It's Just Not For Everybody

I know everyone wants to believe God just loves everyone. That He is this big love being in the sky. However, the truth is much more complicated, and it should be, considering He is above and outside of all we can hope to comprehend.

He does a great job in dumbing down the complexities of the reality He created. He really does, but understanding it, like salvation, is a gift He alone gives.

Like any author, what He writes a character to be...they are. From the Father's perspective, the Author's perspective, there is no choice, no free-will. He chooses. He decides. He does it all.

He alone makes one character good or bad, and may, or may not have a redemption arc for either. He has a grand message of grace and forgiveness, but it not a message for everybody.

"What!? You are out of your mind!"

Do you read the scriptures at all? Putting aside all the passages, chapters and whole books that dance all over God's sovereignty, do you not see how He always speaks in a generally inclusive way while aiming His word specifically at His chosen?

When He spoke to the people of Israel as a whole, He speaks of the blessings to all of them. He tells them of grace and forgivness, love and mercy. Yet, judges the faithless with anger, wrath, and terrible judgement.

Not all Isreal is Isreal.

So, which is it?

"He is judging the disobedient!"

So, He is sovereign, isn't He the one creating the disobedient and faithful alike?

"?"

Yes, He is.

He created Satan. He created Judas. He created Essau. He created all who are going to be cast into the Lake Of Fire.

Yes, He did.

The world and it's created beings in no way threw off God's ability to control, any more that Harry Potter could throw off JK Rowling's control.

It's just not possible.

Yes, it is a disturbing thought...if you don't already know that God, The Father is good.

"How can he be good, if he allows such evil?"

He doesn't allow evil, He createf and controls evil. He created Satan writing in the story what He was going to do. Satan is a character, not some dark side of God. He is as controlled as any insect on the ground, or dust particle floating in the sunbeam. Everything in a written story, is created, and none of it is "real", except to the Author Himself.

"!?"

Look, this is the easiest way to understand a situation vastly above our ability to comprehend. The author scenario helps make sense of it. It does make sense...again, if you already KNOW the Author is good.

"HOW CAN HE BE GOOD!"

OK, was JK Rowling evil because she wrote a story where Harry Potter's parents were killed by an evil being she created? Was she evil because she had Harry raised by a family that despised and ill-treated him?

No

"But these are characters in a story! They are not REAL people!"

What if...Satan, and all of those going to be thrown into the Lake Of Fire are also...not real?

What is a real being? Is it sentience? I think there for I am? Only God is the I AM. He is the only one who makes anything real.

What if...that is in fact what salvation really is? Being changed, as a character in a story, into something more, something permanent. A character actually brought out of the story and set into a never ending story that is made to function perfectly?

"So your saying, that some characters are made to become real and some are temporary?"

I'm saying that is what scripture says.

Romans 9:22-23

[22] What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction?

[23] What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory--

WHO HE PREPARED...IN ADVANCE.

What if...it is true?

If that is so, then all your questions regarding evil, justice, and fairness, make more sense.

A child goes through horrific abuse. Why would God want it?

What if the horrible circumstances made the child into a solid man, or woman, of faith. A living being that because of the pain, now understands that without the difficulty, they would not see, or understand what they needed to, in order to become an eternal character, one that moves into the endless perfectly functioning story?

Doesn't sound as bad does it?

Compared to forever, 100 years is so tiny, so brief, that logically, it doesn't even exist. Seriously! That, is a fact.

Would you trade a beyond awesome forever for a super quick moment of being a rock star?

I wouldn't.

Matthew 16:24-26

[24] Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

[25] For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

[26] What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

None of God's children will.

John 10:27

[27] My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

[28] I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

[29] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.

When God is speaking to His chosen, He talks of the grace and mercy. When He speaks to the non-chosen, well, it's different.

Look, consider the difference between how God relates to David and King Saul. What did Saul really do wrong? He didn't kill a man he was told to kill, and didn't kill all the animals he was told to. Saul's response, "I didn't kill the animals so we could sacrifice them to God...which is then killing them...eventually."

