God and Evil (or, A Rose Out of the Mud)

"Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness; souls that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron.
"Because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High, therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help.
"Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands in pieces. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men." Ps. 107:8-15

This passage's series of events is a fascinating spectacle. It starts by exclaiming that only the goodness of God can satisfy the longing and hungry soul, souls that sit in darkness without the goodness of God. To ask how they got into such darkness is to ask how they lost God's goodness (for apparently the two cannot coexist: you have either one or the other, never both). They lost the goodness by their rebellion against God's "word" and "counsel," i.e., His authority as God. In response, God let the consequences of their rebellion fall: a horror of great darkness fell upon them, and when all had abandoned them ("there was none to help"), then and only then did they look to God for satisfaction.
That last part is the most interesting part. Here is revealed a deeper application of Joseph's oft used (to ad nauseum) phrase that God works evil for good (Gen. 50:20). Rebellion against God (in any sense) is the proper understanding of Sin, and the natural consequence of Sin is Death (Rom. 5:12; 6:23). Now, it seems that the Psalm is explicitly saying that God's immediate response to Sin is to not shield people from its consequences. He actually lets the death and darkness fall, the disease and destruction wreak and rage, the evil and the wicked pollute and corrupt. The honest man asking sincerely (and the skeptic asking sneeringly) will ask, "Why?"
The answer is startling: "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble" (emphasis added). It seems that God actually lets us go astray so that we will learn (1) what the right way is and (2) to stay on it when we get there. Think of it like this: God alone is the satisfaction of the soul. Thus, every time we head to something else other than Him, He will let us go and starve on its hollowness until we finally (like the prodigal son) "come to our sense" and cry out for what is truly satisfying, which is only found in God.
Only a moral coward would call such a set-up "cruel". Many today whine for God to shield us from every possible ill, but such a recommendation (however sincere) is intolerable for two very good reasons: (1) The issue of free-will. True free-will is contingent upon the possibility of true evil. Thus, to actually "shield" us from all ill would mean doing away with free-will, reducing us to mere machines, beasts, or other subhuman and inhuman entities. Therefore, to ask for Him to shield us is to not know what we are asking; we have requested that God spare us from one cruelty by inflicting us with another, i.e., the loss of our humanity. (2) The necessity of "the hard way." It is just plain old practical truth that sometimes the most merciful course of action is to allow one to learn things the "hard" way. If a truly free-will agent utterly refuses to heed your sound and truthful warnings and advice, then sometimes their refusal and subsequent disastrous consequences are the only way that they will finally heed. Such a fact is common sense, and to deny it is to accept blatant ignorance for the sake of argument.
This is not to say that God never shields us. Indeed, there is much that He shields us from (e.g., Ps. 105), and much more that we will probably never know. The point here is that God's modus operandi with people is not mere shielding anymore than it is mere allowance of the consequences. The point is that if your stubborn rebellion (whether you are an unbeliever or one of His children) leads you into the deathly consequences of Sin, their is a gracious miracle at work: the very consequences that seem so horrid are the very things that will lead you back to God. The sovereign will of God has decreed that out of every evil work, redemption will bud like rose out of the mud.

-Jon Vowell

Holy Life, Holy War

"I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt Thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me." Ps. 101:2-3

"Ye that love the Lord, hate evil...." Ps. 97:10a

"Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." Rom. 12:9b

The "holy life" (as some call it) is simple on paper but difficult in practice. On paper, we are to love and cleave to the good, while we are to hate and reject the bad. In practice, however, this simple formula is always a war. Of course, before salvation, the struggle was impossible to win thanks to the inward law of sin and death (Rom.7:18-25); after salvation, the Spirit of God sets us free from that law (Rom. 8:1-2): Sin still has its pull, but we no longer have to obey it.
It is that continual and ever-present "pull," however, that drives us insane. Though set free from necessary sinfulness, we still find ourselves fighting against a lingering deadness of the body (Rom. 8:10), i.e., the appetites*. Fortunately, such a fight is ours for the winning in the moment because of Christ (Rom. 8:11) and God (Phil. 2:13). Whereas once our mind agreed with God (Rom. 7:25) but our spirit was dead and therefore could not enforce the mind's desire upon the appetites (i.e., the flesh), now we have (through Christ's atonement) the Spirit of God, who quickens our bodies (Rom. 8:10-11) and enables us to be holy as He is holy (I Peter 1:16).
There is a reason Christ described salvation as a new birth (John 3:3): it is not mere forgiveness only, but also a re-creation (II Cor. 5:17). A new life has been born in us (I Cor. 6:19), a life that can live the life of God (for it is the life of God), the only life worthy of Heaven. Our meriting eternal life and communion with God is based upon the work, life, power, and presence of someone other than ourselves. That is the key distinction between Christianity and the religions of the world: complete and utter dependence on the divine. We cannot save ourselves; only God can.

