The Soul was wounded, because it had racked up quite a bit of debt over the years.  That one lie, that time it stole, that forbidden affair, and that burning perpetual hatred.  Humanity has been blighted by The Soul of the wicked.  The Soul is sorry.  The Soul has regrets.  Yet, The Soul still carries the debt.  The payment can never be made, and the inevitable punishment looms like a mountain snowstorm over a stranded hiker.  Moving in for the cold bitter kill.

A long time ago God sent his son to the Earth.  He stitched and formed him to look just like his creation.  His creation, that pulled fruit from a tree and faced death.  His Son became the fruit and was put back on the tree.  The debt of all souls, paid.  So why would a divine being choose to add his likeness, his son, among those who defy and hate Him?  Why would God, apply torture and humiliation to his Son to pay the debt of souls?  Love.

So who killed Jesus?  They did! No, they did!  No, No, NO! THEY DID!  The argument is saturated with anger, however, it is misplaced.  The truth is, The Soul of Humanity killed Jesus, mine and yours.  Is it the gun the killer or the one who wielded it, that one judged guilty?  Is the murder weapon placed in prison or the murderer?  Is it the spoon that makes the glutton?  Should the obese fire up the treadmill and reconfigure the spoon?  The Soul made the debt, that had to be paid.  The instruments (people) involved in the execution of Jesus are not the issue. The sin of The Soul is.   The Soul with its deeds prompted the pain of God’s Son.

A visual of the damage of defiance to a Almighty Creator is seen upon that lonely cross.  Beaten to the brink of death.  Human resemblance robbed and replaced with tattered flesh.  His entire existence in that horrific moment became pain, and sorrow.  Yet, his love held on until the moment of his death.  It remains intact today.

God doesn’t say, “Look at that death!  The one you deserve!  Your next!”  You don’t have to be next.  The debt of The Soul is forgiven, daily wiped clean.  The choice is to not think that any debt is too large, and failure is permanent.  The relationship between creation and Creator is renewed.  The Soul doesn’t need to shred its credit card, because that is impossible.  To stop doing evil, is to stop breathing.  The Soul must take the card and daily hold it to the blood stained wood of the cross, look up and see that the cross is empty and so are the deep vaulted chasms that once held the debt of The Soul.

 

Copyright © 2017 Zachary W Gilbert

What if evil became tangible?  Words might take flight in the air and dark thoughts could grow out of heads like dusty twisted weeds. Hatred could be seen as a swirl of smoke from angry lips. Hot, smoldering, and black.  Resembling a trash bag snared on a cold gray metal hook of barbed wire.  A wind storm of hurtful words make it rage and buck.  Then loosed, it bites ears, pricks hearts and spills burning ink.  Its eyes deep in the storm burn like red lightning.  It splatters on faces and stains walls.  The word, ‘sorry’ tries to slow the damage.  Like weak soap it is devoured.  Once these creature are created, they can be hard to subdue.

Luke 11:24-26 (NCV)

²⁴ “When an evil spirit comes out of a person, it travels through dry places, looking for a place to rest. But when it finds no place, it says, ‘I will go back to the house I left.’ ²⁵ And when it comes back, it finds that house swept clean and made neat. ²⁶ Then the evil spirit goes out and brings seven other spirits more evil than it is, and they go in and live there. So the person has even more trouble than before.”

I like this story because self improvement is something that is a good thing.  When evil is purged or displaced, it has to be replaced.  Vacancy in our hearts and souls doesn’t seem to be a wise option.  What if love, respect, and compassion could inhabit our dark insides?  What if they could exist within tangible form.  I imagine they would be like large butterflies made of white silk.  They smell like warm honey and fresh roses.  Large and strong, they fly and pick people up and fly them around for a moment.  Giving them encouragement, hope, and a better perspective.

 

Copyright © 2016 Zachary W Gilbert

Last summer, I was very troubled.  One night, I decided to walk ‘in the garden’ with God.  I talked like I was walking with a friend.  As hot dry night air tickled the pine trees, I complained,  I worried out loud, and I even said thanks a few times.  It felt good.  After my walk was over, I felt better.  I felt better about everything.  I gave it away to God.  I let go.  My problems had been officially transferred and I felt peace knowing that I didn’t have to handle them anymore.  I wonder if once we stop walking in the garden with God, we lose our connection with him.

