Disconnected from the Source

We suffer because we, along with all of humanity, are disconnected from our Creator; the Source of life, love, and all things. As a result we don't function as we were designed to. In a word we are ¹broken.

We also suffer because the rest of the created order is in bondage as a result of our choosing to turn away from God.

Our rebellious distrust of God is the reason for ²pain, suffering, corruption, and death.

God did not (and does not) cause evil or suffering. It is the organic result of our choosing to reject and walk away from Him; to live independent of Him and attempt to make life work without Him - the Source of life, love, and all things. If you turn off the light switch (or unscrew the lightbulb), the light goes out. The one who made the light isn't the problem. 

However, He uses the resulting pain of our disconnection to reveal to us that He is the ultimate Source of love, life, and all things.

Pain does not have the last word regarding evil, God does.

How does God uses evil for good?

 

Suffering can reveal to us how life does not work (as intended) without Him, so we might be drawn back into a loving relationship with him.

He does not (and did not) cause evil itself but he does use it. It becomes a tool to turn us back to Himself and shape us, making us a more perfect bearer of His image i.e. He uses it to make us more like His Son.

God is greater than evil. Evil doesn't win, God does even in and through evil. 

¹For a further discussion on being broken click here.

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Footnotes:

²Pain is the ³loss (or absence) of the good things God has created that we use to ease or mask our pain. Pain is a reminder to turn to God, our ultimate good, and no longer to the good things we use to self comfort.  

The reason these things don't work long term is our need is permanent not temporary - we are designed for infinite love (God's love) not temporary comfort. Created things are temporary. They do not have life in themselves but are sustained by Christ. "... And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together"

³For an extended discussion of this point click here. 

Free will or free choice?

While our choices are ¹free and 100% ours (i.e. we freely choose to do what we want), our ³wills are not. Our wills are tied to our desires. 

To say it another way, our "chooser" is not broken but our "wanter" is.

²And our wants (desires) dictate what we ¹choose to pursue. 

If we desire (want) the wrong things we we choose to pursue the wrong things. 

And our desires are tied to what we value. The more we value something, the more we desire it and the harder we pursue it. 

And we value only what we ⁴see as valuable. 

If ⁴we are blind to seeing God's true value, worth, beauty, wisdom, glory, majesty, and power as our infinite loving Creator - the Source of life, love, and all things - we will never pursue Him as the infinitely valuable and significant being that He is. We will desire and pursue created things and beings instead. 

Why? ⁵We are like God and created to enjoy Him who is most valuable, beautiful, intelligent, glorious, majestic, and loving. Absent a personal relationship with Him - who is the Source of life, love, and all things - we go after His creation (the next best thing) to fill the void of His absence. Particularly other image bearers (you and I) who by design are most like God and have the greatest capacity to love and reflect him most when in union with Him through Christ.

Scripture tells us God is all valuable (glorious) but what about our value and our feeling significant, important? Does it matter? If so, why?

Because God is significant, important, and valuable, we are and must be like Him in order to be able to appreciate and enjoy these qualities in Him. 

We are told in Jas 4: 

[5] "...Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”"?  

What kind of spirit has God put within us? A spirit that longs (is passionate) for infinite love, worth, and glory. Love that can only be satisfied fully by the Source of love - our Creator; not by creation.  

He will not share in (is jealous over) our pursuit or loyalty to any other "lover" because He knows our capacity to value and enjoy Him is unparalleled to all the rest of creation and there is no other true lover who can fill this need and desire in us for love that He designed to be filled only by Him. This is "the spirit He has made to dwell in us."

Not because He needs our love but because we need His. Our being in His image wasn't happenstance. He designed us this way. He is the Creator, we are created...but unlike the rest of creation we are created in His image. Therefore He loves us and desires we experience Him to the maximum of His true worth and our capacity as bearers of His image. 

Everything in creation we seek for life outside of God is temporary. Therefore it comes up short of filling our need for and sense of value-worth (glory). GOD alone is the Source of infinite love. To experience His love to the maximum of our capacity, we must give Him all our loyalty and faithfulness (i.e. have no other "gods" before Him). Otherwise we will never experience His love as it truly is and as we were designed to, but instead we will pursue created things for love outside of and instead of Him.  

Where does this need/desire for significance (glory) come from? Click here. 

For a discussion on the necessity of choice click here.

For a further discussion on how our "wanter" is broken and not our "chooser" click here. 

For a discussion on ability vs responsibility click here

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¹And our choices are ours alone. No one else's, including God. Therefore we are fully accountable for what we value and chose to pursue. 

²Note the progression of the "ands" above. Each deals with a significant shift, but also a vital connection to the previous and following "and" statement. To get to the 2nd "and" you must acknowledge the 1st. And to get to the 3rd we must see the 2nd. 

*our wants-desires dictate what we ¹choose to pursue. 

*our desires-wants are tied to what we value

*we value only what we ⁴see as valuable. 

³Is God free to do whatever he wants? 100%!  But because God is holy He only wants (desires-wills) what is good and best and freely choses righteousness i.e. His character or nature dictates His will/desires, as does ours.

