Words

The best way to start an argument in a group setting is to bring up politics or religion! In this webpage, I dive into the Christian Bible with some ordinary and extraordinary observations!

It seems to me that we’ve been mostly “missing the boat”, regarding the Christian Bible’s messaging.

I’m not an evangelist. I’m an average and ordinary artist with an opinionated twist on Bible interpretive convention and a keen desire to mentally inspire good in others. Being a “Christian” is not the ONLY means to feeling spiritually good.

Love is.

Words are a celebration of God’s gifts 

words awaken the senses
composing reflections from life’s reasoned fences
encoded skill and mind is the foundry
beyond the grip of night’s emotional boundary

Scientists heartily pursue a grand unified field theory. It’s the holy grail of physics. I believe that many “commonologists” would love to see a grand unified spiritual theory in religion!

Love works when nothing else does!

Christ’s church is within each one of us. When two or three gather in spiritual Love… we’ve built a church. We’re never “outside” the love of a spiritual church. A physical structure primarily simply provides shelter.

Jesus taught us human networking. He was people spirit oriented. I believe that’s what Jesus was explaining when He told Peter that He would build His church on Peter the “Rock”… a parable of His good and perfect plan.

Contents:

Word – Christian Bible summary
Foundation – Christian foundation
Love– God’s command
Revelations – The Boss 
Bible – Human Bible
Nature – God’s fingerprints
Spirit – God’s bridge to humanity
Three – Inner voices
Works in Progress – What we are
Light in Darkness –  Good prevails
Fire and Brimstone – Church lesson
Praying – How I pray
Light Prevails – Trusting God
Warriors – A calling
The Road – Spiritual journey
The Road Behind – Learning in the past
The Road We Travel – Free will
The Road Ahead – Afterlife
The Road Ends – Finite earth
Matter of Color – One race
Coloring the Trinity – God in three persons
What’s Up – Inspiration and disaster
The Plow – A mission
Satan – To and fro he go
Jesus Christ – Teacher/Savior
Audience – Setting the stage
Heaven – Staging the set 

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Word

Old Testament.

In Job, God converses with Satan then Job. Satan believes he can overturn Job’s righteousness by causing him hardship. God says go ahead but you must obey my wishes as to what you are allowed to do. 

Job undergoes extreme suffering until he finally begins to doubt God’s goodness. God then speaks to Job and scolds him for doubting. God reveals His character in the words He speaks to Job. We learn from their conversation that God is smarter than we are. God makes it clear that He loves us and has a plan for our well-being when we love in return.

New Testament.

In the Gospels, Jesus Christ’s words give us a roadmap to Heaven. He makes it clear that following his Father’s rule to love is the main road for us to travel on.

Summary.

None of us humans are smart enough to fully understand God. But if we love our Creator (Nature is God’s reflection), and others as well as ourselves, we are doing God’s biding and will see Him in Heaven. 

Simple as that.

A lifetime is nothing compared to an eternity.

Foundation

We are one human race made up of billions of INDIVIDUALS. We each have unique thoughts, so having different detail beliefs about God is expected.

We should think rationally about one another’s cultural inheritance and respect that we each have unique life experiences. The “only Christians make it to Heaven” is self-centered irrational thinking.

The Christian foundation: “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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 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.”  John 3:16-18 NIV

What did John mean by his words. Literally he says that we will not enter Heaven unless we believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior. But is that what Christ exactly meant by HIS words.

John and others were charged by Jesus to spread the Word about what they had learned from Him. They wrote from their OWN perspectives with HELP from the Spirit. John was NOT a robot controlled by the Holy Spirit but had his own free spirited WILL in the mix. God never said that He would control us. He always says that He will help us. We just have to properly listen. You, me, EVERYONE!

John’s writings reflect his pain along with his love. Jesus’s teachings do not reflect pain, only love. Yet we know Jesus endured great pain. And not just on the cross. We know that Jesus loves us and many of us hurt Him with our behavior. But He is quick to forgive!

It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t physically write any of the words in the Bible, yet His Words are recorded for us. I think the lesson there is that the Holy Spirit is real. Scripture helps us experience God’s Spirit when we’re genuinely searching for Him.

The Holy Spirit helped Scripture’s writers to record Christ’s messaging. The Holy Spirit helps all of us when we are properly listening. But we all have our own free will spirit in the mix. To listen properly, we need to quiet OUR spirit. 

