWER! WE DO! THAT MAKES US WORSE THAN THEM!!!! WE KNOW THE TRUTH AND JUST DON’T DO ANYTHING WITH IT!!!!....... (insert rambling hypocritical rant about the state of the church here), but I digress.
What I want to get at in this particular diatribe is our annoying and deeply unhelpful way of throwing out an ideal as the fix for the worlds problems; saying something patently self righteous like, “those people need Jesus”, and never, even one time, even for a second put any effort into applying our cure – all to their wound. I am talking about myself as much as anyone else. This world needs Christ Like people not Christians. I am trying to learn how to become one. Jesus didn’t just preach to us about how horrible we were. He FIXED US. He gave Himself to make us better in a real and eternal way. He did something for us that we could not do ourselves. When will we take up that cross and follow him? I honestly think people have interpreted that statement, “take up your cross and follow me” as some kind of call to devotions or tithing. It is not that. It is a call to join the cause of giving your life away for the Glory of God and the love of your neighbor. The sooner we get that and obey the sooner statements like “the answer is Jesus” stop being stupid and start sounding like the truth. Then maybe people will actually listen.