-Jon Vowell

*I say "appetites" for two reasons: (1) So as to avoid any hint of Gnosticism. I do not believe that the physical body is evil because it is physical. I believe that the physical body is fallen, and thus subject to the corruption of Sin and Death. When that corruption is removed, the body will remain: glorified, yet still physical. (2) So as to explain the "pull" of Sin. This has been a troublesome spot for me. If the "old man" and "the flesh" (which I take to be the same thing) are removed by Christ (Rom. 6:6; 8:1, 9), what then within me is drawn by Sin's "pull"? If I am free from the old life and its corruptions, what then is the motive power in me to sin? I take Rom. 8:10-11 to signify that there is still a part of us that is dead, i.e., the body. Since the mind already agreed with God (Rom. 7:25) and our spirit is now the Spirit of God, "the body" cannot be our mind or spirit. Therefore, it must be the physical body with its fallen appetites. This is what I take it to mean until a smarter head than I corrects me.

Damnable Ignorance

"Know ye that the Lord, He is God; it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture." Ps. 100:3

"But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of Thee, and of Thine own hand have we given Thee." I Chr. 29:14

Humility, joy, love, and every other aspect of Christ-likeness comes from a resolute focusing of our heart and mind on the fact of our necessary dependence. "The Son can do nothing of Himself," Jesus said to the Jews, "except what He seeth the Father do" (John 5:19). Such is the nature of true Christ-likeness: a state of utter acknowledgment and living in the reality of one's dependence on God.
What person can truly claim to have "arrived" by their own strengths? Many do make such a claim, but it is all noisome hubris. Their strengths are God's strengths, for He is their Creator and thus has given them those strengths. Likewise, which of His children can truly claim to be their own man/woman? Sadly, many do, and they boast of their strengths "as if [they] had not received it" (I Cor. 4:7). It is God, and not ourselves, who "makes" us in every way; we are His and not our own. To claim otherwise is nothing but pride and Sin, the parents of such damnable ignorance, for many are cast into Hell thinking that they can live and move and have their being apart from God.

-Jon Vowell

Life and Death: Death-Casters

"Thou answered them, O Lord our God; Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou took vengence on their evil deeds." Ps. 99:8

There are two things that we must remember about Sin: (1) in Christ, we are set free from the ultimate condemnation of Sin (Rom. 8:1-2); and (2) the consequence of Sin is still death (Rom. 5:12; 6:23), and that death will be meted out. If we expect otherwise, then we understand neither God and Sin, nor the holiness of the one and the deathliness of the other.
Being forgiven in Christ, His blood continually cleanses us (I John 1:7), and thus no Sin can be laid to our account anymore. However, as free-agents, we can choose to yield to the Holy Spirit or not (Rom. 6:12-13), and thus we retain the power to unleash the effects of Sin (and Holiness). We can be conduits of Death as well as Life. Perhaps if we saw our sinful choices as death-casting, we would take it more seriously. We do not make "mistakes" or "fopahs"; we spread death like a cancer, like a plague, spewing its corruption from our hands, our mouths, our eyes. In addition, perhaps we could also understand God's holiness (and our calling) better: to purge out the darkness, not spread it around.

