There are two realms.

There is the world that we see. We can touch it, we can measure it. To a great degree we can even understand it. There are parts of it that elude us, but we keep exploring them hoping that someday we may understand them. This is the realm of science.

Then, there is the world that we cannot see. It includes all of the things that science cannot detect, quantify and explain. This is the realm of God.

It is where these two realms meet that we run into trouble. Sometimes we find things that were once part of the unseen realm that we begin to understand and can move into the realm of the seen……..like magnetism. Magnetism was once viewed as mystical, even occult. Now it is firmly in the realm of the seen…..the realm of science.

So………for better or worse,we tend to leave the realm of the seen to science…….but, how do we deal with the realm of the unseen?

Deny it. If I can’t see it and measure it with the tools of human science, then it isn’t real. The trouble is that science keeps expanding its reach. Stuff that wasn’t real yesterday becomes real today. Another problem is that science doesn’t always get things right……… just ask Columbus……or Galileo. The other problem is that we will miss out on anything real that is unseen……..both the blessings and the curses.

Ignore it. While we recognize that there are unseen things that are real, we cannot use them……we cannot manipulate them. So, why bother with them. This saves us a lot of effort but it becomes a problem if there are things in the unseen realm that can help us…….or harm us. There is an irony here. If the unseen is real, the fact that we deny or ignore it is irrelevant. Its impact on our lives remains.

Explore it. Admit that there are real things, real beings that are not only unseen…….but unseeable. Recognize that these beings can affect us and our world…….both for good and for bad. This calls for discernment. Every day somebody comes to us with an idea that they tell us is part of the unseen……..and it is a complete fiction. We have to sort between the fictional unseen and the real unseen. This is where things get difficult. Some of the unseen things that people try to sell us are easy to discard…….like Ouija boards. Others are much tougher. How do you sort between God (of the Bible), Satan, Allah, the Greek and Roman Gods, Aliens, ancestor worship, etc?

I believe that the defining act of the supreme unseen being, God, is creation. If there are other unseen beings, then the one who created me and this world is the one that counts. The creator is God.

But who is he?

I look for his fingerprints in his creation. Man is his ultimate creation and I believe that in our better moments we are a poor reflection of our creator’s heart. So what does that look like?

This reflection of our creator is “written on our hearts”…..it is “hard wired” into us.

We want to love and be loved.
We care for others, especially our children.
We need relationship.
We will forgive bad behaviour in order to build relationships.
We believe in eternity……..life after death.
We know that it is wrong to lie, steal, murder and cheat on our spouse.
We know that we should be kind to those around us…….even strangers.
We sense that there is something missing in our world.

These fingerprints are codified in the Bible. Because the Bible reflects what I sense in my heart to be true, I believe that the Bible is the best description of God that we have.

So, I believe that there is a real world that is unseen…….and largely unseeable. A part of that world is our creator……. God.
Based on the things that are in my heart on my best days, I believe that the Bible is a good description of God………..and of his expectations of me.

“The LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”

God, NIV

Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

David, NIV

Grilled, that is.

Years ago we were on vacation. We were at a beachfront restaurant and I was feeling adventurous. I wanted to try a local dish. And they had grilled octopus. I thought, what the heck, it’s probably awful but I’ll give it a try. Live dangerously. Sure enough, after a bit, the waiter brought me a whole octopus about 10″ in diameter. It was charred to the point where it was about 80% black. It looked awful. I cut off a piece, held my nose and put it in my mouth.

It was delicious! OK, maybe a little rubbery in texture, but the flavor was amazing. I haven’t passed up grilled octopus since……. whenever I can find it on the menu……
which isn’t often. I even find it at Costco every now and then.

So what’s the point here?

I hear a lot of people complaining about Christianity. They say it’s narrow minded, restrictive, bigoted, hateful, you name it. They say Christians are superstitious at best and brain dead at worst. The trouble is that most of them have never tried it. Most of them have never spent a year living the Christian life…….. following the two central rules…….”Love God……Love your neighbor”.

Same story about the Bible. I hear people call it nieve………a myth, superstition, hallucination, lies, etc. Almost to a man, they have never read the book.

How can you criticize a faith and a book when you have never tried it.

How can you make a face and say that octopus is awful if you’ve never tasted it.

To those who would criticize my faith, I say try it out for a year………read the manual…….cover to cover. Spend time with some solid, mature Christians. Love God and love your neighbor.

Then you can tell me what you think of my faith.

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

David, NIV

Living in America is great. The land of the free.

If you ask one hundred Americans what is so great about this country, most of them will say that it’s our freedom. We can say what we want and we can pretty much do what we want. We can live where we want, choose the work we will do, practice our faith…………we can buy a gun………we can abort our baby. Sure there are laws to protect others from us when we abuse our freedom. But all in all…….we are in charge of our lives.

Freedom, however, is a bit slippery. We love having it, but we often don’t handle it well. To be clear, this post is not about how misusing our freedom can harm others (though it certainly can)……….this post is more about how complete freedom can harm us.

