“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”   Matthew 7:7‭-‬8 NIV

Who said this?  Jesus Christ. The person God sent to give us the best way of knowing God. And the simplicity of these statements and their balance tell us something about him. There is nothing hidden here. There is no need to look beneath the surface. There is no reason to misunderstand. The speech is straightforward and clear.

And the words are repeated in a different way to assure us that we heard it right. So, we can accept them without any doubt.

Ask and it will be given to you. There is only to admit need. He says ‘ask’, not beg, not petition, nothing but a simple request is required. 

What else is required? Only what is always required, believe in the power and goodness of God. Believe that God can and will give the good that you ask for. Jesus wants to fill us with confidence when we ask. He does not say “may be given” or “might be given”  but says, “will be given”.

And the words “to you” have intimacy in them. You ask God and he gives to you. It is between you and God. Your asking is heard by him and he responds to you directly. No one stands between you. There is no go-between in this relation of you and God. No one carries your message to God. He hears you.

Now what you ask for is not qualified. But we ask God. Let our asking be worthy of him. Let us not ask small. And let our asking be worthy of us as well. Let us ask our benefactor who has given us so much already, for something that is good, not something that will diminish us.

God can only give good and perfect gifts that are without repentance. Consider who we ask. Is it something another could give you? Is it a test request? If he gives me this, then I will ask my real request. No, ask with abandon. Ask with confidence. Did we not hear him? Ask wholeheartedly. Ask from your heart to God’s heart.

Listen to him repeat: Everyone who asks, receives. Do not doubt his goodness. To doubt his goodness is to doubt his Godness. And don’t qualify your request. Don’t include how or where or under what circumstances. Ask freely and trust him to answer you as he will.

But what if you want something that is not so easy to simply request? What if it is deeper? What if it will take something more from you? Seek. Yes, seek. Take on your quest. Begin with confidence. Seek and you will find. Be patient and don’t give up. Be cheerful and confident as you seek.

But what if there is an obstacle? What if the way is blocked? What if the door is closed? Don’t walk away. Knock. Is the door heavy? Does it seem very solid? Does it seem impossible to open? Knock and it will be opened. Be patient and expectant like God was while waiting for you to open your heart to him.

A closed door is forbidding. It may look like it will never open. But is there something good beyond this door? Then it will be opened. He did not say open the door yourself.  He said the door will be opened. The opening will be done by one able to open it. It will not be broken down but opened.

Every good gift comes from God. Your answer will be good. Your seeking will result in finding good. And when the door opens, you will not be disappointed. God cannot give bad gifts.

Look at what he has given. After thousands of years, his gifts continue to do good. An apple tree gives apples. Water quenches thirst.  He is thoughtful and wise. He wants to be asked by you. He wants you to have good. He wants to give you all good things.

Why don’t some have? Because they ask not. Or they ask small. They ask for so little from God. They don’t see his great heart. They ask like the prodigal. What the prodigal asked from his father was unworthy of him and his father. He asked too little. He asked too small. Let us ask large of our Father. Let us ask him for something great that continues, and not like the prodigal for something limited as if we wrested it from a reluctant giver. 

Ask like a son from a great Father. You will receive good from him.

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You have heard it said, “Here is a secret I learned,” or “The secret is…”. There are secret societies. There are secret codes. But I tell you that God has no secrets that he wants to keep.

Do you think God has some dark secrets he is keeping from us? He does not. There is no darkness in him to keep them. His place is light with no darkness at all. He wants to reveal all to us. But we may become blinded by that great light.

God is the revealer of secrets not the keeper of them. It is written, ‘In the fullness of time, God sent his son.’ Was the son of God a secret? No, he had been revealing him since the beginning. Adam talked to him. Enoch walked with him. Abram ate with him.

God wanted to reveal his nature through his son. This close interaction with men began as soon as possible. God revealed as much as he could now that men understood sacrifice and sin. Jesus showed that God wanted to bless people as he did from the beginning.

