From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalemand suffer many thingsat the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Manis going to comein his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.  [Matthew 16:21-28 NIV]

Why would men after living and learning under Jesus for three years react in fear and forget what he taught and prophesied? There could be several reasons, but my guess is that reality “hit” them. They were lost in the fear of the moment. Christ’s capture, trial, and death was quick. They saw a person who could do miracles, bring people back to life, heal others, and escape from capture and possible death before. They had great expectations! They did not really listen even though they heard Christ explain what was about to happen. Even in Matthew 16 as stated previously, we see how Peter rebuked Christ for his prophesy. The Disciples were blind with their own expectations of what life was going to be like with Christ on earth. They did not listen to understand.

We don’t know what will happen to us in life. We just have expectations. These expectations start when we are young. How many times do you hear other people try to sell you on the idea that you can be anything you want to be, that you could be President one day if that is what you want and on and on? We have hopes and expectations for how we think our lives will go. We have dreams. We don’t expect to lose jobs, to not have money, to not have children or enough children, to die young, to have health problems, or to find ourselves old. We know things will happen and that we will grow old but reality is not something we are prepared for. We live with hope and expectations, and we modify these expectations as we live through them.

Our current President ran on a “hope and change” slogan, but we have not seen any real hope or change. He is not the first nor will he be the last to use this marketing ploy. These marketing phrases work because we, as humans, are always hoping, always expecting, always wishing for something better. It is as if God placed a “hole” in our hearts and a yearning for hope. But reality is that our hope and expectations must be in Jesus Christ, not in what the world seems to offer. People who live life without this hope in Christ tend to live in depression and despair because the world will always let them down. So many people choose negative and destructive lifestyles, use drugs, and other sinful means in an attempt to avoid what they perceive in their own minds as a hopeless life. They cannot see beyond what the world has to offer.

The disciples had hope and expectations that Christ would be their king on earth and save them from the world, from their current situations. But God gave them (and us) a different kind of hope and reset their (and our) expectations. We see life with our limited, sinful view of what we want. Our hope, our expectations, our view of how things should be is limited. God’s plan is much larger and encompasses the whole world over many generations. We cannot know the events in our future, but God does. He only asks that we just trust and have faith in Him and let life take care of itself. He just asks us to love Him with all of hearts and minds, and to love others as ourselves. The hope that Christ gives is different, bigger, and better. He died on the cross and was raised to give us a hope no one anticipated or understood at the time. Then he gave the Disciples and believers the Holy Spirit so we would understand and be able to anticipate our eternal future. The events in our life are temporary but Christ offers us life eternal. God gives us truly great expectations if we would just listen to understand and have faith in Him, the Christ who died for our sins and gives us an eternal hope.

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.

This week I was preparing a Bible study lesson on Luke 6:12-16. I thought what am I going to teach from a simple list of twelve Disciples and how difficult will this be to teach for most of an hour. I was tempted to move to the next section in Luke which would be much more interesting with the Beatitudes since there would be more subject matter to discuss. However, I prayed that God would lead me to understand the importance of this list of Disciples and guide me to find out a little more about them.

When I began my study of Luke, I began to look at the other Gospels and what they said about the Disciples. I even looked back at many of my past lessons on these bible passages surrounding the Disciples and found very little about them. So I knew that I was going to have to develop a lesson plan just around this list of names. As I prayed this morning in thankfulness for the Disciples, I realized how important they really are to our belief system today. I am not advocating worship of these men, but honor and respect and thankfulness for how they sacrificed their lives for what we have today. They were true believers in what they witnessed in Jesus Christ and he sent them out to the world to deliver the message of salvation that Christ offers us. In so doing, almost all of them died at someone’s hands thus paying the ultimate sacrifice. God knew, however, that it would be the price they would pay in order for people then and today to pay attention to the true belief and faith they had regarding who Jesus was and is to the world.

