Recently, I had been wrestling with the question: why? Why am I doing what I'm doing?
Why do I work at the job I have? Why do I own what I have? Why do I dream of contributing to the parallel economy? Why did Jesus directly and specifically confirm that going into my field of profession was the right thing to do?
What's the point of anything if it isn't in service of the Great Commission, of going and making disciples of all nations? Why do we even do civilization? Why does the world exist such that there is all this material thing around us if material things just distract us from God? Why don't we just all become ascetic wandering monks that pick fruits off the trees and bushes because God will provide us with what we need? Why didn't God make us as just big talking heads floating around in an empty black void that wouldn't be distracted by anything?
As you can see, the questions got very metaphysical.
So I prayed. I was feeling very frustrated, so it was kind of like venting at God. I asked Him all these questions. I asked Him what He saw in the material world that He called good. What heaven-wise value is there in this universe? Why do we have professions like farming, like craftsmen, like artists, like miners, like lawyers, etc.? Why aren't we all just monks fully, 100% focused on proselyting the faith? Why do we do all this other... seemingly secular, unrelated to Heaven stuff? Why did God give me the task of becoming a professional in this field instead of just telling me to go full monk in the wilderness?
And in the middle of praying, I confessed to God. I confessed that I was a terrible Christian. That I have many sins that I have both confessed to and that I have not confessed to. I asked God: what value did You see in me that made me worth saving?
And then that was when it hit me like lightning. I had a literal eureka! moment. God answered my question in the form of my own question. If God saw something in me, just as He sees in all other men and women, something worth sending His Son to die on the cross to save... He also sees something of value in what we do, in what we were made to do. I am talking about gifts, gifts that we were blessed with at birth. Gifts that become natural talent. God doesn't make mistakes. God isn't wasteful. Natural gifts are not a bug of His creation, they are a feature, and He did this for a purpose.
Natural gifts include things like being good at mathematics, being a skillful artist, being a talented athlete, and being a brilliant craftsman of some sort.
If something as lowly, as dirty, as wretched as a sinner like me is worth saving in God's eyes, then that means that God also sees something of value in what we do and create. God thinks we are worth saving because He loves us and He loves us because there is something good, beautiful, and true in us. And what we do and create often have echoes of that goodness, beauty, and truth. I believe that goodness, beauty, and truth in us is the image of God we were made in.
I now believe that civilization is a reflection of this image. Civilization, the whole thing of settling down, farming, crafting jewelry, painting pieces, governing, and working together. After all, Heaven is a civilization. It has a capitol city, the New Jerusalem, and a King. Even a High Priest. It has walls. It has gates.
God is a builder. Civilization is building. In a way, civilization is glorifying to God because it reflects God's love and creativity. The love that produces feelings of nationalism and the creativity that propels it to great heights and self-sustainment. And how much more does it glorify God when it is Christians, His own direct servants, who build civilization in His name?
My work, therefore, does something for God. It is a little more than a wisp of smoke in the wind, because with hard work and honesty, my work will reflect God in such a way that people ought to see, however dimly, God through what I do. My work should put the work of the Satanic NWO to shame.
The NWO will suck. It will be a terrible thing, a corruption of an once-good thing. Even as its denizens seem to take great pleasure in it, they can still sense that there is no light in it, no life, no genuine joy. It is a strange kind of suffering, where the flesh is satisfied but the soul parched. The sex, the addictions, the robotic fake social interactions, they all satisfy the flesh in some way but the soul still cries out for the living water.
You know it as the thousand-mile male genital stare. That is how I would describe the offerings of NWO. It is that stare in material form.
But the parallel economy promises to be more than just things. It promises to be more of a fellowship. We will experience the parallel Christian society more as a fellowship than a mechanistic society. We will find joy and peace in what we build, because it is for God and for each other, and not to serve Satan or mere flesh. That fellowship will look different to the non-Christian. It will not resemble their mechanistic lives. It will glorify God, and they will see that there is some light, some truth, some beauty, some goodness that they do not get out of what they have with the NWO.
That is why there are Christian farmers, miners, artists, blacksmiths. And in modern terms, why there are Christian engineers, computer programmers, doctors and nurses, attorneys, and yes, @Roosh, even pizza-makers. The genuine smile and twinkle in the eye you would bring my children if you were to make them a pizza would glorify God, and I would certainly hope there were nonbelievers in the midst looking on and pondering that smile and twinkle, and the beauty, the goodness, and the truth that that smile and twinkle reflect, and the One who made it all possible.
That is why I am doing things other than becoming an ascetic monk in the wilderness living off the berries of the bush. Because even those things are worth doing, because they can and do still fulfill the Great Commission in some way.