He did not judge but showed kindness to all. He came as a teacher. He called disciples. Men understood this practice. At the end, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is God’s greatest gift. To impart his goodness deep within us. This will change us only if we are willing. He empowers us to do good as he does.

God wants to reveal all secrets to his children. There is nothing he wants to hide. But we must let the Spirit produce fruit in us. As we let the Spirit work, we will learn more and more of him. We will learn Jesus. All things have been given to him. Living as he did, and does even now, we share all that he has.

God wants to give us much but our hands are too small. You would not make a child carry something too heavy. And our hands must be holy or they will burn at the touch of his wealth. Now, holiness really means that our hands must be empty of other things to handle the gifts of God.

How can we begin? God is rich in mercy. Empty your hands of judgement and show mercy. Don’t carry about a hard heart but show kindness. Now we are handling God’s riches. Do you think he won’t help us? And as we give out, we are refilled. To him that has, more will be given. Give that which you have and you make room for more. And make it a point to forgive. This makes room for God’s forgiveness to pour into us.

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Can you prove God?

First, we must realize that God needs no proof. God is God and was God and will be God. He is not worried about his reputation and he knows a lot of lies have been spread about him. Sometimes, by well-meaning people.

Second, everything proves God. All that exists proves God and needs no voice added to prove God exists.

Third, man proves God. Just be existing, you and I prove God. We are self-conscious beings with a moral sense. More than that, we have a sense of the ideal and appreciate beauty.

Fourth, we prove God in that we desire something more than we have. We believe in something more than we see. We have a sense of wonder. This tells us that we have, at the least, a spiritual potential.

Have you ever wanted to change yourself? I don’t mean change your habits. That may improve something but it does not really change you.

Some tell us, “Just be yourself.” This sounds great until we look at ourselves more closely. Maybe we hate. So “be yourself” means hate some people. Or we are jealous. Then “be yourself” means you should envy other people and want what they have!

Oh, that doesn’t sound quite so good. Let’s try, “Be your best self.” Use all your abilities to be a great human being. Overcome all bad inclinations by being good all the time. Well, now we are finished. We have a simple plan: be good.

Have you tried it? Have you tried being good all the time? To really do this, you need a flow of goodness inside you. You need to have goodness filling you up so much, it has to escape in good behavior. You need your very being to be good. And this goodness must be self-sustaining and internally generated by you. Otherwise, being good is going to be a lot of work. You need to be so good, doing good comes naturally.

On top of this, you will be misunderstood at times and must meet adverse reactions with patience. And some won’t appreciate you at times and you will again have to draw on your inner goodness to go happily on when ignored or even criticized. We are all set now. Ready? Go!

You can stop reading here.

You didn’t stop. Maybe we need a different philosophy entirely. What about , “Enjoy Yourself?” That sounds good. Just enjoy yourself. Self. Hmmm. That seems to be the problem sometimes. Our self can be really selfish. In fact, if we think about it, many of our problems come from our selfish self. Our self-consciousness is a little too self-conscious. Our conscience is a little too moral to suit us. Can we truly just enjoy our self?

Imagine it’s just you, alone. Time stops and you don’t need anything. It’s just you and no one else. Can you enjoy yourself?

You know, that is a weird thing about self-consciousness. We seem to be two people. There is an internal conflict of some sort. One part says, “I want to do this.” Another part says, “You better not.” The first part says, “Why not?” The second says, “It’s not right,” or “You will get in trouble,” or “That is unwise because the result may be bad.” 

Now the conscience can be shouted down. “Great, it seems to have gone. Who needs a conscience anyway.” Silenced, it may be, but gone? Not a chance. Like someone you owe money, it shows up at the worst time. And to keep it under control, You have to be more and more selfish. Your iron grip becomes: Me First at all times. 

But the conscience will not compromise with you. It will be silent, sure, but it won’t approve. It won’t call bad, good. Again, imagine that forever with a conscience that says, “I told you so.”

