PILLARS 12 - The Glorious God’s Most Glorious Design Pt 3

God gave man a unique sacred crown.  A unique sacred calling.  A unique sacred command.  And God gave man a unique sacred companion.  [Gen 2:18-24]  God devotes an entire section in the account of Creation to the special creation of woman.  God first makes Adam.  The crown of His creation.  Puts him in the Garden of God, to take care of the works of God’s hands.  Gives him that first sacred command.  The crown.  The calling.  Picture Paradise...  It was truly exceedingly good.  And then there in Paradise we see the one thing in all Creation which - up to that point - was NOT good.  Gen 2:18  Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” [Hebrew: the word for "alone" is bad- or separate.  So in a sense the Hebrew says it is bad (not good) to be bad (alone)].   Isolation can turn any paradise into a desert, a palace into a dungeon.  

[From wikipedia: The lack of human contact, and the sensory deprivation that often go with solitary confinement, can have a severe negative impact on a prisoner's mental state^[31] that may lead to certain mental illnesses such as depression, permanent or semi-permanent changes to brain physiology,^[32] an existential crisis,^{[33][34][35][36]} self-harm and death.^[37] Prison inmates assigned to solitary confinement were 3.2 times as likely to commit an act of self-harm.  The United Nations considers solitary confinement exceeding 15 days to be torture]  

So, for the record: It is not good to be alone (long-term).  Made in God’s image, we’re all wired for interpersonal relationship.  And we all need help.  First and foremost, of course we understand that God is our Comfort and our Helper (Ps 46.1).  But our need for help, for companionship, exists on a human level as well.  Adam had a healthy open relationship with the Lord, and still it was NOT good for him to be “alone”.  Not good, bad.

Who do you think needed to know this?  Adam.  And so the oh-so-good God drives this need home for the man: 19-20 Out of the ground the LORD God [had] formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.  The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.  All these potential companions - but not one of them truly addressed his separateness, his isolation.  The Lord here is showing Adam - and us - our need for human companionship.  The phrase in the Hebrew means “exact correspondence”.  It speaks to our God-given need for human relationship.  Some think it's better “flying solo” - but that’s a lie: the LIE says, I don’t need anyone.  And don’t miss this - God knew what He was doing.  He designed us with this need.  And animals don’t cut it.  No other creature is going to ask us, “how are you doing really?”  We humans are wired for human companionship.  We need each other. [Ecclesiastes 4:9  Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.]

Of course at this point in Creation God is specifically talking about a perfectly suited life partner for the man.  That word “suitable” literally refers to something opposite.  This sacred companion has an ideal, God-designed complementary function.  And so for the man God creates woman.  21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.  Not out of a different pile of dust (like He did for EVERY OTHER CREATURE, incl the man), but out of Adam’s rib - she’s as similar to him as she could be, can relate to him, communicate with him like no other creature.  BUT she is also opposite.  She is a wonderful impossible.  She is fashioned by God - it’s different word in the Hebrew.  Every other creature God formed [like a piece of pottery].  But God fashions the woman: this is the word “build”.  [pottery vs building a house - it's much more involved and precise, you need blueprints, etc].  Every detail about woman - how she thinks & acts, how she feels, her anatomy - she is the perfect God-designed complement to the man.  And Adam’s reaction leaves no doubt that finally, after looking at ALL these other creatures, that she is exactly what he needed.  God knew/knows exactly what we need(ed). 23  The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”  What Adam sounds like in the Hebrew is, [“WOW!!!”]  Woman is man’s unique sacred companion.  Exactly how God designed it.  Not just very good - very best.  The jewel in the crown.  Precisely how God planned it, drew it up and built it.

At which point God instituted a sacred union.  24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his woman; and they shall become one flesh.  She doesn’t belong to him - they belong to each other, and God Himself brokered the deal.  This is a holy lifelong partnership.  They will work together, carry the crown together, fulfill God’s calling of subduing and ruling the earth and all its creatures together, they will carry out God’s sacred commands together (including now the whole business of multiplying).  They’re the perfect complement to one another.  TThey fit perfectly - even as there is an oppositeness to this partnership.  Like two magnets.  

This sacred - even mystical relationship also happens to be a deliberate picture of Jesus & the Church, aka the Bride of Christ.  [Ephesians 5:28-32 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.  FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.  This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.] 

And then let’s not miss God’s final act in this union: God brings the woman to the man [2:22].  That’s the final (too often missing) piece of the puzzle.  Sometimes we run ahead of God and His provision.  Sometimes we don't think we want His provision.  We pursue what we want, what we think we need, and when we think we need it.  When we leave God out of the bringing, when we just leave Him out altogether, when we reject His exceedingly good design, all kinds of things get messed up.  Confused.  Broken.

Note that God does not create a second man.  Not only would that NOT be complementary, there would also be no children.  Before God tells the first couple to subdue the earth, He tells them to fill it.  To be fruitful and multiply.  To have babies.  And God engineered it such that to carry out this first great commission you need a man and a woman.  God’s design is one man and one woman.  One of each.  Male and female He created them.  The male has the seed, the female has the egg, she has the womb.  That’s God’s glorious design, and frankly, THAT is science.  It’s anatomy.  It's hardwired into our DNA.  Male and female God created them.  From the very beginning, God knew exactly what He was doing - and He still does.  And what we do, what man does, is try to figure out ways to circumvent God’s design.

Fast forward thousands of years, after sin and death entered in, man rejecting God and abusing His gifts, generation after generation of brokenness, rearing its ugly head.  The LIE comes in and says - what does the LIE say?  There are so many… The LIE says, God did not design any of this.  We reject His design.  This is how people have rolled from the very beginning.  We’ve left God out of so much, and look at what we’ve got.  There are always consequences for rejecting God’s design.  It’s how things got broken in the first place.  The LIE says, it’s all about how I feel (and to be sure, feelings in this area are stronger than any other --> some very good feelings, but there's so much confusion).  And we insist, God’s design doesn’t matter.  What God says doesn’t matter.  Personally, if I had to choose between what God says, and what I feel or you feel or anybody else feels, I choose the God of the universe.  The LIE says, God made a mistake.  Really?  What source am I using for this information?  My feelings?  God does not make mistakes.  Me? I make plenty.  So much brokenness - and confusion.  Broken families, broken marriages, broken people (breaking one another).  Confusion - about gender, about sex, about marriage.  Confusion about life, about who I am and why I’m here.  And such strong feelings.  We’re NOT saying that God doesn’t care about my feelings.  Of course He cares.  But my feelings never determine what is right.  There is a way which seems/feels right to a man, but its end is the way of death - Prov 14.12.  Death of course = Separation from God.

And THAT is where we wind up today.  Because before God says anything about even filling the earth (much less subduing it), He makes us in His image.  Image bearers.  Eternal souls, designed and made by Him to relate to Him, to know Him, to enjoy Him, to glorify Him by enjoying Him forever.  This is who we are at the very core of our being.  We are spiritual beings, designed for eternity.  And the LIE says, we are primarily physical.  It’s all about the physical, about our sexuality, that’s what defines us.  And that’s a lie.  It’s a tragically broken view.  The most important thing about you and me is that God made us in His image, to enjoy Him and His goodness forever.  Yes God blessed the sexual act with physical enjoyment, but He designed that to be experienced in a lifelong union between a man and a woman, one with [God at the center].  He does the bringing.  And He brings the joy - a temporary one in this life, and unending joy in the life to come for those who trust in Him.

So much brokenness.  So much confusion.  And questions.  We're all broken in different ways.  And being broken means that we all struggle with living into God’s design.  That’s normal.  And questions are normal.  Questions about how and why God made me.  Questions about gender, about sexuality.  That’s normal - that is to say, questions are normal.  It’s okay to have questions.  But our questions, our brokenness, our struggles, our missteps, our feelings are opportunities to trust the Lord.  Will we trust the One Who has the answers? [Prov 3:5-6]  

The lie says, I can’t change.  The lie says, it’s too late.  But it’s never too late with the Lord.  His mercies are new every morning.  With man this may feel impossible, but with God all things are possible.  And now He’s given us His Son, Who makes all things new.  AND He’s given us His family - married or single, we don’t need to journey through the questions and the struggles and the brokenness alone.  We are never alone.  God calls many of us into the sacred union of marriage, but He invites all of us to journey together with Him, in common unity, sharing His love with one another as we enjoy His goodness AND face the brokenness together.  It all begins w trust.  Am I willing to trust Him?  How 'bout you, my friend...?

