Tag: agnostic

Just because we don’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there

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Ever see the wind? Do you see sound waves when listening to the ocean? When you get a sunburn, did you see the UV rays all around you?

There are many things we don’t see, yet they exist. And how do we know they exist? By their effect on our world.

We don’t see the wind, but we see flags moving in the breeze, we see trees bend over, we see waves in the pond and we see smoke traveling sideways. And we feel it.

We see the red skin and feel the pain when we are in the sun too long, we get a ringing in our ears when we go to a concert or have the radio too loud, or when a fire truck goes by blaring its siren.

There are so many things we don’t see that are there. We easily accept their existence because we see their effect on our physical world. Sometimes it is immediate, sometimes it takes a while to appear, but because we see the effect it has on our physical world we trust that it is real.

If it is so easy for us to accept the existence of UV light, of wind, of sounds we are incapable of hearing, of mesons, and so many other things that we have never seen, why is it so impossible for us to accept that God exists and that He is always there?

I am sure most people reading this already accept that God exists, but do you really, really believe that He is always there? Always watching and aware?  I do. Just because I don’t see His work in my life, at that time of my life, it doesn’t mean He isn’t present in my life.

God’s time is not like our time: we live in a lineal timeline, flat, one-way only, from this moment to the next one. We can’t go backwards, and we can’t go any farther into our future than right this second. God, on the other hand, is unrestricted by our timeline. He is in the ancient past at the same moment He exists in the distant future, all the time being right here with us, now. That’s why He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow: it is all the same time to Him.

When Joseph was in the dungeon for 12 years did he think God had abandoned him? When Daniel was praying for answers, did he think God was ignoring him? When David cried out his heart to the Lord through his psalms, while being chased for years by Saul, did he think that God was missing in his life? Did Yeshua think God was ignoring Him when He prayed to “let this cup pass by me?” When Shaul (Paul) was in jail and chained, did he think that he was singing to the wall?

When you are going through tsouris, are you praying to God and expecting relief right away? There’s nothing wrong with expecting God to answer prayers- He’s good that way. But we need to be doing much more than just faithfully expecting the answer: we need to be looking for it, too! The answer to prayer we receive is (I believe) more often not what we expect but it is always exactly what we need. God knows much better than we do what we need because He can see what will occur from what is happening to us right now. We can only hope and try to make things happen the way we want them to, but God can make things happen the way He wants them to. Every time.

That is why we can’t really know what He will do when we ask something of Him. Yeshua told us in the Gospels, when we ask in His name we will receive, and we need to be expecting to receive. But what we receive may not be what we asked for, yet it will be the answer to what our prayers were about.

That sounds a little convoluted, but it is true. At least, it has been for me. When I have thought that maybe God was too busy to deal with me, looking back I see that I was too busy dealing with myself to see what God was doing. And sometimes, I wasn’t doing anything wrong, it just wasn’t time for the answer to my prayer to be realized. God’s timing is perfect because, well, He controls time. Duh! When you make the rules you always win.

Just because we don’t see God at work doesn’t mean He isn’t doing anything. You know, sometimes just waiting is the best thing to do. Doing nothing is, in many ways, doing something.

In my high school was a guy named Mike Santoro (Mike, if you ever read this, how ‘ya doing?) Mike was the best wrestler we had, state-level champion. He taught me that my body could be maneuvered into positions that you couldn’t imagine. When Mike wrestled, he often just sat on the opponent- doing nothing. The other guy was face down on the mat, and Mike is sitting on that guys’ butt, just waiting. The ref would whistle and tell him to stop stalling, but Mike wasn’t stalling- he was prowling. He was stalking the prey, and the moment the other guy moved- POW!! Like a snake striking, Mike was intertwined in this poor guys limbs, and the next thing you knew the ref was on his belly smacking the mat three times.

That’s how God works. He waits for the right moment, and when He moves it is immediate and devastating. Just because we don’t see God doing anything doesn’t mean He isn’t doing something. And  when we don’t see God at all, it doesn’t mean He isn’t there, or that He doesn’t exist, and never means that He doesn’t care.

People who are agnostic, atheistic or just sheep believing what they are told to believe have doubts about God, and refuse to see His effect on their world. The bible tells us of all that God has done, and I am constantly disappointed in how people believe a priori what Huffington Post or Wikipedia says,  but doubt the bible. The people who wrote the bible didn’t do so to make themselves rich, or to appease some special interest group, or to make themselves look to be heroic. They were often ridiculed, stoned and killed for their writings. As a point in fact, we are currently celebrating Hanukkah, and the Maccabees are the heros, but when you read their story you find out that just about every single one of them was assassinated later. Not a very happy ending.

We need to stop looking for the Son of Man to come down with power and glory from the skies. It’ll happen when it happens. In the meantime, just look for the effect that God has on the physical world- that is what we can use to prove His existence when we are ministering to the world.

As for all of us, when we go through tsouris and feel that God is ignoring or forgetting about us, and we don’t see His presence in our lives, please remember that just because we don’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Is Your Head in the Sand?

