The responsibility to believe and Jesus' rebuke of Thomas

 After Jesus' resurrection, the disciples were in a closed room, huddled together in fear of the Jews who had been responsible for the death of Jesus. To their surprise and joy, Jesus suddenly appeared to them. He showed them His wounds and gave them instructions for the future. Thomas, one of Jesus' disciples, wasn't with the rest during this appearance. When the others were with him and telling him they had seen the Lord, he refused to believe it unless he saw for himself and was able to touch Jesus' wounds. 

After eight more days, they were all again in a closed room together, this time with Thomas. Once again Jesus appeared to them. After greeting them, Jesus spoke directly to Thomas and said, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing." Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus said, "Because you have seen Me, you've believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

Perhaps Jesus wasn't rebuking Thomas. Perhaps Jesus was simply pointing out that Thomas had needed to see in order to believe while those who do not need to see to believe are blessed. Regardless, Jesus seems to be rebuking Thomas and commending those who believe despite their lack of visual evidence.

This story got me wondering. Could Thomas have done anything differently? Could he have believed without having seen the physical evidence first? IE, was his believing or not a choice that he had made? And that leads to the broader question, can anyone choose to believe something that they hadn't formerly believed? 

In my opinion, since all mankind is called to repent and believe in Jesus, this question is  a "crux of the matter" question. Can someone who does not believe be changed by his own will into someone who does believe? If the answer is "yes", then the next question is "how"? If the answer is "no", then how can people be held responsible for what or whom they believe? And why would Jesus rebuke Thomas for not believing the other disciples?

These thoughts brought me back to my own experience, 47 years ago. I've written about it on another post so will zero in on one part of that experience that I had one night. I was an unbeliever at the time who had become desperate to know the truth. I was watching TV, flipping through the channels, when I flipped to one that had an evangelist by the name of Billy Graham talking. I flipped just in time to hear him say, "All you have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." I immediately changed the channel in anger. I was thinking, "That's all I have to do? Great all I have to do is change my mind from not believing something that seems completely unbelievable to, simply, believing it! Wow, I didn't know it was so easy." In case I'm not making it clear, this was said in sarcasm. 

But I did get up out of my chair that night and go outside where I looked up at the stars and said to the God I did not believe in, "If you're real, and what that guy on TV said is true, I don't believe in you. But if you're real, and you're listening to me, I want to believe in you. If you're real, please help me." And that was that. Nothing happened and I was still an atheist. But some time later, my little sister challenged me to go to a men's Bible study at her church where I could show them how smart I was (she was tired of my sarcasm). I agreed to go, with the plan that I was going to show them how smart I was and how dumb they were. When I got there, the leader was taking them through some passage in the Bible. As I started listening something miraculous happened. I simply started believing. 

Looking back, I could see that God had answered my prayer asking for help. And that's where I think our responsibility lies. I believe that God will meet us where we are. If we don't believe, He'll help us with that. Whatever the barrier, God can remove it. So Thomas could have done that. He could have approached God with his unbelief and asked for help.

This all brings me to another point. It is that we are all dependent on God. We want to be self-made, self-sufficient, and in control. We don't like admitting weakness and inability. Another name for those sentiments is pride. We are, by nature, proud creatures. But Peter and James both say the same thing about that... "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1Peter 5:5-6 and James 4:6-7).

This is an essential ingredient in salvation. We must humble ourselves and seek God's help. If we try to go it alone, as Thomas did, we aren't going to get anywhere. And while this is true about unbelievers becoming believers, it's also true of the Christian who wants to grow. In Galatians 5:25 Paul says, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." We live (spiritually) by the grace of God. He gives us revelation and he gives us faith. As we came to life by His grace and help, so we also must grow in the same way.

Where did the concepts of "Right" and "Wrong" come from?

Where did 'right" and "wrong" come from?

