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    Preface

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Preface

I mean, can a book be a real book without a preface?

There are a few things I'd like to state off the bat - personal things that don't fit into the book, but should be said to provide disclosure and context. This book isn't about me, it's about the subjects outlined by its chapters - obviously from my own perspective, which are biased by my own experience, some of which I'll mention in the book, but I'll say here that rather than spending too much of the book focused on my personal experience, my hope is to deliver insights I've pondered on the subject of God.

This book is for anyone - people who don't profess religion, Christians, or anyone else. I'm not big on religion, except I have to acknowledge it as a vehicle for passing down core truths throughout generations over time, and I also believe strongly in community. Given the book's title, one can understand it being deemed "religious" - I guess. But if you read on you'll see that I'm not basing my thoughts expressed in this book on religion, but hopefully on truth, definitely on my own personal life experience, and with more of a philosophical approach than a religious one - as far as logic and reason can take us. After that, it's "spiritual", and after that - well, what else is there? Science? Don't get me started. Science is about hypotheses.

I do believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and that therefore it is solid, bedrock truth. From a logical frame of mind I think if I was God and wanted my created human beings to know me, two things would be most effective:

1. create a credible book containing stories, imagery, poetry, mystery, and everything else I designed humans to like, relate to and be intrigued by, through which I speak to people personally, even "magically", throughout all time, to communicate the truth to them so they have a solid baseline upon which to build through their life experience.
2. I'd live one life on Earth as a human being, to clearly communicate the truth to them.

It seems to me these two things, God has done. Of course, there's much more to explore on these two subjects, and hopefully you'll be inspired to discover more by reading this book. Otherwise go directly to the source yourself. Ask God, and read the Bible. Who needs a book and someone's opinions when you have the truth directly at your own fingertips?

This book has to be built on the premise of Truth for it to be worth anything at all. If anything in here isn't true, then what's the point? This isn't a fictional story, we're trying to ponder the things of life through literal discourse. This book is based on an acceptance of the Bible as being the dependably true, inspired word of God. If you don't believe that now it's ok, I'm putting my thoughts out for anyone willing to read and consider them for themselves. I will though, reference the Bible a lot, because it's the foundation from which I base truth. My beliefs are experiential, yes, however I see it this way:

If God wanted us to know the truth, God would probably give us a book humans can reference, that gets passed on throughout all of time - through which God actually speaks: The "Word" of God. I'm repeating this on purpose. Art is like that, as is music - but we can't pass music down thousands of years - it changes as do its mediums - and buildings and art are destroyed - yet the amount of evidence supporting the Bible's validity are so overwhelming it becomes undeniable. Scriptures for example don't contradict themselves, they provide more context to deepen our understanding of the meaning, the deeper we go. I'm not diving into the subject of proving the Bible as a historical text in this book - you'd have to look into that on your own. I've looked into it myself and the evidence is exhaustively undeniable, but the reason I don't question the Bible's validity is more because of my own experience with it - which is also why I read it incessantly. No other book offers the same kind of personal experience, few are good enough to read 35 years or more - somehow, if a person opens themselves to God speaking to them through the Bible, it works, and many times in mind-blowing ways. The Bible refers to itself as the "living, active word of God", and I've experienced this personally so many times I've doubtlessly taken it for granted. This verse from the Bible explains why:

Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

That's why you can keep going back to it over and over for a lifetime. I've been into self improvement before, but this tops that times a zillion. I've had experiences where I've heard God speaking to me by my mind wandering while reading it. It's not just words. As Jesus said, his words are Spirit and Life.

This statement is pertinent: Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit - which is the word of God. (1)

A helmet is needed in war, to protect your head, and thus your life. Nobody can deny, life contains battles. We are constantly fighting off attacks on our mind, trying to get us to think negative things about ourselves and others, trying to get us to believe lies - in fact our thoughts direct the course of our lives. New-Agers and manifestation aficionados know this and interpret it in a certain way. In fact it's stated in Proverbs 4:23 this way: "Guard your mind above all else, for from it spring the issues of life". Some translations say "heart" instead of "mind", but either way it's the same - our deepest thoughts, our beliefs, originate from the "heart" (I'm not talking physiologically, I mean the deepest heart of your being), and our lives spring forth from those central beliefs and thoughts.

Try it. Break open a Bible and ask God to reveal something to you. If you're not willing to do that, read on. It takes faith. You have to believe a few things to get to that step. But, there's no harm in trying - unless you're afraid it might be true. And if you're afraid, don't be. What's better: blissful ignorance, or uncomfortable knowledge? Good thing is, the Author of Life - Existence itself - is also the Prince of Peace. True peace, not peace like the world gives. Peace that transcends understanding and reason.And, it is peace so profound and powerfully indestructible that it can actually guard your heart and mind in the truth - through anything. No matter what is thrown at you in life. (2) Again - I say this from personal experience.

One last thing to preface. When referencing God, I will sometimes use the pronoun "he", so that it reads more easily. The Bible clearly states in Genesis 1: "And God said: 'Let us make humans in our image'. In the image of God they were made, male and female he created them". (3)

So, God is an "us", who made humans in "their" image - male and female.

I'll leave that there for you to ponder. I'll only point out how non-andromorphic that statement is. Women and Men are obviously different parts of a whole made in God's image - not the other way around! We can't be thinking God is a man or a woman - He's God. (4) There is obvious balance when you have both, and procreation can only happen by the joining together of one of each. It's hard to find a female mentioned anywhere else regarding God in the Bible, except that Wisdom - at God's side creating everything - is referred to as female. (5) There are things like this I'd like to address in this book - interesting things that might have been commonly misunderstood or overlooked. The accusation of Christianity being androcentric is one of them. This is an encouragement to explore for yourself, and not just go with what you've heard whether outside, inside, or adjacent to church or religion.

I hope you enjoy!

1 Ephesians 6:17

2 Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

3 Genesis 1:26-27

4 Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that He would lie, Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

5 Proverbs 3 (and elsewhere throughout Proverbs)

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 0

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Time

Chapter 0: Time

Here we are at the beginning. Most likely you're starting here, and you'll finish the book when you've read the last world in the last chapter.

Time is a line between 2 points: a beginning and an end. Where there is no beginning or end, time is irrelevant. Time is also sequential, moving in one direction: forward.

God is outside of time. He created it.

The first words in the Bible (Genesis 1) are: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... Then God said 'Let there be light,' and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness". (1) It seems the first beginning - of time - was at the point when God created the heavens, and earth. God also created Light at this point. Think about that for a second. He created Light. The 'big bang' fits the description - the single point from which the Universe exploded into being, and Time began.

Time is inherent in earth and space. We measure space by time, and distance in space by light and time. These are the basic elements of the reality we live in. But God isn't limited to, or contained by, any of these - God created them.

Then it says, "And God separated light from darkness, and called the light good". So God made a difference between light and darkness - definition - because, right before that "the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." (2) Stop there for a second. Look around. Everything you see is defined by the differences between light and darkness. The letters on this page are defined by the difference between the extremes of black and white. If there was no difference between the letters and the page, you'd see nothing - a blank page. Artists know the concept of contrast well. Even as a kid, you draw objects by outlining them first in black, then coloring them in. Without the difference between two opposite things - light and darkness - there is no definition. So the earth was formless and void. What imagery. The concept was there maybe, in God's mind, but it was dark and hidden. Only when He spoke it did it come to "being". Incidentally, "waters" is an intensely deep concept itself, relating to life, peoples, nations, movement, growth - but I won't explore it here, I have little to offer on it just yet. Let's get back to the difference between light and darkness.

"Then God called the light good". So He created light, separated it from darkness, and called it good. It would seem then, by definition, that in all this God created the difference between Good and Evil, at that time when He created Light and called it "Good". If Light is Good, then its opposite has to be "not Good". That could be neutral - a formless void - or it could be Evil. If Light is Good, then Darkness would have to be Evil - if something is NOT good, then it isn't neutral, it's evil. We don't say "not good" about things that are just neutral. You'd never say something was "not good' unless it was bad. Anyway - everything God created from that point, it says, He "saw that it was good" (I read: He saw to it that it was good - because God doesn't just perceive things passively as though He's never seen it before - He created it all. So He saw that the light was good). We'll further examine the difference between "good" and "evil", looking at Genesis 1:2, Genesis 2:8-9, Genesis 3:22 and Revelation 12, in Chapter 6. For now let's establish that God created light and called it good, when creating time, when creating the heavens and earth. From this I derive that God created the distinction between good and evil at the Time He created the Heavens and the Earth. He separated two things as distinctly different. Duality. Definition.

1 Genesis 1:1,3,4

2 Genesis 1:2

People think of Evil as an opposing force to God. But if we understand that God himself created Light and Darkness - Good and Evil - then we can understand the truth better. God in fact uses evil, the devil, satan, etc, for His own purposes. Even if they oppose God, it's not like God has to compete against them. He created these things. He controls them. God is sovereign. Nothing is outside of God's control.

He uses them for His good purposes, and sometimes - often times - no-one can figure out what He is doing, because God is doing something far greater than we can possibly understand. That doesn't mean we can't try to find out, from God. But we should know that it's not just easy or given, nor is it a right we are entitled to, for us to know or understand why God does things. God is, and God does what God wants to do, just like we do (to a certain extent, and as far as we perceive our free will, we apply the power of "faith" - believing - yet subject to God's ultimate will, as everything is). Do we owe ants an explanation for why we crush one that happens to be running up to our sandwich? Would they understand if we tried? Do we owe plants or grass an explanation for why we cut them down? Say we do - do we then run around trying to explain it to them all the time? Are we spending all our time trying to communicate it to them and make them understand? Seems absurd, yet we apply the same expectation to God.

We think God is there for our purposes: to grant our every wish, answer everything we don't understand, and do everything for us. We think its all about us - that we ourselves are the center of the whole universe. But that's just not the way it is. God exists - the one who created the Heavens and the Earth, Time, Good & Evil, and more than we could ever understand - and He does what He wants, for His own reasons. Yet, God has made himself approachable, and in fact loves us humans, more than we can understand. We'll explore these concepts - love, light, good, evil - more throughout this book. But for now let's get back to Time.

Jesus in Revelation says He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. God also says it in Ezekiel and Isaiah. God is. I am (we'll explore this further in the next chapter). He was, is, and is to come. (3) There's no point in time when God didn't exist, and there never will be a point at which he ceases to exist. He has no beginning or end. God is eternal - which means He is outside of time. God encompasses everything. Everything is contained in God.

Humans are finite beings with a beginning (birth) and end (death), and we live inside a reality of time - yet, "God has placed eternity in our hearts" (4) - which means we have the capacity to understand it in some way. In fact, humans can't fathom an end to existence, which is why most inherently think there has to be an afterlife of some kind. Even though we can't understand it, we also can't imagine how all of existence would ever end - even if we ourselves do - and in the same way we also know it always was, in some form. This is because God has put that concept - eternity - in our hearts. We can't understand it yet we know it to be true. A paradox, where understanding fails and truth prevails over and through it.

3 Revelation 1:8. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

4 Ecclesiastes 3:11: "God has made everything fitting in its time, but has also placed eternity in their hearts, without enabling them to discover what God has done from beginning to end."

People often try to understand God anthropomorphically - from a human perspective, as though God is human. We measure God up to us, as though God is a man and man is the standard. That's a big problem. God is the standard, and we - male and female - are made in God's image. Many think God lives up in heaven sitting on a throne day after day just watching us and reacting to everything we do. And maybe He does, in some way - yet, I believe that perspective is limited and self-centered. God is everywhere every time. God is doing His own things. God created us for his purposes, and he as the Creator does whatever he wants to do with us, his little creation. When we question what God does as though we think we should judge God from the basis of our limited understanding of the concept of justice and what is "right" - it proves our ignorance and how flipped around we have it. We don't understand. Thinking the standard of justice originates with us has caused people to justify horrible evils such as ethnic cleansing. People apply their own concept of "justice", or what is right. Many people even think Truth is relative - which is simply illogical. That's like saying hard is soft. No, hard is not soft - hard is hard, and soft is soft. We define the two polar opposites to distinguish the concept - to discover the truth. Without definition there is nothing but a formless void.

Thankfully for us, God is merciful and compassionate, and is in fact Love. Because if God was like us in patience, we'd be finished a long time ago. Patience - a product of love, wisdom, faith and strength - can only be proven with Time.

Nobody could ever be as merciful and compassionate and loving as God is. He created this whole thing - Heaven and the Earth - with the Lamb who was slain from it's foundation. (5) The whole creation in its entirety was set with a plan involving God's own sacrifice as the solution. (6) We think we can affect it or convince God to change his mind, but can we? Apparently we can talk to him, and have a relationship with Him that is deeper than anything we can have with another human. We can't understand or describe the dynamics of Love in one sitting, but it is important for us to know that God is not subject to anything. Nothing. God is not subject to his own rules for us for example, He does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, for his own reasons, and they are right. Our concept of justice comes from the standard who created it - God. There is nothing that can move God. Yet, He created us to love Him - not because He needs us, but for our sakes - to know the love that He is - because it is more amazing than we can understand. To love Him truly, loyally, we have to trust Him. And we can know this love both by knowing Him personally - spiritually - as well as by loving each other - physically and spiritually. Love is the greatest thing we can experience. Fun, yes, is great but its potency runs out over time. Love doesn't run out; it grows stronger over time. A person who is alone with no-one can have all the fun and money they want, but if they don't have love, they ultimately have nothing - and then fun turns to emptiness. Addictions create a hole which, when filled, feel great but when empty can cause a person to do crazy things to try to fill the void. Yet a person can have nothing but if they have love, they have a reason to live. Connection to the One, un-ending, perfect source of love is life. Disconnection from it is death.

God is love. (7)

To show us what that means, God went to very great lengths by sacrificing Himself. And even more than just himself, He also sacrificed his own beloved Son at the same time - the human version of God on the Earth. It's like this: Jesus the man God himself inhabited, lived as a human, where he was subject to the limitations of not knowing the fullness of who He was and having to come to know it over time.

5 Revelation 13:8;

6 Hebrews 4:3

7 1 John 4:8

The man had to understand God as His Father. And He is a "Son" because He is human - like us. God did this - became a human himself - so that He would go through the exact same experience as we have, all the way down to not even knowing He was actually God himself in the flesh - a type of temporary amnesia - and therefore having to depend on God the Father, in Heaven - for his daily sustenance ("Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" ). (8) Jesus referred to himself as the "Son of Man" - because He was exactly that: a son, of humanity. Even though He was actually God, he found himself in the form of a man - a "Son". (9) So then, he even submitted to God his Father, all the way to the point of giving up his life - even when he as a man didn't want to. We know from the accounts of the garden of gethsemane (10), the night Jesus was betrayed, taken and beaten then crucified the next day - the anguish he was experiencing even having now understood that He was the Son of God who came from God and was returning to God (11), yet knowing what he would have to suffer, and asking God his Father that God would please find another way for Him, another way to redeem humanity - but yet, God the Father said no. God did not grant even Jesus his request. Because what had to happen at that moment was for God the Father to stick painfully to the plan he made from the foundation of the world, where the Lamb was slain - the Son had to suffer and die in this way. God doesn't move. Jesus couldn't have fully understood the plan as a human, at the time - or at least even if He understood it to a certain extent, His own will was passionate as ours is - which is why on the cross he said "My God my God! Why have you forsaken me?" (12) when He experienced separation from God the Father - It's hard to understand - grotesque, pure evil it seems, for an innocent man who did nothing but good, to be tortured and die. Jesus didn't want to do it; he asked for a different way. Yet God the Father said no, because He had set the plan from the foundation of the World - this was built in. God had already decided to do this. Imagine the agony God the Father was experiencing, not wanting his own Son to have to suffer like this, yet this, at the same time as having to experience it himself as the Son, physically. There's no doubt it was painful. Nobody could deny that. The most extreme version and amounts of pain anyone could ever fathom. And God did this for us. Forgiveness was central to the action, because it is the only remedy for war, the reality we live in, the battle between good and evil. Jesus forgave the people who tortured and crucified Him while on the cross, saying "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (13). God did this to show us the depths of His love and forgiveness, and He wrote this script and designed it when He founded the heavens and the earth - before He created humans, and before Time. Not after. It wasn't a reaction to the fall of humanity. It was its built-in remedy. He went all the way - beyond the evilest of evils, committed against himself. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. (14) Jesus - the Son of God, the human - the Living One - set as its cornerstone when He created everything. (15)

8 Matthew 4:4

9 Philippians 2:8

10 Luke 22:42

11 John 16:28

12 Matthew 27:46

13 Luke 23:24

14 Revelation 13:8

15 Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 28.16, Revelation 1:8

Further - the names of His people were also scripted from the time of the world's foundation (16) - when the Lamb was slain, and God made the sacrifice himself. God sacrificed himself when He founded the world, so that He could show everyone - even beings we know nothing of - the depths of His love of forgiveness. (17)

Nothing else can redeem you.

It can't be left there. Life - the source of life - can't die. That's logical, while beyond understanding as we've covered in discussing the concept of eternity. Jesus' resurrection happened so that we would know that the same exact thing - forgiveness now, and resurrection to eternal life - is available to us - now. And the only thing we have to do is believe - accept - Jesus, and what He did for us, personally. (18) Then Jesus himself, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (19) - is born in us - the core of our being. We are reborn, not of flesh, but of the Spirit of Life - CHRIST - who is Eternal. (20)

With that understanding, maybe we can read the Bible and know God from a better perspective. It's not that God is up there watching us to see what we do, then reacting to it. In fact, He's already decided what we'll do, where we'll go, right down to the very detail every single day. (21) Nothing is a surprise to God - He's the one who created it all, "already". (22) God is outside of time. So there is no "before" or "after". God is, was, and is to come; He's outside of time. He's first and last in all directions - we're somewhere in the middle.

We are in time right now. We operate in a line of chronology. We have a beginning - birth. We have an end - death. We also have free will, as far as we understand it. God has given us the chance to escape the timeline between life and death, and get Life - Eternal Life - through Jesus. All we have to do is accept who He is. If you haven't already done this, now is the time. Right now. Stop reading and accept that Jesus is the Son of God who came to redeem you from death, and accept God's free gift of salvation through Jesus. You have to admit to God that you've done things you wish you hadn't done - bad things. You just have to admit it. It's not because you're a terrible person compared to everyone else. Everyone makes mistakes and we all know this. It's a fact of life. And the point of this exercise - of admitting it? Your freedom.

16 Revelation 17:8

17 Revelation 13:8

18 John 6:29

19 Isaiah 9:6

20 Revelation 3:20, John 11:25,26.

21 Ecclesiastes 6:10 Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there's no use arguing with God about your destiny.

22 Hebrews 4:3. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, "As I swore in My anger, They certainly shall not enter My rest," although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

God himself offers us freedom from the evil we know exists in this creation (because of the knowledge of good and evil) - mistakes: past, present and future - forgiveness, wisdom to not only know the difference between good and evil, but to understand why good is better - and most importantly: the power to choose good.