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There’s the old wives tale that an ostrich is so dumb when it sees danger it sticks it’s head in the sand, figuring if it doesn’t see the danger, the danger isn’t there. And it is an old wives tale; ostriches live in Africa and where they live there isn’t a whole lot of soft sand.

How many of us have worked for someone, or some company, that decides when there is a problem to just ignore it and hope it will go away? Isn’t that what people do, in general?

When it comes to God, Yeshua being the Messiah, and the validity of the Bible, people of just about every religion have a different take. And then there are those that deny the very existence of God. Just start to mention Him and they stick their head in the sand: “Shields up, Mr. Scott!”

Their choice. And just like the ostrich, they can deny God’s existence, say that all life evolved from an amoeba by random chance mutations, and that aliens are really the one’s that are responsible for the “God” stories, but that won’t change the truth that God is real, He is the creator, and Yeshua is the Messiah He promised to send to us. And, worst of all, if you reject God, Yeshua and the truth about salvation, you will end up suffering through all eternity.

BTW..to all those that believe aliens are responsible for life on Earth, please answer this: who created the aliens?

God is real, and He is waiting for us to accept that fact. He has proven His existence, but it isn’t what would be called a “scientific” proof. That is something that is reproducible- if you can’t make it happen on demand, it can’t be absolutely proven, scientifically. The Bible tells us of all the miraculous things God has done, but it also says “Do not test the Lord, your God”, so to ask God to prove He exists will not get us anywhere. When asked for a sign, Yeshua called the people an “evil generation.” Were they really evil, just asking for a sign? I don’t think that’s what He meant: I think Yeshua was calling their lack of faith an evil thing, meaning not Godly. Their faithlessness was evil and their desire to see miracles, I think, would not have made any real difference. Those calling for a sign are the “poor soil” that may let the seed of God’s kingdom sprout, but it is too malnourished (spiritually) to keep the plant growing. With the very next “sign” they will follow someone else. The Bible also tells us that in the End Days there will be many signs and people who say they’re Yeshua, and they will be able to make miraculous things happen.

The people who call for a sign to prove that God is really God will end up being evil, for they will be fooled by the Enemy and they’ll end up taking the mark.

Faith is believing in things that can’t be proven. God does give us proof, though: the existence of everything you see, birth, death, the unbelievable diversity of life and the total balance of everything. He really has shown us, unquestionably, that when He says, “I am that I am”, that He is. It’s faith that lets us accept this proof, and lack of faith that ignores it.

What a pity! Those that lack faith will have all the proof they ever wanted, but it will come to them too late for them to do anything to reverse their position.

My father and mother both denied God’s existence, and especially Dad. He was a stubborn and faithless man, and when he couldn’t argue with me or deny God, just before he died, I prayed for him, and tried to intercede on his behalf. I don’t know if he heard me and was able to accept my prayers, and it is too late now to change anything. I can only hope I was successful. My sister says that she was with Mom and Mom did accept the Lord before she passed, so I hope to see her again.

How many of us have loved ones that just don’t want to accept God, or remain bigoted and steadfastly ignorant of the truth about Yeshua being the Messiah? How many of us have prayed until we sweat blood to have God intercede, miraculously, to bring these people into the Kingdom?

My two children have rejected me and that’s mainly because they were fed their mother’s hatefulness and spite their whole lives. Once they got their inheritance at 21 they both, in their own way and for their own reasons, just cut me out of their lives. And, just like their mother taught them to do, they made it all my fault. So, I pray for them every day. I pray for reconciliation, I pray they are protected, and I pray for their mother (not as often, I confess) because if she can be turned to God then she can help them turn to God.

Yet, although I pray in Yeshua’s name, and I remind God of Yeshua’s promise that His father will give us whatever we pray for, and I remind God that my prayer is in keeping with His will that all sinners be turned from their sin, I know God will answer my prayer and intercede in their lives but it is still up to Alexandra and Bryce to make their own choice. God can lead them to water (the water of everlasting life, that is) but they have to choose to drink. God will not force us to accept Him, and if he has plans for you but you refuse to be part of it, then He will simply find someone else.

Just as Mordecai said to Hadassah (Esther), if she doesn’t help then help will come from another source. God’s will will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven. When we accept that as fact, then we will be riding on that train, instead of being run over by it.

We cannot make someone love God, or accept Yeshua as their Messiah. We can only show them through our words and what we do that there is something more than just “human” about us. God wants His people, no matter what religion they were brought up with, to be separated from the world. That also means separated from the human-made religious tenets you may have grown up with. If you profess to worship God but obey a Rabbi, Priest, Minister or Pastor over the word of God that He gave us in the Torah,  you need to rethink your devotion. God tells us that He is no respecter of men (check it out in both Acts and Romans), so what makes you think He will respect the extra regulations and rules that men made over and above what God told us? Especially when these rules and regulations go directly against what God said we should do? Doesn’t God tell us in D’Varim (Deuteronomy), at least two times, not to add to or detract from any of the words in this book?

