Thoughts About Reality

Events of Jesus' Triumphal Entry to Jerusalem

2009-08-03T06:21:00.000-07:00

The events of Jesus 1st entry to Jerusalem are noteworthy:

Jesus rides on a Donkey into Jerusalem (fulfilling Zechariah 9:9) with the massive crowds welcoming and shouting to Him, "Hosanna to the Son of David."
Jesus then goes into the Temple and physically drives out all the merchants, businessmen and money makers to establish it as 'a house of prayer' not business.
He leaves and spends the night at Bethany (possibly with Lazarus, Mary and Martha).
He curses the fig tree as a prophetic judgment over the house of Israel culminating in verse 21:43 of Matthew "Therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people whol will produce its fruit."
The Pharisees attack and demand to know by what authority Jesus is doing all these things!
Jesus tells the Parable of the 2 Sons
Jesus tells the Parable of the Tenants & removing the Kingdom from the Jews
Jesus tells the Parable of the Wedding Banquet
The Pharisees try to trap Him with a tax question re: what they love... money.
The Sadducees test His understanding with a question re: the Ressurrection
Then Jesus puts His own question out there re: the Incarnation
Then Jesus give the 7 condemnations of the Pharisees, Elders and Scribes of the Law
Then He leaves with His disciples and talks to them re: the End of the Age.
Jesus also tells them the 2 parables: 1) Parable of 10 Virgins, 2) Parable of Talents
Lastly Jesus tells them about His throne established on the Earth in Jerusalem and the sorting of the nations into sheep and goats

The Church Grows in Power & Purity in The End of the Age

2009-04-04T06:59:00.000-07:00

Some people think that evil grows to greater heights of wickedness towards the end of the age but the church dwindles only to be 'raptured out' or taken out of the world by God. However, this is not true. Evil does become completely rebellious and perverted but the Church grows to great heights of love, passion, purity, power and unity.... in a word -maturity!

Consider these verses:

1. "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Matthew 16:18

Jesus clearly states that hell will not prevail over the Church - but the Church will prevail over it! This is a powerful verse where Jesus says that the revelation that He is the messiah of human history will build a church that hell cannot prevail upon! There should be no question that the church will grow to increasing power and purity until the return of the King.

2. "... until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:13

This verse indicates that the body of Christ will become mature... becoming like Jesus here and now in the earth - not just in the resurrection!

3. "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready." Revelation 19:7

At the very end of human history we see that the bride of Christ (the church) has prepared herself for Jesus return - "The Return of the King" - she is mature and ready for Him!

She is not filled with sin, she is not filled with apathy or passiveness, she has not compromised with the world during the height of human lust, witchcraft, murders and lies... she stands tall in an evil world LOYAL to Jesus! She has made herself ready to be married to Him! She is not immature or unprepared!

4. "I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John 17:23

The prayer of Jesus will be answered! Especially considering Ephesians 4:13 and Rev 19:7 - the church will be brought to complete unity before history ends! The unity will be based on love - not necessarily that we all have the same style and same vision. But the church will be unified, not divided.

Imagine it: The church will know that the Father loves us, like He loves Jesus! That is what the last part of the verse says. This will unify us in Christ unto great passion for Christ in a ruthlessly evil age.

5. "While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them... But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth." Daniel 2:34-35 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces." Daniel 2:44-45

The Rock that is cut out 'not by human hands' is the Church. And the Church ends up destroying these other kingdoms including the 10 nation confederacy under the anti-Christ at the end of the age. Additionally the Church ends up filling the whole earth!

So the church does not end up diminishing to be a paltry insignificant force in the middle of a fully rebellious age when evil reaches maturity. No! The Church confronts that evil head on! She remains true... even in the face of oppression (job loss), wrongful taxation, imprisonment and ultimately martyrdom!

Other Interesting Verses:

1. "They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not live their lives so much as to shrink from death." Rev 12: 11

The bride/church overcomes the Antichrist entirely during the End of this Age.

2. "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count.... These are they who have come out of the great tribulation..." Rev 7:1 & 7:14

A vast multitude overcome the Antichrist and stand before God!

3. "... standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name." Rev 15:2

The church has victory over the Antichrist.

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." Habakkuk 2:14

It is fascinating that the 'knowledge of the glory of God' will fill the earth! During the end of the age the knowledge of God will be everywhere - right in the midst of evil people pursuing their own lusts and independence from God! But the knowledge of God will be present everywhere!

"If PEOPLE are so Good, why is there so much suffring in the world?"

