The Overflowing Garden of Eden/Shalom November 11, 2022

[Written on 11-11-22]

The eyes of the LORD go to and fro throughout the whole Earth looking for one whose heart is a tender soil into which He can sow the words of Eternal Life, which is the seed of Agape. If the words sown resonate and are met with a curiosity and openness, the seed takes root, and the residency of God’s Spirit and His Eternal Life and Agape starts to grow inside the person alongside their growing belief, though it starts out just as small as a mustard seed (the smallest of all seeds). As the believer starts to see the world through the Truth, the Spirit confirms his faith and grows it more and more, until finally it becomes a tree so deeply rooted that when the floods come it won’t wash it away, and so large even the birds of the air can rest on its branches. The more the believer abides in the Agape of God, the more he experiences the life of God, aka Eternal Life, aka God’s own Spirit, making him so deeply rooted he is unshakeable and his actions are the same actions that God’s Spirit and Life (which is now coming out of the believer) would do. 

The Agape seed grows an Agape tree which, like a wellspring of living waters welling up into Eternal Life, eventually overflows and bears Agape fruit. The Agape fruit itself has many more Agape seeds within it, which, when consumed and sown into new tender hearts/soils, have the potential of planting new Agape seeds, growing new Agape trees, and bearing new Agape fruit, just as the living waters well up and spill over, and the mustard seed spreads through the garden like a weed, and the yeast spreads through the dough. After all, the world will know we are His disciples by our Agape for one another. 

But the Creator in His love, desires His creation to be the maximum He created it to be, and so, like any gardner, He prunes the branches (He disciplines those whom He loves) so they bear more fruit. And so we will be grown to our maximum design, bearing a hundredfold of fruit, and then we shall all be one: others having Eternal Life through abiding in our Agape, we who have Eternal Life through abiding in Jesus’s Agape, just as Jesus had Eternal Life given to Him from God through abiding in God’s Agape (John 5:26: “For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself”).

And so God’s Spirit will overflow and take root in more and more people’s hearts, growing to bear more and more fruit, until finally He (His Spirit with its Agape and Eternal Life) will reside in the whole Earth in our hearts. Then the world will be as He created it to be: Shalom.

God is a greater reward than what would come from anything else we could pursue October 26, 2022

[Written 102622]

Why do you keep saying you want to be with Me? Stop telling Me that and just be with me. I’m always just one thought away. 

If you really want to be with me so bad, then why aren’t you?  Because of all the stuff you have to do? So then, all those things you need to do are what you REALLY want, and then you also want to be with Me, but just when it’s convenient and fills in the cracks in your schedule, as the leftovers. 

You want to be with Me, but what you really want are the things that doing the things you’re doing will get you: the reward of all these things you’re doing. But don’t you think that I’m a greater reward than whatever reward you’ll ever get from those things? 

What are you really doing these things for? 

Significance?  What could be more significant than being known intimately by the Creator of the world? Certainly not being best friends with the President or Paul McCartney or Tim Keller or Tony Robbins or whoever. 

Love and connection? What human being could ever love you unconditionally? And yet I love you unconditionally, because I know and understand why you’ve done everything you’ve ever done, and see your shortcomings based on your limited knowledge and strength and love you for who you are, in spite of all your shortcomings. No one else could ever love you that much, because no one could ever know why you do what you do like I do. And further more I’m the one that created you! So I love you greater than a parent loves their child, which is the strongest natural love on the planet. A parent doesn’t design and plan the DNA of their child, and yet I do. I love you more than any conditional lover or any passive child-bearer. 

Certainty? All resources of money, jobs, assets, real estate, and possessions can all be taken from you in a moment in this life by conscious and unconscious acts of nature, and even your very life with all its resources. You need a certainty that can take care of all your needs by manifesting resources from nothing, inspiring the hearts and minds of humans to give you the things you need, and a certainty of security and safety for your very soul when your Earthly life is through and you can’t touch any resources and are completely at the mercy of the spiritual realm… this is the kind of certainty only I can give you, and no other can. 

Variety? Who inspired the men of history with whatever strokes of genius, creativity, and artistry they manifested? They were seeking My mind for ideas to be given to them from the infinite ether of new possibilities beyond their own normal scope of thought. The world has never even seen a fraction of a percent of all the ideas in My mind, that is infinitely advanced beyond whatever greatest ideas have come through man so far. The greatest things on Earth, the greatest music, stories, films, foods, adventures — the highest possible variety that this Earth can offer — all came from My mind and I have even greater ideas than all of that. I already know what it will look like and I can tell you the best is surely to come. Pursue Me and My mind, which is THE SOURCE of variety, and all the best ideas and adventures will be given to you. For what adventure could be greater than one that is the most fulfilling for how you were designed, and only I know how you were designed and what circumstances in life will bring out the best in you, and also only I know what mission in life will make you feel the best, be the most fulfilling, and the most impactful, as tailored to your design and plan. 

Our Existence Proves God Loves Us October 22, 2022

[Written on 102322]

People can say that certain things are not planned by God, such as extreme evil and violence in the world, and that’s reasonable since it seems inconsistent with God’s nature, desire for the world, and plan. 

But at least one thing is impossible to say that God wasn’t behind it, and that’s the creation of the universe. It’s one thing that clearly is impossible to have made itself or come about naturally, and so God HAD to have done it. God doesn’t need anything, is completely content in Himself, and yet He made the universe. He didn’t have to, but He chose to, because obviously it was something He desired to do that brought Him pleasure. And so He is pleased by the universe, because it exists and must have been chosen to be made because it brought Him pleasure. He desired it, and since it’s still here He STILL desires it, because it brings Him pleasure and delight, and His desire for it is also love for it. And so because the universe is here, it proves he loves the universe.

