When the first people disobeyed God in the garden they rejected his sovereignty.
It was never about “just eating a wrong fruit”.
The gravity of disobedience lies in the person of whom we disobey.
You might not always have obeyed your parents.
Yet you did not go to prison for this.
Perhaps you disobeyed the laws of your government though, and you did go to prison for that or at least received some severe warning or ticket.
Now what if we were to disobey the God who rules the earth and even the whole universe?
How severe would the rightful punishment for that be?
I can think of only one answer.
Is there a ruler that would not deal severely with someone that did not acknowledge his autority?If so he would not be very wise.
He might be compassionate to the rebel that refuses to submit, yet if he would let him of the hook with no consequences he would severely put the order and peace of his kingdom in danger as long as the rebel refuses to submit.
Even if he would not be concerned about his own safety that person would be a danger for the other inhabitants.
Unless we speak about a ruler who’s laws are malicious.
But I am supposing now that the rules of the kingdom are all for the people’s own good and protection.
At least I am convinced it is that way with God.
He is not like a human ruler that anxiously wants to hold the respect of the people and otherwise loses his sense of self worth.
God does not need anyone to validate him.
He does not need our submission.
We need it though!

So what would be the appropriate consequence for people that broke his rules, which is all of us?
Disobedience to the King of the universe, who knows best what we need.
Our very Creator.
The One who upholds our life and sustains it.
Who makes it worth living and determines what is good and what is evil.
He knows better what is good for us than we know ourselves.
Like children often do not understand why their parents request certain things of them they may not like. Yet it is for their own protection.

Even the evil in our own hearts we often do not realise.
But He sees it all.
Our self centeredness and pride.
Our living for gain and power.
Our desire to be above others.
Our tendency to keep control.
While of course He is the only One that controls the universe.
Or is He?
I think it is clear to all of us that if He is God and our Maker He should be our ruler right?
Just like it is proper that a child submits to its parents.
The ones that gave it life.
Yet does God really control our lives?
It is not just that we should let Him out of respect for who He is, but also it is the most prudent thing we can do since He alone has the wisdom to govern us the way we need to.

To be continued…

Free Gift

When we look at life I think it is questionable to assume that God controls it all.
I am not saying that He cannot control it.
I am not saying that He does not have all power and ability to control every detail of our lives.
I am also not saying that He is going to let things go on the way they are forever.
Yet I believe that initially God gave the earth to people.
In the bible we read that God ordered man to submit the earth and to replenish it.
That means it was our responsibility to take care of it well.
Of course God still has all power and He can easily override our decisions.
Yet initially He chooses not to.
Even when we make mistakes and choose the wrong things.
God is not interested in robots.
He wants our free love and obedience.
An obedience that flows from love, not from pressure.
He does not need our submission.
Yet He wants it because it is for our own good that we obey.
But also because He cannot have a loving relationship with us if we rebel against him.
How can you be close to someone you rebel against?
That does not work right?
And God wants to be so close to us that we will always know how much He cares for us.
He is not a distant God.
He takes pleasure in interacting with us like any good parent enjoys spending time with their children.
In that sense we really are made in his image.
Like children initially come from an expression of love so God made us to express his love.
We cannot earn anything from him.
This also means that we cannot fail him because our existence did not came forth from or depends on our behavior.
Yet this does not mean our actions do not have consequences.
Now that does not mean that all of a sudden we have to earn our right to stay alive or to be healthy or succesful or anything. Life really is a gift.
We do not have to start earning the love of God at any point of our lives.
No matter whether we lived a decent and obedient live or whether we rebelled against him in any way possible.
Love still cannot be earned.
It never can.
We might have all kinds of conditions before we show our love to someone but God is not like that.
He does not withold his love from us when we disobey.
It may feel like it though because as children we do not always understand his dealings with us.
His discipline that is for our own good.
His ways to get rid of our toxic behavior that greatly damages life on this earth.
He will not keep tolerating it forever although He is and has been extremely patient with us.
He loves us deeply and that is exactly the reason why He will not tolerate our destructive ways for all eternity.
We may enjoy our rebellious living for a moment yet it will always have a destroying effect on us and those around us. But often we are not aware of it.