Some of my friends have terrible experiences with Christians and see the religion as bogus and flawed. That’s because it is flawed. But it’s not bogus. It’s just that “man” is intimately and physically involved with relaying God’s messaging. The Spirit inspires us but does NOT control us. So we flounder. It is simply our nature to make mistakes. We’re not as smart as God. Not even close. It’s irrational to think that ANY man or woman approaches God’s intellect. But when we properly listen, we can “hear” and “see” God’s intelligence. God’s Spirit is all around us and He loves to “show off”! ❤️ 

Jesus is everyone’s figurative door…

“… No one comes to the Father except through me.” see John 14:6 

Those words spoken by Jesus tell us that we will only make it to the Father in Heaven by following His teachings. I think that John took that message from Jesus literally. Jesus purposely did not teach literally. Jesus’s teachings are summarized by the three most important commands from the Father.

Love God / Love others / Love ourself 

Jesus gave us an example to follow. Of course we aren’t expected to walk on water, but we are expected to help others if say, we are capable and they are drowning in need of being rescued. We’re also expected to love creation, which is the reflection of God. 

Being a good “Christian” means accepting others’ beliefs when they too love God (Nature), love others and love themselves. Jesus does not teach us to divide ourselves from one another. We do that on our own. Many think that their particular belief in God or their belief that there is no God, is the only correct thinking. That is not what Jesus taught. That’s what man teaches. Jesus taught us to love and respect each other, not divide and conquer in the name of our own personal religion.

None of us Christians own the rights to LOVE. None of us mortal humans own the right to tell others what and how to think and believe. God wants us to love and care for each other. God does not want us to have ANYONE but Him as our Devine and spiritual leader. Especially a commonologist like myself. I’m just a man. I have my own thoughts and behavior. And you have yours. If we treat each other with love then we respect each other’s individuality.

John was a disciple of Jesus. But John was just a man… a human man. John’s writings are John’s writings. Not God’s words. Listen to John’s quotes of Jesus and worship those Words.

Love

Love works when nothing else does.

It has always been a mental wrestling match with me that people seem to compete between religions and even within a same religion for who’s the most “right”. 

Finding a common ground point is something I’ve always wanted and struggled with since I was young. I wasn’t finding it at church. The Bible was confusing. I finally narrowed my focus to God’s words. Especially Jesus Christ’s words. Yet still gave credence, but a lot less credence to purely human writers.

It finally seems exquisitely simple and perfect. When we love, we are as one. No matter what the religion. Don’t you feel it when you meet a stranger and become friends? We only get into trouble when we stray from love.

Taken literally, John 3:16-18 indicates that only believing in Jesus Christ allows us to be with God in Heaven. 

John was a man. John and Jesus had a special relationship. Jesus’s death and the way he died would have hurt John especially deeply. Understandably, there’s a great deal of emotion in John’s writings. He had just cause to be hurt and angry about his Friend being taken from him.

I believe that John wrote Truth. I also understand that he was subject to his emotions, like we all are. I don’t see a conflict in John’s writings. I see love, especially for his dear friend Jesus.

Jesus taught in parables. He said that we would not enter Heaven except through Him. He taught that if we love, we will be with the Father and that if we didn’t, we would not. Simple as that. Love is what Jesus taught. His “rules” were the parables in which He taught proper thinking and behavior. 

People can love without the Bible. Not everyone is exposed to Christianity. Even if they are exposed, many do not believe it is truth. But if they love their neighbors as themselves and love Nature (God), they deserve to be with the Father in Heaven. Some of my best friends are not Christians.

The Message from Jesus is that we should follow His teachings in our mind and heart. People can be following Christ’s teaching in their thoughts and behavior without being a “Christian”. We do best to follow Jesus’s teachings and not John’s.

We can appreciate John’s writings just as we appreciate all the writers of the Bible. Their work frames God’s messaging. But our “rules” should only come from the one God.

Jesus taught in common sense terms and only had one fundamental rule to live by:

Love.❤️ 

As the human race, we can rationally accept each other’s religious beliefs. Religion should not be a competition. Man’s doctrines are subject to error as evidenced by the number of different man-made rule sets. It’s God’s simple command to LOVE. Even agnostics and atheists are a religion when they love themselves, others, and realize Nature as a mysterious source of Love. Our BEHAVIOR and THOUGHTS are what matters most. Choosing to be a Christian is not the ONLY way to Heaven. It’s just the only Christian way… according to John. 

I believe that Love is the way to Heaven… according to God.

Humility is also a Christian way. Whether you agree with me is NOT important. What is important is that we should NOT expect others to think exactly like ourselves. We SHOULD recognize that all of us can have the common denominator of LOVE in how we interact with ourselves, others and our un-caused Creator of Creation (Nature).

LOVE is the foundation that Heaven is built on… NOT man’s doctrine.

Revelations

God is a supernatural Farmer. His farm is all of Creation.

Revelations of God are found in Scripture and Nature through our mind, spirit and often with the help of other people. God constantly communicates with each one of us. But many of us have a propensity toward not always properly listening. I am certainly guilty.