"There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do." The quote is from the preacher in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. If the proponents of Darwinian Evolution are correct, that all living things evolved, randomly and by chance, from nonliving things, and that Evolution is an undirected, purposeless process, then the preacher's quote is absolutely true. If so, then it's nonsensical to speak of concepts like "sin" or "virtue" or man as being "basically good" or "basically evil". There would be no such thing as good or evil. They would necessarily be concepts invented in the minds of people for some reason or another.

The Evolutionist might say that the idea of morality evolved because adherents have a greater chance of thriving and thus are naturally selected for survival. But how would adhering to concepts of right and wrong enhance one's chances for survival? It seems to me that those who adhere to self imposed moral restrictions on their behavior would be easy prey for those without such restrictions. Imagine two next-door neighbors, one moral and the other not. Apart from the moral influences of conscience, the police, and judiciary system, who's garage would be full and who's would be empty?

Animals operate according to an unwritten "code" which is "the fittest survive". According to evolutionary theory, this "code" is directed by the amoral influence of natural selection and completely devoid of any influence from, or concern about, what may be right or wrong. If some mutant gene arose that caused an individual animal to have some inkling of morality (hard to imagine, I know, but stick with me here), how would that inkling affect its chances to survive? Compare two lions, one moral and the other amoral, coming upon an injured antelope. Which lion would be the quickest to kill and eat the antelope? While the amoral lion would have no reason for hesitation, the lion with the mutant morality gene might hesitate. And as they say, "he who hesitates is lost".

The existence of morality implies choice. Consciously or unconsciously, morality pauses and asks, "is this action that my stomach is calling for right or wrong?" An amoral animal has no reason to pause. It's either hungry or it isn't. If it's hungry, it kills and eats. No pause for contemplation necessary.

The stomach is either full or empty when the lion comes upon prey and its behavior is predictable. Not so with the moral lion. So, I don't see how explaining everything coming about by natural selection can account for concepts of morality.

I wonder if Evolutionists are troubled by the "coincidence" that man seems to be the only animal with a highly developed sense of morality and Genesis' contention that man is made in the image of God?

Back to the Evolutionists claim that nature is all that exists and that survival of the fittest is the only determinant of behavior. If that is so, then how do they explain the vast differences between man and animals and how these differences enhance survival? Why does man, among a myriad of differences that could be described, think, reason, ponder, reflect, choose, appreciate, marvel? Why does man eat a strawberry and ponder or rejoice over its flavor? Why does he eat an orange and ponder how different it is from the strawberry? Why does man gaze at sunsets, waterfalls, stars, and butterflies and do this thing called "marveling"? Why does man "waste" a lot of time talking, or writing books and newspaper articles, or reading fiction, when he could be hunting and gathering? What survival value does getting your feelings hurt or holding grudges have? Why does man feel proud? Why does man feel deflated, encouraged, perplexed, guilty?

Why does man argue, not only over the best course to take in terms of survival, but the best course to take in terms of right and wrong? Why do people have a sense of justice? Why are people incensed when they read about an injustice perpetrated on someone else? Why do they go to such lengths to right wrongs that occurred in the past? Why are we repelled and appalled when some human being actually acts like an animal and kills and eats another human being, as Jeffrey Dahmer did? How and why did all this evolve (and I am just scratching the surface)? Why in the world did mankind depart from the standard animal model where every quality exists only because it enhances survival?

Finally, why does every Evolutionist I've heard or read minimize this kind of questioning? Why don't they embrace it? The pursuer of truth, after all, has nothing to fear from questions. Truth cannot be injured or altered by questions. In an open and free inquiry, truth will always remain standing. In fact, truth is ESTABLISHED by questioning. So why are Evolutionists so afraid of anything that dares to question their version of truth? If you doubt that they do, please consider the curriculum that is force fed to all publicly schooled children.

If the Evolutionist is correct, then so is John Steinbeck's preacher, and there is absolutely no basis to believe in God or expect a civil society. But if the Evolutionist is wrong, and the evidence just touched on here declares that he is, then what could be more important than finding out the truth with regard to God?

