

DANCING FOR GOD

Second Abridged Edition

Dale Hatfield

Published by Dale Hatfield at Smashwords

Second Abridged Edition 2019

Abridged Edition 2019

Original Edition 2018

Copyright 2019 Dale Hatfield

Dancing for God is dedicated to my mother, Caroline Nadine Merchant, and to my Stepfather, Roscoe (Ross) Merchant. Mom was intelligent, beautiful, sensitive, and she was also flawed. But isn't that what being human is all about. I once wrote that if I could choose from among all the women who ever lived (Mother Mary excluded) to be my mother, I would choose the one I already have. That is as true today as the day I originally said it. In my life I never met a better man than Ross. If I were told that I could go back to my birth and start over and I could choose who would be my number one example of how to live, I would choose Ross.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Job 28:28

Part 1 - WHEN THE DEVIL COMES CALLING

Chapter 1: THERE WAS A BANG ... AND IT WAS A BIG ONE

Chapter 2: IT SAYS THIS HERE AND THAT THERE ... IS IT THIS OR IS IT THAT

Chapter 3: I WAS JUST SITTING AT THE BUS STOP

Part 2 – KING'S MOUNTAIN

Chapter 4: SO NOW IT'S MY TURN TO DANCE

Chapter 5: BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION – THE FARMVILLE CONNECTION

Chapter 6: MOM

Chapter 7: ROSS

Chapter 8: THE BOOK OF DALE

Part 3 – WHERE SHALL WISDOM BE FOUND

Job 28: 12-20

Chapter 9: THE WORD OF GOD

Chapter 10: JESUS

Chapter 11: THE KING OF THE JEWS

Chapter 12: SIX DAYS ...REALLY?

Chapter 13: REPLENISH THE EARTH

Chapter 14: RELIGION

Chapter 15: CHURCH HIERARCHY

Chapter 16: HOW WILL I BE JUDGED

Chapter 17: DESTINY'S CHOICES

Chapter 18: MY BROTHER'S KEEPER

Chapter 19: FAITH vs. WORKS

Chapter 20: LUKEWARM FAITH

Chapter 21: AN EYE FOR AN EYE

Chapter 22: ABORTION

Chapter 23: HOMOSEXUALITY

Chapter 24: PRAYER

Chapter 25: CALAMITIES, DISASTERS, AND INJUSTICE

Chapter 26: HYPOCRITES

Chapter 27: ARE PEOPLE MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEANS

Chapter 28: POOR, AND BLIND, AND NAKED

Chapter 29: WAKE UP

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Introduction

This abridged version of DANCING FOR GOD has less detail about my life's story so it can focus on God's story as I see it. Chapter 4 has been renamed SO NOW IT'S MY TURN TO DANCE.

"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that _it is_ good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but _how_ to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."

(Romans 7: 14-20, King James Version)

There is considerable debate about what Paul meant when he wrote those words to the Romans. Was he talking about himself or Christians in general? Was he saying that it is not possible to avoid sin? I have had personal conversations with friends who are good, faithful Christians who believe that once someone accepts Jesus as his or her savior, that person has the ability to avoid sin. They have told me that if someone continues to sin, that person has not really accepted Jesus as his or her savior.

If that is true then I am lost. I have been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and an addictive personality. When I was very young, I became obsessed with pornography. The availability of pornography led to an addiction to it. I have struggled with that addiction ever since. But I do not believe I am lost.

The two most important doctrines of Christianity are: first, that to be saved you must believe Jesus is the son of God and accept Jesus as your savior; second, that you are saved by faith and not by works. Works are a person's actions and deeds, every action and every deed. If it were possible for a person to be perfect in every action and deed that he or she performs, there would have been no need for Jesus to come and save us. And if that is true then sinful actions and deeds are inevitable in every human person.

With that in mind does that excuse my sinful actions and deeds simply because I accept Jesus as my savior? As Paul would say, God forbid. My rewards will be based on my actions and deeds. My salvation will not be based on my actions and deeds, but on my acceptance of Jesus as my Savior.

I believe my acceptance of Jesus as my savior includes an obligation to try not to sin.

This book is an effort to affirm the two doctrines of acceptance of Jesus as my savior and salvation by faith and not works.

But when faced with constant condemnation by good, faithful, Christians, it can become difficult to believe there is a place in Heaven for sinners. So this book is also an effort to help those who struggle as I do with my actions, understand that Heaven's gates are not closed to them. In fact Heaven is populated by sinners who were saved by the Grace of God and the Love of Jesus.

DANCING FOR GOD is a fictional telling of part of how my personal relationship with God has progressed. Through meditation, prayer, and inspiration the story unpacked, unfolded, and came together in the form of dreams I have had and conversations between me and God.

I confess that I have wondered whether the messages that I perceived were from God actually originated from my own desires, and needs. I took over ten years to write DANCING FOR GOD. I constantly meditated and prayed. God knows that I wanted to present His message, not mine.

Before I published DANCING FOR GOD, I prayed that if God did not want this message to be told that it fail in that no one would read it. Because you are reading it, I know it has not failed. I hope somewhere in these words you see a clearly paved road that leads you straight to Jesus who is waiting for you right now in Heaven.

And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;

and to depart from evil is understanding.

Job 28:28

PART I

WHEN THE DEVIL COMES CALLING

When the Devil comes calling don't answer the door

He'll offer you wine and roses and more

The roses smell sweet but the wine is his bait

He'll pour you a glass then just sit and wait

His suit is well cut and his shoes how they shine

He flashes his smile and says have some more wine

He's so polite he even pours the drink

Then he pours you another before you can think

You look around and say where is that rose

It's beside the bottle he says as he goes

Why don't you have that last little taste

It would be a shame if it just went to waste

You reach for the bottle and say thank you I will

Then you reach for the rose but it won't sit still

You touch the prize but it falls to the floor

And the Devil just laughs as he closes the door

CHAPTER 1

THERE WAS A BANG ... AND IT WAS A BIG ONE

It is dark, calm, still. Suddenly there is a loud noise, BANG! And a scream of pain follows. "Ooh! Ouch! Ooh! Ooh! That hurt! Dagnab it"! He has stubbed His toe. "I cannot see a thing!" He bellows. "Let there be light!" And there was light. And the light was separated from the darkness.

When everything was lit so God could see, God was not happy with what He saw. "This place is a mess," he said. "I am always tripping or banging my knee into something and I cannot find what I need when I want it. I have to organize this mess. I will put like things together and keep unlike things apart. I will build a series of domes." And He called the domes sky.

God was pleased with His new domes, all except one. "That mess over there," He said, "it needs something. I will add water and reshape it." So God rolled it into a ball. But it was too wet and sticky so He separated most of the water from the solid matter. "There, that looks okay, He said. But it still needs something. It is still kind of ugly. I will give it plants, green plants, and colorful flowers, and trees that bear fruit." And once He had covered the ball with plants and flowers and trees, He was pleased. "That is much more appealing," He said. And He called His new ball Earth.

