Monthly Archives: June 2020

Daniel Grey, Devotional

Why Do You Look For The Living Among The Dead?

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The other day I was reading the last chapter in Luke and a verse struck me. It is a quote from one of the angels talking to the women looking for Jesus in the empty tomb.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?” Luke 24:5b

I think it’s a particular stunning verse, and in the context of the Luke’s narrative it is the turning point. Preceding this moment we have a close friend’s betrayal, unjust trials, torture, and the crucifixion of an innocent man. Let us sit in that for a second. Imagine yourself a witness to these moments:

A friend’s betrayal

Unfair, unorthodox, & unjust trials

Torture – flogging and mockery

Crucifixion, a humiliating and painful execution of state sponsered asphyxiation

Death of an innocent man

Then BAM! These ten words nearly jump off the page and bring a sudden stop to the terror.

Why do you look for the living among the dead?

Jesus is alive!

Can you feel the power in this verse? Do you see how the whole world pivots from this moment? Can you put yourself in the shoes of the women that day? Can we have the humility to put ourselves under the same scrutiny?

Why do I look for life among the dead?

I have sought to find life and salvation in relationships with women. I have looked for pleasure in the grave of porn sites. I have fought and sought to be approved and impressive to others who themselves are seeking life in the cemeteries of this world.

Even now I search for comfort among the cushions of the couch instead of in the God of the universe. I search for appreciation and value for the deeds I do in my house, at work, and in my friend group instead of doing great things out of the confidence that God has already declared my value infinite. I search for happiness and joy within my life without going to the source of happiness and joy. I search for comfort, appreciation, approval, happiness, & joy in a world that has no idea how to acquire them while the Creator of these blessings offers them in abundance.

Why do I look for life among dead?

I do this because I have not convinced myself of the full goodness of God.

A Prayer

Father, please change my heart. Make me into a new being. Inspire me to be a man who seeks after You. Win my heart over. Convince me of Your love and goodness. You are so kind, so gracious, so loving. Help me believe that you are the source of life and not this world. I love you. Your will be done. Amen.

I know I’m not the only one. What about you?

Nathan Dooley, Spiritual Insights

Travel Back In Time And Discover The Beginning!

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Right now I’m currently studying through Genesis for myself, but also with my wife and some friends. The idea is to philosophize about the deep things of God together and understand our relationship with God for salvation.

We live in some very confusing times, but my God is not an author of confusion. Now while that is fact, it does not negate the reality of our condition because obviously confusion is prevalent in our society.

However, I think by exploring the genesis of our condition (death) will bring enlightening evidence to a very important spiritual truth that calibrates our understanding.

So let’s begin.

In…(Genesis 3:1-5)…it says:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die. ’“The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

NASB

So this serpent made some pretty serious accusations and claims of which are lies and false because it turned out God was right, eating that fruit was the wage of death and is why God warned us not to eat it.

Now… the information from that passage presents a thought that need be taken as a grain of salt, because it’s just a thought, but it seems to me that God may have had a plan for the fruit to be eaten in due course, just not prematurely.

However, it also seems the serpent saw an opportunity to become evil incarnate by giving premature information that betrayed the trust of God for political gain, to remove God from His throne and be in that place itself.

Anyway those thoughts seemed to be reasonable, but of course don’t take anything of what I say as gospel, listen to God and learn from His Word for yourself. Apart from that…

Lets imagine a scientific concept!

A concept that resembles ‘the makeup and movement of a serpent that slithers’, a snake!

Now direct that concept to the night sky and see the stars, imagine how the fabric or our universe is like the scales of a serpent that slithers on the service of the ground. Only this serpent described is not moving on the surface of the ground, but rather is the very makeup and movement of our realm.

How?

Lets travel from the ‘here and now’ of our crazy year in 2020 (or whenever) to the edge of the cosmos where our universe started. We’ve theorized this concept as, “The Big Bang!”. And that is where we reach the head and tongue of this snake, our cosmic serpent that is slithering to it’s demise, “For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss” (Matt.7:13).

As we put the science together, atheists will not deny the evidence that declares the glory of God throughout our cosmic reality. It’s stupid to think that the void of our expanse is without intelligent design. But the concern shouldn’t be about the evidence.

Rather, the more important concern should be about the relationship in which the evidence describes.

To reject the relationship in which sustains our existence is to be subject to a different relationship by accepting the voice that speaks out of turn, out of place, and receive it as gospel. The voice of our reality, a serpent.

That is what happened at the beginning when a sinful language came out from the mouth of a serpent to influence innocent ears with ideas about God that were untrue.

That is also why I think Jesus said, “18 …“I watched Satan fall from heaven like [a flash of] lightning.“, because of what our solar system, universe, is made of.

And so here we are at the beginning, right where the bible describes our diverge from the truth we once lived into our present state of death and destruction.

Now zoom in just before the woman eats the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, remember this woman is also the wife of the man that God created and warned also not to eat from that fruit.

From that point, hit the rewind; the woman does not eat the fruit, puts the fruit back on the tree; the woman is back inside the rib of her man; the man is alone without a woman to help him in the garden; the man is taken out of the garden to where he was first created.

We are now at the beginning of where God first thought to form man from out of the dust of the ground.

In…Genesis 2:4-8…it says:

This is the history of [the origin of] the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day [that is, days of creation] that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens— no shrub or plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground, but a mist (fog, dew, vapor) used to rise from the land and water the entire surface of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed [that is, created the body of] man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being [an individual complete in body and spirit]. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden (oasis) in the east, in Eden (delight, land of happiness); and He put the man whom He had formed (created) there.

AMP

Think about what has happened before our wage of death that claims every soul in this reality!?

Think about how the man and woman live in a place of eternity without experiencing death!?

Think about what happened before God put the man in the garden of Eden!?

I’m excited to explore with you! Hope to see evidence of your reading this! And until next time…

Nathan Dooley