To be continued…

Free Gift

God’s affections for us are not stronger when we believe in him.
He gives life to all.
The rain and the sun are for all.
Food comes from the earth for everyone alike.
Initially.
Yet it does not stay this way forever.
Our submission to God will effect his provision sooner or later.
And I believe that at times it already has.
Not out of spite, some selfish anger which we tend to have when we do not get our way.
And not because He ever stops loving us because He never will.
I believe God will go to any length to get our attention.
To show us our rebellion which will seperate us from him for all eternity if we do not repent from our evil ways.
He will even bring disaster if that is what it takes for us to return to him.
I know this may be hard to understand but God is more interested in our eternal welfare than our temporary comfort.
We are often so focused on the moment but God keeps the whole picture in mind. Which is more than just our lives on this earth.
And though not everyone will come to him when He takes measures like that and even people may die, you have to keep in mind that one day we will die anyway. And then it will be to no avail.
We may have enjoyed life all due to the goodness of God. Yet we will lose our soul forever if we do not come to him in our lifetime.
And so God will do what it takes for us to be saved from eternal damnation and seperation from him.
His wrath is really his last act of kindness.
How severe it may be.
I believe God always postpones his wrath as long as possible.
Yet in the end there will always be people that will never get saved by returning to him, unless great disaster strikes them.
It is God’s last wake up call for the earth.
His last attempt to save souls when all his more gentle nudges to our soul were rejected by us.
And it hurts his heart more even then it hurts us.
Like no good parent takes pleasure in bringing grief to their children.
Yet if that is what is takes to bring them on the right pad they will.

To be continued…

Free Gift

God’s heart longs for us all, no matter if we long for him or not.
We might be offended by that but keep in mind that is because of our pride.
We want to earn things because it fuels our sense of self worth.
But what if we all have the same worth?
No matter where we are at in life.
Whether we have been successful or not.
“Good” citizens or not.
If we say that our worth comes from our behavior, we would not be worth anything at our birth.
Unfortunately many lives are ended before they even come out of the womb because of our low esteem of life.
Yet most parents will not agree.
Are not babies the most lovable creatures we know?
They produce smells and noises that are far from pleasant.
But we adore them!

We are the same to God.
He looks at us with such compassion.
His love really has nothing to do with what we did or did not do.
After all He made us.
So even our abilities come from him.
Therefore it is impossible to earn anything from God.
Now this does not mean that out behavior does not have consequences.
Yet life is a gift we cannot undo.
We can loose it though which may sound like a contradiction.
I do not mean that we will ever stop to exist.
But the place where we spend eternity depends on our submission to God.
In the bible to belief in God means to submit to him by the way.
Now death is only the end of our earthly existence.
There is another death however which I am talking about when I say we can lose our lives. It has to do with the quality of our life.
It is a spiritual death.
Basicly “death” is the absence of God’s manifest presence in our lives, whether here and now or in the hereafter.
(This does not mean we have te feel him all the time. Often we need to learn how to recognize him in our lives.)
We are eternal beings just like God is eternal.
Yet the kind of life we experience can vary tremendously.
I am not just talking about that one person might be happy and another not in this lifetime.
But since God made us to be in relationship with him we should not be surprised if life does not work very well for us and does not give us the fulfillment we so long for if we do not cultivate that connection with him.

The fact that God loves us does not mean we automatically go to heaven when we die.
That would be like being forced into a marriage you did not want.
God is not going to coerce you to spend eternity with him!
Yet this does have a consequence.
There is only one way we get to loose the wonderful aspects of our existence, and that is not through our behavior but through the absencse of a connection with God.
The same way rebellion affects a child’s relationship with its parents the same way it affects our relationship with God if we ignore him.
He does not love us any less but like we have seen earlier He cannot allow us to stay in rebellion if He wants to uphold the morality and peace of his kingdom.
Neither would it make us happy if we were allowed to continue in our rebellion forever.
We might think it would and again children are a good example here.
They probably do not like discipline initially, yet they are more happy when they are disciplined and restrained when needed than when they are given free range in everything.
They often need to be told how to behave.
There are many things they need to learn and eventually they are thankful for instructions and discipline because it leads to peace and is for their own good.
Also they have a need to know that someone else is in control.
It gives them a sense of safety.
The same way we need God’s instructions and supremacy over our lives.
Only then we come fully alive and have peace.

To be continued…

Free Gift

God does not want to punish us.
He takes no pleasure in it.
And He certainly does not want to be seperated from us forever.
After all we are his children, whom He loves very much!
Yet in order to have peace and safety in his kingdom, or should I say in his family, He will do whatever is necessary for this.
Even if it means that those who rebel against him and never accept his sovereignty over their lives have to be banished.
He will not take delight in that at all.
On the contrary it brings him great grief.
Yet it is the only way to bring peace and harmony in the kingdom.
And He will do it for the sake of those that submit to him.
But He did not make that decision lightly and He first did everything possible to save those who rebelled against him.
He provided a way for them to escape the rightful punishment for their behavior.
That probably sounds unfair to you, especially if you consider yourself to be worthy of God and his eternal presence in heaven.
Or if you are thinking that if you deserve punishment you will pay it yourself. You do not want mercy. Your pride flares up right away by that thought.
If you are not concerned with those things on the other hand it is the best news you will ever hear in your life!