But God was worried that if it stayed light all the time some of the colors would fade and it would become too hot. "I will make it be light on the earth sometimes and dark sometimes. I will place a bright ball of light nearby. The earth will circle this ball and rotate so the earth is light sometimes and dark sometimes." He called this ball Sun. "But so it is never completely dark, I will put a lesser ball nearby to reflect the light of the sun on the side of the earth where the sun is not." And He called the lesser ball Moon. "And so I can keep track of all the domes in the sky when I am visiting the earth, I will put other balls of light in the sky that I can see when it is dark. That way, I will know that everything is exactly where I want it to be." And God called those far away balls of light the heavens.

And God did not want to be alone when he visited Earth, so He put living things in the water and on the land. And God was not alone anymore. But He was troubled. The living things were unruly and they tore everything up. They needed someone to keep track of them and make them behave. So God created a leader for all the creatures of the earth, someone to be their shepherd. "I will make a man. And this man will be able to think and control all the creatures. And this man will have dominion over all the earth. And man will take care of the earth and all the creatures of the earth." And He called the man Adam.

But He knew there were times when He would not be with Adam. After all, He had other things to do, other places to be. But He did not want Adam to be lonely, so He created a companion for Adam. And He called Adam's companion Eve, a woman.

God looked at all He had done and He was pleased. But He was also tired so He decided that He should rest.

Suddenly from out of nowhere came the sound of a loud buzzer. I was startled back to consciousness. I had been asleep and the sound of my alarm woke me up. I have to use the annoying buzzer to wake me because the music option does not work. Soothing music just makes me want to sleep more. I rarely hear the buzzer though because I wake up just before it goes off every day. I think it is because I do not want to hear the darn thing. Man! It is annoying. And this morning, like all other mornings when the buzzer actually did wake me up, I fumbled around in the dark and found the button to turn it off.

Then I remembered God and my dream. I smiled as I thought about God stubbing His toe. I quickly shifted myself over to the other side of the bed in case God had already dispatched the bolt of lightning to strike me down for making fun of Him, even if it was in my sleep. Maybe it would strike where I was when I made fun of God's stumbling around rather than where I was after I moved. "How everything came into being," I said to myself as I lay there in the dark with a smile on my face. "So that is the real Big Bang is it? God stubbed His toe."

And there you have it. That is the story of creation. It all started because God stubbed his toe one day in the darkness. Hey! It could have happened that way. You do not know. You were not there. And neither was I. And neither was anyone else.

Some people think they know how everything got started. They can fairly accurately piece together what happened yesterday, and even the day before. They can figure out what happened a hundred years ago because the people who were there wrote down what went on. And before people could write, they told stories about what went on and handed those stories down from generation to generation. And because they can figure out what went on yesterday and the day before and even a hundred years ago, they think they can figure out what went on hundreds, millions, or billions of years ago even thought no one was there to tell the story and pass it on to the next generation.

The truth is we will never know with complete accuracy how we got here. We can experiment, extrapolate, postulate, and theorize all we want, but we will never know. When we explore new territory, we do not know what we will find. We cannot know because there are unknown variables there that we would never even imagine. That same truth applies to exploration of time and history. The further back we go in time, the more unknown variables there are that could throw our most intelligent guesses off track.

Let me use the example of an asteroid that is hurtling through space. Scientists can take facts like how big it is, how fast it is going and in what direction it seems to be headed and they believe they can figure out where it came from. But suppose that asteroid had been traveling through space for 30,000 years and 25,000 years ago, it collided with another asteroid, broke into smaller pieces and each smaller piece hurtled away in a completely different direction from the original larger asteroid. The asteroid we are tracking and calculating about today is one of those smaller pieces. All of our calculations about where it came from are wrong. Then imagine the original asteroid had numerous such collisions, perhaps dozens. What does that do to all the calculations about where it came from?

The same principle applies to all of the explanations about where we came from. The further back we go into unexplored time, the more chance there is that variables exist that cannot be accounted for. This means we can never be truly certain how we came into being. Does this mean we should not even try to explain where we came from? No. It means we should never be so arrogant as to believe we have the absolute answer. And that principle applies to every question we will ever ask, at least until we have our next dream.

CHAPTER 2

IT SAYS THIS HERE AND THAT THERE ... IS IT THIS OR IS IT THAT

One of the Ten Commandments in the Bible teaches that we should not kill. Then a few chapters later, the Bible tells us to stone to death anyone who commits adultery or commits a number of other described sins. In the book of Matthew, Jesus tells us not to judge others because the way we judge them is the way we will be judged. Yet many religious leaders advocate severe punishment for people who sin or break the law.

In many ways I am just like you, doing the best I can to be the best I can be, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, but always trying. The truth is I have many more questions about what is right and what is wrong than I have answers. God knows the answers to those questions, and to the things that do not make sense to me. And I believe that once God realized I would not be able to make sense of things, God the spirit became Jesus, a man who could walk among us, live as we live, and explain many of the things we could not figure out.

But Jesus did not answer every question. Instead He taught us a new way to think so we could figure out the answers. Jesus shifted our focus from survival, obedience and punishment to love and forgiveness. Jesus did not answer all possible questions because we did not even know enough at the time to ask some of the questions that would become important as human history unfolded. What would we have asked about euthanasia, stem cell research, or cloning for example? We did not even know these things were possible. Abortion and homosexuality may have existed, but certainly not as extensively as they exist today.

As a Christian, I look to the Bible for answers to ethical questions. But try as I might, I cannot find direct guidance on many of those issues. I once thought the answers are all in the Bible and I was just missing them when I read it. So I have consulted theologians, pastors, ministers, and priests who I thought could give me answers to how things "ought to be." But they can rarely point to a Bible scripture that plainly explains something as simple as when life begins. Instead, they often point to several seemingly unrelated verses of scripture in the Bible and relate them in a way that supports their doctrine. For example, Jesus said "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11). I am told He was claiming to be God since the 23rd Psalm says "The Lord is my shepherd."

Sometimes I have turned to reference manuals and searched them for answers. Often there is no mention at all of these most pressing questions.

So here we are you and I, trying to figure things out together. What if our thinking is flawed and we are making fatal mistakes? What if we are condemning our souls to an eternity outside of paradise and away from the presence of God because we cannot figure out the answer to some very important questions? Questions such as: Does God exist? Was mankind created by God with a reason for existing and a purpose for living or did mankind evolve at random with no specific direction or purpose intended? When does life begin? Is abortion okay? Is homosexuality okay? Are we our neighbors' keeper? In other words, do I have responsibilities to the people around me? If so, what are they? Does dominion over the earth mean possession, control, and consumption only or does it mean maintenance, protection, and preservation as well?

Perhaps the most important question of all is simple. Who decides what is morally and ethically right? Is right something that exists on a sliding scale with its definition depending on when or where you were born? If I am able to convince you that a particular action is right, does that make it is right no matter how it had previously been defined? For example, the unprovoked taking of another human life is universally viewed by society at large as wrong. But if I am able to convince society that it is okay for the strong to eliminate the weak, does that mean if I kill someone weaker than myself it has suddenly become okay?