PILLARS 11: The Glorious God’s Most Glorious Design Part 2 (Genesis 2:15-17)

Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.  The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;  but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not ¹eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”  Gen. 2:15-17

We’re looking at the truths that support and secure our faith.  Last time we began a closer look at our glorious God’s most glorious design: man.  Human beings.  We saw how God made people different than all the rest of His creation, in that He made us IN HIS IMAGE, in His likeness, designed for intimate relationship - with Him AND with each other, and w the capacity to rule over/take care of God’s creation.  God gave man a unique sacred crown, crowned us with glory and honor above all the other creatures.  And He gave us a unique sacred calling.  God put man in charge, to cultivate and take care of His stuff.  And it/this is ALL God’s stuff.

Today we see that God also gave man a unique sacred command.  16-17 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”  This in fact happens to be the very FIRST command God gave to man, chronologically.  

Now the language of all commands takes two forms.  One is the imperative - do this, don’t do that.  It’s technically an appeal to the will - yet it doesn’t force the will.  The other form we see when sometimes God communicates what He wants in the form of the “future indicative”.  It is the language of certainty.  You will do this.  You will not do that.  It's perhaps a stronger tone [every kid here learns this tone].  A bigger no-no.  That’s what we get here.  It’s a BIG no-no - within an even bigger green light.

Now with every other living creature, as far as what God wants, the imperative is how it plays out.  Animals do exactly what God designed/tells them to do.  God says Be fruitful and multiply, and that’s what happens.  Creatures of instinct: they just do what God wired them to do.  Their instincts carry the day.  But man, made in God’s likeness, has the capacity for both higher reasoning AND for moral choices.  God gave man the ability to say no to our instincts, to our feelings (even to God’s commands).  People have the God-given ability to do what we know is right.  Or not.  And only man gets this unique command.  Here’s a tree, just one tree out of an entire garden full of them.  Have at it!  Enjoy every last one of them to your heart’s content - except for this one.  From this one tree, you will not eat - that would not be good for you.  But so that means you’re going to need to make a choice, make a distinction between all these other trees, which are perfectly delicious, and this one tree.  Now eating of course is all well and good, NOT evil - it’s necessary, but you are going to have to make a wise, reasoned choice - even if circumstances or your feelings seem to be dictating otherwise.  And only man is presented with this moral choice.  God not only endowed man with this capacity for higher reasoning, He gave us what we call free will.  We were able to freely choose if we would follow and trust the Lord.  If we would fulfill our calling to cultivate and guard His creation.  Or not.  And right here, we had the freedom to choose whether or not we would listen to the Lord and enjoy all the fruit on all the trees in the garden except for this one.  Or not.  [i.e. we were "able to sin"]

IMPORTANT: The overarching implication of the command - along with the crown and the calling - is that our loving Creator in effect is saying, I am for you!  I am SO for you!  I AM good, I know what’s good (for you!).  Better than anyone else.  Better than you.  Open your eyes, look at all this, taste, be amazed at how good in fact it is.  And I am the Source of all this (not to mention the End), the Architect, the Engineer of all this.  I even happen to know the one thing in all of this which is NOT good (more on this later).  But I’m asking you to trust Me.  Trust My plan.  Trust how I’ve designed it.  Trust Me.  I'm giving you a choice...

Trusting the One Who gives the command looks precisely like doing that which He has commanded.  So, what did man do with this command? [Gen 3.6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.]  [Man thumbed his nose at God - and still does - what has man been doing with the command ever since?  Proverbs 14.21 And there is a way which seems (feels) right to a man, but its end is the way of death.]  By this point God had even given man a unique sacred companion, to help him carry the crown and the calling and the command (we’ll look at her next week).  But when push came to shove, Eve looked at that fruit on that one tree, the ONLY fruit that God had forbidden, the ONE thing that they were not designed to do - but it looked so good, it felt good - how could it not be good?  It tasted so good.  It can’t be wrong cuz it feels so good, right?  Good feelings = Right, right?  This feels so right.  Wrong.  That is NOT how God designed it, and we thumb our noses at God’s exceedingly good design to our very great peril.  

