You break it You buy it. Some stores that sell fragile things often have a sign like that. Imagine going into store and seeing a beautiful vase that is worth millions more than you will ever earn and there isn’t anything like it to be found anywhere else. But just seeing it isn’t enough, we have been told Don’t Touch!, but no one will know if we pick it up and take a good look… we will be careful. There is so much more to see than if we just look at it on it’s display stand. Maybe, suggests the guard nearby, maybe you can look it over a bit better…. So go ahead touch it, pick it up, feel the surface and marvel at it’s exquisiteness. Our friend who is with us picks it up and enjoys the opportunity examine it. The depth of it’s colour is amazing and the textures a delight to the fingers. We absolutely must see this work of art too, here they say… passing it to us.
Oops… a little clumsy are we? Ah well.. there it goes down to the floor. That nice inlaid stone floor is a bit harder that we thought and that vase isn’t bouncing… well… not in one piece anyway…. It’s bouncing alright. We could say it has a new texture now… a bit rougher than the original.. Oh… and what’s this now? The shopkeeper’s steps we hear? Quick better hide… we will just escape to the garden outside and hide behind the fig tree.
But… of course… we have been found out! Those leaves on the fig tree don’t hide us very well after all. And then the shopkeeper asks us what we have done… as if they don’t know. Quickly we point the finger at our friend blame it on them. And our friend blames it on the guard… and long story short, we get tossed out of the shop.
What Lord’s Day 5 of the Heidelberg Catechism says about it in;
Part 2: of Man's Deliverance
Question 12. Since then, by the righteous judgment of God, we deserved temporal and eternal punishment, is there no way by which we may escape that punishment, and be again received into favor?
Answer. God will have his justice satisfied; and therefore we must make this full satisfaction, either by ourselves, or by another.
Question 13. Can we ourselves then make this satisfaction?
Answer. By no means; but on the contrary we daily increase our debt.
Question 14. Can there be found anywhere, one, who is a mere creature, able to satisfy for us?
Answer. None; for, first, God will not punish any other creature for the sin which man hath committed; and further, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God's eternal wrath against sin, so as to deliver others from it.
Question 15. What sort of a mediator and deliverer then must we seek for?
Answer. For one who is very man, and perfectly righteous; and yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is also very God.
The only problem is we now owe millions and have no way to pay for it. And we do owe it since we broke it and are liable. Suppose we were the shopkeeper and someone broke what cost us our life’s savings to buy and put up for sale, we would be ruined. Maybe we will work it off and pay the shopkeeper that way? Only the more we work the more we break things and the more we owe too.
One popular axiom is “Do unto others as you want done to you“. Our motivation really should not be expecting reward for doing good, but the point to consider is that there is a price for actions taken. You break it you bought it. We owe more than what are life is worth. If we were owed something would it be fair if we didn’t get reimbursed?
Matthew 7:12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Exodus 21:23-25 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Leviticus 24:19-20 If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.
Deuteronomy 19:21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Another thing to consider is the demand of the Law that requires payment in like kind, as we see in the texts above wound for wound, etc. Breaking the rules means there is a penalty, and in the case of sin the penalty ultimately is death, our life is required of us. That what is lost is to be replaced with the same thing.
Suppose the shopkeeper personally paid for insurance on the vase? Suddenly what was the ruin of life’s savings is now covered and replaced at no cost to us. This is a bit of a simplistic example but it does show how the principle works. The insurer has negotiated a settlement and restored the loss that occurred by paying for it themselves. Another person has stepped into our place and taken the loss, a person that is both like us and unlike us also wealthy enough to be able to pay it.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
The Unfairness of it all.
Time to do some work and the boss has given us a task to complete. We did most of what was to be done, sure the instructions were a bit hard to follow but it got pretty close to what it was suppose to look like. Of course our mind wandered a bit too while we were at work thinking of things we’d rather do and taking a break here and there to do some “errands”… or is that goofing off…. Oh well, as long as we did most of what was expected it’s just fine. We did a good job didn’t we?
When we got hired there was a job description. Even the previous employee could not do all of what the description said. So why is the boss angry, talking about firing us or taking it out of our pay. That’s not fair! We did the work and it looked good enough. What do they expect from us when we aren’t “perfect” anyway?