It also showed the true love they had for us to get the message out. Luke’s message in verse 6 is that these twelve Disciples were hand-picked by God through Jesus to go out and tell the world the message of salvation. Luke’s message is that these twelve Disciples now became Apostles for Christ. Disciple means pupil or learner and that is what these twelve were for a time. Now Luke says they became Apostles which means messenger. John wrote in his letter, 1 John, all about the kind of love these Apostles had for God and others. His whole letter is about loving one another as the Apostles demonstrated with their lives.

“This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”

[1 John 3:11 NIV]

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

[1 John 4:7 NIV]

The above verses are just a sampling of John’s letter on love. The point is that what the Apostles did was to simply love others enough to give up their own lives in service for Jesus Christ. They were witnesses and friends to Jesus. Through the living of their lives, the message they taught, and the willingness to die for being witnesses, we have the opportunity in Jesus for eternal life if we only believe and have faith to follow him as they did, in true belief and power.

The listing of the twelve Disciples (Apostles) in Luke, Matthew, and Mark is the “trophy,” the Academy or Grammy award equivalent of honoring a special group of twelve men that God chose personally to spread the gospel of Christ to the world. They are listed in the Bible forever and specially picked by God for their service to Him. Their end was not as glamorous as the star-studded shows we see today but no one will remember those glamorous stars nor will they gain anything personally or eternally from watching those award shows. The Apostles’ gift to us through their ministries and deaths are remembered, treasured and they will be awarded in Heaven by Jesus for eternity, and that is what really matters!

Jesus taught that the greatest commands are to love God and to love others. Everything else follows these commands. The Academy and Grammy awards are all about loving and promoting ourselves to the world, but the martyrs were all about loving and sacrificing for others for an eternal reward. The Apostles had an eternal impact on mankind. It only matters what God thinks in the end, not man living in this upside down world.

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.

Many people believe they are doing right by such things as following rules or what the church dictates, and this could be any church and any denomination that dictates what is right. The government is in the business of defining what is morally right even though you hear our leadership state otherwise. Many religions teach it is right to harm others and to judge them “in the name of God.” However, as Christians we understand that right is actually defined by God and through Christ. The Bible teaches what is right.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.^” [1 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV]

John the Baptist taught what is right in relation to sinfulness. In other words he taught you do right by not sinning so righteousness is the opposite of sinfulness. This is one reason why the “world” wants to re-define sin and what it is so that it can re-define what is right and ultimately what righteousness is.

So why do people want to re-define sin so badly? Why do we see moral decay in a world where we already know that this “decay” takes us down the wrong path and simply causes so much of our troubles? We rationalize what is right and what is sin because we want to justify ourselves. People will always justify what they do as right; otherwise they would feel guilty of their actions. We see this throughout history with kings, rulers, priests, and others who killed others out of being “right” and claiming they had the authority to make such judgments. We want to be our own “god” and our own “judge.”

John the Baptist (and Jesus Christ later) taught that being right is a goal that comes through our relationships with others. God defined what right is, not Man. Sin always affects our relationships with God and others. We simply have a sinful nature and cannot guide ourselves to what is right. If we do anything wrong or sinful, we want those sins to be considered right in order for us to be able to keep doing them, whatever that is. It can be any sin. All the moral debates we have today are based on the argument for redefining sin and the lowering of society’s standards. All societies in history have eventually fallen to these arguments to lowering standards of sin and what is right. Generally speaking, the liberal in a society wants to give people their freedom to sin in the guise of “rights.” It seems that human nature, Man, creates problems by being either too lenient or too strict regarding sinfulness in others. You either end up with a promiscuous society or one so harsh and restrictive as the Pharisees created. We will defend to extremes our being free to make our own decisions but we certainly find it easy to want to limit other peoples’ decisions.  Jesus taught, though, that the choice is really a personal one because no matter how many rules, laws, or even freedoms, we still know what God expects since He laid down the law long ago. It is all about our relationship to God and what He expects of us. We can never change the fact that we will be judged by Him when the time comes. Scripture is our main source for what right is and what sin is.

“Therefore the wicked will not standin the judgment, nor sinners in the assemblyof the righteous. For the LORD watches overthe way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”  [Psalm 1:5-6 NIV]

“He will judge the world in righteousness;he will govern the peoples with justice.”