Can you and I decide when life begins, or if abortion is okay, or if homosexuality is okay? Can you and I decide to ignore the needs of our neighbors? Can you and I decide to destroy the environment or even a specific part of the environment in a specific geographic area?

It is much easier not to ask these questions and ignore them than it is to ask them and then wrestle with my own conscience trying to figure out the answers. Because if I ask these questions, have I not created an obligation for myself to answer them? I asked myself these questions, and others like them, long ago and I have wrestled with them ever since. Sometimes I lie awake at night thinking about them. Sometimes I dream about them.

CHAPTER 3

I WAS JUST SITTING AT THE BUS STOP

I was sitting at a bus stop in Phoenix Arizona on a late summer day. There was not a cloud in the sky and the hot sun was directly overhead. It was 107 degrees. But it was a dry heat! Most people laugh at that statement, but there is some merit to it. You don't sweat so much when the humidity is only 20 percent, even when it is 107 degrees. Actually, you probably do sweat, and probably even more than you would in places where it might only be 80 degrees. That's probably why people say it is important to drink a lot of water. But when you do sweat, it evaporates quickly, so you are rarely ever sticky hot. You know what I mean by sticky hot. It's when your clothes stick to your skin from the moisture of your sweat. I recently visited my hometown in West Virginia and the average temperature could not have been above 85 degrees. But even in the morning when I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off, my body would be moist with sweat again within a few minutes. Yuck! That's sticky hot. And that rarely happens in Phoenix.

Anyway, back to the bus stop. It might not have been sticky, but it was hot. I could feel the heat on my skin. The bus stop was about half a mile south of downtown Phoenix in a semi-remote area, kind of a warehouse district. There was not much traffic and there was no one else around and it seemed like I had been waiting forever.

Suddenly, way off in the distance, beyond a hill called South Mountain I heard what sounded like thunder. It was quick, like the single beat of a drum, BOOM! Then silence. I thought that was pretty odd since it almost never rains at that time of year in Phoenix. And the weather was the same as it had been for the last ten days and the same that it would be for the next ten days, sunny, hot, no chance of rain. So I was kind of baffled as to what the sound might have been since I thought there was almost no chance that it was thunder.

Then, BANG! I heard it again. This time it seemed like it was directly behind me and much closer. It startled me and my heart jumped. I got up and looked around but saw no sign of what it might have been. There were no clouds in the sky and nothing nearby that would have sounded like that. "It can't be thunder," I said out loud, "but what is it?" A few minutes went by and I did not hear it again, so I sat down and continued waiting for the bus.

All of a sudden a man walked up from behind me and said "Hello, how are you this fine day?" I was startled again! Where did this guy come from? I had just the moment before been standing up and looking around and I did not see anyone nearby. I gathered myself and said, "I'm doing okay, how about you?"

"Very well, thank you," he responded.

This fellow was dressed in a solid black suit. Even his shirt was black and he wore a black tie. That was not very smart. Black is not the color to wear if you're trying to get away from the heat. But his suit was perfectly tailored and expensive looking. His hair was jet black and slicked back and it glistened in the sunlight. His skin looked kind of reddish but that is not so unusual in Arizona. His shoes were also black and really shiny, so shiny that the sunlight reflected off of them so brightly that I closed my eyes to keep from being blinded. His appearance was somewhat strange but it was also quite awesome. This guy was a character. But he was an imposing character with an air of power and confidence.

Then he sat down next to me, pretty close to me. It was a little too close for my comfort. And suddenly I was cold. That's right, cold. I could feel the chills on my arms, on my back and down my legs. Then he asked me, "You're wondering who I am, aren't you?" But I did not respond because I was still trying to figure out why I was so cold all of a sudden.

"I am God," he said.

What an odd thing to say. Considering how he was dressed and him saying he was God, I thought to myself that he was crazy. I did not know if he was completely crazy, but I knew he was at least a little crazy. As you might imagine, I was not sure how to respond. After a few seconds of reflection, I decided to be direct. I said to him, "I do not mean to offend you but I do not believe you are God."

He asked me how I could be sure. I thought about it for a moment and realized that I did not have an answer to that question either. If God actually were to come up to me and introduce Himself, how would I be able to tell for certain that it was God? I could ask Him to prove Himself by doing something "Godly", but that might anger Him. After all, God should not have to prove Himself to me. And what would prove to me that the person actually was God? Magicians can do a lot of things that you and I cannot figure out, much less explain. If this person was a magician, how would I be able to tell the difference? So I tried to bluff my way through the conversation. I told him that I had already met God and therefore I knew that he could not be God.

But this fellow was very inquisitive and pressed me further. "How can you be certain the one you found is God?" he asked.

"Because He had my spirit with Him" I said. "He showed my spirit to me and He even gave it to me."

When this odd fellow who claimed to be God heard that, he leaned forward and whispered, "Will you give your spirit to me, now?"

What an odd thing to ask. But it let me know that this person could not be God at all. If he were God he would already have my spirit. And suddenly, I realized who he was. He was Satan. I was talking to Satan. And Satan wanted my spirit. I should have been scared but I was not. I was beginning to feel really strong and confident myself. I stood up and turned directly toward him, standing completely still with my hands on my hips. I recently read that this was how a person should stand if he or she wanted to project strength. I suspected that if this fellow was Satan, and I was pretty sure he was, he could see my spirit but not take it from me. And I was right. He could see it and He was dazzled by it. He seemed to want it even more.

"Give me your spirit!" Satan demanded.

"No," I replied.

"I have much that I can give you for it" he said. "I will give you all of the earth," he offered, "and everything in it."

I stood firm. "No" I said.

"The universe then?" he went on, "the stars, the moon, I'll even give you the sun."

I did not waiver. "No" I repeated.

"There must be something you want. What is it?" he demanded. "Name your price. Whatever it is, I will give it to you. Just give me your soul."

"No!" I insisted emphatically. Satan wilted. He bowed his head, turned around and began to walk away in the direction from which he had come. I watched until he was a safe distance away. Then I turned my attention to the street to see if the bus was coming. I had turned away for just a moment, only long enough to check for the bus, but when I turned back to make sure Satan was still leaving, he was not there. There was nothing to obstruct my sight for several hundred yards, yet he was gone. He had vanished as quickly as he had come.

Then I heard traffic coming. I turned and looked to see the bus in the distance. As it got closer I could see it was not going to stop so I stepped into the street directly in front of the bus to make sure the driver could see me waiting. He must not have seen me because he did not stop the bus and it was too late for me to get out of the way. I closed my eyes and turned away just as it was about to hit me. I expected it to hurt a lot. But I did not feel anything at all. Then it was completely dark.

After a moment, I opened eyes. I was certain the bus had hit me, but I felt no pain. I imagined the bus hit me so hard that I had become completely numb because of the pain. I thought my nerves had been deadened. That had happened to me once before when I was a little boy. One of my friends got mad at me one day so he picked up a handful of rocks and threw them at me. They hit me in the face and neck, but I did not feel any pain. Apparently when something hurts a lot, the nerves just kind of go to sleep for a minute or two and go numb so you do not feel anything. But in a few minutes when the numbness wears off, the nerves can feel again. And that's what happened when my friend hit me with those rocks. I was numb for a few minutes, then in excruciating pain.