Observations of my 58 year old self

 

This list is of observations I have made while praying or thinking about the things above. I like to think that they are, at least in part, gifts of insight from God Himself. At any rate, they bring me comfort as they occur to me. These observations seem to occur to me with increasing frequency whenever I set my mind upon God in prayer, meditation, or study.

 

Bob Humphrey

 

 

3/11/2013

                                                                Jehoshaphat’s Prayer

 

As I readied myself to look again into the passage of Romans 8:1-14, I read the first couple of verses and sensed that there was something I had been missing in my previous studies. I therefore prayed that God would reveal His mind in me in wisdom, insight, and revelation. I prayed that He would grant me understanding of the verses.

                 Then I realized that understanding, at least academic understanding, was not all that I needed. I needed, and prayed for, an enlightened heart so that I would know (as Paul prayed for the Ephesians in Eph. Ch. 1), experientially, the truths of this passage.

                As I prayed, I found my mind turning to my sons, Gabe and John. I prayed, that they would be granted the same insight and revelation into God’s truth. As I prayed, I found myself thinking about ways I could encourage or admonish them toward that end. As I did, a sense of hopelessness came upon me.

                  I realized that their situation was utterly, overwhelmingly, hopeless. No amount of encouragement or admonishment from me would change their hearts in the least. It left me with a sense of an impossible burden.

                 Then I realized that we are all, overwhelmingly without hope. Each one of our situations is dire, and destined to continue as they are, in a downward spiral away from God... unless He intervenes. We are dependent on Him for every need. He is our only hope. But then, we do have hope in every situation, but only in Him! He is our only hope! And, therefore, our first, last, and constant effort should be to pray with that in mind ("pray without ceasing").

                My first realization as an unbeliever who was being "awakened" from “sleep” 37 years ago was that I could not believe. The things of the Bible were utter nonsense to me. I realized then that, even if they were true, it didn't matter because I didn't believe them to be true. And how does one change that?

                Billy Graham, on TV one night, was telling me “all you have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved!” All? That’s all? All I have to do is believe? Wonderful (said with sarcasm), and unfortunately impossible.

                 At that time, I didn't know that there actually was hope, but only in Him. Nonetheless, He heard my cry out from my helpless condition, “I don’t believe! If You’re real, I need help. Because if you’re real, I want to believe!” It was only then, through the miraculous intervention of God, that I was transformed into one of His children.

                I’m wondering if this isn't what God means when he says to us, “if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." I was made alive (spiritually) only after crying out to Him from an utterly helpless condition. Is it not true that without His intervention, even as Christians we are utterly helpless, and therefore must continue coming to Him with the outstretched hands of the beggar? Is that what it means to “walk by the Spirit”?

                God is amazing. As I was writing all of this, Denise came in from her walk and told me how she had been reading the story of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, in 2nd Chronicles 20.     There was a great and overwhelming multitude of enemies on their way to destroy Judah. Jehoshaphat immediately realized that the situation was hopeless without God’s intervention, so he proclaimed a fast in which all the people sought God’s help.

                Jehoshaphat’s prayer, from verses 5-12,  should be the model for our prayers. In it, He acknowledges that God is ruler over all so that none can stand against Him. He acknowledges what God has done in the past in bringing Judah through their many trials. He acknowledges that Judah was powerless against this coming multitude and didn't know what to do, and therefore their eyes were on God.

                Is this not our situation in all cases? Am I not powerless to change anything in someone else’s heart? Am I not even powerless to change anything in my own heart? There are "multitudes" coming against us in the form of temptations, weaknesses, shortcomings, and circumstances that we are powerless against and, therefore, our eyes must be on God as our only hope. And none can stand against Him.

                He is the all-wise, all-powerful God who knows our needs and knows how and when to meet them. May we be made aware of our needs (yes, we need Him, even for this), and look only to Him as the multitudes assail us.

                What a comfort that we are safe and secure in our Strong Father’s hands! He knows our manifold weaknesses, even in trusting Him. Even the multitude of our weaknesses will not stand against Him. He knows how to safely shepherd His blemished sheep, and lose not one. And He has promised to do it! He never fails. Never.

