I like what the editor said there. I hadn’t thought to coin mankind as the crown of God’s creation (for Jesus is the Uncreated One). I just wish no one got conceited because of this, yet I don’t think hubris is God’s intent for anything, including making another human being, as if He wanted me or anyone else to become gods. That’d be weird, don’t you think? Yet I’ve met people who have said they were Jesus. And I thought they were more or less hubristic or something. But even so, no one should assume they know something when they don’t (1 Corinthians 8:2). The note I read in the VOICE version is found in page 3 there, and it’s in between verses 28 and 29.
I think we don’t understand anything about what it means to be human, to do good to all creation and to each other. I wish we could get along better (some just don’t want to); indeed, Christmas is just 23 days away. Fortunately, hate is forgivable, but it’s always un-Christian, for 1 John 3:15 says that all who hate a believer in Christ is a murderer, and that no one who does this has eternal life abiding in them. And speaking of Christmas, I realized a few days ago that many who are fear-mongering about the war on Christmas actually create hostility against Christmas itself, though they probably know about Jesus being the reason for the season. It doesn’t have to be this way (everyone celebrates it differently anyway), but offence is rich in many parts of the world, especially when someone uses God’s Name to stir up discord among friends and family. I’ve seen that happen in my life before, but I don’t want to go into details now. I think that Christmas — and also Easter/Resurrection Sunday, being three to four months apart depending on the lunar cycle — are supposed to be used as opportunities to reach out to the unsaved in large capacities. They don’t have to be the only days to do it, but no one needs to worship the days themselves, and that can actually be pretty easy to do. But worship of something other than God, while also un-Christian, is also forgivable; I just wish no one chose that over Him.
But there will come a day when a great tribulation lasting for seven years (as prophesied in Daniel and Revelation, and some other parts of Scripture) begins by surprise, starting with all Jesus-lovers being raptured out of this world unexpectedly by God’s command to Jesus taking up His Bride who had accepted Him by then, and are also still alive at that point (1 Thessalonians 4:17). (Sorry for the run-on sentence format 😂🤣!) I don’t know exactly why God predicted this would happen, but I don’t believe He wants it to take place. I don’t want to get into it now anyway. I always have frustration with others who preach judgment rather than the love of Jesus that everyone should know about, especially in His sacrifice for all mankind. I think a reason God had sent Him into this world is to reaffirm His love for every human being. I have a niece (she’s my brother’s infant daughter), and I don’t want her to be frightened by anything. Even as I write, I pray she enjoys a beautiful first Christmas this month, and also when I see her Christmas morning. I don’t mind if I don’t make it to the Rapture, but I’d love for my niece to never experience death. And the women in our families can live to be longer than a hundred (my mom’s maternal grandmother is at least 103 and is still living). But the men in my gene pool, we aren’t so fortunate. My dad’s parents died in their 70s, with my dad himself passing away due to a heart attack at only 55 in 2012. Two of his brothers had died at a relatively young age by means of the same thing, too. And I was younger than twelve in both cases (I’m turning 28 this month). My brother and I could be next in just fifteen years. And he’s only 22. I pray against this assignment that Satan has made in my family line generations ago, and I rebuke the setup he’s made so that it would be gone forever. I don’t want death to have the last word instead of Jesus, so that no one else could live without Him in Heaven and later in New Jerusalem (I’m the first to become Christian among my family members in ages, though many have faked it over the centuries). I want to be around my niece long enough so that I’m not dead by the time she has children of her own, if she’s interested in that 😅 — but I want children of my own, too. I’m still a single bachelor, by the way 😅
I’ll speak with you later!
Ron And His Stories 