So I thought that might be why I did not feel any pain now even though I had just been hit by a bus. I looked around and saw that I did not seem to be in the street where I just got hit. I was standing in a line, a really long line. The line was so long that I could not see the beginning of it. And when I turned around I could not see the end of it either. This was a long line. I'm not sure where the line was going but I somehow knew I should not get out of line. I did not want to lose my place in case it was going somewhere good.

But it was a very slow moving line. Sometimes it seemed like I did not move any closer to the beginning of the line for hours. This gave me time to think. And I began to wonder just exactly where I was. How did I get there? Was I not hit by the bus? I thought for sure I was. And if I was hit by the bus, would I not be in a hospital or, even worse, a morgue? Just as this disturbing thought popped into my head, the line moved, although not far, just a few feet. But that was enough to start me thinking about where the line would lead and get my mind off of having been hit by the bus.

Finally, way off in the distance, I could see what I thought was the beginning of the line. The first person in line would step forward a few feet away from everyone else and look up and it looked like he was talking to someone. Then all of a sudden he began to dance. As he danced, he continued to talk to whoever it was that he saw. And then he disappeared. Honest, he just disappeared. I wiped my eyes and looked again. He really was gone.

Then the next person, a young woman, stepped a few feet forward, away from the line and began to talk to someone. This was a quick conversation. This young woman began to dance almost immediately. Then she disappeared too. I rubbed my eyes and blinked a few times then looked again. She was definitely gone.

I was beginning not to like what was going on so I decided to leave. I stepped out of line and from out of nowhere a big man appeared. "Where are you going?" he asked. "I need to go catch the bus." I responded. "Get back in line." he said. I did not really want to but he was a really big fellow. I got back in line. And I watched as every person stepped forward, did a dance and disappeared.

Finally I was the first person in line. It was my turn. I had seen enough to know exactly what I should do. But before I could actually step forward, a booming voice told me to "please step forward." I did and OH MY God! I mean really. It was God. My jaw dropped and I stood there thinking to myself that this was a really interesting dream.

"You are not dreaming," God said. "You are dead. When you would not sell your soul to Satan he caused you to step in front of the bus. It was not able to stop in time and it hit you. And now, here you are. This is your judgment day."

I did not know whether to believe Him or not and was about to ask Him to prove Himself when He said in His booming voice "I have nothing to prove. This is not my judgment day. It is yours." That startled me because I had not asked the question yet; it had just then popped into my mind. And before I could say anything else, God said "Bring me the book of Dale Hatfield."

"Oh No!" I thought to myself. I wondered if this was the Book of Life that I had always been told about. I did not see anyone hand Him a book, but suddenly He had a book in His hand. He looked at me for a moment, frowned and said "This is the book of your life, The Book of Dale Hatfield."

I began to understand why everyone else in line began to dance when it was their turn at the head of the line. They were dancing a jig hoping to find favor with God and influence his judgment. I was about ready to start a dance of my own when God said "You're not going to start dancing are you? Because I must tell you it doesn't work. Your fate is already written here in the book of your life."

God opened the book and began to read it to Himself. It seemed to me like I stood there for an eternity watching God read and occasionally frown as he read about my life. I started to ask a question. "Is my entire ....?" But before I could get the entire question out of my mouth, God held up his right index finger and said "Ah, Ah, Ah. This is not your time to talk. Before I dispense with you I will give you a chance to ask questions."

It was hard for me to believe that I was dead and this was my judgment day. I thought I would remember being hit by the bus. I thought I would certainly remember the pain. Maybe I was dreaming! "You're dead!" God boomed at me. God knew my thoughts. And it seemed to me that God was becoming impatient with me. "And we are here to determine your final dispensation."

Dispensation! Ugh! Somehow I had never thought of my final judgment as being a dispensation. "Now if you don't mind", God said, I have a long line of people to dispense with before I am done for the day."

My heart sank. But I told myself that I had been a pretty good guy so this might not be so bad. Then I thought that at least I had not been a bad guy. Then I thought that at least I had not been so bad that I would be sent to ... uh ... anyplace but heaven. Thankfully, God put me out of the misery of these thoughts. "Tell me about your family," He demanded.

I hesitated.

PART 2

KING'S MOUNTAIN

I've tried to climb King's Mountain

To look at the promised land

But each time I think I've reached the summit

I can't find a place to stand

The ground up there is shaky

And it seems I always fall

Sometimes I get so angry

That I don't want to try at all

But he visits me when I close my eyes

And dwells within my heart

So I fix my eyes on the mountaintop

And vow again to start

I journey up that mighty hill

With the hope that this will be

The day I see that wondrous land

That he has promised to me

I've tried so many times before

And once I thought I could see

The land where color, race, or creed

Would make no difference to me

But just when I thought I had seen the light

And had a smile upon my face

I slipped and fell from where I stood

And quickly lost my place

But I must keep on trying

Or everything he said

Will be nothing more than empty words

Raining down upon my head

So I tell myself the day will come

When we will realize

That we owe our souls to those faithful few

Who kept their eyes upon the prize

CHAPTER 4

SO NOW IT'S MY TURN TO DANCE

I woke up. It was dark. I was disoriented. Then I remembered Satan ... and God. And I realized it was only another dream. But it seemed so real. I got up and went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. After I had regained my sense of reality, I realized it was still only 1:30 in the morning so I went back to my bedroom and lay down to get some sleep before I had to get up and go to work.

I laid there with thoughts of the dream running through my head. Satan, the bus, the line, God, I could not stop thinking about them. But I was getting drowsy so I began to drift off to sleep. And there I was in line again, the same line as before. But I was a little confused. When my last dream ended, I had already made it to the front of the line and was already talking to God. Now I was not at the front of the line. But at least this time, I knew what to expect.

Sure enough, one by one, everyone stepped forward, did a dance and disappeared. Then it was my turn. I stepped forward. God looked at me with a blank stare. I did not know what to do so I just stood there. I put them in my pockets. I thought about whistling but realized I was not a good whistler. So there I was, fidgeting.

"Get your hands out of your pockets!" God said. "And look at me when I am talking to you. What's the matter with you? I was not done with you earlier. Now here you are again. I don't usually have to see the same person twice in this line? But I'll see you a hundred times if that is what it takes. Now, tell me about your family."

I bowed my head and thought about that for a minute. I suddenly realized that I do not really know very much about my family at all beyond knowing my dad, my mother, and my brothers. I am not even sure how many aunts and uncles I have. I know of a few of them, but I do not know any of them very well. My mother had a large family. I think she had eleven brothers and sisters and she was the youngest. I did not know any of them very well. In fact, I can only name a few of them. I have no idea how many brothers and sisters my father had. I know of two brothers and I do not think he had any sisters.

