Why are we here?
I've been thinking lately. Why are we here on earth? Yeah, to be Christ to people... and to show them what God is really like. But what about non-Christians. What is the human race doing on earth? What is the point? I was talking to Paul about this last night and his answer was astounding to me. He said "we're here for God. We were created by God, for God." That got me thinking about how grieved God must be when we mess up our lives. Imagine... GOD... made us for himself. What an increadible thought! So how then shall we live?
but that brings me to another thought... if God created us for himself, does he want us to live happily on earth? Was he serious about suffering and being persecuted because of him? Are we really suppose to love our life on earth? what about those being killed for their faith? If heaven is our hope, then what's the point of life on earth? I suppose God intended for us to live here on earth in the way he now desires us to live in heaven... perfectly. But we sinned and now we're messed up and it's only by God's grace and the sacrifice of Jesus that we have a hope of being made whole again. So is heaven really our hope? or do we love life here on earth too much? Can you love life too much?
thoughts?
but that brings me to another thought... if God created us for himself, does he want us to live happily on earth? Was he serious about suffering and being persecuted because of him? Are we really suppose to love our life on earth? what about those being killed for their faith? If heaven is our hope, then what's the point of life on earth? I suppose God intended for us to live here on earth in the way he now desires us to live in heaven... perfectly. But we sinned and now we're messed up and it's only by God's grace and the sacrifice of Jesus that we have a hope of being made whole again. So is heaven really our hope? or do we love life here on earth too much? Can you love life too much?
thoughts?
posted by Little Worshiper @ 4:52 PM
5 Comments:
At 11:31 AM,
Sarah said…
Hey Jen,
Just wanted to let you know i hadnt forgotten about this blog and i not punking out on this one, i'm doing some thinking and seeking out some stuff before i leave a comment re. your blog.
At 10:32 PM,
DanielB said…
This is a long comment, but you didn't exactly leave an easy post. Bear with me. Jenn, your post is heartbreaking. I'll do my best to answer, I don't know it all and may God have mercy on me if I have anything wrong. QUOTE: We're here to be Christ to people...and to show them what God is really like, but what about non-Christians? I think your question is a little off course. Being Christ to people is in a word...ministry. Ministry is NOT our purpose, though it should flow OUT OF that purpose. Do you remember Jesus saying in Matt. 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants. On that Day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord! Didn't we prophesy in Your name? Didn't we expel demons in Your name? Didn't we perform many miracles in Your name?' Then I will tell them to their faces, 'I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!" Also, Rev 2:1-7, in the letter to the church in Ephesus, He gives praises for all the good things they're doing, but scolds them for leaving their first love...knowing God. Mary and Martha. Martha's running around getting food ready, trying to serve Jesus and she asks him to tell Mary to help her. What does He say to her? Martha, you are so concerned about so many things, but Mary has found what is important and I won't take it from her. She was at the feet of God, talking with him. That's where we belong. Continuing with your statement though, if our purpose IS ministry, then what purpose could the unbeliever have? It depends on how you look at it and from who's perspective. The life of an atheist has no purpose from their own perspective, but what they give themselves as such. People who may believe in "a God", but don't know what He thinks still live without purpose, even though God has a purpose for them. I personally believe that the very fact that we ask such a question shows the need for it and therefore demonstrates that we are meant to live with a purpose. Just as hunger shows that you're intended to ingest food to keep you healthy, so too, the need for purpose demonstrates that we're meant to live with one. So #1 PEOPLE HAVE A PURPOSE. Now it gets more complicated. There is general purpose, and specific purpose. Concerning the general purpose, I believe we need to go back to the beginning...to the garden of Eden. God made the perfect garden, put the man and the woman in it, provided for all their needs, and gave them a way to serve Him: tending the garden. God would visit them personally and walk and talk with them. Their (OUR) purpose was to know Him and because they loved Him, to serve Him. Remember how it said they didn't know that they were naked? Doesn't that sound weird? I sought the Lord on it for a while and I believe He showed me why. They didn't know they were naked because it honestly hadn't occurred to them to think of themselves. Let it sink in. All their needs are taken care of, they just tend the garden and commune with God. They don't need to worry (isn't worrying selfishly motivated?) There was no selfishness because there was no self. Selfishness was born when they sinned. The serpent said to them in effect, "God is holding out on you. He doesn't have your best interests in mind. If you'd just eat this fruit, you could be like Him. You could be YOUR OWN MASTER." ME? It hadn't occurred to them before. She was deceived and together they sinned. Suddenly, "they were AWARE OF THEMSELVES and KNEW that they WERE NAKED." Do you see? Right away. Selfishness, self-seeking, self-awareness was born. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says, "For the Messiah's love has hold of us, because we are convinced that one man died on behalf of all mankind (which implies that all mankind was already dead), and that he died on behalf of all in order that those who live should not live any longer FOR THEMSELVES but FOR THE ONE who on their behalf died and was raised." So I believe that God's general WILL for ALL mankind is #1 to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and #2 to love our neighbour as dearly as we would ourselves whether we realize that or not. Specific purposes vary by groups, nations, church bodies, regions, families, persons, etc. and that is totally God's decision. I'm not sure that we always know God's specific will. Take Moses for instance...he kills an Egyptian and runs for his life (he did what seemed best at the time) and years and years later, God calls him to a specific purpose, "lead My people out of Egypt." God's will for others may not be so cheery. Doesn't Romans 9:20 say, "Will what is formed say to Him who formed it, 'Why did you make me this way?'" So God intends and plans for people to burn in hell? Sounds harsh, but you need to be aware of the sin nature in questions like that. For one, when we rise up in pride against God to cast judgment upon Him, it is always based on a lie. Who can take God to court and win? It sounds like it's wrong for God to do that, unloving, etc. But is God unloving? No. Does he have our best interests at heart? Yes. So personally, I can't back this up, this is an opinion, but if God knows everything and can predict whether a person will ever surrender to Him or not, then if He knows a person is personally choosing to reject the God of peace, love, joy, purpose, etc., then doesn't it make sense to use that person as a pawn stacking up for them wrath and punishment to manipulate them in a way that may bring others to salvation and refine those who already believe in Him? I don't believe it fits with God's character to damn anyone who could be saved, not that he really damns them, since it IS totally their choice what they do.
Moving on, QUOTE: Does he want us to live happily on earth? Was he serious about suffering for him? Does God lie? First, I see an underlying equasion in your questions that I'll point out first. It appears you're saying, good things happening to us = happiness; unpleasant things happening to us = sadness. This is only true in a worldly point of view. But it should not be true for those who are living by a different set of rules, and the new identity in the Christ given us by God. What did his disciples do after their first beating? They rejoiced. Acts 5:40-42, "After summoning the emissaries and FLOGGING them, they commanded them not to speak in the name of Yeshua (Jesus), and let them go. The emissaries left the Sanhedrin overjoyed at having been considered WORTHY OF SUFFERING DISGRACE ON ACCOUNT OF HIM. And not for a SINGLE DAY, either in the Temple court or in private homes, did they stop teaching and proclaiming the Good News (that God no longer counts our sins against us, but against Jesus) that Yeshua is the Messiah." Doesn't that say it all? Every wrong we do, has already been paid for by Jesus. He remembers the whip that paid for what you did last week, he remembers the spit on his face that paid for what you'll do tomorrow. So let us make EVERY EFFORT to strip off the sin and not take for granted the sacrifice it took to redeem us, the precious lifeblood of the Christ. When we really get a grip on what Jesus has done for us, with a tender heart, broken, we beg for a switcharound. Let me suffer for YOU, Jesus. What can I do for you? Here I am, send me. "that those who live should not live any longer for themselves, but for the one who on their behalf died and was raised again." As for living happily on the earth, Jenn, the Bible says many times, we are to live as foreigners, looking forward to a heavenly home, but WHILE WE ARE HERE we live to know God and love Him and love others, ministering to the hurts and pains caused by living for self, and living clearly in a way NOT OF THIS WORLD. Not holding grudges, not loving with restraint and condition, not worrying, not fearing. It's beautiful, Jenn. Living like that catches people's attention more than any sermon ever will. The New Testament says we're in a "PROCESS OF BEING SAVED". As we learn what God has given us and what we should be trusting Him for, as we put that into practice, we're BEING SAVED from the consequences of living for self. Put off the old man/woman, put on the new man/woman. Oh Jenn, this has been a heart-stirring query. I'm thankful that you wrote it, perhaps God intended that you be going through these questions at this time to spur me on, I can't say, but in any case, it sounds to me like you haven't read your Bible in a while. The Word is full of promises, Jenn. Take hold of it. In it lies the secrets of life.