-Jon Vowell

The Return of the King II: Earnest Expectation of the Creation

"Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for He cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with uprightness." Ps. 98:7-9

"The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God...because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Romans 8:19-21

The return of the King and subsequent redemption thereof is not a private event for man but a universal event of all creation. Sin has unleashed the consequences of Death and its corruption into the furthest extents of the universe, even the parts to which we have never been nor ever will; yet even those parts ring with the "earnest expectation" of the restoration of the rightful order.
Do we function on the level where we consciously consider that the universe is not even half of what it used to be or could be? That neither are me? "The whole creation groans and travails in pain" (Rom. 8:22), for the Fall has corrupted its glory, our glory, and nothing is as it ought to be. The universe is smarter than us, however; it continues on in earnest expectation. We, on the other hand, are forgetful creatures, and our expectation dulls into a kind of apathetic resignation and contentment. We are lulled to sleep by the dull and static hum of the fallen world, and it is high time that we wake up.

-Jon Vowell

The Real Nature of Salvation (A Lecture for Salvation 101)

"The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.... For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.... I can of my own self do nothing...." John 5:19, 26, 30

"I am the vine, ye are the branches...without me, ye can do nothing." John 15:5

The implication of these two verses is that what we have (as believers) is what belongs to Christ, and what Christ has belongs to God. This gives an added dimension to the nature of Salvation.
All that God is (i.e., Holy--the perfect wholeness and harmony of His qualities) is what we, as humans, need to be (John 17:3; I Peter 1:16). However, as sinners (i.e., those bound by and enslaved to Sin; John 8:34 & Rom. 6:16) we are separated from God (Is. 59:2; Ps.88:4-5), and thus we cannot know Him and thereby partake in His holiness.
Christ has solved this problem on both fronts: [1] By being the sacrificial payment for Sin (I John 2:2), He ended the separation thereof (Eph. 2; Col. 1:20-22). [2] All that Christ is comes from God (John 5:19, 26, 30), and all that God is has been given to Christ (Col. 2:9). Therefore, it is through Him that we can know God and partake in all that He is (I Cor. 1:30-31; II Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:8-9).
Thus, fellowship with God in His holiness was our destiny as humanity, but Sin brought by humanity's rebellion cut us off from that destiny. So God sent Christ so that (1) the world may be reconciled back unto Himself, and (2) all that He is may once again be ours (II Cor. 5:17-21). Therefore, we can see that salvation is not merely restored fellowship in the sense that God is no longer mad at us and won't throw us into hell; salvation is the restoration of a fellowship that leads into a partaking of and oneness with God and all that He is. This is the answer to mankind's deepest desires. This is the Gospel, which except a man believe, He cannot be saved.

-Jon Vowell

Biblical Christianity

"Your iniquities have separated you from your God...and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment; and He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His arm brought salvation for Him, and His righteousness sustained Him...the Redeemer shall come to Zion..." Isaiah 59:2, 15, 16, 20

Much that passes for 'gospel' these days does not fit the biblical criteria, and it is a biblical criteria. Orthodox teaching on salvation is not a New Testament anomaly; it is a foundational theme of the whole of Scripture. Even in this ancient prophecy, which we today like to think says 'nothing about nothing,' even it contains the familiar formula. We are sinners (vs. 3-8), and our Sin has separated us from God (vs. 2). We cannot save ourselves and get back to God (vs. 9-16a), so God brought salvation to us (vs. 16b-20). That is not a New Testament thing; it is a Bible thing.

We must beware of those who claim disharmony in the Bible. We must be stiffly embattled against those whose 'gospel' comes under the guise of Christianity, yet carries none of the marks of Scripture upon it. Those who undermine or discount Scripture in any way are our enemies, no matter who they are or their intentions. Anything that tampers with man's true condition and man's only hope must not be tolerated. We must call anything that takes away from the firm, biblical teachings of man as a great sinner and Christ as a great Savior by its proper name, i.e., heresy. It is absolutely astounding how amiable we are towards things which will damn men's souls, and anything that undercuts Scripture by preaching another gospel (whether it be prosperity, social, love, or liberation) damns men's souls by leading them away from eternal life. Scripture alone is good news; all else is the smoke and mirrors of Hell.

"We gather together

And claim two things:

That Christ, the Mighty Maker died

For man the creature's sin..."

