It seems the longer you know God, the less able you are to explain him. John wants us to be sure of three things about Jesus: That he existed since the beginning. He is co-equal with God. That he was a real flesh and blood human being. That’s clear enough. Much later, he says “God is Light”. This is not that helpful since we hardly know what light is.

What is Light?

When John writes about our behavior, he is much clearer. But just as we are beginning to understand that our faith in God must result in better behavior, he hits us with “God is Love.” John proves that the more we know God, the less able we are to explain him. The reason is that God is unknowable. But that does mean we can’t know him. Huh? Imagine yourself standing knee deep in the Pacific Ocean. You are in the ocean. You are off the shore. But what do you know of the ocean? You know something. Can you know more?

But God being unknowable is no reason not to pursue him. Paul says, we know in part. Wouldn’t Paul know God pretty well? Yet, he writes of a strange limitation. We see in a mirror, darkly. A mirror? What do we see in a mirror? Ourselves. Is he saying that we are limited by ourselves as humans in knowing God? Darkly? And we do not even see ourselves clearly.

Does anyone explain heaven? Why not? Jesus says he came from there and that he was going back. I’m not sure why we would want to go there when we have no idea what it is like. It’s good. I’m sure it is good. God’s will is done there unlike here on earth. But can we pray “thy will be done” and not do it?

How can we do the will of God? Do we even want to? Why would we? There is only one motivation according to Jesus. “If you love me, do as I have told you”. This is an echo of the first commandment to love God with all. But it is now personalized by Jesus. “If you love me…”

What did Jesus make a particular point of? “A new commandment, I give you…” A new one? Love God. Love our neighbor. Doesn’t that cover it? “Love one another as I have loved you.” Once again, it is personalized. “…as I have loved you.”

How much does Jesus love you? People tell us that Jesus loves us. There are signs with it written. I’m not going to answer it for you because it’s too personal. I have to answer it for me. Then I have to love him that first loved us. Have to? If I don’t, I can’t begin. Unless I am reacting to his love for me, I can’t begin.

How does all this relate to our title” “Explain God”? Jesus said his life explained God. “If you have seen me, you have seen The Father.” Jesus explained God for three years, by living. He said, “You believe in God. Believe, also, in me.” Such a simple statement. Yet, it also says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be rescued.” Believing becomes loving. Loving leads us to do what he said. Doing what Jesus said changes us. Not just a little. A lot.

Take My Yoke

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What is your final destiny? Have you thought of this? Let’s start slow. What if you lived a thousand years? Leave out aging. What would you be like in 900 years.

Would you be disillusioned? Would you be bored? Let’s say money was available to you to do as you pleased. Really think about it, not just, “Oh, I would happy.”

A friend told me he wanted to be rich. I asked why. “So I could do so much good.” He was serious.

You know people were meant to keep living. Why don’t they? Let’s take the worst example: a evil dictator continues to live. He gains more power as he goes along. He does not die of ‘natural causes’. He eludes those who want him dead. His control grows and he wants more. He takes over another country. Then another. Yes, it’s been done before but what if he just keeps living? All those who have done this have eventually died.

Take another example: a person has ‘done it all’. He has made money. He has invented things. He has travelled the world. He has hob-knobbed with the rich and famous. He has lived in obscurity, off the grid for 100 years. He has built things. He owns an island with access to everything now.

In his power, he has lost track of good and evil. Why? He tried to do good and found it surprisingly difficult. His good intentions went wrong somehow. He tried over and over. Giving money went to greedy people not those he intended to help. He started a charity but found he had to watch everything closely so that people were really helped in material ways. But he concluded that treating people good does not make them good. He had to be satisfied with ungratefulness. He began another agency that helped people without them knowing it. He lived hundreds of years, remember. He thought that if they were ungrateful, at least they didn’t know who they were ungrateful to.