Now, try and enjoy yourself. Which self? The moral one or the other me? Wait, we are both together. This is what self-consciousness means. And to be free from morality means to slowly spiral down into becoming your worst self.

Yes, given enough time, you would become the worst. But you don’t get that much time. And look how bad some people get in that 70 years or so. Imagine them having 700 years to continue their bad behavior.

You know, your choice here on earth is to become really good or really bad. Hard to believe? We have explored two ideas: “Be your best self,” and “Enjoy yourself.” C’mon, there must be a middle ground, you say. No, I’m afraid not. It’s gotta be this or that.

Whether you believe it or not, you are a created being. Ask your parents. Ask them if they thought you up and created you. You certainly didn’t create your own body. You’d remember doing that.

If you find this kind of talk boring, then fine, forget all about it. You evolved. You became a sentient being by accident. It all just happened. Earth is just full of life and air and water and just the right distance from that star we call our sun by accident. And all this means that all this means whatever you want it to mean.

But somehow, we have become detached from the source of all this life. Something is missing. We need something more!

Can you be reconnected? Well, you may be closer than you think. If you’re unsatisfied with yourself, there is good news. Your awareness or admission is the first step. Now the second step is called “a leap” by some, usually because they never took it. It is not a leap at all. It is like going home to where you really live.

It’s like finding out you were adopted but you have a real birth family as well.

We don’t know God very well so he wanted to clear up all the wrong stuff about him by sending the one guy who knows him best, his son.

Yeah, him. Jesus answers all the tough questions about life. What is the ideal person like? Can we live without God? How do you keep going in the face of rejection? Where does the power to be good come from? And, ready? What does an unselfish person look like?

And he says two things:
Believe God sent me.
Follow me.

That’s it. To connect with God, we say, “I’m wrong and you’re right.” But then he begins to transform our wrongness into rightness. Are you willing to trade selfishness for selflessness? Your true self will be delighted in this. In fact, you can only really find yourself by losing your selfish self. Then you begin to become your best self, your true self.

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Long ago, a man named Jacob met a guy. This guy was mysterious. The meeting was so meaningful to Jacob and this man seemed to know a lot about Jacob. He might have been following him on Facebook or something. Jacob asks what his name is. It’s a reasonable question.

But the man said something like this: ‘Why are you asking about my name? No one really knows me. I have a rather amazing name. But what about you, Jacob? Maybe you have the wrong name. Maybe your name should be changed. You are different now. Your name is Israel.’

Now we know the name of this man. The guy knew Jacob’s grandfather. He knew Noah. His name is Jesus. We know a little about him now. We know he was killed. We know he died. We know he returned from death and met with his friends.

Other people met this person later. One guy was Saul. He was trying to stomp out a new Jewish heresy put out by these so-called Christians. He was traveling and he met this person on the road. He was blinded by a light and said, “Who are you, Lord?” He was completely astounded at the answer: “I am Jesus and you are hurting me.”

Once Moses asked God his name. The answer was “I AM.” Is this a name? Yes. It is The Name. The name of One who was not born. The One before the beginning of anything we know.

Now, let us look closer at this wonderful name. God talked with Moses and told him he was going to reveal his name to him. Moses did not know what to expect. In the experience of Moses, he heard these words: I will make my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim my name…”

There was more. He heard “mercy” “compassion” “grace” “love” “faithfulness” and “forgiveness”. We use these words when we talk about God because, like Moses, we experience these. All love, mercy and goodness come forth from God. This is his name. This is who he is. The aged Apostle, John, writes ‘God is Love.’

He is the Good. I think that maybe “God” is short for ‘Good.’

No one is good, but God. This means that every thought he has towards you is good. He wants only good for you.

He wants you and me to join with him in being good. Will you embrace goodness? Will you dare to approach The Goodness?

You say goodbye to badness as you move towards him. He is all good and all the good there is. Sure, you can do good things, but are you good? Good like God?

You are stamped out in his image. You are made like him. But unless you are connected to him, you remain alone. You are like a beautiful statue that cannot move. You may have heard the story of the statue that comes to life.