It takes allowing God to be the boss! It takes quieting your own spirit to properly listen. see Revelation 3:19   see Jeremiah 31:33

Bible

The Bible teaches and inspires us as God’s inerrant Word. But could the humans that assembled the Bible canon ever have been wrong about certain writings?

Some say that if ANY part of the Bible is in error then the entire Bible is invalid. That is irrational thinking. God did not PHYSICALLY write the Bible… inspired humans did. God “breathes” on everyone that loves and seeks Him! But we are prone to making mistakes. Scripture contains God’s messaging and it also contains mere human writings. God’s spiritual messaging outshines any and all of the, other than Christ, human involved Bible attributes. see Luke 8:21

Nature

For those that love God, His Spirit radiates inside us when we experience a beach sunrise, a desert sunset, mountain view, star filled night sky, love of a friendly neighbor or anything else good that we enjoy. We see the Universe as God’s created wonderful miracle. And since we love God, we easily feel His love in return as we interact with Creation.

Spirit

God is not separate from what He created. God Spirit lives inside each one of us. We get to choose whether or not to communicate with Him. God waits with benevolent patience for us to seek His help. We all need His help. Without God we fall prey to Satan’s deadly schemes. It’s God’s good and perfect plan for our soul to reach Heaven. It’s Satan’s plan that our soul dies. see 1 Corinthians 3:16

Three

Voices 

If you’re anything like me, you have always had three voices in your head. These voices challenge, guide, and console. These three voices are lifelong inner companions. 

First and foremost, is the consoling “self” voice. The one we control and are responsible for. This “self” inner voice communicates with the other two inner voices. “Self” serves as judge and jury for our conscious and decides how well we feel. How we feel about ourself depends on which of the two other voices that we “listen” to.

Which brings us to voice number two. At some point, all of us struggle with this creature. Voice two is a little bit annoyingly aggressively intimidating or a lot intimidating depending on how the “self” deals with this particularly challenging inner voice. Voice two is evil and encourages us to do bad things. Like ignore someone or some creature who needs our help. Take that something that doesn’t belong to us. Purposely break a window. Harm ourself or someone else. Or try to convince the  “self” that we don’t need that third inner voice. Voice “two” is the enemy.

Which brings us to the third and most incredible voice. Incredible because of voice three’s wonderfully delightful and powerful techniques of communication. Voice three is benignly patient and listens more than talks because He can get His point across in many simple and subtle ways. Voice “three” is the guiding friend.

Listening

Voice number one, the “self” voice, is our most important voice because it’s the real YOU. Our behavior reveals our “self”. And indicates whether we follow “two”, the Devil’s aggression or “three”, God’s good, pleasing and perfect will. 

We cannot blame our behavior on the Devil, or on God. The “self” is controlled by each of us alone and not anyone else. Our own inner “self” voice is the ultimate decision maker in how we behave.

With mental illnesses, our “self” must seek out and allow others to help when we feel control slipping away. Otherwise, voice “two”, the enemy, wins.

Voice “three” is our own personal supernatural, superhelper, superfriend. And we share Him with everyone else. His power has no boundaries. He helps us directly plus through the work of many others and by many different means. We should listen most to Him because we know He loves us. “Three” is our multidimensional best friend who happens to create universes.

Works in Progress

The Bible teaches us that we should not expect to be perfect, but we can improve and we can love! 

There are three essential requirements for living a healthy spiritual life; love God, love others and love yourself. see Matthew 22:37-40

1. Loving God 

Loving God is easy, especially when we try and take in all of Creation. There are so many wonderful things that populate our universe. If you love a sunrise, sunset, star filled night, trees, flowers, mountains, rivers, animals… you are loving God.

2. Loving others

Loving people is easy with some, but not so easy with others.

If someone helps a weak elderly lady across the street, then we can easily love the “Good Samaritan” for that. And we love the elderly lady for accepting another’s help.

But if someone viciously knocks her down, then how can we love the perpetrator for that? The perpetrator desperately needs repentance.

God wants us to help others. 

3. Loving ourself

Loving oneself is easy if we follow God’s will. But loving oneself is difficult if we continually focus on our mistakes. 

God gives us all the help we need when we follow Christ’s teachings. Doing our best to think and act in Christ’s example leads us into forgiving and loving ourselves.

Loving God and others helps us to love ourself.

Works

Evil is readily identifiable when it’s self-serving and harms others. Evil can also be subtle. None of us can justify dictating thoughts to others. And loving others doesn’t mean giving up our ability to defend ourselves. Defending ourself and others against evil is an act of love.

God is supernaturally smart. I do my best to follow His lead but I fall short more times than I can count.

Everyone has issues of some sort. You’re not alive if you don’t face problems. Many of our own problems go inwardly unnoticed if our thinking stems from self righteousness or self loathing. If we believe that we are superior or inferior to others, we fail God’s will for our behavior. We are all equal in God’s eyes. And we are ALL works in progress.