He was completely disillusioned with people finally. He became disillusioned with himself. Why aren’t I wise? I’ve lived hundreds of years! I’ve done good but have not become good. I don’t care about anything anymore. He despaired of life. He contemplated suicide.

Is this fiction? Yes, but the end of life can easily be despair.

Why? Because although we can do good, we cannot become good. Someone knew this from the beginning. The creator has limited life to about 120 years these days. It used to be longer. That was thousands of years ago.

You and I get so many years to discover the meaning of life. You know, when Jesus was here, some guys said, ‘Why don’t you do something unmistakable that would prove your claim to be the one sent from God?’ I don’t know, put a message on the moon that would appear in the language of the reader, or something. But he refused to give an unmistakable sign.

Why not? Why would he heal people one at a time. Why didn’t he travel around the world? Why remain in a small country? If we were his press agents, we would have such ideas.

He made a constant point of what was required of people, faith. Not general faith, but specific faith in God. You know, the very thing that keeps us from God is what leads us to despair in the end. Our focus on ourself. And if we dig deep into our self, we find no answer to the meaning of life.

It is because the answer is external to us. Our disconnect with God will guarentee us becoming a completely distorted version of human in the end. I could try and scare you with possible outcomes but I won’t.

Human life. Consciousness. Self-awareness. They hold opportunity but not answers. Certainly not the answer.

I’m reading a book where a robot/human hybrid looks for her creator to fix her up. She eventually finds him and he does fix her broken parts and adjusts her cyborg/human mind to her desired state. That state is without any human feeling. She kills her creator and burns down his lab used to create others like her. Her human feelings were holding her back in the story.

She wants no humanity and no siblings. She wants to kill with no remorse. It was messing up her plans. How terrible, we might say. But we will arrive at a similar state but worse. We will become unable to do evil.

This outcome is planned for the devil. The devil and all evil doers of the angelic sort will be incapacitated in the end. They cannot be reformed and will be stopped from any activity.

If we are not rescued, willingly, by God, this is our fate, as well. Really? What choice is there? God desires a world full of good and he will have it.

Well, send all the evildoers to another planet! Not good enough. God will end the ability of evil creatures to do evil to any other evil creature.

God will not coerce you or I into joining in with his wonderful plan for earth, a new and improved earth, by the way. Full of glorified humans. This was and is his goal for humans.

God’s will shall prevail. Why? Because he is God and it is his will. He is good and his will for us is good.

Can we trust him to fix us? You’re not broken? God knows you are. But the process to fix us begins when you and I agree that we are broken and can’t fix ourselves.

Is it possible that you are living a lie. Now, I don’t mean you are deceiving people around you. I mean that you are not living a true life. What do I mean by that?

I mean that your life is lived in relation to a lie. That lie begins with a question about how people began on earth. If it was some sort of accident then any life is okay. This is a common belief.

Now, is it true? No. Did you know that the idea that life began spontaneously has been given up? The theory has been tested as much as possible in the lab. And they have given up.

Let’s try truth. The truth is that God created people. Not only that but he had great purpose in mind. He used himself as the image and likeness. It says that the Word became flesh. The man Jesus was the same person as before but now became a flesh and blood human. He had been seen in the past in a similar body but not with blood flowing in his veins. He was the prototype for Adam. He was the model for mankind.

What about the great purpose? Glory. It says, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The glory of God. You and I were made to reflect the glory of God. Angels do not have this mission. We do.

How can this be possible? Jesus, again, is our model. He lived a life in real time with all the temptations. He was the first human to succeed in showing the glory of God on earth.

He said these two simple words, “Follow me.”

But he is not here now. No, but he was and there is a record. In fact, there are four records. Two written by his immediate disciples who responded well to “Follow me.” And two others by ones who recorded secondhand from the original people who knew him well.

What’s different now? The Spirit of God was poured out on people to enable them to better follow Jesus. That is still as true as the day it took place on Pentacost. This is like having Jesus right with you at all times. Jesus said, I am the truth. To follow him is to stop living a lie and begin to be a true human being.