Freed by time from the tribulation of the world, and now watching from a distance as the others flounder, it has become crystal clear one cannot understand Life, the Truth of Life, unless one has received the Gospel of Jesus. . .
Attempting to live without having received the Gospel of Jesus leads to frustration, disappointment, anger, madness, depression, etc. and causes one to seek escape in the ultimately unhealthy pursuits of intoxicants (chemical, psychological and biological).
It is true those favored by Chance or Hell can be distracted by delicious living, and never sink into the mire of misery, but. . .at the instant of death they receive the unimaginable shock of the rich man described in Luke 16. Yet this is a small, small number of people. The overwhelming majority, the nameless, faceless mass, live disordered unfulfilled lives of varying degrees of despair.
Jesus is the Source of Life, the Code to Life, what the great disciple John termed The Word Made Flesh. . .
If this is True, as I believe it to be, then it is understandable why life is misery. If one does not have the Gospel, if one does not have the Code to Life, if one is cut off from The Word Made Flesh, than one can only live a contrary existence: one lives a life it created, not the Life it was created for.
But there are those who have received the Gospel who also live a contrary, miserable existence. How is this explained?
Original sin.
Adam and Eve were told how to live, had the Code of Life, but chose their own way.
All who came after repeat the sin.
If one were to ask, how/why were Adam and Eve allowed to chose their own way (and all the other related questions) and then be punished for it, it can only be said these answers are unknown, and ask another question: what does it matter? It is what it is, for whatever reason, so we must accept it.
The Word Became Flesh. The Source of Life became our flesh, and personally showed us how to live: by obeying the Creator's will, and not, as Adam and Eve and all the rest of us, our own will (and whether or not we even have our own will is debatable, but we live as if we do).
The world one sees is the result of people living as they want to live.
Jesus lived as the Creator wanted Him to live, as a servant. Poor. Persecuted.
But He lived a life that had meaning.
He was not depressed.
And The Word Made Flesh told those that would follow Him, follow His pattern of living, they too would have tribulation, but to *be of good cheer,* as He had overcome the world.
I see now, as life passes me by, as the world has milked what it can from me, which I allowed by choosing what I believed to be *my will,* I see now the only path of peace, the only path free from the mental agitation of the world, is to live after the fashion of Christ, in complete opposition to the way of the world.
How did Christ live?
In opposition to His government.
In opposition to His church.
In opposition to His *family.*
In opposition to wealth.
In opposition to Satan.
He did not seek a good job, a nice house, a trophy wife.
(In fact, there is no evidence Jesus ever *worked.* There is one reference to someone asking if Jesus was the carpenter, or the carpenter's son. Jesus never told any work anecdotes, and had He indeed labored for years as a carpenter as some Christians believe, it seems likely relics would have survived, no? Or, even more likely, been fabricated. "That Messiah fellow they hung on a cross made this chair, how much will you give me for it?" No evidence Jesus ever *worked* in the fashion known and experienced by the nameless, faceless mass).
Jesus did not seek the world's material treasure.
Jesus sought the Treasure of Heaven, His Father's approval.
One wonders if there are any on Earth of whom Jesus will say: well done, thou good and faithful servant. . .
The Western world certainly follows an anti-Christ pattern, almost from birth:
Do good in school so you can procure a high-paying job and accumulate material that you want protected from others. . .
A selfish life. . .
The sheeple excuse themselves: they earned their material, so they are entitled to it, deserve it. They do not acknowledge their material chain is made of links of exploitation, whether of raw material belonging to others or the labor of others. If a sheeple makes a million dollars a year and buys a thousand dollar pair of sneakers stitched by slave labor, the sheeple says, I earned my salary, and bought the shoes, and has no guilt. He may well go to a church on Sunday and take communion, but. . .is Jesus with him?
It’s easier to be in the world’s flock of sheep than Jesus' flock. There is more company in the world. More ‘friends.’ They will also live selfishly, and confirm that the anti-Christ lifestyle is *normal.*
It is not easy to follow Christ. It is not a matter of saying a sentence or two from Romans 10 every Sunday. Jesus said come, follow Me. He didn’t say stay where you are and say nice things about Me. He said live like He lived. Live contrary to family, church, government. Most people don’t have the stomach for that. I didn't. I didn't when it mattered.
To live the way the world lives is to *take thought for the morrow.* The course we are set on almost from birth, school, job, material motivation, is based on selfish thought for the morrow. There is no genuine concern for others. If there were, there would be no sanctioned violence. Donating a blanket to a flood victim is not concern for others if you believe there is a human enemy, it is a vanity.
Jesus said *take no thought for the morrow.* I don't know any self-proclaimed Christians who lives this way. I couldn't.
We settle for the comfortable discomfort of the world, we will self-medicate our fear and depression. The devil you know is better than the Christ you don’t know. And this is how most self-proclaimed Christians live.
Christianity appears in America. The most visible of it honors Jesus with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. They are as worldly as the religious authority of Jesus' day, and sacrifice Jesus for the good of the nation, also. With their mad doctrines they present another Jesus to the infidels, which the infidels reject, and, worse, which inhibits any curiosity into the True Jesus. Thus, the visible church is the servant of Satan, and Jesus would say to the visible church in America: get thee behind Me, Satan.
That they present an unrepentant reprobate as a national savior exposes their shameless wickedness.
But, as Jesus said of the visible church of His day, let them alone. If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Most of life wasted, the gospel neglected. The world overcomes us. But be of good cheer, Jesus has overcome the world.
For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
To be the 100th sheep! Nothing else matters!
It sometimes seems we are the 100th sheep daily, yet Jesus never tires of leading us back into the fold. . .