This is a metaphor of what can happen with us. The image of God, us, can be filled with the life of God and we can become real people. God, who made us, can do this. He wants to do it, too.

But, and it’s a big ‘but’, he will not use force. His invitation is, “Come, follow me.” If you respond, you will become a real person instead of a shadow of one. You will be defined again by God as one he knows. He will consider you a friend. He will invite you to be an active part of his family. He is The Father, you know.

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What are the desires of your heart? Have you thought about it? Are you pursuing them or ignoring them? If you are pursuing them, how many can you pursue?

Probably only one. But inside of a heart desire is something else. It is a belief that upon obtaining that desire, you would experience a certain satisfaction. When I say ‘a certain satisfaction’, I mean a very definite satisfaction that is related to receiving that desire.

But, what if you get what you desire and it does not give you that expected satisfaction? Then what?  You say to yourself, “This is exactly what I wanted. But the satisfaction I expected to come from it is not there.”

Once again, you pursue a desire. And you have the same experience. It does not satisfy like you thought it would.

The problem is this: Your desire is faulty. What you desire is not what will satisfy you. It seems like it should but it won’t. It can’t. The desire is not related to that deep part within you that wants to be satisfied. You do not know enough about that deep desire. You don’t know how it got there. That is why you think this or that should satisfy it.

You may have assumed because of the way others pursue their desires, fulfilling those desires will give satisfaction. Or your culture tells you that happiness lies in this direction or that direction. You follow those directions and come out with a mismatch.

You are surprised. You wonder why. Why doesn’t this satisfy me? 

The reason is this: these are all that can be offered. These paths are the only ones available. They are attainable in ordinary life.

But your deep desire can’t be fulfilled in this way. You need extraordinary means. Some say you need the Divine. But you also need to give up something valuable to you. And it is the part of you that measures satisfaction!

You have to get rid of your very unit of measure! You find that the fulfilling of your deep desire is beyond all your efforts. It must come from somewhere else entirely. To fulfill this desire involves a dramatic change internally. It involves an activation of a part of you that has been neglected. It is your spirit. Only your spirit can receive what you need to gain the satisfaction you really want.

It’s like you keep using different mixtures of the same kind of fuel but you need your engine converted to take a whole different sort of power. This conversion begins a new kind of life. So much so that you may call your former existence a kind of deadness.

Let’s take a example. You feel love would fulfill your deep desire. You pursue love. You are disappointed a couple times but then you find the one. This is it. This is real love. You love them. They love you.

Everything is right. They want to give you all their love. And they do. You love them with all you have.

But after some time, you find you don’t have enough of this love to endure certain difficulties. Worse yet, you realize that all your love cannot fulfill the desire of your lover. And all their love cannot touch the deep desire of your heart.

This love is great. It is wonderful. But it is not the right kind of love. Another kind is needed from another source.

You are a creature and are created a certain way. You must have this other love to live. You need to find this desire within you that matches to your true satisfaction. You need to cast out all other desires until you only have one desire. Pursue this desire and you will find that which satisfies.

This is what it means to be pure in heart. You only want one thing. And that is what will satisfy you. But in the process, you are changed. All those other desires become useless because they always were useless. They only covered up the true desire of your heart.

And the purity of your heart guarantees it will be satisfied. Blessed are the pure in heart…

You may have heard these words: Ask, seek, knock.

Ask and you will receive. It doesn’t take much to ask. You ask. Maybe you even ask for the wrong thing. That doesn’t matter because when you ask, the right person hears you. And begins to answer. He even knows the right answer to the wrong question.

You receive an answer. Now you know God is there. You begin to seek. You look hard for more. An answer is not enough. You want more. And you find. You find what you seek. But maybe it’s not what you thought. Of course, it is not what you thought because you (and I) thought wrong. We were always wrong in relation to the Right.

Asking and receiving an answer was not enough. Now seeking and finding is not enough. You know where your desire is found. You identify the very door it is behind. You knock. You keep knocking. You won’t stop knocking. And it opens. The door opens.