Repentance is a decision to acknowledge the things you wish you could be washed from, spiritually, and receiving the truth that you can be - because of Jesus. Only because of Him. The blood Jesus spilled - his own blood - which, yes, is gruesome but it's the real, hardcore reality of the situation - God himself spilled HIS blood as a human, feeling it just as painfully as any human would, plus all the pain of betrayal AND separation from God the Father - for us, to redeem us. To redeem you. So accept it, and the only thing you can possibly do then is just say THANK YOU - to God.

Accepting Christ into your heart means you accept, deep in your heart, that this is true, and that you ask God himself, through the Holy Spirit of Jesus, to come and live in and through you, to make you clean - no longer a sinner. Because then your identify is found in Christ. And then He will do exactly that.

You have to mean it. You don't have to understand it. It's faith. God will explain it more in detail and personally, specifically to you, as you go. Just accept it, don't despise it, don't take it for granted - appreciate it for all its worth. That's the key to life.

And you will experience Peace like you never have imagined. The Prince of Peace will take residence in your heart, and so, you will know Peace like you never could before because it is the peace of Jesus that he said he would give to his followers before he was crucified - he said he would give peace not as the world gives it. (23) It's a different kind of peace - much more durable and pervasive. It's so much peace and joy that it can blast through any amount of pain or hardships the world can throw at us. That's why we can love. Love flows through us - God is love - so that's how we feel the peace. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. (24)

Now again back to the subject of Time.

When we do something there are outcomes down the line. God made us in His image - so, we create things too. In fact, we can do so by speaking, just like God did when He spoke "let there be light" and everything else He created by saying "let there be..." We set things in motion or stop them, bind and loose, birth, heal and kill. We have the power to do all these things, because God made us in His own image. We have free will - everything is up for grabs - yet, at the same time, it's all subject to God. The way I understand this is that in our concept of free will we can do whatever we want, even supernatural things by applying faith, yet, God has already decided everything according to His will. Obviously though. Either God is ahead of it all, or He would be behind if we were first in the order of decisions and God was second. No - God is first, we're second. We're subject to Him, not the other way around. The subject of curses is an example: we can say things and the power of life and death is in the tongue (25), and those who love it will eat its fruit - yet an undeserved curse comes to nothing.

23 John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you - not like the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.

24 1 John 4:18

25 Proverbs 18:21

This is further validated by a story found in Numbers 22, where a prophet is hired by a king to curse the people of God and the only thing that comes out of his mouth, three times, is blessing - for them. God decides who gets blessed and who gets cursed. We have the perception of free will, and we should exercise it to the fullest extent that we can - while realizing everything is ultimately subject to God. And it's a good thing it is - otherwise we'd destroy everything. Thankfully, God holds everything together. (27)

We are in time. The whole reality of earth is in time - there is a story, written before time, that is unfolding sequentially. But when you read the Bible, understand that it is more often about concepts than chronology. Far too often we think God is referring to the physical thing when his word is speaking about much deeper and greater concepts. For example, Jesus in the boat with his disciples, saying "beware the yeast of the Pharisees" (28) - the disciples thought he 28 was referring to them forgetting to bring bread. He wasn't. He was talking about them not getting puffed up like Pharisees (yeast is what makes bread rise). The Pharisees taught the "bible" of their time - they were professionals at the religion. But all it did was puff them up with arrogance and pride. Jesus was saying "don't get puffed up with pride like the Pharisees". I'm sure he was saying other things too because there is endless wisdom in God's words - but Jesus was a bit upset that they thought he was talking about bread, when he had literally just finished feeding 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish. They were too caught up in blaming each other and trying to figure out who's done what wrong to understand what Jesus was actually saying to them. Obviously he's not concerned with them having enough bread when He can create it with anything, or with nothing, and he's physically sitting there in the boat with them. He wanted them to know a deeper truth, not point fingers and get upset about a lack of bread and who's fault it was.

Time is inherent in this whole experience we call life as humans; but there is a reality outside of time.

God is. He was, is, and is to come - that covers all of time.
"I am".
There is no existence apart from God.
God is Existence.
Everything is contained in Him.
God is the light, and in Him there is no darkness. (29)
Darkness is an environment where things can't be seen - nothing; a formless void.
Darkness is as light to him. (30)
He created light, and separated it from darkness.
God is outside of, and inside of, everything that exists - otherwise it wouldn't exist, because God is existence.
There is nowhere, and no time, that he is not. (31)
Nothing is a surprise to God. He knows it all, is in it all, and has created everything, for His own purposes.

26 Proverbs 26:2

27 Colossians 1:17. He existed before all things, and all things are held together in him

28 Matthew 16:5-11

29 1 John 1:5

30 Psalm 139:12

31 Psalm 139:8

Thankfully, we know that He is good, justice and love, because he proved it to us by sending Jesus.

So we can relax, and have peace.

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 1

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Authenticity

Chapter 1: Authenticity

I believe Authenticity is one of the most important things in life. Being real.

Recently a study was conducted where groups of participants were put in a room, and social interaction dynamics were measured - love, hate, etc. One dynamic's potency measured off the charts, far greater than everything else: authenticity.

I believe Authenticity entails two fundamental characteristics: truth and originality.

Truth is the starting point - the most basic and necessary foundation.

We humans have a natural need for what is real, or true, and an equally opposing disdain for what is fake, or false. Some are more tuned into it than others. Some prefer falsehood and operate in it, and the result is fear and miscalculation. Eventually, falsehood is always exposed even when efforts are concerted to hide or cover up the truth. John 1:5 puts it like this:

Light shines in darkness, and darkness can't comprehend it.

Think about the concept scientifically for a second. Darkness can't extinguish light - they're not equal. The latter overpowers the former automatically - it's a one-way flow of power. Light always overpowers darkness. You can't add darkness to a lit room, the only way to make it darker is by taking away light. One flame from a candle lights a room enough to where you can see what's there, even if previously you might have thought there was nothing because you could't see it. You feel, to have a vague idea if you're blind, and you hear, but you can't see enough to read something communicated by written words unless there's light. With just a bit of light, you can see. 'Comprehend' can be understood as 1) encompassing - as in, darkness completely encompassing light - it can't. It goes the opposite direction only: Light pierces through darkness always - and 2) understanding, or grasping. Darkness can't understand light.

There is true, and there is untrue. If you ask a question and get an answer that is partially true, you don't have pure truth. If you do a math problem and one number is false by one digit, you'll get a result that is off the mark. If you're trying to get from point A to point B and your navigation is off by 1 degree, you'll end up somewhere completely different than your intended destination the farther you go in that direction. To ask any of the questions this book is for, you obviously have to want to know the truth. I certainly do (want to). My intention for this book is that every word, everything communicated, will be true. Not just my opinion or thoughts, but pure truth. And for that, I can't rely on my own understanding. I've asked the One - Existence itself - for that. Let's see if it will be answered. You can judge for yourself.

God being the author of Life - Existence itself - I believe Authenticity is one of the most important subjects for us to seriously consider, embody and exude. Living authentically is truly living. Authenticity is truth, and it's what we, as human beings - made in God's image - value the most when it comes to other human beings. It's the only way we can truly connect. Love springs from Authenticity. "Love" can be insincere, and we can be deceived by its appearance because it is sometimes very hard for us to discern correctly - so it all still comes back to truth through authenticity. We confuse love for something that gives us everything we think we want (only to find out that it is in fact addiction, which creates a hole that feels great when we fill it and horrible the rest of the time). But a parent, in the act of loving their child, does not do that. They love their child even by disciplining them - teaching them what will do them good in the long-permanent run. True love looks beyond the immediate to long-term; permanence. So, since we value truth so highly, and hate liars and insincere, deceiving hypocrites - anything that isn't the truth in fact - we can rightly infer that God is where we get this notion from, if we believe God is Truth, which is also a necessarily solid foundation from which to build.

Truth is point zero. The full acceptance of truth is to empty ourselves of everything else - ego, pride, our own desires to glorify ourselves, among other things - to be fully authentic. Real.

If what we want is the pure truth - if that's what you want - then you have to be willing to let go of everything that is slightly off that point. Anything that is any kind of bias. You might say I'm biased for believing. Everyone is, right? Yes. So let's admit our biases then, and subject them to the light of exposure, so we can find the truth.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through Me". (1) It's an absolute statement. You can't get around it - either it's true or it's not. If not true, it's a lie, and then it calls into question everything else Jesus said and did. If true, then it's how we access the full, absolute Truth - and know God. I attest that it is true - not just because I read it, or someone told me, but because I know it to be true in the core of my being through life, having tested it over and over through various attempts at finding truth other ways that failed. Nothing else can do it. You can postulate intellectually to no end, and all you have is unanswered questions, anxiety, anger, bitterness, self-righteousness and futility. A well known historical figure documented a similar pursuit of "wisdom" through extremes - opulence, rigid discipline, endless philosophical deliberation - some say it was king Solomon (or whomever wrote Ecclesiastes), others say Buddha. Yet the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding - which makes no "sense" sometimes, there's no explanation for it, and you feel it overwhelmingly from within and nothing can take it away - that can only come from the Prince of Peace - Jesus - the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the Living One. (2) We know we're alive, but did we create our own living souls? Nobody did and they know it at the core of their being. We have the spirit of Life in us, which makes us alive - that is our essential being. If you look anyone in the eyes you will see it, or feel it - the flame of life. Your spirit will resonate with the other's spirit, knowing you're from the same "__". Christ is the light of Life. The light of all people. So in true essence, we are one, as God is One. If humans carried that consciousness at the forefront, we would behave and treat each other very differently, because we would know that whatever we do to another person we are fact doing to ourselves. That's why when someone asked Jesus what the most important scripture is, he answered, "'Hear O Israel, I AM (the LORD) our God, I AM (the LORD) is One. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength' and the second is like it: 'love your neighbor as yourself'". (3) The second is like the first? God is One, and so are we - to the point where whatever you do to another person, you're doing to yourself. Jesus' prayer for us was to be one with him just as he is one with the Father, God. (4) So then when Jesus' prayer is answered, we're all one.

1 John 1:1-5: 1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. 2 The Word was with God in the beginning.

1 John 14:6

2 Revelation 1:18

3 Matthew 22: 36-40

4 John 17:20-23

3 Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being.

4 What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn't extinguish the light.

John 1:10-14: The light was in the world, and the world came into being through the light, but the world didn't recognize the light. 11 The light came to his own people, and his own people didn't welcome him. 12 But those who did welcome him, those who believed in his name, he authorized to become God's children, 13 born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, but born from God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his home among us.

Now let's consider a second component of authenticity: originality.

Every person is unique. God created everyone in His image. He created everyone as unique. The enemy of humanity wants people to suppress or forego that uniqueness, to second guess themselves, and to want be like everyone else, doing what everyone else is doing - there's a constant societal push for homogeneity. People copying each other. AI is the epitome of copying - it can't originate anything, it can only copy what humans feed it - and it draws from a plethora of merely human ideas that have circulated the internet. It is not a source of Truth. That's the difference between AI and humans. Humans are unique and original - AI is not. That's why it's called ARTIFICIAL Intelligence.

Moses was an Israelite, raised in Pharaoh's house in Egypt, who killed an Egyptian who was mistreating another Israelite, then took off into the wilderness to live a different life. Around 40 years old by himself in the desert he saw a burning bush, stopped and heard a voice. The voice told him to go to Pharaoh and demand that he release the Israelites. After conversing with what he found out was God, Moses asked the voice who it was, what was it's name - who, should he tell the Israelites when they ask, sent him to free them? The voice answered "I am who I am". "Tell them, I AM WHO I AM sent you" Then the voice continued to say, "That is my name by which I will be known, forever". (5)

The concept of originality, in regards to God - "there is no one like the LORD", and "there is no one like you" - is a foundation in the Bible. Let me list a few examples (beginning with Moses, speaking to Pharaoh): Pharaoh said, "Tomorrow!" Moses said, "Just as you say! That way you will know that there is no one like the Lord our God. 6

This time I'm going to send all my plagues on you, your officials, and your people so that you will know that there is no one like me in the whole world. (7)

5 Exodus 3:1-15

6 Exodus 8:10

7 Exodus 9:14

My Lord! There is no one like you among the gods! There is nothing that can compare to your works! (8)

Who wouldn't fear you, king of the nations? That is your due; among all the wise of the nations and in all their countries, there is no one like you! (9)

That name, "I AM THAT I AM" or "I AM WHO I AM", spelled with the letters "YHVH", is often pronounced "Jehovah", and represented throughout the Bible as LORD (small capital letters). How much of it's meaning do we miss by not associating the representation with the true words spoken by the voice? What would be revealed if we replaced the representation "LORD", with "I AM WHO I AM"?

Some interpretations read "I AM" - which Jesus referenced many times, especially when speaking of himself, particularly towards the end of his life as a human non-glorified body. Fundamentally, that phrase means "Life" or in fact, "Existence". So we can say that God is Existence. There is nothing outside of God. Everything that exists, exists because it is inside of God - anything else does not exist. But outside of God, there is nothing.

Isaiah 45:7
"I form light and create darkness, make prosperity and create doom; I am the LORD (I AM THAT I AM), who does all these things."

John 1:3
"All things were created through him, and apart from him nothing was created that has been created".

Think about this. God answered Moses' insecurity about carrying out the task God gave him, fearing the Israelites would say "who sent you?" - by saying, "I am who I am". Basically, "That's your answer to give when they ask 'who sent you?'".

To me, that is the ultimate statement of authenticity. Who are you? I am who I am. I'm the only one like me, and who I am is who I am. I am unique. Me is me.

Even if Moses thought of himself at that time as a guy who killed an Egyptian and now lives out in the wilderness as a shepherd - in fact, the true person we know him as, who he is really, is the guy who led the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land; the very thing God told him he would do by telling him to do it. God - knowing who Moses really is, because God created him and purposed him for something He's already planned from before the beginning of time (in fact, outside of time) - told Moses to be who he is. That's all he had to do - just be himself. That's the only answer he needed. I am who I am. I am that I am. That's who sent me!

Because if God himself - Existence - the Creator of everything - tells you to do something - and He created you to do it - if God is for you - then who and what could possibly keep you from doing it? The obvious answer is: you, by not believing who you are. Or in other words, by not believing "I am who I am", which, is God's name by which He will be known forever. Flipped around the correct way: If you are who you are - that is the most powerful thing you can be because that's who God made you to be. We do have free will, and we can not be ourselves if we so choose. We have the choice to choose evil, darkness, instead of light, truth.

8 Psalm 86:8

9 Jeremiah 10:7

But why would we want to?

Uniqueness is how God's flavors are tasted, His sounds are heard, and His colors are seen. God wants us to be as honest and authentic with Him as we possibly can be, not because He doesn't already know everything already, long "before" we do - but so that we will know who God is.

You can't fool God. He knows you literally better than you know yourself. Honestly - wrap your head around that. How could we know ourselves at all - who we truly are - without knowing who God is, or without knowing Him? - Personally. Truly. Authentically. You can't have a deep relationship with someone unless you are truly yourself with them - authenticity is essential to being close - to intimacy. And we don't even know ourselves. Often we're deceived even about ourselves of all people! And we don't even know it. We find it out the more we live, and the deeper we go. If we think we know, we're fooling ourselves. Who we really are - the eternal, living one - is actually hidden in Christ. (10)

Authenticity is key to living and key to knowing the truth. If we can't be honest with God, or honest with ourselves, then who can we be honest with out from there? And if we're not truly ourselves then we're not truly living.

Our lives are hidden in Christ, because He is the Living One. (11) Our ideas about ourselves are often based on who we think we want others to see, or ourselves to be, which might be based on either our insecurities or our miscalculations about our strengths and abilities - which are pride. The ego. God knows who you really are because God designed you in certain unique ways and for certain unique purposes. Those purposes are found in Christ, not by figuring it out, but by emptying ourselves and yielding to the Living One, to live God's purposes through you. You might not want to do this, or be able to trust that this is true. You might not be able to let go. How do we give up our own ideas about ourselves and life to trust an enigma?

Good question.
I don't know.

Sometimes we can do it by our own volition - maybe - but I would bet that most if not all the time, it's a gift from God. Yes - a gift from Him - not to Him - to be able to lay ourselves down and surrender to God. Seems more like a gift to God, right? But no. I mean really, what can a human give to God? Praising God is simply us coming into God's presence and knowing Him. When we're in His presence, we can't help but praise Him, because it's God - who made us, and EVERYTHING. That's the 2-way part of this. God is a rock, who can't be moved, and does what He wants. He chooses us, and moves us closer to Him. God lets us choose to walk away from Him if we want to - He gave us free will - yet He still brings us back around when He chooses to have mercy on us because He loves us. We think we're making these decisions and doing these things, but in fact it's all a gift from God - which ultimately results in eternal life, and along the way bears fruits of joy, peace, love, happiness, fulfillment, trust, patience, and all these other benefits we get. And God might have to bring us through circumstances to get us to the point where we're able to give up our own ambitions all the way to where we truly seek after His will, and His kingdom, more than our own. That's the goal. Not so that God can conscript loyal subjects to serve Him - but for our benefit. Because He loves us and wants us to share in His glory - can you believe that?! Sometimes it takes pain, the same way it takes heavy weights to get stronger. But the result in this case is not only strength, but freedom, power, wisdom, and ultimate glory. (12)

10 Colossians 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

11 Revelation 1:17-19

12 Colossians 1:27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory

Glory?

Yeah - like how everyone wants to be rich and famous. That kind of glory. That kind of aspiration - to be on top. (13) God actually wants that for us, and not at the expense of others being less than us. In fact, He achieves it in us by making us as humble as a three year-old kid standing in the midst of a group of adults towering over her - just like He achieved it for us by 14 He himself humbling Himself, becoming a man, and letting His own created humans torture and crucify Him.

It's a mystery. Why do people do it? What could make a person believe so strongly that they are willing to give up themselves to the point of death?

If you ask a Christian - a true follower of Christ - they will tell you it's Love. The same way a parent would lay down their life for their child, or a husband for their wife - that's the same kind of love that makes a Christian give up themselves to God, to yield to the Holy Spirit. The Christian receives love from God - from an actual relationship with God, where they converse. The Christian receives peace from God - from the Spirit, where they can't even explain the amount of peace they have from before the time they wake up in the morning to when they go to sleep, and all through the night. Nothing else can compare with that "feeling" - though it's far deeper and robust than just a feeling, because nothing can shake it. It's amazing, and nothing in the world can provide it. Everything else fails eventually, and leaves a gaping hole. This doesn't ever end, and it only increases. It's exactly what we want and need, and of course it is, because God designed us for Love - His love. And His love flows directly from His Spirit, and through people to each other. No-one can deny the power and goodness of love. It's the best thing in life.

