My dear Sofia… it is not impossible to live 100% according to the Bible—that is, according to the teachings Jesus left those who wanted to follow him. It is difficult because of temptations and social pressure and the like, yes, I must accept that, but it is easier than being a Christian during the middle ages or during the roman empire, or soviet union. Because, let me remind you that, being a Christian during the roman empire could cost you your life –to recognize that Jesus was Lord and not Cesar was a death sentence. And in the middle ages—especially during the dark ages—if you were caught to have a copy of the Bible, or even to read it, you would be burn to death by the inquisition. In the other hand, now in the 21 st century, I don’t have any death treats just the normal pressures and all Christians have experienced during centuries… so you were Christened at 9 or 10, and you don’t think you will get to heaven when you die?… I’m afraid that Gods message of love hasn’t been rightly transmitted to you. Let me shared what I have received:First of all Sofia, God, my father loves you. But it is not as “yea whatever, I love you”, but “I love you Sofia, I constantly think about you, I want you, and I want to be with you for the eternity”… in another words, he is crazy about you –seriously—and he would do anything within his character to conquer your love. Why? Because he created you to be a vassal, a recipient, of his love, not because he needed you, because he wanted you to have a daughter just like you whom he could love and share his nature, his kingdom. He wants your very best. Surely you would say “Nuts!, if God really loved me like you said, then why he allowed to happen this and that in my life”. But you know what? He does love you. Those things happen not because wanted. In the beginning God created everything in a perfect state… no death, no curse, no pain or suffering. But there was a problem, he wanted to have a romantic relationship with this new creature called “human” but in order for that to happen, he had to give him 1)freewill (we are not robots, he cannot force man to correspond his love—although man was created for that), and 2)the option to chose, (there cannot be love if there is no freedom to chose). That’s why he told him “you shall not eat from the fruit of that tree, because the day you eat it you will die”. Adam and God knew what “die” meant: to be separated from God, the source of life. With this, God was giving him the not only the freewill, but the option to chose: to stay with him and correspond God’s love, or to “divorce him”…and we know what decision he chose. The problem with that decision is that God’s original purpose could not be fulfilled. The separation of man from God brought catastrophic consequences: he no longer knew how to use Gods creation, because God’s Spirit—the one who would tell him how to use everything in the correct way—ha departed from him, thus man began to abuse Gods creation, bringing death, destruction and distortion in all aspects of God’s creation: man abused (gave an abnormal use) the power and authority given to him by exploiting others, nature, his neighbor, his body, etc. There were murderers, robbers, husbands abusing their wives, parents mistreating their children and not treating them as God would, etc. Or as the Apostle Paul put it: “The have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanders, God-haters, insolents, arrogant, and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” ( Ro.1:29-32). But not only that, since man lost contact with God he no longer could receive the love acceptance, security, value and purpose that comes from him, thus his emptiness prompted a selfish behavior. Man, instead of acting out of love (out of the fullness that comes from God) he began to show the tendency to act out of selfishness (out of the emptiness that comes from his separation from God). God’s perfect world, became a broken world… and there is where we find ourselves.
That’s why the treatment your dad gave you or you mom was never God’s intentions for you, but because of your dad’s freewill he can get away from God’s will contributing with that to the brokenness in the world. God wants for you the best, and he wanted you to be loved and cared and provided for by your father, that is why he has given commandments to the parents on how they should treat and take care of their children, along many others (like how husbands should take care of their wives). You see, He created the world as a system where every member affects, directly or indirectly the other members; we are interdependent and mutually affected by each other decisions and actions. That’s why he has given instructions on how each part of the “body” should function and that’s why he will make every person accountable one day for causing malfunctions in the his “body”.
Now the question… why doesn’t he do something to end up this mess and bring the perfect state he wanted? or to put it in different way: why doesn’t he do something to end up this mess and bring his glorious kingdom in the earth? Well, He has, and he is about to bring it. The first thing he has done to restore his perfect original design was to open the way for us to be reconciled to him. That’s why he sent Jesus. You see, God is just and righteous and he will give to every person what they deserve. Thus, if he had brought his kingdom to the earth at once we would have been left out, because we are sinners that contribute the brokenness of the world, and what our sinful actions deserve is not eternal life with God in his kingdom, but death away from him. But he still loves you and me Sofia, although we are so imperfect, so broken and sinful. And dispite all that he wants to be with you. So in order to fulfill his righteousness and his love he became flesh and pay the penalty of your sins you can live with him. At the cross, in Jesus, God was judging your sins (and of all the world) and declaring you righteous (a person who has already fulfilled his sentence, thus not longer guilty but innocent). God has opened the way for all those who want to be reconciled to Him and correspond His love. To receive the benefit of what he has done you just need to come back to him, accept this gift and correspond his love. In other words: you just need to repent (turn from your own ways back to his ways), believe in Jesus and what he has done for you, and accept it through a simple prayer like this one:
“God, I recognize that I’m a sinner in need of salvation. I’ve lived my life in my own way, distant from you, but now I repent. I come back to you, please forgive my sins. I believe that Jesus is Lord and that he paid the penalty of my sins dying for me in the cross and I accept this gift of salvation. Thank you for saving me. Amen!”
