Reflections

The Eternal State

by leekierdorf

The eternal state is independent of time. It existed before time. It is not ‘forever’. That would merely be an extension of time. Time has a beginning and an end. The eternal state was unaffected by time. It did not stop when time began. It will not start when time ends. It has nothing to do with time. Nothing at all.

Why is this important? Because God lives in the eternal state. If we would be in contact with God, we must connect to the eternal state.

So, two things must be true. It must be possible for people to connect to the eternal state in time. And it must be beneficial to do so.

Let’s step back for a minute. We must be in a state to be close to God. We cannot make ourselves ready. God must make us ready.

He has removed all obstacles that would prevent us. This is because he desires to be close to us. But he leaves it to us to desire to be close to him. Seek and you shall find.

Now we understand what the eternal state is not. But what is it? It cannot be explained. But it can be experienced. Any attempt at explaining it is useless. Why? Because it is no place for the intellect. We can know it exists. But there it stops. It is a place for the spirit and truth. The intellect can evaluate truth and falseness but it cannot become truth.

We go forward in spirit and truth. There is no other way. We are made spiritually alive by God. But we must choose truth. Casting aside all falseness, we can meet God. This is not an exercise for the moment. We hold the false close to us to justify ourselves to the world. To ourselves. But we must be brave enough to move toward God in raw spirit and truth.

But our brave movement is not far. We are caught up by the Lord because he seeks such. All who seek, find. The ‘leap of faith’ does not exist. It is called that by those who have not taken it.

But from this point, we walk with God. There is no guidebook. It is between you and God. There have been a couple people who were forced to write their experiences with God as part of their trial. A couple others did so voluntarily. I have read them. They will not help you. To produce words to explain these experiences to the intellect is again useless.

Why is this true? Because these experiences are between you and God. They are not to instruct others. They are not even to benefit your own mind. This is to eat the ‘hidden manna’. This is life for your spirit.

This is a state of being. It is to be ‘in Christ’. You experience the state of Christ with the Father. This is not an experience for the elite. This is a normal state for a follower of Jesus. He means us to follow him in all things. He means for us to be as close to the Father as he is.

What will get you close to God? Longing to be with him who loves you. The curtain between us and God was torn from top to bottom by God.

God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

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First Fears

by leekierdorf

In the beginning, Adam and Eve had no fear at all. But fear became part of the human experience. Just what fears entered their lives?

Their first fear came with their discovery of their naked condition but just what were they afraid of? It doesn’t appear to be danger of being injured. It rather seems to be acute awareness of their vulnerability to the general environment. It says “their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked”. The intense feeling of being naked motivates them to make coverings of leaves.

As they anticipate the arrival of the Lord, they run and hide. This is an act of pure fear. They stop running as reason comes back but let Adam explain, “…I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.” Adam speaks as if they had no handmade coverings. He needed a lot more leaves between him and God. Adam speaks as a man who feels alone in the world.

We can be sure of this: they did not want to be seen as naked. Adam becomes silent as the reason for his fear is examined. Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the snake and both imply God is somewhat responsible by giving out wives and creating sneaky creatures that bother innocent people.

The source of their fear is separateness. Adam is now separated from God, his wife, his environment. He is even divided within himself, he feels blame but tries to cast it off himself without success. With this separateness will come sorrow for both the woman and man.

We turn to the first man born: Cain. He discovers a new fear. Cain remakes himself into a heartless murderer. Cain has discovered killing is rather easy and now he fears retribution.

Eve indicates her fear of having no one to lead the family after losing Abel. She and Adam find hope in their new offspring, Seth.

The next fear is fear of drowning. At first, no one but Noah and family take this seriously. They build a boat for the purpose of surviving an enormous flood. When the flood waters eventually start to rise, the people find their fear will not enable them to find any way to save themselves. There is no time left now.

We learn about another fear from Noah. It is a fear of disrespecting order. The patriarchal family of Noah and his sons is now the foundation for a new society. This is endangered by one son who shows disrespect for his father. Noah recognizes the danger of this and deals with it before it can topple the fresh start.

The Lord does not want men to be full of fear. His remedy for fear is trust in God. He cares even about the small birds and will surely care for those who trust in him.

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Glory

by leekierdorf

We look among the faded tatters for glory. But why does the true glory escape us?

We know a human life could be glorious yet why do we always discover a fatal flaw? So we idealize. We build pedestals and place something high. But we know it is our imagination.