Now… the person that wanted the task done did have expectations of what it was supposed to look like and it wasn’t quite what they were paying for. Actually it was not at all what they were hoping they would get… all those little differences that made it almost good enough sort of made it a lot more different than it was meant to be. But… we worked hard on it and they should appreciate that effort, they are getting something for what we did. Come on, they are just being uptight about it, they should relax and accept what they get.
And what’s with this God that expects us to be perfect anyway, He’s so unfair and He knows we can’t obey all the rules anyway. What a mean god, a cruel tyrant!
What Lord’s Day 4 says about it;
Question 9. But doesn’t God do man an injustice by requiring in his law what man is unable to do?
Answer. No, God created man with the ability to keep the law. Man, however, tempted by the devil, in reckless disobedience, robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.
Question 10. Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
Answer. Certainly not. He is terribly angry about the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge he punishes them now and in eternity. He has declared: “Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.”
Question 11. But isn’t God also merciful?
Answer. God is certainly merciful, but he is also just. His justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty, eternal punishment of body and soul.
So in this wonderful Garden of Eden humanity did have the ability to follow all the rules… and there weren’t that many to follow back then….. but the rules were that for us to have something we had to do something.
We like to get paid for our work. Let us turn this around a bit first… suppose we did everything we were supposed to do, our work is perfect, it looks great, no flaws, just what they ordered and nothing to complain about. What? Where is our pay? What do you mean they aren’t paying us for our work? We are angry now! How can they not pay us, we required them to pay us for what we were doing for them. We are going to take them to court and punish them for it, make them pay and then some.
We are after all talking about our pay here. It was in the deal we had with them, and they better pay up. It’s bad news for them if they don’t. The Bible backs us up on this.
Jerimiah 22:13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not his hire;
Leviticus 19:13 Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbor, nor rob him: the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
Corinthians 9:7 -10 What soldier ever serveth at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Do I speak these things after the manner of men? or saith not the law also the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God careth, or saith he it assuredly for our sake? Yea, for our sake it was written: because he that ploweth ought to plow in hope, and he that thresheth, to thresh in hope of partaking.
Oh.. now it doesn’t seem so easy. When the situation is turned around we aren’t so graceful, merciful, or forgiving…. kind of obvious that God has every right to be angry and to punish. Fair is fair when our own attitudes are that someone should not get away with cheating, stealing or whatever else. It also wouldn’t be fair to those that did what they were told to do, somehow they get what we got and didn’t work as hard… or maybe at all.
It is indeed easy to view God as the one being unfair because we can’t keep His rules perfectly, though at one time we did have that ability to do so, but isn’t God the one being cheated? We are being unfair to Him expecting to get something we did not earn. He made a deal with humanity and got less than He bargained for. True, He made the deal with “Adam”… so why are we still required to finish the job? The deal was with us not with one person. We are obligated to do things in the contract. If we are to get the same things promised to Adam so to are we required to do the same things Adam was commanded to do.
Romans 5:12-14 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned: for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come.
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
We owe God, a God that is merciful, and we can’t compensate for His loss in the deal made with humanity. So what is the answer?
When we got hired there was a job description. Even the previous employee could not do all of what the description said. So why is the boss angry, talking about firing us or taking it out of our pay. That’s not fair! We did the work and it looked good enough. What do they expect from us when we aren’t “perfect” anyway?
Now… the person that wanted the task done did have expectations of what it was supposed to look like and it wasn’t quite what they were paying for. Actually it was not at all what they were hoping they would get… all those little differences that made it almost good enough sort of made it a lot more different than it was meant to be. But… we worked hard on it and they should appreciate that effort, they are getting something for what we did. Come on, they are just being uptight about it, they should relax and accept what they get.
And what’s with this God that expects us to be perfect anyway, He’s so unfair and He knows we can’t obey all the rules anyway. What a mean god, a cruel tyrant!
What Lord’s Day 4 says about it;
Question 9. But doesn’t God do man an injustice by requiring in his law what man is unable to do?
Answer. No, God created man with the ability to keep the law. Man, however, tempted by the devil, in reckless disobedience, robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.
Question 10. Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
Answer. Certainly not. He is terribly angry about the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge he punishes them now and in eternity. He has declared: “Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.”
Question 11. But isn’t God also merciful?
Answer. God is certainly merciful, but he is also just. His justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty, eternal punishment of body and soul.