[Psalm 9:8 NIV]

“The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not done evil by turning from my God. All his laws are before me;I have not turned away from his decrees. I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.”  [Psalm 18:20-24 NIV]

“filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.”  [Philippians 1:11 NIV]

We have to have a relationship with Christ in order to take his direction regarding what right is. We must give ourselves to the “Potter’s Hand,” so we can be molded in His nature.

“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”  [Isaiah 64:8 NIV]

Righteousness is being in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Spirit we are able to discern what is right, and experience the righteousness of Christ.

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.

Societies around the world are currently dealing with poor economic situations. However, in many of these countries such as the United States and Europe, people are not really starving. Some may be temporarily out of work but they are usually able to eat and survive unlike people in truly poor nations. Rather, during poor economic times people in the U.S. and Europe complain more about not having enough money to keep buying what they want, or maybe to keep what they have. It is not usually about lack of food or housing but lack of things and loss of control and power over our own lives. We, as humans, like money. You could argue the case that we need money to live and we do in modern societies as a means of exchange of our services. But the issue is not that we need money so much as that we never feel we have enough. Thus, this is the reason we like the idea of winning a lottery like power ball. We think that if we could win power ball, we could solve all our problems and be in control of our circumstances. What problems do we think we can solve? I think it is that our sinful nature craves having money for the power it provides more than in the things money can buy. We usually think in terms of spending money or the feeling of security it gives us, but really I believe deep down it is the power we gain.

We have a president and political party today that want people to believe they can fix all their woes if they will just give their money in taxes to the government. People will always fall into these lies and eventually find they just become slaves and in servitude to others and their government. There is no one in the world who has their best interests at heart but God. The government and those that spend the money just want the power taking it through a person’s
indebtedness. Governments and those who lead the government seek control and people relying on government are only giving over that control. Israel did this when they first asked for a king and rejected God.

“So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.’ But when they said, ‘Give us a king to lead us,’ this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.’”  [1 Samuel 8:4-7 NIV]

We want power, position, and money to control our own destiny and the destiny of others, yet God is the One fully in control of our destiny. What is the current government administration trying to push? They feel they have the right to push more government on people because that is what they want. Yet, isn’t the government really just made up of people and their taxes? So to depend on the government for food, clothing, and vanity items is silly. Just as Israel eventually put themselves at the mercy of a king and government rather than God, so we tend to choose the same path because we do not trust God to fulfill our needs.

Winning a power ball lottery will always seem like a good idea but if our hearts are not in the right place with God in the first place, no amount of power, money or things will ever satisfy our desires, fix our problems, or get us into a better position with God. What we have to do instead is just the opposite. We have to believe and trust in Jesus Christ, the son God gave us as the only path to life in Him.

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” [John 8:12 NIV]

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.

“But if from there you seekthe LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” [Deuteronomy 4:29 NIV]

Moses taught the Israelites that God was merciful and would not forget His everlasting covenant with Abraham. He promised to make Abraham fruitful with children for generations and to bring them to the Promised Land. However, God also knew how the Israelites over many generations would eventually turn from Him and not seek Him. God knows our hearts and our sinful nature. He is a forgiving God but He also judges us according to our sins. He also provides a means for us to be reconciled with Him. He gave us His one and only son, Jesus Christ, to be reconciled with Him, to include the Gentiles. All believers have the same promise of reconciliation with God through Christ.

Luke wrote in the Book of Acts that God made everything from one man and gives all men life and breath so that we might seek Him and to know Him.

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.”  [Acts 17:26-28 NIV]

 God wants us to seek Him yet we spend our waking hours seeking self-fulfillment.

Paul taught, “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”  [1 Corinthians 10:24 NIV]

On a recent trip to Cincinnati Ohio, I saw from the Interstate highway several large, old warehouses and factories. These large buildings used to employee thousands of people but just sit in either minimal use or abandoned. Our economy has been changing. Jobs are moving overseas and our manufacturing industries are diminishing. What I saw in those old buildings was a sad glimpse of our past and our future. It reminded me of how I see our cities over the years. We like the shiny new malls and areas you see in every city. The old neighborhoods and old malls are sitting idle or in disrepair. It shows how people are never satisfied with what they have but always want what they do not yet have. Man seeks the wrong things.
Man seeks the wrong kind of change, not in themselves but in their circumstances.

