Solace: Listening to God

Solace! Taken for granted, but so important! What is it? It's relief from things which are stressful. I think of it right now! Some good things can be good for a short time, but excruciating for the long haul. Sometimes  I'm trapped in an automobile and am bombarded by continual music of another’s choosing, I'm stressed!!! My solace is taken away. Between songs are lulls of short duration. It's a sanity check. Have  I ventured into hell or is this where sane people dwell?

People play the television all day long. They eat with it on and even nap with nonsense emanating from this irritating device! Periodically, about twenty minutes an hour, people on television tell me what to buy and what to eat. I get to hear that most people are constipated and others have diarrhea. My solace is gone!

My wife mentioned a band. She wanted to hear the Eagles in concert. I asked "Who are they?" She said "One of the most popular bands ever! Where were you when you were growing up?" My only response was "Listening to the roar of a tractor engine!" I love that sound! It brings solace to my ears. The tractor represents to me what is important in life: It represents work and development. It represents productivity and usefulness. In my mind it actually means peace and harmony. The exhaust noise from a John Deere tractor is music to my ears!

I like what the tractor stands for! I've already mentioned some of those meanings. While the tractor is roaring I think profound thoughts. I ask inquisitive questions. This enquirer just "wants to know".

Some of the questions I have asked as music played from the engine are:

• How big is the universe? How far does space go?
• Can time be that old? Did God compress time? Is God real or did man create a fiction?
• Who is God? Was he always here? How can "always" even be?
• Will I always exist or does the grave end it all? What will things be like here without me?
• Will I know that I no longer exist if there is no heaven or hell?
• Is there any hope for eternity? How can I be hopeful?
• There must be a way to escape eternal death. Where can it be found?
• Are there things I can do find the hope of being eternal? 
• Can I be saved? What am I saved from? Why should I be saved?
• Did God really come to earth? Who is Jesus? Is there any other way? Why him?
• Why would God even care about me? What does God expect from me?
• Why is sin wrong? Why doesn't God want us to have fun and pleasure?
• How can I be saved? Do I have to change? Why would I want to change?
• What's wrong with people? Are others content with knowing they are destined for hell?
• What can I do to encourage others to believe? Why won't people listen?

These are the thoughts of a middle and high school student working on the farm who spends each day without outside interference and whose realm is solace.  I had many other less profound questions: What makes soap bubble? Why is the sky blue? How far away are the planets and moon? What ingredients are in Tide detergent? How does yeast work? To find the answer to the trivial I read and explored. To find the answer to life's events I read and listened. I hear what God said to me as I roared down the corn rows. His words spoke distinctly to me as I had solace; me alone with the roar of the tractor engine!

What interferes with profound thinking? It's the confounds. It's occupying the mind all the time with entertainment and distraction. It's not having solace and spending time alone and with God! It's failure to meditate on what God is saying. It's failure to commune with God!

Why are we here? I mean, why did God create mankind? All we do is ignore, disobey and have an irreverent attitude, but for some reason he still cares!

Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over... " 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:  18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.Genesis 3:8a "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day:"

"Why are we here?" is found in the scripture above. There may be other reasons, but let's look at man at the time we were created:

Man was to be different than the animals. We were made in the image of God. We're different than the animals. God had pleasure with his creation, but he needed something more! He needed something "like him" with whom to commune! One of the greatest purposes of all men is to fellowship with God. We speak with him (prayer), we listen to him (mediate) and we consider his will (empathize) and we do his will (obey). How many people mediate? How many people even pray (sincerely)? It's obvious that few empathize and obey!

We were made said God "in our image"! Within the Garden there were three: The Father (God), The Word or Voice (pre-incarnate Jesus) and God's Holy Spirit. Man was made with a "living soul" That is one of the likenesses of God! We're different than the trees and the animals in that we have a soul and they don't. That soul is the cup in whom God's  Holy Spirit dwells... if it's empty of dark spirits.

Solace is important because something fills the soul! Is it the things of the flesh which defiles man or is it the things of God? As solace is breached, the things which breach begins to occupy the space in the soul. The adversary plants evil thoughts in. Too much music, entertainment , talk and even heretical preaching that defiles the soul with bad spirits fills us. Our soul isn't clean to make room for the Holy Spirit and if we're Christians, that's who dwells there!