So in this wonderful Garden of Eden humanity did have the ability to follow all the rules… and there weren’t that many to follow back then….. but the rules were that for us to have something we had to do something.
We like to get paid for our work. Let us turn this around a bit first… suppose we did everything we were supposed to do, our work is perfect, it looks great, no flaws, just what they ordered and nothing to complain about. What? Where is our pay? What do you mean they aren’t paying us for our work? We are angry now! How can they not pay us, we required them to pay us for what we were doing for them. We are going to take them to court and punish them for it, make them pay and then some.
We are after all talking about our pay here. It was in the deal we had with them, and they better pay up. It’s bad news for them if they don’t. The Bible backs us up on this.
Jerimiah 22:13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not his hire;
Leviticus 19:13 Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbor, nor rob him: the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
Corinthians 9:7 -10 What soldier ever serveth at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Do I speak these things after the manner of men? or saith not the law also the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God careth, or saith he it assuredly for our sake? Yea, for our sake it was written: because he that ploweth ought to plow in hope, and he that thresheth, to thresh in hope of partaking.
Oh.. now it doesn’t seem so easy. When the situation is turned around we aren’t so graceful, merciful, or forgiving…. kind of obvious that God has every right to be angry and to punish. Fair is fair when our own attitudes are that someone should not get away with cheating, stealing or whatever else. It also wouldn’t be fair to those that did what they were told to do, somehow they get what we got and didn’t work as hard… or maybe at all.
It is indeed easy to view God as the one being unfair because we can’t keep His rules perfectly, though at one time we did have that ability to do so, but isn’t God the one being cheated? We are being unfair to Him expecting to get something we did not earn. He made a deal with humanity and got less than He bargained for. True, He made the deal with “Adam”… so why are we still required to finish the job? The deal was with us not with one person. We are obligated to do things in the contract. If we are to get the same things promised to Adam so to are we required to do the same things Adam was commanded to do.
Romans 5:12-14 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned: for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come.
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
We owe God, a God that is merciful, and we can’t compensate for His loss in the deal made with humanity. So what is the answer?
Friday, November 13, 2009
The evil child.
The evil child! A born hell raiser. Spawn of Satan.... describes some people very well, being bad is cool. We are all like that, we like to do things that are a bit edgy and risky, a little bit on the dark side of things. A little scandal here and there makes us look tough and dangerous. Being a rebel is freedom... free of rules and authority. Hey, question authority, we have our own minds, no one should tell us what to do.
Some rules are just wrong, they don't make sense and they get in the way of having fun or living our life. Rules are meant to be broken or life gets boring. They are limits to what we want to do and come from people that want to tell us not to do this or that. What is right for one person might not be right for another, everyone should make up their own mind as long as no one gets hurt. Things just work better without all those rules. We decide to do what is best.... at least for us. We still follow the rules and help other people when we can, don't get into a lot of trouble and when we do it is really someone else's fault.
Sure we make mistakes and go against the flow of things. There is that saying "to err is human". So there you have it, human nature is already messed up and prone to doing things wrong. Why did God make a morality we can't even follow? So really it must be God's fault if we aren't totally good. If God created everything then where did "evil" come from anyway? Maybe He created evil and made us bad. If we were perfect we wouldn't make so many mistakes or fail at life.
It just doesn't make any sense, "God does not make junk".... as some might say. How can God not make junk and there be evil in the world? Isn't that just proof that there is no "god"? Maybe it is just some neurosis, some babbling myth maker coming up with a great story to tell around the campfire. First this "god" makes some creatures and then he tells them they are going to burn in Hell if they don't obey him. That's just crazy talk isn't it? Creatures that can't be perfect and are expected to be perfect, what kind of freakish god comes up with that? You can just hear the crowd howling with laughter at that one.
In Lords Day 3 of the Heidelberg Catechism we read this;
Question 6. Did God then create man so wicked and perverse?
Answer. By no means; but God created man good, and after his own image, in true righteousness and holiness, that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love him and live with him in eternal happiness to glorify and praise him.
Question 7. Whence then proceeds this depravity of human nature?
Answer. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise; hence our nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin.
Question 8. Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?
Answer. Indeed we are; except that we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.
Well... maybe God didn't create people bad to begin with.... as it says in Gen 1:31 " And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." ....but He let it happen didn't He? Mankind went rogue and turned out bad. He tells man right there in Gen 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." So, He knew man was going to "sin" by giving him a rule to follow, "don't eat from that tree right yonder there...". Just a little temptation, just the knowledge of good and evil hanging there getting ripe and tasty..... and then it happens.....
