Reality is reliable. We can depend on the reality of his love for us. His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their lives. Whom shall we fear? Of whom shall we be afraid? Will our almighty lover ever let us down? Will he ever disappoint?
To neutralize the the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and repurposed it to offer us a contradiction.
Armageddon is here and now. We are not fighting for something in the hereafter. The battle is now. Now is the time to join Jesus in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the Valley of Tears facing off against Evil toe to toe, cheek to jowl. Christianity is not a sport for spectators. Christians partake in the fray.
All of our complaints against God's rescue plan originate from our intimate contact with the evils of the Valley of Tears. Yet, our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears brings multiple blessings to us. It is harsh but effective medicine. One of the blessings is that our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears makes firm our grip on the gift of paradise.
Between the gift of life and the gift of paradise, God inserted a delay. During the delay, we stew in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine.
Why? Why are we baptized in the evils of the Valley of Tears before we are given the gift of paradise?
God did not baptize Lucifer, the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer, Eve, Adam and the prodigal son in evil before he gave them the gift of paradise. They were given the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously. Yet, all of them fumbled the ball. They let the gift of paradise slip through their fingers. God does not want the children of Adam and Eve to repeat the mistake (a/k/a original sin) of their parents. So God lets us stick our fingers into the flames to learn for ourselves the hard way that the fire is hot. The prodigal son will never return to the pig sty. Neither will we. When the gift of paradise is given to us, we will not fumble the ball as did Lucifer, the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer, Eve, Adam and the prodigal son. We will keep the gift of paradise. Our own personal experience teaches us that the alternative to paradise is a shithole. Rational creatures avoid living in a shithole. It is against their self-interest to do so. It is crazy to do so. Our baptism in the Valley of Tears is harsh but effective medicine. Once bitten, twice shy.
P.S. The sour truth is the medicine. The sweet truth is the sugar that helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way .
The prodigal son will never go back to the pig sty. Neither will we. We are disobedient not irrational
To neutralize the the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and repurposed it to offer us a contradiction.
Why does God let us stew in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine?
Having experienced the pig sty for himself, the prodigal son will never go back there. Neither will we. Having put our fingers into the flames, we know that the fire is hot. Our faculty of obedience is broken but not our faculty of rationality. The truth is the fuel of our rationality. When fueled by the truth, our rationality steers is in the right direction. When the fuel is contaminated by illusions, our rationality leads us astray. Our intimate contact with the sour truth of the Valley of Tears educates us about many things including our need for God. In the Valley of Tears, we undergo a baptism by fire. Our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine transforms us. The experience puts iron in our grip. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us - and delivery is ineluctable - we will keep it. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer did, as Eve did, as Adam did and as the prodigal son did. All of them were given the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously. Simultaneous delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise does not work. Therefore, God inserted a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise. The delay is harsh but effective medicine.
All of our complaints against God's rescue plan originate from our intimate contact with the evils of the Valley of Tears. Yet, our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears brings multiple blessings to us. One of the blessings is that our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears defangs the serpent. It drains the serpent's lie of its power to deceive.
The serpent testified that we would become gods, without God, in the Valley of Tears . God, however, gave conflicting testimony. God testified that, without God in the Valley of Tears, we would die .
Our personal experience with the evils of the Valley of Tears proves that the serpent’s testimony was false and God’s testimony was true. It unmasks the lie and the liar . It slays the monster of falsehood. It shatters the sugarcoating that the serpent poured over the hostile truth of the Valley of Tears as the blow of a sledgehammer shatters glass. The Valley of Tears sucks. Reality itself packs a much more persuasive punch than the representations of reality from either God and the serpent. God lets us put our fingers in the fire to learn for ourselves that the fire is hot. Having testified falsely to us once, will we ever believe the serpent again ? Stewing in the evils of the Valley of Tears is the evidence from which the jury can reach the right verdict. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" .
[Note: This is one of the solutions for the problem of evil.]
The prodigal son will never go back to the pig sty. Neither will we. We are disobedient not irrational
For the children of Adam and Eve, God tweaked the timetable for the delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise. Instead of simultaneous delivery, God instituted sequential delivery. First, God delivers the gift of life. God then inserts a delay - a brief delay. Last, God delivers the gift of paradise. The delay is the source of all our complaints. We don’t complain about the gift of life. We don’t complain about the gift of paradise. We complain about the delay. The delay throws us into a tizzy. In the Valley of Tears, we receive a baptism by fire and we dislike it. The delay, however, is the medicine that increases the likelihood that we will keep the gift of paradise when it is delivered to us. Without the delay, we would repeat the original sin of our parents, Adam and Eve, who let the gift of paradise slip through their fingers - who fumbled the ball. The delay inoculates us against post delivery paradise opt out. God wants more for us - much more for us - than to be his pets locked in a gilded cage for our own safety and protection. Paternalism is not the policy of God. He respects the freedom of our wills. Paradise is not a prison, God is not our warden, we are not his prisoners. No matter how gilded, a cage is still a cage. God wants us to be cage free.
Is the problem that God is trying to solve us getting the gift of paradise or us keeping it? What does the evidence tell us?
Why does God let us stew in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine?