Why the idol? Why this statue? We demand meaning! But we know we are making it up. We read and hope to find meaning. We listen. We look. We are always ready to stick a stake in the ground and say, “Here is meaning.” But it is only a grave marker. Read this poem. Listen to that song. Hear this orator speak. Consider this artwork. Look at that building with its majestic lines. That bridge is so much more.

In the museum, look, there is David. And what moved the sculptor to trace the beauty of the female shape in such detail?

All shadows. All former glory. All that is left are hints. Indications. We gaze at the ruins of humanity and imagine its greatness. Yet, we can’t look too close or we see how it is not what it was or what it could be.

Isn’t that where we look best? Former greatness. The ruins of a civilization. As we look closer, we find human sacrifice. We find falseness. The golden statue is a thin shell full of sawdust. The soaring tower was used to hold men captive. The cellar is filled with bones and rags.

The throne is dusty. The former greatness is gone. The halls are empty. The paintings faded. The glory is gone.

What happened to us? Why are we disappointed as we examine things closely? And the disappointment sinks slowly into despair.

The canvas of human history has been painted on over and over. This time we will get it right. We will promote goodness. We will learn from past mistakes. But something trips us up once again.

What is that which keeps us from glory? We desire to see it. To feel it. We know it is there, just beyond our grasp.

And we are right. The glory of man is our destiny. But we are in our own way. The ego opposes the conscience. Yes, it is the outsized ‘me’ that is in opposition to the ‘you’ that desires glory. We can’t grasp glory because to touch it is to foul it beyond recognition.

And for this very reason, our glory, which we are meant to have, has been moved. Our hands must be washed before we can handle our glory. Our glorification awaits us. Maybe it can’t be found here. Can we follow the traces? Can we find the beginning by starting at our end. Will knowing the beginning help us?

The European watched the Nile flow into the ocean. He wondered where the magnificent river began its journey to this sea. He enlisted others in the search. Yet, each try ended in failure. One man succeeded. He wasn’t even trying. He began at a lake unknown by the Europeans. He started at the source.

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

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Beyond Good and Evil

by leekierdorf

In the begining, we humans had a chance to choose between two ways of living. One was ‘knowing good and evil’. But it was not so easy to choose good over evil. Cain, the firstborn human, did not choose good over evil. More and more bad choices made for a world full of people who dealt with disputes in violent ways. Now ask why a flood washed the earth clean of all people except eight.

Noah kicked off the new try by getting rather drunk. But if anyone deserved a beer, it was Noah. Nevertheless, nothing in human nature had been changed. How is it God allows people to do as they please?

This question was answered with a terrible thing where Jesus was killed without mercy by us. I include myself in the crowd yelling ‘crucify him’. Or did you hammer a nail? Or did you pass by and mock him as he died.

But let us move on. Past the gravesite. Into the new age. It is a new age, you know. The Law and the Prophets are over. The time of relying on a sense of right and wrong is over. We can and should move beyond ‘good and evil’. That’s right.

The other choice was and is: Life. It’s not a tree now. The hand that reaches out does not find fruit but it’s still a very real choice. Jesus said, “I am The Life”. The choosing is continuous.

Can we embrace a new way of thinking? Can we employ a new sense of Life over Death? What? You don’t have that power? Why not? Didn’t Jesus use his strange method, dying, to make all good available to you and me? Didn’t God pour out his Holy Spirit on all people? Yes, I’m pretty sure he did.

No excuses for us. The old deal is off the table. The new deal is the regeneration of the spirit inside a person. Death gives way to Life inside. But again we choose between Life and death. The old method of choosing good over evil never worked. Rules gave a society guidence in choosing, that’s all.

The Tree of Life is not on earth. The choice was always choosing Jesus. We just didn’t know his name. Now we do.

The new way is open. Let us follow him to glory. Yes, that is what God wants for you and me. He wants to glorify you. New body included. Never able to die. Kinda like angels but not.

Choose now. Keep choosing. Make mistakes. Accept correction. Get back up. Walk on. Keep following. Look at him. Ask him stuff. Ask him for stuff you need. Do it like he did it. Right now. In this moment that will become eternal.

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Forget This

by leekierdorf

For this exercise, let’s forget everything about Jesus except one thing.

Jesus is innocent of anything that could deserve the Roman penalty of death. Pilate said so. Not that we use him as our source of truth, but (pause) he was the guy in charge, Romanwise.

Who killed Jesus? The promoters were local leaders who did not like him. Fine. Hate him. But kill him? They did not have the authority to do it. Enter Pilate. They need his approval. Pilate allows it. Then we have the soldiers who carry it out.

