Hypocrisy.

The hallmark of hypocrisy is inconsistency. We talk a good game……..but then we go and do something else.

This is a charge often leveled at Christians by non-Christians. They say that we don’t practice what we preach.

It is also a foil often used by non-Christians to avoid dealing with Christianity. They say that they would be hypocrites to accept Christianity…….and the promise of paradise…….. after having lived the way they have lived. They have a vision of paradise that they just don’t fit into (clouds, harps, halos, etc).

So…….first, let me get one thing out there in the open.

I am a hypocrite.

I say we should love our fellow man……but it is a rare day when I don’t fail to do this at least once.

Will I make it to paradise?…….. probably…….me and whole crowd of people like me. The simple truth is that paradise is going to be crawling with hypocrites…….people who recognize Jesus but have often failed to follow his command to love one another.

Even worse, hell will probably have a lower percentage of hypocrites than paradise. Imagine a sociopathic serial rapist. His philosophy of life is to take whatever he wants and to do whatever he wants with no regard for others. There is not a whiff of hypocrisy there.

And that brings me to a couple of common misconceptions:

Paradise is a place where you will be rewarded for your good behavior. Nope…… paradise is a place where you will be rewarded for recognizing and honoring Jesus’ sacrifice for you……..in spite of your behavior.

Hell is a place where you will be punished for your misbehavior. Nope……..hell is a place where you will be isolated from the love of your creator. This is its worst feature……..but hardly its only bad attribute. Yes…….the coffee will probably be cold. I won’t dwell on the details……but I can promise you this…….you do not want to end up there.

So…….I am a hypocrite. I try to root it out of my life…..but I fail…….every day.

And I’m on way to a very nice place where I will spend forever with a bunch of other hypocrites.

If you are a Christian……..and a hypocrite…….. I’ll see you there. We will sit down someday in a quiet little cafe and wonder at the incredible gift that we have been given……by a creator who loves us in a way that we simply cannot comprehend.

If you are a non-Christian…….if the way you run your life is completely intellectually consistent……..my hope is that someday you too will become a hypocrite.

I’ll save you a seat.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

Paul, NIV

I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

John, NIV

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Paul, NIV

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

Paul, NIV

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Paul, NIV

This week a song has been on my mind. It is the most beautiful, the most powerful………and the saddest song that I have ever heard.

“I Dreamed a Dream”…….performed by Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables.

The central lyric is:

“But there are dreams that cannot be…….and there are storms we cannot weather”

It is a song about disappointment……..a song about life taking a turn that wasn’t part of your dream…….your plan.

It is very easy to get angry when your plan falls apart.

But, there are two things to consider:

It was your plan that fell apart…….. perhaps God’s plan was different from your plan.

God loves you and and has a plan for your good…..his plan.

So……when the wheels come off. When the future that you had planned…….the future that you were counting on……….suddenly evaporates.

Remember those two things.

Because God will take care of you.

Because God loves you.

And all he asks………is that you return his 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

“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.”

God, NIV

I’ve been running this blog for a few years now. I keep wondering when my well of ideas is going to dry up. Sometimes, the post is a bit weak, but over all I still have things to say.

This week, I thought I’d explore my motivation. I’ll try to be honest…….both with myself and with you. We’ll both do better if my goals are out in the open.

First off all……who am I?

In order of importance:

I am a Christian.

I am a husband, father, and grandfather.

I am looking for the truth…….even if it hurts.

I am an intellectual and a bit of a philosopher. I try hard to use solid logic to move from one idea to the next.

In general, I am a social and fiscal conservative…….you probably guessed. I try to limit the politics in my posts, though sometimes it creeps in.

What do I believe?

I believe that we were created by an intelligent being and put here. This amazing world is no accident.

I believe that the creator put us here for a purpose and has expectations of us………and plans for us………..though I often have trouble clearly identifying those expectations.

I believe that the creator’s primary expectation is that we will love him and love each other.

I believe that there is a world outside of our physical, temporal world and that world is our true home. It is where we belong……..and we will spend eternity there. It is timeless……. eternal. It is divided into a very nice place and a place that is terrible.

I believe that we will ultimately return to that eternal world where we will be permanently sorted between the nice place, paradise, and the terrible place, hell.

I believe that the sorting will hinge on the grace of the creator, Jesus. It will be determined not by the good and the bad that we have done; but, rather by the fact that we recognize Jesus and honor him.

I believe that the great truths that we need to know to live in this temporal world are found in the Bible.

What is my goal with this blog?

I want as many people as possible to join me in paradise.

I don’t want anyone to wind up in hell. I would like for hell to be a quiet, lonely place.