I wish there was some way to prove to those asking for proof that God exists and Yeshua is His Messiah. Evolution goes against God, and it has never been scientifically proven, but the world accepts it as fact. They have total faith in something that is a lie, but no faith in the ultimate truth of God. Oy! Shaul said he was willing to even give up his own salvation if it could save his Jewish brothers and sisters, and so would I. In a heartbeat! In a breath! In the wink of an eye! In a nanosecond, even! (OK, OK, Steve- we get it!) But I know that’s not how it works- we each are responsible for our own choices (the sins of the father will not pass on to the children, and the sins of the children will not pass to the father: Ezekiel.)

We each have to make our own choice, so when you pray for someone to accept God and Yeshua, pray for God to send them angels of mercy to help open their eyes and unplug their ears, and have hope in the fact that although God will never force them to accept Him, He is really, really good at convincing people.

Can You See the Wind?

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Have you ever felt that there is just so much going on right now, and none of it is going right, that you wonder if God took a vacation? The world is a cursed place, and I think, because often God will bless us with good times, we forget that. When the day is sunny, just the right temperature, and we are with loved ones enjoying ourselves, we forget about all the strife in the world,  war, diseases, bigotry, etc. All we are thinking about is how much fun we are having and how wonderful life is.

Then reality hits, and we think, “How can God allow this to happen to me?”

Sometimes it seems that the Almighty is mighty…far away!

Do you know that poetic story, the one about the man and God walking side-by-side on the beach? I think it is called, “Footprints in the Sand.” It tells of a man walking with God, seeing both sets of footprints in the sand, when suddenly as troubles come upon the man he sees only one set of footprints in the sand. Later, after the troubles are gone, he sees two sets of footprints, again. He asks God, ‘Where were you when I needed you? I only saw my footprints in the sand”, and God answered, lovingly, “My child, those were My footprints- during those times of trouble I was carrying you.”

We can’t see the wind, but we can feel it’s presence and see it’s effect. Sometimes the wind is so light you can barely feel it, and other times it seems to not be there at all; we don’t feel the slightest hint of a breeze. But the wind is still there. And other times the wind is so strong that we can’t stand in its presence. At the worst, the wind can be deadly.

Yet, it is always the same thing- it is air. It is all around us, always. Without the air, we die. And when the air is in motion, it is the wind, and we can then most acutely feel its presence.

That is how it is with God. He is always there, He is always surrounding us, and when He moves we can sense His presence.

God doesn’t need us to do anything for Him to move, and often He will show His presence in astounding ways without us doing anything. He will bless us when we don’t expect it, or He may allow us to fall under the cursed world in order to test us. He does what He wants to do, when He wants to do it, and if He doesn’t want to do something, who can make Him do it? No one. This is one of the truths about God that many people refuse to accept, which is a wedge between them and their salvation: God does what He wants to do and we can’t do anything about that.  We can’t make God do anything, but we can influence Him.

We can influence Him into action through faithful prayer. When we come under tsouris (problems) and feel that God must have abandoned us, we need to remember that the wind is never gone, even when we can’t feel it. It just isn’t moving. There are many factors that can affect the wind and cause it to stir, but there is only one thing that we need in order to cause God to move- faithful prayer. When people ask for a sign, or atheists and agnostics say they need to see proof of God’s existence, they just don’t understand about wind. When you move air, it causes wind, and the winds’ effects can be seen, proving that it is there. With God, faithful prayer is the fan that moves Him into action, and His actions are the proof that He exists. The reason these people don’t see proof of God is because they have no faith. They can have all the proof they will ever need, but they won’t do what is necessary. It is as the prophets have said: they have ears but cannot hear, and eyes but cannot see.

I loved the Three Stooges. I especially remember when Moe would poke Curly in the eyes and Curly would cry out,”Moe! Larry! I can’t see! I can’t see!” and when Moe and Larry asked what’s wrong, Curly smiled and said, “‘Cause my eyes are closed.” That’s when Moe would slap him across the head. Exactly what I think many people in the world need today- a good slap to the head while screaming in their ears, “WAKE UP!!!  You’re almost out of time and you’d better stop this foolishness.”

Did you know that when the Bible refers to foolishness it doesn’t mean making funny faces and performing silly antics? It refers to people who refuse to accept God’s existence and power. The Biblical definition of a  foolish person is one who rejects God.

We all suffer dry spells, we all go through our own “desert”, and sometimes we find ourselves back in the same desert over and over. Yet, even the most desolate desert has wind.

God is always here. I read once the ancient Rabbi’s said that it is impossible for God to go down to Earth because He is already there. He is everywhere, all the time, and the reason we don’t see Him is because we are too stubborn or too hardhearted to be able to see Him. Just like air, God is all around us, even when we don’t feel His presence.

If you want to know His presence, faithfully pray to Him. Fan the Lord with your faith, prod Him with your prayers, and watch Him move mountains for you.