What do you pray to God for? Do you pray for change in your circumstances or change in your heart? Do you seek God’s kingdom on earth and how you can further His kingdom or do you seek those material, worldly things you want and do not have?

Seeking God is searching for Him and His kingdom. It is searching for Him with your heart, not for the things He can give you. We need to learn to seek God in our circumstances not just in a change to our circumstances. In other words we should seek God in everything, good and bad, not just in making things better for ourselves. We always want things to be better but we also have to learn to be content in our circumstances. This requires faith. Being faithful means we seek God in everything since we know and trust that He is part of everything.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”  [Hebrews 11:6 NIV]

Seeking God is like seeing a face in the clouds. Have you ever just lain in the grass, looked at the clouds in the sky and found a face? You can miss it if you are not looking for it. Seeking God is the same sort of activity. You have to be looking for Him in all circumstances. The word, seeking can be broken out as “see king” or “see king(dom).” God expects us to seek Him in order for Him to be found.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” [Matthew 7:7-8 NIV]

Seeking God requires the faith that He exists and that He will be found.

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.

There is a great debate brewing in our country regarding obesity, especially in children. Growing up we did not see many children or adults that were overweight in the extreme as we do today. We even have television shows about it. As I thought about the dependence we have on air conditioning and our love of food, it dawned on me how we spend our waking hours seeking these things. I came to the conclusion that we strive toward comfort in whatever we do. Other areas where we seek comfort are in entertainment, furniture, and even in our work environment to name a few. Our goal in life seems to be in seeking some level of comfort for ourselves. We usually say that it is money and power. In a sense it is, but why unless we are trying to provide ourselves comfort through its use. In other words, we use money and power to gain comfort. People seek careers and work that provides the means to gain comfort. We all have different levels of comfort that we will accept. Some people want to be rich so they can even indulge in luxurious comforts, but most people tend to seek some level where they feel enough comfort and satisfaction.

We can learn so much about ourselves as sinful beings through the Bible and the experiences of the Israelites. In the beginning of Exodus, Moses was called by God to be His spokesperson to bring the Israelites out of Egypt due to their cries of oppression.

“The LORD said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.’” [Exodus 3:7 NIV]

The result of becoming slaves to the Egyptians and the hard work they endured was really a loss of comfort. Their freedom was taken away so they could not seek meaningful work and create a balanced life with some level of comfort. We see later as the Israelites leave Egypt and head into the desert how quickly they forget that loss of comfort. As a matter of fact, they claim they had more comfort in Egypt then they do in the desert. What short memories! Their memories were about the comfort food brought rather than the tedious life they lived under Egyptian rule.

“In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.’” [Exodus 16:2-3 NIV]

Man seeks his own comfort through many things whether it is in food, entertainment, easy work, cars, clothes, shoes and even in the escape from reality. A drug addict or alcoholic seeks comfort through artificial means. We seek comfort from suffering of all kinds. However, God is the ultimate provider of our comfort, and true comfort only comes through a righteous life.

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been
completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” [Isaiah 40:1-2 NIV]

Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.” [2 Corinthians 1:3-7 NIV]

We are ever seeking comfort, whether it is in material possessions that provide us physical comfort, drugs that provide us mental comfort, or relationships with others that provide us both. The comfort we should be seeking is that obedience to God and faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and provides us comfort through righteousness and knowledge that we have eternal life in Him.

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.

If you grew up in a household with siblings and/or you have children of your own, you know that those times when there is perfect peace and quiet in the house is when no one is home. Think about the times when you are occupied with something at home and next thing you hear is some scream or fighting among your children. I am sure you have probably uttered the common phrase, why can’t you just get along. We all do it and we would all like that mystical peace.