Anyone that is convicted of their own shortcomings and rebellion against God will cling to his mercy with their whole being once they realise they are not able to pay for their own sin.
Truth is that none of us deserves heaven.
You do not want justice. Because that would mean you would have to be condemned. To be banished from his presence forever.
You may think this is not a big deal since you do not want to be with God anyway. Or so you think.
However without realising it you already are experiencing a measure of his presence. We all do. The whole earth is filled with his glory.
But in order to have fulness of live we need to have a relationship with God.
If you die without having submitted yourself to God, to Jesus Christ, you will lose all the glory this life contains.
And your soul will long for all eternity to be with God, but then this is not possible anymore.
Because it has to be a free choice and once we see God in all his glory after we have died we will all be compelled to bow to him. It will not be a free choice anymore.
Hell is the place we then go to.
Hell, because we are seperated from his glory forever.
If you want to party for all eternity, heaven is the place you want to be.
There is nothing more satisfying and exhilarant then to be close to God forever.
But how can God give mercy and forgive us if that leads to lasting chaos and strife in his kingdom the way we already experience in life right now?
If He forgives rebels and lets them continue to rebel then how can there be peace? How can anyone be safe?

To be continued…

Free Gift

I am sure most of you would like a life with a lot more harmony in it with the people around you, and even with those far away.
Who likes war after all?
Only those who are set on having more power do.
But wars start with just a few people that have a wrong attitude of heart.
If we (subjects) were government leaders than perhaps there would be a lot more wars than we would think.
We all have a tendency for power, to be in control and above others.
We all tend to take care of ourselves first.
And then when it is convenient we might look out for others as well.
But others certainly do not hold the same esteem in our lives as we esteem ourselves. Usually.
I know this may not sound bad to you since after all who takes care of us if we do not.
By no means I am saying that we should ignore taking care of ourselves if that is the only way we have time to take care of others.
Yet I believe a right balance is possible.
If we value ourselves properly, not more or less than others, I think there is still enough room to hold other people in the same esteem as we hold ourselves. And that we can look out for them the way we look out for our own welfare and benefit.

You may never have hurt anyone physically yet there can be many ways to harm a person.
Even gossip or thinking bad about someone in your own heart can affect how that person is treated, either by you or someone else.
You might feel very righeous in the way you treath others, yet in my opinion, and I believe this is what the bible teaches, you can hardly call it love if you are only kind and helpful to those that are kind to you.
You may think that is common sense but if you think about it a bit longer you will come to the conclusion that it is pure selfishness.
Love cannot be earned.
If you love only those that reciprocate your love and kindness then you are really only looking out for yourself and not loving others at all.
Love is not about you but about the other.
It is about what you can give, not what you can get.
Love is not offended when it is not returned.
It is even not offended when it is straight out rejected.
Now you might wonder why you would even want to love others if this is the case.
And why you would even want to love ALL people.
But it is hard if not impossible to draw a line.
Where would it be?
Only loving your partner and family and friends?
Perhaps your colleagues as well?
How about neighbours?
And what about the people you meet in stores and on the streets?
How about people you never met but are in need of help that you could give?
The thing is that if you only love a few you choose you probably do not love them as well as you think you do.
Your love probably has conditions.
But even if you love them well, or seem to, you might have to ask yourself if that love really is about the other, and not about what you can get from them.
If you do not love them like you love pizza…
You love it for what it does to you, but you would not make a sacrifice for its sake. After all it is a lifeless thing you only get to fill your appetite.
You might sacrifice your hard-earned money to get one, yet even that sacrifice is for yourself. Not for the pizza’s sake. But for the sake that you get that pizza.

Now if love is about giving, about expressing it instead of trying to get your own needs met, then why would you want to limit love?
Of course you can only marry one person (at least in my culture) and I am not suggesting you should have more than one partner.
But obviously that is not what I am talking about here.
I believe that true love is a posture of the heart that either you have or you do not.
It really is a choice you have to make but if you love only a few I do fear that is not love at all.
If your affections are really love than you do not want to limit them.

