I have added another chapter to my series, "Killing God" which will be in publication soon but can be found on this blog with a simple search or browse. One more chapter will be added after this one.
The Bad Guys and the Good Guys
All murder mysteries have bad
guys in black and good guys in white. God is fair: He assumes that everyone is
worthy of saving. He is the Good Guy!
However, those who claim God as their Master are called to mimic God. aaa As hard as Christians try, they cannot be
good! Only God is “good”. Aab On the other hand, Christians are
encouraged by God to be “good” knowing full-well that even Christians will
fail! Thus, if Christians are sincere and trusting in God, with repentance, God
blots out the sins which make them bad.
“Bad” is the opposite of “good”
and is evil. The person’s sum of evil is iniquity. “Evil” is the practice of
sinning, and sinning is doing what people
desire to do rather than God’s will. Sin amounts to failing to observe
God’s authority over the world (as well as the heavens). Thus, sin is
irreverence to God and disdaining God’s supremacy. Mankind, as warned by Satan,
desire to be their own gods. aad Because man was created “in the
image of God” aae that is a far cry from even being close to God’s
supremacy, but in pride, man considers his own will supreme to God’s! That
pride is one of the three original sins: (1) the lust of the flesh, (2) the
lust of the eyes, and (3) pride of life. aaf The first two are receptions of the things of
the world, and the latter is internalizing mankind’s importance in the world –
their own status in life. As such, mankind, indeed, have established themselves
“as gods” without creating anything but a fiction! To be a god requires the
ability to create. Mankind does have the creative ability, but it pales
compared to God’s!
What man creates are either the works of
his hands or the inventiveness of his mind. The material man uses for his
feeble creations were created in the beginning by God. No, men are not gods,
and women, neither are you goddesses!
Now that the reader understands
that they are not gods, that impression must be discarded. That is
done by “presenting yourself a living sacrifice” which God calls your
“reasonable service”. aag
That is done by humility, which is essentially realizing that the world is
heliocentric, not yourself-centric. Although the earth does revolve around the
sun; the world, the sun, and the cosmos are Theo-centric!
How dare mankind believe themselves to be as God!
The “bad guys” are those who
elevate themselves too highly. I like to say that without God, man’s value is
akin to a bag of fertilizer – about $10 of 10-10-10. What gives mankind intrinsic
value is God! The “bag” for God’s currency is the human soul which seems to be
the container for holding God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus referred to his own soul, as
“his cup”, aah Of course, he
was referring to his purpose as well
– to die for mankind!
Once sinners submit to God, and
become servants of God, they serve rather than God merely serving them. They
have humbled themselves! When sinners are born-again, it is two-fold: (1) trust
in God and (2) serve God. The former is a prerequisite for being born-again and
the latter an outcome. The way Christians live, they are half-way “Christians”
if that was possible. They believe and may even trust but fail to serve! Service is the humbling of man’s perception of his own godhood. The outcome of the
humbling experience is “meekness”.
“Meekness” is an attitude: It is
“enduring injury with patience and without resentment.” Aai In the
Herrin Lexicon that means “realizing that you are not God, and not acting as if
you are!” Meek people don’t defy God. That’s a no-no. Mankind’s problem is defiance. The solution to defiance is
reliance. Christians are to be reliable, and serve honorably in God’s army: aaj
Thou
therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the
things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to
faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ.
Christian soldiers are the “good
guys”. They are perfect recruits but are willing to serve in God’s army! Some
doubt that there is a war going on. That is naïve to say the least. The
battlefield is all around the world, and God’s people can hear the artillery.
When villains attack my God, they rally to defend Him. Meek soldiers are
zealots. They value their Leader much more than themselves and will even risk
their lives for the sake of Christ as most of the apostles did. God died for
mankind, and if men are truly his servants, they will die for Him!
God defeated death but yet men
fear death. History tells us that Peter, after denying Christ thrice at His
death, would not allow himself to be crucified as Christ was. He demanded inverted
crucifixion. Jesus forewarned Peter of his own death but Peter served anyway! aak
Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and
walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch
forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou
wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.
And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
Following God is not cheap! It just may be your life which is
demanded of you. Peter was a “good guy”. Good guys declare their King and are
loyal to Him. God took Peter’s back and Peter took Christ’s back. That’s what
good guys do!
Only part of the battle can be
seen. We see it every day from education and entertainment to politics. While Libertas stands tall in New York Harbor,
it is demanded that God hide out. Yes, He is that offensive to some; so
repulsive that they can’t stand the sight of Him! God’s commandments are repugnant
to the world, and the cross is virtually banned even as various heathen gods
stand proudly all over the nation!
What heathen gods? Look around!
In my own community of Bowling Green, Kentucky, are at least four pagan god
statues in Fountain Square Park! That would not be a problem but as far as I
know there are no Ten Commandments nor creches. Seems unfair! While false gods
are allowed in public places, any evidence of a real God are not! That attitude
is part of the spiritual warfare being waged by earthlings on an Almighty God.
Who do you think will win?
Earthlings, in this vernacular,
are those who are of this world. Of course, everyone is, but the meek who will
inherit it someday, aal until then are citizens of the Kingdom of
God! Thus, it is those who hold allegiance to the Prince of the Air against
those who serve God. The “war” as been revealed but most denigrate that as
nonsense. The “bad guys” are exposed below: aam
For
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
Principalities are “chief angels”.
Not good angels but the worst of the worst. Because Satan can’t be everywhere
and is limited to one location at a time, principalities stand in for him. Those
bad guys would be Satan’s Centurians who make Caesar’s seem docile! Powers are
the masters of the Universe so to speak who are superhuman. They are destroying
angels. The “rulers” are those Satan-like, or Satanic, who do their best to do
what the Devil would do. They do all their warfare in darkness, and those who
are in the Light know they are there but cannot see them.
Thus, the good guys and the bad
guys are known; the former wears Light and the latter darkness. They can see Christians
because they stand in the Light but Christians can’t see them because of the
spiritual darkness in which they lurk!
In defense of God, His servants
must know both Him and the enemy. Those truly adopted by God know Him but some
in God’s defense are Judas’s – traitors who plan God’s death! By the actions of
some, it is obvious that they work for the enemy from inside the Church. To those God will say, “I never knew you,” aan
and they will be dismissed from God’s army later to be cast into the
bottomless pit with their leader!
Oops! I gave it away. God will
not die but Satan will, and those who keep allegiance with him will die as well! When God warned, “You shall
surely die,” aao when the world ends, that promise will be fulfilled.
It’s the bad guys who die, and the good guys win out just as always. Keep this
in mind. Good will always defeat bad. It may take awhile but since God Is Good,
God will win!
Aaa Holy
Bible; 1 John 2:6.
Aab ibid;
Rom 3:23.
Aac ibid;
Rom 19:27.
Aad ibid;
Gen 3:5.
Aae ibid;
Gen 1:27.
Aaf ibid; 1
John 2:16.
Aag ibid;
Rom 12:1
Aah ibid;
Mat 26:39.
Aai Merriam-Webster
Dictionary; “meek”.
Aaj Holy
Bible; 2 Tim 2.
Aak ibid;
John 21:18-19.
Aal ibid;
Psalm 37:11; Mat 5:5.
Aam ibid;
Ephes 6:12.
Aan ibid;
Mat 7:23.
Aao ibid;
Gen 2:7.
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