 For a fuller discussion click here.

⁴To see truly, the Spirit of God must reside in us. And that only occurs after we've been "born again" i.e. after we are spiritually regenerated. 

"Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again (1st) he cannot see the kingdom of God.” " John 3:30

Before we are born again we are blind to spiritual things - i.e. things pertaining to God's kingdom. The Bible says we are dead to God. Last I checked dead people don't see very well 😉! 

⁵Why does our feeling and desire for significance, importance, and value matter? 

We are like God who is significant, important, or valuable. We must be like Him so we can appreciate and enjoy these qualities in Him. That which is most like God is most able to appreciate and enjoy Him as He is.

God's  significance, importance, and value (glory) are the foundation for ours. Our recognizing this about God is essential to experiencing our own value. The more we see his glory the more we experience our glory in and through Him. 

Suffering... has God abandon us?

"Thus says the Lord: 

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. ("...who by their ⁴unrighteousness suppresses the truth..." - Rom 1:18) 

He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. 

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 

He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” 

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? - Jer 17:5-9 ESV 

Why do pain and suffering remain? 

Pain and suffering are the natural (organic) results of our ongoing disconnect from God. 

Our disconnect is due to our ongoing distrust of Him. 

God does not curse us. Our disconnect is our curse.

Pain reveals and exposes the depth of our rebellious distrust of God. It is the fruit of our distrust. 

Why does suffering remain? So we might fully see the destructiveness of our distrust and the need to have it purged from our hearts and lives. 

Why? So we might turn back to God and find true life in Him and more fully partake of His love as He designed us to. 

We come into this world in a state of rebellious distrust, and absent our original connection/union with ¹God we were designed for. God seeks to restore this connection so we might be in union and a relationship with Him again.

God is love and therefore life itself - and we are in His image, i.e., created to receive and give love. His absence - due to our rebellious distrust - creates an emptiness we desperately seek to fill. Because of our rebellious distrust of God we seek to fill it with anything other than Him who alone can fill us. We look to anything we have access to or can "get our hands on" to fill the void of God's absence. In short, we trust in ourselves to fill the void instead of God  - "...we make flesh our strength..." 

Pain is such a common part of life that we rarely consider it exists because of ²God's absence, much less because of our rebellious distrust of Him. So we trudge along, clinging to our current rebellion in painful emptiness, desperately trying to make the best of things without God. 

We rarely consider how deeply we distrust God and how this impacts everything we do. ³We refuse to see that we - and everything else - depends on the Creator for its very breath and existence. 

Suggesting this is our true condition is mocked and ridiculed. Accepting this is fiercely resisted and denied individually and collectively. The world system is build on distrust in God and living independently from Him i.e. making life work without Him; proving God is not necessary for true life.

Occasionally, our pain and suffering become so acute and our ability to handle it so inadequate that we see and finally acknowledge our true condition and turn back to Him in total trust. 

Life is an ongoing journey through the wilderness of this broken world to test whether we will continue to choose rebellious independence from God - as Adam and Eve did - or unconditional trust in God - as Christ displayed while on earth. 

Does suffering mean that God has abandoned us? Quite the opposite.

Suffering exists so that we might recognize we are not created to be our own God and return to Him -- who is Love itself and the Source of life, and all things -- in trust and humility. Our struggles are the means by which we learn to grow deep roots into Him. 

Every time we experience the loss of something we look to for life - whether that be wealth, fame, natural gifts or talents, our health, a loved one, through substance abuse, etc. - it's an opportunity for us to turn to Him who alone IS life. 

Christ asked what do we profit if we gain the whole world and loose our very souls. But the opposite is also true. If losing the world results in gaining our souls we profit infinitely as well as eternally. 

He sent Christ as proof of His love and His desire to pour it out on you. He did for you what you can not do - trust God without conditions - and offers to credit you with His righteousness. Do you trust Him?

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FOOTNOTES: 

¹in whose image we were created 

²if we acknowledge God at all, it is to blame Him for our pain instead of acknowledging our rebellious distrust, which results in His absence. 

³I'm referring to our objective dependence, not a conscious (subjective) dependence. Everything that exists is because God sustains it as well as brought it into existence. This is the objective reality of our world and our existence. Our subjective denial of this is our problem. 

⁴God does not curse us. Our rebellious distrust of Him does. 

What is unrighteousness: ἀδικίᾳ (adikia)? - sometimes translated as wickedness. Where does it come from? It is the outward fruit of our inward rebellious distrust of God that results in... 

wickedness 

Strong's 93: 

Injustice, unrighteousness, hurt. 

From adikos; injustice; morally, wrongfulness.

There are two elements to unrighteousness. The outward manifestation - our conduct - of an inward disposition of distrust. The former is the fruit of the latter. 

All "sinful" conduct - no matter what outward *form it takes - springs forth  from distrust in God. Distrust is the energy, passion, and drive behind bad (unrighteous) actions. At the heart of sinful behavior is distrust - unbelief i.e. distrust of God - unbelief - is the essence of all sinful behavior. 

*they are "...works of the flesh..."

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: 

sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. 