 

 

3/13/2013

                                                                Our Power Supply

 

I have always tended to think of myself as a (spiritually) “battery operated tool”, so to speak. I plug in to God at various times through fellowship, taking in His word, or prayer, and then “go out” into the world to live for him. The result has always been an “up and down” experience. The “charge” soon wears off and I’m left living on my own power, a certain recipe for failure.

I recently realized that I’m not battery powered. I’m a plug-in “tool”. I have to stay plugged in to Jesus all the time. I am always in need. I must always keep my beggar’s hands open to receive from Him. Since no one of us has enough to go around, our supply is limited, we don’t like beggars and mooches. But I am a beggar and a mooch with God, and that’s just the way He wants it. He doesn’t mind my mooching off of him because He knows I have no supply apart from His and His supply is unlimited! 1Thess 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”, I.E. stay plugged in.

 

 

3/14/2013

                                                                The Dilemma of Blindness

 

Was heading out to play racquetball yesterday. On the way I was praying, “God, help me. Please manifest yourself through me. Manifest your love, your power, your wisdom, and your patience. Allow me to trust in you and your promise that all things work together for good for those who love you and are called according to your purpose.” Then I said, “I’m here with the open hands of a beggar, Lord. I have nothing without you. I can’t even want your will without you overcoming my fleshly will.”

                Praying as a beggar made me remember something out of Revelation 3 where Jesus addresses the Laodicean church and calls their lukewarm members “poor and blind and naked”. He advises them to buy from him gold refined by fire that they may become rich, and white garments so that they may be clothed and the shame of their nakedness not be revealed, and ointment for their eyes that they may see.

                As I pondered the verses something Jesus said stood out to me. First, He’s addressing people who are poor and blind, BUT THEY DON’T KNOW IT! Because they’re blind, they don’t know that they’re poor, blind, and naked. And yet Jesus is still telling them to buy from Him the things that will cure their condition and give them true riches. So, even in the midst of their lukewarm condition, their ignorance and resultant apathy, Jesus meets them with a hope-filled admonition. It should be noted, though, what He doesn’t tell them. He doesn’t tell them to open their eyes and look at their condition. No, He virtually says “in the midst of your ignorance, in which you don’t know that you’re poor, blind, and naked, buy from Me and become rich”.

                This is remarkable to me. I met a young man the other day who told me that he believed everything in the Bible. He believed that he was a sinner, that Jesus is God, and that He died for our sins. He believed it all! And yet he was apathetic. He had no fire for the Lord. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with this information he apparently believes. What do you say to a guy like him?  

                Next time I see him I’m going to point him to Revelation 3 and tell him there’s hope, even for him. He needs to come to Jesus and confess that he has been satisfied with life apart from God and ask God to grant him Gold and Clothing and Ointment for his eyes so that he can see himself from God’s perspective. So he can see the true nature of his condition, that he has not been rich, but poor.

                As an additional note, I want to focus on the Gold, White Garments, and Ointment. What are these things? What makes us truly rich? What greater riches are there than God Himself? Gold refined by fire. Jesus was refined by fire wasn’t He? What White Garments can clothe us so that the shame of our nakedness would not be revealed in judgement? What greater garment could we be clothed with than the righteousness of Christ Himself? Are we not clothed with Him? And what eye ointment can cure our blindness better than the Holy Spirit Who opens our eyes to the word of God? The riches we have been given freely are so wonderful. These are the only truly priceless treasures to be found anywhere in the universe, and their cost is infinitely high. I remember Ed Moore making the point that the only thing we have to give is our poverty; our poor, blind, naked selves. This is true, but this isn’t the currency that covers the cost of the gift, for even a gift must be paid for by someone. But never by the receiver! When a poor, blind, naked beggar comes to the Great Merchant who is selling His wares of Gold, White Clothing, and Eye Salve he has no money to pay for them. Eternal praise is due Jesus who paid with the currency of His infinitely valuable blood! He gave us the Greatest Gift of all, His life!  And then the beggar would truly be able to say,  “now I am rich and wealthy and have need of nothing”!

