A disclaimer: I am not a trained pastor. What follows is my personal belief in and understanding of my creator.

I was raised as a Methodist. God was stern, Jesus was distant, and the Holy Spirit was vaporous. The Trinity was something in a book or on the walls of a building. I believed…. but my relationship with God was not anything like a friendship. God was fixed and pretty much 2 dimensional. He was somewhere over there. It never occurred to me that God might have feelings. It would have never occurred to me to explore God’s emotions.

But that is what I’m going to try to do this week.

Examine the closest, best relationships in your life…..your spouse, your children, your closest friends. Then remember that we were created in God’s image. I believe that the finest points of the best relationships in our lives are a pale reflection of God’s relationship to us. So if you want to look into the heart of God…..start by looking at the best relationships in your life.

What are the characteristics of those relationships?

Love
A desire for closeness
We hope that they will find peace and joy……. happiness
We try to share with them the skills that will lead to happiness
We hope that they will choose well
Joy when they succeed…….when they grow
Sadness when they choose badly……when they fail
Sadness when bad things enter their lives
Anger when someone evil harms them

All of these things are gifts to the other person. None of them are self serving. In our modern me-centric culture, it seems counter-intuitive. But, I have often said that the surest path to lasting joy is to give of yourself to another person. This is one of the greatest truths of life…….and it is a reflection of the core teachings of Christianity…… Love God……Love your neighbor. These 2 teachings lead us to joy. And joy is the surest sign of the presence of God.

I believe that this truth is close to the heart of God.

So……to return to the beginning. How does God feel?

Just like a husband….. Just like a wife…….Just like a parent.

God is happy when we succeed and sad when we fail.
He shares in our joy and in our pain.

The trick is that he knows the path to real lasting success……the path to real lasting joy. And it comes from selflessly giving of ourselves to others. This is not the “survival of the fittest”…..claw your way to the top……get more stuff mantra of our culture.

How else do you explain a God……a friend……who would choose to suffer crucifixion solely for our benefit……. solely for my benefit?

God gained nothing from the cross……except for relationship, except for love, and the joy that comes from giving of himself to another.

So………..how does God feel?

Love………I am convinced that a deep abiding love for us…..for me…..is at God’s core.

Joy…….the joy that comes from loving us…….the joy that comes from loving me.

Hope…….that we will choose wisely and grow closer to him…….that we will value our relationship with him as much as he does.

And maybe some sadness too………when we choose badly…….when we turn away from him.

This is the God that I know……my friend. This is the God that I look forward to spending eternity with.

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus, NIV

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Jesus, NIV

There is a holiday coming. It’s a pretty big deal. Everybody gives and gets presents. A retailer recently told me that over half of her sales occur in the last 6 weeks of the year.

There are hundreds of movies about this holiday. My favorite is “The Christmas Gift” with John Denver. Almost all of these movies will ask the same 2 questions…….”Do you believe in Santa Claus?” and “will you find love?”

Sadly almost none will ask the question, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?”

Odd…….for a holiday called Christmas.

Ironic ………when you consider that Jesus is the source of both the greatest gift and the greatest love that humanity has ever encountered.

I still get a little thrill when I hear one of the old Christmas songs like “The First Noel”. What makes me sad is that my children and grandchildren will never know that. For them, Christmas is just a day when you get lots of presents………no more. By new years, the thrill is gone and it’s back to business as usual.

I think that this is a symptom of the shift in our culture from Christianity to secular humanism. This shift has been encouraged by a small group of committed atheists and their lawyers……..by Hollywood and the media elites……..by our colleges and universities. The disagreements between Christians and the LGBTQ community haven’t helped.

Ultimately, though, each of us is individually responsible. Each of us will be individually judged……..for the things that we do……….for the things that we don’t do……..and likely for the things that we tolerate.

Ultimately, it all comes down to my priorities……..and yours.
Which comes first……..what I want……..or what God wants?

Secular humanism tells me that what I want is all that there is.

God has expectations that often lead me in a different direction. God often expects me to act beyond my immediate appetites.

The only valid argument for choosing “what I want”……..is that God doesn’t exist. And yet if you honestly search your heart…….if you accept the reality that there are things beyond what current science can explain……….you can sense his presence.

You know in your heart the validity of his law……..Love God & Love your Neighbor.

On the other hand you should be sceptical of a moral framework that always tells you that whatever you want………..is right.

This choice of priorities is the most important decision that you will ever make. It is a choice with eternal consequences. In a way, it is a choice between Santa Claus with his bag full of toys………..and God with his law of love.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul, NIV

“No one here gets out alive”

Jim Morrison

I can’t say that Morrison led an exemplary life…….but he did find an occasional kernel of truth. The simple fact is this……..from the moment of our birth, we are all dying…….the little girl running on the playground………and the old man in the wheelchair. It has been said that there are 2 great moments in life…….birth and death.

So……how do we handle death……how should we handle death?

I have friends and acquaintances who have died.
I’m 66 years old and I have coronary artery disease. I have friends with cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, etc. It seems like every month somebody I know dies or is given a fatal diagnosis.

