Godowned

Do both you and I have a lot of stuff (but in NO way: "junk!") we have accumulated so far during our limited lives, which we have stored away in our residentual garage(s), warehouse(s), or storage unit(s)? Media advertisers have done their damage. Materialism is a way of life for most of us yet alive to appreciate and tell about it.

Does it bother us that - sooner or later - we or someone else has to get rid of some of whatever we have burrowed and stashed away, and use or misuse or not use other parts of it all? Does it grieve us that there are no U-Hauls into eternity, whether into Heaven or instead into Hell? That we have to leave it all, and either get burned to ashes with cremation or trapped in an outer-darkness-like coffin/casket box then buried six feet under within a cement vault in some silent cemetery?

The Creator will have His way no matter what, and NO one can do anything about it:

Ps 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth!"

Whether it benefits the deceased who in obedient abd absolute, never-ending motionlessness, perfectly comply with the Lord's mortal intentions...or does not benefit them.

Don't feel bad; God the Creator feels our pain, and can sympathize with us. Consider all the things He has made and accumulated within the entire universe, and the ultimate destiny of such He has called "good" and been so fond of consistently maintaining:

2Pet 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!

2Pe 3:13 But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Re 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

The following is a command not for Him but for ourselves:

1Th 1:9 For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,
1Jo 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

What are your favorite idols? What are mine? Federal reserve note money, gold coins, sharp .jpg color photos and/or .mpg movies of beautiful nude young women, the flashdrives or CD ROMS or harddrives such pics and movies are temporarily on? A certain yacht? A mansion? A new car? The list is endless.

Whatever the idol, or group of them, we know that:

Jas 1:17 Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

That got us to the Source of all pleasure, whether erotic or non-erotic.

Lu 12:15 And he said to them, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

The rhyme has reason: "Only one life, 'twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last".

I don't know how many readers saw Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway. It was intriguing, as to graphically illustrating how one guy used to modern conveniences might become a sole survivor on a deserted island with no hope of rescue back to civilization.....and what he would do for water, food, work, and fellowship to avoid going crazy with boredom and especially loneliness.

Let's say that you or I were that guy, and there was the strange choice of either killing both middle-aged parents of another guy, or instead the guy - all living on that deserted island. WHO would you or I kill? If we killed the parents, no more offspring would be possible, and Lord knows neither one of us as a human male can reproduce progenie with another male. Gay rights would mean miserable extinction.

The proverbial chicken would indeed be more important that the egg.

Or let's say we had the choice of either keeping the genie in the magic bottle who could grant us certain no-escape-back-to-civilization requests....or instead keep what the genie has made for us so far and destroy the genie and his bottle of containment. It would obviously be better to keep the provisional genie and his bottle.

There was a man who apparently was all alone on a deserted island:

Re 1:9 I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

That John probably was one of the apostles of the Christ, but we are not informed in the Bible how and exactly why Saint John was on the island of Patmos. Perhaps Roman soldiers did not know what to do with John, so they exiled him there, while in stark contrast the book of Acts of the New Testament recorded the close and detailed associations Saint Paul had with Romans with no Scriptural record of martyrdom. Perhaps John snuck away and exiled himself on that island for safety and security reasons.

Whatever the case, both John and Paul had visions of the brilliantly-blazing Christ in Heaven:

Ac 26:13 At midday, O king, I [Paul] saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me.

Re 1:16 in His right hand He held seven stars, from His mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Re 1:17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. But he laid His right hand upon me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last....

Some ridicule John as they would pity Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway who made a face on a soccer ball, named it "Wilson," and talked to it as if it was a real person....to avoid going nuts because of loneliness. They presume that John became delirious in his continuous solitary-person isolation and concocted the extensive fable of Revelation by taking parts of Old-Testament prophecies and the imagery therein and vividly mixing that with morality to produce a weird hallucinogenic non-pornographic tale of apocalyptic proportions. But of that alleged "fable," John himself stated:

Re 21:5 And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true."
Re 22:6 And he said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.

Scary, when you read it through.

In conclusion, we must worship the idol-giver (i.e. the Creator of ALL things)...clearly and logically not whatever He created and sustains....which whatever we wrongly and foolishly tend to insanely idolize.

One more thing.

Suppose the only other person on that deserted island was formerly a harlot who always refused to wear any clothes, or (if you're a gal) the only other person around was a nitpicky male IRS agent. Would you live with them? Visit them? Ever temporarily get together for sex with them? Scripture gives us some hints:

Mt 21:31 Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

If it got too tough to be around such a person:

Pr 14:7 Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.
Ro 16:17 I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid them.
2Co 6:14 Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
Eph 5:7 Therefore do not associate with them,
1Ti 6:20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge,
2Ti 2:14 Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.
2Ti 2:16 Avoid such godless chatter, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,
2Ti 3:5 holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people.

But, for the sake of not going loony by permanently depriving onesself of at least occasional heterosexual companionship, Scripture again gives wise counsel:

1Cor:1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote. It is well for a man not to touch a woman.
2 But because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
4 For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does.
5 Do not refuse one another except perhaps by agreement for a season, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, lest Satan tempt you through lack of self-control.
6 I say this by way of concession, not of command.
7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
8 To virgins and widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do.
9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.
10 To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband
11 (but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband) --and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
12 To the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.
13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.
14 For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy.
15 But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace.