Love Robot

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” -J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

It has been named "The Problem of Evil."  This is one of the atheist's most common daggers aimed at the heart of Christianity.  If God is truly good and moral, they claim, then He would not have created a universe in which the possibility for evil exists.  This seems like a reasonable claim—certainly, God has the ability to create a universe where there is no possibility of evil, so why didn't He?

Despite its apparent substance, however, this is actually one of the less complex atheist challenges, but for some reason it has persisted, likely due to the popularity of arguments made by people like Christopher Hitchens.  Hitchens loved to use this argument against Christianity because of its capacity for emotional appeal and because there is really no counter-argument which can similarly seem to disprove atheism.  In spite of its popularity, it is easily dealt away with by one of the basic concepts of Christianity: Free Will.

It is the Christian's position that the very existence of free will must necessarily allow for the possibility of evil.  And this is actually quite an excellent explanation.  But the atheist's next question should be, "Why is free will a necessity?"  This is a question which Christians often gloss over, not out of neglect to the subject, but primarily because they are too busy explaining the idea of free will and answering the original question of the Problem of Evil.

Love & Other Options

The idea of Love and its implications is often thrown out as a reason for Free Will, but it is hardly ever fleshed out in terms that seem adequate.  The purpose of this post is to explore whether or not Free Will is actually necessary in order for Love to exist.  Christians claim that without the possibility of disobedience, Love is not possible.  But is this true?

For argument's sake, let's assume it is not.  Let's imagine a world in which humans simply acted out of an irresistible compulsion toward a certain action.  Maybe they have even been imbued with some sense of "wanting" to take that particular course of action.  But overall, they have no real control over what they are doing.  Essentially, these people are "robots," for lack of a better term.  They follow their programming to the letter, without really having a choice in the matter.

Can these people really love?  What even is Love, to begin with?  First of all, love is a preference.  This does not just signify that someone happens to like something a little more than something else.  It means that they choose to act in the interest of one thing at the cost of everything else.  In this sense, these "robot" people can never really love.  Love requires acting of one's own volition in the the interest of something, even if that thing is the self.  Without Free Will there is no choice, without the choice there is no Love.  And God is a God who would only invoke a universe where He could love and be loved by His creation, because "God is love." (1 John 4:8)

Alternative Appeal

There is a corollary to this argument which is hardly ever put forth, but which I believe has a huge impact on the Christian defense against the atheist claim of the Problem of Evil.  This is the fact that in order for Love to exist, the other options available to the creatures must be somewhat similar to each other.  If there are two choices, but one is made a thousand times more attractive than the other, the result is much the same as the robots in the previous section.  A man who elects to spend time with a co-worker instead of being locked in a cage with a wild boar hardly shows any affection for the co-worker simply because of his decision.  It is only when the relative appeals of both choices are on the same "order of magnitude" (to use a math term in the absence of better terminology) that the love of one person or thing for another can be fully revealed.

This fact is why I consider the idea that God created the universe at all to be a risky endeavor.  But Love is willing to take risks, so here we are.  Still, the fact remains that in the end, there was always a chance, and not an insubstantial chance, that somewhere along the line someone would make a choice that contradicted God's Will for them.  And you probably know that it only took until the third chapter of Genesis for Adam and Eve to drop the ball.

Can you blame them?  I mean, "the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom."  (Genesis 3:6)  There was definitely an up-side to sinning.  But the fact of the matter is, God had told them explicitly not to eat the food.  Therefore, a decision had to be made, and the humans had a chance to show unequivocally that they loved God.  As we know, they chose to act on other impulses and misinformation, and death entered the world.  The wages of sin is always death. (Romans 6:23)

The Fix

It is precisely because of our capacity to love, borne out by God's decision to grant us Free Will, that we have such a pronounced capacity for evil.  As I hope to show in a future post, Evil is corrupted Good, nothing more.  The pain and suffering which occur in this universe are either artifacts or direct results of humanity's sin.  God does not bring suffering on people unwarranted; Satan and those who follow him are to blame for that.