Likewise, YOU being part of His Creation were made by Him, though He didn’t have to, but He chose to, because YOU bring Him pleasure too! He had a desire to make the universe, and then desired to keep building on that universe until He used it to make you. He wants you here, has desire for you to be here, because you’re here. If he didn’t want you here then He wouldn’t have chosen for you to be here. And that desire for your existence is also His delight, which is also love.

And especially as intricate as human beings are, and seemingly impossible to have evolved by random chance, perhaps more than any other creature, humans have clearly come into existence because God chose for them to be here. He laboriously worked to bring them here, spent all that design and work to bring them here because He REALLY wanted them to be here, had a STRONG desire for their existence, because they bring Him GREAT delight— He LOVES them: the idea of them, the design of them, the experience of them, the relationship with them. And YOU are one of them! So by you — the most elaborate piece of all Creation — simply being here (as impossible as it seems) it proves how much God wants you here, and obviously delights in you and loves you. 

The Journey To Happiness September 29, 2022

[Written on 92822]

The journey to living in happiness is many steps, but the good thing is that once you’re there, it’s many steps away from happiness. When you’ve finally entered your destination of happiness, then from there the journey to anger is many steps. And if you take a step away from happiness into the direction of anger or sadness it’s only one step back. If you take three steps away from happiness, then it’s only three steps back to it. In this way, you can be living in anger or sadness, and you may get a sudden, surprise surge of happiness and feel great, but you’re still living in anger or sadness, and soon you’re back to anger or sadness. But if you take the necessary steps, sometimes a long, arduous journey required to reach a state or life of happiness, then you may have sudden, surprise surges of sadness or anger, but it’s just one step back to happiness. Once you’re there, then it would be a long, arduous journey back to living in anger or sadness, and at that point, that is a journey TOO long and TOO arduous. 

The human brain and mind and heart are malleable, one step at a time being conditioned in one direction or the other. The more conscious choices we make and steps we take toward a desired state of being the harder it is to move away from it. The neural pathways in the brain are constantly being paved to make what we feel more of what we feel. If the neural pathways to happiness are constantly a rough, gravel or dirt road, then it’s more difficult to experience those feelings, but the more we make choices that pave that rough gravel road, eventually it becomes a fast highway, where happiness is our default mode of feeling, coming to us without trying.  It’s all in how we condition our minds and hearts and brains to interpret the data around us to have a certain meaning: a meaning of happiness or a meaning of sadness, anger, fear, etc. 

The Peculiar Tree September 21, 2022

[Written on 91922]

In the forest were many trees, constantly in the process of evolution: growing, procreating, mutating, adapting, diversifying with small, gradual changes over time in a way that the forest could healthily feed and grow and cultivate. 

But one day in the midst of the young trees, there was a tree that was extremely different than the others, a mutant that was far beyond normal mutation and evolution. As the tree entered its adolescence its mutation became more pronounced so that it became an oddity that started attracted curiosity and attention from the rest of the forest. As creatures and plants were attracted to the adolescent tree it benefited from the extra nutrients that came with the other life that was attracted to it, getting extra water, nutrients, warmth, care, help and love. With the extra life that was absorbed from life being attracted to this spectacle in the forest, the adolescent tree had an abnormal growth spurt and within only 2 years it became one of the biggest trees in the forest. Now it was even more of a spectacle, an oddity, and an attraction. The rest of the forest was mesmerized by it and its life was attracted to the young, huge tree giving it even more life and growth.

But the problem is that the tree, while growing higher and higher so that it resembled a mature, adult tree above ground, was actually still just an adolescent tree on the inside, and didn’t have a firm, solid core inside that only comes from years of seasons of sap gradually growing the bark season after season, cycle after cycle, year after year. What’s more, is this gigantic tree, while one of the biggest in the forest and getting so much life from the forest, was actually struggling to stand up, for its roots hadn’t had time to grow down in the same proportion that it was shooting up. Like the bark and core of the tree, this adult looking tree was being supported by adolescent roots. 

What’s worse than all that, is that the forest which was giving so much life to the peculiar tree inadvertently, now that it appeared to be huge, and healthy, and abundant and rich from its outward appearance, the forest that was so mesmerized by this spectacle now was going to it not just to admire it and give it nurturing, but now to syphon off bits of its life, as they saw it as a great source of life. And after all, the one thing all life is designed to be attracted to more than anything else is the increase of life: survival and abundance. 

Within two years of becoming one of the biggest trees in the forest, the peculiar, adolescent tree had not become the BIGGEST tree in the forest, but ironically it was now struggling to survive and showing signs of dying, not just plateau, or being stunted, but it was actually decaying from the inside out. The outside which looked so full of life, was now being seen for what it actually was on the inside all along, as the decay from the inside spread to the outer bark causing the bark to decay and the sickness inside split open the weak skin to expose itself. The forest who had been so attracted to the oddity and then the abundance of the peculiar tree now was terrified of it like a plague, fearing its contagion and left it, except for those who saw the signs of its decay and imminent demise and greedily wanted to get whatever abundant life it still had to give them before it was completely dead and gone. 

Now with the decay combining with the already weak roots, without enough time to grow strong enough to hold the tree up, and with the support of the forest abandoning what life was left of the peculiar tree, it couldn’t hold itself up and it fell.  It fell hard and fast, fell just as abnormally fast as it grew up. And the crash of it resounded through the entire forest, and the forest wept for the tree, and thought of it ever after, its peculiar death making the memory of the tree even that much more an oddity, a spectacle, and a peculiarity. 

And so they say: the bigger they are, the harder they fall, and also the least resistance to falling they have. Let us neither give too much popularity to the peculiar trees (lest they grow too fast for their own lives to catch up), nor greedily assume and prey upon the appearance of their abundance, neither abandon them when the manifestation of their abnormality catches up with them in disease, nor aspire to be those peculiar trees ourselves, which grew faster than they were supposed to, against the normal design of life and growth, and so became a tragic memory of how not to be.

