Qanna: A Jealous God

The jealous God loves, and wants me. He wants me to be well, to succeed, to be happy. Because he loves all of creation, and because he wants me to grow, he might not always let me be happy, but he does want me to be. Through life, he gives me glimpses of good things so that I can come to understand him a little, like a good father, intelligence, a husband, a mother, a home. With this, I can  obtain a kind of relationship with him. Furthermore, with these things that he made to help us understand, upon my requesting it and desiring to put him above all else, he has endowed me with his spirit. Because he loves me and wants me, with this spirit, he strengthens me, and he helps me. He delights in the truth and wants me to speak it. He despises lies that mask his glory, but tolerates them for our sake. We are broken. We cannot see him fully because we are used to the darkness and he is the sun. I see him now in little pieces. Eventually, I will see him fully, face-to-face, and then I will really know him - I will really know the truth. That is what I want, and that is what I will get.

If another should ever want him in that way, then that is exactly what they will get. God embraces me, holds on to me and as long as I don't want him to let go, he won't. I am soundly tucked in his arms, no matter what might try to pry me out of them. I would sacrifice my most prized possession for him, like he did for me. That is my God. He is strong, and fearless, and true, and right, and patient and jealous because he loves his people. He does not act out, and he has mercy, because he knows we are slaves to our own wills and diseased with habits that eat away at our souls. But he hates those habits because they harm us and pull us away from his life-giving love. Yet for his people, who he helps to come closer, we rejoice in suffering, because it produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that he gave us.

Christ died while we were still weak and broken, yearning for idols, and I was still weak and broken when I met him too. But the fact that he died not for perfect people, but for broken ones just shows how much he honestly cares and loves. We could barely comprehend him, and to behold him frightened us, but with that one act of sacrificial love, he was able to pour himself out and dwell among us, inside of us, so that we can become purified, and when this flesh dies, my soul will be wrapped up inside of his and will not die with my body, nor loosed into the wild to be claimed by other beastly spirits, but will be taken to a place of peace with him. And that love he displayed is what I want to know. That is the epitome of truth. I want to love so much that I would sacrifice anything for it, because love looses all chains. The more I exist in love, the more my priorities clear up, the more purpose I exist in, the more good I can do for the world, the more open to the truth I become, the more gracious I can be, the more hope-giving I can be, the more fearless I can be, and the more enriching I can be.

The truth will one day be revealed and so the seeking of it irrelevant. The future will pass and so the pursuing of it is worthless. The world was made to rot and renew and so beauty is a vain pursuit. Worldly rewards are a figment of the imagination. And so, what others want out of life is their business, but this love is what I want out of life, and the only way I can obtain it is through the God who is jealous for my soul, that he made, and longs to complete in him. That is the good of a jealous God, and that is why I long to continue to pursue him with every fiber of my being.

Misconception: Christians "Love" God to Get to Heaven

Actually, you could take that title either way. It isn't entirely a misconception. The real misconception at the base of that is what Heaven is.

Heaven is where God is. Heaven is being with God, surrounded by him. Heaven could be ugly, brown, gray and dusty; but if it has God then it is worth it. That's what Heaven is. It isn't the streets paved with gold. It isn't the promised places that he prepared for us. It isn't the soft green grass or harps or halos or clouds. Heaven is being with God. I'm in heaven when I'm with God.

Now if you aren't Christian, you are wondering why I think Heaven is so great if it isn't about the pretty stuff in the sky. If you've never been in God's presence then you wouldn't know and I can't explain it. The most I can explain to you is why I love God and why I want to be with him forever.

I love God because in the very beginning, when humanity betrayed him, he promised he would rescue us. I love God because when his people were starving in the desert, he provided them food. When their enemies threatened to destroy them, he led them to victories, accomplishing more than they could have dreamed. When they were slaves, he even gave their slave-owners chance after chance to relinquish them. When they did not, he still rescued his people. He protected and rescued the good, and he wiped out the bad so that good could thrive. Although he makes it clear that women should be women and men should be men, he also esteems them equally. There are many strong and powerful women in the Bible, like Esther. He esteems all creation equally, and understands their places.

I love God because he, a shining being of all-powerful royalty, beautiful in every way, dressed in rags and walked among the lowest places of the earth as a hick from Nazarene. Saying Jesus of Nazareth was like saying Albert of the Midwest back then. I love him because he taught us how to survive in the desert and how to survive in our own personal wildernesses. He gave us hope. God allowed himself to be beaten and speared and tossed into the fiery pits of Hell by taking on all of the burdens we've borne. He carried everything I've ever done - the time I told my brother I hated him, the time I screamed and embarrassed my parents. The times I thought mean and rude things about my classmates, the times I've hurt my parents or lied to someone. He carried the weight of that to Hell so I wouldn't have to.