BTW the design is still exceedingly good.  Nothing wrong w the design.  Still today, there is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.  "But, this feels right.  This feels like the way to go.  Why should I be expected to go against what I feel?"  Because THAT'S not how God designed it.  And only He truly knows what is best for us.  He is God, and I am not.

The LIE says, I determine what’s right.  I know what’s best.  It’s the lie of [adolescence - who so often are convinced they know everything, including what's best].  And just like with teens and parents, there’s this tension, two factions warring against each other.  One is my feelings, fueled by surging hormones and this youthful impatience and arrogance.  The other is the authority of God and His Word.  Established truth.  What did God say?  How has He designed it?  It's no coincidence that THIS is precisely where that crafty serpent goes [Gen 3.1].  Did God really say?  We question God’s Word.  We question His design.  We question Him, we doubt Him.  We disrespect and relegate Him.  We disrespect the Authority - I can do that!  Even better!  You will be like God, the serpent suggests…  Never mind that we’re already like Him.  But we see what we don’t have, and we want that.  We want to be in charge.  We put ourselves in God’s place.  OR we put other things in His place.  It’s a trap…

Doubting.  Questions are good, it’s how we learn.  There’s nothing wrong with asking questions.  The desire to learn, and to understand - that’s a divine impulse.  No other creature does this.  Animals just do.  They eat and sleep and make messes and babies.  But people - we build [libraries], full of books that are full of words.  Storehouses of knowledge.  We built the internet!  [Could you even imagine a puppy on the internet?][Not that all of the internet is good or even useful].  But questions.  They’re how we learn.  Gather knowledge.  Ask all the questions you want - and go find the answer.  Most questions have answers.  Yes, there are things that we won’t fully understand or explain in this life [Deut. 29:29  “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”]  But everything you and I NEED to know, God has revealed to us.  There’s nothing wrong with the question - it’s what we DO with it.  Did God really say this?  Is this really true?  And the real question there is, do we trust the One Who knows the answer?  Are we genuinely open to the answer - or is our mind already made up?  When we let the question lead us to doubt God and His Word and His goodness, then we’ve fallen into the trap of the serpent.  Did God really say?

Sadly what we see as the narrative unfolds is man rejects God’s command.  He rejects God.  Ultimately man chooses something OTHER than God and what He wants.  [Romans 1:28  And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.].  His choices put him into an adversarial position with both God AND creation, such that God now has to [guard] His creation from man.  Man is expelled from the Garden of God, [which now has to be guarded by angels], and subsequently must toil and sweat and fight the ground from which he sprang simply to find food and survive.  AND he has to fight off the beasts, many of whom now carry this fear of man.  He’s lost this life of peace and safety.  Separated from the life of God, now waging a lifelong losing battle with brokenness and death.   AND his choosing mechanism is fatally compromised [we were able to sin —> but now we're unable to not sin].  

ALL the brokenness of the world entered in right here.  It’s called the Fall - we can see big falls on YouTube, but THIS was the biggest.  'Cuz we fell from Paradise, from glory.  Adam - and all his descendants - reject the crown and the calling and the command, ultimately rejecting a relationship with God, that for which we were ultimately designed, in His image.  The design is still exceedingly good.  We still bear His image - but now we’re broken.  Helpless.  In desperate need of rescue.  Spiritual intervention.  Which of course the Lord has graciously arranged through the gift of His Son.  [Colossians 1:21-22  And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.]  He’s the Way for each of us to be restored a right relationship with our Creator, to be able to experience the exceedingly good goodness of God and His design.  We trust in the One God has sent to make things right.  Jesus.

PILLARS 10: The Glorious God’s Most Glorious Design (Gen 1:26-30)

We’ve been talking about the truths that support and secure our faith.  And we’ve spent a number of weeks looking at the truth that there is a God.  He is infinite, eternal, perfect, and gloriously good.  He is exceedingly better - God pre-eminent.  And He is the sovereign almighty Creator of all things.  Everything He does AND everything He makes is good, and waaay back in the beginning, He created all things out of nothing, and they were exceedingly good. [Gen 1:31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.]  Soooo good!