It is no wonder that God should wish to rid the world of evil.  In order to help His creation escape the death due them, He devised a plan whereby they would be resurrected into a new creation which lacks the corruption of this present life.  However, the ability to achieve this new creation is only available to those who choose to love God in this life.  As fallen humans, we lack the wisdom to always act out of this Love to God, but thanks to Him and the Spirit He is willing to give us, we are able to cultivate this wisdom even in our present lives.  "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:13)

God has given us Free Will.  He has also shown us His Will.  And life has provided us with many alternatives to it, each seeming to be almost as appealing, depending on our circumstances and information.  It is because of this that there is such a strong potential for evil to happen in this world.  However, it is also precisely because of these facts that we are able to love Him and each other.  Without the choice, there can be no Love.  Thankfully, He chose to love us, too.

I leave you today with perhaps my favorite passage in the entire Bible.  John does an excellent job of expressing just what the implications of God's Love are.

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 

"Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him." -1 John 3:1-6

The YMCA Way: Body

When I was younger, I remember going to the YMCA in my home town and seeing their logo which read: "Spirit, Mind, Body."  During this brief series, I am going to look at these three different aspects of the human soul and how they relate to the Holy Trinity.  In essence, I am taking a look at how the Trinity plays into our conception of the Imago Dei, that is, the idea that we are made in the likeness (or the "image") of God.  The posts in this series are not necessarily Christian doctrine, but I do feel like they are helpful, both to Christians who are considering the implications of being children of God and to non-Christians who are wondering how the Trinity works and what it means to be "created in God's image."

"Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs." -Aldous Huxley

This week marks the conclusion of my series on the interesting connections between the persons of the Holy Trinity and the elements which comprise individual humans: body, mind, and heart.  It is my belief that if we as humans are created in God's image (as Christian doctrine asserts), then the many aspects of His personality should be reflected in humanity, even if only in small ways.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have entertained the idea that humans, like God, are possessed of a sort of trinitarian nature, which in many ways behaves like the three aspects of the Holy Trinity.  We have hearts (figurative, not literal) which roughly correspond to the person of the Holy Spirit.  This provides us with emotions and desires, those irrational impulses that drive us toward empathy and compassion, but also to jealousy and rage.  Similarly, our minds tend to more accurately parallel God the Father.  My mind works through logic and "wants" which can lead me toward or away from wisdom, depending on the quality of information presented to me.

Last but not Least

You have probably realized by now that the final components of each trinity are the human body and Jesus Christ.  This is likely the most obvious of the three comparisons, and I would have written this post first, except that I decided to stick to the order in which they appear in the YMCA motto.

Jesus is not the only member of the Holy Trinity to utilize a physical body in scripture.  In the Garden of Eden, God traverses the landscape in much the same way as His creations (Genesis 3:8).  He also appears to "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel" after the confirmation of the Covenant (Exodus 24:9-11).  While the Holy Spirit is never explicitly seen anthropomorphically, He shows up every now and then as fire (e.g. Acts 2:3), clouds (Numbers 11:25) and other physical phenomena.

That being said, Jesus is still the best comparison in the Holy Trinity for the human body.  He comes into the world in the same way as other humans, grows up (i.e. experiences the effects of time), suffers, and eventually dies.  None of these activities are exhibited in the other members of the Trinity, at least in the Bible.  Therefore, this is a reasonable comparison.

"Flesh"

Certain terms in the Bible are troublesome to explain, and have been known to cause some confusion over the years.  One such example of this confusion has arisen from the term "flesh" as it is used in the New Testament, especially pertaining to the letters of Paul.  Paul often talks about the flesh in negative terms, such as in his message in Galatians 5: "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." (5:24)  In fact, Galatians 5 and 6 are full of such language, condemning the flesh and declaring its motives as being contrary to that of the Spirit.

The wording of these sections of scripture has led some to believe that our physical bodies are completely corrupt.  It is an understandable misinterpretation, but it is all the more dangerous because of this.  This line of thought has actually been around for centuries.  In fact, a group called the gnostics produced a very similar teaching not long after Jesus died.  The problem with this doctrine, which has since been deemed heresy, is that it leads to problems in the understanding of the person of Jesus Christ and His existence here on earth.  For if the physical world has been completely and irrevocably tainted by the Fall, then surely God could not become a man in the literal sense.  His perfection could not be fused with the implicit sinfulness of the physical world.  This is what the gnostics claimed.

For several reasons, these teachings have been judged inaccurate.  I do not have time to explore all this theology in detail in this post, but I will hit a couple of the simpler points.  First, if Jesus was not completely human, then He could not in a literal sense die, and therefore His "death" would mean nothing for the forgiveness of sins.  Also, there are plenty of passages in scripture which deal with the reality of Jesus' earthly body.  It is clear that Jesus was completely human.  Therefore, the physical world is not completely evil.  I believe it is more correct to say that the concept of "flesh" in these letters of Paul refers more precisely to the corrupted, sinful nature possessed by each of us.  This is the nature which needs to be crucified—not the physical world as a whole, but corrupt parts of it.

Remade

The last topic I wanted to discuss today is the difference between the human body and the other two components of our souls.  Unlike the mind and the heart, the body interacts with our physical surroundings, and it can also affect those surroundings.  It is the medium through which we view the world and through which the world views us.  And much like the desires of the heart and the wants of the mind, the body has appetites.  These are typically cravings driven originally by necessity.

However, appetites have a way of changing depending on our consumption.  As we consume more and more of one thing, we begin to have a more robust appetite for that item, and depending on the severity of the appetite, it can easily develop into an addiction.  At any rate, we are all prone to creating and sustaining appetites which we were never meant to have.  This is often caused by the broken world around us and our broken views of it.

Nevertheless, God has not given up on our bodies.  Rather, He has decided to give us new ones in the End.  Indeed, it seems that a whole new Creation will come forth, separate from sin and blemish.  This is the exciting news that John wrote down in Revelation 21.  "Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth,' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." (21:1)  This new body is called the "resurrection body," and not a lot is known about it.  Paul does describe these new bodies as being "imperishable" (1 Cor. 15:42).  It seems that when sin has been eradicated, death will leave with it.  This makes perfect sense in relationship to the other teachings of the New Testament.

One thing is clear, however.  The physical world does not cease to exist at the End.  Instead, it is replaced with a new sort of physicality: one which is not tarnished by sin.  Jesus Himself, after rising from the dead still had a physical body (John 20:24-29).  And, as many people have pointed out over the years, His post-resurrection body still had the scars from His life on earth.  I am very excited to see what the New Creation has in store for us.

In the mean time, suffice it to say that bodies are important.  They allow us to experience God's creation in a very real and vicarious way.  But our sinful physical appetites, just like all sin, must be done away with so that we can inherit the new bodies God has prepared for us.  I leave you this week with Paul's statement to Timothy, which sums up some of the more straight-forward theology on Jesus Christ.

"Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: 

He appeared in the flesh,
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory." -1 Timothy 3:16

The YMCA Way: Mind

When I was younger, I remember going to the YMCA in my home town and seeing their logo which read: "Spirit, Mind, Body."  During this brief series, I am going to look at these three different aspects of the human soul and how they relate to the Holy Trinity.  In essence, I am taking a look at how the Trinity plays into our conception of the Imago Dei, that is, the idea that we are made in the likeness (or the "image") of God.  The posts in this series are not necessarily Christian doctrine, but I do feel like they are helpful, both to Christians who are considering the implications of being children of God and to non-Christians who are wondering how the Trinity works and what it means to be "created in God's image."

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

We live in an age of intellectualism.  An immense amount of money is spent every year in people's pursuit of higher education, and we the most learned among us are generally considered to be the most respectable.  Nothing says more about a man than the number of letters following his name, and the success of our nations is commonly measured by standardized testing and scholastic performance.