Now you do not have to give what you do not have.
You do not have to muster up this love all by yourself.
God is love and He is the source of our loving.
You do not have to be afraid you will be left empty if you love everyone around you.
This does not mean you have to be every one’s best friend.
You do not have to solve all the worlds problems all of a sudden.
But you do your part and are kind to all people.
All?
Yes all!
The same way you would want all to be kind to you right?
Even, or should I say especially, those that are not kind to you.
It is not about what people deserve.
You probably do not deserve it either that every one is kind to you all the time.
Just be honost.
Yet when you are grumpy yourself you need people’s kindness the most.
And God knows that.
He knows that we do not deserve his love.
But that we desperately need it.
And it is actually through his kindness in our most undeserving state that we change.
We become soft and tender.
And we will want to obey him instead of seeing submission to him as something slavish. Rather it becomes an act of love.
Did you know it gives more fulfilment to give love than to receive it?

To be continued…

Free Gift

So we need to love more to experience life in its fulness.
And because God is not going to let his kingdom, his family, be anything less than the way He designed it to be, some changes need to be made.
Rebels that do not conform to his standard of love will be cast out, unless…
Unless they change!
Now we cannot change ourselves.
So do not panic!
We can make the decision to love others but if we do not receive the love of God first we might find it hard if not impossible to love them.

I still remember the day when God changed my heart.
I was a believer all along and I did not hate people or anything.
Yet I did not always feel something for them.
Now love is not about feeling but about a choice we make on how to treath others.
But our love needs to be connected to the Source of love or it will run out eventually.
One day God showed me an image in my mind where I saw him putting my small heart in his big one.
I did not have goose bumps. I did not feel anything at all at that moment.
But from then on I felt so much love for the people around me.
Even people I did not know!
And over the years I may have been in and out of love at times, but when I connect to my Source, the love I feel for people is just exploding!
It is not my ability to love others.
It is His in me.

We all need a heart transplant!
And thankfully God provides one for every single person on this earth.
Whether criminals or “civil” people.
We all need it and we can all receive it if we want to.
Like being sick is the requirement for getting medical attention, so our lack of love is the requirment for God’s heart transplant that He wants to give us.
No amount of bad behavior can disqualify you. Rather it makes you the perfect candidate.
But do you want it?

You will have to give up your pride.
Your pride that says you do not need God.
Keep in mind that when you say that you are making yourself god.
But you cannot sustain your own life can you?
Even without food we are nothing.
Our lives are sustained from outside us.
God is our Source whether we believe in him or not.
He keeps your heart beating. Even if it is a rebellious one.
But one day you will die.
And only He determines whether you will spend eternity in heaven or in a place that is much worse than the hell you experienced on this earth.
It is your pride that is offended with all the pain in this world and blames God for it.
It is your pride that feels entitled on having everything to work for you.
That says you did not deserve the suffering you went through.
I am by no means saying that our suffering is punishment from God.
This may offend many, but in truth, what do we deserve?
What does God owe us?
Who are we that He needs to give us an account for his actions?
For the things that happen on this earth?
Will an artwork question its maker about the why of certain brush strokes?
I believe that suffering is actually the result of our initial turning away from God.
That does not mean He initiates the evil that befalls us.
But we put ourselves outside his protection if we do not submit to him.
So again, do you want him?
Do you want him to give you a new heart?
Not only one that is capable of living in God’s ways of love, but also one that is made whole, mended from all the brokenness you went through in life.
He wants to give it to every single person.
But are you willing to receive it?

To be continued…

Free Gift

Are you willing to admit that you rebelled against God?
That you committed high treason to the King of the universe by not even acknowledging his existence.
By putting yourself above him. Above his reign.
By making demands like He owes you the world.
By putting yourself above others and judging them like you are their god?
By taking God’s place. By taking his job.
Are you willing to acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of grace?
In need of a heart transplant.
Only then He can give it to you.
Like a gift cannot be received if it is not accepted, if we do not hold out our hands to take it, so we need faith to receive this gift of God.
We need to believe him.
It is not automatically put into your account.
You need to tell him you want it.
He is not going to throw a gift to you if you have no intention on using it.
You need to say YES to him.

But there is more to it.
It is not that God is hesitant to bless and forgive us.
But He is righteous.
And because of that He cannot just ignore our rebellion, even if we are willing to change and to receive his new heart.
A price has to be paid to settle our debt to him.
Our guilt because of our rebellion.
We owe him our lives for that.
We really deserve the death penalty through our high treason against the King.
After all we put ourselves in his place.
We basicly pronounced ourselves to be God by not acknowledging him.
If we use our mind properly we will come to the understanding that it would not be wise if God just wiped our slate clean without paying attention to what would be a rightful consequence for our rebellion.
We would never learn justice.
What is wrong and what is right.
So before our heart can be transformed something else needs to take place.
And thankfully it already has.
Thankfully God always provides for what we need.
Even if the cause is our own rebellion.

