Love...

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident." -Captain Corelli's Mandolin

The above is a quote from a Novel that takes place during World War II. It is hardly as good a book as this is a quote. It is spoken by a character in the book known as Dr. Iannis. He a meager philosopher and ever worse theologian, but his quote here speaks wonders to the truth of exactly what Love is.

Today love is used to express a fascination for everything from pickles, to a husband, to Sexual intercourse (ie making love). It would be unfair to limit this truth to simply our country, language, or even era. Greek Poetry from the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries BC failed to categorize the usage of the words (they had 4 words...debatebly more) for love with any firm boundaries that made clear when and where each term for love was to be used. They are not the only ones either, in truth the human expression regardless of time period is prone to speak in a superfluous manner (we are humans and we exaggerate). Even the bible fails to truly separate quite as concretely as we would like, and sometimes the Apostles use one word for God and love and sometime another. (Point being the idea that 'agape' is a word that is reserved for God's love for us, or our love for him, and that alone is well... not biblical.)

But i think nonetheless it is necessary that we explain and define love; and allow the boundaries that we can establish distinguish it from the 'false loves' that so many things that are better to be known as 'patior' or the greek word for 'passion'. (I think it is better to address what 'love' is, rather than spend an infinite amount of time addressing the limitless things it is not).

Love is a transcendent expression and faculty, it is in some ways unexplainable, but in every way undeniable. It is the sole force within the universe that history affirms has been present in every civilized state on record. It is the driving force behind a million actions that do not always service the individual good and ease of him who is performing the verbal action in their 'loving' of another. It is the most pure form of goodness, and beauty in all the universe. It contains within it both the power to create and destroy. It is unlike anything else in all the world. It turns night to day, winter to spring, dark to light, tedious labor to effortless service, burden to blessing, slavery to liberty, pain to pleasure, it is the driving force of ALL there is.

It is not sex, it is not passion, it is, what Dr. Iannis said rightly, 'would be left if all else could burn away', it is not mercy though this is certainly Love child. Love is patient, it is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it does not delight in evil but rejoices when right it done to all. It always protects even at the price of its own life, always believe even when things look hopeless, always hopes for Peace and goodness, always perseveres even the fiercest storm.

GODisLOVE : He is the Truest and most sincere expression of Love we have. On our souls we have imprinted an ability to love. But True love is not found in the Ancient Aphrodite. If you remember Greek mythology, she was the greek goddess of love and Romance. At her height the goddess (or perhaps the demon) 'aphrodite' demands full obedience from her worshippers. But this demand is a hollow one, and though in this so called 'love' she demands her worshipper to sacrifice their all for their 'lover' (husband, wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend). This is a futile demand and is really but an imprint within in crying out that we were meant to love something with all we are. In a way that Science could never explain by observation, and words could hardly capture in writing. Romance is by no means wrong, it is beautiful and created by and for God. But Erotica is not Love, Eros is not Agape, and Aphrodite is not Immanuel.

We have only but a taste of how vast his love is, God is LOVE. Aphrodite is a whore, and her demands from a broken world to be infatuated with one another and to look at Sex and rather than their Savior,will soon be repaid with eternal and indescribable punishment. All we need is LOVE

Free Will

I recently sat down with a friend who believe neither in Jesus as the Son of God, nor in the God of any sort of non-eastern deity. He posed the following dilemma:

"If God is good, and knows all things, why would he create Satan with the free will that would allow him to Turn against Him. If God knew Satan would do evil, then he must be in some way evil."

I responded with the following:

"What you are suggesting is that God should have made Satan not free, but a slave or servant to God. He should have essentially made some sort of robotic creation that would serve him and be obedient without fail, right?"

He then said "yeh, exactly".

And this was my response, "What you are suggesting is that it is much better to be a slave who has no capacity to act on its own, no ability to love, no ability to do any thing outside of its being directly in line with serving its creator." (sidenote: this is the way I believe Heaven will be, but we will no longer have any desire to rebel, only to serve.)

I then asked him "Have you ever been to a homeless shelter?";

"yes" he replied.

"Well in that homeless shelter have you ever seen an African American man?";

"of course" he then replied.

I then said "What you are suggesting is that the American government is in fact evil for giving freedom to 'African Americans', because it landed some of them in worse circumstances. Previously they had a warm bed, a Job, 3 meals, a day, and a home. Now there freedom has landed them without any of these. The American government should have kept them as slaves for their own good and not only that those who fought for slavery are evil people. We should make all the poor slaves."

He expressed a peculiar sense of Satisfaction at the answer, and quickly we segwayed into the "Pat Robertson dilemma"... Freedom

God forgive us today, we distort you, your world, and your name. Forgive us...

Time...

It is 6 o’clock on the evening of the 3^rd day of the New Calendar year, 2010 years from the estimated birth of Jesus Christ, God with us. Time is my subject here and the reason for my elaborate expression of the date and Time.

It is often said that God preexisted time, I feel as though the teaching around this is true. But I also feel that such a quality must be explained further than it often is. Science measures time and “elapse time since” also known has “age” based on the amount of decay that has taken place in atomic particles, this generally occurs at a precise and exponentially increasing rate. This process is known as “Carbon Dating”. By measuring the stage of the Carbon and comparing it science is able to determine age. Thus time is inextricably linked to decay.

However, the original intent of the universe was not one bent towards decay. But it is no surprise that the world we live in is one where decay and death are undeniable realities. And so according to the scientific explanation and recording of “Time”, Adam, Eve, and the entire Garden existed before there was “Time”. As they all existed in a state that had no decay. Science is insufficient to explain or define a proper understanding of time, as we know it.

Time, age, and any term within the realm of dating are simply made up terms that we designate to help us distinguish from one moment to the next. They are like the address on your house, or more accurately the page numbers we attribute to a book we have not written. They may not have any influence from the author of the book, but they allow the “reader” to identify more precisely where he is in the story. It would then help us to take a more philosophical and transcendent definition to the label of “time”. As not so much a measurement of age, but rather a chronological succession of moments. In our current existence decay is related directly to time, however in the paradise lost and in the one to come this will not be the case. Time will no longer be needed, decay no longer existent (save for within the bounds of hell, however this “decay” will as well no longer be related to time, as for all of eternity there will be eternal decay but not disappearance) and we will simply be left with a wondrous chronology of successive moments that pass by in a fleeting ecstasy, but they will flee to nowhere. So as the proverbial saying goes “time flies when you are having fun” heaven will likely a simultaneous passing of rapidly blissful moments as well as deliciously savored experiences treasured for all that they are.

So, it is an accurate statement to suggest that God preexisted time or our present definition of decay, but so did Adam. But he certainly did exist in time prior to our decay in another sense. My point being that if God has always existed he has enjoyed a chronological succession of events prior to the creation of our universe. By definition to exist would indicate you are at one moment “existing” and have “existed” prior, thus there were moments in between that took place to bring about the current state. So God has always existed but by this definition so has time, but he also exists beyond time, as he is not limited in his knowledge of anything past, present, or future, but that would deal more with his omniscience, nor is he limited in his ability to alter, change, or affect time, which would deal with his omnipotence. He is by his nature inside and outside of this chronology in everyway and thus he is beyond time and yet within it is everyway… He truly is the great “I AM that I AM”…