Having experienced the pig sty for himself, the prodigal son will never go back there. Neither will we. Having put our fingers into the flames, we know that the fire is hot. Our faculty of obedience is broken but not our faculty of rationality. The truth is the fuel of our rationality. When fueled by the truth, our rationality steers is in the right direction. When the fuel is contaminated by illusions, our rationality leads us astray. Our intimate contact with the sour truth of the Valley of Tears educates us about many things including our need for God. In the Valley of Tears, we undergo a baptism by fire. Our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine transforms us. The experience puts iron in our grip. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us - and delivery is ineluctable - we will keep it. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer did, as Eve did, as Adam did and as the prodigal son did. All of them were given the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously. Simultaneous delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise does not work. Therefore, God inserted a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise. The delay is harsh but effective medicine.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Intimate contact with the truth is the means by which God is trying to save us. Illusions distort our perception of reality. Intimacy with the truth - both the sour truth and the sweet truth - shatters the illusions that distort our perception pf reality.
Our solution to the problem of bitterness is different than God’s solution. We want God to remove the bitterness from the Valley of Tears or to remove us from the bitterness. God is of a different opinion (John 17:15). God wants us to dilute the bitterness of the Valley of Tears with love as sugar cubes dilute the bitterness of a cup of bad coffee. Only by loving do we fill the earth with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14).
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Intimate contact with the truth is the means by which God is trying to save us. Illusions distort our perception of reality. Intimacy with the truth - both the sour truth and the sweet truth - shatters the illusions that distort our perception pf reality.
Our solution to the problem of bitterness is different than God’s solution. We want God to remove the bitterness from the Valley of Tears or to remove us from the bitterness. God is of a different opinion (John 17:15). God wants us to dilute the bitterness of the Valley of Tears with love as sugar cubes dilute the bitterness of a cup of bad coffee. Only by loving do we fill the earth with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14).
Don’t tell us what you found; show us where to look. Let us discover what you found for ourselves.
The Valley of Tears is the vessel that holds the sour truth in which we are baptized . The sour truth plays rough. As we make our escape through the Valley of Tears, the crosses that besiege us have both teeth and tongues. Their teeth bite. They chews us up into bits and pieces and spit us out. Furthermore, their tongues are as sharp as their teeth.
Our baptism in the sour truth of the Valley of Tears is effective medicine. The medicine, however, is not without a deleterious side effect. It causes the tongues of our crosses to broadcast powerful anti-god propaganda into every nook and cranny of the Valley of Tears.
“Where is your savior now?”, they taunt us as their teeth mercilessly masticate us into bits and pieces. “Despair! Abandon hope! You are alone and forsaken. Nobody is coming to rescue you”
The prodigal son will never go back to the pig sty. Neither will we. We are disobedient not irrational
To neutralize the the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and repurposed it to offer us a contradiction.
Why does God let us stew in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine?
Having experienced the pig sty for himself, the prodigal son will never go back there. Neither will we. Having put our fingers into the flames, we know that the fire is hot. Our faculty of obedience is broken but not our faculty of rationality. The truth is the fuel of our rationality. When fueled by the truth, our rationality steers is in the right direction. When the fuel is contaminated by illusions, our rationality leads us astray. Our intimate contact with the sour truth of the Valley of Tears educates us about many things including our need for God. In the Valley of Tears, we undergo a baptism by fire. Our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine transforms us. The experience puts iron in our grip. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us - and delivery is ineluctable - we will keep it. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer did, as Eve did, as Adam did and as the prodigal son did. All of them were given the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously. Simultaneous delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise does not work. Therefore, God inserted a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise. The delay is harsh but effective medicine.
Armageddon is here and now. We are not fighting for something in the hereafter. The battle is now. Now is the time to join Jesus in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the Valley of Tears facing off against Evil toe to toe, cheek to jowl. Christianity is not a sport for spectators. Christians partake in the fray.
From his heart, our hearts receive a transfusion of love. The transfusion of love is invigorating. It vivifies us. It brings the dead to life (Luke 15:32) (John 3:3).
The Valley of Tears is the vessel in which we are baptized. It is the context of our existence. It is best to understand the circumstances in which we are situated and the reasons why God lets us stew in the evils of the Valley of Tears for a lifetime like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine.
God wants us to pour the sweet syrup of love into the bitterness of the Valley of Tears. Our perception of the solution to our dire predicament in the Valley of Tears is different than God’s. We want him to remove the bitterness. He wants us to dilute it. There is a difference in opinions. His prevails.
Having experienced the pig sty for himself, the prodigal son will never go back there. Neither will we. Having put our fingers into the flames, we know that the fire is hot. Our faculty of obedience is broken but not our faculty of rationality. The truth is the fuel of our rationality. When fueled by the truth, our rationality steers is in the right direction. When the fuel is contaminated by illusions, our rationality leads us astray. Our intimate contact with the sour truth of the Valley of Tears educates us about many things including our need for God. In the Valley of Tears, we undergo a baptism by fire. Our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine transforms us. The experience puts iron in our grip. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us - and delivery is ineluctable - we will keep it. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer did, as Eve did, as Adam did and as the prodigal son did. All of them were given the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously. Simultaneous delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise does not work. Therefore, God inserted a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise. The delay is harsh but effective medicine.