It opens because you will not be denied what you need by the only one who has the answer to your deepest desire. He made us to live connected to him. He was waiting for your knock. He was not surprised by it. He was on the way to open the door on your first knock.

Now begins the reconstruction of you. You were wrong. You had things wrong within you. No wonder you did wrong. A big important part of you was not working. But now your spirit is alive. You can become that which you were made to be. All the parts of you can be brought into harmony.

But remember, there is one part of you that was performing a function it was not made to do. That is the selfish part. It cannot be improved and it cannot be fixed because it was doing the wrong job. It was running you. And it was incompetent to do that. It was bound to steer you wrong.

Worst of all, you thought that was you. But now this lively spirit version is the real you. It’s a little difficult to be totally re-orientated like this. But the new you is much better than the old you. And the new you has great potential. Really!

The old you had no future. It would drag you down to the worst you possible. Hey, I wasn’t that bad. Maybe not, but you would have become that bad. Given enough time, you would become the worst. 

But that is the reason to reject our past way of living. We must prove it out, too. We must use our free will to do God’s will. That sounds big, doesn’t it? Doing God’s will.

What it means is being a good human. Being exactly what you were meant to be. You are connected to your source. You were disconnected before and could not become what you were intended to be. That wasn’t your fault. But to remain that way would be your fault.

Two things will start us right. Love God with all your heart. Why does God say this? Because he knows nothing else. He loves you wholeheartedly. He knows no other way to love. He knows that you loving him wholeheartedly will give the best results for you. It will purify your heart. You won’t have to waste your time chasing down desires that disappoint. This is a matter of being right.

Then there is doing right. And all the worthwhile doing is summed up as this: To love your neighbor as yourself. This direction enables you and I to go forward on the right path. If you are doing it wrong, he will help you do it the best way. God is an expert at loving and turning it into action.

Now you can do this because you know that God is taking care of you. The best care. You are not your own responsibility any longer. Think of it! You are free to go beyond loving yourself because God is loving you full time. You were never the best one to do that job. He is. Now you can love others. And the supply of love from God is endless. You won’t come up short because this love has no limits.

You have broken through your previous limitations. You will be able to do things you never could before. This is because you are connected to your source. You can become what you were meant to be. And this will be very satisfying.

Your eyes will be opened to see God working. And you take part in his work. That is what doing the will of God means. And his work has eternal value. And he shares his doing with you. On top of this, he will gladly reward you for doing it. Imagine, God himself saying to you, “Well done!”

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Do you think a spiritual person lives in a mystical state that counts this world as unimportant? The world has faded away as he gazes deeply into the spiritual realm. This is not true. The spiritual one has met the Divine and been reconnected to the source of life. How this has happened is not our question now. Just as he has stepped into the spiritual world. He steps back into the present, very much in this world.

Living in this world has meaning now. And he means what God means him to be. He does not make himself bigger but remains the same size as before. He lives life in a simple way. He becomes ordinary.

If you watch to see his spirituality, you will not see it. You will see nothing exceptional. He goes about his work without striving to advance at any cost. He knows the cost of trying to gain the world and has found it too much to pay. He expects little but is grateful when he receives something.

He asks questions rather than gives answers. He claims to know less than he used to. He was sure of many things before and was proud to give his opinion. Now he seeks knowledge and searches out wisdom.

His deep insights are gone. He doesn’t try to be profound but would rather speak simply and be understood. He is reluctant to use a big word when a smaller one will do nicely.

Why is this maddening person spiritual? He seems to do nothing important. He doesn’t stand out in a group but rather fits in without effort. When he says something, he doesn’t look around for approval. His words have weight but are not heavy for effect.

Now, maybe you have heard of Jesus. He was not exceptional. He may have said profound things but in a simple way. He spoke the common language not Hebrew. Yes, he did miracles but like prophets of the past and others of his day. Do you aspire to be like him?

