Friday, April 25, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Back to the Garden:
Man is a Social Being; isolation is the most damaging thing you can do to a man. It is interesting how we all have different interests and talents that come together and make up a "society". No one person "has it all" (with the obvious exception of Jesus Christ). No, man is an organizational being that has learned to rely on other men and women to fill in the "holes" in there own inability to meet their most basic needs.
And yet, Adam and Eve, were "kicked out" of Paradise and told not to come back. A "cherubim" was placed around the tree of life and the entrance was guarded by immortal beings.
Why????
Because the garden was a barrier to their growth. If Paradise was a final course in the education of our "Spiritual Selves"; then we could have stayed in heaven with God and been done with it. No, the exposure to evil, under the harshest conditions, is what we needed to continue our progression.
Why????
I know, its an annoying question; but someone has to ask it. The reason we "wanted" to experience evil is because we "wanted" to learn how to appreciate all of the things we had grown accustomed to in heaven when we lived with God our Father. Yes, we have to conclude that we actually wanted to go through this miserable experience and actually rejoiced at the opportunity to feel the pains, sufferrings and injustices of life.
Why???
Because you might have the best parents in the world, but the only way you could know that is if you lived awhile with the "worst" parents in the world. Its that Ying and Yang thing again. People that lived through times of great hunger, like WWII and the Depression, grew to appreciate food and "3 squares" a day. So, the greater the evil and misery and injustice you happen to suffer in mortality, the greater your education is; and the greater your education; the more knowledge and understanding you will accumulate.
Men come to know about true happiness when they learn to trust in the true God. Jesus Christ is that God and he had the most miserable mortal experience of anyone that has ever walked the face of this earth.
He also did it with grace and style! Let's examine His life for a second:
1. Born to a poor carpenter who probably died when He was in His youth. The burden for providing probably fell on Him and his "brethren". That is why His mother asked Him to do "something" when the wine ran out at the wedding in Canaan. She always relied on Him, and He never neglected His responsibilities,
2. The Emperor that governs this entire Universe was kicked out of His own church for reading and translating a passage from Isaiah! He was, after all, no University Graduate and lacked the proper credentials from the Divinity School! Heck, the leaders of His Church ended up first excommunicating and then killing Him and His followers! They credited His miracles to Satan and criticized Him for healing a man on the Sabbath!
3. They mocked His royal pedigree. He was a descendant of David and had every Jewish right to claim that throne as His own. This made Him a fool in their eyes. Even Herod couldn't understand why the "legal heir" neglected to claim His birthright. Especially One with such a big following.
4. Pilate knew this, and that is why he had the title "King of the Jews" posted on the Savior's cross!
But what did Jesus say?
"My kingdom is not of this world....for if my Kingdom were of this world, then would My Servants fight!"
In other words, "I am not here seeking the honors of men. I don't need your PhDs; your gold, your silver or your titular crown. That is not the purpose of My visit."
Or, better stated: "When I closed the gates to the garden it was to give you this mortal experience where I permit evil to maintain as much influence on this world as I do. I am not here to destroy evil....I am here to experience it first hand; that I may fully "understand it" and use that understanding to govern over it in the "real world".
So, if God wanted earth to be "just like heaven" He was in a position to make it happen. Instead, He "drank the bitter cup, Himself" and by doing so, gained absolute power over both earth and Hell!
If you don't remember anything else, remember this: A man can only go as far into the "light" as he is willing to walk into the "darkness". That by walking into the shadow and valley of death and this mortal veil of tears, man might, through Jesus Christ, both comprehend the darkness and gain the ability to govern over it!
That is why Satan obeys the commands of God. Because God knows as much about darkness as He knows about light! He submitted to it and placed it in His personal debt. Darkness will obey God because of the heavy debt it owes justice and is afraid of the day when all the accounts are finally balanced....
This is why the demons inside "Legion" asked Jesus if He was there to "torment them" before the time. Just to show them He wasn't, He let them enter into the herd of swine; which then destroyed itself by running over a cliff!
Yes, there is a "day of reckoning"....but not before "the time". This is why evil is still here on this earth heaping up more and more condemnation for itself in the day of judgement which the very angels of hell knew would come to them eventually!
Remember, as long as this world stands, there will be good and evil. The gates of Paradise are closed for all of us that wanted this experience. They won't be opened to us until we have completed drinking every last drop of the cup that we agreed to drink, before we came here.
