This Life
This Life – has its purpose.
For all of us, this Life has too many challenges that cannot be won. For example, some walked away from the faith and sold their souls to the deceitful offer by the followers of the father of lies. Many don’t care what the future brings because their hope of living in eternity has diminished. What is Life if you cannot enjoy it? What is happiness when there is no loneliness? What is it to be wealthy when the same affluent people surround you? How can you say you are wealthy when there is no poor? How can you say you are successful when there are no failures? With all these things in mind, are you not worried about your satisfaction, who you are, what you are confused about, why you are here today, and what is your Life’s purpose? Maybe you want to know the truth about Life, which is also a mystery to many.
The natural response to all our dilemmas is more on our physical well-being, like what we are going to eat, what we are going to wear, how we look, and what we need to do to succeed. It is all about I; I want to be like this, I want to be like that, and comparing yourself to the success of others; why are they fortunate and I am not? And maybe you are those who strive hard to better your Life, but it didn’t work, and in the end, when you feel helpless and hopeless, you blame your parents for bringing you here into this troubled world with nothing compared to those who were born with a golden spoon. Because of fear of God, you don’t want to point fingers at Him for all the misfortune you may be having, and since He predestined the human soul, why did He not make a worry-free living for everyone?
God created everything with His pleasure and glory. He didn’t create us with the burden on our shoulders. He created the first man, Adam, perfect like He is, and gave him the freedom to do what he wants to do and eat what he wants to eat, except for one that will bring misery to humanity. What happened then? When Adam disobeyed the only rule, it invited Sin into the world. It made his descendants the perfect imperfection of God’s creations, a by-product of Adam’s imperfection that carries man’s sinful nature. Seth, the third Son of Adam, declared in Genesis 5:2-3; When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female, he created them, blessed them, and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his imperfect likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. (emphasis is mine)
First, we have you, Lord Almighty, then you sent us your Son, our mighty brother Jesus that through him the world may be saved and start calling on you LORD of Host. Unfortunately, the world ignored the goodness of the message that prevents them from hearing the truth and power of your saving grace. Still, because of your love for all your creations, you didn’t hesitate to send the Holy Spirit as requested by the Son Jesus that will take his place, and upon acknowledging the Holy Spirit of God of His existence, He readily dwells amongst us. Unfortunately, people with hard hearts and itchy ears will not have this opportunity because they won’t be able to readily understand the mystery of Life together with the Holy Spirit, and the light won’t be able to shine brightly in their hearts.
Adam’s disobedience permitted Sin to enter the world, and the first recorded Sin of disobedience was adultery when they ate the forbidden fruit. The second was murder, when Cain killed his brother, Abel, due to envy which can count as the third. Though there’s no law in human government about envy, it is God’s standard and perfection for humans not to be envious. Jealousy could also be why Cain killed Abel when God favored Abel’s offering. But it isn’t that we are created in the image of God, which means we have the gift of jealousy. God is a jealous God. After the fall, jealousy became dangerous, and that gift was stripped because of human imperfections. Humans no longer possess the perfection of God because Sin and Sin separate us from God, which means we are stripped of God’s perfection.
During that time, there was no law about murder, but when Abel sought justice, God reacted to his cry. The human government began, and human law was formed during Noah’s time. Still, human law was not enough for God not to be involved, God gave the law to Moses, and the law that He had written with His fingers became the commandments to be followed by His chosen people; Moses followed the command. He handed it down to the first recipient of the law—the Israelites. They became on-and-off followers of God’s commandments. That’s how we can partly describe the difficulties of Life. It’s not God’s plan for us to experience unbearable pain and suffering with human flesh. We are experiencing all the challenges in our bodies; illnesses, fear, confusion, and physical and spiritual death. We cannot refrain from committing sins that oppose God’s master plan of perfection for humanity.
It is no longer new to us that every time someone leaves the congregation preaching, the church’s imperfection is very common. If we are seekers of the truth, we do not want to hear it coming from the mouth of the leaders because it only supports that the church they are preaching about is not from God. God is perfect, and the church building cannot be perfect because, in the absence of the body of believers, it cannot be called a church. Our body is the temple of God and fellowshipping with God is 24/7, day and night, and not one or two hours once a week. Sometimes it takes more time to prepare to go to church than to praise and worship the LORD.
Gatherings of believers are biblical, and we do not need a specific location, time, or day to do it. The church that Jesus Christ built is in everyone’s heart. The rock within us cannot be shaken, and if the heart is unwilling to accept its foundation, then it is not the rock that Jesus mentioned. It needs strong faith to confess that the church Jesus built is within you, and the union of the Body of Christ can be called the chosen ones. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is present whenever and wherever believers gather together—Matthew 18:20. The early church made their gathering, eating, and worshipping together either in a tent, foot of the mountain, or in the house when available as recorded in Philemon 1:2, Acts 20;20, Acts 5:42, Acts 2:46, Colossians 4:15, Romans 16:1-27 and much more.
Hebrews 10:25 (NKJV) “…not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Many congregation members have more than enough of hearing their version of “do not neglect to go to church” because their absence is a collection loss. “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. Psalm 84:10-12.
Jesus goes to the synagogue. “As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah..”— Luke 4:16. Many leaders of the institutional church will use the way Jesus prioritized meeting with other believers in a given building (synagogue) and advised the followers to do the same. But, remember, Jesus was obedient to the Law of Moses, the prevailing spiritual law at that time. Therefore, teaching the New Testament believers under grace and not under the law to follow is not appropriate.
God is a Spirit, and the Spirit of God gives Life to human souls. Humans are formed from the dust of the earth. Therefore, we can say that human souls are made up of many cells, and cells survive due to chemicals. Any deficiency of these chemicals can cause the body to be weakened and can lead to death and then corruption. God didn’t create humans to live forever but only for an apportioned time. In biblical times humans lived hundreds of years. As humans continually sin on the face of the earth, it started to get shorter for a certain race, 70 years, and for other races, up to 120 years if they lived more than the ascertained time; many Christians called it a bonus to be thankful.
What is the meaning of Life living forever when everyone you love passes away when pain and suffering still have the same weight to carry? What will be the joy of seeing someone struggling to live a decent life? How would you feel success when a failure is waiting to take any moment? Life will only be meaningful when we are victorious against any vicious attacks, when we please God when we accomplish what He wants us to do, like helping the needy, but the outcome of that help must also be in line with God’s standard. Helping the wealthy congregation is a good example recorded in Proverb 22:4— “The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.” And a warning to those who cheat the less fortunate for their advancement or give gifts or favors to the rich is both ways a loser.
“He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, And he who gives to the rich will surely come to poverty.” Proverb 22:16 New King James Version
When ten (10) Lepers approached Jesus for help, Jesus, instead of healing them, sent them to a priest nearby for healing, and when they were done, only one came back to thank him. Jesus may know ahead of time that this would be the result and would have had a better use for it for a heavenly and profitable time. Why help someone we feel needs help when they have other resources to fill their needs? Teaching people to be lazy is biblically wrong; helping them, in the long term, will only jeopardize what you and your family need.
Life is more meaningful when we reach the goal of knowing the truth. The sincerity of our pursuit of the truth will bring the reality of what we hope for—To be Closer to God.
God is all in all