Light in Darkness

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18 NIV

Good ultimately prevails over evil…

Fire and Brimstone

When I was a child my parents wanted me to learn about Jesus so they took me to church and enrolled me in Sunday School at Concord Baptist Church in Mableton, Georgia. They also took me to hear the Sunday sermons.

Preacher Davis wore glasses and was a heavy set man with thinning greyish white hair that he oiled and combed straight back. He rendered fire and brimstone style sermons. He would shout, scream and sweat profusely at the pulpit while delivering his messages. He always had a handkerchief nearby.

When Preacher Davis preached about Hell, he was especially fiery. He preached that we must be saved or else burn for eternity. So when he invited the congregation to come down the aisle to be saved. I quickly did so without fully understanding. All I knew was that I did not want to endure that much pain for a second let alone eternity. 

I know Preacher Davis meant well. And I’m not even sure that I’m remembering what he said accurately. But at the time, I got the impression that I was safe from burning in Hell through baptism.

Job 32:8

A number of years later, after seeking God on my own and actually studying the Bible, I came to the conclusion that God would not burn any one of his creations for an eternity. And that my heart and behavior determine my soul’s state in the afterlife.

The Bible teaches that we need three things to enter Heaven. If we fail those three things we will enter Hell and die a second time. We won’t be with God and we will end up dead for eternity.

I can see the Devil taking delight in torture but not God. But I do not fully understand God and I’m not expected to. I am expected to obey His three part single most important command to love.

Praying

I am not comfortable praying out loud around other people. Prayer is personal and private between the Holy Father in Heaven and me. I’ve prayed out loud with friends and acquaintances but always felt praying out loud was not praying directly to God. Praying out loud among other people is a prayer partially to them and not intimately focused to God.

I believe from what I reckon in my Bible study that each one of us is supposed to pray alone and individually to the Holy Father. God knows we all have different thoughts and needs. He wants an individual and private relationship with each one of us. We can request that others pray for us and we can pray for others.

My prayers fit me and your prayers fit you. We can pray for whoever and whatever we want in private. We all want to pray for our own loved ones! And I expect we would all love to see the world made a better place! Each one of us have our own unique thoughts to communicate to the Father.

The Bible teaches us how to pray. Jesus gives us a basic outline for prayer in Matthew 6. Jesus says not to pray like a hypocrite. He wants a personal relationship with each one of us.

Light Prevails

Problems we face usually work out for the good, even the difficult ones when we persevere. Jesus tells us not to worry about our lives. see Matthew 6:25-34 I know that’s a tall order but trusting in His goodness is what He wants us to do, especially in trying times. Not all of us are equipped to battle evil at the same level, but all of us can trust in God… Evil can win a battle but it cannot win a war… In time, and most definitely at the end of time, goodness and light will prevail. see Revelation 21:1-8

Warriors

Each one of us has a God given purpose. Some are called for battle. Some are called for teaching or healing. Many are called just to be a good neighbor. see Romans 15:2

Our military, firefighters and law enforcement warriors are following a high calling. They too often lose their mortal lives, limbs or mental faculties in pursuit of peace, respect, safety and security for the rest of us.

Warriors battling for good should never be taken for granted. The good neighbor warriors that lift us up, the distribution warriors that supply us with sustaining goods, the environment warriors that manage our waste, the media warriors that keep us informed of the truth, the teaching and healing warriors that help us grow and heal, the political warriors that honor the people and especially the military, fire and policing security warriors that physically protect us from evil’s many selfish schemes.

Our good and purpose driven warriors deserve far more reward from us than what they typically get. It’s regrettable that we tend to hold various performing artists of stage, screen and sports in higher esteem, especially financially. That tendency is a sad reflection of our culture. We are more focused on entertainment than we are enlightenment and well-being.

The Road

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2 ESV

Perspective, Path and Purpose…

We are all traveling a spiritual journey. We are constantly making “steering wheel” decisions. Our final destination is indicated by our interaction with others which is a reflection of our relationship with God.

see Matthew 7

The Road Behind

I would love to know more about the writers of Scripture. I expect they would be fascinating people to meet. Much of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah’s writing is beautifully and emotionally charged. John had a special relationship with Christ. James grew up with Jesus, and although she probably didn’t write about it, Mary would most certainly have more stories to tell about Jesus’s childhood.

I’m looking forward with hope to living outside time constraints. And meeting all the good folks made new in Heaven.

Faith in God means we shouldn’t worry and that we should keep a positive eye on the future.