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

⁵

Being takers and God's solution.

What is the solution to being a ¹taker vs a giver - and all the consequences and fallout from this approach to life? Someone else bearing the consequences of a life of taking while also being the perfect (complete) giver, and giving us credit for it - if and when we choose to receive this. 

This results in the just consequences of our taking being borne by another, while at the same time having their life of giving totally credited to us as if we did it, i.e., as if we were the giver. 

Unless we are in union with God, we are all naturally inclined to be takers. To be a total giver is supernatural. It is Godlike. 

We are created to be in union with the Source of life, love, and all things. He is the ultimate giver. Yet being separated from Him makes us all takers because we are not plugged into God who is love and life.  

Why? Because of the void in us as a result of our rejecting the Source of all good things as our ultimate Provider and Sustainer. 

This results in us not being able to give as we were originally created to. Being absent a connection and relationship with the Source of life, love, and all things, is like being a well-decorated Christmas tree sitting in a dark room unplugged. 

The acknowledgement of this is the beginning of how we reunite and "plug-in" to the Source and are empowered to be the giver we were originally created to be - not as the Source but as a conduit of the Source. 

Giving to get is not giving to give. Giving to give only occurs by our being plugged into the Source of unlimited resources. Only God is that Source. 

The day we bought into the lie that we could be our own source (god) is the day we cut ourselves off from that Source and died.

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FOOTNOTES: 

¹To put another's needs before mine is to be a giver. To put my needs before yours is being a taker. This is the opposite of loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Pain, humility, and knowing God

Is there any connection between knowing God, humility, and pain? At first we may not think so. 

Let's take a closer look. 

Since humility is key to knowing, seeing, and experiencing God, we should embrace and receive, with thanks, anything that helps humble us, including and maybe especially pain and suffering.  

Instead of bristling at pain and pursuing ¹anything we can find to distract or relieve us from it, we should embrace struggles and be grateful for them. They are a vital means of drawing us nearer to God. 

Knowing God is far more significant and beneficial than short-term relief from our struggles (though it often doesn't feel that way at the moment). Seeing and knowing this enables us to receive suffering with gratitude.

In short, the reason we are to be thankful for our struggles (vs complaining about them) is they ²can be and usually are a primary means of strengthening our understanding and relationship with God who is the source of life, love, and all things i.e. pain ²can be a very unpleasant means to the greatest and most desirable and pleasant end - our increased union with God and the joy and happiness we find in Him. So while the loss of things we rely on for comfort or pleasure are painful, they become the very means by which we are drawn closer to God, the Source of life, love, and all things. 

Thankfulness is the best indicator of humility. Humility is the key to seeing and knowing God in all His infinite love and glory.

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

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Footnotes:

¹drugs, alcohol, and sex are some of the more obvious and most common diversions. But diversions can also be more socially acceptable pursuits, such as recreation, career, entertainment, material possessions, food, power, control, fame, or anything else pleasant that will help distract us or relieve us from pain. Boredom is also a form of low-grade pain. 

This is not because pleasure in itself or those things among creation that bring us pleasure are bad. God created us for pleasure but in, by, and through Him. But when comfort or pleasure in itself (the opposite of pain) becomes a higher pursuit than God, it is contrary to our design of finding our greatest happiness in God and what He provides. 

²Actually pain and struggle is a primary means to our increasing maturity and greater union with God when received with thanksgiving. I say "can" because it depends on us trusting that God is using our pain for our ultimate good (even the pain caused by the failures and offenses of others). Otherwise, suffering will only make us angry and embitter us. 

"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;" - Heb 12:15. No one likes being around a bitter and angry person - except maybe others who are the same way... "birds of a feather..." as the saying goes.  

It is worth noting that the author of Hebrews was writing to people going through intense persecution and suffering at the hands of others.

Hebrews 12:6-8 ESV

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” ⁷It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons... 

Hebrews 12:11 ESV

¹¹For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

Other passages that directly or indirectly address this vital truth... 

James 1:2-4 ESV

²Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  

Ephesians 5:20

"...giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"  

1 Thessalonians 5:18

"Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 

Colossians 3:17

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." 

Philippians 4:6

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 

This last passage is particularly interesting because we often go to God in prayer for relief from difficulties, yet God says we should give thanks in those very kinds of prayers i.e. don't just seek God for relief, seek God himself and be grateful for everything that aids you in knowing Him better, especially difficulties. 

Romans 8:28-29 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. [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."

The good that God is achieving in all things (vs 28) - both hard and comforting - is making us more like His Son (vs 29), not necessarily improved circumstances.

Trust or isolation?

When we speak of trusting others we are also talking about ⁴faith. We may understand the importance of trust but this also indicates that ¹no one operates without ⁴faith as well. The two are tied together. 

For society to function well, there must be faith (trust). It is essential for people to work well together. Without it we isolate and things come unglued, fragment, and fall apart. We increasingly see this in society as integrity in relationships continues to deteriorate, particularly among those in positions of influence, such as those in government, business, or other leadership rolls.