AND in Creation God saved the best for last.  Man [that Hebrew word literally is "adam"].  Human beings.  Gen 1:26-27  Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Made by God, in God’s image, this likeness=resemblance: i.e. NOT God, but distinct resembling God unlike any of the rest of creation.  People have eternal souls, we are endowed with the physical/intellectual/spiritual capacities to rule together over all of God’s earth. 

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. 

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to a mere mortal.  Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play.  But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. 

Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses."

(CS Lewis)

People are self aware [observe how we use a mirror vs how any other creature might], we are keenly aware of [time - unlike any other creature].  Yes, all these capacities began to break down after the Fall.  Yes, these capacities can be undeveloped.  But in or out of the womb, all humans (you and I) fundamentally bear God’s image because God says we do [Gen 1:26].  He says this of no other creature.  We are set apart.  It speaks to our personhood, beings with personality.  Emphasis on personal.  Not just our likes & dislikes & quirks but our unique God-like capacity for intimate relationship.  Even our use of language, words - is just like the God Whose likeness we bear.  Compare the development of any other creature to that of a human baby.  A couple of years after birth, what normally happens?  Humans begin to talk, to use words.  That never happens for any other creature.  Take dogs for example - what we’re hoping for with our puppy is that in a year or two not that she will be communicating with us intimately but that she will stop destroying our home.  We, people, are wired for relationship - with our Creator, as well as with one another*, and in fact the entire rest of the Bible after that first part of Genesis focuses on this unique relationship between God and man.  

The LIE says, man is just an animal.  A highly evolved animal.  But no different, nothing special.  And definitely not accountable or tied to any Creator.  But in fact God gave man a unique sacred crown.  (Psalm 8:4  What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?  Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!  You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.)  People are God’s masterpiece.  The piece de resistance.  Precious image-bearers of the exceedingly great God Who made all things, and Who uniquely made man for a personal relationship with Him.  Everything else God makes in Genesis 1 is in the 3rd person - “let there be, let there be…”  But when it comes time to make man, God ups the ante.  He gets more involved.  Somehow, He puts more of Himself into it.  “Let US make man in Our image…” (1:26).  First person.  God takes man more seriously than anything else in Creation.  And with that God takes the taking of human life very seriously.  God’s penalties for killing a human are qualitatively different than those for killing any other creature.  Gen 9:5-6 “Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man.  Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.”  We’re not taking the time here to discuss capital punishment.  Suffice it to say, man is entirely set apart in the order of God’s creation.  God set man apart and put him in charge (i.e. gave him responsibility).  Note how this plays out in 2:19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.  The Lord actually involves the man in this aspect of the creative process.  Creator God brings all the beasts and birds to the man, and the man uses words (like His Creator) to name the creatures.  And look how God has empowered man in this process - “[whatever] the man called a creature, that was its name.”  No other creature is elevated in this way [Psalm 139:13-14   For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.  I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.].  God gave man a crown.

And don't you know, the world HATES this truth.  It rejects the crown, because it rejects the Creator.  Evolutionism gives man no exalted status - we’re just the latest beneficiaries of an IMpersonal random process.  There’s nothing special about you or me.  No elevation, no expectations - no accountability - cuz that’s how the world wants it.  We’re just highly evolved animals, ipso facto we can just behave/do like the animals whenever the instinct or the feeling comes to us.  Do whatever you want (i.e. live like animals - within “reasonable” limits and when it’s not too impositional).  And the world twists the crown.  Tho the world says there is nothing special about man, about me, the world still makes it all about me [Ezek28; Is14].  It’s hard to handle, the truth about this crown.  God blessed us, showered His breathtaking goodness on us, on people - not so that we would make it all about us but so that we could know Him personally, enjoying and celebrating His glorious goodness, now - and forever.  God gave man a crown.