-Jon Vowell

Restlessness vs. Stillness

"There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isaiah 57:21

Those who trust in God find peace, both in life (vs. 13b-19) and in death (vs. 1, 2). Those who trust anything else, any man (vs. 7-9) or any other, lesser god (vs. 5, 6) will never find peace. Peace belongs to God and God alone; nothing else can give it, but oh how we try! We will do anything other than come as paupers to the throne of grace. We will fall into a million side eddys and ignore the true pathway of the sea. We will head into every tourist trap on the way rather than head for home. To be outside of God is to be ever restless (vs. 20): you go hither and thither, instability your only comfort, the 'next thing' your only hope.

The only movement found in a child of God is a movement deeper into stillness, into peace, into God Himself. The child of God is to be marked by (amongst other things) the irresistible stillness of their Father, a stillness that wreaks havoc on the soul of the restless, because it serves to accentuate that they are on the outside looking in. "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10a) To know God is to know stillness; not just any stillness, but His stillness, and to not know Him is to know only the restless desire for stillness.

"Be still, oh restless soul of mine.

Bow before the Prince of Peace;

Let the noise and clamor cease..."

(Steven Curtis Chapman)

-Jon Vowell

Grace in the Context of the Trinity

"Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God...[Let] the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord our God, and He will have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Isaiah 55:5-9

The mystery of grace sneaks up on us now and again. That the Holy Almighty pardons guilty sinners is a truth that is oft given mouth service in our minds, but if we ever seriously considered its implications we would fall on our faces as one dead. The glory of God's trinitarian nature of Holiness and Love is that He has made it to where He can separate the sinner from Sin and bind the former to Himself in whole communion and cast the latter into outer darkness. The mystery of grace is that it is the fullest expression of God's holiness and love. It is a matter of grace that not only are we saved, but also that Sin is destroyed, never to plague us again. That God's immutable character did not produce our utter destruction (either by annihilation or leaving us to our own vices and devices), but rather our utter salvation through the redemption wrought by God in Christ, such a fact should boggle our minds into thunderous worship, for grace is truly amazing.

"Mysterious grace, mysterious ways

The sweetest song that turns

Unworthy wretches into

Sons and daughters of God..."

-Jon Vowell

Wrath in the Context of the Trinity

"For a small moment, I have forsaken thee; but with great mercies, I will gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting loving-kindness, I will have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Isaiah 54:7, 8

Juxtaposed next to God's love is another immutable quality of His character: holiness. Holiness is defined as "moral perfection," perfection is defined as "completeness" or "wholeness." Within God's character, there is no deficiency, defect, or divide. In can be said that, because God is perfect, that His holiness is a perfect holiness, a whole moral wholeness, i.e., a moral wholeness that is constant. He is not morally whole sometimes and morally unwhole other times; He is in a constant state of moral wholeness. He is 'wholly holy,' so to speak. Likewise, if God is perfect, then His love is perfect as well, i.e., His communion is complete and whole; there is no shadow of severance within God's communal nature. Thus within the Trinity, we see two factors played out: perfect holiness and love, perfect wholeness and communion. It is the picture of absolutely immutable unity.

Whereas the Trinity carries with it the sense of absolute immutable unity, Sin carries with it the sense of absolute immutable separation, separation between God and man, man and man, man and creation, and man and himself. Sin divides; the Trinity unites. Those who are bound to Sin by Adam (and continue therein) are bound (and continue to bind themselves) to division, and the Trinity has no part in them; likewise, those who are bound to the Trinity by Christ are bound to unity, and Sin has no part in them. The Trinity is the fulfillment of communion, while Sin is communion's dissolvement. The two are oil and water: the one displaces the other. The wages of Sin, the natural consequence of being bound to Sin, is separation from God, and separation from God is death (and thus the further separations of man result). To be separated from God, from the Trinity, from absolute and perfect moral wholeness and personal communion, is to be separated from true life, and thus it is death.

The space-time realities of God's wrath upon the peoples of earth must be viewed within the context of God as absolute immutable unity and Sin as absolute immutable separation. When once you bind yourself to Sin, "the death sentence is at work in you," as Mr. Chambers would say. It is at work because what indeed is the natural consequence of turning from God, absolute unity, the source of life? The only other ground to run to is absolute separation, the source of death. When people Sin against God, when they cling to death and separation over life and unity, life and unity withdraws itself from us (for what fellowship has unity with separation?), and we are left to the consequences.