The definition for ‘quiet’ is calm, silence, freedom from noise, and serenity. The definition for ‘peace’ is absence of war; a state of harmony; a state of serenity or harmony. The terms, peace and quiet, tend to go together since by having peace or being in a state of
peace, creates a quiet. However, having quiet does not necessarily mean you are at peace or can create peace. They have different meanings. Have you ever lay awake at night struggling with anxious thoughts? It was probably quiet but you sure knew there was no peace.

But can we ever have real peace? I say we can never have peace without Christ and obedience to Christ, and that means without the Holy Spirit. I cannot even think of another religion that puts people on an equal footing in order to even have a chance at peace. And that’s because other religions rely on self. For the Christian God’s Word teaches us to seek peace, but it isn’t so much the kind where you just get along with others, it is more of an inner peace and only through obedience and righteousness. God knows as our Creator, that we inherited the sinful nature from Adam and Eve. That sinful nature is a constant battle ground always “warring” with what we want to do versus what we know we should do.

As Paul stated about himself, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do. And if I do
what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:15-17 NIV)

Paul also says, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Galatians 5:16-17 NIV)

Paul then goes on to compare the acts of the sinful nature with the fruit of the Spirit. He ends by stating, “Let us not become conceited,
provoking and envying each other.” (Galatians 5:26 NIV)

Paul taught us about real peace. He taught, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7 NIV)

Paul goes on to say, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent and praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9 NIV)

The peace that the world pushes is really just a quiet. The world figures that if we are not at war, we keep each other at bay, or we accept everything anyone does, then that quietness means we are at peace. However, we all know that conflicts break out among people and nations all the time and disturb that quiet. A volcano can erupt without warning and a storm can catch you at sea without warning.
Conflicts happen between people and nations without warning. But peace that God wants us to have is internal and it isn’t just quietness. As I said, quiet may be an outcome of peace but it doesn’t create peace. Our sinful nature is always at war within us.

Paul teaches us that we cannot have peace without the Holy Spirit. This makes sense since we cannot be righteous in God’s eyes without Christ. We are in too much conflict with our nature. This is also another reason bumper stickers and the desire for real peace and quiet will never come in this world until Jesus Christ returns.

“The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.” (Isaiah 32:17 NIV)

God gives us peace when we seek and live in a righteous manner and we have His Spirit in us. Because humans seek the wrong things, we lose that peace and create our own troubles. Unless there is peace with God, there will be no real peace on earth.

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.

God knows our sinful nature. He knows we need direction and so He setup some principles around how we should live and relate to one another. The main idea God teaches regarding relationships is to love each other, but he also teaches forgiveness and mercy. This important concept comes in what is often referred to as the “Lord’s Prayer,” the prayer Jesus taught the disciples.

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.’” [Matthew 6:9-15 NIV]

Why would forgiveness and mercy be so important? Why would Jesus talk about forgiveness as an important concept in our prayers? It is because forgiveness and mercy allow a person who has sinned to find acceptance and to be restored to fellowship. If a person knows he/she is not going to find forgiveness or mercy, they will try harder to place blame on someone else, including God.

In the beginning, man and woman blamed someone else for their sinful disobedience to God. We learn in the story regarding the “fall” of Adam and Eve that the woman blamed the snake and the man blamed the woman. God, however, held all three accountable for their actions. [Genesis 3:1-24]

We see this in the work place today. Have you ever worked in a company where you spent a good amount of unproductive time making sure you protected yourself through written communications like email? The more unforgiving a work environment is, the more you keep things in writing. You can look at all the American laws to see how far we have come to protecting ourselves from blame. America has a lot of lawyers, which demonstrates our willingness as a people and culture in finding fault with others. The first time I remember taking notice of “blame protection” was when cigarette manufacturers had to place the health hazard warning on cigarette packs. Now why in the world do they have to do that when people know they have to take responsibility for smoking in the first place? No one makes them smoke. Coffee cups now contain statements regarding how the ingredients are hot in this container. This is just more nonsense all because people are looking to blame others for what they should take responsibility for themselves.

