God's Glory

"So we have no reason to despair. Despite the fact that our outer humanity is falling apart and decaying, our inner humanity is breathing in new life every day. You see, the short-lived pains of this life are creating for us an eternal glory that does not compare to anything we know here. So we do not set our sights on the things we can see with our eyes. All of that is fleeting; it will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on the things we cannot see, which live on and on."

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 in the Voice Bible Version

[This is the 9th and last lesson of this series]

Image Credit: idisciple.org

We will try to end this mini series within a series on a high note, and by saying that there is no other way we can find real peace, real hope and real joy other than with God. Apart from God, it is just not possible, especially not in a broken and fallen world.

Imagine

The singer John Lennon, who once declared he was more famous than Jesus, sang his famous song entitled Imagine and tried to imagine that he can have real peace. This might be more Yoko Ono talking than Lennon though.

[Ironically Lennon was killed by someone who was seeking glory for himself, you might say his (the killer's) personal higher purpose]

If there is no God, if there is no real purpose to life (even if we try to look for a higher purpose aside from looking for why we are here on earth and by looking for who put us here) then everything is fleeting.

Drop In A Bucket

If there is no God, we are all no more than a quick blimp on a radar screen, or a speck of dust, or a grain of sand on the seashore. Nothing we do will matter or make a difference. We are merely a predator in an ecosystem, that by sheer chance evolved, and will continue to evolve for billions of years while we will be forgotten soon enough, as we will not even walk this earth for 100 earth years -- a single raindrop on the surface of a vast ocean.

Unique

We are the only species on earth that ponders our past, our present and our future, more so the hundreds, thousands and millions of years in the future. Yet at the same time we embrace YOLO living and we treat other people (including unborn humans) lower than we treat pets, animals (including unborn animals) and trees.

[We aren't political, far from it but everything else on this world is, so we cannot escape this notion, even as being political is not intended. People made Christ political and there is no escaping that.]

Jesus Christ is the most influential and the most famous person on earth. (No, John Lennon wasn't as famous as Jesus, not even close). Everyone is battling for a distant 2nd, 3rd or a spot on the top 100 all time list. Annually, we make a list of the most influential people on earth, really these are merely for the top honorable mentions and all will drop out of this list after their lifetime. Such is the fickle memory of humanity, who regard themselves so highly but consider themselves among the beasts of this planet sharing the DNA of primates, yet striving daily to be gods and masters of their fate.

Humankind still divides time into B.C. or A.D. based on this person named Jesus of Nazareth. Although of course, people who wanted more politically correct terms have renamed these B.C.E. and C.E., taking Christ out but still basing the human calendar on Him.

Life Isn't Easy

Life is hard, especially:
- if we act and think like we are mere primates who can drive cars, play sports, compose songs, write novels, use the internet and social media;
- if we think we are not special, but act like we are, and
- if we constantly have to find the next big in thing to advocate for; when at the same time we shout we are here only by pure chance and we believe we have no real reason to be here, other than to be fertilizers after we die, and we don't even accomplish that because after we die, we slowly decay in expensively sealed caskets that are ridiculously priced so that the price of one can feed a normal family for anywhere from 10 up to 15 years. Yes, a huge majority of the world's population live on one dollar a day.

Hope

Followers of Christ believe in a higher power and a higher purpose and a reason to live. Hence there is hope, and peace and joy even in a world that have none of these and is full of people with a god complex but don't believe there is a God -- thinking we are special but really we aren't, wait we are, no scratch that we aren't, but we are, we believe so without saying so.

Image Credit: wiirocku.tumblr.com

Followers of Christ believe in God, they are special only because they were created purposedly by God (and for a purpose). Christians believe in an eternal glory. God's Spirit is the evidence.