Thus, within the context of the Trinity, we see God is Love, and thus is Savior: He desires communion with us, because it is His nature to desire communion with others. We also see, however, that God is Holy, and thus is Judge: His very presence is the destruction of separation, because it is His nature to be whole and complete. Let no man say that God desires separation, that He desires the death of the wicked; He does not. His holiness demands separation Sin; His love demands communion with us.

"Holiness and Love

Burning forever

In Divine Dance.

Sweep us up into such Joy..."

-Jon Vowell

The Gospel in the Context of the Trinity

"For thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer [is] the Holy One of Israel, The God of the whole earth shall He be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God." Isaiah 54:5, 6

The idea of God as a romantic (in a relational and not literary sense) strikes many as unconventional, especially men (God is my husband?). Imagery aside, however, the thing to grasp here is that God desires communion with you: to love, to have and to hold. Regardless of gender, all people desire to be desired; whether for beauty or strength, all people long to be wanted by another. The desire for communion with others is a fundamental element of humanity, and the Bible tells us the shocking truth that the terrible and glorious Almighty desires to commune with us.

Now, there is a difference between desire and need. God desires communion with us, but He does not need it. Existing as the Trinity, God is in an eternal, perfect communion and society within Himself; He needs nothing more. The flip side of all this is that the truth of God existing as the Trinity is the fundamental reality behind the oft over quoted and misquoted phrase, "God is love," i.e., God's very nature is bound up in communion with others. Thus, we see two facts that emerge from God existing as a Trinity: He does not need to commune with us, for He is in perfect communion always; He does desire to commune with us because it is His very nature to commune with others. Note that the reason God desires communion with us has everything to do with Him, not us. There is nothing in us that merits God's desire; His desire springs from His own nature and nowhere else. Though we are unlovable, God loved us; while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Of course, Christ is the fullest expression and proof of God's love for us (Romans 5:8), and He came to 'make us lovable,' i.e., make us so that we can commune with God. That God desires to commune and whether or not He can commune are two different things. God cannot commune with Sin (for Sin is the rejection of and separation from God), and we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). Thus, unless something drastically changes within us, we cannot commune with God, but are destined to stay separate from Him forever, which is the true meaning of Hell (Matthew 7:23 & 25:41; notice the use by multiple translations of the word "depart"). At the Cross of Christ, however, a transaction was made. Christ, who was and is God, took our Sin upon Himself and in return gave us His righteousness, i.e., God's righteousness (II Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, Christ has (through the Cross) made a way for us to be made lovable, by making us a way to become like Love Himself. Having been 'made lovable,' (i.e., saved) by Christ, commune with God is now possible, but only if we (1) believe that Christ is the only way to be 'made lovable,' and (2) accept such a salvation (for a gift is not yours until you accept it).

Thus, by accepting the salvation found only in Christ, that which separates us from God (i.e., Sin) is done away with, and our communion with Him is restored. It is restored becomes Sin (that which absolutely separates) has been removed, and Love (that which absolutely unites) has replaced it. Therefore, the gospel is about love, romance, about God desiring us and making a way for us to commune with Him. We can reject such communion if we wish, but we do so at our own peril.

"All consuming Love and Passion,

Holy Fire of pain and pleasure,

Draw us deeper still

Into the Light of Your Glory and Grace..."

-Jon Vowell

The Haunting Pain

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way...." Isaiah 53:6a

The correct view of Sin is wrapped up in those last three words: "his own way," i.e., not God's way. Sin is anything that is 'not-God,' i.e., neither of Him nor leading to Him. Sin is not doing wrong things; it is doing not-God things, and even seemingly rational, noble, or beautiful things can still be not of God. We err if we think and preach that men are sinners because they act wrongly; men are sinners because they act 'not-Godly'. Mere moralizing can solve wrong actions, which is why Christianity is not mere moralizing; something deeper is needed to deal with a lack of God-likeness. If men behave badly, send them to the moralists. If men are not God-like, however, send them to a savior, someone who can save them from themselves, from their "own way."