Let us look closely at these three kinds of people. Religious. These guys condemn him to death. The verdict is unjust on its face. The method is sneaky. But they are not satisfied with an unjust verdict, They work hard to carry it out. They coerce the governor into approval! They threaten him with another riot. He cannot bear another event in his jurisdiction that would surely get back to Rome. Rome does not fire governors. They execute them.

This puts Pilate almost in a ‘him or me’ situation. He folds. But the raw hatred of the ones who demand the death of Jesus is what we are looking it here. Do they go home and consider it a good days work? Why do they hate him? Easy one. He threatens their world. He is undermining their authority. They are threatened directly by him. So, for love of their existing power, they engineer his death.

Back to Pilate. He saw a threat and found a way to sleep easily that night. My job remains secure, he thinks.

Last, we look at ordinary guys, Roman soldiers. They collect their pay. They also are not just fired. They lose everything if they do not do as told. They are told to kill Jesus using the Roman method. But it is worse than that. They seem to enjoy their grisly work. This guy was important just last week. Now he dies. Hammer that nail. Hoist this cross.

Now, where are you in this picture. You can only pick one. Do you have religious power? Do you have political power? Are you a working person? If you don’t work, where did your money come from? Successful business? Investment? You have money based on a structure that pays out money you need.

You and I are these people. We are there in that very moment. We are people who rely on a system that gives us power and money. But there is more. They thought about their position in the system and decided to go ahead with an execution. It was for their own benefit.

Now we look at the heart of each one. Do we see any hope? Do we see any thought of justice? Or a thought of right and wrong? We do not. This is the effect of our disconnect with goodness. The opposite of goodness is self-interest over all else. An agreement with others around us that our interests come first. And this very fundamental state is common. It can be called several things including sin. The state of a person without continuous reference to God is called sin.

Can anything be done to change this state that results in a heart hard enough to help kill an innocent? Yes, but it may be good to see where we are on the road to a stone-cold heart. Yes, you will arrive at that state. You may have already done so. An abortion planned by a guy and a girl would qualify. Have you said a leader that you don’t like should die? That qualifies. Have you cut off a relationship that does not serve you? Again, the beginning of a plan to rid yourself of a person you hate. Cain killed his brother because he was an annoyance to him. Killed him dead.

How can you become good? How can you rid yourself of evil thoughts? Any thought that is unkind toward another person is a step on the way down. I’m including myself as I write this. The answer is: you can’t; I can’t. Go ahead and try. Try as hard as you like and see if I am right. You will eventually agree with me. You cannot attain to inward goodness. But there is a cure. Follow him who showed us what sin does to people.

The marker in time is the killing of Jesus. It is also the event that led to change in the human heart for many. How? Don’t know. Faith? Foolish trust in God? Believing the one who came back from the dead? Call it whatever you like. You reach out into the invisible and will find One who touches you back. You can connect to the Eternal. Jesus made it possible.

All Power

by leekierdorf

All power has been given to me, in heaven and in earth…

Jesus speaks these words before he leaves. He has done all he came to do. Why does he say this? He has done what no man has ever done. He has lived his whole life pleasing his Father, God. He was never far from men. He was waiting in the wings for his coming in the flesh. Now all power is given to a man: The Son of Man.

And what does he do at this moment? He gives his work to men. He sends them into the world to do his work: teach men, baptize those who believe and preach the kingdom of God. This is what he does with his power. He does not use it to revenge himself on his enemies. He does not ask for monuments to be built in his honor. He gives power to men to make disciples.

This is the work of God: to arrest minds in their thought, to convert, yes, to change men with words, his words. Tell them what I told you. I will be with you. How? By the Spirit, I will be with each one of you. And now we have the Spirit of God, the promise of the Father. To them he gave power to become the sons of God even to them who believe on his name.

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Yoke

by leekierdorf

“Take my yoke upon you…”

The yoke is offered instead of labor with a heavy load. But how is the yoke rest-giving? Hard labor was the result of the curse on the ground. The man was not cursed nor is work a curse.

The Lord offers his answer to the hardness of labor. He offers a type of rest. But this is not a rest from labor. This shows that God was not interested in punishing men with hard labor. He put a condition in place to lead men back to God.

Men have tried to minimize the difficulty of labor over the millennia. Mostly by making others do it. Now we are turning to robots for menial tasks.

But Jesus addresses the issue directly. Being heavy laden sounds like an animal with all that can be placed on its back. How is a yoke better?

The yoke is designed for the individual animal. An ill-fitting yoke is useless. The yoke was made to lessen the effort or maybe enhance the ability of the animal. In either case, the hardness of the labor is reduced. The animal moves in a normal way doing useful work.