The Bible says that when a sinner repents and turns back to God there is a party in heaven, and it is because “heaven has received a new member”. You see, Christians (not by culture or by tradition or by religion, but by conversion) have the certainty that their sins are forgiven and that they are going inherit the eternal live. Does that mean they are perfect? By all means, no! They still fall, make mistakes, but a sinful life is not longer their style of life, they are in the process of sanctification (improving and getting better by leaving behind the old mentality with its practices and learning God’s mentality with its new practices). To put it in simple words: the difference between a sheep and a pig when they fall into the mud is that the pig stays there and the sheep stands up again. When you correspond God’s love and receive his salvation the Bible says you receive along with it the promised Holy Spirit (you become his temple). The Holy Spirit becomes like a seed within you: it germinates producing good fruit through your life (if you take properly care of it).
Ok… and what about God brining his perfect state back to earth? Well, God had to provide the opportunity (and the means) for men be reconciled to him first before establishing his perfect kingdom back to earth. If he had done otherwise he would had left out everybody out. And he is still giving that opportunity to all humans, to come and be reconciled to him… because he is coming and those who didn’t want to make peace with God through Jesus will be left out. That’s why Jesus preached ” repent… for the kingdom of God is near“, and the Apostles preached: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”… he is giving us the opportunity to repent and reconcile with him before his kingdom comes in its full form.
If you repent and come back to God, in the mean time –from here until his kingdom manifest in its full form—he promise to be with you during this fallen state, and to help you go through it victoriously, to give a redemptive purpose for this time (you become a source of positive change), and to work out for your good all other peoples’ sinful decisions that affect you, as Paul said: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”… The decision is yours—I just hope to get the chance to enjoy you for the eternity my dear friend.
Now about me, as you said I should go and see what is like to live with my girlfriend to see what is like in practice and not only in theory and then make a decision from there. I admit that there are occasions where you can test two ways and take a decision of what way to follow based in the outcomes, neverhelss, there are also other situations where you don’t have the chance to experiment or is to risky (if I am no sure that jumping from an airplane without parachute is safe, and I try it to see what happen in practice… that would be the end of it). This is situation something like that, because of the cost of experimenting I can only do a mental exercise of what would happen. And it is not that difficult: Of course I would like it! I would enjoy hopping up in bed with her. So there is no doubt I would enjoy that kind of lifestyle (sin is never ugly). The bad consequences of that lifestyle would not be that easy to see because sometimes they transcend time and space (they take time to come and maybe they come in indirect way), thus I would go ahead. But on the other hand, I know God the creator of all exists, I know that Jesus is a historical person with a proven resurrection, I know his word, the Bible, is an awesome book that has proven its accuracy by archeology, historical research, amazing prophecy fulfillment, unity in topic and content (its not contradiction is surprising despite its numerous authors)—not to mention the amazing code found in the Bible where you can find messages written beforehand about Einstein, attacks on 9/11, JFK, etc, etc. I know also that Jesus has promised me to come again to establish his kingdom, to give me eternal life and reward me for my good deeds done according to his will if I persevere in the faith —As Paul put it: “God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.”—and I also know that God knows best how his creation works and what is good for me… How would I sin against him, make sad the Spirit he has put in me, lose my place with him by backsliding the faith –turning away from him—and expose myself to the bad consequences of those actions? I have too much to lose. I’ve tasted a little bit of Heaven, and in my walk with God I’ve also tasted that His will is good, pleasing and perfect. Thus… I could not do it, and if I did, in a moment of weakness, I would know that is wrong and that I need to repent.
I leave you with this passage from the scriptures:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11).
And don’t worry for the last sentence Sofia… I was not offended. Thanks for helping me to realize how unfair I was in repeating you “you need a hug” when you didn’t have anybody to get it from—but ignoring the need would not help it either. God wants to bring comfort and supply what you are not getting from other humans.
Please don’t be afraid of me stopping talking to you.
With love from the world of this crazy guy