Someday, I want you to sit down with me over a great cup of coffee in a quaint waterfront cafe in paradise.

And if, today, I annoy you in the process, please forgive me.

You can thank me later.

I hear many versions of this.

“Why would a merciful, loving God allow _________(fill in the blank)?

“Why does God allow disease?”

“Why did God allow the Corona virus?”

“Why didn’t God stop the Las Vegas shooter?”

Bad things happen……….if you don’t accept this, you just aren’t paying attention. Sometimes, these bad things are the work of Satan. Sometimes they are the result of a fallible human exercising his free will.

But, sometimes………..they are the work of God. If we look through the Bible, God often allows, or even sets up a tragedy, as the first step in a process that ends well.

Jesus dawdles on the way visit to Lazarus…….who then dies. This sets the stage for one of Jesus’s greatest miracles.

Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers………….leading to his becoming the CEO of Egypt and to his saving the Jewish people.

Paul is unjustly thrown into prison. While there, he writes letters that wind up being a big part of the new testament.

Jesus was tortured and killed………leading to his resurrection and the salvation of hundreds of millions.

In each of these cases………to an observer at the time……..the first step looks bad: Lazarus dies, Joseph is enslaved, Paul is imprisoned, Jesus is murdered. But in each case, God’s “big picture” plan ultimately plays out and the ending is a triumph.

The problem is that you and I are stuck in time……we can’t see the consequences that God is setting up……..down the road. We see step #2 which is painful, but we are blind to step #8 which is the payback.

But God can see it all. He operates outside of the limitations of time. He is the God of step #2……..but he is also the God of step #8.

So……..

When bad things happen, we must not be angry with God.

When bad things happen, we must not reject God.

When something bad happens, we must remember that this may be the first step in a process ………..a process that will culminate in something that we cannot see or understand……… something that is being set into motion by a creator who loves us.

This calls for trust and patience. This calls for trust…..that God loves us and will take care of us……….in the long run. This calls for patience……..that when the smoke clears, we will be taken care of……..because, first and foremost, God loves us.

Because………first and foremost………..God loves us.

He loves me.

He loves you.

“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

God, NIV

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.

God, NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Paul, NIV

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    Forever.

David, ESV

I’m a good person.

I truly believe this and I can back it up………with facts and figures.

Sometimes I mess up…….more often than I wish. But for the most part…. I’m good.

You are a good person too…….why else would you be reading this?

I really don’t know any truly bad people. I probably avoid them. But……I only have to watch the news for a few minutes to see that they are out there.

In my heart I tell myself that I am going to paradise and the truly bad people are going to hell. This is very satisfying.

So far so good.

The trouble is……..that this entire stream of logic is untrue.

Why?

Because just about everybody believes that they are good people. Adolph Hitler believed that he wasn’t just good…… he believed that he was great……. possibly messianic.

I want as many people as possible to enter paradise. I want you in paradise. I worry a lot about the ideas that could keep them out……that could keep you out.

So…… what are two most dangerous ideas that could prevent you from reaching paradise?

Deadly idea #1:

There is no paradise. When you die……you are dirt. There are a lot of variants of this idea: secular humanism, Darwinian Evolution, the Goddess within, new age thinking, wicca, etc. If you don’t believe in paradise……an afterlife, then you needn’t read further…….unless you are curious……and I truly hope that you are.

Deadly idea #2:

I’m a good person.

These two ideas will account for the vast majority of people who will miss out on paradise.

Obviously, today I am dealing with deadly idea #2.

I know dozens of people who confidently embrace this idea……..at their peril.

What makes this idea so dangerous?

First off, let me be clear……..being a good person is a good thing. We need more good people. The “good people” whom I know truly are good.

In this temporal world, being a good person is enough. You are truthful, honest, generous, kind. You love and care for the people around you. You contribute to the community. On the occasions when you do something “bad”, you typically have a very good reason……..a justification. But, when you add it all up, the world is a better place because of you.

So far so good.

However, there are several problems.