Then an idea came to me. I would tell him about the famous side of my family. "I think it might be better if I tell you what I know about the famous, or infamous depending on your point of view, Hatfield-McCoy feud," I began. "Truthfully, I know of two histories of my family, the one I have been told by family members and the one told by historians and writers who have done research. God listened intently as I told him the story as I knew it.

CHAPTER 5

BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION – THE FARMVILLE CONNECTION

"You do not know your father very well, do you?" God repeated. "Tell me what you know about him."

I hesitated because, well because God was right, I really don't know very much about him. He and my mother were divorced when I was very young, so young that I do not remember any time when they were together. The only times I remember anything about my father were two times when Mom sent Jerry and I to live with him. And truthfully, I do not remember anything about the first time.

God must have read my mind. "You must remember something," He said. "Tell me everything you remember no matter how little or insignificant you think it is."

"I should begin by giving you some background," I told God. "I was reading the Arizona Republic newspaper on Monday, June 16, 2003 when I came across a short, three paragraph article in the news briefs titled 400 BLACK STUDENTS GET DIPLOMAS 4 DECADES LATE. The dateline of the article said it was from Farmville, Virginia where I was born.

"The first paragraph reported that 400 black students received honorary diplomas at Prince Edward County High School in Virginia. Four decades earlier those students had been denied an education when Prince Edward County closed its public schools rather than integrate after the Supreme Court in its Brown v. Board of Education decision ordered desegregation of public schools in America. The article went on to explain that a private school for only white students was established and the county simply closed its public schools. Black students and their parents did not have the resources or ability to establish a private school for black children, so they did not attend school at all. In that way, Prince Edward County ensured that whites would not have to attend school with blacks no matter what the Supreme Court said.

"I was born in Farmville Virginia, located in Prince Edward County. By this time my mother and father had divorced and Mom was trying to raise two children on her own.

Once again God listened intently until I finished telling him how Farmville Virginia fit into the legal case of Brown v. Board of Education and how that affected my family and childhood.

CHAPTER 6

MOM

"Tell me about your mother," God repeated.

"Her name is Caroline Nadine," I began, "but that is not what it was supposed to be. My grandmother, Margaret Harriet wanted her name to be Patricia Nadine but the nurse who filled out the birth certificate put Caroline Nadine instead. You might think it was an honest mistake but it was not. You see, the nurse's name was Caroline. I guess she thought she deserved to have my mother named after her, so she named my mother Caroline. You're wondering why she would do that aren't you?

"My mother was the youngest child born to my grandparents. And she was the only child born in a hospital. All the others had been born at home with the help of a midwife. But Grandma Margaret's labor with Mom was troubled and long. It lasted three days. And toward the end everyone thought my Mom had died in Grandma Margaret's womb because she was not moving and no one could find her pulse. Fearing my grandmother might die as well, they rushed her to the hospital.

"The doctors at the hospital agreed that my mother had died in the womb, but one nurse insisted that she was still alive. The others insisted Mom was dead. But that Nurse would have none of it. Sure enough, after my grandmother had more difficulty Mom was born alive. That is why that nurse thought Mom should be named after her so she substituted her name, Caroline, for Mom's chosen name, Patricia on Mom's birth certificate.

"But grandma never acknowledged Mom's first name. She always called her Nadine. So the name most people recognize my mother by is Nadine. Actually, that is not completely true. My mother's everyday, conversational name, her nickname so to speak, is Dena.

"Mom grew up in an interesting family to say the least. I already mentioned that she was the tenth child born to my grandparents. My grandfather's name was Walter Lee Gibson and he was born, March 14, 1885. My grandmother's name was Margaret Harriet Harmon. She was born July 6, 1893. Their children were Hazel Marie, Clifford Woodrow, Kessie, Urcil, Rena, Pearl Lois, L.T. Junior, Dorothy Maple, Verna Mae, and Mom.

"Life in the Gibson family was harsh...

God sensed my emotions were almost more than I could handle at that moment. He gave me something else to think about. "Who is Ross?" He asked.

CHAPTER 7

ROSS

Mom met Ross when she was working as a waitress at Howard Johnson's. I told God that if I could have chosen the person who would be my real father, I would have chosen Ross. I took a deep breath and told God all about him. "His full name was Roscoe Wilbur Merchant. He was a truck driver who drove car carriers for Anchor Motor Freight in Baltimore Maryland.

I began to tell God about Ross. "I do not want to sound maudlin about him," I began, "but I never met a better man. He was honest, hardworking, generous, kind, and very practical.

There is a better word, a simple word that describes Ross. That word is sincerity.

"If you can find a good quality in my character, you can probably trace it back to Mom or Ross. I am convinced that if I searched the world over, I would not find two people with better hearts than them. I do not believe that any one of us is absolutely consistent in our actions, so in any given moment, any of us might stray from our normal behaviors, but when I think of Ross, I realize that when he said something, it was what he meant. If he did something, he absolutely believed it was the right thing to do. At least it was as close to the right thing as he could figure. And when he dealt with you, he dealt with you fairly.

I looked at God and said "So now you know enough about me to know why I have done some of the things I have done." He smiled and said "Of course I know why you have done the things you have done. I wanted to see if you know why you have done the things you have done. But there are some specific things we need to talk about."

God then turned His attention back to my Book of Life.

CHAPTER 8

THE BOOK OF DALE

I had been taught that everything I ever did would be written in the Book of Life and on my judgment day, I would have to account for how I had lived my life. But I had always thought this was a figurative lesson meant to impress upon me the importance of always being aware that I would not escape God's ultimate judgment. Now there I was, standing before God as he summoned The Book of Dale, the story of my life.

God looked at me sternly. I could feel my knees shaking as God opened The Book of Dale again. He read for a minute or two, pausing every thirty seconds or so to look me.

Finally, He spoke. "It says here that when you were in the third grade that you tried to pick a fight with another boy on the playground at school. It also says that he would not fight you but you hit him in the face anyway. Why did you want to pick a fight with him? Why would he not fight you back? And why would you hit him in the face even though he would not fight you? Huh? Tell me why! Why would you do something like that?"

I hesitated as I wondered if anyone was ever asked to explain why they broke up fights rather than why they started them. I must have stood there silently for at least two minutes trying to think of how to explain myself. "Just tell me why" God said. "You must know why you wanted to fight him. Had he done something to you?

"It may sound funny," I said, "but I was lonely."

God's left eyebrow raised, His right eyebrow dropped. "What?" He boomed at me. "You picked a fight with this fellow because you were lonely? What, maybe you thought he would think when you punched him in the face that was your way of saying hello?"

Even though fighting this boy made sense to me at the time, I began to see that it made no sense at all. But sense or not, I had to explain myself to God. So I told God the truth. "I had been sent to live with my father and he did not want me, I began. "When he sent me to live with other people, they did not seem to want me around either. But there was a group of boys at school that I thought would be my friends if I could do something to make them like me. They were not mean, but they were tough. They never ran from a fight, no matter how big the person was they might be fighting.

"I though that if I could show them that I was tough, they would let me be part of their group. So I found the biggest boy I could and told him to put up his dukes. He was big and I could tell that he would beat me up pretty quickly. But that did not matter to me. I just needed to be tough so the boys would like me. I did not know at the time that I had chosen the nicest boy in school. I only knew he was one of the biggest.

