You are (poem)

by Jim Deal
 
You are who you are
To see what you see
To do what only you can do
To reflect God uniquely

You are His perfect design
Lacking only His perfect love
To empower your greatest potential
For His highest glory.

#poemsbyJimDeal

why do we suffer?

When we experience pain or suffer loss, the usual response is to ask *why. Even though we may never know the specific reason or whether there even is one -- or what circumstantial good we might gain from it - if any - we can understand the general reasons for it. There are, in fact, several potential intangible gains.

Why do we suffer?

• To get more of God -- the source of life, love, and all things -- or more precisely for God to get more of us so we might more fully partake of all He is. Suffering is humbling. Humility is key to seeing and knowing God. 
• To better grasp and appreciate the suffering of Christ and the sacrifices he made to restore us to the Father, revealing His infinite love for us and increasing our love and trust in Him. 
• To increase our compassion toward others in their struggles-suffering. 
• To increase our capacity to reflect His glory, thereby bringing Him greater honor and us deeper joy.

In short, to make us more like Christ. This is the ultimate good spoken of in Romans:

Rom 8:28  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

This, however, is not automatic but contingent on whether we trust God in our suffering. If Christ, who was perfect, was called to **trust his Father in his suffering, how much more are we? The more we do, the more we gain both now but possibly more so in eternity.

We are told that "eye has not yet seen or ear yet heard..." what exactly that gain will look like. We are also told in 2Co 4:17, "... this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison..." Hope for " ...an eternal weight of glory..." is the primary hope given ***for our suffering. It is our future reward. When we truly trust God, it alone is enough.

The challenge is we must accept this eternal benefit by faith. To use an analogy from Tim Keller, the promises of God are not a video explanation of why we suffer but an audio one. It is one we have heard and must believe but have not actually seen yet with our own eyes or fully experienced firsthand. Through promises -- audio -- we are given an idea as to why we suffer and what our gain is but not the complete experience - video - i.e. not yet by first-hand observation or participation. Why? Because God is seeking to stretch our faith now so we might experience more of Him later.

Once we are in eternity with God, faith will no longer be necessary as it is now. Love will be primary. Until then, faith is essential. "The just shall live by faith." To gain from the struggles of this life we must believe God is good and in control when it appears He is not and we see no present gain. For now, it is our believing when not seeing that God is looking to increase in us.

Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." - John 20:29 It is more blessed to believe when we do not see than to be blessed because we do.

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*In a very significant way this is a curious response in a post-modern era. Asking this question suggests there is meaning and purpose behind our suffering when there are no grounds for asking in postmodern thinking. The fact that we even ask, illustrates how mankind cannot get away from being in God's image experientially even though he may deny this intellectually i.e. we must have meaning. We were designed for it.

** Heb 5:8  "Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." Christ went from untested to tested obedience. Suffering is not necessarily caused by something we did wrong - though that is often the case. Christ did nothing wrong but suffered and gained by it never the less.

***We don't appreciate what someone else goes through until we go through something similar. The more we comprehend the full extent of Christ's suffering through our own, the more we see what Christ went through for us and the more our love for Him and trust in Him grows.

the history and necessity of religious liberty

Attorney General Barr offers insightful and lucid comments on the history behind religious liberty and why it is vital to the continuation of America as founded, it's liberties and a civil society. Given Oct 11, 2019

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-law-school-and-de-nicola-center-ethics

bad vs good choices

There are willful (deliberate) and unwilling bad choices - i.e. there are deliberate bad choices and unintentional poor choices. The first is due to known, willful disobedience; the second is due to our limitations - i.e. being both broken and finite.

As limited finite beings, making the best choice based only on what we know may not even be possible on our own and therefore may not be the best choice - i.e. it will not be according to all there is to know. Since we aren't all-knowing but finite, we must seek God's guidance to make the best choice. We assess what we *know the best we can, but must ultimately entrust ourselves to God's care.

The beauty about choice is God uses all choices -- good and bad -- for our good if we love Him. He lets us reap the **consequences of deliberate bad choices so we might turn from them -- repent. But He also redeems the unintentional poor choices so we might learn to seek Him more in everything we do. At the 30,000-foot view, there are no bad choices, even though at the ground level there are.

If we are willfully disobedient, it is because we do not yet believe the direction-commands God gives is truly best for us. But even when we're not willfully disobedient, if we trust the one giving the direction, we will pursue it - i.e. we trust his understanding is perfect, complete, even though ours is not.