“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.” John 14:27 NIV

The Road We Travel

God commands us to treat each other how we want to be treated. We ALL are God’s family!
see James 1:19

Free Will 

God gave each one of us independent thought. We can choose to be inspired by the abundant miracles in life we encounter or we can pick our inspiration from a perceived single endpoint of death… everything points from and to nothing. If we choose death as an end, we won’t mind lying, cheating and disrespecting others. That destructive road is well traveled. see Matthew 7:13

But if we choose to focus on life, then we will want to respect others and enjoy inspiration from even the “simplest” things that God has provided. The living road leads to God’s good and perfect plan for us to meet Him in His loving and peaceful presence… for the rest of eternity.

Then Job replied to the LORD: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:1-6 NIV

The Road Ahead

In the above BRP image capture from my GoPro, we are heading north. North is up. Up is figuratively toward Heaven. I can see the shape of a cross in a tree that’s up and around the bend on the horizon. I enjoy finding subtle messages from God like that. It’s affirmation for me because that’s what I choose to see. It’s my imagination, faith and God’s Spirit that enables me. see 1 Corinthians 1:18

Pareidolia

I see God reflected in everything. Also in the above BRP image, the reflection of the sun on the camera lens is another pareidolia that I choose to see… God explains to us in His Word and when we study the intricacies of life and the universe that He is beyond our understanding. God seeks us when we seek Him. And when we seek Him, He rewards us infinite times over what we typically deserve.

I see the sun reflecting on the lens (apparently pointing at the pareidolia tree forming a cross) as God beaming with pride in His Son Jesus Christ (God in human form) who died on the cross as spiritual payment for OUR sins. see John 3:35-36

The Road Ends

Revelations

God teaches us how to behave in Scripture. i.e., see Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7 God also tells us that He loves us through Scripture (see 1 John 4:16) and His love is also revealed to us by the world we live in. God’s signature “fingerprints” are everywhere. So we are without excuse. see Romans 1:20 He explains through Scripture (see Job 36:26) and we learn through our own scientific study that we cannot fully understand Him nor can we explain life’s intricately designed detail without Him. see Job 37:5

End of the Road

No one but God the Father knows when this world will end. see Mark 13:32-33 He has always known… He knows EVERYTHING! We do well to listen.

Matter of Color

James was the half brother of Jesus Christ. Of all the Bible authors, he likely has the most intimate relationship with Jesus. I think we learn from James what it was like growing up with Christ.

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” James 1:19 NIV

The color wheel image is symbolizing God’s diverse family… His children… us. All of us! God in his infinite wisdom created the potential for us humans to develop individually even to the point of our skin color. We are a single race currently consisting of billions of unique individuals! We are the human race. God commands us to treat our fellow humans the way that we ourselves want to be treated. That message is at the center of our relationship with Christ Jesus when we seek God’s help. How we treat our neighbors is reflective of our relationship with God. 

God gave us the ability to see a wide spectrum of color AND the ability to figure out how to see beyond what’s naturally visible to us humans. We’ve developed machines that detect what our eyes cannot. Infrared, X-ray, radar, magnetic resonance imaging and sonar are some good examples. Those machines allow us to see deeper into the incredible universe around us. We gain insight from those marvelous beyond color inventions enabling us to better understand the workings of us and our surroundings. 

Blessing

Thank God our universe is not just black and white… what a bore that would be… Unless we didn’t know anything about color. I suppose that if God wanted to, He could have made us all blind to color. But that limits our learning potential.

We aren’t as fortunate as James. We didn’t grow up with Jesus Christ as an older step brother. But thanks to Christ’s words in Scripture, we can learn the lessons that we need… to prosper in life.

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12 NIV

Coloring the Trinity

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:10-11

One of the Devil’s schemes is to try and confuse us regarding God’s three persons. How can three persons be one… It’s not simple so Satan takes advantage.

An Artist’s View

A typical traffic signal is one thing with three major functions. Color helps us communicate and differentiate. I’m using five colors (yellow, green, red, blue and black) to help symbolize and highlight the three major functions of the Trinity. I’m symbolizing the singularity of the Holy Trinity with white.

God is our Christian guiding LIGHT of the Father, Savior, and Mentor.

God’s mentoring  SPIRIT is everywhere. When we study the Bible, we learn that God is not separate from His creations. His Spirit is inside us and we decide on our own whether to communicate with Him or not.

Christ JESUS was immaculately created in Mary’s womb as a divine human. After Jesus’s resurrection, the Son of Man ascended to Heaven to join with the Father. Christ’s purpose is to lead us into Heaven.

The Holy FATHER created all things and knows all things. He is wise and powerful beyond our understanding. 

As our focus on God becomes clearer, we realize that the Father, Son and Spirit are one GODHEAD separated only by function.

I’m not comparing my wife to God but merely making a simple point… she is a spouse, mother and grandmother… three different major functions in one person.