1. Being good can lead to self satisfaction…….. complacency. If you are already good……why strive to be better?
2. Being good allows you to feel superior to your neighbors who aren’t as good as you. It can lead to judgementalism.
3. There is, at best a weak link between being good and entering paradise……..unless you have devised a paradise of your own……..one that only good people like you can enter. These “home brew” paradises all share one suspicious feature. They allow you to live your life as you please……and still qualify.
4. You cut God out of the equation. Paradise is completely up to you. The people I know who focus on their “goodness” rarely mention God……their creator……..the guy who created paradise in the first place.
5. There is an element of entitlement here. Because I am a good person, I have earned paradise…..I deserve it. God owes it to me. His opinion about my qualifications is………. irrelevant.
6. Once you become comfortable with your “goodness”………and all of your justifications……..it is very easy to look at what God is up to and what he has already done…….and decide that he was wrong……..that he was ” bad”. A lot of people reject God because they believe that they have a better idea as to how things should be run. They are angry about something that God has done………or something that he has allowed to happen.
7. The final result of the “I’m a good person” argument is that you wind up putting yourself at the center of your world…….and shoving God off into a corner……..where he can’t interfere with your plans for today. Where he can’t interfere with your appetites……with your fun.

Here is the truth.

If God created paradise, then God sets up the parameters for admission…….and “goodness”, while important, is not at the top of the list. (More on this later.)

If you set up the parameters for admission to paradise……..(be a good person)………then you are God. No problem……..unless you aren’t……… God that is.

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

Paul, NIV

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

Paul, NIV

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus, NIV

Sounds a little morose.

But, the truth is that we are all going to die.

I once heard it said that the two great adventures of life………are birth and death.

And this raises some very big questions.

Why? Why do we die?

On a very basic level, from the day of our birth, we were built to die. Our very design determines that we must, at some point, die. For many of us, perhaps most of us, the ultimate cause of our death is built into us at birth………high cholesterol, genetic predisposition to cancer, a predilection to risky behavior. In a word……..we are programmed to die. Whether you believe in God or not, it is clear that we are temporary. From the day of our birth, our clock is ticking.

When? When will I die?

When we are young, we kid ourselves. We have big plans. We are powerful. We are “the captains of our fate”. In a word…….we are……..immortal. We are too important……to our family, to our friends, to our job, to the community……..to die. And yet we do. Time is slippery stuff. How long a period of time is depends on your perspective. When you are waiting for something life altering to happen, a minute can be a very long time. When you look at the history of the earth, a lifetime is the blink of an eye. The short answer……..I will die soon…… too soon.

There are other questions……..what will it be like?…….will I suffer?……..what about my family and friends? For now I will skip ahead to the overarching question.

What does it all mean…….life, death, eternity?

And here we encounter the great dichotomy. I have often said that there are two great religions in the world……. intelligent design and Darwinian evolution………..the big plan and the big accident.

If you believe in Darwin, the “big accident”, then you can argue that there is no overarching universal “meaning”. Instead, there are lots of little meanings. And the best part is that you can assign any value that you want to any of them. So can I. Life means my spouse…….. my child…….the environment…….my job……..my stuff……my politics…….my rights……..my freedom. The conflict that arises between the values that we place on these different “meanings” accounts for most of the rancor in our public conversation. I think it is safe to say that Darwin is the dominant religion in daily life in America today……..even among those who identify publicly as Christians.

If you believe in intelligent design, things get much simpler, but in many ways much harder. Along with the idea of intelligent design……you get a designer. It is possible that the designer created all of this and then lost interest and wandered off to new projects…….but that seems unlikely. If that is the case then we are on our own and we are back to no universal “meaning”. I think it more likely that the designer created all of this as part of an ongoing plan of his. And the meaning of life…….the meaning of my life…….hinges on that plan…….his plan……..not mine.

I am a Christian. I choose the Bible as my moral code because it is the most widely accepted moral code on the planet and because there is enough evidence to convince me that it is valid. There are a lot of details in the bible and it is easy to get lost in the detail. Here are the broad strokes of the designer’s plan……… God’s plan.

Love God

Love your neighbor

Act on this love daily

There is absolute right and absolute wrong. But, this is determined by the creator……not by you……not by me. There are some gray areas but not nearly as many as you might think. To sort between right and wrong…….you must study the source material…….the Bible.

There is an existence beyond this temporal life. Death is not the end.

The creator loves you and wants you to succeed……on an eternal time frame……..on his playing field……….using his set of rules………a set of rules that he created for the sole purpose of leading you to success…….to happiness………on an eternal time frame.

But, what does success look like? This is critical. Because, in the final analysis, the meaning of life is determined by the definition of that success.

You succeed in life by approaching the designer…….your creator……God.

This bears repeating.

You succeed in life by growing closer to your creator…… God.

In essence, the meaning of life is to grow your relationship with God. After all, you will spend most of your time…….your eternity……..dealing with him.

Or you can ignore him…….deny him……..but, if you do……..you had better be right. Because, if you deny God, you will spend eternity separated from the love and joy of your creator.

And that is a good working definition of hell.

“The graveyards are full of indispencible people.”
Charles DeGaul

“Nobody Gets out alive.”
Jim Morrison

God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death ’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away .”

