The Nature of Man

     What is the nature of man? Is man inherently good or evil, and can he bring himself to a position of being fully good or not? These are the questions that try men's souls. If man is good on his own, then by his own wit and ability to reason, he can create a society that is perfect and a utopia. Such has been the topic of many a novel and motion picture, however, none come to pass in the movies or in reality. Because there is inconsistencies with "man being good' and what the Bible has to say about it.

      In Romans it talks about man being fully depraved, since man is depraved we cannot trust the systems that are not foundation-ally built on something higher than himself. Such as a domestic system, if the idea of marriage doesn't come from God, then the covenant is said unto what? There is no higher thing you are bringing into the picture, and since we are only basing it out of ourselves, and since we can change our minds, it logically follows that man cannot be his own standard. This is the problem with culture, since we have gone out into an age..a "new age" we now believe that the only standard necessary to be measured against is what we create for ourselves.

      In a world where we cannot be held accountable to anything except ourselves, then any kind of moral justification is possible. The unborn being slain, or who is to say that a person can't logically get to the point where any person with tan skin is not experiencing the utmost pleasurable quality of life and therefore doesn't deserve to be alive.

     We don't like to believe in the most extreme examples but that is the logical implication. If I say that tan is not good, and what is say is the standard I go by, then it is ok that tan is not good. Since I am "good" then what I say is therefore good. The logical incoherency is irrelevant when you are only justifying right and wrong and what is good and bad simply by the standard you create.

     This is the post-modern world that we now live in, where according to polluck the artist everything is irrational and by chance, and a hodge podge of religions can make up my moral code. Whatever the group with the loudest voice determines what rights are for individuals, and the one with the most say so can determine what society looks like. Be warned and vigilant, this is the culture we live in.

More to life than this

 The more I see how culture in America has been shaped and formed in the United States, it truly begins to make me sick how much Christians are backing down. I don't mean Christ isn't still working, or that Christians aren't still doing what they can and helping others "come to Christ" but that's where we tend to stop.

     I think our culture as a whole has forgotten what the meaning of the cross truly is. It isn't simply a tool to a one-time occurrence of living knowing we are going to heaven. The cross was the entirety of the promise of God to the human race, in the old testament. Mankind as a whole has been given more than just a ticket to heaven, but a  season pass to healing, restoration and renewal.
 
    The most incredible aspect to it all isn't that you have accepted Christ and now don't have to worry about working for a spot in the afterlife, but that you accept the reality that God is providentially and relentlessly pursuing your life. It is the same as having the person you look up to the most in life, or even a famous person coming to you and saying, I want to live life with you. You are my greatest joy, and I have laid my life down for you, now walk with me.

     I don't suppose using a celebrity of human figure is quite appropriate, but it gives us the idea of how significant it really is. Truly the more I think I have things figured out, God allows another layer, or wall to come down and let me grow through that. Almost like molting as an insect, You see yourself only as your flesh, as you allow it to come off, although it is a struggle it is freeing and you have grown through it. The great thing is though, is that we will always have another layer that will eventually be ready to come off, because we never stop growing.

     Every moment we surrender over our wills to His, our life becomes something more than living day to day paying bills purposeless. Life isn't about just making it until Christ returns, but a perpetual conflict filled tool God uses to grow and shape us for His will and Glory. The world isn't secular and Christian it is all God's whether it is not filled with His light or not. That is our purpose here though, To reclaim any territory in the enemies clutches, as Kuyper says.


"there is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over, does not cry, Mine!"

     Let us not get lost in the mentality that our lives are our own for there is nothing in this world we truly can govern and control that our Christ has not already owned and seen. Healing, and restoration is God's desire for our lives and our hearts. He does not send troubles our way to test us, He is like a father watching their child suffer. His greatest desire is to see us want Him, above all things, and admit we need him.

     Why fight what is for our own good, I pray we do not.