WHITE symbolizes the Godhead (Trinity), sum of the Father, Son and Spirit. White reflects all of light’s colors (God is reflected in everything throughout the universe. He is the Artist with the largest palette and singular divine infinite and perfect skill.) see Isaiah 40:28

Warning: We cannot look safely at the sun without proper filtering because damage will occur to our naked eyes!

YELLOW symbolizes the Holy Father as reflected by the sun when photographed through the Earth’s atmosphere at certain times of the day. (The Father is the “life source” that sustains us.) see 2 Corinthians 6:18

GREEN and RED symbolizes Christ Jesus’s life and purpose as our savior. (Jesus’s life is our living example to follow and His blood is our “door” to Heaven.) see John 14:6

BLUE and BLACK symbolize the Holy Spirit like the beautiful daytime and nighttime sky all around us. (God’s mentoring Spirit interacts with us constantly like the atmosphere we breathe. When we are “still”, He is readily apparent.) see Psalms 46:10

What’s Up

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 NIV

Signs, Space and Hope…

This website reflects what I realize about God and Satan. Nothing is more inspiring than God’s love. Nothing is more disastrous than succumbing to the Devil’s influence.

Patience 

When we pursue God, we learn that He is, and always has been, walking with us. He loves us more than we can fully understand! He is infinitely communicating with us, but we mostly choose to ignore Him. (How great and patient is God!) 

We get caught up in the daily grind of dealing with life’s stresses and shut Him out. And we sometimes take the miracle of our surroundings for granted.

Benevolence

God understands us better than we understand ourselves. But God does not have infinite patience. He has benevolent patience and is always here for us whenever we are ready and willing to listen. God helps us deal with Satan’s pursuit when we pray and pay attention.

Reward 

If we choose to pursue EVIL we will die twice. see Luke 8:12 

When we seek God, we discover His redeeming Message. see Job 19:25 If you cannot find Him. He will find you.

Happiness

It’s a blessing to have dependable transportation, a comfortable home and nice people who love us. These blessings provide earthly contentment and pleasure. But earthly blessings do not satisfy the soul. Happiness happens when we experience God’s love.

“But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding.” Job 32:8 NIV

God knows our heart. He knows us better than we know ourselves! see Psalms 139:1

The Plow

“When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way.” Isaiah 28:24-26 NIV

Jesus gives us work to do but never more than we can handle. Satan, on the other hand, doesn’t care if he kills you.

Our Mission 

Jesus gives us an orientation at Luke 9:62 and another at Matthew 11:25-30. Jesus doesn’t mention the condition of the “earth” we will be “plowing” but assures us that we will be able to achieve our goal. That’s because each of us plow a different plot of soil with different organic compositions. Some of us get rocky hard clay and some of us get rich black soft dirt. I think most of us get something in between.

God knows what we can deal with… He knows our past, present and future… after all… He is God Almighty Creator of us and the universe! God lives both inside and outside our mortal space time continuum so He already knows whether we grow or die.

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:6 NIV

We can defeat Satan’s pursuit but only with God’s sought after help.

God reveals Himself to everyone so it’s NOT up to us as individuals to impose OUR awareness onto others about God’s plan and existence. However, it’s good to share our hope and answer questions with seekers of truth when we are asked. And we should always share our joy with gentleness and respect.

It’s no one’s place but God’s to judge us spiritually.

Satan

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 NIV

The more we resist life’s evil temptations and make ourselves aware of Satan and his evil ways, the weaker his influence on us. Satan wants us dead. see Luke 22:31 He was cast out of Heaven and is extremely bitter. Satan is God the Father’s most beautiful angel creation, but he has a purposeful kink in his get-a-long.

God communicates with Satan and God already knows ALL about our thoughts and behavior.

Satan’s Purpose 

We make choices in our behavior. It’s that unique individual “free will” thing we all have. God designed each one us as a free-spirited soul with our own built in organic decision making control. We are not robots. God the Father designed Satan to help expose and therefore weed out evil spirited people from entering Heaven. Satan “speaks” to us individually through our spirit but we can always choose to follow Christ and overcome the Devil’s influence. If we don’t, we will perish on our own individual judgment day.

We SEEK guidance whenever we are thinking. We tap into our collected memory for solutions and conclusions. Satan and Jesus are both available for us to communicate with through our spirit. The biggest communication difference in the two is that Jesus wants us to do the seeking and Satan does the seeking of us. The devil is like a corrupt used car salesman only worse because he’s trying to sell you death. God will help you when you seek Him. God’s good and perfect plan keys on our free will.