2009-02-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

If PEOPLE are so Good, why....

is there so much SPAM in the world?

do we need so many lawyers?

do we need to many accountants to do our Taxes?

do wars happen?

have we polluted the streams, ocean, land and air?

do we kill babies (5,6 and 7 months old) in the womb that we could save by C-section?

is there racism?

have we created Global Warming?

God didn't do these things. People have.

God is good. People are evil. Yet, God loves evil people and desires to forgive them and save them from their just punishment. God would do anyting for people (including giving His darling Son), but people must turn to receive His mercy.

The WRONG Question: "If God is so good, why is there so much suffering "

2009-02-25T07:42:00.001-08:00

This morning I woke up thinking about what people say:

"If God is so good, why is there so much suffering on the earth?"

There is often a lot of accusation and anger towards God in that comment. Others sincerely are just pondering the state of reality in that question.

And I instantly realized that we are asking the WRONG question. We should be asking:

"If people are so good, why is there so much suffering on the earth?"

When you ask that question, you begin to see that the blame and accusation for human suffering lies at the feet of people.

The choice of the everyday indvidual to the medium level politician or businessman to the highest President or King - all of these combined choices down though human history have created all the suffering, wars, famine and pollution!

Because human beings make such evil choices the earth is filled with so much suffering!

That is reality.

How does 'doing what is right' lead to life?

2009-02-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

I was reading Proverbs this morning. There is a lot in there that indicates "doing" what is right leads to life.

However, we know that we cannot 'earn' our salvation but that God saves us by grace when we turn to Him through faith in Christ. So how does 'doing' what is right lead to life or salvation?

I think we are confused by the examples of the prostitutes and treacherous tax collectors who turn to God (or repent) when Jesus preached. The don't seem to be 'doing' what is right. And we contrast their example with the Pharisees who seem to be 'keeping the law.' Isn't keeping the law the same as 'doing what is right?'

And then I realized that the Pharisees only 'kept the law' like Satan would. Do you get my meaning? The Pharisees kept the law to try to manipulate the 'principles' of God to get rich... or to try to get God to do something. In other words... their hearts aren't into it! They don't really want to do what is right. They don't really delight in truth. They are only doing it to GET something else. It is all manipulation.

(Now to balance that statement - none of our 'motivations' for doing what is right is 100% perfect. But when we do things we can, as imperfect humans, delight in doing what is right some percentage ... even if it is only 20% or 40% or 80% - and the more the do the more this delight in righteousness grows!)

So - The Pharisees often obeyed the law but only to manipulate God to try to get something else - often money. They also loved the praises of other people. Some of the prostitutes and tax collectors turned to God and did what was right after Jesus preached.

But Proverbs says that doing what is right leads to life. I think this is indicating that the only way we 'learn' righteousness is by doing it... but hopefully with a motivation that is better than just trying to manipulate God. Again this is not earning salvation. This is how we learn the language of heaven... truth. You 'work with it.' You try to do what is right. You taste the difference between good and evil. As you 'do' what is right, you begin to see what the Psalmists says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good!" Ps 34:8

I was once trying to figure out what "Outlook Forms" were. People told me about it but I couldn't get my mind around it. One day a secretary was programing a new "Outlook Form" and I asked her if I could try. She taught me how to create new fields for first name, last name, phone number etc... on the Contacts page of Outlook. Then after 'working with it' for a few minutes I realized that Outlook Forms allows you to create your own Form to input contact information. I didn't understand this until I worked with it.

You have to 'do' what is right to understand righteousness. And once you do this leads you to salvation ... which is 'trusting in God' rather than in fear trying to 'earn' salvation.

That is why the Proverbs says "do what is right and this will lead to life."

God Assesses or Weighs the Inner Life of the Heart rather than merely the External Life or Facade

2009-01-18T15:21:00.000-08:00

As in my other posts you can see that I wrestle with how God relates to human beings. This of course is a crucial philosophical question for life. Often I become offended with God when I don't understand His judgments or His assessments of people or situations... until I more fully understand those people or situations.

Often I work with really 'nice' people. They try to be polite, they try to be politically correct and never say anything that would offend others, they wear nice clothes and drive nice cars. What you see is what you get, right?

I don't know.

