Part 2:  At the End of your Rope?

Tie a Knot, Hang-on, Hope & Pray

(Franklin Roosevelt, George Aulenbacher, et al) 

Through Jesus Comes Forgiveness

As I mentioned in the previous post, the card I received by email to bear with and forgive one another in Colossians 3:13 motivated me to restore my relationship with my family after eight years of mutual separation.

I decided to do a little Bible study on the verse and on the subject of forgiveness in general. It seemed in the Colossians 3:13 verse that "bearing" and "forgiving" were easier said than done. A hard lesson I had to learn was that not all family members have the same spiritual acuity or objectives that lead to resolute forgiveness. Even some family members don’t seem to care whether disagreements are resolved. It’s too easy to avoid the argument than it is to settle it non-violently.

Enjoined in the Greek word used are the specific nuances that can relate to the word for “bear.” Many think of the word "bear" as being closely aligned to a immovable structure, such as a wall or a inner strength (one's will). Our first inclination is not to think of the word as relating to the ability to absorb, survive and even thrive on "hurt" or "charity" in the same sense that the word  is used to describe Christ’s forgiving Grace by sacrificing Himself for mankind’s sins.

Whenever someone finds themselves in a conflict or hopeless situation, they need help "bearing" up in the manners needed to resolve uneasy and sometimes very difficult disagreements even with people to whom they know or are related.

They may be wrong but not believe they are wrong. Or you may be wrong but not believe you are. Regardless of all of the gray shades between those rationalized dipoles is conflict, which is what you have to bear.

I did not even try to understand the depths of the word "bearing" in Colossians 3:13 when I withheld my forgiveness to members of my family. I was too hardheaded and simply not strong enough spiritually to do so. That is not an excuse; it was a huge cop-out that was too easy to choose. I did not give God the chance to take my cup of troubles away. I buried the cup as though it did not exist. I can even give you the Bible verse out of God's Word that I used as my basis. I give it to you because I should not have hid behind it and neither should you. The verse said:

Romans 12:18-19 

If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.

I distanced myself from several family members and their children for several years because I could not resolve a standing dispute. I told them I forgave them, but that doesn’t work when they think you are at fault. There did not seem to be any way I could help them see what I thought was the truth. Immediately your conflict becomes a battle of wills. What makes that hard to resolve is stubborn human will that often comes with human pride to assess blame, but more importantly, to avoid the perceived shame of alternate thinking.

I prayed and prayed for the Lord to renew their mind without regard to the renewal my mind may have needed. To my shame today, I even backed up my position with the Bible, Romans 12:18 - If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

I reasoned that I was not wrong and could not win this battle. So, to live in self-peace I separated myself from a relationship with family members. I justified that action by assuming my absence would relieve them of any anxiety having them admit their being wrong. Here is what went through my torn up soul:

• “That’s all I can do;
• it’ll be a sacrifice that requires God’s intervention,”

Not only was I wrong to dump the matter on God without trying to repair lost relationships, it bordered on cowardice that goes with taking an easy way out.

It is not society’s fault that we all have been conditioned to call-in a higher power, whether local the authorities or God, to resolve human conflicts. But, that is what we in reality do:

• We leave it up to the Sheriff; or
• We leave it up to the Police; or
• We leave it up to the legislature; or
• We leave it up to the government to enforce the rules and the law; or
• We leave it up to the Domestic Dispute Hotline that has nothing that it can do except listen to you; or
  
• Far too often, we leave it to to Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson to resolve quickly and permanently.
  

Social media and public news channels are replete with views and sounds of festering remorse that victims and criminals have because of their inabilities to resolve human disagreements and criminal activities.

Instead, we hear cries of: “Let’s all agree to disagree until we can figure out who was at fault.” Arguing parties, however receive legal instruction that reassures them of "bonding out of jail, parole, and assured rehabilitation.” Add to that is the rapid spread of information beyond those who were actually involved. Social media goes viral pointing fingers at each other to effectively egg-on the opposing sides of disagreements. That is what we have been doing in some way, shape or form since Creation.

Inefficiency and unfairness has festered all of these years until the only way the majority of the people think they can resolve conflict is to blow someone’s head off or run over them with their car or cheat or steal, whether they think they can get away with it or not.

Our global society is as or more frustrated than Israel must have been when they insisted on their system of Judges. God let them have their way, even knowing that it would lead to the kind of violence, wars and separations caused by human judicial systems and the social culture conditioning people received leading them to take matters into their own hands and become judge, jury and executioner. 

God gave mankind a choice to rely on Him for justice and equitable settlements to disagreements or make it work for themselves. God's warning, however, was, "Keep that up and God will let you have your ways until you either come to your senses or die.

God did not mince wordsReading Romans 1:20-32 is enough to curl my toes:

• For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 

• For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 

• Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 

• Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 

• For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 

• For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 

• And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, inventors of evil, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

That tells me that if we persist, God will let us have our way.

And you know what? He gave us today's society because that is exactly what our society wanted to persist in doing.

Getting back to the way I decided to handle my familial dispute:

My wrong decision led to my missing a large part of the time when my nieces and nephews were growing up. I will never get that time back. Upon their high school graduation, I came to the end of that long rope without a knot to hold on to.

I copped out by letting go and letting God resolve something that He had already given me the ability to resolve. The handy advice, “to let go and let God,” is what too many Christians advise others to do or do themselves without realizing what they are doing or saying.

They tempt God the way that satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, to jump off a cliff and save Himself if He was really The Son of God and King of the Jews.

I prayed to Jesus Christ to help me resolve this relationship roadblock that I had actually set up for myself.

And then I received the graduation celebration invitation of my sister's triplets. Almost right after receiving that invitation, I got an unsolicited email of the Colossians 3:13 card above about “bearing with one another,” I asked the Holy Spirit for guidance on what the verse meant and how to use it myself.

I have a very analytical way of reasoning that may seem laborious to many, but it works for me. Even in college, my professors remarked that I had a very strong inductive reasoning bent, as opposed to deductive reasoning.  Whichever way you are, the extensive analysis I do helps me to remember and apply God’s Word.

So, I started with asking the question, “What does the word ‘bearing’ mean?”  And then, to apply the instruction, I sought to define what God meant by “Forgiving each other,” which I thought I had already done, but about which I obviously had deluded myself because after eight years of self-imposed exile nobody in the family seemed to have forgiven anyone.

So, I shared my genuine feelings with the Lord and said, “Lord, please help me in restoring my relationship with my family members. That is easier said than done. How do You suggest I do that?”

I will summarize exactly what the Holy Spirit helped me realize, understand and implement and then leave the detail for you to examine at the end to give you an idea of how my mind worked.

One error I made in how I tried to resolve my familial conflict was buried in Colossians 3:13. The end of the verse is the answer to “Why” we should bear with each other and forgive each other.

The missing piece of my thinking that I did not have the power to resolve the conflict was:

“Just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” 

And also in Philippians 4:13:

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

Jesus gave His life so that my sins would not be held against me and so I might have a chance at developing a relationship with God. He did this without condition or without being asked. He did not say, ‘because I am innocent, take this cup away.’ He said, if ‘You are willing …, let Your will be done.’ And then He gave me His Spirit and the power of Jesus' gracefully saving sacrifice, which was within me all of the time if I had only humbled myself enough to ask for His help.

Jesus may not have liked it, but it was clear to me that the only way for me to be forgiven by God The Father was by Christ’s sacrifice. 

Luke 22:42 – “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."

It was not God’s will that I tried to resolve conflict the way I did. Realizing that earlier would have saved everyone much grief.

Jesus told me that if I believe, the Holy Spirit will counsel my willing heart on how to restore things God’s way:

John 14:26 “... the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” 

He did not try to make a deal with me or goad me.

• Ask God for His help in fixing my heart, soul;

• Ask for God to help me commit in a meaningful way to The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• Realize that you cannot very well commit to anything that you do not believe.

• Therefore, resolve to reinforce your beliefs and your commitment to Jesus in praying:

By Your mercies, God I present myself as a holy sacrifice acceptable to You in spiritual worship; that I be transformed with a renewed mind that proves God’s good, acceptable and perfect will in me.  Amen

The Lord in me helped me restore my relationship with my family members. I did not try to do at the beginning of this disagreement. The method I used, hiding behind God's Word that I had miss-applied, just does not ever lead to the level of restoration that results in love, peace, and hope.

My relationship with disputing members of my family and their children is still not that it should be. My presence may remind them of the eight years of self-imposed exile I used to avoid resolutions. I still do not get invitations or returned calls or emails. But, I know that they have their own lives which I had pushed away for eight years.

