Compiling God's Code

What’s that some people say, “Rules are meant to be broken?” Uh oh, unless you’re talking about the bible, and then, watch out, the Christian police will make sure you at least follow some of them, but, of course, only the ones that they stick to, at least when someone is watching. And that illustrates the problem with holding the bible up as a rulebook; there isn’t a single person on this earth now or ever, except for at least one, who actually kept all the rules; I take that back, even Jesus broke the rules, but then again, he understood that God isn’t a stickler for the rules but more about love and forgiveness.

What I find funny – I shouldn’t say funny because it’s not humorous – people get worked up and angry about that printed paper. They will spit, yell, and even threaten someone’s life if he or she defames that book, but they don’t have a problem crapping all over people. I guess it’s easier to follow a couple of rules than love your enemy, but God knew (knows) that, and he sent his only son to point it out to us, but rather than listen to him, we just crucified him for threatening those rules.

Here’s a novel thought; God isn’t a stickler for the rules of the bible. For one thing, if he only cared about words, he had an opportunity to write them himself when Jesus walked this planet, but Jesus didn’t sit around and scribble a bunch of text out. He lived as an example. He loved. He healed, and I just don’t mean physically. He forgave us for our sins, and he died so that we may live. His life wasn’t some stuffy old book. It was authentic. And don’t tell me that there weren’t any means to write and print books back when Jesus lived. He raised people from the dead. He turned water into wine. I don’t know about you, but I’ve printed thousands of pages, but I haven’t raised a single person from the dead, and like people say, if something is that important to you, you will figure out a way to get it done. He’s God. If he wanted his literal word in a book, he had the opportunity to make it happen.

Yes, God is logical, and strict rules constructed this universe, but just as Spock found out from Captain Kirk, life isn’t always logical, and many times, there is a gray area, and Jesus chided the Pharisees for being so literal but refusing to actually pay attention to the way they really lived their lives, and now, here we are in the present, and we have people standing in line to buy fried chicken, granted, awesome fried chicken, to show that they believe homosexuality is against the bible and God’s word. Of course, I couldn’t find any lines to stand firm against divorcing and then remarrying, sleeping in on a Sunday, dishonoring our parents, lying, or taking the Lord’s name in vain. Jesus said even lusting after someone was a sin, but you don’t see any fast food chain CEO mentioning people should quit gawking at all the pretty ladies, or for the women (or even some men) at the guys in the Magic Mike movie.

I didn’t wake up this morning to bash the bible, and the bible really isn’t even at fault here, but unfortunately, when something like the bible exists, people will exploit it, so maybe, I only fault the bible for its very existence, but that is flawed just as well, because the bible serves a purpose for us all, and this was brought to my attention yesterday in a small group at church as we discussed the bible – if you are going to believe in something, you must have a base for that belief, and so it is with the bible. Those printed pages of black and white provide a base, whereupon we can build our faith in God, so without the bible, it would be impossible to know Jesus and his life’s example. We would still know God loves us. I don’t get that from a bible; just like I don’t have to read it on a page to know my parents love me, but if I didn’t have my parents instruction to guide me in life, it would have been a harder journey, and the bible aids in our journey as well. We read from other people throughout time that when times got tough, God lifted them up and loved them regardless of what happened.

I leave you with a little joke to help illustrate my ramblings. May God bless you, and I love you.

An Army General was driving through the country on his way to speak at a graduation.

As he was riding along a country road, he saw a big barn with bull’s-eyes painted all over it. There were dozens and dozens of bull’s-eyes, as someone had been doing target practice, and every one of the bull’s-eyes had shots dead center.

This General was so impressed that he stopped at this farm and inquired of the owner of the barn about them. The owner started telling the General about the barn and all the bull’s-eyes.

“Well,” said the old farmer, “Those bull’s-eyes were done by a fellow named Raymond, but he’s a little odd…” The General interrupted and yelled, “Odd, I don’t care how odd he is! Anyone that can shoot like that, well, I need this man in my army!”

Well,” said the farmer, “It ain’t what you think! You see, General, Raymond shoots at the old barn, then he goes and paints bull’s-eyes around the bullet hole.”

photo by Ryk Neethling