                “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” 2Peter 1:3

                                                Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.

 

 

3/14/2013

                                                                Sin’s Deceitfulness

 

Hebrews 3:13 says, “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today’, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”  I am coming to see one aspect of the deceitfulness of sin. I have noticed that I can be “on track” for the Lord and yet, in one moment, be derailed by sin. And then the lie (liar?) comes in and says, “you know, now that you’ve sinned, you’ve relegated yourself to second class citizen. God is decidedly not pleased with you. You stand condemned, and you are filthy. Go to the “cellar” and stay there until you’ve gotten your act together and worked off your debt. Don’t even imagine that you have unfettered access to God now. You gave that up when you made that decision to sin; and you did make the decision didn’t you. Maybe someday, you’ll actually treat God as though He’s really valuable to you; not like it’s hard for you to decide between sin and Him. Until you’re ready to do that, just go. You’re so far from being that person, that you might as well just give up. Heck, you might as well just sin some more. I mean, what’s the difference. A little further away from God is nothing compared to how far you have to go to get back to Him.” (Or some variation thereof)

Last night, I was watching Youtube videos of the amazing things that people do on bicycles, diving boards, trampolines, etc. One of the videos had a portion where a shapely girl was dancing in a bikini. I knew I should have turned it off, but I went ahead and watched it. As is always the case, sin deceived me in (at least) two ways. The first most obvious way was in how it deceived me into thinking that I was gaining from the experience. “Ah, here’s life! Enjoy this little tidbit of forbidden fruit. It will satisfy!” This is a lie, for the eyes of lust are never satisfied. In fact, lust is the opposite of love. Love seeks to please others. Lust seeks to please self. Lust, in fact, wars against love. But the second way it deceived me was as described in the paragraph above. The devil takes every advantage and will exploit every angle!                 But the lie was exposed! Before I went to bed, I remembered that I had wanted to write down one of my earlier observations (the one about poverty and blindness). As I wrote, I was increasingly encouraged. By the time I went to bed, I was lifting my hands in praise to God for His wonderful provision, and thanking Him that He had made me rich! There was no second class status! No need for the cellar! No debt to pay that wasn’t already paid! Yes, I had turned away. And if I had remained turned away, God would faithfully and lovingly (and sometimes painfully) discipline me for the purpose of bringing me to my senses. But He doesn’t condemn me… ever! All I had done was turn to His word, and His word had had its healing, encouraging effect.

“long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” 1Peter 2:2

 

 

3/14/2013

Philippians 2:5 tells us to have an attitude. It tells us to do nothing motivated by selfishness or empty conceit, not looking out only for our own interests, but the interests of others. In short, it is telling us to be motivated by love.

    My beloved racquetball provides me with many life lessons. My attitude has predominantly been one where I am motivated by selfish desires. I want to win. Why? What's behind that motive? What am I thinking happens when I win? All I have to do is explore my imagination to find the answer. I find there a man who attracts the admiring gaze of others as I walk through the racquetball club. There I can read their thoughts and hear their conversations as they say, "Wow, there goes that guy, Humphrey. Did you know he's 58 years old?" Someone answers, "No way! How can someone that old beat all these guys half his age?" I imagine them studying my game so they can improve theirs. I'm at the top of the heap, king of the hill. I'm virtually worshiped.  It's all about me.

     At the heart of this attitude, there's no thought or desire of compassion for my fellow man. Is he saved? Does he know Jesus? Is being beaten by me good for him? There's only room for a passing thought about being used by Jesus. There's the Spirit quietly reminding me of a much higher purpose that He's interested in. His purpose is as much higher than mine as the heavens are higher than the earth. His purpose is to use me to express Himself; His love, His wisdom, His patience. He wants me to be at peace about any outcome, truly believing that He actually does cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him. The "all things" includes a bad shot, or being beaten by a lesser player.

     But how do I adopt this attitude? I have prayed many a time on the way to the club, "Lord, use me today. Please allow me to have your attitude of love", only to revert into selfish and worldly desires for self exaltation, manifested on the court in expressions of anger, frustration, and displeasure.