I love God because he has healed me. Again, and again and again. He has brought me through dark places so I could find beautiful ones. The darker the place I've gone through, the more incredible the things on the other side. I love him because he loved me first. He has pursued me, and not only me, but everyone. He is with us at all times. When your parents didn't do a good enough job, when your brother or sister leaves you, when the person you married fails you, and when your friends drift away, he is always there.

So if you wonder, just remember the list. That isn't even a specific list. But if I were specific, it would be a TLDR* situation and that isn't necessary at this point.

Christians don't pretend to love an imaginary being they can't see out of fears that they won't reach the place with golden streets. Maybe people think they are Christians and do that, but a true Christian isn't in it for that kind of material reward. In the Bible it describes God as being with Abraham and Isaac and everyone in the ancient times. It describes God as being in us after Jesus leaves. In that sense, we know he is there and do not have to see him. We know he is there and we love him because of it. We love him because while he is in us, we can understand it when he speaks to us and teaches us. And while he is in us here, we want to be surrounded by him. That is why we love him, and that is why we want to get to Heaven. It is because we want to get to where God is.

*Too Long Didn't Read

The World When Everyone Magically Gets Along

My personal belief is that the world will never be perfect. Not unless God intervenes, anyway, and he will have a lot of intervening to do when that time comes. But lets just say all of the sudden, that everyone got along. What would happen in the world? What would happen if we all loved each other? Totally unrealistic, but its an interesting thing to think about.

Would we solve poverty? If everyone got along, there really wouldn't be a need for money. Just stuff that we currently spend our money on. We would just each put in our due effort, like communism, and we would get back everything we needed and everything we wanted because people would just give stuff away. No one would worry about what they needed because they know that the people around them will provide for them. This also means we'd probably go about revamping undeveloped countries to the best of our abilities. Everyone would learn of their talents and use them to the best of their abilities and their parents would stop worrying about if their dreams will make them enough money to survive and be "happy".

So yes, I think we would solve poverty. But what would the previous criminals do? Well we all get along now, including good people with criminals and criminals with good people, making them good people now too. So we would probably just forgive them and they would go find a decent trade that was actually good for them and for other people.

What would bankers do? Well you'd probably be in charge of keeping track of things or something. Who knows. I don't know any bankers personally, but I'm sure each one is different enough to where they'd find another good trade. There would still be things needing care for other than money that might still be good things for them to do. Its kind of nice how everyone has more than one talent.

What about strippers and people like that? I don't really know.

What would we do throughout the day? Well kids would enjoy going to hang out with their adult friends and learning about all sorts of new and exciting things and adults would enjoy teaching them. Kids would find their interests and be able to focus whole-heartedly on them, and not stress about the things they aren't meant for, while at the same time, probably learning the basics from their friends. They would get as much energy out as they needed and their parents would spend enough time with them. Everyone would go to sleep without insomnia because there is no longer anything to worry about.

Adults would wake up in the morning and chat with their families around breakfast, get out of the door because there's nothing to sleep through now. They would have their kids off to go do whatever their kids needed to do, with adult supervision and their friends. The adults would go off to enjoy whatever it is they love to do. If they're really bad about it, they'll find out because no one will want their gifts and some good friend will probably tell them. Then they will find what they were truly meant for and they'll go for it. They could even go to school with the kids. And then they'll go out and do that, trade and give and receive. At night it would always be a party because there would always be something to celebrate I'd think. And we'd gladly give our services to those who need them. Then the people receiving the services would be appreciative and return the favor once they're on their feet. No one would starve, no one would take advantage of other people, no one would hate, no one would fight, and everyone would love....

Hmmm... I think I just described what Heaven is supposed to be like. The best part is, everyone would understand everything that happened in the past, so they wouldn't be robots and they would know what it meant. I'm just saying... if everyone made the decision to love, there would be a big change in the world. And I don't see why if a large group of people even, made an effort to love, there wouldn't be a big change. Not this big (I think thats possible without God), but big enough to make it grow. I hope people get together somewhere to start this for real, and I hope they're crazy enough to promote it, because if I had more of a voice in the world, I'd go all out with this thought. Media is my enemy. My word would be diluted among all the other noise.