Why I believe in God!

Where did we come from, how did we get here? What is the purpose of life? People have long struggled with questions like these...

For me it should all start at the beginning. Where did we come from? There are two main thoughts on this, creation or evolution. Well, for me, the answer is simple. Take a look at a flower or a butterfly. They are beautiful and have a wonderful design. With a design they have to have a designer. Many of us know the work that can go into computer coding in order to get the computers to work. This does not “just happen.” It would be crazy to think that computers grow on trees, even if we do call some of them apples. A computer is a complex piece of engineering that took a lot of thought and work to make, but it is simple compared to the complexity in the eyeball of a butterfly, or the petal of a flower.

Some seem to think that everything was created in a big bang. And this is a different way to look at things. Ultimately, both are matters of faith. As a Christian, I will admit I have faith, many evolutionists deny they have faith. People can believe what they want to believe, and many people choose to believe in evolution because it makes things easier. See depending on where you start, there is a cascading serious of conclusions you will come to.

If you believe in God, you have to ask, why did he create me? What is my purpose? What does he want me to do with my life? What has he said? Has he defined what is right and what is wrong? Do I have to obey him?

Now if you believe in Evolution you can believe there is no God, it is up to you to decide what is right and wrong and you can easily make yourself God. You do not need to be defined or limited by biblical definitions of right or wrong. I believe evolution is silly idea, but it is the best alternative to believing in God. That said, when you believe mankind evolved from a monkey, man is now the smartest being, and has the power to decide for himself what is right and wrong. Lying, cheating, stealing, Homosexuality, abortion, genocide can now all be justified as survival of the fittest. Once you say God does not exist you can deny that heaven and hell exists and you can live your life however you want. This in fact makes you the most powerful being around. It makes YOU god. I will admit this is sorta neat and the appeal of evolution.

That said, some people still insist that they evolved from a dirty monkey. I have found it best not to argue with them, in some cases –tongue in cheek- I think they might be right.

Now I know there are other thought processes in the world. Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism but in Western Culture these are not significant. To me the beauty in a butterfly still points out to a creature. This makes me ask certain questions and the Bible has those answers.

So the Bible answers the questions of where did we come from, why God created us, what is good, what is bad, Heaven and Hell. I believe the Bible. Every word of it.

Now within the Bible, there are several levels of belief. Let’s start with the basics. I believe God created a perfect world, the Garden of Eden as written about in Genesis. And man screwed it up. The world become so bad, God had to destroy it in the Flood. God then spoke to men, Noah, Abraham about what he wanted. That didn’t work so well, so God set up some laws. The 10 commandments, with his chosen people Isreal. The Jews screwed that up too. Isreal would be good, get blessed, then forget God, enemies would invade, they would get carried off, then repent and God would deliver them again. This happens a whole bunch of times all through the old testament. Like 30 times! The bottom line is when you leave things up to man, he screws it up. (I read the whole story.)

Setting down laws, didn’t work so well so God sent his son Jesus to show us a better way. Now there is a whole bunch of this story that is complicated, so I am giving the short version. Forgive me for skipping parts.

Why Jesus needed to die, how this was God’s plan from the beginning and all this divine stuff is complicated. And I am not going to explain it all. Get the full version from the book.

The basics are –Why did God create man? He didn’t want to be alone. He wanted to be loved by other beings voluntarily.

Where did Satan come from? Well he is a bit of a fallen angel I guess. He is there. The enemy of God. We need to have two sides for a choice. Pick your side. (Hint: God wins.)

What is Good? God and all he says is good. God is the eternal definer of what is right and what is wrong. So love, truth, honesty, caring and helping others is good. What is bad? Sin. Lying, Murder, ect.

Since I believe I am created by God, I believe I am supposed to do what God says in the Bible. There is a whole book about how to live our lives.

So the Bible tells us how to live. Let’s call this Religion 1.0. By religion 1.0, it means you fear God, and try to do what he says. You are going to Church, helping the poor, you avoid lying cheating, stealing, you are loyal to your wife, you are not envious, jealous or desirous of your neighbor’s ox. If you follow all the rules, it makes you a pretty good person. There are a lot of people like that in the world. There are a lot of people like that in the Church. It is good. But I don’t believe that is God’s plan for us.