We will want to go in the right direction because we are convinced through first-hand experience, it is the right course or because we trust the one giving direction, even when we don't know firsthand it is the right course. The beauty is we no longer have to know everything to do the right thing because we know the one who does.

Distrust in another can be due to our not believing the other either knows the right course, has the ability or resources to enable us to pull it off, or because we don't believe the other wants the right and best course for us. In the case of God, He knows all things, has unlimited power and resources, and only acts out of love, so all these issues are addressed regarding the direction He gives us.

 For a further discussion on the dilemma of being finite click here

 For a further discussion on God using all things for our good click here

  For a further discussion on mankind being finite vs sinful click here

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*The value of having greater knowledge is it helps ensure we make the best choices. The more we know, the better chance of choosing the best course of action -- in making an informed choice. However better still is knowing that the one who knows everything is committed to our highest good. The issue now is whether we trust that person.

**As we experience more of God's presence in our walk, the more significant for us that becomes. Therefore the greatest consequence of willful rebellion may be the loss of experiencing His presence. We are told to not grieve or quench the Spirit. What would do that if not a willful pursuit of something other than God?

Crowned with glory and honor

Does God actually value us?  If so, why? After all, aren't we all a broken mess? Yes, we are! Yet he values us never the less. "For God so loved (valued) the world - i.e. His creation full of His creatures who bear His image - he gave..." something.

And what did he give? That which is of infinite worth… His only begotten Son. Is this not a very clear message of our infinite worth as well?

So how does this work? Why does He value us this much? 

Because He values Himself first. 

But what exactly does this have to do with us? 

He made us like Himself, with the capacity to appreciate and enjoy who He is. Not ¹unlike the Father, Son, in, by and through the Spirit, enjoy each other. 

Because we are like Him - in His image - this enables us - gives us the capacity - to value Him; to recognize His infinite worth the ¹way He does. He values that we are able to value Him; that we can participate and share in His infinite glory and the delight it brings Him as well as us. He values Himself - His image - in us.

In ²addition, He delights in multiplying and spreading His glory/value to others through us. 

How is this possible?

Next to Him (and His Son) we too have the capacity - as His image bearers - to display his glory in a way no other being or thing can.

In ³Psalm 8:3-5 we are told...

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,

    and the son of man that you care for him? 

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the

¹heavenly beings (Elohim) and crowned him with glory and honor.

Throughout scripture, we are told God is crowned with glory and honor, yet in this Psalm, we are told we too are crowned with glory and honor. The word here for heavenly beings is Elohim in the original Hebrew. This is a name used for God that is always plural (i.e. God is a community of love and relationship). It is the same word used in Gen 1:27  "So God (Elohim) created man in his own image, in the image of (Elohim) he created him; male and female he created them."  Of all creation, only we have these characteristics -- glory and honor -- in common with God and are like him in this way. Nothing else, no other created being does.

Because God values himself, he values His image in us and our being able to value him and display His value (glory) to others. This brings joy to more image bearers and greater joy and glory to Him. 

Because he is glorious, He designed us to experience,  appreciate and share His glory. 

For more on how we are hard-wired for glory, click here. 

For a further discussion on being created for glory, click here. 

For a discussion on how value and love are connected click here.

For more on what God is like and how we are like him click here and here. 

For more on how God's glory is our highest good click here. 

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¹Qualitatively if not quantitatively.

²This also makes us valuable. This is the functional or practical part to our value. 

Being His image bearer is the basis of our intrinsic value. This is true simply because of who we are i.e. who God made us to be, not because of what we do. This has nothing to do with our actions but with our capacity to be filled with and pour forth God to others. This is a capacity created by and given to us by our Creator.

When we understand this it changes our view of every human being on the planet. Each of us is in God's image with the capacity to show forth God in a way that none of the other can.

What we are able to do is because of who we are. We have this capacity to do, because of our intrinic value as a bearer of God's image.

To actually live according to this design is the basis of our existential or functional value. This is to live out who we are and were created by God to be. This is our realized value, possible only because of our intrinsic value.

³Psalm 8:5

(ASV)  For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor.

(CEV)  You made us a little lower than you yourself, and you have crowned us with glory and honor.

(ERV)  But you made them almost like gods and crowned them with glory and honor.

(GNB)  Yet you made them inferior only to yourself; you crowned them with glory and honor.

(ISV)  You made him a little less than divine, but you crowned him with glory and honor.