John, NIV

God gives us several promises. The one that stands out for me is the promise that everything is going to be OK……in the future.

The key to this idea is the distinction between the end…….and the future. The end implies that everything stops. For most of us death is our definition of the end. The Bible doesn’t use the term “the end” very much. When it does it refers to the end of our temporal world and by implication, the beginning of God’s timeless world. God’s timeless world will have no end. The term “the future” covers both the remainder of our temporal world and the endless non-temporal world of God…….paradise. “The end” is an idea that is limited to our world. It will not have any meaning in paradise.

The heart of the Bible is the business of surviving our time in this broken time constrained world until the end…….and doing so in such a way that we can reach and enjoy the timeless, endless future that follows.

The old testament is, in essence, God’s attempt to teach us how to live in such a way that we can reach him……..reach paradise. Because that is what he wants from us. That is all he wants from us.

It didn’t work.

The new testament is God’s “plan B”. It is a workaround that will allow God to populate paradise in spite of our failure to run his world the way he wants it run. I guess that God is patient too.

The world we live in is not paradise…….you probably guessed. Paradise is somewhere in the future……after “the end”. The trouble is that we have to wait. And that calls for patience on our part. You and I have to survive dealing with all of the broken stuff……. all of the broken people who come our way every day. In the final analysis, we have only two jobs to do in this broken temporal world.

Love God…….and that includes Jesus.

Love the broken people who come into our lives……every last one of them.

It is not going to be easy to keep loving when we are confronted by pain, loss, disappointment, rebellion, evil………..and even death.

But, we have to keep doing those two jobs until the day we die……until the day when we transition from “the end” to “the future”…………..until we reach paradise.

And that is a good working definition of patience.

I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God.

David, NIV

“you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

The angel Gabriel, NIV

You believe in God; believe also in me. 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

“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.

God, NIV

This post calls for a bit of introspection.

In the final analysis………it calls on you to assess your relationship with God………and that can be scary.

Read on……..if you dare.

I have heard it said…….and I believe that it is true…….that the surest sign of the presence of God……..is joy. I see this joy from time to time on Sunday morning. I look around and see someone singing…….eyes closed, hands raised, and a face that literally glows with peace and joy. And I know that God is there.

Joy like this comes from being close to your creator. It comes from being in the place where you are supposed to be. It comes from being the person that you were created to be.

Do I feel that kind of joy?

Often……..but not always. It is hard to be joyful in the face of tragedy.

The other sign of the presence of God is peace. The peace that I am talking about is an internal peace……..a peace that transcends your circumstance. This kind of peace can co-exist with crisis. It can co-exist with tragedy. It can even co-exist with impending death.

Peace like this comes from confidence…….. confidence that the place you are in is safe…….that you are secure. How can you be confident that you are safe in the face of real tragedy…….even in the face of impending death? If you have a solid relationship with God…….then you are in his hands. And he has promised you a good future…….no matter what happens in the next ten minutes…….the next ten years……..even the next eighty years.
If you have a solid relationship with God, you will spend forever in the place that you were made for. You will spend forever in a place where you will fit in perfectly……..your true home.

And having that knowledge is a very good working definition of peace.

So……how do you assess…….how do you measure ……..your relationship with God?

You ask:

“Am I joyful?”

“Am I at peace?”

The stronger your yes is to those 2 questions…….the closer you are to God. Don’t be troubled if your score for joy is low today……..trust me ……..temporary circumstance…….. temporary tragedy can erode your joy. It will return.

If you can answer a strong yes to those questions, then you are truly blessed.

But……..what if you don’t feel joy…….or at least peace?

Then you are not in the place……..in this temporal world…….where you should be. Worse yet…….you may not end up in the place where you should end up. You need to reassess your relationship with God………your assumptions………your expectations………the amount of time you spend with God.

Because………the currency that you spend in order to buy peace and joy……..is the time you spend in conversation with God.

This bears repeating.

The currency that you spend in order to buy peace and joy……..is the time you spend in conversation with God.

If you ignore God………. don’t expect to find peace…..because this world cannot provide it.

If you try to run your life without God……..you may find a little scrap of temporary joy here and there………but don’t expect to find lasting joy……… because it just isn’t here.

So……..talk to God……..listen to God………study God………build your relationship with God…………and you will find joy……….you will find peace.

Because that is what God wants for you.

Because that is what you were created for.

You will go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
    will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
    will clap their hands.

Isaiah, NIV

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Jesus, NIV

 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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

God, NIV

I’m 68 and my wife is 70.