And God is love. (15)

The walk with God isn't always easy; there are challenges along the way but those challenges are somehow lighter and easier (16) when you're walking with Jesus than the challenges of the 16 world without Him, and they actually lead to greater things, so they're worth it. Just like physical training. Challenges faced without Him can be hopeless and debilitating. Challenges faced with God are steps upward. This is what's impossible to know when you're not walking with Him. There's no way to explain it. You have to experience it, authentically. And we can only experience it by living authentically - by being real.

13 Proverbs 16:20 Those with insight find prosperity; those who trust the Lord are blessed.

14 Matthew 18:4. Those who humble themselves like this little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

15 1 John 4:8. The person who doesn't love does not know God, because God is love.

16 Matthew 11:30 "My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light."

I am that I am.

I am, the fact, that I am.

I am who I am.

Who is like the Lord?

I am.

There is no one like you.

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 2

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War, Peace and Understanding

Chapter 3: Peaceful Understanding

Understanding and Progress are often earned through hardship and struggle. The world tries to get us to fret and be frantic, worrying and scrambling our way to the top. But Peace will guide us to true progress, giving us understanding and true knowledge - not the puffed up "knowledge" the world leverages as pride - but rather, knowledge of the Holy One, which is Wisdom. Wisdom is what God used to found the Earth. It accomplishes real things.

When asked,

"If you have the choice between knowledge, understanding, or peace, which would you choose?"

My answer was: Understanding.

Because understanding is the "beyond" knowledge, and it is wisdom. Knowledge - to know things - is great, but you can know all you want and all that matters is what you actually do with that knowledge. To be prompted to action you have to understand. I would rather have it than stay in a lower level of not knowing or understanding, with "peace".

And this was His answer: This is why He orchestrated that.

Humans choose this by the free will God gave us. We aspire to knowledge, understanding and wisdom - to be raised in our awareness beyond where we are now. That is what separates us from animals, who know only what they were designed for. Ostriches bury their eggs in the sand and leave them, not even thinking about snakes and birds who can take them. As it says, "God has not given them wisdom". (1) Wisdom is given, and refined through life by being applied. Unapplied, it's just knowledge. Understanding allows us to "get" what God is teaching us through life, which improves us.

So humans progress, and animals don't. Progress is good. But only real progress is good. What's the point in putting everything into building a really high tower and fighting for the position on top of it? Peace is best, if we can accept it. But if we aspire to more, then we have to disrupt the peace.

I aspire to more.

War broke out in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, defeated him and threw him and his angels out of heaven, down to the earth, where he wants to devour the male child - the descendants of Man (Jesus). (The Son of Man). That's when the serpent was there to deceive the woman by enticing her with more: wisdom, to know "good and evil". (2)

As soon as they ate, their "eyes were opened" and they saw that they were naked, and they hid because they were afraid. (3)

Fear.

1 Job 39: 13-18

2 Revelation 12

3 Genesis 3

Their eyes were opened to see something, and themselves, as bad - so they were afraid. Then they started blaming and giving up their responsibility. First the man to the woman, then the woman to the serpent. (4) By blaming we attribute responsibility to another. The man said he gave his power over to the woman and obeyed her, and the woman gave her responsibility over to the snake for successfully deceiving her.

But all of this is the drama unfolding of God's redemption through the One - Jesus the Christ. Overcoming evil. Revelation 12:7 War broke out in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Notice, it says war broke out in Heaven. Michael (and angels) fought against the dragon. It doesn't say "war broke out in Heaven, the dragon fought against God", or "against Michael", or "against Jesus". No. Other way around. Seems to me the war didn't begin with the dragon fighting against Michael, but rather Michael fighting against the dragon. Maybe Michael was fed up with Satan accusing his family so he said "enough of this" and threw the dragon out of heaven, down to earth. Maybe that's how that unfolded in Heaven.

Verse 4 "Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth". These stars could be the angels that followed the dragon, or they could be something else - because it seems the dragon's angels were hurled down to the earth after the dragon had already swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to earth. Maybe those stars were God's people, or other angels? Who knows?

Point is though - at that point - when the dragon and its angels were hurled down to the earth -

10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

"Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."

The story, to me, reads: Satan was accusing the people of God, to God, day and night. The dragon flings 1/3 stars down from heaven to Earth. Michael gets fed up and fights against the dragon, throws it out of Heaven, down to Earth, with it's angels. Then - the salvation and power and kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, happened.

The goal of life on Earth then? Overcoming evil, by the power of God, through the authority of his Messiah (Christ) - the Lamb (Jesus) - by His blood, and their word to testify to it.

4 Genesis 3

The overcoming starts and continues with the choice to believe in Him - thereby knowing ourselves as Redeemed by his blood - his perfection and atonement for what is lacking in us - and by our resulting choices to do what is good and right. Starting with our thoughts. To turn every situation into good, even when it looks like evil. Not to be afraid of things going wrong, but instead believing they will go right. Why? Because of Jesus.

Incidentally - Revelation 12 talks first about a woman. A mother first, who gave birth to a male child - and the earth helped the mother. (5)

So there is a struggle, which is not peace. It's tension and war and fighting. Drama.

If you want to live in peace, have peace within you while you fight - knowing you will win, keeping your eyes of your heart fixed and set on the prized outcome of victory, knowing it is a sure fact - because of Jesus, the Christ. (6)

"Cease striving, and know that I AM GOD." (7)

Peaceful is the way. The Prince of Peace is Almighty God and Everlasting Father. He is also our Counsellor. So he guides us in the ways of peace as we fight the war of overcoming.

The answer isn't to just sit back and not do and go a way of peace that is the path of least resistance. That is peaceful but it isn't progress and it brings anxiety when bills pile up and time has gone by with nothing accomplished.

So then figure out what hasn't been done which has to be done in order to move forward. Father God please show me Holy Spirit in Jesus Name I ask AMEN.

5 Revelation 12

6 1 John 5:4,5

7 Psalm 46:10

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 3

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Patience

Chapter 3: Why do we have to wait so much?

The title of the chapter is the answer. Patience is a major aspect we gain through life on Earth.

Waiting is a crucial theme in playing this game of life God's way. We see it continually throughout the Bible: waiting on God, waiting for him to fulfill His promises - which involves trust and hope, and in other words - faith and patience. Patience - a fruit of the Spirit - can only be earned by waiting.

Waiting involves time. Outside of time, the concept of waiting is irrelevant. Sound familiar? Time - chronology - is a continuum from one point called "start" to another point called "finish". The reason we have time in life on earth is because we have birth and death. Our "Start" is birth, our "Finish" is death. That is the continuum of life on earth. Even before our lives, we have a "start" event: creation of heaven and earth.

Life on earth is predicated on time. That's why this book starts with Time as Chapter 0. Without Time there is no Patience. We want everything now, but on Earth there is a process to almost everything, and faith is crucial to the process.

Here are some of the valuable things realized over time:

1. Progress. The process of improvement happens over time. By consistently doing something productive day after day, over time, results are achieved: a degree is earned, knowledge and experience are gained, a body grows healthier and stronger. Likewise, by doing destructive things, negative results are achieved over time.
2. Appreciation (Gratitude). Often, people who win the lottery lose it quickly, whereas people who earn the money slowly keep and grow it over time. This is because the former didn't know the value of money, the ladder do. To appreciate is by definition to assign value to something. The former don't realize that if they spend money without careful consideration, it will soon fly away - whereas the ladder know that every penny counts, it all adds up - so they are careful about how they invest money and other resources - including time itself. It's not a matter of being selfish - that in fact makes a person lose their money, because God loves a cheerful giver, and being generous is being like God - who sends rain and sun upon the righteous and wicked. God blesses us when we give generously. Waiting also builds anticipation, which makes us appreciate things. When we wait for things, we appreciate them when we finally get them. If we get things too easily we take them for granted, until we lose them. God makes us wait so that we'll value things, so that we won't lose them. Often, we have to then keep our valuations of these things in check. In Abraham's case - He waited a long time for God to fulfill His promise to give him a son. When Abraham finally got what he wanted, God told him to put it on the altar. This of course was a foreshadowing of Christ, through which God was allowing Abraham to know God by identifying with Him - and it was also to save Abraham from idolizing his son, the gift he'd been waiting so long to receive. There's a huge lesson here for us - to immediately offer what we receive back to God, so that we're not immediately enticed into idolizing the things and therefore being enslaved by them. That's the spectrum between taking things gotten too easily for granted, and idolizing things we've worked hard and long for. That's why our goal is to receive from God, knowing it's all HIS at all times - not something for us to hold too tightly onto as though it can give us everything we need - because it can't. Only God can. That's the point. If we really know and appreciate God - we'll know He's our provider, and everything we need. If we have Him we have everything, and without Him we have nothing.
3. Patience. It is impossible to gain patience without the pain of waiting. Patience is the ability to just be ok even though you don't have something you want. Sometimes it's a matter of giving it up - not needing it. (Fasting is good for that reason - it teaches us to be ok with being hungry or not eating. We endure hunger to gain the presence of God, His Words, Peace, Insight, etc - and turns out we're just fine without food, and we gain the benefit of greater things). Things we desire can become idols, where every time we go to God it's about asking Him for the things we want. He doesn't want us to live in that kind of slavery (or any) - constantly consumed by the need to get something. Sometimes, we just need to give it up and entrust it to God. Then we know that He is our provider, and that He will take care of us. That's faith and trust, and the result is peace and greater abundance. This is also why we shouldn't borrow money to get something before we have the money to pay for it. If God wants us to have that thing, He will provide for us to get it. If we go ahead and buy it with money we don't have, then we are enslaving ourselves by borrowing from the future. It's a trap. We are trading our future freedom, and provision, for getting something now - and the cost is higher that way. That isn't trusting God. If he want us to have it, he will provide for us to have it. If not, let it go. Wait, for God to provide the money, ask him for wisdom through the process to guide you and not let you buy it unless it's His will, and to not let you miss buying it if it is. Then, when you have the money and if you don't have any thoughts to the contrary and have a clear conscience about it, then buy it. It will be a blessing to you and to others then if you buy it out of obedience and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, rather than out of selfish greed or desires, which only results in destruction - of ourselves, others, or better opportunities. Often, haste makes waste. (1) The proverb exists for a reason. Trust God and He won't let you miss an opportunity. Rushing can result in running off in a bad direction, where the things produced end up having to be destroyed, only to have to rebuild after having wasted all that time. Better to wait on God and build from solid foundations.
   
   Here's a good place to stop and consider Proverbs 19:1-3 - slowly and carefully. Digest these words:
   
   1 Better to be poor and walk in innocence than to have dishonest lips and be a fool.
   2 Ignorant desire isn't good; rushing feet make mistakes.
   3 People's own folly corrupts their way, but their hearts rage against the Lord.
   
   Humans tend to elevate riches above everything else. We think money justifies everything - if it results in more money, the end justifies the means. I won't delve too deeply into my own experience on this subject in this book, I'll save it for another, but suffice to say I know this is true to the tune of decades of lost time, all my money and possessions, and almost all of my family and life - for making turns in the road and decisions that were miscalculations resulting from my justifications for being dishonest in order to get to my desired things without waiting. I know, from experience, beyond any shadow of doubt, that these verses are true. I have equal proof of things happening out of nowhere due to a simple act of obedience to the voice of God - things that could have taken years, that instead happened within 30 minutes. God does reward supernaturally sometimes. God doesn't always make us wait. Sometimes He gives us things out of nowhere, supernaturally, immediately - faster than any normal process would take. I have proof of this in my own life. So there's a ton of hope in God's mercy.
   
   Let me speak to verse 3 briefly, because it's the crux of our problem. Sometimes we don't understand why bad things happen to us - and we blame God. It's a terrible thing to have to admit, but it's true. Fact is, we are corrupt, blind, fools when we face the Standard of Truth.
   
   1 Proverbs 19:2
   
   That standard is what God is moulding us into when we're being sanctified. As God works out our salvation in us - the process of sanctification - sometimes it's painful, and we writhe and thrash around not understanding why we're being disciplined, yet God is changing us through these things - which is why we can be thankful. Our hearts rage against the Lord, thinking He's being unfair to us, like toddlers thrashing around on the floor. And sometimes these things deal with our corrupt nature that is bred in us from generations past. Some parts of sinful nature are in our DNA. Not our "fault" - seemingly - however, it is the truth. Just like some people are born with good genes and some with bad ones, some tall, some short, some can jump high and perform athletically and some can do math - we all get a bag of good things and bad things - yet we're not stuck with it. We have the opportunity to grow. That's the good news. But in the end, we realize our problems were due to our own bad choices - our own folly. That's what God is saving us from. Not always saving us from the consequences, because sometimes we need those consequences to teach us, just like a kid who won't listen to his parent telling him not to touch fire has to feel the pain of a slight burn to learn not to touch fire. It's the same thing. God wants us to gain wisdom. He won't hold it back from us if we ask him for it. But we can save ourselves a whole lot of grief if we can 1. trust what we hear, often by God speaking through other people, and 2. know that God is always for us, not against us. A child might think their parent is against them for disciplining them at the time, but when they get older they realize their parent was doing what was necessary to teach them, for their good - so the kid won't destroy herself. A parent gets no pleasure from their child's pain - it hurts them - however, if it teaches the child to make good decisions from then on, the benefit is realized, and the child then appreciates the parent's willingness to do the hard thing for their benefit. That is love. God is the master parent. He knows how to change us, and He uses the most compassionate means to effect the changes permanently. We have the choice to ask God for wisdom, and the choice to listen or go our own way. That's free will.


4. 4. Humility/Obedience. Obeying God, even when it doesn't produce the results we want, has the effect of breaking through the hard shells and barriers of pride - through to our spirit. A contrite heart - knowing, realizing we are not entitled to God's blessings, or to being given anything in fact that we "want" - He has already given us everything, by giving us Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son - and all that entails. By him we have salvation - not only in this world, but from death. This goes back to #2 - appreciation & gratitude. For us to truly appreciate the basic, foundational thing he's given us for all its worth, we have to be stripped of everything on top that makes us get caught up in the weeds and cares of this world. Things like money, fun, image - the pride of life. These are things that choke the Word of God out of our minds and lives. If we're focused on these things, we're focused on the world instead of His Kingdom. Jesus said, "desire first and foremost the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well". (2) We have to let go of the things. Stop chasing them. Focus on God, and on His Kingdom. Jesus had to learn obedience by humbling himself to the point of death on a cross. He didn't want to go through that, and nobody would. Even still crying out to God to save him from that suffering and find another way, he still was able to come to the point of humility where he was willing to give up his own will and say "but if not, then your will be done". Basically: "if your will is to put me through this, then so be it - do your will". Or, "If it's a choice between what I want and what you want, even if what you want is to make me suffer, horribly, even to the point of death - then let what you want happen". That is true submission to God. You can't go any farther submitting to God than that. That is giving up all your rights - your whole life - for the benefit of others, in order to obey God. That is what He asks of us. So, we either do that, or he brings us through situations that cause us to have to give up ourselves. We can hang on to ourselves for as long as we want, but in doing so we only delay the giving of ourselves over to him for him to replace the selfish, corrupt person with HIS SPIRIT OF LIFE. If we appreciate - truly value for what it's worth - what Jesus has done for us, and what God has given us in forgiving our sins and making us clean with the righteousness of Christ, by faith - well, faith is to know what it's worth - so that we can then escape death - if we can actually fathom that we have been given the way out from death - something no amount of money could ever buy - then we realize we are richer than any of the richest people who have ever lived. They all end up seeking immortality as their ultimate pursuit, because they want to hang on to life indefinitely - because they're living it up in the world. But money can't buy immortality. Only Jesus can - and did - for us. We don't buy it - it is given to us by Him (unless you count the exchange as us giving up ourselves in order to receive Him, which is equivalent to us handing Him a corrupt, dying thing in exchange for being given a perfect, life-giving thing. In other words - exchanging a pile of rotting garbage to receive a pile of gold. It's a pretty good deal). It is a gift. If we know this, then we want to obey Him because we owe him literally everything. If someone came to us and offered us this - eternal life - and just gave it to us, we would be grateful beyond belief. If someone offered you 100 Trillion dollars for free, would you be ecstatic? Yet what we've been given is worth far more that a billion times $100 Trillion.


5. 5. Improved Life
   If we chase our own ideas and dreams, and try to get them in our own ways, then we might be able to - however, God knows much better things for us - things He's designed for us and us for. Things we couldn't even think of or imagine possible. God's ability to "imagine" great things for us is far beyond our capacity to imagine - and God doesn't just imagine. God does. He's already planned them for us. We imagine and envision from a limited perspective (3), but God is able to accomplish far more than we can even ask for, or imagine (4). God's plans are much higher than ours. (5) We have to trust Him to bring about the better things. That doesn't mean we don't go after things we want. We can. We should. But we have to trust God to bring about His will, if that's what we really want - instead of just ours. He will if we ask Him. It might be different from ours. It might not even be things we understand. But God's ways are higher. We have to trust Him about that. That is humility, obedience, and submission to Him, and He will reward us for it like he did Jesus. (6)


6. 6. Sanctification. God is working this out in us over life on Earth. Salvation occurs the moment we believe in Christ, because we're reborn of the Spirit at that moment. (7) It's a miraculous conception of Jesus - the Living One - the Son of God - who is eternal - in us. From that moment on, He lives in us and takes us through the process of sanctification. We don't know what the questions on the test are nor how long the exam is. That's all hidden in Christ. God will finish what He has started in us. (8) He is the author and perfecter of our faith. (9) We might want to rush it or at least accelerate it as fast as we can - but can we? Maybe. And maybe we should want to. We can delay it, by continuing to push off obedience, by choosing our own selfish desires instead of yielding to His will. Then he has to bring us back around the mountain one more time to see if we can answer the same questions the right way on the test the 2nd time. And if not, then a 3rd, 4th and 5th time - or as many chances as He wants to give us. Unlimited chances? Not necessarily. He won't let go of us (10), His faithfulness is beyond understanding, however, God has given us the freedom of will to choose evil, to choose ourselves if we want to. The power we have is will, and we can submit ours to his by our own choice (however, it's ultimately God who hardens or softens out hearts. If we ask him to soften our hearts to Him, he probably will, because he's compassionate and merciful. But it's not like we can blame God for anything. He does what he wants to do, and it's His CHOICE. If we think we should have free will in anything we want, shouldn't God, who created everything? He does. But thankfully, he's compassionate and merciful. Again - our concepts of compassion and mercy come from Him). Sanctification is a process far too enormous for us to understand entirely at one time. We get it bit by bit. Sometimes by leaps and bounds, and sometimes subtly where we don't even notice until we look back and realize how we've changed for the better. But thankfully - it doesn't depend on us. It doesn't depend on our understanding everything and figuring it out all the time.
   