Being able to resolve arguments is a limitation that mankind has. One of the reasons for that is that mankind has trouble learning the difference between good and evil. God commanded Adam near the beginning of creation and to all of us since then to not use our own knowledge to judge that which is either good or evil. To judge for ourselves as good or evil is to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Does God take that position? Really? Here is one passage among many that actually promises that returning to Him is the only way to restoration:

Joel 2:12-13

"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.

God provides for restoration if, and only if, we turn to Him with a completely rendered heart. It's that "completely rendered heart" business that people try to redefine on their own terms and imagination. They try to replace their supposedly rendered heart with an artificial heart which our feeble brains concoct.

The very next morning I needed to call my sister to either accept or reject her invitation to the triplets' graduation celebration. I was asleep and my eyes popped open with this thought. As Jesus was being crucified on the cross, suffering terribly, Luke 23:34a shares what He was saying and praying to God:

...But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."...

What that meant to me was  that the key to the unforgiveness that separated me from my family, and my family from me for eight years was this:

• We were both wrong;

• We were both blessed to be alive and given a second chance to make things right;

• It required following God's Word with a renewed mind in Jesus Christ's sacrifice;

• It required a completely changed belief system;

• It demonstrates that love for each other is the only way to internal and external peace and a restored relationship.

The first thing my niece said to me when she saw me arrive to the celebration was "Uncle George, by your being here, you have just given me the best graduation present I could possibly get. I cried inside asking her to forgive me for being so obstinate and silently thanking God for restoring a relationship that the locust had eaten. (Joel 2:25)

I still have much to learn of how to employ God’s Word to resolve conflicts  and improve relationships. Hence, this Bible study seeks to provide some Biblical reasoning to answer the questions of “Why?” and “How?” to accomplish that.

I hope to provide you with a free download of the Bible study I conducted to resolve our disagreement soon. My conclusion was that it was Christ's will to work in me that gave me the strength to restore my familial relationships.

This posting is copy right protected through Creative Commons requirements that credit must be given to the creator and allowances are given to only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.  Any adaptations of and to it must be shared under the same terms.

Part 1:  At the End of your Rope? ... Tie a Knot in It, Hang-on, Hope & Pray 

(coined by Franklin Roosevelt & George Aulenbacher)

Forgive First?

Too Many Find That Easier Said than Done

Part 1

  OK how ...? 

Cope Your Rope With Faith, Love & Hope

I recently received an emailed God card of a pretty picture postcard emphasizing Colossians 3:13 - forgive one another, as God forgave us.

My first thoughts were of a disagreement I had with some of my family members that has lasted about eight years.

“Sure,” I thought, “That is easier to say that than it is to do it.”

But I was curious of the meaning of the word "bearing" in the verse.  Instinctively, it's too easy to construe its meaning as an appeal to "Agree to Disagree."  I can tell you that I tried using that acceptance strategy.  For eight years, it has not helped to resolve disagreements with my family one bit.

That approach leaves disagreements unresolved.  Taking the "I'm OK, You're OK" attitude about relationships only seems to encourage diversity at the expense of right and wrong.  It seems to me to be a cop out.  It's an approach that opens the door of avoidance too easily.

We live in a society encouraged to celebrate faults in the name of diversity, not diversity in the name of glorifying God.  There are some faults, for example in morality and integrity, that are really screwed up these days.

It seems that our society has missed the meaning of right and wrong.  To our society everything is encouraged to be OK.  I guess that goes along with our societal  bent over freedom.  But God's word reminds us that while everything God makes is inherently good, it may not be beneficial or edifying under the circumstances in which it is being exercised (1 Corinthians 10:23)

All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

There are absolute rights and wrongs; without them there would be no justice.  Without justice, there is no peace.

How do we get around ignoring right in favor of wrong?  We change the law as though it is OK to see how close we can get to boundary between right and wrong without crossing the line.  People consider it their right to do that in the name of freedom, instead of steering well clear of the line.  Of course, is daring and our blood pressure rises to give us a rush that we got away with it this time when we explore where that line is.  Of course that practice allows for personal choice, but personal choice does not often result in a peaceful and loving society.

Do you want to know a truth about that practice?  That kind of practice kept one whole generation of Israelites who were freed from Egyptian slavery from entering the Promised Land.  Even though their leader saw the Land that God promised to give the freed Israelites from a distance, Moses himself didn't get to set one toe in the land of milk and honey that I am sure he had been dreaming about for the forty years the Israelites wandered in the desert wilderness because they wanted to see what they could get get away with.