"He would not fight me and that just made me mad. So I hit him in the face hoping he would hit me back. He did not. He just stood there and told me that he was not going to fight me. I thought he was a coward. And I was getting really mad that he would not fight me. If he did not hit me I would not be able to prove how tough I was. So I hit him again. He just stood there. I was at my wit's end trying to figure out what to do.

Then one of the boys in the group came up to me and said that I should leave that guy alone. "He won't fight anybody" the boy said. "You want to play some marbles?" he asked me. And just like that I was part of the group. I had not really picked a fight, but I guess I showed them how tough I was because they accepted me as one of them.

"I wish I could say I was proud of myself, but I was not. I knew that the boy I tried to pick a fight with was stronger and tougher than me, not because he could beat me up, but because he did not beat me up.

God just stood there looking at me, not saying anything. I could feel the beads of sweat starting to gather on my forehead. Finally, He spoke. "Yes, well, Todd was not really hurt by that and you did not really want to hurt him anyway." I wiped the sweat from my brow and breathed a sigh of relief. Then God turned the page.

I figured I was doomed as God began to read my life to himself. It seemed to me like an eternity was passing while he reviewed my story. He looked up at me as I thought about how long an eternity actually is and said "Young man, you're about to find out what eternity is. Be still and be quiet." Then He continued His reading.

He occasionally seemed to talk to Himself as He read. I could almost hear what He was saying. "Eight years old: Shoplifting: Cocktail ring for his little girlfriend: Nothing major: Wait. What's this? It says here you Broke into a school building in the third grade. Most kids want to break out of school, but I do not think I have ever heard of a child breaking into a school before. Tell me why you broke into the school building. It says here that you vandalized the school."

Yikes! This one was not going to be so easy to explain. I found myself wishing that whoever it was that wrote these books of life would not be so thorough. "You are the one who wrote this book" God bellowed.

I have a bad memory. I really do. And since my memory is so bad, I thought there might be some advantages to that. Maybe I could leave out some of the bad parts.

"Everything's there!" God said. "Now tell me about the school building."

"Sheesh!" I thought. He knows everything I am thinking. But of course He does, I thought. He's God.

I explained that some of the other kids and I used to go down to the school yard to play. "There were basketball courts and swings and other things to play with. But we were poor and did not have a basketball, so we would jimmy open a window to the gymnasium and get a basketball to play with. When we were done we would put it back. No one ever realized what we did.

"One day, I was at the school yard with just one other boy and he suggested we break into the school building. I asked him how we could play with just the two of us, but he did not answer. He just started jimmying the window. I went along with him since we had done it many times before. But once inside, he did not go to the closet where the basketballs were. He started searching through desks and writing on the walls with markers. I guess I got caught up in the moment and I joined in with him. Before we were done, we had caused several thousand dollars worth of damage and had done some pretty bad things. "I have no excuse" I said. "I cannot talk my way out of this one."

God asked if I was identified and caught. I said that I am not sure how, but yes, I had been caught and had to go to juvenile court for a hearing. The judge was lenient and only gave me probation. I wish my father had been lenient. He gave me the worst beating of my life the night he found out what I had done.

God frowned, and then smiled. "I remember all of that, He said. "You did not try to talk your way out of it. You admitted what you had done, accepted responsibility, and took your punishment, from both the state and your dad. Your debt for that deed is paid."

"Now tell me about the phone call," He said.

He did not say what phone call He was talking about. He did not have to. I lowered my head and stared into the ground for a minute. I thought to myself that if I was lucky a hole would open up and swallow me and I would not have to talk about the phone call. I was not lucky. No hole opened. I could not hide.

"I'm waiting," God said.

I explained that I was lonely, but God pointed out that I had already used that excuse. I did not know I could only be lonely once. Since I was lonely all of my life, I figured the loneliness was the reason for a lot of my personality traits.

God read my mind again. "Loneliness can last a lifetime," He said. "And it can explain a lot of things. But tell me more about the phone call."

I explained that I was not only lonely, but I was socially awkward as well and had extreme difficulty making friends. And I was especially awkward around girls or women. So it was difficult for me to find a girlfriend.

"But you've been married twice," God pointed out.

"Yes, and I have no idea how that happened," I responded. I told him that in both cases the women had asked me out and even planned the date. All I had to do was show up. Since they were the pursuers I did not have to do very much. I did not even have to make sure that we had something to do. And I pointed out that both marriages failed because I was unable to connect emotionally with either of my previous wives.

"Yes, well, continue explaining about the phone call," God said.

I told Him that I was feeling particularly lonely and needed to make emotional and intimate contact with a woman, so I picked up the phone, dialed a random number and when a woman answered I made a sexually suggestive remark.

"And you expected that to help you make emotional contact with a woman?" God asked.

I had long since realized how wrong that idea was. But I did not realize it then. I tried to explain: "I'm not dumb," I said. "And I'm not mean or emotionally insensitive. But I'm not the most emotionally mature person in the world either. At the time I did it I did not think it was so bad. I tried not to be obscene or say something that I thought would cause her any trauma."

God frowned. I looked down, not wanting to make eye contact because I was ashamed.

God asked what happened then. I told Him the woman was not shocked or traumatized, but she was angry. And she had caller identification on her phone. She called the police and gave them my number. The police then called me. I voluntarily went into the police station and turned myself in.

"Were you punished?" God asked.

"Not really," I answered. I got a lawyer by looking in the yellow pages and went to court. The lawyer advised me to enter a plea of no contest at the hearing which I did. The judge was perplexed by my plea. He asked me to approach the bench and made sure I knew that I was basically saying I was guilty but did not want a trial. He went on to say that maybe I should take the case to trial. I explained to the judge that I understood what a no contest plea meant and that I did not want the case to go to trial. Once he was satisfied with my plea, he gave me one year of probation and that was that.

God frowned again. "You do know the judge was telling you that if you took the case to trial there was a good chance you would not be found guilty, don't you?"

I acknowledged that was probably what the judge was saying. "But there is more to it than that," I said. "I might not have done anything illegal, but I had done something wrong. It did not seem to hurt that woman, but it might have. I have no idea what kind of life she had led up to that point. She may have had some terrible experience with a man regarding sex. That phone call may have triggered some traumatic memories and caused her some emotional pain and suffering. Technicalities are tricky things," I continued. "It might not have been technically illegal, but it was definitely wrong. I think I got off easy."

"You admitted what you had done, accepted responsibility, and took your punishment. Your debt for that deed is paid. We will talk no more of this phone call. It is erased." God said.

I stood there silently for a few minutes waiting for God to speak again. He was quiet, pensive. His eyes had a far away gaze in them, the kind of look someone has when He is deep in thought. Then He spoke. "Tell me why you think I created you and also what you think I expected you to do while you were alive."