   2 Matthew 6:33
   
   3 1 Corinthians 13:12
   
   4 Ephesians 3:20
   
   5 Isaiah 55:9. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my plans than your plans.
   
   6 Philippians 2:9 Therefore, God highly honored him and gave him a name above all names,
   
   7 John 1:12-13; 1 John 5:1; Job 25:4; John 3:5; 1 Peter 1:3
   
   8 Philippians 1:6. I'm sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus.
   
   9 Hebrews 12:2
   
   10 Philippians 1:6
   
   That's why the proverb says:
   
   Trust in the Lord with all your heart
   Don't rely on your own intelligence.
   Know Him in all your paths
   And He will keep your ways straight. (11)
   
   God is directing your steps. Trust Him, and He'll make sure you get straight to where you want to go - more quickly - without having to circle around and go all over the place and waste time running down paths that lead you in the wrong direction and end you up far away from where you're supposed to be, and what God has designed you for and for you. Those paths might seem enticing sometimes, they might seem like the best option, but when you just don't know what the right path is you have to trust the One who does know - not your temporary desires. You just have to ask Him to lead you - as Jesus taught us to pray: "Lead us - not into temptation - but deliver us from evil". (12)
   
   We are led into temptation by our own desires. (13) God will lead us away from them when they would corrupt us, and towards fulfilling them ultimately - if we ask Him; and He will deliver us from evil in the process. Sometimes, God uses temptation in the sanctification process - tests - because when we pass them by choosing the better path, we get stronger. Sometimes it takes several tries before we get it right - just like someone trying to learn how to do a trick on a skateboard or a bike, or learn scales on a guitar. Practice makes perfect. Repetition is how we get stronger. Tests and trials are part of the learning process. (14) There is, however, a power that sets us free from temptation - where we don't even want to do the bad things anymore, and instead we want to do the good things - because we're being led by the Spirit. That power is the Spirit of Christ Jesus. That very prayer, from Jesus himself - "lead us, not into temptation - but deliver us from evil" - is made possible and available to us because of Him - by His Spirit. So we can ask for it, and we can get the benefit of being delivered from evil without having to be tempted. Then we don't even want to do the things that previously tempted us. The thing isn't a temptation, in fact we loathe it. We're disgusted by it rather than tempted by it, because we see and know the truth clearly. We're so aware of the certain downfalls that we see right through everything else that is presented. We no longer desire to serve the flesh. (15) We only want to feed into the Spirit, invest in God's Kingdom, doing the things that please God - and it's God Himself who effects that crucial change in us, by the Spirit of Christ. Sin then has no power over us. Sin is powerless against us.
   
   11 Proverbs 3: 5-6
   
   12 Matthew 6:13
   
   13 1 Corinthians 10:13
   
   14 John 16:33
   
   15 Galatians 5:24
   
   This is the difference between rote, dogmatic discipline where we force ourselves cognitively to do or not do something because we know it to be "wrong", versus the pure, instant and authentic sanctification that comes by the Spirit. And it's a heck of a lot easier than trying to get it done by our own strength, which inevitably leads to some form of self-righteous pride or religious judgment of others because we want them to suffer the same ways we have in trying to defeat sin in our own strength. When the change happens by the Spirit - as a gift - we can't claim any credit for it. All we can be is grateful - a generous, grateful spirit is created in us where we want to give love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to others who might not even deserve it, because we ourselves have received these as gifts without earning or deserving them. (16)
   
   So we have to trust Him, with all our hearts and minds.
   
   Patience and obedience go hand in hand.
   
   Think of a dog being trained. The trainer holds a treat, and tells the dog to "sit". The dog keeps wanting to get the treat, but only when the dog finally settles down and forces itself to "sit", and wait - then the dog gets the treat. Usually trainers wait a few seconds for the dog to stay sitting - this teaches the dog patience, thereby teaching obedience.
   
   There is no way to gain patience without time - waiting. Patience is faith, knowing God will fulfill the promise, just like the dog knows the trainer will give him the treat - when he submits. So a well trained dog sits immediately when told, and waits patiently. He learns obedience, so that when the trainer says any particular command the dog does it faithfully and immediately - whether for a treat or not. Eventually, the dog learns that it's better across the board to obey.
   
   So. Whether we can accelerate God's plan and purposes for us? Maybe. We can obviously delay them. If we can accelerate, the way is by obeying Him. Is there anything He's told us to do that we haven't done yet?
   
   Let's get it done first, before asking him what we should do and where we should go next. He'll give us the second step after we've done the first thing he's already given us to get done.
   
   16 Luke 7:47
   
   

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 4

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Love

Chapter 4: Love

Humans experience love from the time we're born. It's natural for a baby to be loved by his/her mother, and we need the love that comes from our fathers too. Beyond our parents, humans are communal beings - we need to feel love - both giving and receiving it, in different contexts - whether family, friends, colleagues, and even strangers. You might say you don't need love, and yes you can survive without it, but it sucks. Even prisoners need love. All of this is obvious.

But where does love come from? Where did it originate? And why do we need it? Some scientists say it's a survival instinct we developed through evolution - with people we can accomplish more, defend ourselves, stay warm, etc. My problem is: how do you reconcile that with humanity's equally common need to compete and defeat one another? Survival of the fittest? If that was our Modus Operand we wouldn't take care of babies and we'd go extinct real fast. Because if it wasn't for love we'd destroy each other. We do it already as it is. Competition is the way of this world. It's all about getting ahead and doing better than someone or everyone else. Yes it can be good, it can make us better. But is personal progress worth the cost of our collective destruction? Strength and accomplishments are celebrated, pride and craftiness are applauded and respected. We think competition is a good thing, to promote progress - yet then we end up with a world where people with extra money put it into public corporations on the stock market so they can get even more money, those corporations put out products called food that are sprayed with toxic chemicals and made with garbage, making people sick while the government's politicians and administrative boards - who are supposed to be protecting the people from this - accept bribes from those corporations so they can keep pumping out garbage for people to consume without the people knowing - especially the poor - because they trust the governments that are supposed to be protecting them, yet aren't. And this happens on multiple verticals besides food.

Think about war. It usually comes down to the leaders of countries - due to their personality disorders, millions of people lose their lives, children lose parents, wives lose husbands, people lose their limbs. The drug industry is similar - it's all about making money at the expense of people's lives. (I'm not referring to medical research, more to drug cartels and the chemical industries that supply their poison). Vast amounts of people are dying today because of society's compounded, collective passivity regarding the evil schemes and decisions made by corporate executives and government officials. And those decisions can seem as benign as "smart cost-cutting measures", or even smart investments - but these choices are fueling the destruction of humans by the masses. Greed is applauded, even though it means some people have to eat garbage because they either can't afford good food or aren't aware that the food they're eating is poison. And it actually kills them.

Why is the world like this?

The obvious answer? Because we have free will, to choose good or evil. And many times people choose evil - sometimes even thinking it's good. It will give them more money to pay their child's tuition or the family trip. It will help them climb the ladder, and that other employee doesn't deserve to be seen or rewarded anyway because they're lazy, or stupid, etc. Small choices sometimes. (I'm speaking about myself too by the way, I'm in no position to criticize others).

The world is screwed up. It's not the way we want it to be, and it's our own fault. We're all like this. Not one of us can truly say we don't do anything wrong and are never selfish. We all are.

But what's craziest is not how corrupt we humans are. We already know that. The most insane and unbelievable thing to me is how or why or THAT God would allow it to get so bad just to redeem it all by taking on the brunt of all the evil Himself. But this goes back to the beginning: God created Light ("good") and separated it out from darkness. Polar extremes.

I understand the number 4 to signify redemption and restoration.

In another book I have to write, which talks about my own personal journey focusing on many supernatural experiences I've had throughout my life, I'll divulge my encounters with this number at a time of my life in 2018 that could be described as my life's utter demise. The demise of my life and my family was a result of my own choices. I took refuge in God at that time as my only option - there's no way I would have made it through without Him. It was a dark and very difficult time, and it lasted a long time - almost 8 years. What I now can see, which I didn't then, was that it was necessary for God to bring me through that time in order to change me in fundamental ways that couldn't be changed any other way. Maybe I could have changed if I had paid more attention and not made choices that ignored His voice, but I didn't. I wasn't taking His voice seriously, I just kept ignoring it - not "intentionally", but since life was going great and I was getting caught up in it, I just kept getting worse and worse as a person. God had to do something for me to change - and the changes didn't come easily, or quickly, but they did come eventually. In 2018 - 1 year after the demise began - I made one good decision, thinking only about my kids and family, which required absolute reckless abandon. And the consequences ensued for another 7 years. All of this is for another book, but there's one gem God gave me at the beginning of it, and it was the realization that this thing of life and sanctification can sometimes be like a Rubik's cube: Even when you have one side solved, you have to mess it all up, several times, before you finally get all the colors on all six sides.

Getting back to the number 4:

I started seeing the number 4 and repeating 4's so many times after that one good decision made out of desperation and reckless abandon, it was unbelievable. This was God telling me He was with me, and this was all for my restoration. At that time I thought restoration meant God restoring the things I wanted back that I had lost. But it wasn't about the things, it was about Him restoring me. Fourteen years earlier, in 2004, I had my first revelation about the number 4 when I was writing my earthly dad's eulogy, facing the reality that it's just not all about this life. At that time I was hit with the realization that the cross has four points:

Three at the top



One at the bottom.

You could say the three at the top represent the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

And the one at the bottom, which comes down from the top to touch the ground - represents humanity. That in fact, that 4th extension is God's arm reaching down to the ground - to us.

And the whole represents redemption - salvation - and restoration.

Because by the cross - God connected humanity to himself. Thus - he joined us to Himself.

But why would God do this?

It's a mystery, and all we can do is guess. How can we presume to know why God did this. He didn't have to create us. He didn't have to do this whole thing of Earth and humans and creating Light and Good and Evil. He certainly didn't have to go through pain and suffering to redeem humanity, God can do anything He wants - He could have done it a different way if He wanted to. He could have wiped it out for that matter, and started over. I guarantee you, that's what we all would have done. He didn't have to do any of this at all in the first place. After all, God exists - outside of time - before and after all of it.

So why did He do it?

Honestly - ask God yourself. Maybe He'll tell you something nobody's ever heard.

My cognitive answer is: Love.
God did it to extend His Love.

And why did God want to extend His love - to us of all beings?

Maybe because They (God) created us in Their image.

I don't mean that God had to create us to have someone to love. I don't believe that's true. God has created many beings who attend Him in Heaven - angels, seraphim, things with eyes all over - besides God Himself is an "us" (1) - so there's already a community there - maybe the Father, Son and Spirit, maybe the "seven spirits of God" - who knows? We really don't. And we don't have to. (By the way - getting caught up wondering if we should pray to or refer to God as the Father, Son, Jesus, Christ, the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost - is all semantics. It's God. They're One: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, the Son of God. (2) All the same).

1 Genesis 1:26. Then God said, "Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth."

2 Isaiah 9:6

But if you think about it, for God to love the world so much that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him won't die but will have everlasting life? (3) That's love.

Hinging the whole thing on us believing Him. Trust.
But isn't trust the foundational basis of love?

In fact, the very first event that separated humanity from closeness with God, and the bliss they were living in where they went for walks with God every single evening and frolicked naked in the sun running through the forest the rest of the day without a care in the world - what wrecked it - was not believing or trusting God. Instead, believing the snake. And lies - that God was trying to hold back wisdom and progress and good things, and was trying to trick them (when ironically that's the very thing the snake was doing), and that what God said wasn't true. I mean, think about this for a second. What would you do if you created people and put your very own spirit in them to make them alive - people you love so dearly you want them to know you closely and be connected to you - closer than a mother to it's child, but similar. You created them - formed them, then breathed your very own spirit into them to make them alive. These cute little humans, who look similar to you - unlike the other beings you created. And these people then betray you, by choosing to believe someone else - your enemy - telling them not to trust you? How would you feel? Say it was your companion? That's hurtful. It's not just doing something wrong accidentally. It's believing a lie, that you're an enemy, instead of the truth that you'd give your own life for them. Then they go and do the very thing you told them for their own good not to do, because you had special plans for them and all you wanted them to do was just to trust you as the first step in the right direction.

So right there- right from the beginning - God feels and experiences the pain of betrayal from his dearest people - from the very people He had already planned to redeem, by experiencing utter physical pain in addition to the emotional pain, and taking on the evil himself. In fact, He'd already gone through it since He founded the world with the Lamb slain.

Would we do that? Would we willingly subject ourselves to all that pain - and even write the story with ourselves in it like that?

Can I remind us? - we're not the originators of the story. God wrote it - not us. Salvation wasn't a reaction to our screw up. It was already written into the story from the beginning.

Because, we understand love with limits. None of us would do what He's done. None of us would love so much that we would forgive someone who killed our own son that we sent to save them - let alone, build a world with our own sacrifice as the solution from the beginning.

No, we'd want to cut them off and destroy them. We'd want to make them pay for what they've done. We'd want them to suffer.

We certainly would not want to offer them to join with us in marriage and come into our family.

But maybe the question of "why" isn't what we should try to solve. Maybe "why" goes beyond our capacity to understand. Maybe this is where we just have to know, "THAT" God did this. Remember that name by which God answered Moses? "I am who I am"? It's also interpreted as "I am THAT I am". God is.

3 John 3:16

And who is God?
For one thing, God is love.

To understand who God is, is to understand what love truly is. There are few if any writings more beautiful than 1 Corinthians 13. It sums up this whole book - the whole pursuit of God. Read this slowly, with understanding, knowing God is love:

1 If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.

4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of wrongs, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
9 For we know in part and prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love goes beyond reason. It goes beyond our limits. Love never fails. Love conquers all.

And maybe that's why God did what He did: because nobody else could. We can't even understand it, let alone do it. It's impossible for us - but with God, all things are possible. (4)

That's the difference between God and everything else. He's Holy. Set apart. No one is like the LORD.

So then, we can stop striving. (5) We can simply know God IS.

Ephesians 2: 8-9

You are saved by God's grace because of your faith. This salvation is God's gift. It's not something you possessed. It's not something you did that you can be proud of.

4 Matthew 19: 26

5 Psalm 46: 10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

But it doesn't stop there.

God didn't do all of this to show off.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians verses 4-5 again:

...love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit;

The cross proves it.

God shows us love by humbling himself.

The cross - with Jesus on it - is the ultimate act of love shown through the ultimate in humility. God - gave himself - his life as a human - to save us, to redeem humanity and the world He created, from evil. And He did this from the very beginning - before He created humans. From the foundation of the world, the Lamb was slain.

Remember that 4th stem, extending from the Trinity at the top down to the Earth?

The cross is one full item that includes the 4th stem. If it was just about the Trinity it would look like this:


Looks kinda funny. Makes no sense. It's incomplete. It's not what we know - that symbol has zero meaning to us. Thor's hammer maybe? Great - War. Death. Destruction.

No thanks.

God's redemption of Humanity was to include us - to bring us in, to Him. Jesus said "when I am lifted up from the Earth I will draw everyone to me". (6)

Further, he said, "I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me." (7)

When asked, Jesus said these two verses are the most important ones in the written word:

37 He replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands." (8)

Jesus didn't stop at the first - he said the second is like it. God humbled himself to love us so far as to bring us into Himself - One with Him. How much closer can we get than being One with God? And our oneness with Him causes us to love others as ourselves. So it brings them in as well.

6 John 12:32

7 John 17: 21

8 Matthew 22: 37-40

So the circle - the cross - is complete.

One.

And love is what it's all about.

I think God did all of this - everything we know since the beginning - to show everyone, all the Beings everywhere - to flesh out - Love.

Because God is Love.

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 5

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Abundance

Chapter 5: Abundance

The number 5 is often associated with Grace and Abundance.

Now that we've established God's salvation and redemption are a matter of absolute Grace - meaning it is completely undeserved, and flows from Love - let's keep going from that point - because there's more. God's redemption does more than just save us from evil. It puts us back on track with God, and His intentions for us from the beginning - why He put us in the Garden in the first place - which were to bless us and give us a ton of joy and good things. To bless us with increase.

That's what the Christian gets to enjoy, by the Holy Spirit's direction, even while on Earth in its present state.

Jesus said "The thief enters only to steal, kill and destroy. I have come so that they could have life, and have it abundantly". (1)

Many read this and think abundance means more money, cars, houses, clothes, and other material things. Or, "fun", by superficial definitions.

For us to truly know what Jesus' statement means, we have to ask: what is life?

Because Life is what Jesus said he came to give us abundantly (i.e. to the fullest extent).

Jesus said "a person's life does not consist of their possessions". (2) We know this is true. When we chase after things, they don't fill us. We just want more.

"Look at the birds of the air, they neither toil or sow, yet God feeds them. Look at the flowers of the field, they don't work - yet even Solomon wasn't adorned as beautifully as them". "So don't be concerned with food, drinks and clothes. Your Father knows what you need. Seek first God's Kingdom and His righteousness - and all these things will be added on top!" (3)

For years as a Christian, I sought after the things. I even thought of the above verse as a formula, a method for how to get the things from God. My focus wasn't on the Kingdom of God, it was on the things. I wanted to build my kingdom, because I was under the false impression that building my kingdom was building God's kingdom. I had a number of intellectual justifications to support this mentality: that God would be glorified by my success and prosperity, people might come to God and know Him because they saw how awesome my life and I were, and of course, the cliché: if I make a lot of money then I can fund the Kingdom (as though it operates like the kingdom of the world).

Newsflash: God doesn't need our money to build His Kingdom. He already owns everything.

1 John 10:10. The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life - indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.

2 Luke 12: 15. He then told them, "Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one's life is not in the abundance of his possessions."

3 Matthew 6:33. Instead, desire first and foremost God's kingdom and God's righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well

God doesn't need our help. God doesn't need us. He can do anything at any time with anything and nothing. In fact, He did that very thing when He created the heavens and earth. All God has to do is think, or speak something - it happens. In fact, God doesn't have to do anything. God isn't bound by anything. He makes the rules.

Proverbs 4:23 says "More than anything you guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it". (Some translations say "heart" instead of "mind").

So life flows from our thoughts. And our thoughts flow from our heart & mind.

We were made in God's image. God created the heavens and the earth, and life flows from our thoughts. So we need to pay special attention to our thoughts - to keep them aligned with truth. Since life doesn't come from outside, it comes from within - we also then need to make sure our source is Truth. Then, life will spring from within, bursting out and overflowing out to everything around us. A fountain of life, from within. But ideally not from ourselves, but from God - the Author of Life.

So then, Life is not directionally pointed from outside-in where it will affect our mood and give us joy, peace, and love. Rather - it comes from within and flows out. This is a simple, basic, fundamental and crucial thing to understand.

But there's more.