Genesis 3:8

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Life has a dulling effect on me.  As I get older there is nothing like a good nap.  I think I might need to remember to take care of my soul upkeep first.  There will be time to sleep later.  God want to hang out with us.  God wants the chat time.  In the garden, we should be talking.

Matthew 26:36-41

³⁶ Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

³⁹ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

⁴⁰ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. ⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

So, are there problems in your life?  Are you hurt or angry?  How many people have you complained to?  Did you know God gets jealous.  He may want you to involve him in your troubles.  Walk with him and tell him what is bugging you.  You don’t need a bedside, a full church, or a candle.  Just go for a walk, God is waiting for you in the garden.

 

Copyright © 2016 Zachary W Gilbert

As my pen drools blue nonsense upon a dry white page or my fingers claw at keys, I have attempted to describe what is beyond life.  They say, write what you know.  Upon this fascinating topic, the numerical value of my knowledge is zero.  I have never died, I don’t have relics from eternity, and I have never been visited by a ghost.

Perhaps during REM sleep when the right brain rules and logic is reduced to a darkened mist, we as humans can dip our toe in the waters of eternity.  I would like a list of those who made it to heaven, and those who ended up in hell.  I wonder if I would be surprised?  I wonder what they would say if I could talk to them for five minutes.

A few of my favorite mentions of the realm of the dead from the bible are;

Luke 16:30-31

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

1 Samuel 28 (Calling Samuel from the dead…) 

Exodus 19:21-22 MSG

^21-22 God said to Moses, “Go down. Warn the people not to break through the barricades to get a look at God lest many of them die. And the priests also, warn them to prepare themselves for the holy meeting, lest God break out against them.”

The logistics of the transfer from life to death is kind of a dead topic.  My conclusion suggests that is that it is indescribable with my limited pallet of five senses.  It would be like a rock trying to explain breathing, or a fish trying to teach someone to walk.

I lost my mom in 2008.  My wife and I lost 3 kids that we never got a change to meet.  I dream about them.   I want to believe that they visit me, and are not just a piece of my mind trying to heal emotionally.  Sometimes we talk, sometimes they are just in the room watching.  I feel like they are there.

As I near my 40’s I am starting to realize that the places of the dead, and the location of souls is something that I don’t need to focus on.  I am part of the land of the living, and I need to focus on that.   I may just read about Moses and the Prophets in 2017.  Perhaps my relationships  with the living can avoid deaths grasp.

 

Copyright © 2016 Zachary W Gilbert

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:15 NIV)

For me, it is a humbling thought to think that someone else often decides my fate. In interviews, I try to answer questions, sell the best version of myself, and make a good impression.  However, the ultimate decision of my fate, is in the hands of someone, other than me.  A marriage proposal is a question, and the fate of that decision is not mine.  When I drive on the road,  I watch the gray path twist, bend, rise and fall.  The scars made of tar, white and yellow lines hold perhaps rules, perhaps suggestions.  A flowered memorial is shackled by weeds  and blows in the wind.  It would seem fate took a life. Mind mind considers the blank stage of the road. Have all drivers had a good nights sleep?  Are they sober?  Is there vehicle properly serviced?  When the play starts will fate turn its hungry eye upon me.  Will my existence be reduced to a tilted white cross?  Fate has written the scripts.  Other people are in action, and deliver the lines. I am at their mercy.

I like what I am seeing in the book of Matthew.   I think I may get to write the format of my level of forgiveness.  I have control! I imagine a finger gilded holding a pen made of lightning.  Glowing letters spill onto a leathery page.  The book is held aloft by a pedestal made of clouds.  The script will be my ally or my enemy.

Wrong, evil, sin, whatever word one chooses, is often an destructive act committed against someone else. If I steal, someone loses money or possession.  If I lie, someone is mislead, or fooled.  If I kill, someone loses their life.  I become the fate that acts upon them.  That is a mighty decision.  I am striving to be other people minded.  In all things if I decide in favor of others and act in their best interests I think the world will get better.  I don’t have any control about how I am treated, but I do love the notion that I have complete control of how I act toward others.

The thread of eternal life is gently woven by the fabric of forgiveness.

 

Copyright © 2016 Zachary W Gilbert