*This is based on the tragic career of Nirvana

“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen: Following The Life of David December 9, 2019

If all the known verses of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” were to continue the story of King David as overtly as the first verse, the song could be interpreted as something like the following verses. Compare them with the original lyrics I put at the bottom of this post. Each verse gets closer inside the life of David as it goes from third person to second person to first person narrative.

VERSE 1: King David played his lyre and composed music for the LORD in a way that pleased Him so greatly that, in a mysterious way, his angelic-sounding music moved the supernatural realm and moved God to suppress demons. David tapped into the beautiful, angelic patterns God created within music theory of the fourth, the fifth, and the beauties of major and minor, dark and light, reminiscent of the joyous and sad seasons in life, but God is glorified and can be worshiped in it all (which foreshadows the ups and downs of his life explained in the coming verses). This mysterious, worshipful experience of music transcends David into the spirit realm to connect with God, leaving him in a state of baffled euphoria in His presence.

VERSE 2: But when God gave him rest on all sides, he started to become complacent and the impenetrable faith of his youth developed holes and he became more casual about his relationship with God and keeping His Law and became prideful, which always comes before a fall. In this state of disconnect from God he wasn’t strong enough to withstand the temptation of moonlight lust on his rooftop which resulted in adultery with Bathsheba,  David’s “great sin.” Because of this great evil, God cursed David so that his royal throne was broken, he lost his power and had to flee for his life from his son Absalom, all for a lustful night of euphoric indulgence. He traded the euphoric “Hallelujah” of worshiping God for a euphoric “Hallelujah” of selfish, carnal indulgence.

VERSE 3: When confronted about it by his first wife Michal, David recounts how their childless marriage had been threatened from the beginning and their love quickly turned cold and distant, and certainly wasn’t any warmer now that they were finally back together in safety, albeit through David’s force. This coldness and lack of love incited David’s lustful eyes to look for something more. And whether leading the triumphant troops home in a victory march under the royal banner of Saul’s house on the marble arch or leading the ark of the covenant triumphantly back home under the scathing eyes of Michal, Saul’s daughter, the joy of those victories was always tainted by the lingering curse of the royal family of Saul overlooking and antagonizing all that David did. Instead of David’s home life being as joyous as his victories, it was cold and broken and marked by the pain of obedience to God to do the right thing toward Saul’s family.

VERSE 4: David is broken in repentance and sings to God in Psalm 51 begging Him to not take away His holy spirit from him and restore their relationship to the way it used to be when God’s spirit was moving in him, showing him what to do, and God was with him in everything he did, glorifying Himself through David.

VERSE 5: It’s ironic that the third of the Ten Commandments is to not take the name of the Lord in vain, but it’s a name that isn’t even spoken and modern Jews don’t even know how to pronounce it; perhaps it was so even in David’s time, and they didn’t know exactly what God’s name was that was revealed to Moses.  With David’s pride resulting in his backsliding, he became lax concerning the Law of God (as evidenced in the mishandling of the ark) and perhaps this included the third of the Ten Commandments, to the point that the holiness of God’s name was forgotten, maybe even influenced by the rough-around-the-edges military companions he surrounded himself with (Joab seems to loosely use the LORD’s name in vain in 2 Sam. 19:7), which certainly wasn’t helped by the doubts and disconnect he felt from God in fleeing for his life — unlike his previous fleeing from Saul, this time fleeing because of his great sins. But even in David’s sins, he still had a core, loving relationship and understanding of God’s grace and heart that overshadowed the Law and his sins (as mentioned in Psalm 51). Saul was instantly removed from being king for not following a specific military command of God, while David did far graver sins and God instantly forgave him (notwithstanding consequences) and He continued orchestrating things to establish David’s legacy for centuries, because David was after God’s heart. It’s this understanding of the heart of God and the Law that allowed David to see the bigger picture and get away with breaking other holy laws like lying to eat the holy, consecrated bread. He understood that God wanted more than just specific rules followed, God wants to be in everything we do and are. More than revering specific laws or a specific name for God as holy, God’s blazing light is in every single word, the holy and the broken words, indeed He is not just in the holy sacrifices and rituals, but in everything in life, the happy and sad things. (“For you do not desire sacrifice or I would give it… My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit,” Ps. 51) “I broke a rule, so what? God is bigger than the rules, he wants our hearts.”

VERSE 6: Even after David’s repentance, God fulfills His prophecy by Nathan the prophet of “the sword never departing from David’s house” when Absalom rises against him. David doubts God’s promises to him and even if God is with him or there at all. He laments that all he’s known from his loved ones (family, friends, in-laws, children) is strife and having to watch his back and literally be prepared to defend his life from someone who suddenly rises up against him. But even in the midst of his life’s tragedies, he was still singing his psalms to the Lord, finding a way to praise Him for His providence and trusting Him to fulfill His promises. Albeit, his Hallelujahs are sung from a sorrowful state of humble, faithful obedience, rather than from joyful exultation, in the midst of external pain and somber repentance.

VERSE 7: Yet at the end of his life, a life of unimaginable conflict, he’s able to say, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress (1 Kings 1:29)” and in his final words he recounts, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; His word was on my tongue (2 Samuel 23:2).” He dies without feeling regrets, thankful to God for forgiving him of his sins in His grace and for the promise He upheld to establish his throne forever. “Is not my house firm before God? He has made an eternal covenant with me, set forth in detail and secured. Will he not bring to fruition all my salvation and my every desire? (2 Sam. 23:5)”  Again, David is seeing the bigger picture: God is the Lord of Song, creator and sustainer of all music, and so David finally finds himself back in the spiritual state of Verse 1 and uses God’s creation to connect with Him, moving in Him, and once again “Hallelujah” being in every breath he draws. 