Relationships of every kind require faith (trust) on many levels. Trust in someone else's knowledge, wisdom, ability, intentions, character, and integrity, etc. 

And confidence (trust) by others in us as well. Trust must go both ways in a healthy relationship. It is constantly either being reinforced or eroded by one's actions. 

Ultimately, at the bottom of it all, there needs to be trust in God. This is the most vital of all. On this, everything else rests and depends.

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Footnotes:

¹Some think faith is ⁴unnecessary. They don't need to count on - trust in - others. They can simply count on themselves and operate well alone. 

However, this is also based on faith. Faith that we have or can obtain everything necessary ²to function at the highest level on our own. Others are not necessary.

But we are limited. We don't know everything and don't have unlimited resources or the ability to obtain all that is necessary to reach our maximum potential, no matter how talented we may be or how hard we try. 

By ourselves, we aren't even sure what our highest good is. Is it having unlimited wealth, power, knowledge, influence, popularity, praise, or recognition, as the world often presents? 

What exactly is our highest good and purpose that will give us the greatest sense of purpose, meaning, and happiness in life? 

Only someone with perfect and infinite knowledge would know, and that is not us. 

Who would know and have this understanding better than our Designer, who Created and Sustains of all things i.e. the One who created everything for a specific reason and with a specific purpose in mind? 

If this all-wise and powerful being exists, it would be wise to find out why He made us (you) and everything else, would it not? 

²It may be ³safer to function on our own, but do we want to be safe or do we want to flourish and reach our greatest potential? 

God also created us as relational beings. First to have a relationship with Him, but also relationships with others. If so, reaching our highest good without relationships is not possible. 

It is for good reason the Bible says the greatest commandment is to love God with all you have and your neighbors as yourself. Both are about relationships.

It simply is not possible to operate well completely on our own. If you haven't watched the movie "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks, it illustrates this well. 

³In order for betrayal to occur, trust must be violated. If there is no trust, there can be no violation. This is why some refuse to trust anymore. They seek to avoid the pain of betrayal. They are acting out of fear instead of faith (trust) in God. 

But this requires isolation, which has its own set of issues. If we are designed for relationship, we can never be complete on our own.

 

In the long run, isolation prevents us from experiencing life to the fullest extent we are designed for. Those who isolate have decided that a safe life is better than the fullest and best possible life. The life God created us to have. To live a safe life is to also miss out on the greatest riches God offers.

⁴I think there is a slight distinction between trust and faith. We usually consider trust to be something we give someone after they have proven themselves trustworthy through our personal experience with them. Whereas faith may be regarded as more of something "blind," i.e. we trust someone without first-hand experience of their trustworthiness, but more from something we heard someone did in the past to or for someone else. For example, we are told Christ died for us, yet this was over two thousand years ago. We did not witness this event firsthand. But we may be compelled to believe it is trustworthy for various reasons, such as the loving behavior of someone who trusts the claims and actions of Christ, or the confirmation of Christ's claims via the archeological or historical evidence that Christ was and did what we told us he did and said.

Faith is disregarded and considered so taboo by some that they avoid using the word altogether (a carryover from "the age of reason" and our postmodern view of the world, and a disregard for all things spiritual i.e. that which is beyond the material world we can see and touch). So they replace it with words like trust and confidence. But when we peel back the layers, at the bottom of it all is faith in some form. 

While faith might have more to do with belief in something (usually God) and trust with dependence upon something or someone (not necessarily God) they are essentially the same thing i.e. only the object of our faith or trust is different, not necessarily the nature of dependence (trust) itself. 

Which is it... sinners or like God?!

God's love for ⁴us is without conditions. FULL STOP! i.e. to be fully accepted and embraced by God requires nothing from us. God's love for us is based on someone else meeting the requirements, ¹not us. Accepting the offer that Jesus met what God requires is the only thing required of us. 

However, that doesn't mean there is not a good reason for His infinite love for us. There is a major reason. He values and therefore loves us because we are like him - in His image. 

This has nothing to do with what we do but with who we are, who God made us to be. It is not our trying to make ourselves more acceptable and loveable to Him or others.

This is why He loved us before we lifted one finger for Him. In fact even while we were still in our state of rebellious distrust of Him.

"...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us..." - Romans 5:8

"...But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—..." -  Ephesians 2:4-5 

Have you ever scratched your head wondering why he would value and love us while we were still in a state of rebellious distrust toward Him (i.e. "sin")? It is because our rebellion did not cancel out or erase our being like God, it only marred and suppressed it - though severely. 

This resulted in our spiritual sight and sense going completely dormant (until His Spirit opens our eyes). We are now "unplugged" from God (the source of all things), broken, and blind to seeing His infinite worth, beauty, and love. As a result, we ascribe the worst possible intent by God on why we struggle or experience loss and pain. The Bible describes this as being spiritually blind and dead to God. 

But our capacity for love, light, and life didn't go away and is still fully intact - we are still like God - even when we don't trust Him i.e. we still are designed to love and be loved and we long for this. We are hard-wired for love, if you will, because God is love and we are like Him, created to be in a community of love with Him. 

God values and loves our being like Him because we still have the capacity to fully partake of the community of love that God is as Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. 