Before he did anything that could be called remarkable, he did something else. He lived 30 years in an ordinary way. His brothers, who observed his life, found nothing exceptional about him. His own mother said as much as, “You are 30 years old and you have done nothing!”

But he turned water into wine, you say. But look at him! He responds as a son to his mother. Then he reconsiders her words and helps out a neighbor. If he could, he might have ordered some wine for express delivery within the hour. That being unavailable, he tells some men to go fill up heavy jugs with water on his mothers authority.

His disciples merely note this was definitely a miracle and the first. But everything else about the story is very normal. That a rabbi calls disciples is not even exceptional. It would be like those going off to a university because of a certain professor.

John the Baptist must receive a sign from heaven before he verifies that this is the One expected for centuries. Later, he wonders if he was right in doing so.

What have we learned here? That Jesus lived for 30 years with only his mother thinking he was exceptional. And your mother always thinks you are exceptional. And the man of great faith does not go around telling trees to toss themselves into the sea. He does nothing for dramatic effect.

The most amazing things about Jesus are footnotes. His virgin birth, his time of testing in the desert, and the physical evidence around his death are noted but may not have been know by many contemporaries.

The spiritual person has a hidden life with Christ in God. His life here is a witness to God’s kindness and love. His focus is on other people. He is like Christ in that he makes friends easily. He is a matchmaker and considers each person as a good match for God. Each one will know something different about the God that he now knows. And he knows that it is best for him to be right here, right now.

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The Holy Spirit filled Jesus at his baptism. This was a great sign to John the Baptizer. The gift of the Father is the greatest gift to man. But what exactly does God change in a person?

The Holy Spirit infuses life in the innermost part of a person. This is deeper than all the person has known. But let us look at some of the ways Jesus talks about the experience.

He says ‘eat my flesh’. We would call that gross.

You need to drink my blood. Now this is disgusting.

Wait a minute! I read the bible and drinking any blood is forbidden since Noah.

Why would Jesus use such vulgar language?

He also took off his clothes and washed his disciples feet. This is outrageous behavior at any time. Only a slave would do this. If you think the disciples were comfortable during this, you are wrong. Only Peter speaks up. Jesus tells him it must be done.

Why this embarrassing demonstration?

If you think you would not have been indignant listening to Jesus use the worst possible language and suggesting that someone drink any blood, let alone human blood, you are wrong.

Why would he do this? In what circumstances would you use strong language? Wouldn’t it have to be really important?

You must be born again. Not only is this impossible, says Nicodemus, but it is also gross. It is yucky.

Even if we try to soften it, no man can completely reinvent himself. But, with God, all things are possible.

Only God can reinvent you. And…only with your permission. And…only with your daily cooperation.

You breathe in the pure air of the Spirit.

Your food is the daily manna from God.

Your drink is the blood (or the life) of Christ.

Can you accept this?

The disciples answered, “Where will we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” They were thinking about leaving, I can assure you.

Where will you go? There are a lot of paths. Maybe it will end up badly and it may take you a long time to find out. Is it confusing? God makes it simple: This is my beloved son. Listen to him.

There are only two choices. It has to be this or that.

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There is an old book that has some stories in it about people who encounter God. No, it’s not the National Enquirer.

We read in this ancient text that the first man born on Earth was named Cain. He finds himself compared unfavorably to his younger brother, Abel.

Cain finds his younger brother, Abel, to be the favorite of their parents. But something takes place that makes Cain think God is also playing favorites. Cain is mad. The Lord actually warns him to reconsider. He asks Cain why he is so mad. God tells him that it doesn’t have to be this way. But Cain shrugs off this advice from God and decides his brother is the source of all his problems. He decides to get rid of him. He invents murder. Can you believe it? The first two men, brothers, and one decides to kill the other!

He does kill him. But what did he have to do first? He had to harden his heart. Cain has squeezed out any natural love he had for his brother or his parents. After the murder, he begins to think that someone might invent revenge! He takes his wife and begins to wander the earth. He keeps moving from place to place. Eventually, he establishes a home where he keeps his large family close around him, to protect and support him.