Once we realize that Satan is always after us, we can better counter his tactics. God does not play games like Satan. Jesus loves us and wants us to know truth. Satan wants power over us and uses all sorts of tricks to get it. Remember, Satan wants us dead because he is evil and bitter. It’s all part of God’s good and perfect plan. see 1 John 3:8

Battle Strategy 

The best way to battle Satan is to study the Bible paying particular attention to God’s and Jesus’s Words and get outdoors to enjoy Nature. Nothing refreshes the spirit like a sunny walk in the woods, scanning a star filled night sky or finding an inspirational nugget in God’s Word. God Spirit is everywhere, you can find Him anywhere, but He’s most apparent outdoors and in Scripture. see Jeremiah 29:13

Dealing with Satan is also easier with help from others that share the same life and death battle. Joining a spiritually healthy church or finding a like-minded friend should supply you with supportive and neighborly love that we all need. see Proverbs 27:17 see Matthew 18:20

And PRAY for God’s guidance. He will help you sort through any dark Satanic thinking you experience to realize a brighter healthier conclusion. We don’t have to pray out loud because God knows our thoughts and when we are actually able to listen, we get to “hear” HIS thoughts. see Psalms 139:17

Black Hole

Satan is not funny. Beautiful, but not funny. He is deadly like a black hole. And just like a black hole, Satan wants to draw us into his singularity of a hellish death.

Rapture 

Satan has been around for a long while. But his days are numbered. Revelation 20:7-10 NIV Satan and time will perish along with every other evil living creature when God Christ Jesus returns to Earth.

That day will be the final glorious event in our space time continuum. All living God fearing people will transcend to Heaven where evil will not exist (no pain or sorrow) and all things will be new forevermore! Amen see Genesis 28:12

Satan’s Fate

Scripture doesn’t go beyond Satan’s end of time demise in explaining the Devil’s fate. But I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t more to Satan’s story than is stated in the Bible.

God’s most beautiful angel is leading us toward evil. The Devil is a test for each one of us. Do we follow him into bad behavior or will we seek God’s help to overcome the evil influence? 

Seems to me that Satan is on God’s team as the bad cop in the good cop/bad cop interrogation scenario commonly used by our police force to seek truth from a suspected criminal. Maybe you will admit that once we reach puberty, we all become suspect criminals!

God designed everything. Satan and his cohorts developed on their own into evil beings that tempt us into evil activities. They help us spiritually grow when we follow God’s will or else die physically and spiritually if we follow Satan’s influence. We all need to know evil in order to know good!

Seems to me that in light of Satan’s critical role for our mortal life, he deserves credit for helping us develop our unique spiritual path.

God designed everything and everyone with a purpose. Our purpose evolves with our free-willed, free-spirited life experience. God wants us to grow into Christ’s likeness so the Devil provides a negative bias for our free will and free spirit, influencing or educating us toward our individual development. 

The Big Picture 

God knows the past, present and future. The entire life span of His creation. Everything’s and everyone’s entire existence. Front to back and forever. It’s mind boggling to say the least. He created the Devil knowing his eventual role for man. God is in control but we aren’t controlled. 

God designed Creation to self propagate. 

Like the Great, Mysterious and Supernatural Farmer, Artist and Engineer that He is, God knew the outcome of His Work as He was designing.

Creation is God’s good and perfect plan! And He doesn’t stop there. Heaven is His home domain. His domain is eternal. Satan won’t enter Heaven unless he repents in his heart and actions.

God teaches us that we should love our enemies because they can help us spiritually grow.

Maybe you’ve experienced turning an enemy into a friend… there’s no better moral mortal personal reward than that! 

Jesus Christ

The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.

Finally two came forward and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’ ” okay

Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent.

The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” 

“You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:59-64 NIV

God is omnipresent and omnipotent… in simple words He is everywhere and anywhere at the same time and in control. Our free will can make it seem to us that God’s not in control but that is due to our mortal human limited sight distance perspective. When we recognize that God has no limits, we begin to understand how great He is. The more we seek to know God, the more our eyes are opened to His power and compassion. God knows everything… past, present and future. His plan for us has always existed. And God’s timing is impeccable. Jesus Christ was born at just the right time to seed Earth’s civilization with His Message. see 1 Corinthians 1:18

There is no greater love than to sacrifice one’s life for another.

Jesus’s death was the greatest tragedy and yet the greatest humanitarian event of all time. Why did He have to die at such a young age? How could we kill the lamb of God? The answers are found in Scripture. Jesus Christ tasted death for all of us. Yet, none of us deserve Christ’s sacrifice. It was God’s plan to overcome death before this universe began. see 1 Corinthians 2:7

God Loves Us

We are all sinners. We are sinners because of our free will to choose between good and evil behavior and our propensity towards succumbing to Satan’s influence. We are unable to achieve God’s perfection. God’s plan is for us to grow spiritually by following Jesus’s teachings and shunning Satan. Satan is our greatest challenge. Those who seek to be like Christ can do their best but will always fall short. Sin cannot exist in Heaven so a remedy is necessary. see Hebrews 2:9

Jesus’s Purpose

Intending to protect their religious power, evil acting men killed Jesus.