Gen 3:1-13 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
And the man said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Okay, so it is easy to worship God when we feel good about ourselves. When we see no sin or failures in our life and having nothing to be ashamed there is no stopping us from believing that God is a loving God. We wouldn't run and hide from God. That really is part of why we avoid God, even wanting to deny He exists, we don't like the idea of being failures. If God is perfect and we were made in His image then we should be perfectly good too, yet we know we aren't and we don't reflect that image of God at all. So we run and hide, we pass the blame to others, we don't own up to what is our responsibility.
It really is true that to err is human. The person that denies it is not being honest about how they live their lives. And when confronted with a mistake they made they will blame it on someone else, no it is never their fault... it's... it's circumstances... it's the weather... it's "the devil made me do it"..... or even it's God's fault. But it is never their fault is it? Really kind of pathetic. And if we are honest we are no better, but at least we recognise we are not perfect... although then again some will say being bad is okay, which is really trying to get away from being blamed for it by blaming their personal flaws.
We are corrupt and our nature has been that way for a long time. God didn't make us that way, we choose to be that way and continue to chose that way of life. Try as we might we can not be perfect by deciding to, we aren't God. We do have that knowledge of good and evil now and it was by our own will, and it has affected our lives completely. God can do something about that, but we can't.
The Heidelberg questions and answers come from public domain documents.
Some rules are just wrong, they don't make sense and they get in the way of having fun or living our life. Rules are meant to be broken or life gets boring. They are limits to what we want to do and come from people that want to tell us not to do this or that. What is right for one person might not be right for another, everyone should make up their own mind as long as no one gets hurt. Things just work better without all those rules. We decide to do what is best.... at least for us. We still follow the rules and help other people when we can, don't get into a lot of trouble and when we do it is really someone else's fault.
Sure we make mistakes and go against the flow of things. There is that saying "to err is human". So there you have it, human nature is already messed up and prone to doing things wrong. Why did God make a morality we can't even follow? So really it must be God's fault if we aren't totally good. If God created everything then where did "evil" come from anyway? Maybe He created evil and made us bad. If we were perfect we wouldn't make so many mistakes or fail at life.
It just doesn't make any sense, "God does not make junk".... as some might say. How can God not make junk and there be evil in the world? Isn't that just proof that there is no "god"? Maybe it is just some neurosis, some babbling myth maker coming up with a great story to tell around the campfire. First this "god" makes some creatures and then he tells them they are going to burn in Hell if they don't obey him. That's just crazy talk isn't it? Creatures that can't be perfect and are expected to be perfect, what kind of freakish god comes up with that? You can just hear the crowd howling with laughter at that one.
In Lords Day 3 of the Heidelberg Catechism we read this;
Question 6. Did God then create man so wicked and perverse?
Answer. By no means; but God created man good, and after his own image, in true righteousness and holiness, that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love him and live with him in eternal happiness to glorify and praise him.
Question 7. Whence then proceeds this depravity of human nature?
Answer. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise; hence our nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin.
Question 8. Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?
Answer. Indeed we are; except that we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.
Well... maybe God didn't create people bad to begin with.... as it says in Gen 1:31 " And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." ....but He let it happen didn't He? Mankind went rogue and turned out bad. He tells man right there in Gen 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." So, He knew man was going to "sin" by giving him a rule to follow, "don't eat from that tree right yonder there...". Just a little temptation, just the knowledge of good and evil hanging there getting ripe and tasty..... and then it happens.....
Gen 3:1-13 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
And the man said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Okay, so it is easy to worship God when we feel good about ourselves. When we see no sin or failures in our life and having nothing to be ashamed there is no stopping us from believing that God is a loving God. We wouldn't run and hide from God. That really is part of why we avoid God, even wanting to deny He exists, we don't like the idea of being failures. If God is perfect and we were made in His image then we should be perfectly good too, yet we know we aren't and we don't reflect that image of God at all. So we run and hide, we pass the blame to others, we don't own up to what is our responsibility.