Jesus' words again: "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks". (4)

And, "the power of life and death are in the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit". (5)

There's a cheat code here, but when people try to use God's tools for selfish desires, it works - and the result is emptiness. I'm talking about "manifestation". God is not a formula. He's not someone we can manipulate into giving us things we want. God gives the things for His own reasons, but thinking rituals and rain dances will do it is what God refers to as witchcraft. They distort who God is and how He operates. At the worst levels, people are sacrificing kids to get what they think is God, to give them what they want. In fact, they're enslaved to demons. I've done it too. It works. In fact, God took me through the process of astrology and the whole nine yards (thankfully I had enough wisdom to stay away from Tarot cards, but still) - so, I got what I wanted... only to have it blow up in my face again and again and leave me worse off each time. And by that I mean being homeless - several times - after doing things like signing a $8.4M deal and being offered a $1.6M investment into my company. Things disappeared suddenly, and I had nothing - just like the Word describes. God did this to prove His word to me.

Just when I was about to reach the "top", I'd get knocked back down to the bottom again. This happened repeatedly over my 7 years of trouble, until I finally had no choice but to give up, and thankfully just then he put an amazing Christian sister in my life who simply played worship music at her place, where she let me have a room for free to keep me from being homeless, and fed me. Nothing but pure friendship. That worship music broke through the witchcraft and lies. It wasn't cognitive - I didn't realize anything, I just broke down crying involuntarily and worshiping God over and over, and He set me free from it. It became clear as day to me - not by cognitive reasoning, but by spiritual understanding. Worship music did it. God immersed me in an environment of pure worship to God, and set things completely straight in my spirit without any conscious realization. I think crying, in that context, is a sign of God breaking through strongholds and chains in our spirit and changing us from within. You feel it deep in your soul. It's not sadness, but rather, utmost gratitude for undeserved grace.

4 Matthew 12: 34

5 Proverbs 18: 21

Psalm 37 provides a lot of insight into God's grace. Verse 4:

"Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires."

OK great. So all you have to do to get your heart's desires is take delight in the Lord right? So, if you like going to church, that satisfies the requirement. Or, if you don't even go to church you just sit there meditating, or saying "I am" over and over - then you'll get everything you want, right? As long as you believe?

Time out. Let's back up for a second.

Five years into my 8-year tribulation, in 2021, I was pretty beaten down. The huge deal I had signed in 2019, which I thought God spoke to me and told me He was giving me, had now completely fallen apart, leaving me barely surviving - again. I found a place to live for myself and my very mentally ill son, but we had no food, and no income, and I wasn't authorized to work in the US yet and had no money to process my immigration. We were hungry, and had arrived in Austin in January 2021 after returning from my last demo in Dallas to seal the deal - and it still didn't close. By this time I had a complex that I was under God's wrath, and as a result it was very hard for me to think positive thoughts. I happened to meet up with some older men of God in an online prayer meeting, who encouraged me... and God put the realization in my mind that I had to start just singing to Him at the beginning of the day, and forcing myself to think positively, and believe He was for me.

So I did it. Before long I had $12K, then another $30K, then an investment of $117K into my new company by the end of that year. I discovered Neville Goddard, whose message "I and God are One" changed my paradigm completely. It was Neville's statement "nearness implies separation... I'd rather be One with the Father" - that hit me the hardest, and I agree. I started realizing the power of faith. And that was what turned me on to manifestation. It seems to me that faith - believing - is one of the things the manifestation community understands better than anyone. And fact is, it works. Jesus said:

"Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." (6)

Pretty powerful and clear. Jesus said it, and it's true. It comes down to believing.

We can get anything we want, if we believe.

But here's an important truth to not let go of: everything is subject to God's will, and His ways are higher. Even if we use the power of faith Jesus calls out above, and we get things - that's not what it's all about. We covered this in Chapter 4:

God loves us.

6 Mark 11:23

As a result, He disciplines us. He allowed me to experience the power of faith and manifestation, only for me to lose it all over and over again, because I was focused on the things. They were idols, keeping me trapped. In fact, my relationship with God was centered on me getting the things I wanted. All of my prayers were about the things I wanted. On one of my trips between LA and Austin, I met a spiritual girl on the plane who told me the same thing. She said: "you need to come to Jeshua just to come to Him, not for things". Amazing how God speaks. Incidentally, the "wise" men (Magi) found Jesus' star - they studied the stars. Stars are mentioned all through the Bible, and in Genesis it says God put them there to mark signs among other things. The problem is, people make it into witchcraft when they're trying to determine the future by them. People do the same thing with substances, and other things - it's all a trap. God doesn't want us to be trapped - by anything. Our future and our days aren't determined by stars. We don't have to smoke or eat something to come into God's presence or to hear/see Him. That's not how it works. These things present as a backdoor/shortcut or simply "fun" - their deceit is subtle, but very serious and can be absolutely detrimental. Jesus is the only way to the Father. Period. Stars can be studied, and beauty appreciated, but there are warnings not to worship these things in any way. Here's the clearest one:

"Don't look to the skies, to the sun or the moon or the stars, all the heavenly bodies, and be led astray, worshipping and serving them." - Deuteronomy 4:19
And another:

You are weary from all your consultations; let the astrologers stand up and save you, those who gaze at the stars, and predict what will happen to you at each new moon. - Isaiah 47:13
(Read it in context - it's sarcasm)

I could do a whole chapter on idol worship - witchcraft (manipulation is the most obvious sign of this - anything that is manipulative or seductive is demonic, as it is employing deceit) - and drugs. When you come under the influence of anything, you're in a very dangerous position - literally opening yourself up to the enemy who wants to destroy you. You're making yourself vulnerable to attacks from the enemy: Deceit. Fear. Depression. Anxiety. Psychosis. Those things. Very bad things that can really mess you up. And you don't even know it until it's way too late. The more you listen to these deceiving voices, the less you hear God clearly - the farther you get from Light, and the darker and dimmer your hearing and life get. I know this from experience, and therefore urge you to cut these things out as soon as possible, and run to God so He can start putting your life back together. You might think you're handling it, even though you're struggling with it. You can still be a Christian and smoke weed, or drink, or do these other things, however they don't lead to life - they lead to destruction. Consider this seriously. I know it's hard to grapple with, and you have to trust God and ask Him to do the work in you.

That's what God did with me and it was messy. I mentioned the Rubik's Cube in the last chapter. It took an eight-year period of hardship to fix my problems, but the misery and deceit, including extreme paranoia, ruined relationships, lost career opportunities, wasted time, terrible judgment calls and financial struggle I subjected myself to began from the time I started smoking weed 20 years prior to that 8-year period of tribulation. Of course it wasn't just smoking weed, it was pride and folly at the root. If you know you need to make a change, don't put it off. Now's your chance. I had several, and ignored them. Then 20 years goes by and you're wondering why you're still having problems and hitting rock bottom over and over. Thankfully, God stepped in, because He's merciful and compassionate to no end. If He hadn't, I'd be hopeless and there would be no remedy to my demise. But thankfully, I'm climbing back up steadily now. I might not appear as sexy as I did in the past - but reality is I wasn't truly flying high then at all - I just appeared as though I was, for brief sections of time, only to fall flat on my face worse every time. Now I know the difference. When you wake up in the morning and you're so full of joy and peace and a sense of clean-ness, you can't help but smile and laugh - yeah, that's the way I want to be alive. It's awesome.

God is a "jealous" God. We interpret that word as "envious", as in wanting what someone else has - that's not what it means - obviously. How could God be envious when He owns everything He created, and could wipe it all out and create something else at any moment if He wanted to. There is no rival to God. He has an enemy - Satan - the Accuser of the God's people - who keeps trying to challenge God - but even that Being is completely under God's control. Ever seen a cat playing with a mouse?

God wants us to come into His faithful love. He has restored our relationship with Him that was wrecked by us not trusting Him in the first place, which created the distance - the same way it would in any relationship. God wants us to realize that He is our provider, but that even more than Him providing for our Earthly needs and desires, He can offer us so much more than just being a 3rd party "source". In fact, the same way you desire closeness with a human being - that love - God has much more for us than any human can give us. And God can also love us through other humans. His love isn't even limited to human love. We can receive love from God by His Spirit. God is after all, Spirit, and those who worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth. (7)

God loves us, and wants us to be free from things that enslave us. When we elevate our desires above God's will, we have created idols of them. When we elevate them beyond our desire for God, they enslave us. That's the very trap most people are in. God wants to set us free.

"And if the Son sets you free, you really will be free". (8)

Isn't it ironic that religion tries to bind people up and enslave them? People think they have to do ceremonies and say certain words and prayers and it's all based on fear of doing something wrong. But God wants us to be free. And He gave us the way.

Our desires can enslave us. That's why Jesus told us to focus first and foremost on His Kingdom, and His righteousness.

People talk about money giving them freedom. Yet - sometimes I think about the richest people on earth - it's none of my business and I don't mean to judge, but they don't seem very free to me. They have billions of dollars, yet they're constantly having to worry about this or that thing. And if there's nothing else to worry about it's just about getting more?

When we focus on our desires, it's all about us - and that becomes a trap. Even ourselves can be an idol.

7 John 4: 24. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

8 John 8:36

Because if we're constantly thinking about what we don't have and how we need more or have to do more and climb and hustle to appear more successful to others... how are we free? We're just serving our desires, which are black holes. As soon as we fill them we want more.

Jesus said "it is better to give than to receive". (9)

Being on the receiving end of things is an inferior position to the one giving them. If you're giving, it means you have what you need and something extra to give - that's a good position to be in.

God will often bless us with the things we desire. I believe God puts desires - will - in our hearts for His purposes. (10) He gives us the desire to pursue and do. That's how our basic psycho-biological motivational systems work: If we're hungry, we desire food, so we get up and get it. If we're cold, we desire heat, so we make a fire or do whatever is necessary to get warm. If we desire a warm, safe, secure place to live, the combination of will and determination move us to do everything necessary to build or otherwise get a house to live in.

I heard once that the word "desire" means "from God" - if you break it into "de" and "sire" - which, if you know French, makes sense. (By the way, I Googled it, which proved ARTIFICIAL "intelligence" is already skewing false answers in October 2025 - Google claims the word is derived from "de-sidus" or "from the stars" - of course, big surprise. That answer doesn't even make sense. The word isn't Desidus. It's Desire. That just shows you. Pay attention - you'll see more and more of that online especially from search engines - distortion and lies. Anyone who goes to ChatGPT for answers they should be going to God for is playing with something as dangerous as a Ouija board. Beware. Search engines are a tool, like money or anything else. Don't let them become something you go to for things you should get from God).

Submit your desires to God. Commit them to Him. Pursue what you're motivated to pursue. Let peace guide you and direct you. Ask God for His will to be done, and chase His Kingdom and Righteousness ahead of your own desires. (11) Jesus's disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, and that was #2 in the order, after #1: Acknowledging God and therefore praising Him with a thankful heart. (12) Asking for our daily bread is #3 in the prayer order - and Jesus taught us that His Word is far more important and valuable than food, when He resisted the temptation to turn stones into bread while He was fasting. (13) Still, obviously food is necessary and God designed for us to consume it, but not be consumed by the need to feed ourselves, because He will do it. Be ready to give up your will for the sake of God's being done. I need to anyway, I don't know about you, but me? I keep wanting God to make me look good. Even with this book. Just being honest. That can't be the reason for my doing this - and it isn't, truly. My sincere desire is for people to know God - however, those desires for vanity do keep rearing their ugly heads all the time, which I am quite certain is the very reason I've been kept in a lowly, humble position many times in life. Anyway - Jesus chose a humble life, and then gave up his desire simply to not experience horrible pain and torture and execution - in the Garden of Gethsemane. (14) If we can get to that point of surrender, and live there, then we truly will know His peace and direction. We can't understand it, but we have Jesus' absolute strength in his surrendering his will to God, to thank for our salvation. We'll get more into this subject in Chapter 8. And the best thing is: what God has planned for you is far superior to what you can ask for or imagine. So you're in good hands when you surrender everything including your will and imaginations to God. Trust Him, and He will act. (15)

9 Acts 20:35 In everything I have shown you that, by working hard, we must help the weak. In this way we remember the Lord Jesus' words: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

10 Philippians 2:13 God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes.

11 Matthew 6:9 Pray like this: Our Father who is in heaven, uphold the holiness of your name. Bring in your kingdom so that your will is done on earth as it's done in heaven.

12 Psalm 100: 4 Enter his gates with thanks; enter his courtyards with praise! Thank him! Bless his name!

13 Matthew 4:4 Jesus replied, "It's written, People won't live only by bread, but by every word spoken by God."

14 Luke 22: 42. He said, "Father, if it's your will, take this cup of suffering away from me. However, not my will but your will must be done."

15 Psalm 37:4-6 Enjoy the Lord, and he will give what your heart asks. Commit your way to the Lord! Trust him! He will act and will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like high noon.

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 6

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Good & Evil

Chapter 6: Good and Evil

I haven't chosen the numbers randomly, and deliberately chose to make chapter six about this. Not because I think 6 is an evil number. It isn't. I think 6 could represent humanity, in it's imperfect state - the choice between good & evil.

I do believe numbers are significant to a certain extent, but like so many things, people get onto something and then blow it out of proportion and in extremes, they becoming slaves to it because they make it so big it becomes a false god to them. Don't stake your life on numbers. They're just an interesting thing God uses for significance, like colors, animals, and other objects.

In the Bible, our first view of evil comes from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. To know something, as I interpret the meaning of "knowledge" in this case, is to be aware of it, and to know both things intimately and inherently. People say this was the original sin. Eating some fruit? No. Doing the very thing God instructed them not to do - distrusting Him, and trying to usurp Him and His instructions to obtain wisdom. If they didn't eat it, they wouldn't have known good AND evil. They might have only known good. Or, they might only have known the ability to do right, and not evil. Or, they might not have known the difference between good and evil, or had the option to choose evil at all. But - you know the story. They did eat it, and thereby gained the knowledge of good & evil - which we all have and we know it. We all have a basic inherent knowledge of what is good and what is evil. It gets complicated of course.

But evil, in the account of Adam and Eve in the garden starts where the serpent asks the woman: "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?". (1) Questioning God - not in an inquisitive way, but in a way that doubts whether God is for us or against us. Or worse - whether God is just or not. Evil begins with the doubt that God is anything but for us, and/or just.

If we think God is against us, we have the whole thing backwards. The "serpent" is God's enemy and humanity's enemy - not rival, but enemy. Adversary. The antagonist in the story. The villain. And it's there for a reason - just the same way it's in any good story, movie, play, or game:

Challenge.

God created us and loves us, He breathed his Spirit into us to make us alive. So everything he tells us to do is for our own good - it's the cheat code to winning this game he's designed and designed us for. God just wants us to trust Him. We don't have all the answers and can't possibly understand it all, no matter how hard we try. The game is extremely complex - yet, the cheat code is insanely easy. So easy people can't accept it! - There are dimensions and beings we humans are not even aware of, let alone understand. That's why exposing ourselves to them through drugs is so dangerous. Humans can be easily deceived and influenced. Our own minds, hearts, emotions, and even reason and ambitions can lead us down destructive paths. Our enemy is right there trying to trick us into not trusting God at every step.

Even if we spent all our lives reading the Bible, we still wouldn't get it right. Proverbs 3:5-6:

"Trust in I AM (God) with all your heart;
Do not rely on your own understanding.

1 Genesis 3

Seek his will in all you do,
And he will show you which path to take."

The key, the cheat code to getting the best out of this life is to trust God. Humility is the path to greatness. It's counter-intuitive, because we believe we can force our way to the top and by our own strength; dominate. That's the way of this world. And it works in this physical realm - however, life is about more than just the seen physical realm, and to win the real game we have to look beneath and beyond it - carefully - not with our minds, not with our own understanding, but first by trusting God. That's step 1.

The path of destruction starts with not trusting God, or worse: not believing God exists, or not paying attention to the fact. (2) We have the choice. We can ignore God if we want to. We can try to get things our own way - but all that will happen in the end is destruction. (3)

Our enemy - the serpent, the snake, the dragon - wants to destroy us. (4)

The goal of life on Earth is to overcome evil. To beat it.

The act of eating fruit from a tree God placed right there in the garden for the humans to freely pick from - on face value, doesn't seem like some terrible sin. And yeah, like Adam and Eve said - they were tricked. Yet no-one can argue that murder isn't evil. The very next generation - Adam and Eve's son Cain, murders his brother. What begins with Eve believing the serpent's hypocritical lie that God is trying to trick them, results immediately in fear, insecurity, loss of blessing, and envy/competition. And so the evil acted out on the Earth begins, and grows prevalent quickly. Five generations later, Lamech murders a young man just for hurting him, then boasts about it, twisting God's mercy on Cain when God said anyone who hurts him would be severely punished ("avenged sevenfold"). Lamech thinks somehow God would avenge him even more than Cain for murdering his brother, since Lamech murdered someone just for hurting him. (5) And so the twisted idea begins that God is about war, and applauds those who steal, kill and destroy. We know this dynamic all too well. We see it in movies all the time, gang mentality is all about it. It's the mentality that says "don't mess with me or I'll kill you". "One wrong look and you're dead". Pop culture applauds it, thinking it's tough and cool. That's the dynamic of this world. That's the twisted idea of competition and conquering in this world. Intimidation. Fear. Domination.

Before Cain ever killed his brother Abel, he was able to talk with God seemingly face to face. Not in the Garden of Eden - after it. In fact the whole thing started with Cain bringing an offering to God, and Able doing the same. God showed that he preferred Able's offering because he brought first fruits, whereas Cain wasn't as lavish with his. But then Cain got angry.

That second God came in and spoke with Cain.

2 Psalm 14 & 53 Fools say in their hearts, There is no God. They are corrupt and do evil things; not one of them does anything good.

3 Psalm 49

4 1 Peter 5:8

5 Genesis 4:23, 24

"'Why are you so angry?' God asked Cain. "Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master." (6)

Cain failed that test, even when God clearly gave him the answers. Cain did the opposite. Then he was banished from God's presence, just like his parents were banished from the Garden. Things just got worse from there until finally God had to wash the Earth and restart it and humanity with Noah and his family.

But let's notice this important fact: God puts the tests in there on purpose. It's all about us becoming better - progress - by overcoming evil. The same way we get stronger by putting more weight on the bar, or running faster. Resistance and repetition are the only way we can get stronger, and learn.

A wise older gentleman, my good friend named William Herring once told me a phenomenal story which drove this home for me. I hope it does the same for you:

There was a successful man in Florida who owned a seafood restaurant, who had the fish in large tanks as you walk into the lobby. The restaurant was renowned for its superior tasting fish, and always packed full. Eventually he sold the restaurant to a younger guy, who one day noticed there were predators in the tanks eating the fish. So he removed the predators, thinking he'll surely boost his profits by not losing 35% of his goods to the predators. Before long his business was failing - reviews were circulating claiming the quality had deteriorated since the new owner took control. People weren't coming back. He couldn't figure out what the problem was, so he went to the old owner to seek his advice. The old man asked, "what did you change?" "Nothing", the new owner said, "except I removed the predators from the tanks because they were eating half the fish!" "Well that's your problem" said the old man. "The predators ate the bad fish, and made the good ones better".