Your view of Sin affects your view of the gospel and, consequently, its presentation. The Gospel of Christ is 'good news' because it deals with something deeper and more necessary than the superficial fact that men behave badly. Christ's gospel cuts to our fundamental being, i.e., we should be like God, but we are not. We should be holy as He is holy, but we are not. The haunting pain of mankind is not that we do wrong but that we know (somehow, someway) that we are wrong, that we have strayed from the true way to our own way, and we have become lost in the worst kind of prison, i.e., ourselves. The gospel is good news only when it is set in that context. Christ has come so that we may lose ourselves and regain God, lose our way and regain the true way.

"We are wrong and

You are Right.

You took our wrong

To make us Right.

You became like us

So we could be like You..."

-Jon Vowell

Back to Reality

"Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore they shall know in that day that I am He that doth speak; behold, it is I." Isaiah 52:6

To know that God (the infinite-personal, Scripture revealed God) is there, is real; that is the reality all men strive for, whether they know it or not. Whether or not we are ultimately alone cuts to the core of all other significant questions: if we are ultimately alone, then there is no solution to the conundrums of being (what is real?), knowledge (how do we know? how do we know that we can know?), and morals (what ought and ought not to be?), because there is no objective, infinite-personal outsider that can tell us these things. The knowledge of the reality of God automatically gives a man the groundwork whereby he can begin to answer the 'big' questions.

Everyone of Israels 'redemptions' was always about bringing them back to the reality of God. The same is true of the Redemption found in Christ. Our Sin has separated us from the God who is there, and that alienation will be the death of us. Christ dealt with Sin on the Cross, and now mankind can return to the reality of God, and find in Him all that humanity has ever desired and hoped for. Jesus is the joy of man's desiring, because He satisfies man's desiring by bringing us back to God.

"Tell all the lost and lonely people

That God is real

And there is a way back to Him..."

-Jon Vowell

We Cannot Escape

"Thus saith the Lord, 'Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.'" Isaiah 50:1

The consequences of sinful choices are not arbitrary assignments from God, but rather absolute facts. God never causes evil in a direct sense (see here for an explanation of Isaiah 45:7); He simply allows the natural consequences of sin to play out. What we desire is what God will give us: if we desire Himself, he will give us Himself; if we desire sin and death, then He will give us sin and death. That a man reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7) is an immutable law of reality; we cannot escape it.
That the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) is another immutable law that we cannot escape. It is not that Sin could of had any wage but God rather rudely decided that it would be death; Sin's very nature is such that it can have no other consequence but death, and not even God Himself can change that. When you reject God, you choose Sin; when you reject life, you choose death. There is no other way it can be.
We must defiantly buck against the childish nonsense that blames evil on God. Evil is the direct result of only one thing: the Fall. Adam fell, and as such evil now abides within man and within creation (see I Corinthians 15:21, 22 & Romans 8:19-22). God dealt with evil (i.e., Sin) on the Cross; but if we reject that redemption, then, like all evil choices, the consequences will be devastating and our own fault.

"We are the fools,
You are the Wise;
And only a fool
Blames His own foolishness
On the Wise..."
-Jon Vowell

In Touch With Reality

"O Lucifer, son of the morning...[thou] that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that would not release his prisoners." Isaiah 14:17
"That thou [i.e., the Messiah] may say to the prisoners, 'Go forth,' to them that are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' They shall feed along the roads, and their pastures shall be in all desolate heights." Isaiah 49:9
"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." I John 3:8b