We play the same game with sin. The Bible teaches us to repent before receiving Jesus Christ as Savior in order to be saved. In other words, accept responsibility that we are actually sinful and need a savior.

In Acts Peter replied to the Jews regarding the crucifixion of Christ by telling them to repent first. Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” [Acts 2:38 NIV]

As Man, we even like to blame God for our sinful nature.

Paul says, “One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”” [Romans 9:19-20 NIV]

Man goes so far in trying to shed blame for his own sinfulness that he creates other gods. In the mind of sinful man, it is much easier to worship a god you create in your own mind because you control the attributes of that god. In this way you do not have to be concerned with blame or being judged for being disobedient. However, even in this, the Living God knows Man’s nature. It is the reason for the very first and most important commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” [Deuteronomy 5:7 NIV]

Paul teaches, “The wrath of God is being revealed in heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” [Romans 1:18-20 NIV]

Time and again God teaches us through lessons in the Bible, from beginning to end, that we need to first accept our own sinfulness, our own faults. God also provides His mercy, forgiveness, and love so that we might overcome that guilt, turn our lives around through repentance, and accept our Savior, Jesus Christ so that we might have life eternal and a relationship with him. And in order to learn this lesson in accepting blame, He teaches us to first love Him, then to love others providing them forgiveness so that we might also be forgiven. If you follow God’s formula, you eliminate the blame game and experience a life with joy, peace, and hope. It is a much better life to live.

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.

If you look around, you will find every kind of parent/child relationship. We have all seen the stories and know of people who are in situations where a child has gone wayward like the prodigal son, yet the parents always take the child back when they are in need. We have seen the situations where the parents are un-nurturing to their children, yet the children continue to love their parents. And, of course, most relationships seem to fall somewhere in between these two extremes.

God not only demonstrates to us how the parent/child relationship ought to be, He also demonstrates that parenting is forever. The fact is that once you have a child, you become a parent and that never changes, but that is the obvious physical relationship. What I am talking about here is more of the spiritual relationship and connection we have between parent and child, God and Man. You could summarize the Bible’s message as one of love, justice, mercy, compassion, and reconciliation by stating that God’s Word is all about the parent/child relationship.

We could go back to the beginning of time but let’s start with the relationship God had with the nation of Israel. God pulled all the Israelites from Egypt in a great exodus to form their nation.

God told Moses, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” [Exodus 19:5-6 NIV]

God then gives Moses the Ten Commandments for the Israelites to live by. You can see that the first four commandments have to do with their relationship to God and the other commandments have more to do with their relationship to man.

God said, “You shall have no other gods, no idols, not misuse my name, and you will remember the Sabbath as Holy.” [First four commands paraphrased from Exodus 20:1-7 NIV]

Even the fifth command that begins ‘man’s relationship to man’ has to do with honoring your father and mother; in other words, a relationship with your parents. These commands were to teach the Israelites love and respect for the Father-Creator.

The Book of Isaiah is a wonderful book describing God’s relationship to man. Even though Isaiah prophesied about Israel and Judah, God brings in His plan for Jesus and His redemption of all nations, not just Israel. The entire book describes the sinfulness of the Israelites and their rejection of God, yet God tells them of His wrath against them, to teach them, and then to redeem them.

Consider these verses in Isaiah, where God is talking to the people of Judah.

God says, “Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you. I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” [Isaiah 44:21-22 NIV]

After the Israelites had been in captivity in Babylon, God tells them that now is the time to flee and go back home.

“This is what the LORD says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like the numberless grains; their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before me.’” [Isaiah 48:17-19 NIV]

God’s prophecies always seem to point out His love for man; man’s turning from Him, His judgment and wrath used to turn man back to Him, man’s repentance, and His accepting us back. The point is that God created us, loves us, and is forever there for us. We, however, continue to go our own way, in our sinful nature, and stray from Him. His way is generally to gently nudge us back to Him, and then eventually show us His wrath until we get the message to repent. This is similar to how we raise our own children. We usually give them a warning, maybe a threat, and then we take action. This is generally the way to handle teaching children how to act, show respect, and get along in our society and relationships with others. God uses similar methods.