I see freedom as a continuum. Consider the chicken that laid the egg that you ate for breakfast. She will spend her entire life in a one cubic foot cage. She is safe, well fed, and well cared for. But, she will never in her life make a single choice. She is the poster child for lack of freedom. Now imagine the king of a small nation. He rules absolutely. He makes the laws. He can do anything he wants. Nothing constrains him and his appetites. He is absolutely free. Think of Idi Amin. I bet that most of us would rather live in Idi Amin’s palace than in the chicken’s cage. And yet, both Idi Amin and the chicken have a problem with freedom. There is no doubt that too little freedom is bad……but so is too much freedom. And I’m not talking about too much freedom being bad for society as a whole……… I’m talking about it being bad for me.

I spend my day making decisions. Thousands of times each day I face choices. As I face a choice, many of my options are good……..but many are bad. Absolute freedom means that all of the bad options are available to me……..in addition to the good options. And I am a master at justifying the choice of the bad option.

So are you.

Here is the rub. In order to live a happy and successful life, I need to limit my freedom. This runs against my nature…….against my skill at justifying bad choices……. against my appetites.

I need outside help. I need a set of rules to govern my behavior.

I need a moral code………..and so do you.

I need it, not to protect society from me……….but to protect me from me.

Here it is:

Love God
Love your neighbor
Don’t lie
Don’t steal
Don’t murder
Honor your parents
Sex is for husbands and wives
Don’t covet
Rest on Sunday

The Bible is full of rules. It is in fact a detailed moral code. But these 9 points are the heart of it. We tend to look at it as a book that is designed to put us in a tiny cage……to take away our freedom……..to take away our choices. And we hate that………we rebel against it. But, unlike human laws which are there to keep us from hurting others………the moral code of the Bible is there to keep us from hurting ourselves. In a word, the Bible is designed to take away our freedom to make self destructive choices. It is a gift…….from a creator who wants us to be happy and fulfilled…….no more no less.

I believe that when I fail……….when I get angry with somebody or jealous (my sins of choice)…….God is not angry with me but rather sad……..sad that I have missed out on the joy that he has planned for me…….sad that I have fallen short of my destiny.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah, NIV

In the movie “Backdraft” there is a scene where an old firefighter is mentoring a young firefighter. He intentionally lights a fire and as it grows. He says something to the effect that the fire climbs up the wall and across the ceiling……..not because of the laws of physics………but rather, because it WANTS to. This is, of course, just good theater. But, it provides a practical applicable basis for defeating the fire. Similarly, the idea of evil driven by intention is very useful in understanding Satan……..and protecting ourselves from him.

In our modern “open minded” society. We have redefined evil. In many cases we have defined it out of existence. One of the great unforgivable crimes in our world is to tell somebody that what they are doing is wrong. This is the source of much of the friction between the right and the left. The right sees something and says it is wrong. The left responds by calling the right one of the words in the “deplorable basket”.

When you hear the word “judgementalism”…….what is your immediate response? Is judgementalism good or bad? We are told every day that we have no right to lable the action of another as bad. We are told that judgementalism is bad. We are not allowed to call another person evil……. No matter what. We are not even allowed to say that he is bad. Think of the TV coverage of the last mass shooting. You probably heard about the shooter’s troubled childhood, about his emotional struggles, about his state of mind, how he lost his job……….but nobody ever called him evil. We have dumbed down evil to the point where it is almost a caricature. When was the last time that you saw somebody do something and said, “that is an evil act committed by an evil man”. As in the book “1984”, we have created our own version of “newspeak”……..a language where words describing unacceptable ideas have been outlawed. Even on the rare occasions where we acknowledge evil………the act must be extraordinarily heinous. 911 was evil. But lying on your CV, denigrating a co-worker, mistreating your spouse…..doesn’t rise to the level of evil……..perhaps exaggeration or frustration……….but not evil.

So what about Satan?……….. same story.
For the most part, our society has eradicated him. We rarely think about him. Many, perhaps most of us, deny his existence. Even if we consider him real……we reduce him to a caricature…….a red guy with horns, a tail, and a pitchfork.

I believe that God is an intelligent, emotional being who is active in our world……… who has a long range plan for our well being.

I believe that Satan, too, is an intelligent, emotional being who is active in our world…….. who also has a long range plan…….. for our destruction. In a word, Satan is evil with a plan…….for me and for you.

Satan is not an intellectual construct, an idea, a metaphor, or a symbol. In practice, he is a supernatural person with wants, needs, emotions………and a plan. The safest way to deal with Satan is to deal with him as you would a dangerous co-worker. In every interaction, remember that he is present and that his motive is to destroy you. The most dangerous way to deal with him is to deny his personhood……….to deny his existence……to deny his motive…….to deny the evil that he has planned for you………for all of us.

And that is where we are today. As you go through your day today you will interact with hundreds, maybe thousands of people……… some good, some evil, most in-between. The problem is that most of them…….good or evil…….from a practical application standpoint don’t recognize that Satan walks among with us……….. quietly and carefully executing his long range plan. It is very easy to be manipulated……….when you can’t see the person pulling the strings……… when you deny his existence.

Evil is real. It is not a random accident. It is not bad luck. It is not human nature. It is the work of a motivated, intelligent being who is carefully executing a long range plan………a plan with one goal…….your destruction.

And the LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it .”

Job, NIV