Dogs & Doghouses

I fully believe anybody in their right mind can look out their window and declare, "There is a God." To note the diversity and beauty (the rich blue of the sky or the jagged and speckled orange of a lobster's tail, for example) of creation and ascribe it to an accidental event is foolish. The Bible tells us that fools (and only fools) tell their hearts there is no God. Psalms 14 and 53 bear this out. The only hurdle lies in the ability to see beyond the created and know there is a creator. This too is offered to all with eyes to see and, again, I look to the Bible as verification of this, "The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all…" (Titus 2:11) And noticing the greatness of creation, and seeing our own tiny part in it, how great a God that must be?

I don't know how, but I trust that those who truly seek for God shall find Him and they will discover the salvation He offers. I don't think anyone will have an excuse that they did not know.

And we are given a choice in the matter - as God gives us life, it is ours to live. Free, moral will is what separates us from the animals. Else we would be nothing more than a separate herd from all others, going north and south with the seasons. We were given choice both for and because of the greatness of God. Ask yourself, where does the greater glory for God reside; from some robotic creation that He would entirely control - raising voices of praise as though turning the volume up on a radio, or from masses of people who, of their own volition, declare their maker's praise, in the midst of millions more who reject Him?

Herein resides the one great immutable law that all, believers and unbelievers alike must obey - this is the law of the harvest. One reaps what one sews. Plant onions you will not have garlic. Plant ferns and you will not have daisies. Plant nothing, and that's what you get.

It's a small glance around our lives to notice the suffering and wickedness of the world. People do wickedly, that’s what we plant, because we are sinful. Read the headlines. In Africa, tyrants steal the food and shoot at the soldiers of other tyrants while their subjects hack one another to pieces with machetes. Widows and orphans die in gun battles. Down the street from where I live children take drugs, fill their minds with hopeless songs and perform hateful acts upon others. Terrorists fly airplanes into buildings. So not only do we reap what we sew, but in many cases, we reap what others sew as well. Sin and death are terrible things to behold. These things don't happen because creation is Godless, but it is because people, in their choices, make Godless decisions. It's good that we see these terrible things, and cry out to God for help. Because there is a God, and because we are far less than He is, failing in our own right and knowing with intimate detail the calamities that befall each life, we need to cry out to Him.

Continuing in Titus, it's that vision of God's grace, bringing salvation, that calls us to, "…live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world:" come what may (Titus 2:12). The great creator God does not leave us stranded. There is hope. We know there is God. We know we need saving and we know the rest of the world needs saving.

And then there is hell. Remember what I said about all people being able to see the grace of God and that those who seek for Him shall find Him (as in Luke 11:9). If you are truly looking for the grace of God you will find it - no matter who or where you are. In many ways this is a mystery to me. But I know for a fact that using their God-given choice, people can go the other way. They can try, sometimes for all their lives on this earth, to be separate from God. In its most basic sense hell is God giving people what they have asked for all along, complete separation from Him. And yes, complete separation from God is going to be terribly painful.

I have no doubt in this.