---

---

 

ORIGINAL LYRICS OF “HALLELUJAH” BY LEONARD COHEN:

[Verse 1]
Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing “Hallelujah”
[Chorus]
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 2]
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 3]
Baby I’ve been here beforeI know this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 4]
There was a time you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 5]
You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light in every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 6]
Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 7]
I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

 

**Author’s note: I don’t actually think this song is intended to be interpreted as one continuous story about the David narrative (or any other continuous story for that matter), as Leonard Cohen wrote 80 verses for it and whittled it down to the above verses. It’s abstract and he probably just picked the most interesting verses, although I do think that observing the song exclusively from the David context is a very moving perspective and more captivating than the more likely interpretation of a modern relationship struggle that just invokes Biblical metaphors. Regardless of the different interpretations, I’d say this is easily among the top ten most intriguing songs ever written by human beings.

What does it really mean to love YHWH with all your heart? January 5, 2023

[Written on David Day 2023, 1/4/23]

First of all, I don’t know that it ever just says “heart” except in conjunction with “mind” and “soul” — and Jesus adds “strength” (as One who only has authority to add something to the greatest commandment), so perhaps really it’s just loving YHWH with ALL of your whole BEING or EXISTENCE. Which is interesting since the very word YHWH means existence — the eternally existent being. 

To understand what YHWH really wanted when He commanded to love Him with all our being is to understand who YHWH is in the first place. For how can we love someone we don’t know or even know about? 

Before there was the Hebrew language with its Hebrew word for existence by which God could give the Hebrews a name for Himself —YHWH— He was just the eternally existent one, and existence itself. The existence of everything that has been or could be, within the entire universe or without the entire universe. 

But the greatest command “to love YHWH” was given by God to Earthlings upon the Earth with an Earthly perspective and an Earthly relationship to Him. So regardless of anything God is or has been through the entire universe in all of existence, who God is (as much as it is relevant to us) is almost exclusively as He pertains to the Earth and who He is in relation to the Earth, from an Earthly perspective. Thus to obey this command to love YHWH is to obey it as an Earthling would, as it pertains to the relationship between God and Earthlings.  (And of the Earthlings, God revealed himself most explicitly to the Hebrews in a Hebrew way using Hebrew language (and surely somehow in accordance with Hebrew culture), so that they could truly know and love Him, in a way that was most natural for them.) 

What is our knowledge and experience of God from an Earthling perspective? He is the Creator of the Earth. We don’t really know anything else about Him except what has been revealed to humans from His Divine Revelation, and that being specifically as He relates to the Earth and its creatures (which He created). 

So YHWH is really a Hebrew name given to the supernatural Deity who created Earth. In His most basic characteristic as it pertains to Earthlings, He is simply the Creator of Earth — all of creation with all its creatures (which includes us). 

So if the most basic characteristic of YHWH is that He is the Creator of all Earthly creation and creatures, then to love YHWH is to love the Creator of Earth. 

What is it to love the Creator of Earth? Somehow loving a cosmic force we can’t see or experience in daily reality? We can really only love Him as much as we can know Him, which is only as much as we can experience Him in our Earthly reality. 

So we love Him for what He is and was before any Divine Revelation was given — The Creator — the certain creative force of Earth and all the universe. We love God because we experience His creation, and to the degree that we love creation for all the ways it makes us feel pleasure, so we love the source of creation which is the source of our pleasure. We are creatures designed to feel pleasure from creation into which we were created and which we were created for. Our response to feeling pleasure is to love the thing which created our pleasure. So we love sunshine, good food, coffee, sex, funny animals, wonder-inspiring imagination, and profound philosophies. They gives us pleasure and so we call them good and we love them. Naturally we wonder where those things came from in the first place, and our love for those things extends to the creator of those things, who is surely as good as the good creation He chose to make which gives us pleasure. 

We ourselves are part of that good creation (which we have called “good” because it gives us pleasure) so likewise we are good because we are pleasure-producing creations. Because it is our very bodies, hearts, and minds which are the actual things producing the hormones which give us pleasure (not the things in creation themselves). So we feel the love of our Creator for us because our bodies produce pleasure hormones, and He created us and our pleasure-producing functions, and so we love Him for it being the ultimate source of our pleasure. Our love bypasses creation to the Creator of creation who created our bodies which feel pleasure and who also created the creation which interacts with our experience to release the pleasure.

It’s hard to love the Creator for who He is in concept alone. It is when the concepts of His infinite power, knowledge, presence, and love are displayed for us experientially through His interactions with our Earthly reality that we come into awe, wonder, marvel, and love. It’s our awe of creation that extends to having awe for the Creator of creation. It’s the love we feel for creation that extends to having love for the Creator of that creation. We are in awe of the Creator’s infinite power, knowledge, presence, and love from what we see in our natural Earthly experience, and also this is magnified through Divine Revelation. 

Whatever love we can have for the Creator from our natural experience alone, it is magnified by Divine Revelation which clearly communicates how the Creator interacts on a supernatural level with His Earthly creation— through providential actions, prophetic words, supernatural dreams and visions, and miracles.  

Whatever nature of the Creator we can ascertain through natural experience and logic, it is through the written record of the Bible that we know more clearly the nature of the Creator through the recorded events and words attributed to Him. 

We read about God’s creation of the world, how He interacts with His Earthling creatures, how He expressly says how much He loves us all and then proves it by His supernatural actions. Now we have glasses by which we can read nature to clearly see what were previously only assumptions. We knew God loved us from the pleasure He created us to experience, but now with Divine Revelation we have Him actually telling us He loves us and showing us in actual history. 

So to love YHWH with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength is to love the Creator of Earth with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. 

What is the Creator’s desire, as it pertains to our Earthly world and us as His Earthlings He created? Obviously His greatest desire, as it pertains to us, is for us to be what He created us for. So to show love to our Creator, we be what He created us to be. 

Therefore, to love YHWH with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength is simply to BE what He created us to be with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. 