This capacity for infinite love never went away; it only ceased to function properly i.e. it went dormant if you will. In our broken and spirituality-blind condition, we now long for the wrong things - instead of the only true thing that can fill our longing for love - because we are blind to the true Source of love and life - i.e. our Creator.

A recap and summary 

Our being in God's image is vital to how God sees us and who we are. This means there is good reason for Him to love us i.e. because of who we are, not what we do. 

We are not just rebellious - aka "dirty rotten sinners." This is true but only half the story - and the far lesser half - once we accept his offer. The more important half is we are still also like God with an infinite capacity to fully engage, delight in, and commune with the Infinite God and experience His infinite love, glory, and joy!!!

Being like God has nothing to do with what we do (our good deeds) for others (God and other bearers of His image) - when it comes to establishing a good standing with Him - but has to do with something about us - i.e. who we are, not what we do. 

God's love has nothing to do with something that comes from us or is offered by us - i.e. something we do in an attempt to earn His love or appease His disapproval. 

Our only requirement is to recognize that Christ did everything necessary to fully restore us to His Father and accept this as a free gift (the essence of the gospel - good news - of grace). 

Do you receive this? If you only know this in your head but haven't fully believed it, you only need to recognize He did everything necessary to restore you so He can pour out His love on you. A love He already has for you that you are blocking by your not believing this good news. Because nothing you can do will restore you to God...nothing - not your abilities or good deeds!!! 

Accept His offer of complete restoration. If you are sincere in accepting and receiving His offer of perfect love, He will legally and immediately restore you now, and ²completely upon His return.

"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price (you can't buy it or earn His acceptance of you)." - Revelation 22:17 

For God to have a relationship with us in the same way the Father and the Son have with each other, we had to be like him in one essential way i.e. we had to be able to receive and return love to God like God does between and among the Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit - i.e. God IS love. Love is the central and essential core of who God is!!! We are like Him i.e. we are hard wired for this same love. 

But love for God first, not just between each other. Our love for others must flow out of our love for God. This is why the greatest commandment is to love God first, then our neighbors. 

Does God need anything from us? No! He has Himself i.e. He is complete within Himself.

But when we say he loves us without conditions, that is not to say he doesn't have longings and desires for us and from us. He yearns to commune with us. Why? Because we are like God and God is love. He longs for us to experience the fullness of who He is so, like Him, we too experience it.

He is the source of love, life, and all things and knows our greatest meaning, purpose, and joy is found only in Him!! His calling us to love Him above everything else is because He knows He is our best and desires our best i.e. God is love.

James 4:5 says:

"Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, 'He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us' ”?

Nevertheless, His love for us is without conditions i.e. no deeds are required from us in order for His love to be set on us.

This is possible only because Christ fulfilled all the conditions ³required and necessary for him to remove the barrier between us and love us freely and fully. Even to the point that the Father loves us in the very same way He loves His only eternally begotten Son. Jn 17:23.

"I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me."

So does our love and pursuit of God matter since it's not required?

While there should never be ⁴expectations or conditions put on us for the gifts freely given to ⁵us or on others for the gifts we gladly give them, it is legitimate to enjoy and eagerly anticipate the appreciation from others for those gifts.

When gratitude is shown for the gifts we graciously receive, it delights the giver because they know their gift (and love) is not just accepted but also enjoyed and appreciated.

This reminds us of the 10 lepers that Christ healed and only one returned and showed gratitude. As a result, Christ engaged him further because he demonstrated by returning to Christ that he appreciated what Christ did. Lk 17:12-19.

To hope for and enjoy someone else's appreciation for what we give them is different than ⁵demanding their gratitude.

This also happens to be how God loves us and enjoys a relationship with us. God doesn't ⁶demand our obedience in exchange for His love. He delights in it. We are this way because God is this way. We are in his image.

In order for him to have this kind of love relationship with us we had to be like him as much possible without actually being him.

For a further discussion on why God loves rebels but not rebellion click here 

Are we rebels against God? Click here 

For a further discussion on the solution to our rebellion click here. 

For a further discussion on why God delights in our love click here.

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¹Who met them? Christ!!! For only He could, not us!

²The claims of Christ and His return!! and Knowing God but not fully yet.

³this is necessary because we fail to. No one fulfills the greatest commandment to love God with everything we are and have. Do you? I certainly don't!

⁴Expectations and conditions come from those who need love. God wants our love but doesn't need it. He is love as a community of love among the Father, Son, and Spirit. And when we are filled with His love we are the same way i.e. we don't need the love of others because we already have the perfect love of God.

⁵Who is "us." Is it humanity in general or us who have trusted Christ? It is both. God values all his image bearers by virtue of them being like him. But only those who accept his offer of restoration actually participate in and experience that love as we are designed to.

⁶We demand things from others only because we believe we must have them in order to be loved. God doesn't because He is already a community of love between the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. He doesn't need us in order to be complete (whole) and therefore does not need to demand our obedience. 

However because He is love he delights in our entering into and participating in his love. He seeks - "requires" - us to love him because he knows that is where we are most complete and find greatest joy.