Thinking something is right does not mean it is indeed right.  That kind of mindset is what poisoned man's relationship with God in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve, tempted by the serpent thought it was all right to disobey God's command not to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  God never said that the fruit was not good!  God just said, don't eat it.  The serpent's angle was to plant the "Why" question in Eve's mind.  The serpent planted the thought in Eve's mind that God was not allowing them to eat something that was good.  The question that led to exploring where the boundary was between right and wrong was "Why would God deprive Eve from something that is good?"  After all, God had already said that everything He made before that moment was good, right?  And Eve took a bite and didn't die as God said she would.  That thought probably made her think she was right; so she gave some of the fruit to Adam to eat as well.

What readers of the Bible sometimes miss if why the Tree from which the fruit came was called the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."  God obviously knew that sometimes the difference between judging what is good versus what is evil seems blurred.  That blurring can be easily caused by the suggestion that the line between right and wrong is a mistake.  It had to be a mistake, the snake as much as said it was.  And Eve didn't die, did she?

Ah Ha, that is where Eve went way wrong in her assumption about what "death" was to God. To God, Eve's exploring where the line between right and wrong was what led to her crossing the line between Life and Death.  And Eve never even thought about how disobedience could relate to a fundamental distrust of God's motive for His command.  All that Eve did was prove that mankind was vulnerable to suggestions of evil intent.  What was so wrong about that?  It pointed to a fundamental weakness in mankind. What do you mean weakness? Simple:

Only God Is Equipped to Judge Good & Evil, Hence:

Don't Eat the Fruit of Knowledge of Good & Evil!

That question came out so effortlessly in this story didn't it?  The line between right and wrong is being explored when God's command is assumed to be a mistake.

• God is God and does not make mistakes.
• So that question should not have even entered into Eve's mind.

If the serpent had not been there to introduce it, the thought probably would not have entered Eve's mind.

• Instead, Eve opted to reduce the infallibility of God.
• And that implied that He was not God in Eve's thinking.

With that instantaneous decision, Eve became as good or better than God in her mind.  That was blasphemy from the get go.

Why was mankind vulnerable?  The simple observation is that mankind was vulnerable because up until God let the serpent loose in the Garden of Eden, there was no evil; there was only good.

• Could it be that God knew that mankind could not distinguish justly between the knowledge of good and evil?
• Could it be that mankind had trouble distinguishing between good and evil because only God is the ultimate judge of that?

Even the remotest thought that God is not the ultimate judge of good versus evil means death to man's relationship with God.

• Forgiveness : That's Good, Good
• Unforgiveness : That's Evil, Bad, Bad

Personal choices are prone to suggestion, bias, weakness, habit and self-indulgence, often simply chosen because we can and want to explore what we can get away with. But, shouldn't society by now be a little tired of suffering for wrong choices made just because individuals or minorities want to be free to do as they wish? Look around to see how that that exploration has been working for us. People invent reasons to celebrate diversity that may be specifically one's personal desires. Seeking and celebrating personal desires rarely glorifies God.

Look I get it, there are things that we people were born with, unique chemistries, strengths, weaknesses, incredible ways of thinking about things or doing things. It is wonderful to celebrate diversity to advance peace, love and hope. It is not so wonderful to celebrate diversity when it infringes on peace, love, and hope. The motivation is glorifying the "self" not glorifying God.

The context of the 1 Corinthians 10:3 has to do with Christians living in a social culture that thought, explored and lived life differently. Paul is telling his own people to resist the temptation to incorporate customs and behavior in general that may not be beneficial to all and to resist demanding that the social culture be changed to agree with their culture, even though they all are free to explore them.

The choices we make must include living together in peace, love and hope. Again, the problem seems to be that mankind's ideas of peace, love and hope do not match what God commands them to be.

Of course, we can choose to change the local laws, or we can leave or fight or kill. But, when it comes down to that, there is never any peace, love, or hope for justice. When there is no justice, there can be no forgiveness and without that there is no peace, love or hope.

This is the reality of the condition of our world today. Mankind continues to push on the rope that it's hanging itself with. Sooner, not later, we find there are no knots around to hold onto because there are no peaceful places around that are loving and offering hope. Everyone in that situation ends up living a compromised life, a life that is less than it could be, and less than God intended it to be.

It Is definitely wrong to think that anything goes. It is wrong to lie, cheat, steal or kill as long as we can get away with it.  It is wrong to gorge ourselves with self-indulgent whim and someone else's expense. The more laws we make, the more fragmented our diverse society becomes. How did we ever get so many priests, martyrs, gurus, deities, experts, lawyers, soothsayers, master counselors?

