In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God was very pleased with his creation and blessed it. Then God made humankind and blessed it. "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over every living thing that moves upon the earth. I have given you everything that has the breath of life." (Genesis chapter 1, verses 27-31).
However humankind can only have a fulfilled life (abundant life) and enjoy God's blessings if they have a free will. There can be no enjoyment if one is programmed like a robot.
Adam and Eve decided to be on par with God (Genesis 3:5), to create their own world. So the world we are living in now is the creation of humankind.
Why am I here?
Psalm 24: 9-10
Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in,
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory!
the Lord, mighty in battle!
If life we often look at the BiG picture and think BiG. Let me discuss the B i G picture and let us all think B i G .
B i G begins with Birth and ends at the Grave, and i is just moving from B to G. Many truths are still out there, but this ultimate truth is here. Who can deny it? Not a conqueror, not a tycoon, not even a magician.
The truth out there is - is G the grave or is G a gate.
How can G be a grave? Are we not better than turtles? They lived far away and come to a strange beach to lay their eggs and leave. The baby turtles have to sprint across the sandy beach for the sea before their predators get them. They then swim thousands of miles away to one day return to repeat the same ritual. We have to be more.
It is hard to believe that we are the same as the salmons that leap up high waterfalls just to lay eggs and die. We have to be more.
It is hard to believe that we are the same as grass we saw in the morning and when we returned in the evening they were gone. We have to be more.
We do not live by instinct alone. We develop great civilizations, cultures and knowledge. We cultivate abstract concepts; love, kindness, mercy, empathy, etc. We cannot be in this world just to survive.
We have been through two World Wars and countless interethnic skirmishes. September 11, 2001, may now the latest great, but be sure greater horror will follow. Even if the Irish in Northern Ireland can learn to live peacefully, there will be West Bank and Kashmir.
Yet we continue to help those in the war-torn regions, people we could not comprehend. We continue to restore lost cultures and languages and work to keep the sharks and tigers alive, and the jungles from disappearing. Tigers and sharks are not our cute dogs and cats. Whenever a shark attacked one of our kind we concluded that it was provoked by the sound we made.
The Bible in Psalm 8 exclaimed;
O Lord, our Lord
How majestic is your name in all the earth!
When I look at your heavens,
The works of your fingers,
The moon and the stars which you have established;
What is humankind that you are mindful of them.
You have made them just below God
You have crown them with glory and honour
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
You have put all things under their feet.
All sheep and oxen,
The beasts of the field,
THe birds of the air
THe fish of the sea,
And everything that passes along the paths of the sea.
O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is your name in all the earth!
We are so very different. G cannot be for grave. I believe it is for Gate. If you believed like I, should you not be preparing yourself to enter?
One of the great attributes of humankind is we spend a great amount of time preparing. Before a child is born we would play them the right music to improve their EQ. By the age of five or even earlier, we will sent them to one institution of another, to prepare them to walk from B to G. Should not we be preparing ourselves to enter the Gate?
John 10:9
Jesus said "I am the door if anyone enters by me he will be saved."
At the end of it all there will be a new heaven and a new earth - a new world. Those who chose the world of Jesus Christ will live in this world. In the world of Jesus Christ - God will wipe away every tear from your eyes, neither will there be mourning nor crying nor pain. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more. The meek shall inherit the world. (Revelation chapter 21, Isaiah 2:4, Isaiah 11:6-8).
Meanwhile living in the world created by humankind we can only pray.
Our Father who art in heaven, holy be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Let there be peace and let it begins with me.
Provide me Lord with my daily needs.
Forgive my weakness and give me strength to forgive the wrongs done to me.
Give me strength not to bring humiliation to your Name.
Deliver me from all the problems that come my way.
Be my God and let me be your people. Amen.