I tell my granddaughters that we’re “older than dirt”……..and they believe me.

The unavoidable truth is that my wife and I have a limited amount of time left in this world.

It’s cicada season at my house. Millions of bugs that have been living underground for 17 years come out of the ground……..they bumble around for a few days then they die.

I think that my life is a bit like that. There is a part of me that lived somewhere else……a place that I cannot see or remember……….for a long time. I was born and I emerged into the light. I bumble around for a few years. Then I will die.

And that is where it gets interesting.

I am a Christian. That means that I believe in a supernatural creator……God……..and I accept at face value God’s promise that I will go someplace after my death. The Bible is a little short on details, but the cliff notes version is that there is a nice place…….and a not so nice place. The choice between those two places is irreversible and I will spend a long…..long……long time there. In fact, if you add it all up, my time in this temporal world is short in comparison……..so short as to be inconsequential.

It is hard to accept……but my life here, in the final accounting, is inconsequential.

So, how do I run my very short life? How do I handle this inconsequentially short slice of time between where I came from and where I’m going?

I run my life with my eyes on what is important………what is consequential. And that is the place where I am going…….next.

Oddly, it turns out that my ultimate destination…….nice…..or not so nice……….is entirely up to me. The heart of the New Testament is that I have been offered a free ticket to the nice place.

Free.

Whether or not I end up someplace nice depends entirely on whether I accept or reject the offer……. on whether I accept or reject the man who made that offer at great personal cost……..Jesus.

It has almost nothing to do with how “good” I have been.

It has almost nothing to do with how “good” you have been.

And that is not fair………that is not justice.

It is a gift…….born out of God’s mercy……….which is born out of God’s love………for me.

And for you too.

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. 

Jesus. NIV

In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

A conversation between the “nice” and the “not so nice” places, as told by Jesus, NIV

There is a guy out there.

Every husband and every wife has run across him.

He is a composite of the best features of dozens of other men.

He has Brad Pitt’s smile.
He washes the car like Julie’s husband.
He is a great listener like Pam’s husband.
He bought a vacation home in Florida like Jean’s husband.
He never disappears into his office or the shop for hours.
He never hogs the remote.
He always puts the lid down.

You get the picture.

This composite “super husband” is what we mere mortal husbands are compared to every day……….and we come up short…….every day.

But marriage therapy is not what this post is about. You are going to have to sort that out for yourselves.

What this post is about………is expectations.

What do you expect of the Christians around you?

And more important……what do you expect of God?

I believe that unrealistic expectations have driven millions of people away from Christianity. I believe that unrealistic expectations will result in more people missing out on paradise than anything else…….with the exception of Darwinian Evolution.

What are these expectations?

Christians never get mad.
Christians never lie.
Christians are never judgemental.
Christians never act like they are better than you.
In a word………Christians are kind gentle Mr. Rogers types.

God would never allow anything bad to happen to me.
God’s answer to every prayer is “yes”.
God never gets angry.
God never gets sad.
God’s justice is flexible…….just like mine.
God’s mercy is unconditional.
God will find a place for me in paradise because “I’m a good person”.

Christians will rarely meet these expectations……and neither will God.

So what happens when Christians don’t live up to someone’s expectations?………or worse……when God doesn’t meet someone’s expectations?

The line that I hear often is, “I can’t accept a church……or a God…..that would _(fail to meet my expectations).”

The result is that people reject Christianity……. people reject God…….. because they have unrealistic expectations.

Here is the truth.

Christians are not fundamentally “better” than everybody else…..they are not fundamentally different from everybody else……. they are just forgiven. That’s all.

God does allow bad things to happen…..to you and to me……..and I can’t tell you why.

God sometimes answers prayers with “no”.

God gets angry…….and he gets sad. He is more like us than we realize.

God’s justice is absolutely inflexible.

God’s mercy is endless…….but it is not unconditional. There is a universal “get out of jail free” card…….but there is a price and that price is the critical point.

The price for God’s mercy is accepting and following Jesus.

Jesus voluntarily suffered an excruciating death to purchase God’s mercy………his forgiveness……….for you.

You cannot possibly expect to ignore that reality…….to ignore that sacrifice……….and then to avail yourself of his mercy.

Or you could just deny it……..say it’s all a big outdated myth.

Ignore it……deny it……..from God’s side it’s all the same.

The problem is that you could find yourself face to face with God………asking for a little slice of mercy……….and hear him say……..”but I don’t know you”.

You cannot earn a place in paradise.

But you can earn God’s mercy.

It’s easier than you could imagine.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life………Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Jesus, NIV

Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.  “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Jesus, NIV

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

Jesus, NIV