God also gave man a unique sacred calling.  Genesis 1:26,28 “…let them rule…subdue the earth and rule over it…” These are military terms - conquer then rule.  No other creature is called to this.  2:15  Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. [no other creature creates gardens].  Literally, man is called to serve and to guard God’s creation.  It’s a job, a responsibility.  No other creature does this, they just exist.  They look in a mirror and do what?  They’re born, they reproduce and they die.  Bees make honey.  Cows make milk (and manure)(not ice cream).  But man cultivates!  AND, man creates [well, re-creates] - and appreciates!  We take what God has made - raw materials - and we create something, and THEN we stand back and look at what we made, and admire it.  Wow, that’s pretty good (which is pretty much what the Lord did in 1:31).  Maybe it’s IN a garden - or in a kitchen, or in a studio, or in a workshop, or in a factory, or on paper, or on a computer.  No other creature (re)creates masterpieces like God’s image bearers.  Or admires them.  Skyscrapers, and rocket ships.  Bonsai trees, and gourmet delicacies.  Botanical gardens and master bedrooms.  Bouquets and board games.  Poetry and science fiction.  Symphonies and cinematic universes.  We harness the earth, all our science and technology (engineering, agriculture, medicine, so many other practical fields) for the greater good of all earth’s inhabitants.  At least, that’s our calling.  Cultivate and keep.  God gave man a calling.

And don’t miss the sacredness of this calling.  God put Adam in a place called what?  The garden of God - Ezek 28:13  “You were in Eden, the garden of God…"  It was paradise, it was spectacular, and it was precious - cuz it was all very good, AND it was all God’s stuff.  Still is.  The LIE says, this is MY stuff.  My life.  My precious.  Or maybe it’s nobody’s stuff - finders keepers.  First-come, first-served.  Survival of the fittest.  Dog eat dog.  No, no, no - it’s all God’s stuff.  He’s entrusted all His stuff to you and me - including you and me.  It’s HIS.  All His.  He’s put us in charge, but we’re simply taking care of it.  Ours is a sacred calling.  God’s stuff, His creation, His [creatures]. 

This crown and calling totally is the fountainhead of things like mercy, and justice.  God has called us to take care of His stuff, including and especially to care for and look out for one another.  Our neighbor.  Love.  Next week, we’ll dig deeper into just what man did with his calling, this sacred trust.  But for now, suffice it to say, God has blessed each of us.  Fearfully and wonderfully made.  And why has the glorious God showered so much goodness on us?   [Psalm 67:7  God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.].   It is NOT about us…

*The lack of human contact, and the sensory deprivation that often go with solitary confinement, can have a severe negative impact on a prisoner's mental state^[31] that may lead to certain mental illnesses such as depression, permanent or semi-permanent changes to brain physiology,^[32] an existential crisis,^{[33][34][35][36]} self-harm and death.^[37] Prison inmates assigned to solitary confinement were 3.2 times as likely to commit an act of self-harm.  The United Nations considers solitary confinement exceeding 15 days to be torture

PILLARS 9 - The Glorious God Lives IN Us! (Jn 16.7-14)

The Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity.  He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; and is freely and permanently given to every person who trusts in Christ, sent to glorify Christ by regenerating, indwelling, gifting, guiding, teaching, bearing His fruit in the life of every believer; assuring them of salvation and and empowering them for service and witness.

Last time we looked at the amazing truth that the exceedingly breathtakingly good God WALKS among us.  He was born (yay!), He was crucified dead and buried, and then He was raised up out of the dead.  Never to die again.  And He HAS BEEN raised [perfect tense, with continuing results in the present].  He walked - and IS walking - among us.  Quite literally, in fact - He is walking/living IN us.  Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

This leads us to the next amazing truth which supports and secures our faith.  We rushed right past it.  The almighty infinite eternal Creator God King of the universe somehow lives IN us.  Finite, flawed, frail and fallen, mortal creatures - God comes to make His home in the heart (life!) of every person who believes IN Christ.

Say what?  Christ. Lives. In. Me.  [Really?]

You go up to the average unbeliever and tell them, yeah, Jesus lives IN me.  The Son of God.  The God Who created the universe and everything in it and me and you.  Yeah, the One who died on the cross AND rose up out of the dead, the Messiah.  The One Who is living in heaven and is coming again to judge the whole world and reign as King for a thousand years.  The all-powerful, all-knowing, all loving, perfect holy God.  Yeah, that God - He lives in me.  And they’re gonna be like, right.  Cuz not only does it sound incredibly far-fetched, but words are cheap, and the billion dollar question is, where’s the beef?  Is there any good evidence to support such a claim?  They KNOW it’s way more than a praying a prayer and going to a meeting 1x/wk.