I had 2 experiences that changed my perception. Firstly I created a Facebook profile a few months ago. I began making 'friends' and conversing with them. From time to time I would look at their Facebook profiles. Strangely I found things I would never have guessed about some of my friends and nice co-works. On one friend's Facebook I found certain posts and images that were sexual advances towards some girls he had met in Asia. Interestingly he claims to be quite a 'nice' person. But it was getting a little too explicit for me. On other friend's Facebook profile I can find a fascination with Vampires and their supposed practices. But on any Monday thru Friday you would never guess that the person sitting behind the desk was completely sympathetic and supportive (and even fascinated) with occult beings who feed on the life of people... who lust over the flesh and blood of boys and girls/men and women.

Secondly I created a Second Life account. I wanted to see what all the buzz was about. I created my "Avitar" (the person or thing that represents you in Second Life). Without being in this simulated world more than 30 minutes I had a girl with very little on (her dress blew up and exposed her legs and hips as if the wind blew) made several passes at me. Once sitting down on a couch right next to me wanting to 'chat.' Can I tell you that my wife who was watching me enter Second Life for the 1st time was not pleased that some virtual woman was hitting on me?

Then we went further in to Second Life after ignoring the sexy girl. Did I mention that you can fly in Second Life? Apparently you can surf and many other things as well. At one point I was flying over an area that had land, water and structures. I saw a Bill Board or Marque at one point and decided to land to see what was posed. They are 12 foot high and 30 foot wide walls. Once I landed I saw two 12 foot high and 6 foot wide posters of a naked woman fully exposed. Basic pornography you could find in any Playboy or Huster. To the right of her were 8 smaller but very large pictures demonstrating the ways to have sex. I thought any 18 year old or anyone lying about their age could have flown right in her and been exposed to hard core pornography. And quite frankly they do. I took off, not wanting to engage with that unclean thing of lust, and landed on a dock near the water. While there another person/Avitar walked past me in a very small bikini. "Here we go again I thought." Fortunately she didn't pursue or proposition me. But I sure don't want my friend who are teenagers or adults to be exposed to her Avitar too long. The body this person (who knows if the real person is a male or female) chose was clearly designed to sexually stimulate others.

And these Avitars represent just regular people who you might be friends with or go to work with. But they have hidden inner lives. And they find expression for their desires which they often cover up at work... in Second Life.

Second Life and Facebook provide people with a place to express themselves that they consider, "not real." However it is fascinating what they choose to express. This reveals the inner heart and inner desires of people with very guarded facades in real life.

This is the part of the person that God looks at. This is the part that He longs to convince that 1) there is evil here and 2) I long for and love the person even with darkness in their inner being.

God longs to help people be honest about the evil that is inside... so that they may turn to Him and He will conquer it. He will help them reject the evil and be filled with light, true love and joy... not just lust. He longs to fill us with beauty (the divine nature) and purge us of ugliness (sin). But we just respond to Jesus to do so. God so loved evil humans that He punished Jesus for our sins rather than us... just so we could go free and return to Him.

That is the kind of person God is.

Thomas the Tank Engine shows God's Justice at the End of the Age

2009-01-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

In the last 20 years that I have been a Christian I have often been offended with God regarding His judgments at the End of the Age... before Jesus' second coming to earth. I have just though His actions in the book of Revelation were so harsh.... so mean!

Today I was surfing on the web looking for pictures of Thomas the Tank Engine for my 3 year old who delights in Thomas. He loves trains and especially engines! And Thomas is a really great little engine who learns so wonderful things in life with his other friends Percy, Gordon, Henry and James.

So we went out to Google and put "Pictures Thomas the Tank Engine." We got several pictures up on the screen immediately. The first four pictures were great pictures of Thomas! The fifth picture was a naked raunchy woman straddling or "riding" a giant plastic Thomas Engine!

Immediately I was deeply angered that my son had seen this. He doesn't understand it all. But the very fact that he is exposed to the abuse of evil people on his very precious Thomas the Tank Engine. It is one thing for an adult to come to such a hardened lustful malicious place in their heart that they visit an adult sex shop and buy pornography. But it is another thing for someone to post a picture of a nake woman on a Thomas Engine on the Internet for innocent children to see... it is just evil.

Then I understood the judgements of God during the tribulation at the end of this age. People become so evil, so vile, so hateful... all the while saying, "I am not doing anything wrong! I am a good person. I don't need God's forgiveness!" Becoming so vile... you can understand why He will let Global Warming take it's course and cause epic hail storms that will kill thousands or millions of people.... you can understand why He steps back from the earth and let's Satan rush in with war, pestilence and starvation to kill, perhaps, billions of people.

