Life is crazy. But the way humans look at life is even crazier.
God gave us life, and God takes away life. We were all born unto this Earth with a certain measure of faith. But what does that even mean? That means you have gifts. God given gifts, the ultimate gift giver, the King of kings, the exalted one; has given us, undeserving, sinful, dreadful humans, gifts from above, so that we may use them to shine out his light. The light of the Gospel and the good news. We live lives aiming to please ourselves, and never finding happiness and we're always searching for new ways to feel good.
We wander aimlessly searching for some kind of meaning to life, fending for ourselves, giving ourselves glory, thinking that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger for ourselves. We are all born wanting to think, "me, me, me, what about me?" Selfishness, resentment, depression, timidness: those are the feelings that control you, and control comes from below where there's Hades and Satan. Happiness, joy, love, peace, grace, courage, wisdom, maturity, beauty: those feelings come from above, from God, the father, and those feelings have no control over you.
God doesn't seek control over people, because thats what satan would coerce us into thinking. Thoughts like, “God wants to rule you," “Do what you want to do," “Do what makes you feel good," “Live for the moment!” “God wants to make you feel little," “Why is everyone always talking about how big God is?”, “Why are all these christians giving God all the credit?”
A lot of people don’t understand Lucifer. They don't get that just as Christians believe in God, they believe in the devil as well. Lucifer was in fact the most beautiful angel -- he was Gods right-hand man. Lucifer, the fallen angel, fed into evil thoughts and feelings and was damned to Earth, where God and him made a little bet. The bet was, “I will allow you to lie and scheme and try to coerce my people to do as you did, but the truth will set them free.” Lucifer feeds into when we fall because he fell. He offers us temptations, he wants us to become selfish as he is, because Lucifer knows the truth.
He knows that drugs, sex, people, money and this life on Eartht is temporary. He also knows that it feels good, and he knows that people long for happiness, and joy, and love, and peace and all the things that come from God, but he lies. He lies to us saying “this high will make you happy,” “this pretty girl will make you know love,” “this earth is full of pretty things, that will suffice for your enjoyment,” “This money will get you out of your depression." He lies because he knows, and he is mad that he is damned down here with all the rest of us, stuck in this awful world we live in, where society rules our thoughts and actions, and the government lies and tells us we’re free.
Indulging in temptation will make you feel good, but only for a second. Most people settle. They settle for the easy way out, they settle for the here and the now. Well people, don't you know life is short? Don't you know that you have a timeline for eternity and your life on earth is only 80-90 years? That might sound depressing to simple minded people, but the big picture is to make the most out of your life, for the Lord. Not for yourself, because if you're doing it for yourself, then you're letting the devil win and you’re allowing him to laugh in your face because he has deceived you. Its or the sake of sharing the Gospel and the good news. Start loving people as christ loved. Be the little shimmer of the light at the end of the tunnel. Lead by example, shine your light and do all those little cliche sayings because its truth.
Don't get caught up in the depressing fact that we are stuck here on Earth, rejoice in the fact that what we do here does matter. You have a purpose and you are important. Our purpose is to be there for our brothers and sisters, be there for our enemies and trespassers and tell them that there’s no reason to be sad. We are all here for a reason and that reason is God -- he calls us to share the good news and the truth, because the truth will set you free! Free from the ugly lies the devil feeds us, the mean voice inside our heads saying we’ll never be good enough. Because if you let the devil get to you, you’ll be lost. You’ll be bad. You’ll be unhappy, and troubled and wandering with no purpose.
You are good, but only when you're with God. Thats why Christians give God all the glory for everything, because we know, I know, that without God, I’d be that pitiful-little-me girl I was in middle school. I’d be bitter and moody and I’d forever feel not good enough. But I know the truth, and thanks be to God for his word.
The truth is and will always be the Gospel. Gospel, comes from old english god meaning “good” and "spel" meaning “news, a story.” Doesn't that make you want to jump for joy? We have a whole book on how to live a happy, joyous, courageous and meaningful life. Do you ever wonder why doing good things, or helping people gives you a little warm fuzzy feeling inside? You ever wonder why when we have someone else to depend on we feel safer and more powerful. It's because we were meant to love God.
He gave us a measure of faith in hopes the we might seek Him. If God sought out to rule us and Him being creator of everything, don't you think he would’ve just made us love Him? We would’ve just came out our mothers womb, saying “all hail Jesus, he is the Holy one.” No, that would be like Hitler, brainwashing his people. Thats evil, thats not love. God can do anything, but he didn't do that. He graced us with curiosity and hunger for some kind of purpose. He loves us and knows that as stubborn, dumb, humans we have a since of pride, and must do things ourselves, go through things the hard way to know the truth. God doesn't put us through suffering because he is punishing us. God puts us through suffering so that we might find the light at the end of the tunnel, and we might go to the light and fall on our knees and kiss the ground because we have a God, Jesus, who has been through the tunnel. Who has been on this Earth and seen what we’ve seen.
Jesus has walked where you have walked, he has been through every temptation that the devil could throw at him, but the difference is, Jesus knew the truth. Jesus knew that just a little bit longer, just a little more suffering, and I will have an eternity with God, with love, happiness, beauty and everything we long for. He knew that if he could just endure the pain we all receive on Earth because of the devil for just our short little lives, that we can live forever in the house of the Lord, without pain, without suffering, without feeling lost or like we have no one. But the problem is that most people are stuck in the tunnel. They are pacing back in forth in the tunnel of darkness pondering, “how am I gonna get out?” becoming hateful to those who walk right by them and see the light, “Why is that guy so happy? All that is out there is stupid bright light. Im gonna stay in here where its warm and I can see everyone and I know they are feeling just as low as me. That guy is so stupid, doesn't he know that beyond the tunnel is the unknown?”
Why are we so scared of the unknown? We walk in pain and suffering and we know what that feels like, why would you be afraid to feel something you don't know? I want to know what it feels like to not feel pain anymore, to not feel like I’m not good enough, or pretty enough, to not feel like I'm never gonna be anything and scared that I’m never gonna make enough money. I know what that feels like and I want to feel the unknown forever!
Becoming a Christian doesn't mean that you're not gonna suffer or that you're not going to feel pain, because Jesus did. But through the pain and suffering he knew it was all worth it, and it made it all okay. Jesus had endurance, and I want that. I want endurance for God. With God, you become someone new. With God you become fearless, because you suddenly know the truth. The truth that with God, we can do all things. We can tap into our purpose and the life we were born to live, we can be on the straight and narrow path to righteousness, not walking in circles around the devil. With God, there is hope and happiness, so why would you not want that? What are you scared of? The unknown? Think of what you do know and tell me you don’t hunger to know something better than that. I want to know the unknown, because the unknown is Heaven. Heaven is where I want to spend my forever.