Do you believe that God is in the business of unraveling all of Satan's evil? Do you believe that God seeks and will have the eradication of suffering and death? Do you believe that redemption means the world becoming like a star, and all the traces and effects of Sin will burn away? Do you believe that redemption is as much now as it is the future? Do you look for redemption in your present day circumstances? Do you believe that the Cross has set all things upon the objective reality of redemption, or is darkness your only view? It is the strength of the Christian to be able to realize and claim the truth that darkness is real, but it is not the end. At the bottom of all things, the reality of evil has been undercut, and it will fade away; even today it is happening, if you will only look for it. Are our eyes filtering all through redemption, or is everything merely material, nonsensical?
You remember past evils; do you remember the good that God worked out of them? You acknowledge the power of man's fallenness; do you acknowledge the almighty power of God's grace? You have seen the ravagings of Sin; do you see the reality of Redemption? If we focus solely of Sin, we will despair. If we focus solely of Redemption, we will daydream. If, however, we focus of the reality of Redemption working within a world of Sin, then we shall live like the children of God. We are ever aware of a great upheaval that has taken place within the very framework of the universe, an upheaval whose effects flash here and there now and again, which will one day be fully unleashed in purging fury (Romans 8:18-23).
The good news that we have is this: God has struck Sin at its very core, and all evil will die with it; if ye be evil, then repent! Perhaps you preach this news; do you believe it? Do you believe that Redemption is the reality that is consuming Sin off the face of the earth, or do we sequester Redemption to merely salvation experiences: ecstatic moments in time, and nothing more? For every moment that Redemption is not our reality, we will become fearful, bitter, angry, and cynical. The children of God are never to be these things; we are the never naive nor despairing flames in the night who believe in and point to the reality of the Sun. We are the children of the Burning Heart. Do you see the Fire that purges away all evil; or do you know only the night, and forget the light given to you? If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

"Holy light of the world,
Save us from ourselves:
We are out of touch.
Take us out of our shadows
And up to Your Reality..."
-Jon Vowell

The Right View of Man

"...they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save...there is no other God beside me; a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." Isaiah 45:20-22

Why are those who trust in anything but God fools? Because they do not (or will not) understand their true condition, and consequently their true need. There are many beautiful, noble, and logical sounding thoughts out there (some even claim to be the Gospel of Christ), but they are all heresies, idols, and false hopes that cannot save. They cannot save because they do not know humanity's true condition; they say that we are poor, or unhealthy, or uneducated, or oppressed, or in need of augmentation or social reforms, or that we need to go through the next stage of evolution, etc., etc. Any ideology or belief system that does not begin with the Fall, with the doctrine of Sin, with "as in Adam all die"(I Corinthians 15:22a) will lead mankind into the ditch every time.
Why is God the only savior? Because He alone can do anything about Sin, and Sin is our real problem as humans; it is the eternal monkey wrench in our plans, the "amartia," the tragic flaw that undoes us every time. We are not poor, sick, uneducated, oppressed, or evolving. We are sinners, and God alone can save us from that.

"Not sick, but sin sick.
Not poor, but lost.
Not stupid, but foolish without You.
Not unevolved, but in need of Forgiveness,
And Atonement..."
-Jon Vowell

A Witness to Yourself

"Fear ye not, neither be afraid; have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? Ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no other God; I know not any. They that make a graven image are all of them vanity...they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know, that they may be ashamed." Isaiah 44:8, 9

Ultimately, an idol is a reflection of yourself, or your own soul. The material and graven thing that you put as the highest reflects back to you yourself. Whatever your idol represents reflects what your soul is bent towards. When you speak of your idol, you speak of yourself; when you worship your idol, you worship yourself. Idol-worship is self-worship, an abysmal form of pride.
With God, the order is reversed (or rather, set correctly). When God is your highest, He is not a reflection of you; you become a reflection of Him. Idols are made and chosen by the idol-maker; God makes and chooses His children. With idols, we are the initiators; with God, we are the responders. The difference is the element of surrender. With idols, there is no surrender; there is only luxuria and self-indulgence. With God, there is absolute surrender, a complete giving yourself over to another; and in that giving, everything that God is we become.

"May the Beam of Your Brightness
Reflect off of me
And onto others
And unto You..."
-Jon Vowell

Sarcasm, and the End of Pride

"Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what will happen. Let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them; or declare for us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Behold, ye are nothing, and your work is nothing; an abomination is he that chooseth you." Isaiah 41:21-24