God is not some kind of mythological deity sitting on some magical golden throne somewhere up there in space or another dimension. He existed long before any creatures or cultures or languages or religions or rituals. And so His desire for us loving Him isn’t us following some cosmic rule book or magic rituals or religion to please Him. Before He gave Moses the Law, and before He gave him the Hebrew name YHWH, He was what He always had been for Earth’s existence: the Creator of Earth. So the truest way to love the Creator of Earth is to be in alignment with what He created you to be, which is also to be in alignment with all His creation. 

This is Shalom. ALL of creation with all its creatures interacting in harmony. Human beings being what they were each individually created to be by their Creator with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. Loving all creation around them (which they were designed to do) with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength — which is inadvertently loving the Creator who made and loves that creation. And then also our love for creation extending to the source of creation, which is its Creator, to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.  

There’s no way around it. Loving YHWH with ALL your heart, mind, soul, and strength is an interdependent love fully involving the love of Creator, creature, and creation with all being (heart, mind, soul, and strength). 

The Meaning Of Life April 24, 2019

The Meaning of Life. What is the perfect center of God‘s will for our lives?

Well, what did God create human beings for in the first place? He created human beings and all the animals and the very Earth itself for one specific reason: because he wanted to. Just because he got pleasure from creating people and animals and planets. He created people to be people and animals to be animals. Like any artist, he got a block of marble with which to sculpt the ideal form in his head into a physical form. He is fulfilled as a Creator by simply beholding us as his artistic creation.

He created a perfectly harmonious, utopian ecosystem with all of God’s creation feeling maximum pleasure by doing what it was created to do and simultaneously giving God maximum pleasure by His creation doing what it was created to do. And being consistent with the ideal of perfect creation, He created everything to last forever, to have eternal life.

But these self-conscious, autonomous creatures, human beings – being perfectly created with free will beyond just animalistic instincts – eventually chose to do things inconsistent with God‘s ideal blueprint for His ecosystem. By choosing to go about life away from God’s way mankind distanced itself from its very life source and the very thing which would bring it maximum fulfillment. And so their eternal life was cut off and they eventually died in this original utopia.

But the Creator loved the world that He had created and wanted it to be as perfect as it originally was – an eternally-existing, maximally healthy ecosystem. So He promised mankind that He would renew the corrupted world and start over yet again, but this time He would resurrect mankind in spiritual bodies that wouldn’t be subject to physical death. He promised to give this eternal life to anyone who wants to live forever with Him in His perfected creation, as He originally intended.

God then gave us proof that He would follow through with His promise of eternal life when He became a physical man on Earth (who was known as Jesus of Nazareth), died an undeniable, physical death witnessed by many, and then was resurrected in a spiritual body with the very eternal life He promised.

He displayed this spiritual body and the proof of this resurrected, eternal life to many people in the area where He died (Israel about 2000 years ago). But we today have even greater proof of this promise of eternal life than people did in the first century. We can look back through history and see that there was clearly a supernatural power spreading this proclamation of eternal life throughout the modern world, which only confirmed the reality of this good news. The message started in an overlooked city, from an oppressed people group, conflicted with the ruling Empire’s beliefs, was persecuted by the Emperor himself who was trying to erase it, and still the message passively spread through the entire empire (without the use of authority or force) until, against all odds, the Emperor himself believed it within 250 years of the message’s beginning. There’s no explanation for something like that happening.

And so here we are today, with the hope of our own resurrection and eternal life. But this new eternal life is not dependent on us obeying God‘s ideal blueprint for living, it’s a supernatural, free gift extended to anyone who believes and asks God for it. Now we are truly free to give God maximum pleasure by being the human beings that He created us to be, humans that are as healthy physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually as possible, living as close to His ideal design as possible, pursuing our passions and talents all out, but also without the risk and fear of breaking his rules and thus losing his favor, life, and love.

But God isn’t going to force His generous, sacrificial gift of eternal life on anyone. People that don’t want to be resurrected, don’t want to live forever, don’t want to be as healthy and fulfilled as possible, don’t want to be with their source of eternal life – ie, God – don’t have to be, and God won’t give those people eternal life after they die.

This is the meaning of life, the perfect center of God’s will for our lives: being what God originally created us to be, being as human as possible, being as fulfilled and healthy as possible in every area, and having eternal life. This is what gives God the most glory possible.

​(Written Easter 2019, as inspired by an interview with Rich Mullins)

The Greatest Bliss In Life: January 20, 2019

The greatest bliss in life: when the plans of man and the purpose of the LORD intersect. (Prov. 19:21)

Not a single soul on planet earth can tell you what this exactly looks like. You’re the only one who knows yourself well enough to know, and you’re the only one who can perceive and feel what God’s revealing to you personally. Maybe it’s impossible to ever know His specific purpose for your life for sure, but you just have to take a risk and dive head first, 100% into what you believe God’s individual mission is for you.  No one on Earth knows your purpose more than you and God, thus no one on Earth can tell you your purpose except you and God. Not one other single person in all of history has ever had exactly the same purpose as you in the same way as you, because there has never, ever been a person in all of history who is exactly the same as you.

The Secret Of David January 5, 2017

[Based on the re-revelation I had on 12-11-15]

 

1 Chronicles 29:28
Then [David] died in a ripe old age, full of days, riches and honor; and his son Solomon reigned in his place.

 

PREMISE:

 

Quite an unexpected ending for a young shepherd boy from a poor family. Why was David handpicked from every other person in the whole country and lavished such blessings upon? What was that shepherd boy doing that should catch the eyes of the Lord?