See I believe in something a little deeper, let’s call it Religion 2.0. Now it is sort of hard to live Religion 2.0, if you don’t have Religion 1.0 installed. It is a prerequisite. It is a training course. Religions 2.0 is all about love, grace, freedom and mercy. Religions 1.0 is all about duty and law.

Let’s talk about the relationship between a husband and wife. A good husband is supposed to support his wife, be faithful, be nice, bring home the bacon or food, care for her while sick, not beat her, not complain all the time, help out a little, not get drunk, be responsible, keep his word and bring flowers once in while. A good wife is supposed to cook, clean, be faithful, keep up the house, raise the children, submit, and help out ect. This is husband 1.0 and wife 1.0.

Now I should point out that there seems to be a lot of “installation failures” on husband 1.0 and wife 1.0 in looking at the number of divorces. I should also note there are a lot of different ways husbands and wives get together from romantic love, shotgun weddings, to arranged marriages. Unfortunately, many people live with failures of Husband 1.0; as there are men who get drunk, beat their wives and do all sorts of bad stuff. However, this is example.

We are not suppose to live in marriage 1.0; we are suppose to live in marriage 2.0. We are suppose to have love. A husband and a wife are suppose to have a deep love for each other. They are not suppose to do things because they are suppose to. They are suppose to do things because they can. Because it will make the other person feel good, because it is the right thing to do, because they have the chance. A husband and wife are suppose to love each other deeply, caring for each other deeply, feel fortunately to have such a wonderful lifelong companion, be joyous that they can help out, and make life a little better. This love completely changes the nature of the relationship. Do people do it out of obligation or out of joy? Do people run on duty or love?

Now let’s talk about kids for a second. If this couple has a child as the child ages they are going to set up expectations. If they have a son he is going to be taught to do chores, -like doing dishes or taking out the trash. When he is 10 he may be assigned with taking out the trash ever week. This may be difficult. The goal that when this kid is 15 he loves a clean house, wants to help out and just automatically takes out the trash without having to be told. He will take out the trash-not because it is his duty- but because he loves his parents, knows it helps out the family and has the ability to. The goal is to do it out of love not obligation.

So let’s get back to religion. Religion 1.0 (The ten commandments or doing things out of obligations) did not work so well. Mankind always sinned. Jesus came to show us Religion 2.0 (Love). It is all about love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. Love your Neighbor as yourself. (Matt 22:36). Mankind was so screwed up that Jesus needed to come on down here and show us the way. He selflessly gave himself to show us. Sin required a sacrifice, his death on the cross fulfilled those requirements. Now it is up to man to choose. Do we love God with all our heart, do what is right and follow after Him? Or do we love pleasures of this world, ourselves, sin and follow after that. We know how the story ends. Good people go to heaven, bad people burn in hell for eternity. (I know the ending… I read the book.)

No matter how much we tried men were never able to earn their way to heaven, they were never able to keep all the commandments to be good enough. Some still try. Many still try, being stuck on Religion 1.0. Fortunately, for me there is grace. It frees me from religion 1.0 and covers my shortcomings if I am trying and doing the best I can. God’s grace, and God’s judgement will be merciful. So I no longer need to worry about following the law, because I am under a law of love.
There is a balance of works, grace, mercy and faith. This could be studied for a lifetime. But as a Christian I am a prince. I am son of the King Most High. I am God’s adopted Child! It is really cool. It is really freeing. Tt is really awesome! I hope that everyone will become one. Some still think they evolved from a dirty smelly monkey and when they insist that they did, well it is not worth arguing with them.