However, there is one big difference in our relationship to God in contrast to our parent/child relationship. It is the depth of love. God is love so He loves us no matter how we are. He knows our hearts and our true selves. He also knows we are born from Adam’s sinful nature so in His love, He sent His only son, Jesus Christ, to pay for our sinful nature in order that we can be atoned for our sins and have an open relationship with Him through Christ. God has His arms open wide for any who choose to love Him by accepting Christ as their Savior, repents, and turns back to Him. We cannot say that as parents and children in the world that we have the same depth of love in our own relationships. God is our Father and is always there for us if we choose to accept Him through Christ. As Creator and Father, He is our Parent forever.

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.

I was asked a similar kind of question once and it is a common question. The person could not understand how a loving God would allow such tragedy in the world. At the time I was no more prepared to answer that than Francis felt he was. But I also knew that these questions sound simple enough on the surface but require more complex answers. Usually the people asking these simple sounding questions do not really want to hear an answer. They typically have a different God in mind for themselves anyway so are not always open to hear the answer. I think the reason is people want to box God into simple terms and if they can’t, they come up with their own image of God. Can you imagine a God as complex as One who created this earth, all the stars, planets, living creatures, processes, and other inanimate things could be explained in simple terms? Even as Christians, we can only explain God up to a point because He is beyond our full understanding. What God has done, though, through His Word is give us enough to know who He is, His character, and all that we really need to know to believe in Him.

These questions fit my theme for how an upside down world thinks in relation to God. Love is really a key to it all. The simple answer as Francis gave is that He doesn’t. However, as Francis also said there is more to this. God does give us a choice whether to love Him or not. However, this is only part of the answer. What we first need to understand is that God IS love and we cannot love without Him. How does that happen? He gives us the Holy Spirit as we accept Jesus as LORD and Savior.

Paul says, “…because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” [Romans 5:5 NIV]

Paul goes on to say, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” [Romans 5:6, 8 NIV]

We are saved through His love. The reason I say God’s love is key is that it provides the foundation for everything else in our relationship to Him. We receive His grace, His mercy, and His forgiveness through Christ, through the Spirit. In other words, God’s love is a gift. It is a gift of Himself through the Holy Spirit for those who believe they are sinners and need saving. They must believe Christ came upon the earth through the Holy Spirit to be Man, to take on our sins by dying for our sins, and then to be resurrected as our Lord and King in heaven. The Bible teaches this throughout.

John says, “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.” [John 3:16 NIV]

This also becomes the basis for why Jesus taught that the greatest commandment has everything to do with love.

Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:37-40 NIV]

People say they love but they really love things, or love what someone can do for them. And we always want others to love us no matter how we are or act. The world has a distorted view on love. People use the term for love all the time when they mean lust, whether it be for someone or something. True love can only come through God and through the Spirit He gives us as believers. We generally have limits on our love. This is why loving our enemies is so crucial to the understanding of true love. We as sinners are essentially enemies of God because He is Holy.

Jesus taught, “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” [Matthew 5:44, 48 NIV]

So Jesus equates love with perfection, but it is God’s love that is perfect and we can only have God’s love through the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus was explaining to the Disciples what would be happening to him, Paul declared he would stand by him at all costs. Yet Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times, which he did. [Matthew 26:33-34, 69-75 NIV]

After Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus came to Peter and asked him three times if he loved him. It was symbolic of Peter’s three denials. Peter again said yes three times. Jesus knew Peter’s heart as only God can know. Peter could not truly love until he gained the Holy Spirit. We cannot do anything apart from God, even to love.

Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” [John 15:4-6 NIV]

God is Love, that is His Nature, whereas we have a sinful nature born in the image of Adam. God has to give us the Spirit in order to change our spiritual nature. We still live in a physical world and Jesus told us to be in the world but not of it. So only through the Spirit can we truly love, even our enemies. And to love our enemies, we have to truly love God first with our whole being, so that through the Spirit we receive from God, we can see others in a different light. It is a choice God gave us. It is an upside down love that does not make sense to the world.

©2012 An Upside Down World. All Rights Reserved.