These other pillars we’ve been talking about, they’re more about theology and cosmology, but now we’re talking about current events.  Today.  This is real life, in-the-flesh, verifiable, seeing-is-believing level of conversation.  Where the rubber-meets-the-road.  It’s not discussions of metaphysics and origins, it’s not hermeneutics or catechisms or ancient history.  This is moving-to-Missouri-the-show-me state, put-up-or-shut-up.  "Christ lives in me."  Does He, for real?  The world wants proof.  The world needs proof.  A little bit of proof.  The proof is in the proverbial pudding.  In the tasting.  And we should be able to give it to them.  A taste of Jesus.  Our lives are designed (being redesigned) to give our neighbors and the nations a real good glimpse of Jesus.  John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father.  But the ability to do so doesn’t come from us, or from Jesus BESIDE us… John 14:15-17   “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.  AND I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be IN you.” Jn 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.  Galatians 5:22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The problem with so many religious people is that we’re a lot of talk.  Hot air?  It’s a problem when representing truth.  And it’s not a new problem: i.e. the Pharisees of Jesus day.  Matt 23:23   “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”

The world says the church is full of hypocrites.  People who say one thing, but do another.  Empty words.  Is that a fair statement?  So many name the Name, talk the talk.  We come up with catechisms and statements of doctrinal import.  We say we “love the Lord.”  We show up to meetings.  But what about these weightier provisions Jesus mentions?  Micah 6:8  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  Doing justice.  Loving chesed (grace/mercy).   A humble walk of faith/trust?  These weightier provisions are all about people, how we interact with people, how we love our neighbor.  We come up with all kinds of things we’re against.  The church is real good at that.  But what about the people?  Somehow in all our standing against all the things that are wrong in this world we’re not finding ways to show God’s chesed, His everlasting undeserved love, to our neighbor.  They don’t deserve it, we might say.  But neither do I.  And part of that challenge of love of course is that of loving our enemies, the people who are different than us and who disagree with us.  Love your enemies, Jesus said.

Remember, loving my neighbor is not a question of who is my neighbor, it is a question of humbly showing chesed and pursuing what is right for whoever needs it.  Including those who are different than me, AND those who disagree with me.  We talked before - how hard it is to handle the truth, how even as we talk about God’s truth we need His humility and grace and need to extend it to all people.

And who IS adequate to this?  Just because we start following Jesus, does that mean we automatically live into this call to humbly love our neighbors and our enemies?  Not to mention love one another AND love the Lord with all my heart.  It sounds impossible.  And it is.  Jesus says IF you love Me you will keep My commands.  Those are the top 3 - love the Lord, love your neighbor, and love one another.  If you love ME, you will do these.  And yes they are humanly impossible.  But THEN, He shows us the way to do that.  In fact, He doesn’t just show us the way.  He IS the way.  And this is the entire secret to a successful Christian life: I will give you a Helper…! [Who maybe is a bit like the hyperdrive motivator on the Millenium Falcon - when/if that gets activated, you can actually make the otherwise-impossible jump to light speed]

Christ. Lives. In. Me.  It’s not just some moral code.  Some set of do-rights and don’t-wrongs.  It’s not just ideas in my head.  It’s God almighty in my heart.  It’s a relationship that is every day, every moment.  He is not just Emmanuel-God-with-me in some abstract Christmasy kind of way.  A baby in a manger way back in the boonies of Bethlehem.  He is with you and me always, Holy Spirit, in our hearts.  Today!  He knows what we’re thinking, and feeling.  Today!  And NOT like some invisible roommate.  Better.  This Helper helps unlock supernatural power in our lives!  John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” Ezek. 36:26-27 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The Holy Spirit is God, His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ living in us, and He is the Power Source of the Christian life.  Cuz what we need is not a better creed, a better pillar.  We need power.  We need Help.  1Cor. 4:20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.  The LIE says, you’re no different than anyone else. Or worse. [2Cor 5.17].  Try harder.  Or, fix your doctrine.  Which is certainly important.  But all the things God wants us to do, all His commands - the Spirit is the One Who helps us to know these and to do these.  Eph. 5:18 …be filled with the Spirit…

2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Which leaves us with the question - are you and I asking and trusting the Lord to fill us and empower us with His Spirit?

John 15:26   “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning."

John 16:5   “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged."

Is. 44:3  ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land 

And streams on the dry ground; 

I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring 

And My blessing on your descendants.'