True obedience

Is obedience merely doing what God says or is there something more to it?

True obedience is as much about intent as it is about action. It isn't about action only, but why we act.

Many are not self-aware enough to know the "why" of their actions. But there are several ways to evaluate our "why." 

Is our "obedience" for our gain and not the gain of others? We need to probe a bit to know.

If we do not pursue God's commandments out of love for him, and a desire to honor him, it is not true obedience but merely performance to impress others. It seeks to gain the approval of God and others by doing good deeds. 

Doing things to impress others is not true obedience, i.e. it is not actions that come out of love for another i.e. for another's gain or benefit - but action for our gain. 

This is action to get something for myself, not action to give something of myself.

For example, the Bible says the plowing of the wicked is sin. But how can plowing ever be wrong? It is a wholesome and honorable activity, right?

If we believe we reap the benefits of plowing solely because of our independent efforts and do not recognize God enabled us to plow - i.e He gave us our mind, body, tools, and, skills to plow, plus our time, strength, health, and every resource needed to perform a task, etc. then our plowing only honors us, only takes care of us, and brings praise only to us, not God who enabled us to plow. If He didn't give us minds, hands, breath, and life, there would be no plowing or anything else. In short, we do not understand or acknowledge that God is the provider and giver of everything necessary to perform a task.

In this scenario, only our gain and benefit is the reason we plow - i.e., our "why" - not God's honor or acting out of love for Him. 

Therefore, it is an act of arrogance, i.e., rebellious independence from and distrust in God. It is an attempt to gain for ourselves what can only legitimately and truly be accomplished because of God's generous provisions needed to perform a task. 

This may seem severe on the surface, since we may not think of God at all. But that is exactly the problem. We do not recognize that all we are and have - our very life and breath - is a gift from God. 

We assume conduct is good merely by the external action. However, God looks at our heart and the intent behind our actions i.e. is it for self-care and bringing praise to me or is it to honor God (bring attention to God, not us) out of love for Him because He honored us by sending Christ to restore us to a right relationship with Him.

For a further discussion of what a good deed is click here.

Why the honeymoon doesn't last

How does a believers walk with God change after that initial honeymoon period when they first came to Christ?

Not long after becoming a believer things actually get harder for most believers. In some cases much harder.

Why is this? Doesn't God promise great or greater circumstancial blessings in a believers life when we walk with him? Yet life often gets harder not easier. Why?

Because the greatest blessings God promises are spiritual, not circumstantial (He doesn't promise there will be no "bumps in the road,") financial (good money), or physical (good health).

The ¹main blessing he wants to give us is a deeper relationship with him - who is life itself and giver of all things. This blessing is spiritual because it strengthens our dependence, walk, and joy in Him. To the extent we pursue Him in this way is the extent we may also experience circumstancial blessings as well. 

He seeks to wean us from the

¹pleasures of this world and our dependence on them - not necessarily give us more of them. He does this so we might grow deep spiritual roots into him and find Him our greatest joy, ¹instead of created things.

For things to get better (in Him) they often must 1st get worse (in life). Or as Christ said, "to live we must die." 

We must be weaned from ¹that which keeps us from the best thing - God himself, and a closer walk with Him - not grant us pleasant or comfortable circumstances.

The following quote by John Newton (author of the song "Amazing Grace") captures the essence of this in the following quote.

"Everything is needful that He sends. Nothing can be meaningful that He withholds."

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Footnotes:

¹It is not that he doesn't want us to enjoy and appreciate his creation. He absolutely does. But when the pursuit of the pleasures in this life become greater than our pleasure in God, we actually lose in the long run and miss out on the greatest pleasure of all; knowing and walking with God. 

The best thing God can do for us is deepen our walk with him and our joy in Him, not necessarily make our circumstances better or easier.

The joy of generosity

Generosity ¹seems to be a ¹primary part of who God is and what makes Him tick, i.e. how he operates. He delights in giving. God so loved... He gave...

As His image bearers, we are designed the same way, but with a major difference. Only God has unlimited resources - i.e. He is the Source of all things. He is an endless overflowing fountain of love. We are not. 

Why? Because God is a community of infinite, endless love within and among Himself as Father and Son who continually gives and receives love in, by, and through the Spirit. God is love, and He is Spirit.

As bearers of God's image, we also find joy in giving. But we are not an unlimited, endless, overflowing fountain. Only God is a ⁵community of love and calls us to be a part of (plug in to) that community, so we will overflow with love in the same way He does. 

If we get love from another image bearer as a result of our giving them love (such as to a spouse or in other relationships), we may be able to maintain this kind of giving for a long time. But if we find ourselves giving more than we get, we become exhausted and the relationship withers and ⁶eventually dies.  

However, when we ²plug into and reconnect with God, we become a conduit connected to that unlimited, overflowing fountain of infinite love again. 

This enables us to love others ³without receiving from them anything in return because ⁴God is our source of love, not others. i.e. other bearers of God's image.

Without being reconnected to the source of love and life, we run out of gas (love and life, etc.). 