While I do not think that our fascination with intellect is always a positive influence, it does prove that there is something worthwhile to a person's mind.  As I am discussing in this series, the human soul is comprised of three main parts: the body, the mind, and the heart, and each of the three is equally important to gaining a proper outlook on life and an appropriate image of one's fellow man.  Each of us must balance these three components with a certain amount of skill, nourishing each part while remembering not to neglect the others.

Personally, my mind tends to get most of my attention.  My friends know that I spend a substantial amount of my time reading, studying, and thinking, in the pursuit of a more robust mind.  In fact, it could be said that there have been seasons of my life where I have focused on developing my mind even to the point that it was detrimental to my body and my heart.  That being said, I have since learned to better balance these three parts of my soul, though I still tend to attend to my mind more heavily than the others.

Mind Your Terms

Before I delve too deeply into this topic, I would like to take a moment to clarify what exactly I mean by a person's "mind."  Last week, I discussed a person's heart, by which I meant the part of their soul which influences their decisions through mainly emotional means.  Emotion is a force which compels us to act even when faced with a lack of evidence.  It is a conviction which comes from deep within a person's heart, but not always for apparent reasons.  Despite being somewhat nebulous, a person's heart still holds quite a lot of influence over them, and this is not necessarily a bad thing.

The mind, on the other hand, is the component of a person's soul which compels him or her to act based on thinking that is more rational or logical.  I do not mean that the influences of the mind are always correct, but they are always based on what is understood to be factual in a given circumstance.  The mind looks for numbers and patterns, it craves order and hierarchy.  All of these terms have developed a positive connotation in recent years, though there is nothing inherently "good" about patterns and order.  This is mostly an artifact of the great importance which is placed upon the mind by modern culture.

Using the Right Tools

While the mind is a great thing, and it certainly helps in making decisions, to neglect the other parts of his soul can cause some serious problems for a given person.  My mind works great in many circumstances, but there are often many situations in life where the evidence is either missing or misleading.  In these cases, relying solely on my head can end in a poor decision or a failure to decide at all.  In both of these cases, it would be best to utilize one or more of the other tools at your disposal (heart, body, advice from others, etc.).

In the best possible case, all three components of your soul would be giving you the same advice, but since we exist as imperfect beings, they are often at odds with each other or are silent on a given issue.  When this is the case, it can be very difficult to make a decision.  But by comparing the options each part of your soul is suggesting and utilizing scripture and the wisdom of those around you, the correct action or answer will normally present itself.  Each part of your soul is compelled toward certain ends: your heart has desires, your body has appetites, and your mind has wants.  When all three of these are in agreement, decisions seem like the simplest thing in the world.  At other times however, we must use the tools available to us to determine the best possible solution.  Do not force your head to solve problems for which it is not equipped.  In doing so, many poor political and societal decision have been made over the past few decades.

The Father

With respect to the Holy Trinity, the revelation of God most consistent with the idea of the human mind is God the Father.  Certainly, describing the Father in terms of only the human mind limits Him somewhat (so this is not a perfect analogy), but it does seem that He possesses many of the qualities which I find consistent with the human mind.  First, the Father represents Wisdom.  God is seen as all-knowing and perfectly wise, and much time is spent to praising Him for these qualities.

"Who can fathom the mind of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?" -Isaiah 40:13-14

Paul would later repeat some of this passage in the Doxology at the end of Romans 11.  What is clear is that God the Father is ultimately wise, and He is also capable of distributing wisdom.  Perhaps the most obvious example of this is King Solomon, who pleased God by asking for wisdom when he took Israel's throne at a very young age (I Kings 3:1-15).  One of the most common themes of the book of Proverbs, of which Solomon wrote a significant amount, is the wisdom that comes from the Father.  "For the Lord gives wisdom;/ from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." (Proverbs 2:6)

Another aspect of the Father which likens Him to the human mind is His Plan.  Planning is certainly an activity of the mind, and of the three parts of the Trinity, the Father seems to be the one most concerned with the specifics of His Plan for the world.  It even appears that there are some parts of the plan about which Jesus Himself is unaware, such as the timing of the end of the world (Matt. 24:36) and whether or not the cross was absolutely necessary (Matt. 26:39,42).  The Father is concerned with specifics, ensuring the ultimate outcome of His Plan.

