When Jesus was speaking once, someone pointed out that Moses had given them some rules about divorce. They implied that divorce was approved by God since Moses talked about it. Jesus said that it was not that way from the beginning.

How was it in the beginning? In the beginning there was a man. There were animals. There was not a woman. The man was all of humanity. One guy. There was God and the one man. God wanted the man to have a relationship with him. But God said, “It is not good that man should be alone. I will make one along side to help, one comparable to him.”

Why does God do this? If he wants the man to be his friend, why add another person? God gives him a choice. Does he do his best work when forming the woman? I think he did.

God is a completely unselfish being. That’s hard to believe, isn’t it? We have never met someone like that. He insists that each person be free to choose. If you don’t choose him, that is your choice. But he does want you to change your mind about him. He knows you have him all wrong.

That’s why he sent Jesus. Jesus is God but in our context. Some people thought he was doing bad. How could they see this good person as bad? It tells us two things about him: He could be mistaken for an ordinary guy. And that they saw him as someone who wanted to take their job. They liked being in charge of telling people how to behave. They even thought God would back them up. But Jesus came as one here to show how God really was.

Near the end of his life, someone close to Jesus asked him to show them God. Jesus talked about hima as The Father. This guy, Thomas, said to Jesus, “Show us the Father.” You might think Jesus would say, “You ask too much, Thomas.” Or, “He is invisible, I can’t.” But he looks at Thomas and says, “That is exactly what I have been doing. I have been showing you what the Father is like in reality. I have been behaving in just the way he wanted me to as a human like yourself.

Later, Thomas and others who had been close to Jesus for maybe three years or so, went around talking about Jesus to people. They became examples of guys who were with Jesus and knew what God was really like.

Back to Jesus saying, “It was not like this at the beginning.” He knew how things were supposed to be. He knew the intentions of God for human life on earth. He also knew that our reality was nothing like the original plan. But he went about explaining how it was supposed to be. Not only that, he offered a way to reconnect with God in a real way. He said, “I’m leaving. You won’t see me anymore. But there is even more to God than you realize. There is another who will help you. He will be with you at all times. It will be as though I am with each of you wherever you are.”

That someone is the Holy Spirit. He is with those who choose God to be in their lives. He helps people be like God in their character. Because they know how God really is (although they are continually learning more about him), they want to co-operate with him. And he helps them in a very real way.

God wants each of us to change our opinion of him. He wants us to believe what is true. He wants to make each of us into the best person we can be. The part that is ours is this: change your mind about God because he is not like you and I thought. And we are not what we should be. Something is wrong. And we can’t fix it. Even if we knew exactly what we want to be and tried our hardest to be that good person, we would fail. But with God’s help, we can begin to change into a better person. That new person is the real you. Hard to believe?

But it is up to you. God will not force you to do anything. You can ignore him. He can say he doesn’t exist.

But he has a door that is open to you. I would advise you to be good. Try and be a really good person. Don’t be satisfied with anything less than you being a wonderful, loving person. If you can do it without God’s help, then great. You don’t need him.

I mean, love others. Don’t be selfish. Don’t judge people. Treat them with respect. Don’t do things that are good for you but bad for them like steal their spouse. Or steal their stuff. Or lie about them and misrepresent yourself as better than you act.

You can check yourself from time to time and see if you live up to your own standards.

Unfortunately, if you do anything wrong, you will just have to forgive yourself since we are leaving God out of it. And if you are misunderstood or rejected, you will have to take a deep breath and go on being good.

Basically, you will become a great example to others. If they ask you how you do it, you can say, “Just try your best. Don’t give up. Find your strength within yourself.” Or something like that.

See how it goes. Don’t get discouraged. Believe in yourself. You are your own god.

Don’t cheat and ask God for help. The fact that he made you should not influence you. You know you are just an accident of nature. Don’t even ask yourself how you know good from bad. Also, do not spend time thinking about how complicated your body is. It just is. Don’t think about it.

Another thing, if you see something beautiful, don’t ask why it is beautiful or why you enjoy it. It just happened, okay. And you just happen to like beautiful things.

One last thing, do not think about how you can evaluate your own behavior. I mean, if you think, I could have done better in that situation, do not even consider how you would know that.

So, forget about the fact that you are conscious of being yourself. Forget that you somehow know right and wrong. Forget than you have this idea of a perfect person somewhere in you. And disregard your sense of beauty. Some things look good. You like the way they look. So, what? Doesn’t mean a thing. All accidental. Now go be that good person.

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