     Is there no hope? There certainly is. Jesus says that apart from Him, we can do nothing. He also says that if we abide in Him, we can do all things. When we do, we will say, like Paul, "I live, yet not, I but Christ who strengthens me. We stay plugged in, not just on the way to the court, or job, or marriage, or fill in the blanks, but while on the court and at the job etc. We must learn what it means to "walk by the Spirit" because, as the word says, when we do, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

     We need to keep tabs on our attitude. Our flesh is a wild animal, ready to bite at any opportunity. When I fail at the court, instead of giving in and giving up, I need to see that failure as a red flag and a reminder to turn to Jesus. I need to keep turning, seeking His power that is perfected, not in my strength, but in my weakness.

               

 

 

God's Desire to Bless the Earth

In the 12th chapter of Genesis the Lord spoke to Abraham, the forefather of the Jews. He told him that He was going to make a great nation out of him. He said, "I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you will be a blessing." A little later the Lord says, "And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

That stood out to me. Many people think of God as a grouchy scowling old man, poised to send bad things on mankind, the object of His scorn. There is no biblical doubt that God DOES send bad things on mankind, but there in Genesis, it tells us why. He says to Abraham, "I will curse those who curse you".

But here in Genesis I see God's primary desire is to "bless the families of the earth". It is not His primary desire to bring evil. That belongs to the devil.

A striking thought occurred to me while reading... A lot of people think of Israel as the fulfillment of the prophecy. Israel is part of it...they WERE to be a blessing, but it was primarily looking forward to one person who was destined to arise out of Abraham's lineage. He would bless all the families of the earth by coming to die for their sins. You know His name.

The thought that struck me was that we Christians are also part of the fulfillment of that prophecy.
The blessings that Jesus brought to all the families of the earth are continuing through those who are indwelt by Him, who continue to proclaim him.

So, here we are, living testaments of the prophecy, thousands of years after it was given to a wandering nomad. So, that is our purpose for being here, to be a blessing, in every sense of the word. We bless primarily by representing Jesus on earth as His ambassadors, helping our families, friends, and neighbors consider Him. But, as His ambassadors, we are called to bless in many other ways as well. The ways we can bless are probably as numerous as there are Christians.

As Israel has often failed to bless as they have wandered from God, so we can fail to bless if WE wander.  Jesus called Himself the Vine, and He called us branches in the vine. He said the branches will only bear fruit if they stay plugged in and close to the vine.

Free Will

Is there any such thing as free will? The Calvinist says that man is free to choose, but only within the bounds of his fallen nature, and only within the bounds of God's apriori sovereign choices. So, when it comes to a man's destiny, a man only chooses within the bounds of what God has already chosen. When all is said and done, a man chooses only what God has already chosen for him.

This implies that, before a man is born, and even before the world existed, God chose, not only whether that man would believe in Him or not, but also whether the man would even be willing to believe. It further implies that no one can choose to be willing and that God chose beforehand that the vast majority of people would remain in their natural state of unwillingness and would spend eternity banished from His presence as punishment for that unwillingness which He willed for them in the first place.

I do not believe that these things are true.

I believe that God created all people with free will, and that this free will was not altered by the fall.

I believe that the will of man is something that continues to exist as free even though man is fallen and depraved. The fallen nature of man includes a propensity to blindness and ignorance. Left to his own devices, man cannot find God. This blind, ignorant state is utterly hopeless without the intervention and revelation of God.

Free will does not imply any power to act, choose, or exercise faith in God apart from His intervention.

Before the world existed, God knew those who would be willing to believe. He calls them His sheep. He has chosen them and knows them intimately from eternity past. Though they are helpless, blind, and ignorant, they are willing to believe the truth even though they don't know what it is without God's revelation. This willingness that they have is a choice. Man can choose to be willing, and he can choose to be unwilling. Those who choose to be willing hear His voice when it calls. Those who do NOT choose to be willing are left with only one option, to stubbornly harden their hearts, "close their eyes", and "plug their ears". This choice is not compelled by God, nor is it even compelled by their fallen nature. It is a free choice that did not have to be made, though God knew from before the world existed that they would make this choice. For this reason, these people are called the goats.