I would rather be a loved child of God, than a slightly evolved version of pond scum. We all have free will and people make their choices. I just can’t explain why some people make the choices they do. I live my life by faith, share it with others, and hope others too will suddenly realize the freedom they can have from guilt, all past sins, and an inability to be good enough, by suddenly starting a new life, through the waters of baptism, into Jesus, they too can be part of his eternal plan. This is the gospel message, the message of the bible, the message of salvation. Once you hear about the plan of salvation, it is up to each person to believe, repent of their sins (be sorry for the bad they did), confess (say) Jesus is the son of God, and then we dipped into water (full emersion baptism) putting on a new life as a Christian. The Holy Spirit will then live in each of us filling us with His love.

As Christians each of us work to share the love and help each other out wherever we are in life. If you are a teacher, you try to teach children the best you can. If you are in a grocery store, you try to feed people, be nice, stock products and help people the best you can. If you work at a car plant, you try to make the best cars you can so people don’t breakdown, can get to work church and fun. Everything in life suddenly becomes a way to serve God and help others. There are times it is tough. That is life.

This changes ones complete outlook on life, death, the world, governments ect. I know I am loved by God. I am trying to be honest and do his will each and every day. I am trying to spread honesty, goodness and love to those around me. I realize capitalism is one of the best ways to do this. Government has a place, by Communism denies God and results in Genocide. The world isn’t perfect, even my church isn’t perfect, I am not perfect. If these things were perfect, we would not need Jesus.

Unfortunately, lies, corruption and bribery are all around. I have toured the world and seen first hand the effects of corruption on third world governments. I am not fond of fiat monetary policies. I am excited the potential that blockchain has to rein and stop some of the abuses. There are many ways to stop evil. Blockchain and bitcoin has the potential to do a lot of good in the world, but currently all the scam ICOs are mudding the waters and the potential of blockchain to bring needed change into the world. I do not believe that God will be mocked and some central bankers are going to see blockchain bring their empires into the dustbin of history following Venezuela’s example if they don’t show fiscal restraint, and stop trying to spending our way into prosperity. God will not be mocked and the Old Testament repeatedly shows what happens when people forget about Him, and mankind has not fundamentally changed. Nations have a tendency to forget about God. (This paragraph is more about application of my opinions than the gospel of Jesus… you can disagree here)

So when I look around me, a see a butterflies. I see a marvelous world created by God. I see an opportunity, to spread God’s love, share God’s grace, and make the world a better place. I am God’s willing servant, and really not such a good one at that, as some days I suspect that God gets frustrated working with worthless servants like me. That said, I try. He has patience and mercy. I am the thickheaded, proud-full; sinful, worthless fool. He is the merciful forgiving God. I ask for forgiveness, and try again, to do what is right, to do what he would do and to spread news of freedom through God’s eternal plan. Don’t look to me to be perfect, you will burn in hell, look to Jesus. Cause I ain’t no perfect person. I am a sinner to. A sorry one at that.

But all around me there is a battle of good and evil, a battle of right and wrong a battle of Jesus and Satan back and forth.

Sometimes one side is winning sometimes the other side is winning. The world is full of problems, strife in Syria, starvation in Africa. Jesus is the answer. We as Christians try to do right, and it is working. I believe western prosperity has been the result of God’s blessing. I don’t have to have all the answers, because I know someone who does. I am have given my life to Jesus. It doesn’t matter if I live or die, because my life is His Life. I know I will live with him in eternity at the end of time, because I am His. Too me this better than being pond scum or evolved from a dirty monkey. Believe in Jesus. Give your life to Him and all will be better.

So when it comes time to go to a church there are many different denominations. I go to a non-denominational church. We are a decentralized group of people coming together to be Christians. We are a protestant church, a church of Christ or a community church. Amongst the denominational landscaped we would be placed near the independent fundamental Baptist, southern Baptist or Wesleyan churches. That said, even among people who go to church, many are still stuck in Religion 1.0 and don’t really have the holy spirit living in them experiencing the true freedom of Religion 2.0. It is a maturity thing.

So today, I challenge you. Make a choice. Either believe in God, become adopted Son of God through baptism in Jesus Christ or if you wish believe in evolution and become the god of Pond scum. Choose this day whom yea will serve.

I believe in Jesus Christ is the son of God sent as redeemer of mankind to save mankind. I am HIS and He is mine.

That is why I believe in God.