Not even suicide works. It only prolongs the agony in the Spirit which opted for the eternal course in the spirit versus the shortened one in the flesh.
And yet, Adam and Eve, were "kicked out" of Paradise and told not to come back. A "cherubim" was placed around the tree of life and the entrance was guarded by immortal beings.
Why????
Because the garden was a barrier to their growth. If Paradise was a final course in the education of our "Spiritual Selves"; then we could have stayed in heaven with God and been done with it. No, the exposure to evil, under the harshest conditions, is what we needed to continue our progression.
Why????
I know, its an annoying question; but someone has to ask it. The reason we "wanted" to experience evil is because we "wanted" to learn how to appreciate all of the things we had grown accustomed to in heaven when we lived with God our Father. Yes, we have to conclude that we actually wanted to go through this miserable experience and actually rejoiced at the opportunity to feel the pains, sufferrings and injustices of life.
Why???
Because you might have the best parents in the world, but the only way you could know that is if you lived awhile with the "worst" parents in the world. Its that Ying and Yang thing again. People that lived through times of great hunger, like WWII and the Depression, grew to appreciate food and "3 squares" a day. So, the greater the evil and misery and injustice you happen to suffer in mortality, the greater your education is; and the greater your education; the more knowledge and understanding you will accumulate.
Men come to know about true happiness when they learn to trust in the true God. Jesus Christ is that God and he had the most miserable mortal experience of anyone that has ever walked the face of this earth.
He also did it with grace and style! Let's examine His life for a second:
1. Born to a poor carpenter who probably died when He was in His youth. The burden for providing probably fell on Him and his "brethren". That is why His mother asked Him to do "something" when the wine ran out at the wedding in Canaan. She always relied on Him, and He never neglected His responsibilities,
2. The Emperor that governs this entire Universe was kicked out of His own church for reading and translating a passage from Isaiah! He was, after all, no University Graduate and lacked the proper credentials from the Divinity School! Heck, the leaders of His Church ended up first excommunicating and then killing Him and His followers! They credited His miracles to Satan and criticized Him for healing a man on the Sabbath!
3. They mocked His royal pedigree. He was a descendant of David and had every Jewish right to claim that throne as His own. This made Him a fool in their eyes. Even Herod couldn't understand why the "legal heir" neglected to claim His birthright. Especially One with such a big following.
4. Pilate knew this, and that is why he had the title "King of the Jews" posted on the Savior's cross!
But what did Jesus say?
"My kingdom is not of this world....for if my Kingdom were of this world, then would My Servants fight!"
In other words, "I am not here seeking the honors of men. I don't need your PhDs; your gold, your silver or your titular crown. That is not the purpose of My visit."
Or, better stated: "When I closed the gates to the garden it was to give you this mortal experience where I permit evil to maintain as much influence on this world as I do. I am not here to destroy evil....I am here to experience it first hand; that I may fully "understand it" and use that understanding to govern over it in the "real world".
So, if God wanted earth to be "just like heaven" He was in a position to make it happen. Instead, He "drank the bitter cup, Himself" and by doing so, gained absolute power over both earth and Hell!
If you don't remember anything else, remember this: A man can only go as far into the "light" as he is willing to walk into the "darkness". That by walking into the shadow and valley of death and this mortal veil of tears, man might, through Jesus Christ, both comprehend the darkness and gain the ability to govern over it!
That is why Satan obeys the commands of God. Because God knows as much about darkness as He knows about light! He submitted to it and placed it in His personal debt. Darkness will obey God because of the heavy debt it owes justice and is afraid of the day when all the accounts are finally balanced....
This is why the demons inside "Legion" asked Jesus if He was there to "torment them" before the time. Just to show them He wasn't, He let them enter into the herd of swine; which then destroyed itself by running over a cliff!
Yes, there is a "day of reckoning"....but not before "the time". This is why evil is still here on this earth heaping up more and more condemnation for itself in the day of judgement which the very angels of hell knew would come to them eventually!
Remember, as long as this world stands, there will be good and evil. The gates of Paradise are closed for all of us that wanted this experience. They won't be opened to us until we have completed drinking every last drop of the cup that we agreed to drink, before we came here.
Not even suicide works. It only prolongs the agony in the Spirit which opted for the eternal course in the spirit versus the shortened one in the flesh.
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