But here’s the thing.

We are all facing death, the only difference among us is how close it is……….and do we have a hint as to how it will unfold. We can see this current physical world clearly. But, death…….and what happens after death is not so clear. And that can be scary.

When we are young, we see a long road ahead, life is good, death is distant, and we pretty much ignore it. When we are old, it is much more immediate………much harder to ignore. And, I suppose, that is what prompted this post.

So……. how do we deal with death…….how should we deal with it? I think it depends on whether or not you accept the idea…….I would say the promise……..of a life after our death.

There are options for those who don’t accept the afterlife:

Ignore death……..denial
Eat drink and be merry…… hedonism
Severely restrict ourselves……ascetism
Live life based solely on measurable physical things…..science
Ignore the “rules”….because “you aren’t the boss of me”….crime
Spend your life telling others what to do……elitism
Climb the ladder to get ahead of others……so that you can be the richest, most powerful dying person on the planet.

There is really only one option for those who believe in the promise of an afterlife.

Seek the creator, the guy who created paradise…….. because by finding him, you can learn about your future……you can find out what is expected of you…….you can learn to make choices in this world that will best serve you and others in the long run……..eternity. This is a huge deal, since eternity is a whole lot bigger than our 70 or 80 years here.

What it comes down to is our decision about what is most important…….. maximizing our brief 70 to 80 years in this life……..or maximizing our eternity.

So…….to get back to where I started…..how we face death depends on whether we accept the existence of a creator who loves us and who has created a place for us after our death. If you accept the promise of paradise, death is the transition from this brief restricted, in many ways broken, world to a much bigger better world. If you do not accept the existence of a creator……..if you believe that this is all a giant biochemical accident………then death is the end.

Death is either a hopeful…….even joyous thing or the source of the most profound dispair in our lives.

And here is the amazing thing………the choice between joy and dispair………is entirely up to you.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

David, NIV

I spend a lot of time praying for God’s help. You probably do too. There are things that seem good to me…….things that I want to happen……..and I pray for them. So far so good.

I read the Bible just about every day. It contains a lot of good advice…..and a lot of rules. So far so good.

But there is a problem. When I pray…….when you pray…….do you ever ask for something that you don’t like, that you don’t want?

Do you ever ask God to raise your taxes and use the money to feed the poor? Do you ever pray for God to heal justice Ginsberg? Do you ever pray for the end of abortion?

How do you react when you read a Bible verse that you don’t like…….. perhaps a verse that tells you that you are doing something wrong…….or failing to do something?

“Do not commit adultery”

Give 10% to the church

There is a common thread here. We pray for what WE want. We embrace the passages in the Bible that agree with what WE want to do. We often go a step further…….we reject or ignore the parts of the Bible that are in conflict with our wants, our needs, our appetites.

The Bible says don’t commit murder but a great many Christians support gun ownership. A great many Christians support abortion. You can make a strong argument that in a soundly Bible based society……..neither of these would exist. How can this be?

I think that what it comes down to is “Who is in charge”? In other words who do I trust the most God……….or myself?

We spend a lot of our prayers trying to recruit God to “our side”.
We spend a lot of intellectual energy trying to twist the Bible until it agrees with what we want. In a word, we are trying to get God to align himself with us…….to join our team.

There was a world war two movie where a captured German officer says of his captors, “you were always so sure that God was on your side”. He clearly believed in God and had convinced himself that there was no conflict between the Bible and the actions of his government.

So my meditation today is this………am I struggling to conform myself to God……or am I struggling to conform God to me?
Of these two approaches……. the first is difficult and may not be much fun………..but the second is doomed.

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

Abraham Lincoln

I think…….and worry…….about you often. I find myself in a bit of a bind here. I will be in paradise in a few short years and I’d really like for you to be there with me. It is going to be great……but it will be even better with you there. I don’t want to nag you or to annoy you. But, if I say nothing, you may miss out on something truly fabulous. For that matter, I too will miss out on something……your company.

You and I have different beliefs. I believe that we were created by a God who is active and involved in this world. You believe in science which tells us that it is all a big accident. The thing is that these two belief systems are mutually exclusive. In a word……..one of us must be wrong.

If I am wrong, I will lead a good life: loving those around me, supporting my community, paying my taxes, giving to charity, and then…..in a few short years…….I will die and the lights will just go out. I won’t even know that I was wrong.

If you are wrong, you will lead a good life: loving those around you, supporting your community, paying your taxes, giving to charity, and then…..in a few short years……you will die. But then………….you will have an conversation with your creator, your father. It will probably be a little awkward. Then you will likely miss out on paradise, which was your destiny……and mine for that matter…… from the very start.

And I will have failed you as a friend.

So, when I finally work up the courage to annoy you…..again, be patient with me. My long term goal is to someday soon sit down with you in paradise……..and to talk…….over a pastry and a great cup of coffee in a little cafe with a great view………..with two custom bikes parked nearby.

How cool is that?

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus, NIV