But when we are connected and plugged into the Source of love, life, and all things, we can become an unlimited resource or conduit of love because we are plugged into the unlimited supply i.e. God - the only Source of endless love.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich...

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (who gives out of joy, not duty).

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work..." 2 Cor 8:9, 9:6-8

For a more in-depth look into 2 Cor 8:9, 9:6-8 click here.

Related articles:

For more on how God is relationship, click here.  

For more on whether God is dependent or independent click here. 

For more on the life, love, and the Spirit of God click here.  

For more on how God is perpetual love click here

Are love and value the same? For a discussion, click here. 

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Footnotes:

¹I say "seems" only because we can't put God in a box and reduce him to something far less than he is. We are only scratching the surface of just one aspect of his character, though I believe a very central and foundational one. Maybe the most significant aspect of who God is.

We should approach God - at a minimum - with the same awe and mystery we approach the universe itself in all its infinite vastness. Not as some sort of object we can dissect to see how it ticks, but as a person and dynamic being of infinite beauty and depth, we will never reach the bottom or end of. God is an infinitely glorious being, who we will go through all eternity discovering more of, and should therefore be in total awe of. 

We can know different aspects about God only because - and when - He reveals them to us. And because God is infinite - and we are not - there is still mystery about what He is like and who He is that we will continually plumb the depths of throughout eternity with ever-increasing awe and joy! What we now know is only the beginning and a tiny speck of the depth, breadth, and width of the beauty and wonder of God.

Not because he's trying to hide from us, but because we are not humble enough for him to reveal himself more fully. We only see God clearly to the extent we humbly trust Him. 

The key to seeing more of His infinite beauty and mystery is humility. Without humility, we will never see Him clearly. 

Humility is a central part of the very character of God Himself.  How much more should this be true of us who are finite?

Because of arrogance - i.e. thinking we can be our own god and can make life work better without Him than with Him - we are blinded to seeing Him well, if at all. It takes a humble disposition (ours) to recognize a humble disposition (God's).

As finite beings, we can never fully plumb the depths of His being or His heart. We will spend all eternity increasingly discovering more about God and His infinite beauty and love. We will never be bored but increasingly enthralled the more we see and know Him.

²As bearers of God's image, we were originally designed to be in perfect union with our Creator. Through, by, and out of this union, everything else is meant to flow. When we rebelled and turned away to be our own god, we cut ourselves off from our infinite Creator, the only Source of life, love, and all things. We no longer partook of God, the endless fountain of love. Without Him, we are empty and left longing for love. It is this longing that creates all our problems because we go to anything and everything other than God - the true Source of all things - to fill that longing. 

³Unlike us, God is an endless source of love and does not need to get anything from us in order to give. He is perpetual giving because he is perpetual receiving within and between the Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit.

Whereas we may give short-term but can't sustain giving unless we get an equal amount or more love than we give... or at least feel like we are getting as much or more. 

⁴This is also why only a godly marriage is most fulfilling, successful, and flourishing. God is the center and source of love for each partner, vs each other.  

In fact, a successful and flourishing marriage is a picture of the community of our triune God as a relational being. 

⁵God is a community of perpetual love as Father, Son, and Spirit. We thrive in a loving relationship because we are designed for love i.e. we are Godlike, who Himself is infinite love. 

We cannot operate outside of love any more than God does. God is love. We are designed for love because we are like God - in His image. To assume we can operate properly without being in union with the Source of life, love, and all things is trying be someone that even God isn't i.e. the Father, Son, and Spirit do not operate independent of each other. They are interconnected and "interdependent."

⁶The exception would be a loving parent and their child. 

We are all believers...but in what?

When we make a statement of absolute certainty - such as God does or does not exist - how do we know if our ⁴claim is true?

To make such a statement with absolute certainty, we must have absolute (infinite) knowledge, i.e., we must be all-knowing. Otherwise, there may be information somewhere ¹yet to be discovered that proves our claim is wrong. 

We already know there is vast knowledge beyond our awareness for two reasons. 

The more we learn about our universe and ourselves, the more we realize 

1. How ¹little we know and 

2. How limited (finite) our understanding is of what we do know. 

And this is only regarding the physical realm. 

What about the spiritual? How can we be sure there isn't such a ³realm which is equally, if not, a far greater realm of knowledge and understanding than the physical/material world? 

What if the state of our present existence somehow prevents us from seeing this ³realm well, if not altogether? Without absolute knowledge, we can't know with complete certainty.

To be absolutely certain of any claim, we must be everywhere present at the same time - in every dimension - in order to observe everything there is to know about our claim. Then, we must have a perfect understanding of everything we observe to ensure we interpret everything correctly. 

In short, we must be infinite in knowledge, wisdom, presence, and power to know something with absolute certainty. 

Otherwise, we must know and trust someone who has all these characteristics. This is true of only one being and that being is not us.

Do we have such ability collectively? 

Since all humans are limited (even the brightest among us), we may discover a tremendous amount, but we can never have infinite knowledge collectively, either. Increasing the number of finite individuals to gather information still produces finite knowledge because individually we are finite and there is not an infinite number of us. 