You can understand it when you consider that the majority of the people's of the nations will give themselves to pornography, murder, sorcery (controlling others with witchcraft) and lies!

It is exactly the same as in Noah's time - the Bible says man had become so evil "every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." Gen 6:5 Additionally it says that the earth was "full of violence." Gen 6:11 Imagine people who have so hardened their own hearts by choosing sin over and over that the earth was full of violence? Imagne the rapes, the murders and the fighting and murders! That is why God flooded the earth killed everyone except Noah. He gave them what they were giving each other... death.

In the end I could understand what the Angels say in Revelation: "God you are so JUST!" In other words: "God you are good, you aren't doing evil in your judgements... you are merely giving them what they gave others..."

The angels say, "Just and true are your ways...." Revelation 15:3

"You are just in these judgments...." Revelation 16:5

"Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments." Revelation 16:7

God is not "mean" or "harsh" at the End of the Age... He is JUST! There is not evil in Him.

Psalms 18:25:
"To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the wicked you show yourself shrewd."

Shrewd can also be translated .... cunning.

God is perfectly good... but He know how to deal with people COMMITTED to evil.

God Enjoys Believers Even While We Are Weak, Immature & Sinful

2008-11-08T16:01:00.000-08:00

God enjoys believers even while we are weak, immature and sinful.

A lot of people might have issues with that statement. However, this is our hope in the Gospel. We know that God loves the world (believers and unbelievers - John 3:16). However, God enjoys those who follow Jesus, those who have received His life in them. It is crucial that we don't equate God's enjoyment of the believe with being perfect... because no one is perfect. Nor will anyone be perfect in this life. However, we must be sincere followers of Jesus where we are actually growing in the grace and holiness of God. We must not be those who claim to be Christians but essentially have no connection to Christ, no fellowship with believers and no fruit in their lives. Being a sincere follower of Jesus does not mean we are prefect but that we are growing in righteousness over time. Sometimes we are gaining victory and really caring about people, sometime we are overcoming sin, sometimes we are struggling against sin or even falling into it. Our growth goes back and forth, it ebbs and flows.

A great encouragement to me came through the disciples last night with Jesus. The Lord makes a massive statement to them right at the end. Jesus prays to the Father and declares, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You ... have loved them even as You have loved Me." (John 17:23)

Wow, can you even take that in? God loves the followers of Jesus the way that God loves Jesus!

Imagine the love that God has for Jesus! And then obey scripture and realize that he loves us with that love! It is overwhelming!

And here is the key point. The disciples that night were going to publicly deny Jesus! They were going to fail and sin to the point they would even deny knowing Jesus! In Matthew 26:74 it says that Peter "called down curses on himself and he swore to them, 'I don't know the man!'" In verse 72 it says he confirmed this with an oath! The key point is this: the disciples were immature and sinful AND "God loves them (and us) as He loves Jesus!"

Jesus told the disciples that God loves you like He love me now, while you are imperfect, immature, sinning and weak. God doesn't love you because you have arrived, or because you are finally mature, or because you have obeyed in certain areas. God loves you because you love Me (and you don't even do that perfectly - but perfection is not required!)

That is the wonder and the glory of the Gospel of Jesus. If we didn't have that, we would have to live our entire lives on earth with the knowledge that God doesn't enjoy us until we are resurrected. How hard it would be to grow and obey God under that. The knowledge that God doesn't merely tolerate us, but loves us and enjoys us while we are immature and weak is the very grace and power that motivates us to grow deeply in obedience! Besides, we are already saved, we don't have to obey because we are trying to earn anything! We are already going to heaven. We can obey and grow because we are secure in His love today!

If Jesus had said this to the disciples at the end of their lives having obtained some measure of maturity (but even then they would not have been perfect) that would have lessened the impact of this statement. We would have thought - "Well, they are the older more mature disciples, sure God loved them. Look at all they have done." But it wasn't then... it was right during their failings and sins that Jesus said, "God loves you even as He has loved Me!"

That is the love of God! That is why He alone is worthy of all honor and praise!

Life Can Be Hard for Those Who Are Evil & The Believer - But In Different Ways

2008-11-06T07:09:00.000-08:00

I was considering how life can be hard for both those commited to evil and those trying to do good and follow Christ. Life isn't always hard but sometimes it is.

Prov 13:15b says, ".... the way of the sinner is hard." Rather than the word sinner, the word 'unfaithful' or 'false' is sometimes used in scripture. The bottom line is that choices of those who do what is bad or evil make their lives painful, difficult.... hard.