Thoughts raced through my mind. I told God that before I answered that question, I wanted Him to know that I am basically a pretty simple person. I believe that even the most difficult questions do not necessarily need to have complicated answers. Questions like how do you make plastic," I went on, "need to have complicated answers to explain chemical structure and the step by step process that will produce plastic. But I believe that ethical and moral questions generally have simple answers.

What is my purpose? I have never had to wrestle with the answer. To me it is clear. My purpose is to love God and love everyone. There is no gift anyone can give, no achievement anyone can have, and no treasure anyone can gather that is more valuable than love. "If I love someone, how can I be unfair to that person, how can I deny someone something that he or she needs if I love him or her, how can I ignore anyone as if he or she does not exist?

"The reason I love you, God, is simple. I am not my own," I said. "You created me because you love me. I am yours. Everything I have, everything I own is yours. If you did not exist, I would not exist. There would be no reason for anything I do, no real purpose to my life. If I accidentally came into being and lived my life exactly as I have lived it and then died, my life would have meant essentially nothing. And when I die and am gone there would be nothing about me worth remembering. The reason I love everyone else is equally simple. Everyone is your child, everyone. That makes everyone my brother or sister."

God smiled and said "I have prepared a place for you in my kingdom. You will be there with me through eternity. But tell me, do you have any questions for me?"

PART 3

WHERE SHALL WISDOM BE FOUND

But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?

Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.

The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.

It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.

It cannot be valued with gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

The gold and crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Whence then cometh wisdom? And where is the place of understanding?

Job 28: 12-20

CHAPTER 9

THE WORD OF GOD

God smiled and said "I have prepared a place for you in my kingdom. You will be there with me through eternity. But tell me, do you have any questions for me?"

Wow! I had always told myself that if I ever got the chance, there were some questions I was going to ask God. Well, here was the chance. And try as I might I could not remember the questions. I knew I should have written those questions down and carried them around in my pocket. I quickly tried to think of all the things that I wanted to know. A host of questions ran through my mind. Why is the sky blue? No, that is not a good question. I know. Why am I not taller? No. Wait. How come Bo Jackson is really talented in several sports and I am not talented in any? No, that is no good at all.

Okay. Here is a good one. "Is the Bible really your word? Is it really the word of God?"

God Smiled. "Tell me what you think Dale. Is the Bible my message to mankind?"

God was beginning to sound like my therapist. I ask my therapist a question and the therapist asks the same question back at me wanting to know what my answer would be. But it was an excellent question for God to ask me because it pointed right at what I believe about faith.

"I do believe the Bible is the word of God," I said.

"You really believe that?" God asked skeptically. "What do you think or say when people question the historical validity of the Bible?"

I thought for a moment, then said, "Many of the stories in the Bible are verifiable using similar or even the same standards of proof historians use today to verify historical records and facts. A historian will most likely seek witnesses to an event as verification the event actually took place. I know the historian living today cannot actually talk to the people who lived in, say, 1776, to ask them exactly what went on to cause the United States to declare independence from England. But a historian can consult different written accounts of the events of 1776. I think one of the standards of proof of events in history is that there be more than one, preferably many, independent accounts of the same event.

For example, if more than one member of the Continental Congress writes that Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson worked together to write the Declaration of Independence, then history can rightly reflect that is the case. And if those people also say that the document was written mostly by Thomas Jefferson with suggestions from the other two men, it can be believed as historical fact.

Since much of the history cited in the Bible is ancient history, historians would search for writings by people who witnessed events the Bible describes. One example of such verification is an inscription found in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1800 B. C. that references 'seven years of good life... Then came years barren and burnt up: when one evil year had passed away, then came another to succeed it.' This supports the story of seven years of good fortune and harvest followed by seven years of famine as foretold by Joseph in the Bible and experienced by Egypt and other countries as well. There are numerous other examples of similar references to Bible stories that have been found by scholars, archeologists, and historians."

"That's true," God said. "But there are other examples; some would say outrageous stories in the Bible that are not verifiable in any way. What do you think about the story of Jonah and the Whale? Do you think that Jonah was really swallowed by a whale and survived in the whale's belly for three days and nights?

I told God that I had been asked that question numerous times in the past, usually by people who recognize that it should not be possible for a person to be swallowed hole by a whale and then live in the whale's belly for any length of time at all, much less three days. These people usually want to point out the apparent impossibility and then use that as proof that it must be made up. These people think that if they can convince themselves and others that one thing in the Bible is made up and not true it will render the entire Bible invalid and useless.

"First," I said, "The straightforward answer is simple. I believe you, God, can do anything you want ... anything. You created the earth and everything known to mankind. If you could do that, you could certainly have Jonah survive in the belly of a whale for three days. That makes it..."

God interrupted me in mid-sentence and asked a question that surprised me. "Suppose it did not really happen. Why do think I might inspire the inclusion of the story of an imaginary happening in the Bible? The Bible should be the vessel I used to record the history of creation, explain my sacrifice of Jesus to save mankind from the consequences of sin, and to teach how I would like each person to live his life? Why would I expose such an important historical record and moral guide to possible ridicule and doubt?"

I thought about that question for a moment because it had never occurred to me that it might not be true. Well, that is not entirely honest. I had wondered if it might be an exaggeration, but I have always believed that it was essentially true. Then a perfectly acceptable explanation came to my mind. "If we use Jesus as the example," I said, "we see that He often used parables to teach moral lessons. Since Jesus is the Son of God, it is reasonable to believe He would use some of the same methods God would use to communicate those lessons. Whether or not Jonah was actually swallowed by the whale is not as important as why Jonah might have been swallowed by the whale.

"Why he was swallowed by the whale and kept there for three days is simple. Jonah did not want to submit to God's will and tried to run away from God to keep from having to do what God wanted him to do. He was supposed to preach to the Ninevites in Assyria so they would repent of their evil ways. But Jonah knew that if he did that the Ninevites would be saved. And Jonah did not want the Ninevites to be saved because they were an enemy of Israel. So to get away from God Jonah fled in a boat headed to Tarshish. God caused the boat to be tossed about in rough seas. The other people thought one of them must have done something wrong and the punishment for that was the rough sea that threatened to destroy the boat. So they cast lots to determine who among them had done something wrong. The lot fell to Jonah who confessed he was trying to run from God to keep from preaching to the Ninevites. He told them to cast him into the sea to save them and they did. Then a whale swallowed Jonah and he was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights. Jonah spends those days and nights in prayer. Once he realized the error in his ways of trying to escape God's will God caused the whale to spit Jonah out onto the shore.

"That is essentially the story," God said, "but it does not tell me why you think I put a story in the Bible about a person being swallowed by a whale."

"There are several lessons," I said. "The first is that no one can escape your will. If God wants any one of us to do something, we must do it, even if we do not want to. There is nowhere we can run; no place to hide to escape your will. Even if we succeed momentarily, we must eventually submit to you. If Jonah had not come to that conclusion, he would have died in the whale's belly."

"The second lesson is that you are a merciful God. Even when we disobey, you forgive us and protect us and give us a chance to redeem ourselves. Jonah may have drowned in the sea but he did not. The whale actually saved his life when it swallowed him. Surviving in the belly of the whale gave Jonah another chance to submit to your will.