Jesus embraced life. He did his work without excessive labor. His ‘yoke’ is his method. He advises us to “learn of me”. He wants us to take on his method of working. He describes himself as “meek and lowly in heart”. What does he mean?

First, he is not proud. He has nothing to prove. Jesus is not known for his ego. He is always matching God’s will to people’s needs. He is careful not to fall into the traps that ensnare men. He follows a wisdom unknown or at least unused by men. His simple heartfelt response to human need with God’s power makes faith and love a continuous reality in his method of working.

How does the ‘yoke’ help “being heavy laden”? Carrying a heavy load is a different kind of work. ‘This stuff must be moved to there as quickly and cheaply as possible.’ Jesus is not interested in this type of work. He is not interested in ‘stuff’. He criticizes the accumulation of wealth as a waste of time and effort.

He implies that carrying a heavy load is voluntary. What kind of load-carrying are we doing voluntarily?

Guilt. God does not make us feel guilty. Sin does. Accumulated sin creates heavy guilt. Jesus offers real forgiveness as relief for that very real guilt. He recommends reconciliation between people to fix broken relationship guilt.

Responsibility. Heaviness comes from shouldering too much responsibility. Some things are beyond your control. Many live with guilt for what happened to those under their care. Or maybe they didn’t take enough responsibility when the should have. This, too, can create a heavy burden.

Happenstance. “If only I had left earlier. I meant to.” “Why was I there at that time?” Vague guilt over uncontrollable events plague some of us.

Wasted time. A realization of time ill-spent can add weight to your burden.

Rash actions. Ill-considered or panic reactions can leave a heaviness behind. “I knew it was wrong (stupid/dangerous/wasteful), yet I did it without thinking.”

All of the resulting heaviness, Jesus offers to remove and replace with “his yoke”. The yoke allows the responsibility of the immediate. Under a yoke, there is no consideration of the past. The heaviness of past actions or non-actions is gone. Only the activity of the moment is important.

“Learn of me.” See how Jesus lives. Does he carry burdens of the past? How does he handle responsibility? He works as a son to a good and wise father. His work is therefore valuable and his time is never wasted. His efforts are maximized by God. He recommends “his yoke” and claims it will give soul-rest.

How can it give this? The burden is mostly on God. Jesus takes only the human responsibility of the moment. He is also aware of all external forces. They are under the control of God so he doesn’t worry about them. This is how he can say, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus wants to return us to the work as it was at first. Think of Adam naming the animals. Did he think: ‘Oh, there are so many. Will my names be right? How long will this take?’ No, he had none of these thoughts. As each animal came under his consideration, he named it. His work was valuable and a pleasure to do. God approved and the names stuck. God made them; man named them. God had given the man wisdom and he let him use it.

So we see that work is not a punishment. The yoke is the cure for heaviness of heart. The yoke is designed individually for each one. The yoke enables effective and valuable work. God wishes to remove all the heavy burdens we have accumulated leaving our burden ‘light’. Remember that God takes all responsibility for you. The burden of ‘you’ is on him as well. Let us continually follow his words: “Learn of me…”

“Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for you souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

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Cool

by leekierdorf

“Is that cool?”

“It’s cool with me.”

“Well, stay cool, man.”

“That’s not cool.”

“You’re right. I lost my cool.”

Can you define ‘cool’? Maybe it means acceptable behavior but with a sense of being modern or up-to-date. You use the most recent expressions. You are not old-school. Your hairstyle, your clothes and your sensibilities are all very current.

And you have to keep up. Things may change and you need to keep cool. It’s like fashion. It changes.

“That is so last year!”

You need to know what is ‘in’ and what is ‘out’. You need to know what is ‘hot’.

“Here’s what’s hot right now.”

Have you got it? Get it.

Who makes the rules on what is cool? And how do you stay informed?

Do you know that the crowd is usually wrong? What is cool is nearly always just an opinion. It is how you signal others that you are ready to change and conform to the most current opinions of what is good.

We all have a sense of good and evil, right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable. Being cool uses that to a greater degree. It makes this right and that wrong by a new exacting method.

But isn’t there a more solid place where you don’t have to change all the time? There is. It is a place beyond good and evil. It is well past cool and not cool.

What about life and death? I mean this in terms of how we are living. Our condition from birth is a disconnect from God. We are left with the ability to tell good from evil. But there is another way to live and that is Life. The very definition of Life is Jesus. He said, “I am The Life.”