Our second story finds Moses leading his people through the desert, away from their lives of slavery under the Egyptians, toward another place where they can live as free people. But the people still think like slaves even though they are under the protection of God himself. They say God will let them die in the desert even though they have experienced his daily care for quite a while.

God tells Moses to speak to a big rock in the desert and water would come forth. Lots of water. Moses is mad at his people for always complaining. He slams his staff on the rock and yells, “Do we have to bring water from this rock?” Water flows and the thirsty people have plenty to drink.

I think God wanted this moment to be forever in their memories. Moses speaking to a rock, God causing water to flow. This ancient rock standing in the desert bursting forth with delicious water showing God using his power over nature to care for his chosen people.

But Moses goofed it up. What Moses said made out like he was standing next to God as an equal. He was no longer the humble servant of God. Oh, no. Moses forgot, in his frustration, that he didn’t have any power over nature. His staff gave him power over sheep. Did water come from the rock? Yes, it did. But God was not pleased with Moses’s conduct.

Moses had a close relationship with God. God had made Moses a man who would stand all through history. But Moses was a servant of God. God was carefully impressing on his chosen people who He was. Moses was not allowed to change the script. If we stand above God, he can’t shower down blessings on us. If we place ourselves next to God, he cannot recognize us as his equal, because we are not.

Let’s look at one more story. The man is called Job. At the beginning of this account, Job is rich; he is blessed by God; he has standing in his community. Job is well aware all his blessings come from God.

But Job loses everything all of a sudden. Soon his health is affected. His friends advise him that he must have done something wrong to get this punishment from God. Job says that he has searched his soul to find this very thing and cannot find anything that would explain his new condition.

Job wants to make his case before God. He says that God has the right to take away what he gave him, but Job would like to know why. He doesn’t like that everyone thinks he has wronged God when Job knows he has not .

The Lord appears to Job and gives him the chance to make his case.

God asks Job a series of questions. He asks where Job was when he created the earth. He inquires if Job knows how things work and who keeps it all working.

He probes Job’s understanding of nature with its power as well as its limitations. He asks if Job understands how nature and God work together.

He wants to know where Job stands to begin to make his case. He says that if Job can show his equality, he will be glad to be cross-examined by Job. But Job withdraws his case. He wisely understands that he has no place to stand to make God explain his actions. He chooses silence before the Lord.

We feel we have the right to judge the actions of God. Imagine yourself a judge in your courtroom. You sit in your robe. Your job is to judge God. Are you ready to do that?

People judge God all the time. “If God is so powerful, why does he allow injustice?” But God knows exactly what he is doing. He shows Job that Job does not have the knowledge it would take to make any judgement against God. Job agrees that he is in way over his head.

Is God against Job? No. He considers Job an great example. Did he ever want to do anything but bless Job? No. But the story shows us a bigger picture than Job sees.

God treated Job to an experience where Job learns how great his God is. He values Job and knows that Job refused to disavow God in his difficult circumstance. He also saw that Job did not accept the evaluation of men. Job had seen himself in a dark place. But God saw him as a shining light among men.

God told Cain that he could find his place before God. All he had to do was choose a different path than what he was thinking of doing. He told Moses to speak to a rock and it would give out many gallons of fresh water. But Moses stepped over the line. He acted like it was him that told rocks to give water, not God. God asked Job how he could demand answers from him. But all the time he was using Job as an example of a godly man who would stand for all time.

Maybe you think God wants you to kneel before him. Men want other men to kneel before them. The ancient ruler of China demanded this sort of thing. Sure, we start out kneeling But God wants you to get up off your knees and to stand before him. He wants each of us to stand in a place where he can bless us.

He wants us to grow up into the great purpose he has for each of us. The place he has given us is the same as Jesus. Can you believe it? He wants us to have this same loving relationship that he has with his son. He wants us to stand before him in right relationship so he can bless us now and forever. It is a place where we can stand securely in the love and mercy he wants to shower on us.