David, a man after God's heart, commited adultery with the wife of one of his soldiers, and then had him killed to cover it up. David, like Saul rebelled against God's command...though shall not commit adultery and thou shall not murder.

Both disobeyed, although David's sin was way more egregious, he was considered closer to God. He was spoken to by God much differently. He was treated with greater mercy and grace than Saul. Why?

Romans 9:15-16

[15] For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 

[16] It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.

There are God's children, His chosen, His sheep, and there those who are not...the weeds.

Matthew 13:24-30

[24] Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

[25] But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.

[26] When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

[27] "The owner's servants came to him and said, `Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'

[28] "`An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, `Do you want us to go and pull them up?'

[29] "`No,' he answered, `because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.

[30] Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'"

Yes, since few are chosen, most people in this world are purposely made to be temporary characters. Characters, who's sole purpose is to make the chosen grow. They are tools in the Master Artists hands to mold and shape the children into something more, something the Artist is very pleased with.

We are His workmanship...not ours.

Here is the rub. Since we can't tell easily who is a weed and who is wheat, we are stuck in a place where we have to treat and address each person as if they "might" be...because we don't know.

"God loves you!" We say to everyone.

Maybe...if they are chosen. If they are made to be permanent. If they are sheep who will hear His voice. If they have always been a character that would become a real boy.

If not? They are just a red shirt character. A character, that their only purpose is to add depth to the "real" characters, the one each story is focused on. The one who is made, shaped, and disciplined to become more.

Hebrews 6:7

[7] Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

For those who are not children...

Hebrews 6:8

[8] If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Yes, a simple way to tell if you are not meant to be real is that you get away with evil. David didn't. Technically King Saul didnt either, and though God used Saul to torment him and shape him, David was the focus. We don't know if Saul was "saved" or made to become more. On the surface, it doesn't look like it, because he was rather villain-like in the story. Yet so was the soon-to-be apostle, Saul, until he got knocked off his horse...

"So how do I know if I am "real" or temporary?"

That would be something only the Author can confirm to you. If you are a jerk, rude, mean, or getting away with evil without any consequences, it is likely you are temporary. However, if you are "decent", yet have no connection to the Author, no interest in Him at all, it is also likely. Unless all that changes because of an interaction with God.

My big concern isn't for those obviously lost. Those are easy to tell considering their open rejection of Jesus Christ. My biggest concern for many years has been those who think they are fine but are not children.

Those who think by their status, or work, in ministry or a church they will be accepted. These are not children, but believe they are. Goats, weeds, who by bad teaching trust themselves, or some shiny pastor or priest, and never truly know and trust Jesus Christ.

Sadly, there are a lot of them.

Still, this is God's story. If He wanted them, He would make them different. He can reach anyone He wants to. No one is able to stop Him...no one.

I just have a heart for them. Most of what I say, and write is focused in this direction. Those with no church background would find my stuff stupid or nonsensical. Yes, unfortunately most "church" people do as well.

"My sheep will hear my voice"

It isn't my job to convince, sway or persuade. Although I try to, the end result is always up to God. My job is to be a witness, to tell what I know, to point to Jesus Christ. The rest is up to Him.

OK, all of it is up to Him, even any work I do.

The truth of it is, knowing you are His, knowing you are chosen, frees you up completely. I have no fear of failure, because I know it was never up to me. I have no resentment or regrets. I don't hate or wish horrible things on those who God uses to hurt me. Oh, I don't want to invite them over for dinner, but if they needed help, I wouldn't hesitate.

I know. I know God is making me. I know all of my pain and sorrow are being used to shape me just as much as my happiness is. I am His work.

And He always completes it.

Now, the question is...do you know if you are permanent?

To find out, all you need to do is ask the Author.

If you do, if this is a concern to you, chances are good that you might very well be...His child.

If so, His message is tailored just for you.