The Barber Bunch

Archive for March, 2012

The man on the front of this pamphlet is Rene’ Descartes. He was a French mathematician who lived from 1596-1650. Some of the things he said weren’t helpful to humanity. But one of the good and profound things he said was, “I think, therefore I am.”

This phrase helped me to believe something I already knew in my heart but didn’t know how to put into words:  I am more than just a body. I am more than just my brain. I cannot be the same thing as my thoughts for I am aware of my thoughts and can even decide what I want to think about. This proves, at least to me, that I am a spirit living inside a body.

But proving to myself that I am a “spirit-inside-of-body” also helped me to believe something else I already knew in my heart: I didn’t create myself…which means that a Spirit greater than me must have.  Yes, I began to believe in God.

I read a story in the Bible where a man named Moses met God and asked him what his name was. The reply from God was, “I am.” That reminded me of what Rene’ Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” If this God I was reading about in the Bible were the greater-than-me Spirit that I knew had to exist, then it made sense that His name was “I am.” Before He created any other little spirits, this would be how he would refer to Himself, wouldn’t it? So, I began to believe in the God of the Bible.

I kept reading the Bible and found that God values Himself and the people (little spirits-inside-of-bodies) He made. Because of this, He made rules on how He ought to be respected by the little spirits and how we little spirits ought to treat one another. These are known as The Ten Commandments and you can read them in the Bible’s book of Exodus, Chapter 20, and see them clarified in Matthew, Chapter 5.

I kept reading the Bible and found in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 9, verse 27 that, “Man is destined to die once and after that face judgment.” Our bodies won’t live forever, but our spirits will. After our bodies die, we will stand before God and be judged by His rules. I read that God said that those who had broken even one of his rules would go to a place of everlasting fire called Hell (James 2:10,  Matthew 5:22). That concerned me because I haven’t always treated God or my fellow spirits-inside-of-bodies with respect. I haven’t always honored God and I’ve have been unkind to some of my fellow spirits; I’ve lusted after some of their bodies; I’ve even wished that some of them didn’t exist at all. What would I do?

Amazingly, I found in the Bible that God is actually made of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that this second person, the Son, allowed Himself to become a spirit-inside-of-body just like me. He knew that none of us had kept God’s rules perfectly, so He lived a life of keeping those rules perfectly FOR US. Then He died a violent death, shedding His own blood as the punishment for OUR breaking of God’s rules! Now he asks us to do something that only a spirit can do: TRUST in what He has done for us. If we do, He promises we will live forever with Him in Heaven and we will be given new power for us to obey His rules until then. You can read all about this in the Bible’s book of Romans, chapters 3 through 8.

I love you, fellow spirit-inside-of-a-body. I don’t want you to spend eternity in Hell, but rather in Heaven with all those who have put their trust in the Son of God, Jesus. Please read God’s Word, the Bible, and trust in the great “I am” and all that He has done for us.