This month everything is different – so, so different!!!
My newsletter this month will not be about property management, or even directly about the Corona Virus.
It will be, I hope, something more fitting to those that have questions about many issues and how life fits together, and whether it even makes sense.
Be warned! – do not even read it if you feel that you have a good understanding of how things work, and do not like to consider other possibilities. You are totally entitled to your view, and I respect it. I am not trying to start a debate, but I am going to try and paint pictures that can have many little quilt pieces, fit together to make one big mosaic as a remarkable whole.
It is not going to be easy reading and it will NOT be short. It is only for those, who it is meant to be.
Kind regards,
The Battle of the Ages
This newsletter will not be for everyone, and I want to urge you to NOT read this if it causes you any discomfort. It is meant to help and heal, not to cause distress.
So often it seems as if life just doesn’t make sense. There are so many arguments before and against every view, every philosophy and every opinion!
Due to this unusual time-period, we find ourselves in, and as this is going to be the only newsletter during this Coronavirus pandemic lockdown (should it be for only 21 days!), I want to take a totally different track. Our minds and thinking are at this point in time, moving in many different directions, with a lot more time to just think!
To all who want to listen, I today want to share my thoughts on how we can understand the world, life, and making sense of it all. If this is for you, I hope it explains the “unexplainable”!
The first thing I need to make clear is that I will be coming from a Biblical standpoint and view. However, this may be the first time you hear how it works from this angle.
You may have to draw on pictures I cannot paint, which you may have to see in your mind.
The first important picture is one of a division between two Kingdoms. The only two spiritual kingdoms in the universe. You may even draw it on a piece of paper. The upper half white clean and bright, the lower half, dark, evil, full of deceit, hate, rebellion, and death.
In the upper kingdom, love, life, and liberty. The Kingdom of Creator-God, the all-powerful, all-good and perfect, God of the universe.
Then a third picture, two perfectly created humans, starting life in the Kingdom of Light, knowing no suffering, sin or sickness, basking in the love and tenderness of their creator. They have never been lied to, have never been harmed and had been given the whole earth to manage and rule over.
They had every freedom possible, but with one command – do NOT eat of that ONE tree.
Next picture: Innocent, naïve, knowing nothing about the ambush waiting for them. …Enter the emperor of the kingdom of darkness. Handsome, charming, so concerned for them! Persuading them, oh, so tactfully, that it seems strange that they are not allowed to eat from that tree! Why not? There must be a reason. What is the use of having free will, and then be told to not do something? It must be some hidden agenda; something being withheld from them! Some wonder, some mystery they are not allowed to know about, -or share in!
If we were them, would we have believed him? Yes, we would! So why would God allow that? – what is all this about! He could prevent it! He knew what would happen!
Given choice, it would mean the opportunity to use your free will. – Especially the choice between two empires, one holy and pure and the other, evil, hateful, destructive! But they don’t know! It all sounds so good! – How could they know that it meant that the one you obey, will be your master … and that of your children, and that of your world?
So, the choice was made, their loyalty shifted within a second. They had a new master!
New picture! They move down into their new spiritual kingdom and suddenly their world is different.
They experience guilt, nakedness, fear and being unclean. Is this what is meant by knowing good ánd evil. Is this the difference?
Their new master’s kingdom is one of destruction, hate, envy, and death – the starting point of the survival of the fittest!
There was still a trace left of the life and beauty breathed into them by their creator. They had a conscience, they could still feel sympathy for someone, compassion, concern, empathy, pity, even love – all higher sentiments, but now it could quickly be overpowered by self-concern: what’s-in-it-for-me, pride, selfishness, dreadful driving desires, self-righteousness. Everything was messed up, good and bad in one person, – in all persons! The darkness was distorting everything they still remembered from that beautiful Kingdom of a righteous God. Their first exercised of CHOICE brought sickness, sorrow, and death.
The people, made in God’s image, now served a fallen creature. They were his slaves but still believed his lies. Their children were born crying, coming into this new harsh world. All scarred and damaged and spiritually blind. The end of their miserable lives: Death! The logical end to a wasted life. Eternity in the presence of their dark lord. No more hidden darkness, now clear palpable evil.
Everything involving them was in this dark kingdom. They lived it! Their desires, their ambitions, their traumas, what they believed, their cultures, their values, the lies they thought were the truth. The biggest lie: Hoping against reason that the good they do, will outweigh the bad. Measuring their righteousness against each other – not that of God, No!!!
But there were still some windows, allowing some recognizable images from the God they had never chosen but had gotten to know in the garden.
The total selfless abandonment when falling in love, willing to die for the one they love. Holding their baby and loving, loving, all over this “perfect” little one, made in their image – willing to die for this baby! Passionately defending their children, being proud of them!
The distortion in their souls eventually contaminating all this beauty, turning it bad, causing hate and guilt, – knowing the sin in their own being!
