Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
Zephaniah 3:17 (emphasis added)

You frequently can hear it said that someone is having trouble ‘adulting’. That they are having problems getting the hang of the adult world. Whether it is all the nuanced responsibility, making sure to pay bills properly, building financial stability, eating properly, finding stable housing, or whatever. Sometimes though the issue isn’t as much ‘adulting’ as it is people-ing in the first place. Getting the hang of being a whole actual person can be daunting. It makes me ponder: what is the big deal about us anyway?

We place a lot of value on personhood. It is a common theme in monster/creature movies meant to disturb you. The bad guys are these near-unstoppable forces who cut through the masses like a hot knife through butter. They have a common theme: they don’t even care about humans. It’s a huge psychological hit to the audience because we care so much about being us. It’s that gasping shock that they… they… they don’t CARE! They’re just wiping us out! The desperation. The giving up. The emotional dip as things go from worse to worser (until the heroes save the day). We like to think of ourselves as important. As mattering.

We’ve taken it to human rights too. We LOVE us some human rights. Yet, at the same time, we want to deny creation and claim we are another type of animal. An evolved and awesome animal to be sure, but just another product of nature. If that’s true though, then we have no rights. Animals don’t have rights. Not out there in the world. They’re not hitting picket lines, forming committees, making laws, and enforcing protection. WE are the ones who give them rights. In the Animal Kingdom, you’re born, you struggle to survive, and if you’re not clever or tough, no one has to listen to you. There is no recourse if you think you’re wronged. Frequently there is bullying, abuse, and a slew of horror without any real meaning at all. Live, survive, die. That’s the cycle. If humans are simply advanced animals, then we have no rights either. If you truly think about it, it is only by acknowledging our DIFFERENCE from the animals that we can have (or give them) any rights at all.

We need to decide to embrace the TRUTH that we are NOT animals. Yes, we share characteristics with them – we were made from the same base materials (Genesis 2). But we have something that NOTHING else on this planet has. The breath of life. The living breath from Yahweh that made us LIVING BEINGS. Although animals ARE also called living beings, there is something different about us since the spirit in animals after death follows them down into the Earth, but the spirit in men ascends to return to Adonai (Ecclesiastes 3:19-21). We FUNCTION the same, but there is a clear difference on our insides.

We are not animals. We were not meant to hunt and gather and laboriously find our place in the world. Or to make such a name and mark that we would be worshipped for it – supplanting Elohim for all those who came after (Genesis 11:4). We were meant to steward. To keep. To protect, nurture, and spread. With no fear of nature or the animals in it. First off, they all ate vegetation and not meat (Genesis 1:30). Second, we were their rightful rulers (Genesis 1:26-31). Animals didn’t start eating meat until after the Fall when sin and death entered the world and everyone’s physiology changed (Genesis 3). We were not meant to DOMINATE but to have DOMINION. What’s the difference? About the same as between a ruler and a dictator.

The question remains, though, why are HUMANS so special? Many species can communicate. Only humans can truly speak. We can model artificial intelligence and make machines that seem self-aware, but they are only parrots of human thinking. Even if they start designing or building themselves they will still be parroted human thinking only now once or twice removed. Like a copy of a copy of a copy they will get ever weaker. What they write or otherwise create will not be the next step up, but a step down. A step removed from what makes us special: living spirits. So why us? Out of everything that we know exists in the universe and all that we DON’T know exists, plus all that we cannot fathom or perceive, why US? Short answer: because He said so.
Which is why we can have trouble people-ing or even adulting. We aren’t doing what we are meant to. We’re playing house. We have filled this world with our values. Our ideas. Our creations. Our rules. Not just one set either. Cultures, countries, races, and the list goes on. An almost never-ending set of divisions, differences, and separateness that we have to navigate. All of it human crafted from human reason, which we all can acknowledge is not perfect. With technology changing almost as fast as the brand names, it is a confusing world we have made for ourselves. It’s confusing for people with some experience, much less the young people who are taught more about terms, labels, and biological shenanigans than they are the skills needed to truly carve a place for yourself. It’s like we’re insisting they memorise the terms and conditions of life without letting them read (or even know) there’s a manual.

I’m not knocking anyone. I have no idea how to go about crafting a system that would work. I mean, the world wants everyone to have common ground and shared experiences – while having cultural differences that no one can borrow. The world wants everyone accepted and recognised – unless your definition of acceptance and recognition differs. The world wants cake, but it also wants pie, but everything should be keto and no one should eat dessert. The reason it is this way is because it’s in darkness. It’s a hotbed of ignorance because it spurns truth – which is absolute, objective, and has NOTHING to do with what we think or feel. The world hates that. It is threatened by it. And it actively tries to crush it. “In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it” (John 1:4-5). The darkness does not know the light (Jesus) and tries to actively shun it. It’s the default position we all start in. We have to choose whether to believe in His love or believe He wants to judge us and run away. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God” (John 3:17-18).

What would be so bad about the world acknowledging human beings (male AND female) are unique? They would have to acknowledge their guilt. They’d have to be responsible for their actions. They’d have to acknowledge consequences for actions. They’d have to acknowledge that we can’t do it all on our own – that is part and parcel with our uniqueness. Yahweh built into us a capacity to be like Him. To be able to stand as images of Himself. To show a physical world the Creator who lives in a spiritual world. To be lights from His light. Breath from His breath. The resource of THE Source. In other words, offspring. Children. Just like Him.

This isn’t because we’re in and of ourselves special. It’s because HE chose for us to be special. Because HE chose for us to be His children. Because HE looked across the vastness of everything until He was gazing into YOUR eyes, He smiled, and He said ‘BE’. Your deal is this: He designed you. He made you. He treasures you. He likes you. He watches for you. He wants to know you. He has given you life, now He wants to make it abundant in experiential knowledge of Him. He wants YOU. You are unique. You are you. He likes that and wants you to become more and more like you too. Beyond human thinking. Beyond people-ing. He wants you to become like Him. His Word shows us how: The Way. We should all walk it. He’s inviting you now. To realise your deal and to accept it. To become in Him, the real, true, and honest YOU. He loves you. Let Him introduce you to you. It will be His pleasure.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 53:7

“He was treated harshly and afflicted, but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth.” Messiah would be our sacrificial lamb. The one given in place of us. The one that ensured the passing over of death (and everything that comes from it, like sickness). Not a temporary sacrifice. Not an until next time sacrifice. But a forever and always sacrifice. The single and final payment for sin. “On the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The greatest prophet of the Old Covenant recognised Messiah (Matthew 11:11). A sacrifice not just for the Jews, but for the Jews first and then all of creation (Romans 1:16-17). Jesus died for us. Jesus gave everything for us. “So it was necessary for the sketches of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves required better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands—the representation of the true sanctuary—but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God’s presence for us. And he did not enter to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own, for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the consummation of the ages to put away sin by his sacrifice” (Hebrews 9:23-26). Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b