It really is true that to err is human. The person that denies it is not being honest about how they live their lives. And when confronted with a mistake they made they will blame it on someone else, no it is never their fault... it's... it's circumstances... it's the weather... it's "the devil made me do it"..... or even it's God's fault. But it is never their fault is it? Really kind of pathetic. And if we are honest we are no better, but at least we recognise we are not perfect... although then again some will say being bad is okay, which is really trying to get away from being blamed for it by blaming their personal flaws.
We are corrupt and our nature has been that way for a long time. God didn't make us that way, we choose to be that way and continue to chose that way of life. Try as we might we can not be perfect by deciding to, we aren't God. We do have that knowledge of good and evil now and it was by our own will, and it has affected our lives completely. God can do something about that, but we can't.
The Heidelberg questions and answers come from public domain documents.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Things just don't go right.
Life is just lousy, nothing we do ever seems to work out right and even when we get things going pretty well, wham... it all falls apart again. We think if only we could get things right, maybe... finally... get things together we'll be what we should be. Success just depends on hitting the right notes in that song of life, and our tune is just off-key and we know it. Sometimes it seems like the Devil is playing with us. Or worse.. maybe God has just plain forgotten us.
We keep up the facade sometimes... put on the mask, just like going to a Halloween party where everyone dresses up pretending they are something they are not. At the party it is fun, but when the evening is over it is just memories of what once was. It is even a bit weird to keep wearing those costumes and it becomes obvious to others who see it. The deceptions, the denials, the fakeness and superficiality are all little escapes from reality that sooner or later come to an end. And why all the posing and pretense? Because we want to look good.
So what is it that makes us feel so down? When we pull off that mask and look in the mirror what is seen is a person with some flaws.. or a lot of flaws. Everyone wants to think they are perfect, or nearly so, and a little deception makes us think we aren't so bad. Some people are very good at lying to themselves, they just never look in that mirror of truth. Ever have a very stinky mangy dog walk up to you? It just wants to play and get attention and you just want to get away from it. People who ignore the truth about themselves are like that... and we are all like that dog. Deny it if we want to but we know it's true.
Somewhere deep down in us something just tugs at us. That little thing about knowing right from wrong. You want to do the things that are right but you do the things that are wrong. It's like these "rules of the universe" we seem to think exist, whether we believe there is a God or just a god... or maybe just some force out there... well... okay... and even if we don't believe there is any superior being out there at all the universe does seem to have all these rules and laws of physics and other technical things that sound rather... uhmmm... orderly.
Hey, you drop an egg on the ground and the thing breaks because of some stupid Law of Gravity. Cause and effect. If the egg wasn't dropped it wouldn't break... at least if it wasn't a fertilised egg... some little chick will crack it open to get out... but that's not Gravity at least.
From the Heidelberg Catechism's Lord's Day 2 we have 3 questions;
Question 3. Whence knowest thou thy misery?
Answer. Out of the law of God.
Question 4. What doth the law of God require of us?
Answer. Christ teaches us that briefly, Matt. 22:37-40, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first and the great commandment; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Question 5. Canst thou keep all these things perfectly?
Answer. In no wise; for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbor.
Where do we know right from wrong? From rules and laws. Whether it is written down or written in our hearts we know morality exists. Sometimes we like to define our morality ourselves, the old what is right for one is wrong for another idea, better known as moral relativism. Somehow we know about that orderliness in the universe.
In any wise, this whole "knowing right from wrong" stuff does get a person down a bit when they realise they just aren't up to those standards. Sometimes it even wrecks our lives or causes all sorts of terrible things in our lives. And sometimes it isn't our own "errors" that bring that about but someone else's rule breaking. The 10 Commandments in the Bible are often referred to as the "Law"...
Exodus 20:2-17
(1) "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before me.
(2) "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
(3) "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
(4) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
(5) "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
(6) "You shall not murder.
(7) "You shall not commit adultery.
(8) "You shall not steal.
(9) "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
(10) "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."
This is how Christ summed them as we read in Mat 22:37-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
Easy enough to see that if those rules get broken it can lead to some misery for someone, if not everyone, and just looking over that list can any of us say we have kept those rules and not broken any of them? We might have hurt ourselves or hurt someone else... and we aren't even talking about any god yet! If we hate people enough to be mean to them we must hate God too. Our despicable little human nature is just a bit warped, we hurt friends of friends... uhmm... might as well be hurting your own friend right? Okay, some are so warped they hurt their own friends... but isn't that telling us something? Hey, we go against that "orderliness in the universe"!