2 Chronicles 16:9 says “the eyes of the LORD run throughout all the Earth looking for one whose heart is perfect toward Him,” and David was said to be “perfect in heart” (1 Kings 11:4). But what is it to be perfect in heart?*

I think God Himself answers this when Jesus was asked which commandment was the highest priority:
“Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength:” this is the first commandment.’” Mark 12:29-30

In the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Psalms you can clearly see that David truly, authentically, passionately, unabashedly loved God with all his heart, fulfilling the greatest commandment and counting him as “perfect in heart” in God’s eyes. Perhaps David kept that first commandment better than anyone else in Israel, which is why when the LORD said he was looking for a man perfect in heart (and the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole Earth), he picked David over everyone else in Israel.

Further than that, when you look at his words and actions toward God throughout his life he had a more passionate love for God than can be seen in anyone else in the whole Bible. If the Bible highlights the greatest people in history, and David displayed more love for God than anyone else in the Bible, perhaps David loved God more than anyone else in history.  This must be why God blessed him so much, possibly blessing him more than anyone else in history. I mean, a poor boy with zero credentials for royalty is anointed king overnight and singled out to be the ancestor of the Messiah; what could be more of a blessing than that? God honored David further by picking his hometown of Bethlehem to be the one that God as the Messiah would be born in, and God even inspired the prophets to write about the coming Messiah under the name “David,” and Jesus (God Himself) was called “son of David.”

Is that really all God wants of us and all it takes for God to lavish His blessings on us? Simply loving God? David and Jesus seem to agree. That is the #1 thing God is longing for and searching for, in fact, the specific thing He created us for. And most would say that they do love God, but then why aren’t they receiving blessings like David did?  The crux here is loving the LORD with ALL your heart.

Who do you know that is actually loving the LORD with all their heart? All their heart. As in, the love of God is the top priority in every choice they make, the source and goal of every decision, from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep. Living like that would look like how David lived: expressing your intimate, unabashed, uncontainable love for God visibly – in his case with singing and writing and dancing. He didn’t care what anyone else thought; people’s opinions were less a concern to him than God’s opinion. And his love for God was unshakeable, even in the most overwhelming of times, such as in the midst of war.

David orchestrated every aspect of his life around keeping that greatest commandment, and possibly kept it better than anyone else in Israel, so that when the eyes of the LORD ran to and fro throughout all the Earth looking for a perfect heart, he found one–David. Then God re-orchestrated all David’s unlikely surroundings to raise him up as His instrument.

Acts 13:22: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who shall do all my will.”

After he was anointed by Samuel, God providentially orchestrated things to get David into the palace as a court minstrel, then to get him to come to the battle and fight Goliath which won him the favor of the whole country and got him into the army.

After killing Goliath, 1 Samuel 18:14 says, “David was prospering in all his ways for the Lord was with him. When Saul saw that he was prospering greatly, he dreaded him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, and he went out and came in before them…David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul. So his name was highly esteemed.”

David perhaps loved God more than anyone else and thus “behaved himself more wisely than anyone else,” and so God blessed David more than anyone else, giving him an entire kingdom and riches and protection, and most importantly a covenant that the Messiah would come through him. I don’t think God will use anyone exactly the same way he used David, but God raised him up as an example for all the world to see how much He’ll bless the person who simply loves Him with all his heart and mind and strength. God blessed David in specific ways that would bring Himself maximum glory–in obvious, tangible ways (like riches and royalty) so that the Secret of David could be clearly understood by Israel and the surrounding pagan nations, as well as all following generations.**

Isaiah 55:2– “Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David. Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.”

I’m not talking about loving God in some mysterious, intangible, impalpable, philosophical, theological sense. We need to love the LORD with a love that’s just as visceral as any other kind of love in existence. This is what God wants from us. Not just the kind of love we have for a friend or a father or a mentor, but if we truly love something with all our heart–actually love something with all our heart–then that means it’s the strongest love possible, as strong as the love of a blinding romance which every single aspect of one’s life channels into.

GK Chesterton points out that the extreme display of St. Francis’s love for God had all the same signs of romantic, puppy love: losing appetite and sleep, looking for every opportunity to tell someone of their Lover, relating every experience of life back to their Lover, doing embarrassing things for their Lover’s sake, sacrificing everything for their Lover, even life itself. Perhaps St. Francis was one of the few humans that realized the Secret of David — ie, what the Greatest Commandment really entailed — and maybe that’s why he was one of the most blessed of Christian saints in history, even being the initial recipient of stigmata.

So if this is what loving God with all your heart looks like, then who of us is even close to being perfect in heart?  What pastors or priests out there have that kind of visible love and trust?  I don’t see them. Do they show the signs of puppy love? Sure they love God, but not as much as they love their families or using their talents. What would happen if we actually loved God more than being an artist or a writer or a pastor or a missionary or a social worker? Would the very fabric of our natural realm be ripped open allowing the supernatural to reign freely through us? Is it even possible for us to have that kind of love?  Yes, at least one man has already done it, and he was also an artist, writer, pastor, missionary, leader, warrior, etc.

 

APPLICATION:

 

If the greatest commandment really is to love the LORD with all your heart, mind, and strength, and your blessings from God are on the line, then why aren’t we throwing everything else out the window?*** We should throw out anything that could possibly hinder us from loving God. Throw out even the things that could lead to the things that hinder us from loving God. Why aren’t we re-orienting every single, minute detail of our lives to all be for the sake of keeping that commandment?****

We need to stop what we’re doing right now, sit down, clear our minds, humbly open our hearts, and ask God to show us how we can best love Him. What does He want us to do for him to show Him how much we love Him? If we don’t feel love for Him, what things can we do to stimulate and cultivate the feeling of love for God? Yes, we must humble ourselves and ask God to guide our minds to analyze every single detail of our lives with painful scrutiny, being willing to change anything that God brings to our heart and mind that seems opposed to the love of God.

Throw out all your desires and ways of life– career, security, romance, sex, pleasure– until only He is left, and then ask what is genuinely for His best. Only do according to that which loves the LORD to the maximum. If being in a romantic relationship waters down your love for God you should end or change that relationship and stop settling for a watered-down affection toward God. We need to do everything within our power to love God.