Even AI cannot acquire this because its knowledge is based only on what finite minds have discovered and compiled to date, and made available and programmed AI to gather. And if there is bias in the programmers, vital information could be withheld that is necessary for complete knowledge on a subject. 

No doubt AI will come to the place where it will be able to learn and gather new information on it's own (and may already be there). But this will simply give us a greater knowledge of what is, which I suggest will only give us more evidence to support the existence of a Creator. 

The only way to have infinite knowledge is to have access to and trust in the infinite, i.e. trust someone with infinite knowledge.  

Yet we still prefer being our own god and trusting ourselves over God because...

1. We're under the illusion that we can control other things or persons well enough to get what we need - and we believe we don't need God to do this (though God would never control others to serve our ends).

2. That these other things or persons can give us what we need - purpose, meaning, fulfillment, and lasting life - if we can only acquire and control them.

3. We suspect (correctly) that God can not be controlled by us or anyone else (by definition, this is a significant part of what it means to be God). We prefer to trust ourselves over someone we have zero control over - which actually reveals that our distrust of others is a core part of our broken disposition.

Some assert they are agnostic about such things. But this also requires absolute knowledge. This is saying with 100% certainty we cannot be sure either way. But how do we know this without having absolute knowledge? We don't.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether we trust ourselves to make life work without (i.e., independent of) God or we trust God. 

²Every last one of us must operate by faith, not just "believers" i.e. Christians. We are all believers in something or someone simply

because we have to be since we are finite i.e. not infinite in knowledge or power or everywhere present, and we are dependent creatures. We simply don't know the far reaches of the universe and everything that is out there, much less the One who claims to have created it all and keep it all going. 

For a more in depth look into this click here.

Since we are designed to live, move, and have our being (existence) in God we cannot make life work as it was designed to without Him, no more than a fish can live on land out of water. It is simply a matter of ⁵our design as creatures and bearers of God's image. 

Yet most refuse (choose not) to acknowledge this or Him. This creates a major problem. Our refusal colors and distorts everything we see, hear, do, and understand, since we are cutting ourselves off from the source of all knowledge. i.e. if the Bible is correct about God and creation, this is a denial of reality i.e. what is. 

We interpret our world according to our beliefs. If our beliefs are wrong, so is our interpretation of the "facts." And everyone believes i.e. has faith in - something or someone. There are no exceptions. We must because we are not all-knowing. None of us.

We are also naturally inclined to believe our will is paramount over anyone else's, especially God's. We are all about self unless we are plugged into God. In short, we are selfish. Our "ishness" in our present disconnected state (by our choosing) from the ultimate Source of all things - and all truth - is about putting ourselves first,  when it is very possible and even highly likely that we are not the most important being in the universe. 

We can only be about others when we are plugged into the Source of life, love, and everything else as God designed us to be. Without Him, we are "running on empty."

We are set on being our own god unless and until we come to recognize being our own god will not and does not work, i.e. give us true and lasting life.

And what is the essence of life for us personally? 

We are important, significant, and valuable because we are in God's image. For more on this, click here.

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Footnotes:

¹We regularly hear of new discoveries made by the James Webb Telescope that regularly contradicts our previous understanding. Why? Our prior understanding was based on faith (theory), not facts. In science, it's called hypothesis, theory, or speculation (or presuppositions in philosophy) which are all fancy names for belief or faith. In science, the purpose of the scientific method is to prove or disprove theories because theories are not facts. They are statements of belief i.e. presuppositions.  

The irony is the scientific community criticizes "believers" who openly admit they operate by faith when they also operate by faith but try to hide it behind "scientific" words that sound more sophisticated than that "anti-intellectual" word we call faith.

Why are theories even necessary or used? Because we are not everywhere present and neither are we all knowing. Therefore, we operate by faith; every last one of us.

²Until we recognize there are no exceptions with faith - i.e. We all operate by it - we will not objectively and honestly look at all the evidence that does exist. We interpret our world - the "facts" - according to our beliefs or presuppositions. 

When we are honest in admitting our limitations, we can look at everything and see which belief system is best supported by the evidence we do have. When we do, we will be shocked to see how much the evidence points towards supporting the claims of the Bible and Christ himself and all that he is, said, and did. 

³As we develop greater tools to observe and study what is and gather more information, we are beginning to understand the quantum realm. This is more like science fiction than science. It's so mysterious it's almost a mixture of the spiritual and the scientific.

⁴Faith is so despised by the secular mind that we substitute what we call it with other flowery words to sound intelligent. But these are only substitute words for belief or faith e.g. hypothesis, theory, postulate, speculation, posit, presume, presupposition, assertion, claim, etc. are all expressions of what we believe before we have proof that they are true. 

⁵As a result, all of humanity operates like a fish out of water. This is also why the world is such a mess. To continue the analogy, fish are not designed to live out of water, no more than we are designed to operate without a conscious relationship with the Source of life, love, and all things, i.e. our Creator...

Except for those who already recognize that being our own god doesn't work. Even though they still have to deal with their limitations and the brokenness of humanity, they do so with God at the center of the equation.