Why do I work at the job I have? Why do I own what I have? Why do I dream of contributing to the parallel economy? Why did Jesus directly and specifically confirm that going into my field of profession was the right thing to do?
What's the point of anything if it isn't in service of the Great Commission, of going and making disciples of all nations? Why do we even do civilization? Why does the world exist such that there is all this material thing around us if material things just distract us from God? Why don't we just all become ascetic wandering monks that pick fruits off the trees and bushes because God will provide us with what we need? Why didn't God make us as just big talking heads floating around in an empty black void that wouldn't be distracted by anything?
As you can see, the questions got very metaphysical.
So I prayed. I was feeling very frustrated, so it was kind of like venting at God. I asked Him all these questions. I asked Him what He saw in the material world that He called good. What heaven-wise value is there in this universe? Why do we have professions like farming, like craftsmen, like artists, like miners, like lawyers, etc.? Why aren't we all just monks fully, 100% focused on proselyting the faith? Why do we do all this other... seemingly secular, unrelated to Heaven stuff? Why did God give me the task of becoming a professional in this field instead of just telling me to go full monk in the wilderness?
And in the middle of praying, I confessed to God. I confessed that I was a terrible Christian. That I have many sins that I have both confessed to and that I have not confessed to. I asked God: what value did You see in me that made me worth saving?
And then that was when it hit me like lightning. I had a literal eureka! moment. God answered my question in the form of my own question. If God saw something in me, just as He sees in all other men and women, something worth sending His Son to die on the cross to save... He also sees something of value in what we do, in what we were made to do. I am talking about gifts, gifts that we were blessed with at birth. Gifts that become natural talent. God doesn't make mistakes. God isn't wasteful. Natural gifts are not a bug of His creation, they are a feature, and He did this for a purpose.
Natural gifts include things like being good at mathematics, being a skillful artist, being a talented athlete, and being a brilliant craftsman of some sort.
If something as lowly, as dirty, as wretched as a sinner like me is worth saving in God's eyes, then that means that God also sees something of value in what we do and create. God thinks we are worth saving because He loves us and He loves us because there is something good, beautiful, and true in us. And what we do and create often have echoes of that goodness, beauty, and truth. I believe that goodness, beauty, and truth in us is the image of God we were made in.
I now believe that civilization is a reflection of this image. Civilization, the whole thing of settling down, farming, crafting jewelry, painting pieces, governing, and working together. After all, Heaven is a civilization. It has a capitol city, the New Jerusalem, and a King. Even a High Priest. It has walls. It has gates.
God is a builder. Civilization is building. In a way, civilization is glorifying to God because it reflects God's love and creativity. The love that produces feelings of nationalism and the creativity that propels it to great heights and self-sustainment. And how much more does it glorify God when it is Christians, His own direct servants, who build civilization in His name?
My work, therefore, does something for God. It is a little more than a wisp of smoke in the wind, because with hard work and honesty, my work will reflect God in such a way that people ought to see, however dimly, God through what I do. My work should put the work of the Satanic NWO to shame.
The NWO will suck. It will be a terrible thing, a corruption of an once-good thing. Even as its denizens seem to take great pleasure in it, they can still sense that there is no light in it, no life, no genuine joy. It is a strange kind of suffering, where the flesh is satisfied but the soul parched. The sex, the addictions, the robotic fake social interactions, they all satisfy the flesh in some way but the soul still cries out for the living water.
You know it as the thousand-mile male genital stare. That is how I would describe the offerings of NWO. It is that stare in material form.
But the parallel economy promises to be more than just things. It promises to be more of a fellowship. We will experience the parallel Christian society more as a fellowship than a mechanistic society. We will find joy and peace in what we build, because it is for God and for each other, and not to serve Satan or mere flesh. That fellowship will look different to the non-Christian. It will not resemble their mechanistic lives. It will glorify God, and they will see that there is some light, some truth, some beauty, some goodness that they do not get out of what they have with the NWO.
That is why there are Christian farmers, miners, artists, blacksmiths. And in modern terms, why there are Christian engineers, computer programmers, doctors and nurses, attorneys, and yes, @Roosh, even pizza-makers. The genuine smile and twinkle in the eye you would bring my children if you were to make them a pizza would glorify God, and I would certainly hope there were nonbelievers in the midst looking on and pondering that smile and twinkle, and the beauty, the goodness, and the truth that that smile and twinkle reflect, and the One who made it all possible.
That is why I am doing things other than becoming an ascetic monk in the wilderness living off the berries of the bush. Because even those things are worth doing, because they can and do still fulfill the Great Commission in some way.