Even their legal institutions still had some light shining through. Only a shadow of the righteousness that was, but still: you could NOT get your sentence mitigated by the good you had done – only by punishment! Paying your dues!
Was there then no way out of this sad, sometimes extremely happy, sometimes terrible, life? Was it all useless, without meaning, godless or whatever god you figured out in your imagination – that would fit your requirements? … and then death – with whatever you believed came after that!?
Yes, there was one way, but only one way out! – Not acceptable to most. Someone, a human, totally innocent, without any guilt (qualified to cover all the many sins of the world), to pay the penalty for those that were guilty. (Three times, Pilate declared Jesus Christ in a court of law: “without any fault” (John 18 and 19)).
No animal and no human qualified, everyone and everything were defiled, contaminated, an inhabitant of the kingdom of darkness!
But: Two legal issues intersected:
- The first legal issue: God could pay for his peoples’ crimes and wickedness. They were made in His image, kind of His kind. His co-creator Son could, and would, be the pure, perfect, sinless sacrifice, appointed lamb of God, willing to pay for all sins ever done, and ever to bé done by the human race – but he would have to be born a human. He would have to be tempted as Adam was – the second Adam. He would have to be fully God and fully human, to qualify. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
- … And then legal issue number two: Someone had to specifically choose FOR God (free, unforced choice) – this would be a requirement to receive the exoneration, the pardon, and to be received into the Kingdom of God, spotlessly clean, reconciled with the God of the universe! That would also mean rejecting the kingdom of darkness with its wickedness, lies, rebellion and evil desires. Receiving the only way out, the only road to freedom, the only door into the Kingdom of Heaven! Jesus Christ, the Messiah. John14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by me”.
Something else was still a problem: Our darkened hearts, would not be able to walk in God’s holy ways! To be forgiven and keep on sinning would make a mockery of the mercy and grace of a holy God! We would need to have a new heart, one that wanted to walk in his ways. One who loved righteousness and holiness. Ezekiel 36:26 says: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
John 3:3 “Jesus said to him, for sure I say to you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. God’s holiness and our sin could never abide side by side. It would always cause a wall between us. Always keep us in darkness, in the prison of the prince of darkness, trying to serve two masters. Our “goodness” was not good enough!
It could only be forgiveness and it would also have to be freedom, being rescued out of the prison of darkness within ourselves! It would have to be mercy and grace, nothing we could bring to the table!
This is uncomfortable, but good news! That there is a way out of this death, into eternal life! Jesus came into the world to save sinners!
So why would anyone, as soon as they understand it, not immediately seize the opportunity to escape and be reconciled with God?
Many reasons:
Our vision is blurred, we do not yet know God, and we think that he is like our earthly fathers – who are just as lost and wounded as we are!
We enjoy the feeling of being in charge of our own destiny, and only when rudely awakened to the truth that life is not in our hands, and anything can happen at any time, over which we have no control, we start to see the lie we have believed. Like the Corona Virus – which has turned everything upside down. The world will for a long time not be the same – if ever! We do not know whether we will get sick, go hungry, lose loved ones …… How terrible to go it alone, taking charge of your own future, when you have no control, and everyone else is in the same position – no one to help, but ??? Will the prince of this world have mercy on you? – or will you perhaps hear his evil snickering laugh? Sometimes this is the time when we start to see clearly! – When we start to KNOW!
We can expect the enemy of our souls, fearing our escape, fighting back with attacks from everywhere, our friends and loved ones, the world, our own desires. Everything fighting against such a decision – trying to prevent our free choice from operating!
There are many good reasons why the road is narrow that leads to life, and the way is wide that leads to damnation.
Are we really seeking for truth, or do we like to rationalize with reasons like why if God is good …(fill in the blank). What about if …
Sometimes we are scared and traumatized by life, and we blame God. We feel that if he is good, he should not have allowed …… We don’t understand that we live in a world chosen for us by the first humans, and then by ourselves! The master into whose hands they placed this world, is cruel and evil. God knows. He knows and he hurts for us. That is why he went to the cross! To rescue us! We are angry at the only one who cares, can hear, and want to restore and heal. In Isaiah 61:1 the Messiah says: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
If you are seeking the truth about eternity and life, if your spirit hears your maker calling and it hungers, if your soul cries out to him who loves you with an everlasting love, then you can break through the opposition. Then you can call on God and repent. Ask God for forgiveness on the basis that his son Jesus, has already paid for your sins, and that you accept him as your Lord and Saviour. Then ask him to change your heart into the image of His heart, so that you will love what He loves and do what He wants you to. Ask him to help you in turning from your “wicked ways” – and then turn! That is what repentance means: Turning away from…
Start reading your Bible. John, the fourth book in the new testament, is a good place to start. Allow your heart to listen and understand, because you will hear your new master’s voice. Jesus said: “My sheep know my voice”
I leave you with Romans 8 from verse 35:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