Finally, God the Father loves to use logic.  Much of the book of Leviticus reads like a science lab manual, training the Israelites in scientific thinking and deductive reasoning.  The Father does not back away from the challenge laid forth by the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, showing them by His power that He is the true God.  "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." (1 Kings 18:21)  The Father even calls on those who worship Him to use their own logic.  "'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.'" (Malachi 3:10)

Balance

We are intellectual creatures.  We are constantly learning, whether through traditional means or simply by examining the world around us.  Behind all of this is the image of God which was imprinted on our souls at the beginning of humanity.  But just like the other constituents of humanity, our minds have been stained by the fall, an event prompted in part by confusion in the minds of Adam and Eve.  We also have minds that are sometimes befuddled by the empty promises of this world.  Thank God that there is always hope, for He is willing to give us the wisdom we need to combat this confusion if we would but ask (James 1:5).

We must be cautious not to allow our minds to dominate the other two components of our souls.  You are told to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)  All of the components are important.  As twenty-first century Christians, we must ground our faith in God in a strong intellectual foundation.  But we must also remain cognizant of our hearts and bodies in the pursuit of becoming more like God.

I conclude this week with a passage from Paul, discussing the wisdom which comes from God through belief in Jesus Christ.

"The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.  The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, 'Who has known the mind of the Lord/ so as to instruct him?'  But we have the mind of Christ." -1 Corinthians 2:14-16

The YMCA Way: Spirit

When I was younger, I remember going to the YMCA in my home town and seeing their logo which read: "Spirit, Mind, Body."  During this brief series, I am going to look at these three different aspects of the human soul and how they relate to the Holy Trinity.  In essence, I am taking a look at how the Trinity plays into our conception of the Imago Dei, that is, the idea that we are made in the likeness (or the "image") of God.  The posts in this series are not necessarily Christian doctrine, but I do feel like they are helpful, both to Christians who are considering the implications of being children of God and to non-Christians who are wondering how the Trinity works and what it means to be "created in God's image."

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.” -Blaise Pascal

What does it mean to say that someone has a "spirit"?  What images does this simple word conjure in our imaginations?  These questions are not easy to answer, and indeed many people's answers vary widely from that of their neighbor.  In fact, the modern world seems content not to entertain the idea of a spirit at all.  This is partly because a person's heart (I will use the terms heart and spirit interchangeably) is perhaps the least rational aspect to him or her.  When science could not account for all of the heart's importunate demands, it chose to relegate this complex component of the human soul to the regime of psychological oddity.  In essence, the human spirit has been declared a cerebral phantasm, and therefore even to entertain the idea of its existence is considered foolhardy by many in the scientific community today.

Yet people continue to act through the motivation of the heart, whether or not science can account for it.  In fact, this is partly the reason why the social sciences seem at times to be so nebulous and difficult to grasp—humans are impelled by forces which are not always rational and straightforward.  And this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Uniquely Human

In general, the human spirit is one of the things that makes life so enjoyable for us.  In his book
Thumbs, Toes, and Tears, author Chip Walter points out six different traits that seem to set humans apart from other species: "our big toe, our opposable thumb, our oddly shaped pharynx, and our ability to laugh, kiss, and cry." (quote from Goodreads)  The first three are quite obviously physiological phenomena (stay tuned for the "Body" post in this series), but the rest of the six traits all deal with emotion on one level or another.

Granted, an evolutionist like Walter is likely to have his own explanations for why these traits exist, but every evolutionist explanation I have come across seems to fall flat.  Simply saying that these emotions are psychochemical responses programmed into our DNA to facilitate the survival of some ancient ancestor denigrates the very idea of emotions.  Sure, hormones and chemicals may be involved in the physiological responses accompanying these emotions.  But the emotions themselves always feel like they stem from somewhere much deeper and more sacred.