Through Christ, God basically took a bullet from Satan for all of us. Jesus’s sacrifice opened the door to Heaven for those who love Him. And loving Him means you follow Jesus’s teachings and shun the Devil’s evil influence.

God made a provision for all of us, even the criminal, to repent from evil behaviors and do what Christ Jesus teaches us to do. Which is… love Him (God), our neighbors and ourselves in our heart and actions.

If we love Jesus, we celebrate His life and suffer from His death.

God is perfect without sin. God wants us to live with Him for eternity. God compressed Himself into human form to live a perfect, free from sin, human life. see John 16:33

Jesus provides us a surrogate to do our best to live through. His teaching opens our eyes to proper behavior. see Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7 -His mortal death opened the door for us to be with God in Heaven.

Jesus showed us the afterlife. see John 20:19-20

The most essential and pertinent aspect of our mortal human life is God’s healing power through Jesus Christ, inherent in following His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Audience

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22 NIV

God has a plan. He loves us all. His plan is proof… His good and perfect plan! He spells His plan out for us many times over. His messaging is broadcast multiple times throughout Scripture and Nature. Sometimes we miss God’s “show” because we are too caught up in producing our own show.

John Lennon of the very popular Beatles rock band once made the comment that they were more popular than Jesus.

From a young John Lennon’s vantage point, I’m sure that appeared true or he wouldn’t have said it. But instead of compassionately investigating why he would say such a thing, there was a public outcry basically for his head! People burned Beatles records and condemned John for his simple comment.

I’m sure in the limelight that the Beatles were living in, and from the self centered mindset of society, that just seemed true to John. Maybe it was true. But instead of society taking responsibility for giving a young artist that impression, society basically crucified John Lennon out of fear that he was right.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Jesus went through a similar scenario.

Communication

God Spirit “talks” to us in multiple ways. The most important thing that we have to do in our lives is to pray, look and listen for God’s directing messaging. Some of us are not able because we’re too focused on our own audience. see John 9:31

His Spiritual messages come to us through Scripture, Nature, other people and our own mind when we pray. God works in mysterious ways. He uses all sorts of people and sometimes surprising means to relay a message. Remember, we are assured that something good will be the ultimate final outcome no matter how horrible things seem! When we are seeking, discerning and quiet it’s easier to “hear” God’s good and sometimes humorous messaging. see Matthew 6:6.  see Psalms 46:10

Antagonist

God will wait, but not forever, for us to recognize His good, pleasing and perfect will. But the Devil is strong… it takes a lot of prayer and perseverance to overcome the Devil’s influence. Satan does not want us to know God’s good and perfect plan because when time terminates… it will be the end of evil, and of course, Satan’s demise. The Devil works hard to confuse us. Satan knows he is doomed but he doesn’t know when. Satan knows he is evil and that God rules over him but he is hardened in his purpose. Satan does his job all too well. see Philippians 2:13

Credits 

God understands our plight. He created us AND the stage we’re living on. He put up all the “props” and wrote the entire “screenplay”. But it’s up to you and me to appropriately “act” out our roles. God did not write our lines, We get to write our own lines and God Spirit is ready, willing and able to help.

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV

Heaven

“He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.” Job 9:8 NIV

What does God reveal to us about Heaven? There are some key details that, for His own good reasons, He leaves out. For example, God doesn’t let us know what happens to unborn children at the Rapture. He also doesn’t let us know how we will appear physically in Heaven. Jesus wasn’t easily recognized by His friend Mary Magdalene or His followers after the resurrection.

God does not reveal EVERYTHING to us at once. Sometimes he waits a lifetime. Some of us need to digest life first. Many of us need time and experience to enable our ability to fully comprehend His messaging.

God does reveal to us that we will be in His physical presence and that ALL things will be new! Those two nuggets of information seed infinite possibilities. We know that our sins will not come to mind, plus pain and sorrow won’t exist. Jesus healed many people suffering physically and mentally during His earthly ministry. God explains enough for us to understand and know that Heaven is where we want to be. see Isaiah 65:17 

God’s Children

God makes it abundantly clear that we are the apple of His eye. We are all God’s toddler children. He created an entire universe so we could experience His great Love for us in this mortal lifetime. His good and perfect plan is for us to grow from this tiny finite earthly cradle into His very glorious and beyond beautiful infinite kingdom paradise!

This beautiful M42 image was captured by my good friend Chris P. who knows a thing or two about the cosmos.

A lifetime is nothing compared to an eternity.

Ed Caldwell (Bear)
Casting Art to the Net

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