Everybody seems to hide behind their own law. If they get a little money in their pocket, they want to change the law to be more to their individual liking. That kind of thinking has resulted in so many laws that people have forgotten what the purpose of laws are for.  Laws are not made for our benefits or entitlements. Laws do not make wrongs right.

The Bible tells us that laws were created to identify wrongful sin (Romans 3:20).

Laws identify and deal with wrongs. They are not enacted to necessarily promote self-manifested concepts of diversity or personal preferences.

Our society needs to deal with our God-less hearts. We have a society with almost as many gods as there are people.  Everyone since Adam and Eve have tried they hand at being their own little god. In that regard, laws against walls, chains, weapons, lies, thefts, beatings, or shootings are not going to help because the God-sized hole in our collective hearts goes unchecked. The only laws that are big enough to fill the godless relationship hole in our hearts are God's Laws.  Folks, that is not going to change.

It is almost as though people think that good exists only when wrongs contrast it.  There need not be wrongs for there to be good in the world.  But, every good that is left undone, just makes more room for the bad that is incompatible with with God.  God has allowed such a cleansing wipe-out before, and He has said that we are living our last chances before He passes His final judgment.  

Look at Adam and Eve, The Great Flood of Noah, and The Tower of Babylon.  He hasn't wiped out all of the people since the Great Flood, as he did with Adam and Eve, He just through them out of The Garden of Eden, His test bed for Heaven.

God is consistent and unwavering; 'Get out of Eden forever Adam, and take Eve with you.'  That's a wipe-the-slate action.  The Great Flood?  That was another wipe-the slate-clean.  Only 8 people survived out of what could have been as many as 9 billion people.  Trying to build a Tower in Babylon to be as high as God?  God divided communities, gave every group unintelligible languages and He is still punishing wrong minded people, most recently by allowing pandemics and allowing mankind's let freedom ring whims encroach on the dissolution of security- and trust; thus, destroying trust across the whole of global society. A separated relationship with each other and with God is hell on earth.

What is God waiting for?

He wants to give everyone who has lived and who will live up to that time a chance to choose on what they will base their lives and beliefs for the time of Final Judgment that only He knows.

Take a look at how God described the condition of society 2000 years ago.  Compare what you see about society today against that which existed in the past by looking at Romans 3:9-18 where God gives a description. The conclusion will confirm that Final Judgment can come at any time in near our future. 

What then?  Are we better than they?  Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.  THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING, THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS ; WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS; THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN. THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."

Those values are symptoms of what is wrong with our society these days.  Things have not effectively changed from the way they were 2000 years ago!  God's Word tells us that only:

Through Jesus Comes Forgiveness

I decided to do a little Bible study on the verse and on the subject of forgiveness in general.  I will give you a summary at the results of my study in Part 2.

This posting is copyright protected by Creative Commons requirements that credit must be given to the creator and allowances are given to only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.  Any adaptations of and to it must be shared under the same terms.

Forgiveness Today is Easier Said than Done

  OK how, you desperately ask...? reach for Jesus, God's Lifeline; in other words:

Cope your rope with:

Faith,

Love

&

Hope

The "rope" is a symbol here of forgiveness and the peace of eternal salvation... Think about the desperation of the world's inhabitants who did not believe in God and missed sailing on the FSS-SCV-1 Ark with Noah and his family (Also known as the "Father," "Son," "Spirit" "Soul Carrier Vehicle;" Genesis 7-9)

Only to find out too late that the flood waters would not put the Hell fires out. 

 ...

Look around you, like the earth dwellers in the Great Flood.  What do you see?

"Oh, oh, they silently realize. this is not good." God sees the same state of things and nods, "This is still not good

... yet!"

Then I am sure He wonders, "Who will be the first to fix it?"

While forgiveness is a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith, we fail in forgiving because we do not forgive others for their transgressions on us.

Matthew 6:14-15 highlight the issues:

"For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."

The result is that a world that trespasses on each other. We hate that so much that we end up hating each other for not doing something that we are unwilling to do.

Our collective failure to forgive is fundamentally why our world is in the condition it is in; it's why we may be in exactly the condition that is troubling all of us.

Unforgiveness is the norm across all facets of human life on Earth.  We already know what is in store for us if that continues just by looking at the the way things were and are now.

In the meantime, nobody wants to the the first to forgive.

Sound like a Catch-22 situation?  Who's on First?

Take a look at what an unforgiving Earth looks like?