I believe the human heart is one of the greatest gifts we have.  Just imagine a world where you had no preferences, no aspirations, no fears, and no sense of humor.  That sounds like a very dull universe to me!  Instead, we need to embrace our personalities and desires, because they form an integral part of who we are.

Reasonably Irrational

By now, you are probably wondering, "Does he really mean for us to just follow the whims of our desires?"  Not at all!  As you will see in the coming weeks, being human means striving to balance the many impulses thrown at us from all three parts of our selves.  Each component to the human soul holds some sway over our decisions, and the three must be weighed together (along with other influences) to ensure the best possible choice is made.  Similarly, all three components are in some way tainted by the Fall, so they should each be viewed both critically and fairly.

The good news for Christians is that God Himself is able to see and influence our hearts. "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps." (Proverbs 16:1)  A person's spirit is integral in their decision-making, but God should be a part of the process as well.  Also comforting is the idea that a person's heart matters more to God than their outward appearance.  Samuel found this out while searching for the man who would be the future king of Israel.  "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'" (1 Sam. 16:7)

God is very interested in the workings of his servants' spirits.  All throughout Scripture the call is made to hear and believe God's Word with one's "heart."  The Psalms are virtually full of descriptions of the authors' hearts and the various conditions they are in.  What is evident, however, is that God is more than capable to work on a person's heart.  One of my personal  favorite passages comes out of Ezekiel 11.  After discussing the eminent judgment faced by the people of Israel, God changes his tone and begins discussing His plan for their repentance.  "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.  Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God." (19-20)  This scripture answers David's cry: "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10)  To be sure, this psalm is the true call of every repentant Christian, and God's response to them is always the same.

Your emotions should not be the only motivation behind your actions, but if they coincide with what your mind and body are telling you, and with what others (including God) are telling you, I see no reason not to let them lend strength to your decisions.

God's Spirit

If each of us has a spirit, and we are made in God's image, then it is only sensible that God would have a Spirit as well.  I believe that the Holy Spirit functions for the Holy Trinity much in the same way our hearts function for us.  Now this is likely not a perfect analogy, but it certainly helps me in my understanding of the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit is certainly less corporeal than Jesus, and seems to be much less forthright than God the Father.  He compels men to speak (Isaiah 61:1) and he also prevents them from speaking (Acts 16:6).  He is described as fire (Isaiah 4:4, Luke 3:16), water (Isaiah 44:3), and wind (John 3:8).  These descriptions evoke very distinct comparisons with the human heart.  The last description, that of wind, is especially pertinent to this topic.  It indicates that we may never know exactly what the explicit plans of the Holy Spirit are, but we can certainly feel Him pushing or pulling us in one direction or another.  In my experience, this is very similar to the way my own emotions direct me.

The Trinity is one aspect of Christianity which I believe surpasses all other world religions.  In other mythologies and religions, deities always have characteristics which are very human at face value.  Some of them behave like humans (Ancient Greek mythology), many look like humans (Hindu), and almost all talk and think like humans.  But in this aspect, I believe Christianity is far superior.  We are told that God has created us in His image, but never given the chance to see Him (with the brief exception of Jesus).  God certainly does not act or think like the humans who worship Him.  He is divine and perfect, among many other superlative adjectives.  It is not until we look much more closely that we are able to see the connection between God and man, and that connection is much deeper and more intricate than any that another religion can boast.

Dream On

So what are the applications of this message?  First, your spirit is a very important part of your soul—one that will likely not be destroyed with the physical world in the End.  Nevertheless, it can be changed so that your desires (for such are the wants of the heart) are in line with those of God.  He has even offered to give you a portion of His own Spirit.  That is great news!

Second, do not let others discount the importance of the human spirit.  It may not be driven by the most logical or self-apparent forces, but that does not mean that it is untrustworthy.  When working in conjunction with the Holy Spirit and your other faculties, it can lend important weight to your decisions.  Corollary to this, be sure to consider your motivations before acting.

I leave you this week with some wisdom from Jesus.  Let it guide your spirit, mind, and heart into next week.

"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.  Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.  People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.  A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.  For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." -Luke 6:43-45