This passage is said to idolaters in regards to their idols, and you do not have to be a literary critic to hear the sarcasm dripping off of every word. "Oh, please! Please! Show me the future, so I can know that you are a god! Oh, oh, oh! Do good or evil, so that I will not know what to do with myself!" I wonder if God's sense of humor comes as a reaction to our idiotic pride.
That is the trick, though. It is one thing to be punished for your pride, but it is quite another thing to be humiliated for it. When faced with all-consuming pride, God does not only says, "I will punish you for your defiance," but adds, "Your defiance makes me laugh." For the proud, punishment can be endured; indeed, it may even be welcomed, as long as you never bow, for as Satan said in Paradise Lost, "All is not lost; the unconquerable Will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and courage never to submit or yield: and what is else not to be overcome?"
Humiliation, on the other hand, is pure terror to the proud soul. At least when you are punished there is a recognition that you were able to go higher than should, an affirmative nod that you actually did something to ruffle the feathers of divinity. God, however, makes no such allowances. His punishments are humiliations as well so that the punished will know that not only did they do wrong, but also their wrong accomplished no goal whatsoever. Read Isaiah 14:15-16 and see the end of the proud soul: not only brought to Hell, but also made a laughingstock.

"How sad it must be
To be Your enemy:
No hope of victory,
No dignity in defeat,
Only failure and humility..."
-Jon Vowell

The Beauty of Silence

"Keep silent before Me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near..." Isaiah 41:1a

There is an eighth deadly sin out there. It is called "noise," i.e., to commit noise or to have an inner disposition of noisiness. It is to have, or create an atmosphere conducive to, an inner state of such convoluted confusion and chaos created by the trappings of this world that there is no "room" for God to work or even move. You have no space left for Him. His still-small voice is drowned out in a barrage of useless inner baggage: "How do I look?" "How can I get ahead?" "When can I get the latest ?" "Why don't I have the latest ?" "How can I be so stupid?" "How am I going to pay for that?" "I wonder who won the game?" "Why did I lose the game?" "Why did he/she say that?" "Why can't I be like them?" "Why can't I look like them?" "How can I get back at them?" "How can I get back at me?" "Why does this always happen to me?" Everyday (from TVs, radios, movies, CD players, iPods, restaurant and department store sound systems, magazines, genre fiction, self-help books, our friends, our "friends," our parents, our siblings, ourselves) we are absolutely bombarded with noise in a hellish attempt to create noise within us as well as around us. God cannot woo a noisy soul; He has to take a sledgehammer to it.
As Switchfoot sings, "What's it gonna take to slow us down? To let the silence spin us around?" Everything in this world (whether it be good, bad, or indifferent) is designed to distract you with yourself or itself, or both. How beautiful is the silence (both inwardly and outwardly) that lets us come near to God! Are you wearied with noise? Pray to your Father, and He will raise up this standard against it: "Keep silent before Me, O noise; and let my child renew their strength. Let them come near..." Such silence is a peace that passes all our understanding.

"Be still, oh restless soul of mine.
Bow before the Prince of Peace.
Let the noise and clamor cease..."
(from Steven Curtis Chapman)
-Jon Vowell

The Absence of God

"...and He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness." Isaiah 34:11b

Edom is receiving the judgment of God, and the results are chaos and emptiness. Interestingly, in the original language (i.e., Hebrew), the words "confusion" and "emptiness" are the same words used in Genesis 1:2 for "without form and void." In Paradise Lost, John Milton had the outer darkness that surrounded creation ruled by "Chaos" and "Night." Absolute disorder and absolute nothingness are the direct result of the absence of God. Before "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," the earth was chaotic and empty. Could it be that Edom's judgment is to be ignored by God and left to the darkness and chaos of evil?
The absence of God is the presence of Hell, for Hell is the only place that God is not, the one place for those who reject Him could possibly go; and it is His absence that makes it Hell. It is no small thing to teach that Sin brings separation. To be separated from God means to be separated forever from the Source of all joy, love, hope, virtue, wisdom, righteousness, goodness, peace, order, justice, honor, kindness, light, knowledge, strength, grace, mercy, and all things "good and green in this world." To reject and be ultimately cut off from that which our heart truly desired, from that which we were created to be one with, is Hell indeed.
The choice between Heaven or Hell is really the choice between God or not-God. Heaven means nothing without Him, and Hell is what it is without Him. This includes our daily choices as well as the ultimate one. Every day, our choices unleash Heaven or Hell in ourselves and unto others. Will our choices today release the presence of God, or will we suck Him clear out of the room?

Heaven and hell lie in my hands;
To unleash or quench, my choice stands.
May Your Presence, like a Fire,
Burn within my soul, and unleash Heaven on earth...
-Jon Vowell