He was saying ‘live like me’ if you want the best way to live. What? Yes, Jesus demonstrated the best human living and offers it to you and me. Now we might dismiss a man who says he is ‘The Life’ as crazy except that he made wrong things right. He restored eyes, arms, legs to working order and cured people even of leprosy. These were his credentials.

But he offered eternal life to everyone. He lived in close relationship to God and he called him Father. If we live like Jesus did, we will live forever. This is more that imitation but to embrace him as our method of living.

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Friendship is Forever

by leekierdorf

Friendship goes well beyond the grave. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. Lazarus had many friends and was well known in the community. His two sisters were mad at Jesus because he allowed him die of sickness. His sisters knew that Jesus could have healed him if he had only arrived in time.

But Jesus chose to wait until Lazarus had died before he arrived. He then tried to convince the sisters, Mary and Martha, that Lazarus was fine and that Jesus could bring him back from the dead. Of course, he would return, they said, in the future resurrection of the dead. But we miss him now!

Jesus went to the gravesite where Lazarus was buried and was moved by the sight of sadness and mourning. Maybe it was the hopelessness people felt that a beloved friend was gone. But Jesus stopped and felt as a man feels at a gravesite of a close friend.

Jesus knew Lazarus was not gone forever. He even knew that Lazarus was going to join them shortly. But he was filled with emotion. Now he speaks: Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus comes out of the grave in his wrappings and Jesus tells the shocked people to help him out of them.

This incredible event reveals that friendship goes beyond the grave. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus and all of Jesus’s friends will live forever. But Jesus was asking his two friends, Mary and Martha, to trust him in this moment. They had faith in him but it was thin. They could believe Jesus could heal their brother but raise him from the dead?

Do you have a friend who is far away? Does that matter? Distance does not diminish friendship. They can be on the other side of the world and they remain your friend. Jesus showed us that even when someone dies, they are still a friend and they are not forever lost to you.

Trust is the foundation of friendship. You trust a friend because they love you and care about you. It is the same with God. He loves and cares for you and me. More than we know. Is he far away? No, not really. We can be friends with him in a very practical way. As our trust grows, we can rely on him for many things. Maybe everything.

Remember that friendship is voluntary. You choose your friends. God has chosen you to be his friend. And he doesn’t care how much you ask of him. In fact, he wants you to impose on your friendship with him. He wants you to have an expectation of a great friendship that will be for your entire lifetime and beyond that.

How much of a friend is God? As much as you and I can love him. His love is great; ours is little. But our love for him can become greater. God will grow bigger in the relationship. He is good and very generous. And he will teach us the value of friendship and love during his process of making us more human. And we will come to know what is truly valuable in life and even beyond.

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Friends Forever

by leekierdorf

Do you have a best friend. How did you meet? Maybe you don’t remember. Maybe you have ‘always been friends’. What if they are far away? Are you still friends? Of course, you are. Because friendship lives in another plane, another sphere.

If love is the ultimate relationship, then all kinds of love are important. Friendship is a common relationship but friends are more important than we think. Do you choose a friend or does someone choose you as their friend? Or is it beyond that?

Friendship is beyond us. It is beyond our understanding although it is not beyond our appreciation. Like all love, it is invisible yet powerful like gravity. You feel it but you don’t know what it is exactly.

You see, humans are different: they can love. And they have the possibility to love much. This mysterious ability takes place in another dimension. We are more than we appear to be. How is it we can love? It is because we are made for more. We are royalty who can’t easily find their way back.

Why? Our first parents were king and queen but gave up their thrones and became common folk. How? They fired their wise advisor and benefactor. “We can take it from here, sir.”

Their advisor said something like, “It won’t be like it was.” And it wasn’t. And it isn’t. But all is not lost. We must go forward rather than backward. There is a friendship that is higher. It is a friendship with God. We lost that friendship. But it wasn’t God who de-friended us. He wants us back in a friendly relationship. “I call you my friends because I’ve explained everything I am doing to you.” These are the words of Jesus.

He wanted a relationship of co-operation and friendship. He wanted to take fear out of the relationship. Don’t worry about the future; it’s all taken care of by God my Father. The one called Lord never lorded it over anyone. He only accepted followers as willing associates with him in his work. Then he calls them friends. He expected them to continue his good work.

There is another aspect of friendship. I didn’t make this up. Your friends may die before you do. This is sad, I know. But you will see them again as they are. If fact, when you die, they will be saying to God, “Oh, we must have this person here with us.” They mean you. If they are friends with God, they speak up on your behalf. Now you also need to be a friend of Jesus, sure, but imagine their happiness and yours when you meet again.

Friendships need never end. They can go on forever.

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