At 11:24 AM,
DanielB said…
Just to clarify, the purpose of unbelievers is also to know God though they are not currently fulfilling that purpose. If they choose not to know God they will still fulfill the purpose of bringing glory and credit to God for his greatness and mercy and justice and that's our purpose, too. I'd have to say it's even our primary purpose over knowing God, since it applies whether we know Him or not. I can't think of any verses off-hand, but to support the "bringing glory to God" purpose, there are plenty of times when God told the Israelites that He was doing and was going to do great things through them, so that His reputation would be great over all the earth (for the sake of people recognizing him as God and then knowing Him). And with the sacrifice of Christ, there is then the wrapping up of all His doings to "The Day" when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, giving glory and credit to God for his gooodness in everything. I know the Bible says that God is reconciling the world and all things to Himself through Jesus the Christ until the goal has been accomplished, then this world will end and God will restore His Creation and reward his saints and the "evil inclination" will be gone and we will live serving God, praising God, completely fulfilled for the rest of eternity.
May Your kingdom come, May Your will be done.
At 9:46 PM,
Sarah said…
Jenn,
Don’t think that your nuts for asking these questions. Every people groups from all times have asked these questions among others.
Why are we on earth???
Paul is dead on Jenn, We were created by God and for God. In Pentateuch class we were talking about creation and all the different theories there are. Parker one of my classmates made a comment (its just a thought not the truth) Satan fell and some of the angels went with him. God felt….sad….disappointed….angry. He wanted someone something to want/choose to be with Him, so he created us… Now maybe Parker is way off but either way God did create us to praise Him and have an intimate relationship with Him, but God is not going to make us follow Him, He’s allowing us to choose to follow Him.
Yes I agree with you God is grieved that we have messed up. By sinning we have made ourselves unworthy of Gods presence, But God knowing this would happen planned away for us to become holy and able to come into his presence through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Yes God is saddened when we sin but He’s Joyful when come to Him and repent and walk in the freedom.
How are we to live…. Lets look back to the Old Testament. In Leviticus is says we are to Be Holy for I (God) am Holy. God has called us to be obedient Him and for His people to be set apart from all other cultures, A people to do His work.
Back to the very beginning of time as we know it I believe that God did want us to be happy and have that close intimate relationship with Him…but… because man fell we now live in a sinful world…so now we do face suffering and persecution. Christ did say to expect the sin pain and suffering and to remember that the world hates you because they first it first hated Him. We are to keep our eyes on God and look forward to the day we reach heaven out life is a race as the scriptures put it, we are to run in such a way to win the race.
Jenn you keep referring to living perfectly….there is no way we can ever reach that we have the carnal flesh in us and we must put it to death daily. Sometimes we will fall but God knows your heart. One thing that keeps coming to mind is when you say If heaven is our home what’s the point living on earth? Well to be honest my response to that is that if you believe there is no point of living on earth once you have become a Christian then go take your life and go on to heaven….but I highly doubt that is good advice… but also if God didn’t want us to live on earth would He not take us on to glory once we accepted Him into our life?
We are to live here like aliens in this land because our home is heaven. We are to have a renewing of our mind and to not conform to the world… well that’s enough of my thoughts and babbling whcih very well could be way off.
I charge you to search the scriptures and see what they say. Speak to God and see what He has to say about this topic. I’ve found some verse now I looked these up a week or so ago so some might not be the right ones
Phil 2:4,5
Heb 12:1-3
Heb 10:22-39
Gal 5:16-26
Phil 3:12-21
Matt 25:35-41
2 Tim 2:15
1 Cor 9:24-27
Eph 4:12-16
1 Pet 1:13-17
Rom 12:1, 9-21
James 1:2,3
Matt 10:22
At 2:31 PM,
Sarah said…
Hey Jenn, I hope your searching the scriptures to find your answer to your questions
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