A prerequisite for being given an understanding of the truth is a willingness to follow it (when empowered). In John 7:17, Jesus says, "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself." Willingness is not synonymous with ability. Jesus did not say, "If anyone is able to do His will...".

Paul makes clear that willingness confers no power. In Romans 7: 18-19, he says, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want."

I believe the fact that someone is willing to believe the truth is not necessarily obvious to an outside observer (unless that observer is God, Who knows all), nor is it necessarily even apparent to the person who is willing. 

In Matthew 13:10, when the disciples asked Jesus why he spoke in parables, He told them,

"To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in  parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 

'You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;

You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;

For the heart of this people has become dull,

With their ears they scarcely hear,

And they have closed their eyes,

Otherwise they would see with their eyes,

Hear with their ears,

And understand with their heart and return,

And I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

Note that it doesn't say that they failed to understand because God willed that they wouldn't understand. Rather, they failed because they closed their eyes. Man can harden his heart against the Lord and what He is saying. Psalm 95:7-9 says, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness, where your fathers tested and tried Me, though they had seen My work.”

Hebrews 3 quotes the same passage and follows with, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” The implication here is that people can harden their hearts and, conversely, can refrain ("do not") from hardening their hearts. Otherwise, why would the writer of Hebrews encourage them to refrain?

People are called to pay attention to their attitude and adopt the right one. I believe this is a choice for both Christian and non-Christian. Neither are compelled to have a willing or unwilling heart. This is something that I believe God has left as free in the heart of man. Another way of saying it is, people can humble themselves, or they can refuse to humble themselves.

What is Heaven?

Someone once said to me that the idea of heaven holds no attraction to him. He pictured it as floating around in the clouds kind of doing nothing. I replied that heaven is unimaginable, so how could we know whether it's attractive or not? An idea came to me as I prayed about and pondered the question more deeply.

Here's the idea...
It is that the experience of heaven, in general, possesses two qualities. The first is the absence of negatives. By "negatives", I mean things that all humans avoid, such as misery, despair, sadness, pain, and grief. The Bible backs this up. It tells us there will be no more suffering and no more death.

The second is the presence of positives. It gets a little tricky, though, to identify these. Humans greatly value certain experiences. Experiences of love, beauty, friendship, family, wealth are some... the list goes on. Think of anything that people tend to cherish and add it to the list. I believe that all of these things are just shadows of the their fulfillment in heaven. 

I believe that every longing of the human heart is, ultimately, a longing for a reality that can be found only in the experience of God's presence. Although our desires are rooted there, in our corrupted condition, we look for their ultimate fulfillment in things like financial wealth, or health, or happy families (as examples). We pursue those things as though they are ULTIMATE goods. But they aren't ultimate goods...they're goods that POINT to ultimate good.

Heaven is where the experience of the full reality of love, beauty, friendship, family, and wealth (the list goes on) is found. This full reality will be experienced when one enters into unfettered fellowship with God Himself. He is the Source and "Author" of all these realities. They find their source in Him because He embodies them. In other words, God didn't "think up" this concept of love, and then insert it into the creation. Love is intrinsically part of God's nature. The bible says that God is love so, because we people are created in His image, because we are like God, the idea of love is necessarily a part of our consciousness. We long for love and continually try to find it in one way or another in our experience.

I believe that, only when a person experiences full fellowship and interaction with God (in heaven) will that person have found everything they've ever longed for fulfilled in the deepest and truest sense of the word "fulfilled".
When one has experienced the beauty, love, friendship, and wealth that is realized by being with God face to face, then, and only then, will what was meant by the words "love", "family", "wealth", and "beauty" be fully and finally realized. Then, and only then, will it finally and fully be known what was meant by the word "home", because we will finally have come to our true home. When we are face to face with God, we will finally know the full meaning of "friend". Those who experience the heaven of God's full presence, will look no further. Their search will have come to its End. It will be unimaginably wonderful and fill our eternity with discoveries of wonder after wonder. But, as I said, it IS unimaginable.