The Heidelberg questions and answers come from public domain documents.
We keep up the facade sometimes... put on the mask, just like going to a Halloween party where everyone dresses up pretending they are something they are not. At the party it is fun, but when the evening is over it is just memories of what once was. It is even a bit weird to keep wearing those costumes and it becomes obvious to others who see it. The deceptions, the denials, the fakeness and superficiality are all little escapes from reality that sooner or later come to an end. And why all the posing and pretense? Because we want to look good.
So what is it that makes us feel so down? When we pull off that mask and look in the mirror what is seen is a person with some flaws.. or a lot of flaws. Everyone wants to think they are perfect, or nearly so, and a little deception makes us think we aren't so bad. Some people are very good at lying to themselves, they just never look in that mirror of truth. Ever have a very stinky mangy dog walk up to you? It just wants to play and get attention and you just want to get away from it. People who ignore the truth about themselves are like that... and we are all like that dog. Deny it if we want to but we know it's true.
Somewhere deep down in us something just tugs at us. That little thing about knowing right from wrong. You want to do the things that are right but you do the things that are wrong. It's like these "rules of the universe" we seem to think exist, whether we believe there is a God or just a god... or maybe just some force out there... well... okay... and even if we don't believe there is any superior being out there at all the universe does seem to have all these rules and laws of physics and other technical things that sound rather... uhmmm... orderly.
Hey, you drop an egg on the ground and the thing breaks because of some stupid Law of Gravity. Cause and effect. If the egg wasn't dropped it wouldn't break... at least if it wasn't a fertilised egg... some little chick will crack it open to get out... but that's not Gravity at least.
From the Heidelberg Catechism's Lord's Day 2 we have 3 questions;
Question 3. Whence knowest thou thy misery?
Answer. Out of the law of God.
Question 4. What doth the law of God require of us?
Answer. Christ teaches us that briefly, Matt. 22:37-40, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first and the great commandment; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Question 5. Canst thou keep all these things perfectly?
Answer. In no wise; for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbor.
Where do we know right from wrong? From rules and laws. Whether it is written down or written in our hearts we know morality exists. Sometimes we like to define our morality ourselves, the old what is right for one is wrong for another idea, better known as moral relativism. Somehow we know about that orderliness in the universe.
In any wise, this whole "knowing right from wrong" stuff does get a person down a bit when they realise they just aren't up to those standards. Sometimes it even wrecks our lives or causes all sorts of terrible things in our lives. And sometimes it isn't our own "errors" that bring that about but someone else's rule breaking. The 10 Commandments in the Bible are often referred to as the "Law"...
Exodus 20:2-17
(1) "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before me.
(2) "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
(3) "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
(4) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
(5) "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
(6) "You shall not murder.
(7) "You shall not commit adultery.
(8) "You shall not steal.
(9) "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
(10) "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."
This is how Christ summed them as we read in Mat 22:37-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
Easy enough to see that if those rules get broken it can lead to some misery for someone, if not everyone, and just looking over that list can any of us say we have kept those rules and not broken any of them? We might have hurt ourselves or hurt someone else... and we aren't even talking about any god yet! If we hate people enough to be mean to them we must hate God too. Our despicable little human nature is just a bit warped, we hurt friends of friends... uhmm... might as well be hurting your own friend right? Okay, some are so warped they hurt their own friends... but isn't that telling us something? Hey, we go against that "orderliness in the universe"!
The Heidelberg questions and answers come from public domain documents.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
How worthless are you?
If the things you do are a measure of how much you are worth, then the answer must be at a minimum... not much. Unless your an expert, then you make fewer mistakes, so you'd be worth a bit more but still not much. You did a great job on something so you must be worth a lot more, or you get paid a lot of money, or is it fame... well, that's all a bit deceiving because when you die either someone else gets your stuff or it is thrown out with the trash. Oh that's got to hurt... your life's work gone in the trash.
Be honest, all the self esteem stuff that goes around doesn't make anyone any happier. Some might be delusional and think they have it made and thus are happy. Some of the richest and most famous people are the most miserable, constantly trying to get approval from others by appearing to be something they are not. How many people seek out self improvement and self help? It's a popular subject that produces a lot of books and speakers who want to tell you that you are worth something.
