Did God lie to us? Were Matthew 7:6 and John 15:13 lies?
The Best Way to View the Church
Forgiveness is the Yeast of Divinity
The Invasion that is transforming the Valley of Tears into the Kingdom of God
God launched an invasion into the Valley of Tears (Hail Holy Queen). "Cry 'Havoc!,' and let slip the dogs of war" (Shakespeare). God, however, did not send a military general at the head of an army bristling with weapons into the Valley of Tears to wage war against the infidels (Matthew 26:53). He sent something more powerful than an army (Isaiah 55:8-9). Instead of an army, He sent a Love Note.
The Publication of a High Fidelity Representation of the Reality of God
His Bloody Wounds are Question Marks
What type of punctuation marks were his bloody wounds? They were question marks when they marked a mystery. To solve the mystery, we gave Jesus the third degree. We interrogated him with lash, thorns, nails and spear. “Who are you, Jesus? Identify yourself! Friend or foe?” What answer would Jesus give us to the evil that we did to him? At the time we punctuated his body with question marks, we did not know what his answer would be because we did not know our God. Our God was a stranger to us. He is a stranger no longer. We have his answer. He forgave us for the evil that we did to him. There were many options through which Jesus could have shown God to us. The option that Jesus settled upon was forgiveness. Through forgiveness, Jesus revealed God to us. Our conception of divinity as power is incomplete - defective. There is something more to divinity than power. Divinity is also love. Forgiveness is the platform from which the short leap is made to the fact that God loves us dearly. Note: when we learned the answer, the question marks turned into exclamation marks. The exclamation marks represent “the Wow!” of his love for us. The cost of his love for us was not small. In fact, it was quite large - exorbitant. He paid the exorbitant cost not from his unlimited divine resources. He paid the exorbitant cost from his limited human resources. He paid them all for us (1 Corinthians 7:23). He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else (John 15:13) (John 10:15-18). He continued to love us even though we tortured and killed him. Now, that is love. Wow!
What was the Greatest Miracle that Jesus performed during His visit?
What was the greatest miracle that Jesus performed during His visit to us here in the Valley of Tears? It is not what you think. It is our failure to piss him off. It is our failure to earn a place on his shit list. We tortured and killed him. He forgave us. Forgiveness is the pleasant surprise that emerged from the violent collision between Jesus and the evil that we did to him on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. Surprise! Our God is not like us. Forgiveness for the evil that we did to him is the window through which we catch a glimpse of God from here on earth. It is the foundation of our understanding of God. It is the good news of great joy. It is the epicenter of Christianity. It is the source from which everything Christian is derived. It is the gold standard by which the genuine is distinguished from the spurious - by which the fair is distinguished from the foul. To know forgiveness is to know God. Forgiveness for the evil that we did to him is the high fidelity representation of the reality of God that Jesus released into the Valley of Tears to raise us from the level of the most miserable and hideous of loveless beasts scurrying, in poverty, around the ruins of Eden to the level of prosperity with our loving God and his Holy Family in paradise. The knowledge initiates the process of our deification. The God who fashioned us out of the dust with his hands put himself into the hands of the dust to leaven the dust with the yeast of divinity. The yeast of divinity is forgiveness.
Rebuilding the gardens of the new Eden in the Valley of Tears
Jesus was an Arms Dealer
What is the source that gives us the courage to reach into our own pockets to pay the price for benefits to our neighbors?
Transactional Evil was Jesus's Target
Transactional evil flows from evildoer to victim. The flow is visible. For example, on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, we tortured and killed Jesus. He suffered and died. There are other kinds of evil. But, transactional evil was the only kind of evil that Jesus put on display on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection.
Transactional evil is not quite the same as intrinsic evil. For intrinsic evil, the flow of evil is not always visible. The difficulty in detecting a flow of evil in intrinsic evil is the reason philosphers and theologians invented the concept of intrinsic evil. There wasn't enough evil in the world so they invented more. The fiction of intrinsic evil gives them a wide, unfettered latitude to declare evil anything that they dislike.
The mission of Jesus was to show us the best way to handle transactional evil in the Valley of Tears. Jesus's recommendation is that we quarantine transactional evil with love.
When we worry too much about intrinsic evil, however, we take our eyes off the mission of quarantining transactional evil with love - we stop doing the job that needs to be done.
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Mitigating the Bitterness of the Valley of Tears
The Language Jesus Used to Answer the Question, 'Who is God?'
The Serpent is Trying to Drain the Heart of God of his Love for us
Adam and Eve were privileged. They only knew good. They did not know evil. God did not want them to know evil. He made them innocent. The serpent offered to Eve the full spectrum of knowledge - both the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. The serpent sugarcoated the knowledge of evil with the testimony that possessing the full spectrum of knowledge would deify them. Yet, the serpent failed to reveal the cost of acquiring the knowledge of evil. The rest you know.
Since Eden, the Knowledge that God loves us has faded from the Valley of Tears
As Eden grew more remote from us, many false, inaccurate and conflicting pictures of God arose in the minds of the children of Adam and Eve. The multiplicity of pictures created confusion. “Who is our God?”, we asked ourselves. Our answers were all over the map. “This is God” some said as they pointed to their favorite picture of God. Others pointed to a different picture and said, “No, this is God.” The controversy goes on ad infinitum. Because of the confusion, the most Holy Trinity desired to set the record straight once and forever. They decided to clear the air. They decided to dispatch the Son of God to earth from heaven to put before us the "similitude" of God (Numbers 12:8) for us to behold. Jesus paid us a visit to reveal God to us. He paid us a visit to restore the knowledge that God loves us in the Valley of Tears.
What is the detail of consequence?
Rally 'round the Cross!
The Brevity of Life Proves the Mercy of God
FEAR NOT! ISN'T THE SCRIPT ALREADY WRITTEN?
Stewing in the Evils of the Valley of Tears makes firm our Grip on the Gift of Paradise
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 .
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What is the effect on love? Does conduct have a positive effect on love or a neutral effect or a negative effect?