There’s no way to escape this being a scary exercise, for as soon as you’re willing to “throw out all your desires and ways of life” you’re instantly risking them not coming back into your life, which means potentially hurting people. But take heart! You’re throwing them out in order to love God to the maximum, and loving God to the maximum is simultaneously loving His world to the maximum. But it’s almost certain that in order to truly love other people and do what’s honestly best for them (and you) you will need to alter some relationships, because almost everybody has unhealthy relationships. It’s just the truth, and the hard, honest, but rewarding, reality of loving God with all your heart.

And as we proactively take the necessary steps every moment of every day to cultivate that feeling and mindset and action of love (heart, mind, and strength), God will take care of every single thing we need. Our responsibility is to love Him with all our heart and mind and strength; God will take care of the rest. [Matthew 6:33- Seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will fall into place.]

1 Chronicles 29:28: “And [David] died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor.”

I’m not saying God is going to reward our love in the exact same way he did for David, or that anyone will be blessed exactly the same way. God blessed David in specific ways for a specific purpose that brought Him maximum glory–in obvious, tangible ways that would be understood by Israel and the surrounding pagan nations, as well as all following generations (Isaiah 55). But I am saying that God will bless us as much as he blessed David if we love God as much as David did; He’ll bless us in the way that brings Him the most glory (as can possibly be seen in the life of St. Francis).

So what’s stopping you from living a life like David and being used by God to the maximum? What’s holding you back from experiencing God’s providence as He supernaturally opens doors, brings people into your path, and orchestrates the world around you to produce the maximum fruit from your life? Why are you withholding from yourself the best life possible?

Oh, what would happen if even one of us truly sacrificed every self-seeking pursuit to love God as much as is humanly possible? To put His interest at the forefront of every decision, becoming a true instrument in His hand? I have never seen it. People always compromise the love of God for romance or career or self pleasure of some sort. When in reality all they’re doing is sacrificing the greater pleasure of feeling the euphoria of God’s love and providence for a lesser euphoria of romance or entertainment or comfort. But romance or entertainment or comfort won’t fill you with a love that transcends this world, nor can they miraculously orchestrate the world to bless you and use you to your maximum.

What could possibly be better than being at the center of God’s will, feeling Him in the room with you, feeling His overwhelming love, knowing He’ll provide all your needs forever, witnessing Him orchestrating circumstances around you, and experiencing Him using you to do providential, supernatural things? What is there in the whole world that’s better than the feeling of being spiritually detached, that is, detached from the world and all its dangers and resting on a separate plain of existence with God in 100% peace, joy, and love? No temporal danger can touch that eternal bliss.

Again, I ask, what’s keeping you from having the best life possible? It’s because you aren’t loving the LORD your God with all your heart and your mind and your strength.

God probably won’t give you a kingdom and supernatural powers for battle like he chose to do with David, but He could!  And you can experience just as much of the love and presence and providence of God. And if you are being used by God just as much as David, then it doesn’t matter what that actually looks like, it’ll feel the exact same inside.

 

---

 

Pt. 2 on Trusting God, as stemming from the love of a perfect heart.

 

1 John 4:18: “Perfect love casts out fear.”

If you really believe someone loves you, then you automatically really trust them, because you know that person wants your best. And if that person who wants your best is omnipotent, then nothing can stop Him from lavishing His love on you and taking care of every single need you have.

David is the perfect model of this understanding, and looking at his life just shows how far we have to go toward having a perfect heart. If anyone thinks he’s close to having the love and faith of David, he should measure himself against the story of David and Goliath. Can you really say you would single-handedly go up against a professional warrior with an army behind him, and boast about how God’s going to enable you to cut off his head and conquer their whole army–when you’re only holding a slingshot? That’s insane. Suicidal. No one in Israel’s army would even face Goliath, much less with a slingshot, much less boast about killing him with ease, much less conquering the whole army! He literally had the most trust in God of anyone in the whole country.  And that trust was the result of a love for God just as outrageous. He was incensed at the enemy’s taunts against his God, whom he knew and loved so much, and he knew he had to fight for the honor of his Love. Insane, suicidal love and trust. That’s what it takes to be perfect in heart.

Is it even possible to get into a car wreck and not have a single worry, but only have trust and joy that that event is part of God’s plan for your good? Yes. I’ve personally done that. But is it possible to not have one single worry in the face of something as extreme as death? Paul said, when confronted with the threat of imprisonment:
“I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 21:13)

And David didn’t seem to even have a slight doubt; if he had, he wouldn’t have been so matter-of-fact in his threats against the Philistines. David wasn’t saying something like, “Even if God doesn’t deliver us from the fiery furnace we still won’t bow down to the idol,” he was saying “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:45)

That seems like insane, unrealistic, illogical, suicidal trust in God. And trust that extreme shows just how extreme David’s love was. It shows what it actually looks like to love God with all your heart, and shows how we aren’t even close to really loving God. It also shows the intensity of love that God expects of us and is worthy of. After all, Jesus said it was the first and greatest commandment, which may seem like an unrealistic thing to command, but then again Jesus Himself commanded, “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

But this is the way the Christian life is supposed to be! No wonder the world is on a seemingly irredeemable course, exponentially imploding every second, when God’s agents in this world (commissioned with the restoration of all things, supposedly infilled with supernatural power) are still struggling with the same mundane trials as the world. Especially when we know full well the exponential restoration that could be happening, and is expected of us, as was clearly shown in the book of Acts.

We often look up to David and Paul and St. Francis and Mother Teresa more like legends than role-models. But the truth is that all of us are supposed to be living with the same amount of love they exemplified in their lives. All of us can (and are supposed to) live exciting, adventurous, miraculous, supernaturally-empowered, supernaturally-led lives that will be used by God as His means to save the whole world.