Don't be mistaken... this is not God punishing the wicked. This is human beings 'eating the fruit of their own choices.' They do something they know is wrong and the consequences are painful.

At this point they can either humble themselves and learn from that evil choice and avoid the negative consequences in the future... or, in pride, they can harden their hearts and blame someone else for their pain ... or even blame God for the choice they themselves made.

Prov 19:3 say that people who make evil choices can actually ignore the fact that they made a certain choice and turn on God in hatred and blame Him instead....

"A man's own foolishness runis his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord."

This was important for me to realize because I often struggle with how hard the Christian life can be at times. It is not always hard - sometimes the love of God is so present to my mind and feelings that I am completely happy! More than wine or romantic relationships can make me happy. However, other times I am discouraged by the effort it takes to daily consider others, care for people who don't care about me, to try to consistently tell the truth, to try to consistently be faithful to others and to God.

Sometimes it seems hard. However, the Christian's call to "die to our own lives for Jesus' sake, so that we might find life" is not hard because we are doing evil and suffereing the painful consequences... it is hard because we have to let go of what we want and care about someone else. It takes effort. It really takes the Holy Spirit indwelling us and helping us to "re-focus" our will on someone or something else.

And I can live with that.

Let's consider one more thing to balance the picture:

First, if the evil person makes good choices, he or she will be rewarded for that good choice. There is no favoritism with God. The bad person will eat the fruit of his good choice and enjoy the pleasurable benefits. This will further lead him to God if he considers his own ways (choices & outcomes). If the believer makes an evil choice, the believer will suffer the consequences. There is no favoritism with God. The believer will eat the fruit of his own choices and feeling the negative consequences will be motivated to turn back to God and do what is right.... if he considers his own way (choices & outcomes.)

So, at the end of the day, life can be hard for those who cling to evil and those you are trying to cling to good... but the 'hardness' is entirely different. The wicked are crushed by their own evil and the hatred in their hearts is caused by those choices and eating the fruit of it. Their lives are 'hard.' The godly (who are not perfect but sincerely trying to do good) struggle to deny their own desires to care about others with God's help. Their lives can be 'hard' but only because they are trying to love others, not just themselves.

God Offers Us a New Nature Only Obtainable in This Age

2008-08-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

Recently I was thinking about some of the more difficult statements that Jesus said. Wresting with certain verses over the last 20 years I realized that Jesus makes us a very unique offer, that is only available in this age. Essentially He assesses all of human nature (individually and nationally or corporately) and offers humans a trade. To appreciate the great gift in the "trade" you must first appreciate the weakness, sins and outright evils that human nature/people engage in. Just study human history over the last 6,000 years or look at today's paper to get a quick glimse of human nature. (To be sure there are also some wonderful things being done by human nature from time to time.) At this point Jesus makes an offer: "If you will engage with me and do as I say, the Holy Spirit will, progressively, replace your broken human nature with My divine nature."

This offer of a "trade" of natures became very real to me because I realized that once people die this offer is no longer valid. Once we die we are 'frozen' in our current state of human nature or divine nature. Now let me be quick to add, I still think we grow in heaven and expand our capacities. There is nothing 'stagnant' or 'unchanging' about our existence in Heaven. The resurrection of our bodies and renewing of our minds and enfusing of our relationships with love will be breath taking forever! And it will always be "new." Our hearts will not be 'hard' so we will not get bored! But those you reject God and His offers will 'remain' in their old natures. Never to be changed. Jesus said, "... unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." John 8:24 That existence is hell.

I realized that if people on the earth do not choose to surrender the control and ownership of their lives to Jesus before they die .... they essentially remain as they are... forever. This includes all the lust, bitterness, anger, impatience, envy, racism, fear and insecurities. Why? Because they have said to God daily thousands and thousands of times over the years, "No God, not your way, my way! I don't want your interventions in my life, I want to do it my way. I don't want you to form your character in me, I want to do it my way." I think of Elvis Prestley singing the song, "I did it my way," just before he died.

God through the Holy Spirit is contacting people daily, over and over, trying to get them to do things "His way," and consequently become "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world..." (2 Peter 1:4b) He is literally offering us the ability to have His divine nature formed within us. And to put to death our human nature that is constantly hungering but never satisfied, lusting but never content, scratching (an itch) but never at peace!

Once I realized this some verses made a lot of sense.