To be continued…

Free Gift

There is only one way God is willing to forgive us.
To wipe our slates clean and to give us a new heart.
He is only willing to do that if we are willing to accept the penalty He provided for our rebellion against him.
Read that again!
I did not say if we pay the rightful punishment for our sin.
No, rather He paid for it himself!
Like a judge that pronounces a sentence because it is the right thing to do.
Because justice needs to been done to protect the morality of society.
Then the judge does the unthinkable.
After He puts down the gavel, He steps down from his seat.
He takes of his robe.
He stretches out his hands and lets the guards take him captive.
He goes to prison and undergoes the death penalty he just pronounced on the criminal.
The criminal walks out of the courtroom freely.
No one is restraining him.
And no one is pursuing him.
He is free to go wherever he wants to.
But does he leave that judge that gave his life for his?
No, by all means.
He sticks to the judge’s family.
Serving them forever in any way he can.

That is close to what God did for us.
I say close because Jesus Christ, the Son of God who himself is God as well, the One who died in our place, did not stay dead.
Thankfully He rose from the grave and now He lives forever!
He ascended to heaven again, where He came from, and now still lives there to intercede for us to his Father.
You can read the whole story in the bible in the the New Testament in the gospel  of John and also in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

To be continued…

Free Gift

The event that we use to divide history is the birth of God incarnate!
Did you ever think about why we date our time with before Christ and after Christ?
B.C and A.D.
The turning point is the birth of Jesus Christ.
The One that would take the sin of the whole world upon himself so we could go out free.
If we would accept it.

And indeed it was a turning point.
The turning from death to life.
Spiritually we are death through our rebellion against God.
It separates us from him which is spiritual death.
But God loves us so much that He wants us to be united with him again.
And so He offered us new life.
A way to rise from the death life we are living.
A life void from his presence. The only “thing” that gives us life!
And so He fittingly came to us in the form of a baby.
A new life.
God incarnate!

His Spirit made a virgin pregnant, in the land Israel, and she delivered Jesus, the Son of God, into this world.
He lived life just like all of us.
He had to grow and learn things.
The only difference was that He never sinned.
And when He was grown and ready He taught us the ways of God and did many miracles.
He healed many people, showing us the love of God.
Then the unthinkable happened.
The religious leaders of his day became jealous of his fame.
They were blinded by their pride and did not see that He was God living among them.
Even though they had been expecting a savior, the Messiah, for a long time because God had prophesied his coming from the moment the first people rebelled.
It was written in the scrolls, which are now part of the bible.
Yet blinded through their desire for power they did not understand that they did not need to be saved from human oppressors in the first place, but from their sin.
Their own wicked heart needed to be transformed and the rightful penalty for their rebellion against God needed to be paid.
So they could be forgiven and free from the bondage that sin keeps us in.
Though Jesus did not hide to them who He was and gave them warnings until the end, they persevered in their haughtiness and handed him over to the Roman oppressors who ruled over the Jews at that time.
Making false accusations against him, saying He was a threat to their kingdom. But He had not come to overthrow a human reign.
They demanded He would be put to death.
Hung on a cross.
The most crual execution that ever existed.

But He was God incarnate.
He was fully able to escape from them.
He had no intentions to do so however.
Ahead of time He had announced to his disciples that He would be taken captive and killed.
He knew what would happen in advance.
The jewish people thought they now had him in their power.
It really shows how blinded they were.
He actually had escaped them before because it was not his time yet.
His time to be taken and to leave this world.
When it was the appointed time though He let himself be taken captive.
The religious leaders thinking He was in their hands now.
And in a sense He was.
Because He surrendered himself to them.
He did not resist.

When they came for him He boldly walked towards them asking who they were looking for.
Of course He knew very well, replying “I am”. Which is the name of God.
The whole army and all the people that had come to arrest him fell to the ground backwards when He spoke these words.
Hit by the power that went from them.
The power of the God most high becoming a humble human being and even surrendering himself into the hands of sinners.
Still not thinking straight, they just stood up back on their feet and captured him.
And Jesus went with them willingly.
Then He was taken to court, but He did not receive justice there.
They hit him, which was against the law, and made all kinds of allegations against him.
He did not reply a word.
He did not try to defend himself, even when given the chance.
“Are you the king of the Jews?” they asked.
“You said it” He answered.
They they did not realise his reign was from another world and He made no attempt to make them understand, though He told them plainly.
He knew their pride kept them from seeing the truth.
The truth of who He was.
God in the form of a human.

To be continued…

Free Gift