Why We Exist

What can you say in a short blurb about the Creator and Ruler of the Universe? I am inclined to believe that he knows more than us, cares more than us and if backed into a corner…well…he wouldn't have to do anything because no one could keep him there. As best as my mind can comprehend it, he has always existed. And if that doesn't make your head spin, try this: he is one God but revealed in three persons. He is God the Father, Ruler of all creation. God the Son, Jesus Christ, the savior of all creation. And He is also God the Holy Spirit, the encourager of all creation. I sometimes forget to feed my cats.

Have you met them? We humans are a weird juxtaposition. On one side we are the supreme objects of God’s affection, created to be like him. On the other side, we don’t care. Besides, how can I enjoy my overwhelming urge to do what I want if I spend all my time with God? Buzz kill. It's this attitude, that the Bible calls sin, that makes it impossible to finally resolve our differences with God on our own. Luckily we don’t have to.

I absolutely and without a doubt believe that there are two options. We can either spend eternity with God or without him and considering what I am able to do without God I'll take my chances with him.

Not too many people can claim Jesus' resume, he is a one of a kind. He was talked about thousands of years before he was ever born and I'm telling you, you couldn't make this stuff up. If you did, the odds of it actually happening would raise a bookie from the grave. Although, you have to admit, it's hard to get it wrong when he was the one leaking the information. When he did arrive in the flesh it happened just as he said it would, by way of a virgin. Do you ever get the impression he was trying to make a point? He lived quite a bit differently than the rest of us do as well. One of the most visible ways he did this was by his refusal to disobey God, of whom he is a part. I guess that means he had a bit of an advantage but I'm ok with that. Of course the point of Jesus' life, and he would be the first to point this out, is not what happened at the beginning but what happened at the end.

At the end of his life he gave himself to be sacrificed on our behalf so that we had the choice to no longer be at odds with our Creator. Jesus didn't die like most of us would either. Alright, maybe he died like we would but he didn't stay dead like we would. In fact, three days after his death he started what can only be classified as an anti-funeral that ended with him back to his God-like nature reunited with God, of whom he is part.

Let's try this as an explanation. The world we live in is an ocean, we are people who can’t swim and sin is the decision to go skinny dipping right in the middle; an unfortunate decision that all of us make at one point or another. There are not a whole lot of options that don't lead to us becoming fish food at this point. It's a little late for swimming lessons, the whole point of skinny dipping excludes the use of floaty toys and although screaming at the top of your lungs seems like a rational reaction, in the moment it just wears you out and doesn't get you anywhere. What you need is a savior. This is where Jesus comes in. He knows these waters better than anyone and besides, he has a boat.

This is a silly way to look at it, but the principles are true. We are at odds with our Creator and no amount of trying, struggling or begging can fix that. Our only option is to trust in Jesus, who sacrificed himself so that we could be forgiven of our sin. This is a free gift that he offers to every person because of the love that he has for us.

Although the Holy Spirit is not the most talked about part of God, he could be called the hardest working at the moment. When Jesus returned to heaven, the Holy Spirit took his place. Talk about drawing the short straw. Jesus only had to put up with us on earth for about 33 years while the Holy Spirit is going on 2,000+. The Holy Spirit is hard at work revealing our need for Jesus Christ. He is also pretty good at helping us make sense of the Bible that we seem to like to complicate. As a believer the best thing we can do is give the Holy Spirit control of our life before we mess it up any more.

It takes a lot of guts to claim that something is "inspired by God". I mean, think about it, when was the last time you heard someone say: "God told me to…" and believed them? Whether you call it gutsy or just plain crazy, that’s what we believe about the Bible. Yep. We think that God “inspired” people to write down his message to humanity. It's been copied a lot, but we think that history shows what we have to be pretty darn accurate. Often we talk about "the Bible" like it’s just one book, but really, it's made up of 66 different books, written by over 40 different people who lived on at least 3 continents. To make things even more interesting, it took nearly 2000 years for all the books to be written and put into the form we have now. The chances of anything coherent coming out of that span of time and space are practically non-existent. Maybe you should keep that in mind the next time you're thinking about adding a Bible to your hotel room loot. Nah, go ahead and throw that Gideon's Bible in with the towels and bed linens, they really do want you to take it.

The Bible is the final authority on everything that pertains to how we live out our faith. We also recognize that there will be many different opinions about things that the Bible doesn’t talk about. This is obvious since there are lots of opinions on things that the Bible does talk about. We rely on the Holy Spirit's guidance on these matters and trust the community of believers to have a heart of compassion. And when that doesn’t work, we have a witch burning. Just kidding.