Separation from God cont'd

So, do we sin because we are separated from God, or are we separated from God because we sin? I think it's both.
We sin because we don't have the presence of God around us.
As a Christian, I know that God dwells within me (Romans 8:9-11; 1 John 4:13), which makes it very hard for me to willingly want to sin. In fact, we can't live in a continuous life of sin if we're Christians. As Christians, we are called to give our lives as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) and to die to ourselves. As Christians, we are brought back into the presence of God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, God's presence sustains us and allows us to do those things we long to do (Philippians 4:13) for His Kingdom. Without God, those things would be impossible.
When I think about it, that might explain some part of why people in hell have no hope - because hell is a place of eternal separation from God, where God will not go and where man can not escape. If God does not abide in hell, there is no hope of redemption, and no hope of earning your way out. God is the only source of anything good, and without Him, there is a void of good. What do you have when there is a void of good? Hell. Without His sustaining presence, hell is and will forever be an endless cycle of sin.
We don't have the presence of God around us because we sin.
God punishes sin. So, when Adam and Eve sinned, he banished them from the Garden of Eden and put Cherabims and a flaming sword at the entrance (Genesis 3:24). That was their punishment. There was still hope of reconciliation, though. God knows that His creation has an innate longing for the One who created it. God's presence is what will be so splendid and pleasurable in heaven. We will be with God!
Like I've said before, I have no problem with saying that I'm not God. Some people would have a problem with saying that - I've talked with those people. I'm not God, therefore I'm not good, therefore I'm a sinner. God made me with arms, but that doesn't give me license to blame Him if I beat up someone. God gave women everything they need to be prostitutes. That doesn't give them the right to go downtown and stand on a street corner, all the while saying, "We were created that way, so blame God." Yes, we did inherit sin, but we are also responsible for it. "But," you say, "that just doesn't seem fair." To this I answer you as I did earlier. What if it were you in that garden? What if the serpent were talking directly to you, tempting you? Would you persevere? I'll leave it to Paul to wrap it up: "Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous." Romans 5:18,19.

Separation from God

I just finished a book in preparation for sharing and, more importantly, defending my faith in the face of questions and persecution with the coming attraction, "The DaVinci Code." The book is called "Cracking DaVinci's Code." Hopefully this will equip me with some more apologetic ammo. Anyway, in the book, the summary at the end brought up a very interesting notion about sin. We are separated from God by original sin, and not necessarily by our actions in the present. At first, I admit, it almost seemed heretical. Of course, we are to be responsible for our actions, and we can't blame Adam and Eve's original sin for what we do in the here and now. So how can we adopt that concept of sin- that it's not our sin that separates us from God, but the fact that humanity itself is and has been separated from the beginning of time, and is therefore continually apart from God? Well, when I got to thinking about it, it makes sense. I haven't thought it all out, but frankly, the fact that we start out without connection with God when we are born is matched with this concept. We are born into the world with sin in our genes. We start out separated from God, and we can only be reconciled to Him by being perfect, and as we all know, that has not been done (Romans 3:23). So, Jesus comes into the picture and puts His cross over the gap and asks us to "cross His cross" back to Him. Sounds theological to me, but many atheists (or unbelievers) would probably not be too comfortable with this teaching. They would say something like, "So it's Adam and Eve's fault for our being separated from God? That doesn't seem too "loving" to me. We have to pay for someone else's sinning." Well, my answer to that would be- if you were the first human created, would you be perfect? Is that what you are saying, that you would make no mistakes and do no selfish deeds? Hardly... none of us would. That's a big load to bear, being blamed for all humanity's sins. I'm glad Jesus bore it anyway. In my opinion, even if we are separated from God at the start, and continue to sin after that because we aren't close to Him, it seems a rather small price to pay just to admit one's selfish, depraved, sinful self and to cling to God for reconciliation. Let's let Jesus do the work. Then, let's praise Him forever for it.

So I finally gave in

Ok, it was only inevitable that the next step in my cyberspace journey was to create my own blog. After all, I try to keep a personal journal at home, but pen and paper are just so inconvenient... I mean, first there was email, then came facebook after much pressure from my wife, who is a fanatic. Then, of course was myspace, which was more of an effort on my part to create something on my own that was not Ashley's idea (I'm an original, what can I say). So here we are: Eliot's Blogs. Ok, I will quite typing now and realize that I'm basically talking to myself. I'll see you back here soon, Eliot.