Do you have an education? Sure... you could say the value is how much you spent on education, but then if you learnt how to design transistor radios your education might be a bit... uhmmm... outdated... that's just a kind way of saying obsolete.. and unless your vintage enough to be collectible it is safe to say not worth much.
And as we know, obsolete means scrap value is about all you'll get from recycling. The chemicals that comprise your body are probably worth about One dollar and the hide (your skin) is worth maybe Four dollars, but with the price of commodities always fluctuating so the average person might be worth between Three and Five dollars.
But what are you worth to God? Or some would say is there even a "god"... so then what is your value? If there is no "god" then your value and worth is rather vague, but could be summed up in what was mentioned above about chemicals and education, status, etc.
From the Heidelberg Catechism's Lord's Day 1 we have 2 questions;
Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?
Answer. That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.
Question 2. How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die happily?
Answer. Three; the first, how great my sins and miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance.
What do these questions and answer say? Does it not speak to our fears of self worth when we ask what our comfort is in this life.... that is.. what is it we treasure in our day to day life? As it is said, where our treasure is that is where our heart is. Our yearnings and desires to be accepted and approved of, to be wanted. If our heart has been moved to believe that we do belong to God then no longer is our worth on what we regard as valuable things that simply perish, are stolen, rust away, or sold off. That a God would pay for our failures and preserve us from destruction speaks to our value and worth.
But to be valued we must also see our own worthlessness in our sins and misdeeds. And often we see only our failures and mistakes, believing ourselves to be worthless and without value at all. Some will seek to fill that with psychological manipulations or with smooth talking motivational speakers that feed the soul with a bread that does not last. Again we go hungry and become tired when the weight of humanness bears down again.
It is when we see our sins for what they are and hear of the forgiveness of those sins through what Christ's death accomplished that are we set free from that burden. No longer are we worthless but bought with a price. We know what are worth and value truly are then, and no longer need to doubt and fear the ravages of decay. Christ has set us free, free from captivity. And in that freedom we can finally live to God's glory.
The Heidelberg questions and answers come from public domain documents.
Be honest, all the self esteem stuff that goes around doesn't make anyone any happier. Some might be delusional and think they have it made and thus are happy. Some of the richest and most famous people are the most miserable, constantly trying to get approval from others by appearing to be something they are not. How many people seek out self improvement and self help? It's a popular subject that produces a lot of books and speakers who want to tell you that you are worth something.
Do you have an education? Sure... you could say the value is how much you spent on education, but then if you learnt how to design transistor radios your education might be a bit... uhmmm... outdated... that's just a kind way of saying obsolete.. and unless your vintage enough to be collectible it is safe to say not worth much.
And as we know, obsolete means scrap value is about all you'll get from recycling. The chemicals that comprise your body are probably worth about One dollar and the hide (your skin) is worth maybe Four dollars, but with the price of commodities always fluctuating so the average person might be worth between Three and Five dollars.
But what are you worth to God? Or some would say is there even a "god"... so then what is your value? If there is no "god" then your value and worth is rather vague, but could be summed up in what was mentioned above about chemicals and education, status, etc.
From the Heidelberg Catechism's Lord's Day 1 we have 2 questions;
Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?
Answer. That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.
Question 2. How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die happily?
Answer. Three; the first, how great my sins and miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance.
What do these questions and answer say? Does it not speak to our fears of self worth when we ask what our comfort is in this life.... that is.. what is it we treasure in our day to day life? As it is said, where our treasure is that is where our heart is. Our yearnings and desires to be accepted and approved of, to be wanted. If our heart has been moved to believe that we do belong to God then no longer is our worth on what we regard as valuable things that simply perish, are stolen, rust away, or sold off. That a God would pay for our failures and preserve us from destruction speaks to our value and worth.
But to be valued we must also see our own worthlessness in our sins and misdeeds. And often we see only our failures and mistakes, believing ourselves to be worthless and without value at all. Some will seek to fill that with psychological manipulations or with smooth talking motivational speakers that feed the soul with a bread that does not last. Again we go hungry and become tired when the weight of humanness bears down again.
It is when we see our sins for what they are and hear of the forgiveness of those sins through what Christ's death accomplished that are we set free from that burden. No longer are we worthless but bought with a price. We know what are worth and value truly are then, and no longer need to doubt and fear the ravages of decay. Christ has set us free, free from captivity. And in that freedom we can finally live to God's glory.
The Heidelberg questions and answers come from public domain documents.
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