Paul touched it once. He had a taste, and the taste was too much to speak of. I have a feeling he wasn't "permitted" to speak of it, at least in part, because there were no human words that could describe it.

When all is said and done, what's the answer to the question, "What is heaven?" Heaven is being in the presence of God. 

The potential danger of attempting to resolve paradox, or, trying to fit God into a box.

The longer I have been a student of the Bible the more I've realized that there are apparently paradoxical truths contained in it. One of those, for example, is in regard to the question of where the responsibility for man's salvation lies. The Bible clearly teaches that since man is "dead in his trespasses and sins" that the responsibility is God's; that no person can be saved without first being drawn by God, having their spiritual eyes opened by God, and being given repentance and faith from God. It's His doing. The apparent paradox is that the Bible also teaches that man is responsible. There are numerous passages that call on people to repent and believe. Other passages show a God grieving over man's unwillingness, stubbornness, and unrepentant heart. Still others lay the responsibility at man's feet, urging him to "be reconciled to God". God's anger and wrath is described as being aimed at the wickedness of man as he chooses to ignore God and willfully suppress the truth about Him that man is fully aware of.

So, how do we sometimes attempt to resolve apparent paradoxes, and what's dangerous about how we do it? It seems to me that we generally don't like unresolved paradoxes. They make us uncomfortable because they seem to be contradictions, and contradictions in a body of writing imply that the writing is not credible. Since, for good reason, we have already come to the conclusion that the Bible is credible, we naturally attempt to resolve anything that might imply that the Bible isn't credible.

One of the possible dangers of our attempts to resolve paradox is that we Christians, instead of establishing credibility can instead be found to be straining it. In my opinion, we do this by first leaning to one side or another of a seeming paradox, and then forcing an interpretation on the side toward which we are not leaning. In other words, we tend to read our own apriori bias into our interpretation of Scripture. In the process, we lose credibility, and at the same time fail to convince others of the credibility of the Bible. What are the effects? On the one hand, the skeptic who we are trying to win over reacts derisively, and is convinced that our faith is a gullible one. On the other hand, the young Christian who we are trying to bring up in the faith, is confused.

Another danger is that we tend to become entrenched in our interpretations. We build a nice little box that we think the Bible fits into so that we can feel comfortable about all these niggling paradoxes. After the box has been constructed, we do everything we can to strengthen it. After a while our box can become dogma, from which the word "dogmatic" comes. Being dogmatic isn't inherently wrong, but it can certainly lead us down the wrong path.

It's obvious that there's a time and place for dogma. Without it, we can't say anything with certainty. Someone saying, " Such and such is going to happen just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow" might be met with, "We can't be dogmatic about tomorrow's sunrise, therefore we can't be sure that whatever your saying is a sure thing is indeed a sure thing." Similarly, there are many truths in the Bible that are incontrovertible because there are no apparent paradoxes to be found with regard to them. The resurrection of Christ is an example.

So, what should we do to avoid the dangers mentioned above? First, I think it's important that we do attempt to resolve apparent paradoxes. At the same time, we need to keep in mind the dangers mentioned above. Second, we should always consult with God in these matters. In doing that, we need to check our hearts. Are we open to the idea that we may be wrong? Are we "listening" to God with an open mind? Third, we need to tread carefully when good scholars differ on an issue. Fourth, when we are wrestling with these things, we need to subject our ideas to the scrutiny of others, and not just to others who are sympathetic to our position, or who do not have the motivation or tools to adequately examine our ideas. Fifth, we need to leave room for mystery. Our minds are infinitely tiny and limited compared to the mind of God because His mind is infinite! The Bible clearly teaches that He has not revealed everything to us. I don't think that the perception of the Bible's (and our) credibility is damaged when we say things like, "I'm not sure" or, "I don't know" or, "maybe it's like this".

"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever..." Deuteronomy 29:29