Job is an extremely insightful book of the Bible if we want to understand God and trials - testing - and suffering - what we would say is the result of evil. (Incidentally - I don't think the name is any coincidence, which I've found is often the case with the names even though we're reading the Bible in English now, translated over millennia and multiple languages - God also invented humor. Working can be a blessing, but when it's called a "job" - often it's a trial).

The first time I read Job I couldn't stop. I found it fascinating. I was 13 years old, in church, and from beginning to end it blew my mind. If you really want to dive deep into understanding God intellectually, read Job. The book is full of exceptionally mind blowing revelations. It's far too much to claim any one meaning from it, but for our purposes here I'll summarize:

It starts off in heaven, with Satan (the word means "Accuser" - the title given to the "plaintiff" in Jewish court) appearing before God with the other angelic beings. Right there the divine order is made clear. God is God - the King of Everything. Satan, the Adversary, is God's subject just like everything is. God speaks to the Adversary, favorably about Job. Satan then challenges God, saying that if Job experiences trouble, he'll certainly turn away from God. God allows Satan to trouble Job - he loses everything - kids, wealth, and finally even health. He's sitting there with painful boils wondering why God has done this to him. His friends gather around and insist Job must have done something wrong to deserve this. Job ends up finally bursting out with the honest thoughts of his heart - authenticity - yet maintaining his integrity - both that he never did anything wrong to deserve this, while also not blaming God, saying that God isn't wrong and can't be - but that he would just like to at least plead his case to God. The whole book long Job's friends are trying to make Job see that Job must have done something evil to deserve this punishment - so they're trying to figure out what he's done, even if it's just that he's maintaining he didn't do anything wrong and THAT therefore is his sin. In the end - God doesn't charge Job with wrongdoing, and he does charge the friends with not speaking correctly of Him to the point where God is actually angry with them and requires Job to pray for them. So then we are left with trying to understand what the friends said wrong. And here's the amazing complexity of God's word: I haven't myself been able to identify anything they said wrong about God (and their discourse reveals amazing truths about God and His creation), except that the friends were trying to pin Job's trials on Job - that he did something wrong. It's the view that if we do this (rain dance or ritual), God will be happy and react in a favorable way, and if we do that (bad thing) God will be mad and punish us. Ironically, one of the friends points out this perspective, saying "if you sin, how does that hurt God, and if you do good, how does that help Him in any way?" Maybe this was slightly off? Maybe in fact God does derive joy from seeing us do right, and maybe it disappoints Him when we do wrong - like a father with a son. Maybe God set this whole thing up to see the joy we get from Him when we trust Him and do what's right. Maybe God does actually delight in the prosperity and joy of His servants? Undoubtedly, we derive joy from our kids' joy - their smiles make us smile, their laughs make us laugh. That's love, right?

6 Geneis 4:6-7

It would seem that none of what was happening to Job was a result of him doing anything wrong - yet - when God confronts him in the end and speaks to him, it becomes immediately clear to Job that he's in no place to question God or God's justice. All of this was God's doing, for God's own purposes. It's not our place to challenge God or question Him in a distrustful way - it is our place to wonder though, to be in awe, and to discover deeper who God is, without thinking we have God all figured out - knowing God is far beyond our capacity to understand, God is unpredictable - but that our pursuit of Him, our struggle with Him is a valuable pursuit (Israel in fact means "he who struggles with God". God gave Jacob - which means, "deceiver", or "he who usurps" - this new name after Jacob wrestled with Him all night).

And what were God's purposes with Job's trials? Well for one - for Job's good - to draw Job closer to Him. Job went from knowing "about" God, to knowing God personally. That's a huge step forward. This was the only way it could be accomplished. Job did everything perfectly, by the book - even covering his kids' faults by sacrificing on their behalf. But only after being stripped of everything was Job able to see God personally, and move from a formulaic understanding to an intimate one. Job came face to face with God through His trials, which resulted in Job knowing God better. And God did bless Job more after than before.

And of course there are all the benefits to us, which we now derive from the story.

While talking with Job, God describes a creature called Leviathan - a sea dragon, with scales so thick they are impenetrable. He goes on describing this creature in detail for awhile, outlining how intricate and ferocious he created this thing. It's a monster. Yet God is seemingly proud of his creation. God also makes the point, that we wouldn't dare challenge it. We fear it. Yet - God created this thing. It doesn't care about justice, it attacks at will and so be it. So if it instills fear in the hearts of every man, shouldn't we fear its Creator that much more?

God wants us to know Him.
God is love. God is unbelievably merciful and forgiving, and kind. But he is also GOD - the creator of everything. For us to just think God is a formula we can wrap our heads around and figure out, is putting ourselves in a box - not God. God can't be put in a box. God is unpredictable. There's a reason Proverbs says "to fear God is the beginning of wisdom". (7) We shouldn't be so afraid of God that we don't want to approach Him, but we have to realize that to try to approach Him any other way than by the grace of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ - is absolutely dangerous. And sure enough, people lose their minds trying to do it another way. They become religious fundamentalists without love and do crazy things, or spiritual woo woos who are all about themselves. Severe evil results from pursuits of God that are misled - approaches that try to circumvent Jesus - the only Way to the Father. People try to use drugs and other methods and end up deceived to points of insanity. Yet, "He has given us grace to come boldly to his throne" (8) - and that grace is by Jesus Christ. But we have to understand that God is not limited to our understanding. We have to give God the respect He deserves. Just because He loves us so much doesn't mean we should treat him as trivially as another human. If the king of our country was to shake our hand, would we be respectful?

It's really impossible for us to give God the respect He deserves. But, if we trust Him - like it says in Proverbs 3:5-6 - with all our heart, and we don't rely on our own understanding - then we'll know that we can come to Him without fully understanding everything. We don't have to get it figured out on our own, and in fact we can't. But wisdom and understanding- truth - come from Him, and He is willing to give it to us if we humble ourselves before Him and ask. Because he's merciful. It won't necessarily come immediately - sometimes we have to work for it. Sometimes it takes us humbling ourselves, fasting, or just praying earnestly - sometime it takes years to get answers. We can't be bratty babies about it and expect to get answers always the second we want them. Sometimes is takes work. But if we're willing to work hard to reach other goals in life, why wouldn't we be willing to do the same, and apply the same consistent persistence to earn answers and understanding from God? The Kingdom of God and His righteousness are a worthwhile pursuit.

We can't understand some things in life. Nobody can understand why in this world, kids would have to suffer for example. Things like war, famine, disease - it makes no sense, until we remember that there is evil. But if we can understand that God has control over everything, and is working out His purposes in everything, then we can give up our demand to have answers for everything right now, and trust God. We can ask Him for the answers, and he might or might not give them immediately. But by trusting Him, we can offload the burden, and experience His peace, which transcends understanding, as it says in Philippians 4:6

"Don't be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will guard your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus."

God in the end blessed Job with more than he had in this world, but more importantly, more intimacy with God than he ever had - and that is worth far more.

Job’s final response to God:

"I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you.
You asked, 'Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?'
It is I - and I was talking about things I new nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.
You said, 'Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.'
I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.

7 Proverbs 9:10

8 Hebrews 4:16

I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance." (9)

Job had wanted to ask God questions and demand answers but in fact, it is God who questions us. Humility is the only right position when we actually experience God truly. We can only acknowledge His greatness and our relative insignificance when we truly encounter God. God does what He wants to do. We can ask him questions, but from a humble place, like a child - if we actually know Him. Not from the place of an accuser, questioning God as though his motives aren't right. God is right in everything He does - it is us who have to get understanding, and know the truth - and if we humble ourselves to God, most often (if not always) He will actually give us the understanding and wisdom we're looking for.

It says in James that if anyone desires wisdom, they should ask God for it, and God will not turn anyone away who asks Him for it. So there we go. What a simple and readily available 10 solution. God is merciful, and doesn't even refuse a single one of us. That doesn't mean it's easy... it doesn't mean we might not have to ask for many years, through many trials, and many wrong decisions, troubles and failures - as I have. Wisdom has not been an easy journey for me. I've been foolish many times, and lacked good judgment. But I keep asking God for it, and am finally starting to understand how bratty it was for me to expect God to just give me everything I want the second I ask Him, and for me to blame Him for my mistakes. If you really want something you'll persist until you get it. It's the same with God. We can't just expect God to give us everything we want the second we ask, like a bratty baby. Some things take time and persistence. But, God is good, merciful, kind, and if He would give his Son for us like he did, we know God loves us. So then - don't worry. Trust God. Ask, and you will receive - but don't think this means asking for things like a million dollars and just anything you want. God will give us what is good for us. He knows what that is way more than we do. Sometimes the things we think would be good for us, really would ruin us. Sometimes we think we're being ruined and ask God "why?" - when in fact God is just turning the Rubik's Cube to get all the colors on the right sides. We have to trust Him.

Everything God does is for His purposes, and for our good - if we are His.

Romans 8:1-2

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him , the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Romans 8:28

And we know that God works all things together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purposes

Romans 8:29

For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

9 Job 42:1-6

10 James 1:5

Believe it, and you will have peace that extends far beyond all understanding.

The knowledge of Good and Evil is the ability to choose either. We know what is good and we know what is evil. We inherently know. We might be deceived sometimes by our justifications, but deep down we have an inherent understanding of the difference between the two.

Think about it. The knowledge of good and evil - was the injection of the subject of right and wrong into the world. The subject of good and evil is only here because we chose to eat of that fruit He specifically told us not to eat. We believed the lie that it would give us wisdom - somehow thinking we could get what we want some other way than God's way. We believed the lie that God was trying to keep something good from us, and we just wanted to get the thing we wanted. God knew we would do it, and put the tree there for a reason, and set the whole thing up from the world's foundation, including the dragon being thrown out of heaven down to earth to deceive the nations, and paramount to everything: the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, to take away its sin.

We can't blame God for evil in the world. We chose it. It was already there - a natural opposite of "good" - the light - and all we had to do was trust God, and overcome it. That still is what we have to do now. We have a standard of perfection, and an idea of what reality might be like without evil - a perfect world - and there is only one way to get there. That is the subject of the next chapter.

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 7

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Heaven & Hell

Chapter 7: Heaven & Hell

Let's not forget: God created Heaven and Earth.

We have to realize that God created everything. He's not like us humans, where we live in the physical dimension called Earth that we were born into. Again I think we need to reach beyond an anthropomorphic understanding of God in this way. We were born into this world. God was not born into Heaven. Apparently, God lives there - but He created it. And God also lives in us by the way. In fact, He's everywhere. (1)

Similar to how we all have a concept of eternity - even though we can't wrap our heads around it, we simultaneously can't imagine that everything would cease - we also have an inherent understanding of perfection, even though our world and everyone in it is imperfect.

Maybe our understanding of perfection comes from numbers, math and measurements. For example, parallel lines have to be perfectly aligned. So then, forms of perfection exist in our reality and in fact we need them to do things like build and fly. A perfect scenario has to occur for life to procreate. The oceans, though their depth can't be measured, spill onto the shore by only a tiny fraction relative to their size - a variation of a few hundred feet. (Why is this? Read Job 38 (2). When you think about the millions of connections made between chemicals in order for the world we live in to exist - it's amazingly precise. Yet - evil exists, and everything dies. So it still doesn't meet the standard of perfection we innately possess in concept.

A common theme I've heard from atheists is anger against the notion of God because they can't reconcile that a "supposedly loving and just Creator" would let atrocities happen - evil. Their expectation is perfection. Their argument is this: "there could only be a God if the world was perfect, with no evil. Since there is evil, there must be no God." I'm not sure there is logic in that thinking.

Good and Evil are opposites, like Light and Dark. A white sheet of paper conveys no information without being "soiled" by ink that is darker than white. Would we know pleasure if we didn't know pain?

But thankfully, we have hope: escaping this place of imperfection and pain, to go to one where there is no pain. That is Heaven.

Heaven is God's throne, and it's where we are outside of time. If the Earth and it's physical dimension is in Time, then outside of time - Eternity - isn't just after, it's also before and now.

1 Jeremiah 23:24 Can people hide themselves in secret places so I might not see them? Don't I fill heaven and earth?

2 Job 38:4 Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, 5 Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the measuring line over it? 6 On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 "Or who enclosed the sea with doors When it went out from the womb, bursting forth; 9 When I made a cloud its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling bands, 10 And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors, 11 And I said, 'As far as this point you shall come, but no farther; And here your proud waves shall stop'?

Jesus lived life as a perfect human. He did not once succumb to the choice of evil. Thereby, he overcame it, and mastered it. In doing so - within Himself - he then put evil itself to death. He did this for the whole world. Many are called, but, few are chosen. (3) So only the ones who believe in Jesus - who He is, which is the One Living One, the Son of God - Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace - to them, he gave the right to become the children of God, born not of the flesh nor of the will of a person, but of God. (4)

It's His doing. So then if you have the incalculable privilege of being one of these, to believe in who He is, then you have Life. You have an abundance of it. And you have the ability to ascend to Heaven, like Jesus, by living in such a way that states that you believe in and know Him - which of course can only be done through His Spirit, by Him living through you. Jesus himself comes in Spirit form and lives in you, guiding and directing you to do the will of God, by choice. You want to do it. So you make choices that are good, not evil. And even if you screw up, the blood Jesus shed on the cross - his sacrifice - cleanses you from sin so that you can be clean. And in fact, that cleansing process - called sanctification - continues until you appear before God, blameless and spotless. Heaven is God's throne, and the Earth is His footstool. (5)

Heaven is where we want to go. We take it for granted, because we are alive by God's Spirit.
The breath of Life gives us life.
His home is heaven.
So we long for it, and belong in it.

However, we are by nature, in a body of this earth - made of dust (carbon, to be scientific). We know it will die, as all things on this earth do. Even the trees that live for thousands of years, die. Even stars and galaxies, apparently "die".

Humans seek eternal life by nature.
We think we can achieve it though our own efforts: medical science and science of all kinds. By merging with technology.

However, there is no ransom for our souls. No amount of money or technological development can achieve it. Because we didn't create our souls. Our souls were a gift from the Living One, only, Creator. God.

So.
He gave us a way. We have an escape from death.
There is one way. One means. One salvation.
It is by our Spirit being renewed - reborn. (6)

3 Matthew 22:14 Many people are invited, but few people are chosen.

4 John 1:12-13 But those who did welcome him, those who believed in his name, he authorized to become God's children, born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, but born from God.

5 Matthew 5:34-35 But I say to you, take no oath at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet

6 John 3:3 Jesus answered, "I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it's not possible to see God's kingdom."

The rebirth has to come from God. It comes by His Spirit, from within.

We acknowledge the Truth. The truth of our sinfulness - our soiled state. It's obvious. We know we're not perfect. We know - every single one of us - that we make mistakes. We can say "it's ok, everybody makes mistakes". And we can be ok with it and dismiss it as "the way things are". However - imperfect things die. Eternal life is not given just because we say it's ok. We're not the grantor of our own salvation from this reality of death.

It is a gift. The same way we were given life - existence - in the first place, we also, as part of the setup we call life on this earth, have to be reborn of God's Spirit - the Spirit of Jesus, the Christ - and that is what lives forever.

The One who is from Heaven lives forever. (7)

To speak of Heaven we might also want to speak of Hell. It is mentioned in the Bible, by Jesus himself. (8) Read the gospels - Mathew, Mark, Luke, or John, in the New Testament - this is where you'll find most of the words spoken by Jesus the man on Earth: The "Son of Man", as He referred to himself as. Jesus made it clear. He spoke of people who even did miracles in his name - casting out demons, healing the sick - yet didn't actually know Jesus personally. They apparently believed in him enough to call Him Lord, and do miracles, yet He said to them in the end "depart from me, you workers of lawlessness". (9) Let me be honestly personal for a moment and say that this scripture nails me straight through the heart (i.e. scares the hell out of me).

Who casts out demons in Jesus' name, and does miracles in His name? You'd think they'd be people who are not only following Jesus - Christians - but, really following Him. Like, hardcore. Who does this, seriously?

Anyone serious about following Jesus really has to look at this and consider it carefully. Because, "the gate that leads to life is narrow and the road difficult, so few people find it." (10)

Here's where the division is. This story was about two kinds of people. The first group is these, who God actually sends to hell. (11)

Selah (pause, and calmly think of this).

Without passing judgement, maybe we consider some people we've seen who get high up in the world of spectacular church fame, making tons of money from people engaging in their shows. In my case though, I have to consider myself, my own delusions of grandeur and my desires to prove to anyone that I really have some things figured out - even while writing this book (which is supposed to be for the purpose of simply helping others, not for me to look good. Sheesh. It's evil. God, please forgive me. Forgive us of our sins, as we forgive others who have sinned against us.)

7 Isaiah 57:15; Revelation 4:8-10, 10:6, 15:7

8 Psalm 139:8; Matthew 5:22,29,30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15,33; Mark 9:45,47; Luke 12:5

9 Matthew 7:21-23

10 Matthew 7:13,14

11 Matthew 25:44-46

The second, is a group of people who visited the sick, helped poor people, gave them food and water and clothes when they needed it. Simple, humble acts of kindness and love that maybe nobody saw, and for people nobody even considers. Yet, these are the exact things that matter.

Jesus said these people, in doing these acts of kindness to people, were actually doing the things to Jesus. (12)

To this second people, God says "come, enter into my Father's glory. When I was hungry, you gave me food, when I was thirsty, you gave me water to drink, and when I was sick and in prison, you visited me." (13)

Wow.

So what's the difference between the two groups?

Love coming from the Will of God.

Jesus prefaces the story by saying "only the people who do the will of my Father will enter into my Kingdom". (14)

So it's not even about what we accomplish in Jesus' name! His name is powerful. It's the name above all names. It's the name above all sickness, demons, and even death. People are raised from death, in Jesus' name. It works. I know this first hand. Huge, flashy things can be accomplished by faith in Jesus' mighty Name. You can move mountains, just with faith. Heck, people even get healed by faith - without even using the name of Jesus! Yet, in the end it's not the things we do out of our own will that matter - it's only doing the will of God that matters. Because God is the one who decided, and judges - not us - what is good, and what is evil. Our judgements on the subject are corrupted. We judge based on appearances, whereas God sees our hearts. (15)

The first set of people were doing flashy things in Jesus' name - to be seen - but without doing the will of God. They didn't know Him. It's not that what they were doing was wrong by outward appearances. It seems good by all outward appearances. And it's not that doing those things is necessarily always flashy, or wrong. But God looks at our hearts. We can't save ourselves through our good works, no matter how spectacular and impressive they are. (16)

12 Matthew 25:36. I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.'

13 Matthew 25:31-44

14 Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

15 1 Samuel 16:7. But the Lord said to Samuel, "Have no regard for his appearance or stature, because I haven't selected him. God doesn't look at things like humans do. Humans see only what is visible to the eyes, but the Lord sees into the heart."

16 Isaiah 64:6 "All our righteous works are like filthy rags"

The only One who can save us is Jesus.