A fifty year old activist song described our big blue marble like a  "A Ball of Confusion," at the end of its rope, unable to cope.

Today it is eerily similar to the way it was then.

It is a time of unknown futures, lost hope, ongoing proxy wars, nuclear annihilation threats, social value changes, racial unrest, rising violent crime rates, out of control law enforcement, huge swings in living costs, stagnant income levels and a massive population that suffers from the triple perfect storm of being under ill-equipped to handle such hardships. Society is generally under-educated, under-employed and under-insured and without a spiritual compass.

Look around.

The Government is deadlocked; cannot seem to pass judicious laws.  It's broken.

That's OK, drop the bombs, plant the IED's, launch the drones, tear things down, demonstrate, assassinate, kill the Head of the State!

Can't reliably put food on the table and pay rent or mortgage?

Well, that's fine, subject a store or your neighbor to the five finger discount or better yet, jack a car or scam someone with a credit skimmer; buy for cheap a huge list of ID's and passwords purchased on the Deep Dark Web.   Click, YouTube will show you how; see, it's easy; just grab the low hanging fruit.

You better be ready to reach for them rafters when stopped by the local police; don't even think about reaching for anything in your glove compartment.  You better know your name; they won't ask you twice.  Just shoot!  The AI trainer counseled you that it is easier to defend against the dead.  Don't worry, the Grand Jury won't indict you.

Killing someone with whom you happen to fear or disagree is an easier way to resolve conflict, isn't it?  Don't like the way they drive?  Just shoot'em; people are getting better and better at that now that they can get plenty of practice doing it virtually real like.  Who cares if your guilty?  Society will pay for your daily three squares and you can bank on early release.

Oh, I forgot you could just say no and really, really, really mean it; settle for the big loot out of court.  Let  taxpayer money fix weaknesses humans are unwilling to fix themselves.  Let's all sing like the birdies sing, "Tweet, Tweet, Tweet@metoo;" Too hard to believe a made up reality, just sing "boo, boo, hoo, boo, hoo," my word against yours.

Goodness gracious, it's like Groundhog Day, again.

Mr. Dylan, the times they are not a changing.

In many ways things are worse than they were 50 years ago.  People everywhere find themselves scratching their heads trying to figure out how to just survive.

When was the last time you faced a family disagreement of any kind?  Relationship disagreements seem to be settled by avoidance or good riddance.  They have been conditioned by TV Star and Repeated social media remarks to let whomever disagrees with them know that they are dead to their conscious soul.

They expect whoever is in dispute with you to simply "Relax, and accept that it's just ISIS jihad time. 

A good beating or beheading in some ways may seem like a way to minimize the time it takes to agree to demands that are not yours.  But, what a mess and waste that leaves.

Give the power to the powerful?  Sure, only don't make me follow them because they're the only ones to benefit by my loyalty, and they're not God.

Arguments are just too hard to settle?  Try a handy Glock or go to Government gun-buy-back auctions.  Take too long?  Get an AR-15 or easier still and less messy or try numbing your senses by becoming a "Fallout 1 thru 4" game master.

Parole is an alternative almost guaranteed when compared with high incarceration and rehab costs.  When is the last time you checked recidivism rates?  The US is averaging about 77% re-incarceration within five years of being released from prison.  That's OK!  Let's just change the law to make wrong, right and right, wrong!

God has already told us that He will not have a relationship with us if that's our mindset.  

The world we manifest to God by our collective actions and beliefs are undeserving of being forgiven?  That's OK, "just forget about it."

The process of forgiveness today is easier said than done.

But understand that failing to forgive is violating of God's Word and thus is incompatible with God's requirements, not my requirements, God's requirement.

Unforgiveness in principle is a sin that can keep us from entering the Kingdom of Heaven.

Questions some of us might be asking include:

• Why do we have to forgive that?
• What do we have to do to forgive?
• Will it be affordable?
• How will we know that we are forgiven?
• What will we gain if we forgive?

Instead, when we start asking how can I forgive, we'll be taking the first steps toward repairing our relationships with each other and, more importantly with God.

The only place to find out how to do it is in The Word of God, in your heart and in your soul.

If that is a non-starter for you, then that's symptomatic of why society is the way it is.  Ignoring that is like living your life with your head in the sand.

Let's clear our heads, minds and hearts.  And begin.

Check out the next post after you leave or send your comments, suggestions and ideas.

Use the comments section or shoot me an Email at aulygeo@gmail.com

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