With Cain, Moses and Job, God treats them like adults. He expects them to look around and understand things about God. He expects them to act sensibly.

But when Jesus comes, he calls God “Father”. He does not say, God will judge all you evildoers! Get ready for the Judge to judge you sinners. No, he told us to call God: Our Father. He does not say ‘God is my Father, but he is your Judge!’.

He makes this very clear as he gets ready to leave earth, he says, “I am going to my Father. He is also your Father.”

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A man falls out of a ship at sea.

He will be soon be far behind the ship.

The ship is very big and would take a long time to turn around.

By the time the ship returned, the man would die in the icy waters.

Someone throws a ring with a rope attached.

It could be a lifesaver to him.

Then he calls out to the drowning man,

“Just grab anything. It is not important what it is. Just as long as you believe it will help you.”

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Of course, he would not say that. He would more likely say, “Grab the ring!” The reason would be that the man could be pulled to safety with that ring. If the man grabbed a piece of wood floating by, it probably wouldn’t help him much. If the man waited for a friendly dolphin, he might freeze before it came.

The man has to grab the ring and hold on with all his strength. He would depend on the strength of the man who was pulling up the rope. And he only has a short time to make that decision.

Believe it or not, this is our condition. We have time to make a decision about what we will hold on to during our lifetime. But in the turmoil of the sea, it is hard to hear the voice that calls us to take hold of the only thing that will save us. We must make our decision like the man and hold on with all our strength. Our rescue depends on the strength of someone else to save us.

The ‘holding on’ is called ‘faith’. The rescuer is God Himself. He calls out to us to take hold of the only thing that can and will save us. But that Lifesaver is a person not a thing. And that person is much different from others. He is the same person that was in the beginning starting the human race. He has intervened many times and influenced many people all through history. But it is written that finally, he came here himself and told people how the rescue of each person could be worked out.

After being killed by his enemies, he returned to his friends. He told them to continue to tell people about him. The part that really made him different than others was that rising from the dead part.

Many would give us advice. Others would give us rules to live by. But one person offered a new relationship with God as our Father. Only one person showed all the attributes that we admire in someone. He was unselfish. He was kind. He was forgiving.

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When he was asked this question.

“What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?”

He answered them, “This is the work of God,

that you believe on him whom he has sent.”

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In the East, the dragon is much different than in the West. But more than the differences in dragons, is the difference in where people stand. In the West, the knight faces the evil dragon, an enemy of mankind. But in the East, the dragon is a strong protector of the people. So people are behind the dragon who faces their enemies.

Where you stand is very important. Whether the dragon is good or evil is not our subject. But where we stand in relation to the powerful may be important. People who believe in God usually think he is powerful. They are always saying how he should do powerful stuff. Like he’s not doing his job correctly. They say things to help him do better at his job of being God. So, if God exists and is powerful, we should try to get on his good side.

But does God have a good side? Many people think he does not. Think of the sun. Does it have a good side? Does it have a bad side? Does it have any sides? God, like the sun, has no sides. One side is the same as the other. But, as with the sun, exposure may cause problems. It was said long ago that no one could see God and live.

If we got too close to the sun, we would die. Does that make the sun bad? I don’t think so. Do you?

Now, what if? What if a good God made a place for humans to be that was safe for them to live? Safe from being too close to God and too close to the sun.

Why would he do this? Since we are reasonable beings, we would think God reasonable, as well. What was his purpose?

Imagine a creative, reasonable God who creates people to live on this place near a forever blazing star, but not too near. He wants them to grow into something great. He loves freedom. He loves choice. If beings don’t have a choice, they are not free. He uses himself as the pattern for making these humans. Too much to believe? Maybe it is. But we are just imagining, right?

He makes himself available to them. But he is not overbearing. He hopes they will try and discover their benefactor.

He gives people a whole planet to live on with food to eat and air to breathe. They can live on this earth without much regard for him. But he has this idea about them. They have incredible potential. He interacts with some of them.

Three Men Connect with God

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