"Who then can be saved?", Jesus' disciples asked.
Jesus said: "with humans it is impossible. But with God, all things are possible". (17)
"But when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the Earth?" (18)
"This is the only work God requires of you: that you believe in the One he has sent." (19)

James 1:27 describes what "true religion" is: helping orphans, widows and poor people. (20) This lines up with what Jesus was saying to the two groups of people - the contrast. The first group of people didn't help poor people who needed it. Sure, we could say they did some pretty awesome things - huge ways of helping people that seem far more "great" than just helping someone out by giving them clothes or food and water. But where was their heart? Were they motivated from the love of God, by their love for Him, or from their desire to do spectacular things to look good and make people think they're great?

Were they in fact, using the name of Jesus in order to profit for themselves?
Personal gain - money, fame, or recognition from people?
Validation?
To pat themselves on the back and make themselves think they're doing good?

This is the genius of God and His word. Jesus tells these stories to make us understand the differences between good and evil. It's not enough even to do miracles in Jesus' name. We might be tempted to think we're on our way to Heaven for doing such amazing things as raising someone from the dead in Jesus' name, however, even THAT's not enough if it wasn't done from the pure, humble Spirit of Love, and Will of God.

People can heal themselves by neuroscience. The placebo effect is real. Our thoughts are powerful. Reiki works. Our faith is even more powerful. What we believe determines so much. Yet in the end, it can't save our souls.

The only one who can grant us entry into Heaven, is Jesus, and as he outlines in John 14, 15 and 16, we only prove we love Him and know Him by doing what He says. And even that has to come not from our own rote will, but by His Spirit - from our hearts. Because, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must do so in Spirit and Truth. (21)

It seems impossible. That's exactly how Jesus' disciples responded to all of this. Who then can be saved? Nobody can do it. It's impossible.
But with God, all things are possible. (22)

17 Matthew 19:25-16

18 Luke 18:8

19 John 6:29

20 James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world

21 John 4:24

22 Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27

So where does that leave us?

It puts the idea that we can just coast along and everyone will be saved by God's grace because God is love and would never want to throw someone into hell, into perspective.

We have the wrong idea if we think salvation from death is an automatic right, and heaven is just granted. It's not.

God gave us a door - a way of escape. The door is Jesus.
But we have to walk through it. We have to accept it, walk through it, then walk closely with Him by His Spirit doing His will.

How do we walk through it?
First, we have to accept Jesus as the only way. We have to accept that he paid the high price of His life for us. That nothing else could do it. No matter how much good we can possibly do, it still isn't enough. That's the fact, the reality, and even if we don't think it's fair or think we have the right to reject that truth because we think it means God is mean - it's just the truth. We have to realize, and admit, that we don't understand. However - we're not the judge of who gets into Heaven and who doesn't. We're not the king who gets to decide. Jesus is.

So - we have the choice. We can reject it if we want. We could take our chances, and see. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and you can just coast on in and everything will be fine. Maybe it's not worth trying, or maybe it's worth fighting against because you don't want to believe it.

But, based on everything written in the Bible - is it worth the risk? Is it worth hanging onto intellectual doubt, or self-righteousness, thereby not accepting the free gift of certain eternal salvation?

Or, the other option is: we can surrender to the truth.
We can admit that we're sinners and our only salvation is Jesus. Simple truth.

Heaven is guaranteed to those who are saved by His grace, who walk by his Spirit. (23) Jesus said it, and it's repeated over and over throughout the Bible in the letters that follow the gospels in the New Testament. Obviously the Bible explains it much better than I can.

Heaven is a guarantee for those who do God's will.
God's will is done from love from the Spirit of Jesus.

So the thing begins inside of us - as Jesus said, "the Kingdom of Heaven is within you" (24) - and lows out, doing the will of God through things like helping people who need it, by feeding them food, clothing them, feeding them words of encouragement and truth, healing them. Casting out demons, raising the dead and other miraculous things might also happen, but we have to be very careful not to be doing these things for our own glory or gain. Sure, maybe it's not so bad for people to get healed from an awareness of the positive ways we can heal ourselves and others through positive thinking. Maybe it's not so bad. However, it's not so good either, if we do it from a place of selfish gain, like for vanity-sake. "Vainglory". That can be so evil to God that he would say "get out of here you worker of lawlessness, for when I was hungry you gave me no food, when I was sick and in prison you didn't visit me. I never knew you."

23 John 10:9; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:21; Acts 16:31; Romans 5:9-10; Romans 10:9; Romans 10:13

24 Luke 17:21

To be discredited from Heaven by works of "lawlessness" because of not knowing God truly, would be terrible. It's a warning. We might think we're so good and spiritual and doing so much good in the world - like some protesters do for example - however, if we're not doing things from the Spirit of God by knowing Him, then we're in fact not doing God's will even if we think we are. And more than anything, it's not apparently what we do that's as important as knowing Jesus. It's a real thing. The relationship is real. If we don't ever really know Him or listen to Him, then we can be the busiest doers of good in the world yet miss the whole thing.

Sorry to put a damper on it, but Heaven is not granted.
It's not that we have to "work" for it either. It's that we can't just expect God to give us everything we think we're entitled to, when we didn't create ourselves or set up the rules of life in this world or the next. We have to play by His rules if we want eternal life, and that can only be granted by Him. Do you want to take your chances, based on your limited understanding, that you know how it should be, or that you're entitled to eternal life, and heaven?

The best thing we can do is ask, rely on Him, and hope in His mercy and salvation. Anything else is arrogant and presumptuous. You don't walk into a palace expecting to be given a room just because you think you're entitled to it by being a good person. Who would do that? You'd be called ludicrous. Even if you work for the palace-owner's company. Who would have the audacity to expect the owner to give him part of the palace just because he works for him?

Here's the crux: Jesus said "I never knew you". (25)

Jesus is a person. We can have fellowship with Him, through His Spirit, even though He is the King of Eternity, the King of the Universe, God Almighty Himself. As crazy as it sounds - it's the truth.
In fact, God created us to know Him.
But for us to just think that because we're entitled to it we should be granted salvation - what did God himself do? He gave it to us by doing something. It took a lot of work. It took Him becoming not just a human, but a servant of all, living that way, being hated, then tortured, then killed. He did this for us.

So then what do we expect? Are we too arrogant and full of pride to just humble ourselves to the point of realizing and acknowledging the truth - that God has granted us the opportunity to receive His free gift of eternal life, by His grace? Are we too arrogant to be grateful?

God doesn't want us to go about this thing out of fear of Hell, however, we definitely should know that the reality of the two destinations is in front of us, and it's God who decides where we go, not us.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 2:12

25 Matthew 7:23

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 8

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Zero & Infinity

Chapter 8: Zero & Infinity

Eternity is most often described as the continuance of time. I posit a concept where time is a line moving in one direction, and eternity is everything outside the line - before, after, and all around in all directions. The Bible, particularly the Book of Revelation, can be understood as a description of concepts through imagery and signs. It is also a collection of stories - Adam & Eve, the Garden of Eden, Noah, Samson, Joseph, Moses, Esther, Job, David, the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and Judah, Jesus, the Apostles - plus the writings of Prophets of old, Songs & Prayers written by David and other prophets, wise Proverbs of Solomon. It can, and should be read both literally and with a poetic or artful essence. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) are accounts of the ministry of Jesus, which I believe has to be taken literally, as history - and the words of Jesus are most potently received by understanding from a spiritual sense - by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes people mistake Jesus' words by taking them too literally (as His disciples did in the boat when they thought he was saying they screwed up by forgetting to bring bread, when in fact his reference to the "yeast of the Pharisees" was not about bread, but about pride). Jesus in fact spoke and lived colorfully. He did funny things - like when he was walking on water and the disciples were freaked out thinking it was a ghost, and he just walks on by as though everything was normal. He spoke in extremes sometimes, saying that if people didn't hate their family compared to how they loved him, they weren't worthy to be His followers. He wasn't telling people to hate anyone. He was saying that by comparison, the love and loyalty we need to have towards Him, towards God, has to be incomparable to our love for anyone else - so that if it comes down to it, we're not willing to compromise our faithfulness to him in order to keep things "kosher" with even our own family. You have to stand up to everyone and everything sometimes if it's important enough to you - including even your own partner, son, daughter, parent, or whomever. That's not because you're hating them, and Jesus wasn't saying that. It's about drawing distinct lines. We stand up for ourselves in this way - everyone has to at some point - and the loyalty we need with God divides even our own flesh from our spirit, so that when it comes down to it we're willing to give up the flesh if it's a choice between it or God - because if we hang onto our flesh, it will be for a limited time only. It will expire. Only one thing on Earth is eternal and that is the Spirit of Christ - that's what has to be born in you and grow, and it will eventually overtake and overcome this world. That's the real you. The other - what you think is you, which is actually the ego, the "self" - is corrupt, and can only be redeemed by submission to the Eternal Spirit of God, through Christ. It gets conformed to the image of the Son of God. That, survives the timeline and enters into eternity - and, by our definitions, it was already there because eternity is outside of time. The Redeemed's names were written in the Book of Life from before the foundation of the World. (1)

But all of this has to be understood by the Spirit. There is no amount of logic or reason that can sufficiently handle it. That's why, the revelation of Christ is a gift from God. All you can do is receive it by faith, say thank you, and trust God to continue revealing it to you and expanding on it for the rest of your life.

I'll interject here that the book up to this point adheres to what I staunchly believe without a doubt is the truth. From here on I'll discuss concepts that are more just my own ideas.

I'd like to look at Zero, not just as a philosophical concept, but as a central part of the whole subject of this book.

Let's start by zooming way out, beyond anything normally taught in Sunday School or church.

1 Revelation 17:8

If we can perceive the infinity of possibilities around us with different timelines in all directions... how would we for example know which ones go the ways we want them to? For that matter, how would we know which one(s) ends this life with us going "up" instead of "down" - or to Heaven instead of Hell?

Some people think there are multiple timelines, or an infinite series of events occurring at the same time. I believe that while there are infinite possibilities, there is only one reality: the one we're actually in. The reason? We're only conscious of one reality. Even though the other possibilities exist as possibilities, they are not reality - there's only one reality: the one we're conscious and living in.

This is ultimately a subject of futile philosophical deliberation though - irrelevant, because, 1) we only know one reality even if there is an infinity of others actually existing simultaneously - so what does it matter? And 2) if there are multiple other realities, how could we ever know?

Sure, you can bring up experiments like the double-slit experiment, where supposedly light acts like particles when observed, and waves when not observed. The theory is supposed to prove quantum physics. (2) But seriously. What does it matter? All we know is what we experience. If there are multiple other timelines occurring simultaneously, we're still only in one at a time - the one we actually experience consciously. So even if we're all in different ones which constantly flip and we change tracks every few seconds based on our thoughts - if that's how it works - we still only have one single experience. Even if our memories are from multiple timelines, they still are our only reality. So what does it matter?

But this chapter isn't about quantum physics. Let's zero-in on the subject: Zero.

There is a Japanese symbol for Infinity called the "ensō" - a circle - our symbol for zero.


One philosophical idea posits that eternity is circular; that experience just keeps going around and around, repeating over and over again. Reincarnation follows this ideology. Science seems to consent that the universe is expanding even faster than the speed of light. Studying the Universe astronomically is an incredible journey of geometry, which to me, points to the vastness of God. It's enough to think that our physical globe is made of so many atomic particles, which themselves replicate galaxies at molecular levels - as though reality is endless whether we expand out astronomically or zoom in microscopically. There's no limit to multiplication or division. The higher we go numerically in either direction, we keep getting to plateaus where we have one one, and keep adding zeros. Each time we add another zero it's another decimal point. Binary code. Same thing both directions - we can multiply or divide, infinitely. There is no end to the numbers.

2 The double-slit experiment is a key light particle observation experiment that demonstrates the wave-particle duality of light. When light passes through two slits, it creates an interference pattern on a screen behind it, showing its wave-like nature. However, individual photons arrive at the screen as discrete particles, and if the experiment is modified to observe which slit each photon passes through, the interference pattern disappears.

So we can see why we have these concepts of eternity, perfection, and infinity in our realm of understanding. They're not just ideas - we know they exist.

But what is zero?

Zero is nothing. An empty circle. A formless void. Or, the definition of something that is nothing.

I believe the concept of zero as it relates to infinity bears witness to the act of surrendering oneself to God thereby receiving eternal life. This is what it means to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness - an empty, formless void - to the kingdom of light: God is everything - limitless, and ever-expanding. I'm not saying God is limited to being "The Universe" - unless you define the Universe as everything that could ever exist and then even more. God created the Universe and everything else. But my point is, if even light (which again, God created) can't catch up to the universe expanding - how could we?

As we've discussed, nothing exists outside of God. The Bible says of Jesus, the Word of God, in John 1:3

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

God created the universe, which is always expanding in all directions. We can't get to the end of bigness or smallness. The numbers don't stop in either direction; time doesn't stop (or start) in an eternal concept. But without definition - there is nothing. And definition can only occur when there is a difference - a dichotomy - a division between this thing and that thing. Two exact opposite things. Darkness/Light, Black/White. Good/Evil. So in a sense, without two polar opposites - nothing is distinguishable: an empty, formless void.

Hence, good vs. evil - light vs darkness - something vs nothing.

We know we prefer good, and so does God - because it's progressive. It builds, grows, heals, expands, and exposes truth thereby enabling discovery. We prefer light because then we can see. In utter darkness we see nothing. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. (3) To God, darkness is as light (4), and a day is like a thousand years. (5) So then it's not so much whether God is affected one way or another by us or this or that - it's that we are. God is doing all of this, and we're inside it.

There is a force - evil - that wants to kill & destroy. Darkness wants to keep things hidden, and Light wants to expose to make things visible and distinguishable. Maybe darkness/evil is the movement towards nothing, whereas light/good is the movement towards something.

After all, "it" began with God creating Light/good and separating it from darkness.

3 1 John 1:5

4 Psalm 139:12

5 2 Peter 3:8

There is a concept in our transference from dark to light that involves the emptying of ourselves. Surrender. Letting go of ourselves - our ego - pride.

For this is what the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, says: "I dwell in a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isaiah 57:15

For My hand made all these things, So all these things came into being," declares the Lord. "But I will look to this one, At one who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at My word.
Isaiah 66:2

God did this Himself when He founded the World. The Lamb of God - Jesus - was slain in Heaven. He emptied himself, becoming a man on Earth - Jesus - and then he further emptied himself of himself, to become a servant of His own creation. Then He humbled himself further, to become the sacrifice for us to be saved, on the cross. Then on the cross, He emptied himself of himself further, when God the Father actually left Him. (6) And God left Him, while He was on the cross, because Jesus actually became the curse on the cross by taking on all the sin of the world. (7) So essentially - God turned His back on Himself. Is that what giving up yourself means? Is that what it means to deny yourself? And God did this not because He had to, but because He wanted to show us the depths of His love for us. He emptied himself of all His will, to submit to God the Father, who created the world on the basis of He himself emptying himself in this way.

Read it (Philippians 2:6-8):

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So - why?

Why would God do that?

For one thing, nobody can possibly argue that God doesn't love us if He was willing to die for us. How could God die for us if He's God? God is indestructible. So the only way he could die for us was to become a human and do it that way.

You, like me, might wish this was different. Let me be honest, I wish it wasn't this way. I would much rather we were instead just perfect, that we as humans didn't do things wrong and there was no evil, and there was no need for God to have to come to the Earth just to die as a human being after going through all that hardship and torture as Jesus did (by the way, the name "Jesus" means "He Saves" - which actually sounds like "Jesus" if you say it over and over. If you say it with a hispanic "J", it sounds like "He's Us". If you say "Jesus" with a "sh", it sounds like "She’s us"). I hate suffering. I hate evil. I hate hate. The whole thing sucks to be honest and I don't really like it. But just because I don't like it, doesn't change the fact it is.

6 Matthew 27:46

7 Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us - for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" sounds like "She's us").

I'm not criticizing God's work by the way. I'm in awe of God at what He's done, and I think it's absolutely beautiful. God is, and what He's done is. I'm just saying that I don't understand, while knowing that if I did, I would doubtless be still in even more utter amazement. I don't think we can actually understand it completely in our current human form. Which, makes me kind of start to understand how and why in Revelations it describes people casting crowns at Jesus and things flying around just saying "Holy, Holy, Holy". What do we do when we experience the most ecstatic feelings? We scream and holler. No words - just expressions of delight. I would bet, Heaven is like that to the power of ten million. Being in God's presence has to be far more ecstatic than we could ever understand on Earth. But anyway -

I'm not the author of life, and neither are you. I'm just one of it's benefactors. An extension.

Jesus said that if a person eats and drinks Him, they have eternal life. That's abundance of life. If Jesus - if God - humbled himself - even to the point of death - then obviously humility is the path to greatness.

Jesus said that if we want to come to Him we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. (8)

What does this mean?

It means we have to empty ourselves. Like He did.

We have to come to a zero point. The end of ourselves. The point where we realize we can't figure it out, we can't do enough, we can't confess enough or justify ourselves enough, to be worthy of the eternal life that is Christ. We can't will our way, and in fact we are ready and willing to give up our own will and ambitions and desires, to yield to God completely.

Once we've done that - come to that zero point - then we can be filled Infinitely - with Power and Life. With Eternity. With His Spirit.

So then, zero becomes infinity. Nothing becomes everything.

Pride precedes humiliation. Humility precedes Honor.

Humility is the path to greatness.

8 Matthew 16:24

    The Gospel According To Mike - Chapter 9

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The End

Chapter 9: The End

There is a lot of speculation right now about The End of the World. People want to decipher who the antichrist is - is it Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Keir Starmer, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison or Peter Thiel? The pursuit to naming the "antichrist" is, I believe, a terribly misguided one. For that matter, so is all the false prophesying about when Jesus will return, when the rapture will happen, and all these other things people are trying to make a name for themselves by predicting.

First of all, Jesus said this (Matthew 24:36):

36 "But nobody knows when that day or hour will come, not the heavenly angels and not the Son. Only the Father knows.

It's obvious what the fault is: pride. People want a claim to fame about it. Their heart is not grounded in the love of God about it, where their desire would be to warn people, for their benefit, and most importantly to help them to avoid being deceived.

These are the people Jesus warned us to watch out for.

Check out what is written by three different apostles who recorded what Jesus said, after the disciples asked Him to tell them when the events he had described - including the destruction of the temple, the persecution of Christians, and other things - would happen. Incidentally - those things have already happened since then, starting in A.D 70 with the destruction of the temple and rulers such as Nero - who was killing Christians left right and center. (Also incidentally, scholars have "calculated" Nero's name to result that it spells "666"). Here's what Jesus said, as written in Matthew 24:5; Mark 13:6; Luke 21:8:

7 And they asked him, "Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?" 8 And he said, "See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is at hand!' Do not go after them. 9 And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once."