 

---

 

CONCLUSION

 

The Secret of David: If you prioritize to really keep the greatest commandment, to love God with all your heart, as David did, God will bless you like David. 

So why is this a secret? I mean, God certainly wasn’t hiding the command “Love the Lord your God with all your heart”; it was the most central, most revered, most repeated commandment of the whole Law. And just for good measure, God told the people to keep those words on their minds and tongues day and night, even keep the words physically written on their doorposts and bodies. And if there was any doubt during the New Age, Jesus reinforced the priority of this first and greatest commandment. So how is it a secret?  Because somehow I went 27 years through the American Evangelical church, loyal and devoted to the Christian cause, yet somehow, somewhere I was persuaded that the first and greatest commandment was to Love my neighbor as myself, or Do unto others as I would have them do unto me, or Go and make disciples of all nations. But not Love the Lord with all your heart.  Maybe love the Lord in concept or service, or using your talents to make converts. Maybe love the Lord your God with all your mind and strength… but isn’t the heart the first thing mentioned? What lover would prefer being loved with someone’s mind or strength only? If you feel it in your heart it naturally trickles into every other area.

Right now, if you can feel this article in anyway resonating in your heart and sparking a little motivation, please don’t just finish it and move onto your next thing. The fate of the world is on the line! As soon as you go to sleep your brain will reset and you’ll lose all this conviction as soon as you wake up tomorrow, so you must set this new system into motion TODAY! The love of God is worth fighting for if there ever was something to fight for. Treat it like a job, like a marriage, like your life depends on it. The best life you could possibly live is on the line, and if you’re not living the best life you could possibly live the world is going to take a hit. You’ll be just one more person not living up to their potential or doing what they are supposed to. Stand out from your family, your town, your country like David did. Be intentional, strategic, professional, militaristic. After all, this IS the most important thing in life!

 

TIPS TO GET STARTED:

 

The List:
1. Please stop right now and make a long, exhaustive list of everything you can possibly think of to do that will cultivate and grow your love for God.
2. Make a new list of the 10 most pertinent things from that long list, and post the Top 10 list some place that you have to see every day. [Keep the exhaustive list to consult if you need some different, fresh things to do to keep you inspired.]
3. Put a note next to the things you should do every day, then note the things you should do once a week, then the things once a month, and maybe some things once a year!
4. Set reminders and alarms in your calendar to keep you consistently thinking and doing these things so that the cultivation of love can become a habit that grows and gets easier.

Examples to add to your list:

-God-glorifying music, movies, websites, books, biographies, YouTube videos, etc.
-People you think would cultivate this love for God and ways to be around them on a regular basis.
-People who are going to pull you further from the love of God that you should avoid until your love for God is strong and secure enough.
-Things that will diminish your love for God or distract you that you should avoid at all costs.
-What things can jump start the first sparks of desire and conviction for the love of God? Set a reminder to read this article again in a month perhaps.
-What things can you do to keep your heart habitually detached from the average church’s status quo peer pressure? Or internally detached from secular culture’s antagonism and hedonism?

*ALSO, you must keep a record of all the experiences you start having with God that is easy to find in the future, because there will come a day when you just wake up brain dead or depressed and can’t remember anything, and need something you can passively read to remind you of God’s providence and jumpstart you. Perhaps even take a photo of yourself, or record audio or video of yourself talking about your thoughts and experiences so all it takes later is pressing “play” to be woken up inside. There’s really nothing that can shake off cynicism and apathy like seeing your own, radiant face as you talk about your bliss and Providential encounters.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

 

The goal here is to establish an entire life system that revolves around keeping the Greatest Commandment as best as possible. But it’s so hard to stay motivated to love God with all your heart if you’re relying completely on your own discipline and personal relationship with God. Some days you’ll wake up and just feel apathetic and exhausted and depressed. That’s why you need other people in your life to motivate you. Surround yourself with people that have a no-compromise attitude for the love of God. Maybe you can’t think of someone around you who totally emulates the perfect heart of David, and maybe you’ll never meet someone like that, but hopefully you know at least one person who exemplifies Davidic love in some capacity. Start with one or two people and begin creating a network of David-like people that can inspire you on a consistent basis.

God, if there is error in my thinking please reveal it to me. This seems to be logically and biblically correct and perhaps the solution to the world’s demise, as Jesus set into motion.

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ~Psalm 139

 

FOOTNOTES:

 

*I’m using the KJV phrase “perfect in heart” because it’s easier to use and sounds cooler, but modern versions more correctly translate it as “whole-heartedly” or “wholly-devoted” or “fully committed” or “blameless” or “faithful”.

**Even David’s great sins only magnified God all the more, putting His unfathomable grace on display for the world to clearly see. God has shown us that even the purest in heart can commit the wickedest of sins (like murder and adultery) given the right circumstances, and we are all in need of and at the mercy of His grace for salvation–which is able to cover even the worst of sins and is available to all just as it was for David.

***But if you are loving God with all your heart just for the purpose of getting the blessing, you’re not really loving God with all your heart!

****This is not to suggest anything about throwing out other commands of the Bible (obviously loving God as much as possible would entail obeying His commands). Also this essay in no way is suggesting that salvation comes from good deeds, for even David asks for salvation based on God’s grace in spite of his sins (Psalm 51). This is strictly about believers growing their relationship with God to the maximum while on Earth.The main issue I think people will have with this whole concept is that it’s bringing back a works-based mentality, that works is the catalyst for blessing. Which isn’t always the case for sure, but the Bible seems to indicate that this is true in the majority of cases. Surely, in this age of the New Covenant, God has not forsaken everything He said in the Law and Psalms and Proverbs and His recorded history about blessing people the more that they love Him.

 

The musical soundtrack to this essay, as well as the recorded audio reading of it can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/thesecretofdavid