The cost of "Imposing our will on others".

It seems to me that every bad thing that has happened, that is happening, and will happen can be traced to this one statement: "you will be as gods, having knowledge of good and evil.".  When the first beings believed this statement, and ate the forbidden fruit, a change took place as we (from that point on) have been trying to elevate ourselves to a God like status.  Even today, all across our planet, everything can be linked to someone or some group trying to gain power to impose their wills on everyone else.

That is what life here on Earth, is now all about and you can see it every everywhere -  from politics to churches, from schools to social gatherings.  The people who we honor in society are generally those who have successfully done this. Every time we force our will on someone else, we hurt and make the other person a victim.  Every crime can be traced to this one thing of someone elevating themselves and forcing what they want on someone else. So instead of us living a live of peace. love, and harmony in a paradise, we have made an urban jungle and this society where most people look to escape from their realities.

So when God gave His commandments, I don't believe that it was because we were now "sinners in the hands of a angry God", but a loving God showing us how bad this belief has made us.  I don't believe that God has ever been hurt by our actions, but that we have hurt ourselves and each other.  God does not "buddy" around with people like He did in the garden, not because our sin affects Him, but because His Perfection would destroy us.

The true difference between people living in "The Way" and others is not one of us being better than them, but because of what Jesus did on the cross, as caused God to be able to "buddy" with us, through His Spirit"who dwells within those of us who desire to have that intimate relationship with Him.

Thoughts about death

This past week my Facebook news feed has talked a lot about funerals, near death experiences,  & people who are close to death.  This has caused me to once again think and meditate on life and death.  The following comes from those thoughts and meditations.

Genesis 3:22 And the Lord Godsaid, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

This is a verse that you do not see mentioned at funerals, but it means a lot to me.  It shows me the mercy of God and the love that God has for us.  Let me explain.

When God created this world, He created a perfect paradise.  In this paradise, we had two responsibilities. The first was that man and woman were to have lots of sex with each other.  The second was that we were to learn what God did in creation of the garden and to make the rest of the world a paradise.  There was no trouble, hardships, or anything bad in this place.

Everything bad that takes place in this world, does so because of us.  When Adam and Eve rebelled by eating that fruit, they started a chain of rebellion that has been passed down to each and every one of us.  It is this rebellion that has resulted in every bad thing that happens.

When I read this verse that I quoted, I see that God does not want us to live forever with all these bad things that have been caused by us.  You see God wants all of us (who want to be with Him) to live in that perfect paradise and death is now the door to get there.  That is what this passage is really all about.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I am not arguing for purposely ending life on a whim.  I am just commenting on the attitudes that we have.

It seems to me that if we really believed in this paradise after death, it would affect the decisions that we make towards life and death.  We would not be so afraid of death for us or our friends and family.