"He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal." John 12:25 NAS

Once I realized "what" our lives are without God, without His help, without His influence towards love and caring for others, without His grace... THEN I could hate my life. I could hate my impatience, my wrong desires that hurt others, my meanness, my bending of truth to get people to take my side... all of it. THEN I could desire God's nature to become my nature. You can desire what God offers until you are dissatisfied with your current nature. How can you hunger for goodness when you are satisfied with sin? Once we realize our own evil desires for what they are, we can begin asking and seeking love.

God makes us an offer in this present age: "If you will see how commited I am to you, and respond and commit yourself to Me... I will, bit by bit, change your broken nature into my divine caring nature!"

The fact that this offer is no longer available in the next age motivates me to work with God now! The fact is - THIS is the age of choice. Once we have died our choices have been made. This cuts at the attitude of complacency that just wants to sit around and watch TV and burn time worthlessly. (Not that we have to be work aholics - but let's not be absolutely lazy in this age) If we realize that Jesus described reality such that we have a limited time to do things "His way," we refuse to waste our time and choose to follow Him.

By the way - following Him does not mean we are earning entrance to Heaven or Salvation. That really is a gift to all who put their trust in God through Jesus. But if we are genuinely saved, of course we want to start becoming more like Jesus and less like Satan. We don't do it all at once. We grow in goodness day by day, falling, getting back up, succeeding etc... Obeying Jesus because we want to be "like Him" is not earning the forgiveness of our sins which He has already given us.

Loose your life to find your life?

2008-07-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

coming soon...

What Darkness?

2008-07-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

I was always perplexed by Jesus when He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

Living in middle class America I often looked around and said, "What darkness?" What was Jesus talking about. I looked around and saw 'nice' people, driving nice cars, shopping at nice stores and generally, well, being ... nice.

As I graduated college and lived in several different states, spent a couple years outside of the US (Nicaragua, Kosovo, England, Mexico) and spent a decade in the computer IT business world, I began to see what Jesus was talking about.

Understanding the darkness is crucial to understanding the light. But the darkness is our culture is subtle. I have come to appreciate God's care and grace for us more in the face of the darkness of our culture.

Here are some examples of the darkness of 'human nature' from what I have experienced:

Marketing: It is incredible the depth of deception involved in modern day marketing and advertisement. This exists on the TV, Internet, magazine ads, radio etc... Take a look at any advertisement and you find lies, deception and manipulation everywhere. I saw this recently in a bag of chips. You purchase a $0.99 bag of chips. It looks like a full bag from the outside. That is part of the advertisement. Then you open the bag and it is only 1/3 full of chips. The rest of the 2/3 of the package is air! It is just deception. We are so used to it in our culture that we don't even recognize it. Compared to the deception of our culture, it is wonderful to look in the face of Jesus and see the greatest human who walked the earth and know that He always tells the truth! And He always does this for our good! He is absolutely committed to us. He never lies, never advertises and never deceives. He is true!
Business: There is an old saying that exists around the market place: "Let the buyer beware!" Isn't that a bummer? It says that as we sell our products to others they must distrust us and be on their guard! Compare that statement to the concept of producing a product in integrity. The buyer doesn't have to 'beware' - the product is what it is. No advertising/lying - just a clear product description of what it will do and will not do.
I heard a college girl speaking to her 2 guy friend. They were pressing her on being responsible. One of the guys was working a full time job and saving for his 401K. He was pressing the girl on 'responsibility.' The young girls lilting semi-whining response was: "I'm only 18. I can't handle too much responsibility!" However, I can also hear the teenager turning around to her parents in a more demanding tone saying, "Hey! I am 18! I need a car!" I think this is typical of human being / human nature. We play both sides! When our peers are challenging us regarding responsibility we say we can't handle it. But when we want something that requires responsibility (like a car) we tell those in authority that we can handle it. I think this tendency in human nature to manipulate and play both sides of a point to get our way is an aspect of deception. Jesus wants us to follow him and learn to make our words conform to reality. That is called honesty.

As we learn the ability to tell the truth it creates a foundation to view life clearly and accurately. Therefore we can make good decisions based on a clear vision of reality. However, if we learn to deceive, we create a foundation that is distorted and twisted. Through this 'self chosen lens' we try to evaluate reality and make choices. But they turn out to be painful choices to ourselves and others we care about because we cannot see clearly. Since we have chosen to deceive others rather than be honest, we have created a pair of glasses with bad lenses. And now we cannot see clearly enough to make choices for ourselves. But God cares for us - and encourages us to turn around and be honest - then the lenses can be repaired and refocused. Then we can make great choices for ourselves and our friends.