We are a proud people. We believe that Jesus was made just like us with flesh just as ours! How proud we are! As God said "Let us make man in OUR image!" Who is The Word? It's Jesus before he was flesh. Man, then merely dust, was made with flesh. Just like the flesh Jesus was to have! Jesus was not made in the image of man, but man in the image of Jesus! So much for our pride. We were made like Jesus so that we could be like Jesus!

Who was Jesus? He served mankind! Not only did he make the wine and bread, and healed and did miracles, but his greatest service was to save us! We can only endeavor to like him, but that we can do:

1 Corinthians 7:22 "For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant."

Why did God need mankind? Why are we here? We came to serve God. We came to serve the one in whose image we're made. We came to serve Jesus! The Word was here to serve all along! Jesus was here in he beginning!

Genesis 2:15 "...the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it"

I believe that this is a symbolic statement. If we look at what was in the Garden the main thing was the "Tree of Life". I believe the trees may have been real, but were also symbolic. The "Tree of Life" is known to be representative of Jesus and "The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" was symbolic of the flesh and is representative of Satan who lived in that tree. Man and woman stood under  Satan's  tree and left God alone at his tree. They chose, by where they stood and to whom they listened" to follow the flesh and ignore God! God created man to commune; not to ignore!

Without solace, always occupying the mind with the things of the flesh, is ignoring God. We can't meditate on God if we are constantly standing under the tree which bears fruits of pleasure, wealth and reason.  Therefore man was created to attend God. Our work is to see that God is loved, obeyed and admired. We "dress and keep the garden" by worshiping under "The Tree of Life" and attending to THAT tree! That tree is Jesus! Man was made to attend Jesus. We are his servants as he serves us! It's a mutual relationship because we are in communion with God! While we're tending the "Tree of Life" we tend the other tree by putting it's fruits in the basket of the Holy Spirit. We take hate, lust, envy strife, etc off that tree and put it in God's basket!

God didn't like being alone and recognized that neither do we!

Genesis 2:18b "It is not good that the man should be alone."

God said this, not only in reference to Eve, but to everything. It is followed by the creation of objects, Eve and as God begin to commune with his man. Man was created so God could care about us! He shows his love by providing for out needs! He saw that man was lonely and he filled that lonely spot with things to comfort his creation.  God created man so that he could love us!

 John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

God's love didn't start with the birth of Jesus. His love started at day one; when man was created! Way back in the garden.... God felt hurt. He saw man hovered under the other tree listening to the serpent tell his lies. He knew all along; I'm going to transfigure my Word into flesh and to show man that I love him so, I will sacrifice my own Son for those I created.

God not only loved man, but he was just! It would be unfair of God to create man, then abandon us to our own folly. He gave us free will to even make bad choices. He wanted people who love him, not merely automatons who're programmed to obey. God loved us, but he created us to love him back. Yes, Dr. David Jeremiah, God EXPECTS us to love him back!

John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

 God doesn't merely wish that we love him, but he created man and expects us to love him back! And how do we demonstrate our love? By obedience to his will. We in effect stand under "The Tree of Life" and do what he does!

So yes, man was created to receive God's love and to love him back, but it doesn't stop there! God's desire to watch his creation live in harmony. He didn't want chaos to reign in his kingdom. He created men and women to love one another. The type of loving he's referring to is loving others just like God loves us. It's not a physical love, but a caring love! It's Godly love for each other:

John 13:34 "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

Then back to us!

Genesis 2:18 "It is not good that the man should be alone."

We were created to have companionship with others.  He created Eve to serve man, just as man serves God. He put Eve with Adam to multiply as we see later in scripture. God created man to be happy! How better to make a man happy than to provide a devoted woman and a family? From God's viewpoint his desire was to see his creation grow! Man's purpose in life is to create a civilization, but one devoted to God and not evil It's God's intention and a purpose of all men to be civil. We obey rules and authority. We quit doing what's right in our own eyes and do what is the will of God!

So it's your desire that you engross your mind in whatever entertains? That's not your purpose in life at all! I've given many purposes for which God created you and yet you stand under the other tree; the one without purpose. You stand under the tree which distracts and fills you with pleasures of the world. While you're standing under that other tree,  Jesus looks your way and thinks "That's not why I created mankind? What are they doing to me? He's heartbroken!

Our obligation is to seek some quiet and consider the things of God! That's "working out our salvation". We put away the things of the flesh and listen.. In solace we shall hear!