Do you see it? He says "don't be led astray by them", "don't be afraid", and "the end will not be at once". The end is happening over a long time guys. It's both an "end" and a beginning. Both are happening simultaneously. The old kingdom of darkness is being replaced by the Kingdom of Light. That's why we want to jump on-board with Jesus and His new Kingdom He's bringing about on the Earth, right away - not just in Heaven. People are going to reign on the Earth. The dead will rise and join with Him, and this place is going to be renewed as a whole new creation. The old earth will be destroyed, but it will be replaced with a new one. Ever seen the movie "Never Ending Story"? I highly recommend it. That's how I imagine this will be - similar, at least. The old is being replaced by the new.

Rather than being focused on the "end", and trying to figure that out, let's instead focus on the new beginning - because that's what's already started, and I'd much rather be in the new beginning than the old ending - you? Read what's written in Revelation 21:

Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

So, rather than diminishing the importance of being sober and alert, the fact that the end is already happening should prompt us to get off our butts and do something; to start investing into the new Kingdom! The sooner the better, and the great thing is, we don't have to rely on our own resources for this. God literally provides the resources we need to invest into His Kingdom - we just have to apply them. Rather than applying our time, energy, effort, and money to ourselves in this world - we'll get a much better ROI investing into His Kingdom. Jesus said it this way:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (1)

Here's what we have to look forward to in the next world - which is promised to those who love God and keep his commandments:

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. (2)

Sounds to me like the world Atheists think this world should be like "if there was a God". Welp - there is, and He's given us this amazing book called the Bible to show us all these amazing things, so we can have an idea, plus His Holy Spirit to help us understand what it all means and get it.

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him." (3)

1 Matthew 6:19-21

2 Revelation 21: 22-27

3 John 3:17; John 12:47

Christians face persecution, just as Jesus did. It's not all rainbows and lollipops. Things have been bad in the past towards Christians, and they're bad now in many places of the world. Things can get bad - Jesus said "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (4)

How else can you explain people doing the things they've done - holding on to Jesus, no matter what happens to them? It's the peace and love He gives - it's unlike anything else you can ever experience. Once you've truly tasted His goodness, there's no going back. You don't want to. We get tangled up in weeds sometimes (in my case, literally in weed) - the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, pride, selfish ambition - and those things choke out the word of God in our lives. We're subtly deceived by them, which is why God protects us from riches and success sometimes. He protects us from "prosperity" if it would ruin us, and sometimes he even brings us through trials and hard times in order to make us better. The same way an elite trainer can only make an elite athlete by training him - forcing him to do stuff that is not comfortable, and even painful - God does the same with us. He "prunes" us, so that we'll grow bushy, healthy, stronger, and more beautiful (lilac bushes don't grow any flowers until you prune them). The cheat code in it is to realize this, and thank Him while going through it. If we can manage to do that instead of getting sucked into self-pity, complaining, wanting pity from others, self-deprecation or condemnation - then we can stay above it all, and we then leverage the power of the Joy of the Lord, which in Nehemiah's case - he called it his Strength. (5) Nehemiah had a crazy task - to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem while their enemies surrounded them, threatening attacks at any moment. David's life was a crazy adventure of accomplishing insane feats nobody else would ever dare. Sure, he killed the Giant when he was just a teenager, but then as a man he was slaying enemies by the thousands even as a double agent while living in enemy land! He experienced a lot of hardship, including betrayal, homelessness, and having to wait a LONG time (13 years) for his promise of being king to be fulfilled. But the Joy of the Lord was his strength, according to the songs he wrote. Moses' song was the Lord even (6) - and now we have these songs to use the same way when we're experiencing hard times. What other songs do you know of as old as 1400 to 400 BC, that can give you the same kind of boost and intense power and prayer with God if you really read them slowly and feel and mean the words yourself?

It's an incredible experience. I highly recommend leveraging this amazing gift when you experience hard times. Psalms are awesome, and if you listen, God will direct you to one or several where He speaks to you personally through it. For me, sometimes I get a number in my head and go to the Psalm or Isaiah, or elsewhere I'm led. That's an example of the ways I've experienced Him personally through His word - His voice speaking directly to me and my situation right then. And it's not just through Psalms, it can happen through anything else too - if we ask, and listen. Sometimes I do a random flip, sometimes I let the wind blow the pages. It's amazing how often God speaks directly to us just like a back & forth conversation, if we can listen. I'm not saying it always happens, but it does happen.

Getting back to the "end" - let's get back to Jesus' answer to the disciples about "when these things would happen" (Luke 21):

10 Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness. 14 Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. 17 You will be hated by all for my name's sake. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives. 4 John 16:33 5 Nehemiah 8:10 6 Exodus 15:2. The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation;

Jesus Foretells Destruction of Jerusalem

20 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 23 Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Let me interject here to say that I believe what's described happened soon after Jesus's resurrection, and especially in AD 70 and throughout the following years. Look into it yourself - the Siege of Jerusalem. The (2nd) Temple was destroyed, sacrifice was no longer possible - which corresponds to what is described in Daniel, which Jesus also referenced in Matthew 24:15-16:

15 "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel - let the reader understand - 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Jesus was warning the early Christians in Jerusalem of what would be coming soon in their case. Romans were killing Jews mercilessly - women, children, priests begging for mercy - nobody was safe. Regarding this "abomination that causes desolation" - I think it's worthwhile examining what it means, since Jesus referenced it, and the Bible actually says "let the reader understand". That's the only place in the Bible where it says that. It's like if in an 8000 hour 3rd-person movie, suddenly everything stops and one of the characters breaks role, looks directly at the camera and says "hey - anyone watching this movie - pay attention to this, it's important!". And then the movie resumes.

I think the abomination is the temple that was erected by the Romans, dedicated to the gods of Venus and Aphrodites, on the temple mount. They replaced the daily sacrifice when the Jewish 2nd Temple was destroyed. The sacrifice has never resumed since. And after the Roman temple was destroyed, it was replaced by a Muslim one - which is still there today. I mean - literally - the old "Holy Place" of the temple, which was the current "Holy Place" when Daniel was writing - was desecrated first by a temple built to Roman gods, and then now by a temple dedicated to a Muslim god. The word says false gods are demons. That could be an abomination that causes desolation.

So then why wouldn't Jesus warn his followers to get our of Jerusalem as soon as they see these things happening. Of course He would and that's why he said it. That's exactly what you or I would probably do if we were Jesus, right?

What Jesus said would happen, is exactly what happened. For many people at that time - Jews and followers of Jesus - that was the end of the world. But this "let the reader understand" thing. That's for us. We're the ones reading this - now, in history. They weren't reading this stuff back then, it was being communicated verbally. The written stuff was buried, for centuries. So - since we're the readers - let's pay special attention to this. The abomination that causes desolation, standing in the Holy Place. Something to consider, especially when people are already looking to ChatGPT as "god", Elon Musk and others have a vision and framework for humanity to "upgrade" by merging with AI - through Brain Control Interfaces (chip implants in the brain). It's quite obvious by now isn't it?

Getting back to Luke 21:

The Coming of the Son of Man

25 "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

This is some of the coolest part. There have been lots of signs in the sun, moon and stars - things like the solar eclipse of 2024 (God made me be there even after I had already moved to Salt Lake City from San Antonio - he orchestrated it so that I had to be there right at the epicenter, in Kerrville, Texas, when the eclipse happened. A tragic flood happened the next year in that same place). I've thought for awhile that the waves referenced in verse 25 are in fact all the wireless signals in the air now - waves - which have been proven to create anxiety.

But again, bottom line, look what Jesus says in verse 26: When we see the things begin to take place we should "straighten up and raise our heads, because our redemption is drawing near"!

So there's nothing to be afraid of. Yeah, things might go crazy, just as they have in the past. But trying to speculate on who this "antichrist" is - I don't believe that's something Jesus has told us to do, or to be worried about. Stay with me though - there are things that are important.

The Bible in fact says there have been many antichrists, and there will be many more. It says that anyone who claims Jesus never had a body, is an antichrist, and that many "antichrists" have gone into the world. (7) So let's stop trying to figure out who this one antichrist of the end times is. The Bible doesn't tell us to calculate who the antichrist is - it already told us, and it isn't one single person. What the Word tells us to calculate is the number of the Beast.

This single thing is what we therefore need to pay attention to, and calculate (i.e. figure out). We need wisdom for this.

People have misread the Bible's mention of the "mark of the beast" to think there will be a person with the number 666 who is the antichrist. If that's the right way to read it, you'd have to conclude that Nero was this one antichrist - because he persecuted Christians to no end, atrociously, killing them mercilessly and hanging their bodies up lining the main road, and his name spells 666 by certain letter calculations. And maybe in fact Nero was an antichrist. But I don't believe Nero is what's written about in Revelation regarding the mark of the Beast.

Revelation 13 reads:

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and compels the earth and those who live on it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13 It also performs great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in front of people. 14 It deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that it is permitted to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 It was permitted to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 And it makes everyone - small and great, rich and poor, free and slave - to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast's name or the number of its name.

18 This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.

666 is not the number of "the antichrist" - it is the number of "a person". Not just one person, but every person in the system (i.e. beast).

What I believe the Word is telling us to "figure out", is this:

The number of the beast is each person's unique number that identifies them in a global system (Beast).

Some translations replace the middle "6" with a 1 ("616"). Binary code is 1's and 0's.

7 1 John 2:18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
1 John 2:22 Who is the liar except the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
1 John 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world.
2 John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

We could understand it this way: the number of the beast is 3 "numbers", it is a digital "number", or code, and it represents each person as a unit belonging to the system (the "beast").

We already have unique identification numbers in the societal system, which we need in order to buy and sell. You can't get a bank account without one, which makes it hard if not impossible to buy or sell without one. You definitely can't get a job without one. It's your social security number - 3 sets of 3 numbers.

When that number becomes a digital ID and people wear it on their body permanently (a mark - a tattoo) - that is the mark of the Beast. It will connect to the technologies that are vital for a person's participation in the world's systems - financial, marketplace (buying and selling). Just like you can't buy or sell now without a number, you won't be able to without a digital ID and its companion - a digital tattoo. A mark. The mark of the beast.

These things already exist by the way. The industry developing these technologies has had "chipping parties" for people wanting to try out having their digital chip that connects them to their phone and apps, injected into their hand. And, Elon Musk (among other)'s vision for BCI's (Brain Control Interfaces) is to merge with AI. Further, Keir Starmer (UK PM) said it plainly: "Nobody will be able to work in the UK without a digital ID". We're already there.

I believe there are only a few things we need to be concerned about "end times", and the mark of the beast is definitely one of them. COVID was a test-run for them to see how quickly the world would bow and compromise their bodies just because they told us we had to. A tiny little tattoo is much less big of a deal, on surface level. Don't be deceived. Revelation says that everyone who receives that mark will be cut out of the kingdom of God permanently.

The word says we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Same thing it says elsewhere in the Bible: you believe in Jesus and say it. That's it. So whenever you have the chance, just say it. You'll be overcoming - conquering - every time you do. And, if we do this no matter what, not loving our lives so much that we're willing to compromise on this even if faced with death unless we deny Christ and receive the mark of the beast - then we'll overcome everything there is to overcome in the end times. If we don't do that - if we capitulate, and we want to keep being connected to the world system so we can buy food and gas and pay for a place to live - and so we receive the mark of the beast - well, then we'd be cut off from God and His Kingdom. So it's pretty clear what the choice is.

Other than that, we have no idea when Jesus is coming - Jesus himself said that even he, the Son, doesn't know but only the Father does. So why are we trying to figure it out? Truth is, when a person's life ends they see Jesus, and stand before the throne of God. And no-one has any idea when that will happen. For some, they will see Jesus long "before" he returns to the earth in bodily form. He's already here in Spirit form remember - the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, who is God the Father. "And He shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace". See? It's all the same. They're the same person - God.

So stop worrying about if you should be praying to God, the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. They the same person!

And stop worrying about who the antichrist is! It's not a person!

And stop worrying about when Jesus will return. We have no idea!

The only thing to figure out - literally - is this "mark of the beast", because the Bible tells us to calculate it, so that we're aware and don't receive it when the beast forces everyone to. In fact, the beast - system - has already forced everyone to receive it, just not as a mark. We're just one step away, and if people were willing to get injected with an unknown gene-altering "vaccine" just because the government or their employer told them to - then obviously it will be just that easy for the beast - the system - to force everyone to get the mark. Because after all, it will be much easier to pay by scanning your tattoo instead of a card. Having something permanently embedded on your body makes complete sense for accessing medical information and identifying a person when they're unconscious. For that matter, being able to track your kid wherever they are, without having to worry about them having a phone, is a GREAT idea! It's clear how this will roll out. A digital tattoo? No big deal! Almost everyone has at least one tattoo now anyway. And vaccines are normal. This will be much easier. So don't fall for it.

As far as the other stuff goes, don't worry about it.
When the disciples asked Jesus "when will these things happen", Jesus put it this way: "Well... you'll see wars, rumors of wars, signs, this thing, that thing - but DON'T BE ALARMED. THE END WILL NOT COME IMMEDIATELY AFTER."
Look at it. Read it! He kept saying things to the effect of "it still won't be yet". So who knows?

We need to be aware of the number of the beast because that's what will cause people to be deceived beyond redemption. Getting the mark is spiritual death. You can't come back from that. So don't get it! Take this seriously. Everything else - 3rd temple, Jesus's return, the rapture, the"antichrist" - these are too much to speculate on, and it doesn't matter how it unfolds anyway. The only thing to know and care about is not getting the mark of the beast.

That's all I'll say about the End. The rest you should read yourself in Revelation - it's fascinating. Just remember - you aren't necessarily reading a chronological timeline of how it will unfold, and there is a lot of imagery. I believe Revelations is in fact, a revelation of the whole thing - a perspective on this experience we call reality, from Heaven. Remember that we try to understand these grand heavenly concepts from a limited earthly physical perspective, but that the reality in the spirit dimensions is different, and might also be outside of time.

    The Gospel According To Mike - Summary

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Summary

Chapter 10: Summary

1. God created everything, including time, and definition by creating duality, by separating light from darkness, and calling light "good". We can infer that's when the difference between good and evil, and every other contrasting polar opposite - duality - was created.

2. God created the game of reality; the war between good and evil, and two kingdoms for the purpose of challenge. The goal is to overcome and be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light - the latter which survives the former.

3. God is intricately, actively involved in this game, through us - to the point where he even set up His own primary character as the basis of its design - the role He would play himself in the form of the ultimate model of Human - the "Son", called Jesus (He Saves).

4. Belief in that one human and the story that goes along with it, is the key to us humans winning the game. By believing, we are reborn and empowered by His Spirit, which gives us the ability to do the things that result in eternal life - including healing spiritually (sanctification) and being resurrected from death. The blood and body that One person gave up relieves humanity of the separation from God resulting from imperfections and evil. We become a new creation.

5. When creating all of this, God also decided everything that would happen, including choosing every person who would believe in the Son. In fact, God did this before he even founded the World. The Lamb was slain, and the names of those who will survive the Earth were written in the Book of Life, from before time. Time is after all, a line within Eternity.

6. A major aspect of the game is a perception of free will. This perception makes humans think they have complete control, which often gives them misconceptions of security and agency, causing them to want more of what they want, and thereby drift away from God. Humans can do anything they want including creating their own reality, even against seemingly impassible barriers, through faith - by believing - up to a certain point. Faith is the super power God gave humans by creating us in "their" image. Sometimes there are things they can't do no matter what though, seemingly for no reason. Many things are outside of their control, and ultimately God is in control of everything and steps in wherever He wants. Hardships often make humans humble and depend on God. To truly overcome this world, humans have to give their will ultimately over to God, because no matter what they do they can't redeem their own lives from death, except by the gift of eternal life from Jesus Christ.

7. The people whose names aren't written in the book of Life are destined to expire and die, just like everything does on the Earth and Space over time. These people can't believe in the Son - no matter what they see or hear. Only God can grant it, and He's already decided it. These people use the powers of this world to get what they want, and in worst cases they seek out dark, evil powers, committing terrible things against humanity - because their god is their own strength, and their goal is to be better than anyone else: to dominate. Their desire for more is unsatisfied. They're operating on the basis of the kingdom of this world - the kingdom of darkness. And therefore, they will die with it, because death is an inherent and inevitable END to everything temporal. The only way to supersede time is to go through the Door - Jesus Christ.

8. Even though God has already decided everything, and has ultimate control over everything, He gave humans agency and the ability to talk to God, and He "listens" to them - humans have 100% free will as far as we are concerned. Even though He can already hear and knows everything, God gives humans the ability to have a relationship with Him unlike any human relationship. Yet - humans can't be the ones to draw the final conclusions. God cannot be predicted or fully understood. He wove human relationships into the game as a necessary component - a means to love God, by loving others. God in fact is love. Love is what the whole thing is about. The reason the Earth is still operating is because of God's patience with us - Love. We don't know who will be saved and who won't. That decision is not up to us, nor is it up to us to judge who will and who won't. Jesus himself has decided and will decide, who He brings into the next world. No matter how much we want to justify our theories on the subject, we're not the ones who will decide - Jesus will. So our best bet is to get close to Him. It's not what you know, it's who you know. We have the opportunity to actually know the King of the Universe and of the World. Shouldn't we take advantage of that? Why cut ourselves off from it just because we can't figure it out?

9. The Earth in its present form will expire. Humanity will destroy itself. Everyone will get a "mark of the beast", which is the "number of his name" - meaning it's the persons' ID number which identifies him in the world system - the Beast. Everyone who gets this mark - a digital ID tattoo - will expire on the Earth, but those whose names are written in the Book of Life will not receive the mark of the Beast. A new heaven and earth will be created. The people of God - who survive the Earth - will live there with God - Jesus himself. The end has already begun, and so has the new beginning because it's the Kingdom of God, which is eternal - meaning it is outside of time.

So then if this is how it is, the question is:

WHY?

The answer to that question is something God has to give you himself. There is an answer in the Bible somewhere in the new testament referring to God displaying his love and forbearance to all of his creation - eluding to beings in Heaven or in other dimensions we might not even know about. For all we know, this is just one of many games God has going on and we're in on it. There might be myriads of glorious beings - maybe our friends for all we know - not friends from Earth, but eternal friends in Heaven - watching. We just don't know it while we're here, the same way Jesus himself didn't necessarily know it all right from birth. That's how the game works. That's how real it is.

The concepts of movie and video game are a good analogy - one I believe God gave us to understand this life better. What fun would either be with no antagonist or challenges?

    The Gospel According To Mike - Conclusion

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Conclusion

If we can gain a true understanding of God, and eternity, we can actually win the game. The cheat code and key - the foundation - is Jesus Christ. He's the Way. He's the Truth. He's the Life. He's our one path to victory. We were created to overcome this world, not just to live and die in it - and we overcome by being reborn from the One Eternal Spirit who created it.

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