Even if Jonah had never been swallowed by a whale, the story of Jonah and the whale serves the purpose of letting us know we cannot escape your will and also that we will be forgiven when we fail and will be given more chances to submit to your will and redeem ourselves.

God had a sparkle in his eye as He asked the next question. "And do you believe that I parted the Red Sea so the Hebrews could escape Pharaoh and the Egyptians?"

I believe the answer was very similar to the answer about Jonah and the whale. And that is what I told God. "Once again, I believe you can do anything. If you wanted to part the Red Sea for the Israelites, you could have."

Since He had already done so regarding the story of Jonah, I anticipated that God would ask what I would think if the parting of the Red Sea as told in the Bible did not really happen, but the story was included in the Bible anyway. So I went on. "Whether or not you parted the Red Sea for the Hebrews is not as important as why you might have parted the Red Sea for them. You parted the sea so they could escape the Egyptians, and also to punish the Egyptians for not believing in you and submitting to you. When the sea parted, the Israelites had an escape route, when you joined the sea again, the Egyptians who did not submit to you perished."

"That makes sense," God said. "And what lesson might this story have conveyed"?

"That you will protect the people you love," I said.

"Always?" God asked.

"Yes," I answered. "There are some things that only you know and that only you should know, such as when it is time for a person to die. If someone's time to die has come, I do not believe you will keep that person from dying. But until that time, I believe you will protect someone who needs protection."

"Okay, let's talk about the Psalms. How does the book of Psalms fit into the Bible if the Bible is my divine inspiration?" God asked.

"I do not believe the Psalms themselves were divinely inspired by you in the traditional way. Each Psalm is a song of love and worship of you or a plea for help from you written and sung by an individual person as a personal tribute to you. The words of each Psalm were born in the mind of its author and inspired by the author's heart. I believe you allowed the Psalms to be included in the Bible as a testimony of how people should love you and ask you for help."

God pressed me further. "Who wrote the Psalms?" He asked.

"I believe King Dale wrote many of the Psalms, maybe all of them. But it is more likely that he wrote some of them and the rest were written by numerous authors."

I believe you wanted the Psalms to serve as an example of praise and worship. So when the Bible was being put together as one piece of work, I believe you inspired the people who put the Bible together to include the Psalms as part of the Bible."

"You are exactly right!" God exclaimed. "The rest of the Bible was put together in much the same way."

"Really", I said. "Do you mean you did not really inspire the actual writing of the Bible itself? Did you only inspire the assembling of the Bible?"

"That's not exactly right." He replied. "For example, Moses wrote a good portion of the Pentateuch which is the first 5 books of the Bible. They are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses was creating a historical record and laying down a code of conduct for the nation of Israel. The historical accounting was written by him in his own words without much specific inspiration from me, although I did inspire him to do it. And I gave specific inspiration to him when he laid down the codes of conduct. I also inspired the instructions for how the Priesthood should be set up, maintained, and conducted.

"Moses was my chosen leader of my chosen people. He used his own words to present my message to my people. Everything Moses did from the time I chose him was inspired by me, even though I allowed him to use his own methods and thoughts and words. And Moses wrote most of what is now recognized as the Pentateuch of the Old Testament of the Bible.

"Other people wrote other books, such as Leviticus. But I had given Moses knowledge of those laws and guidelines long before they were written. And Moses taught my people those laws, even though he did not originally write them. When the Bible was being assembled in its final form, I decided that these other writings, which were known by Moses and taught by him should be included as part of the Pentateuch.

"The various books of the Bible were written by many different people over a period of several hundred years. At times I inspired the writing because I wanted it to be part of the Bible. But sometimes someone wrote something so true and so important, that when I inspired the assembly of the Bible I ensured it was included."

I tried to sum up what God was saying. "So you did not inspire every story and every word in the Bible, although you did inspire some of the stories. And when the Bible was being assembled you inspired what would be included and how it would be assembled."

"Congratulations," God said. "That is the best explanation I have heard."

I felt very proud to get such a compliment from God. But He quickly demonstrated that humility was a greater character trait than pride. "Don't be so quick to take credit for what you think you know," He said. "I might well have inspired you to figure all of that out."

He let His point sink into my heart. And just as I was beginning to feel pretty small for being so self centered and quick to take credit, He healed my discomfort. "I would not have inspired you to figure it out, if I did not think you deserved to know," He said.

"Now, do you have any more questions about the Bible?"

"Yes," I said. "I completely believe the story about Noah's ark, but where is the ark? Numerous people have spent significant time and resources trying to find it, but none have. In fact, no one has been able to find conclusive evidence that the ark ever existed."

"That's simple." God said. "Noah and his family disassembled the ark to have enough wood for shelter and other necessities."

"Really," I exclaimed. "It's that simple. Wouldn't there have been trees and other resources still available?"

"The wood from the ark was already cut and shaped into boards. By using them, Noah and his family saved many hours and days of labor," God explained.

"I wonder why nobody has ever thought of that before," I thought to myself.

God read my thoughts. "Some people have thought of that explanation, but for some reason, it has never really caught on as an acceptable explanation.

"Do you have any more questions?"
CHAPTER 10

JESUS

"Is Jesus really you?" I asked. "Is Jesus really God?"

God smiled. "I knew this would be one of the questions you would ask," He said. "This has been a difficult question for you, hasn't it"?

I winced as I felt a pang of guilt and doubt. "It has been very difficult," I said. "But it is not because I don't think it's possible. The notion of a holy trinity is easy for me to accept because as I have already said several times, I think you can do anything. My hesitation started when I realized that Jesus never really said He was you. Jesus did say numerous things that people have interpreted as Him saying He is God.

"In the temple at the Mount of Olives people were asking Jesus by what authority He spoke and taught. Jesus responded by saying 'before Abraham was born, I am!' (John 8:58). Many people believe that by responding this way Jesus was saying that He is God because when God told Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt He told Moses to tell the nation "I AM" has sent you (Exodus 3:13-15). They believe Jesus was confirming his identity as God by calling Himself I AM.

"The gospel of John is regarded by many Christians as the "I AM" book because of the numerous times Jesus says I AM. But there is even more reason to believe Jesus says He is God. In chapter 10 responding to a group of people who asked Him to tell them plainly if He was the Christ, Jesus said 'I and the Father are one'.

"But is that a literal definition of Jesus and God or is it a figurative one? There are examples when Jesus uses comparative hyperbole to make a point. For example, in the book of Matthew, chapter 19, verse 5 Jesus says 'For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.'

"Was Jesus saying that two people actually become one person sharing the same skin? No he was not. Was he saying that whatever fate awaits one of them must absolutely and necessarily await the other? If one of them is condemned to spend eternity in Hell is the other condemned to that fate also. If not, how can that be so if they are 'one flesh'? No. Each of them will be saved or condemned on the merits of their own beliefs and actions. Therefore they have not become one person even though 'they twain shall be one flesh'.

"Jesus was talking about how they will share everything. What belongs to one belongs to the other as well. He was saying that they will share the same home, the same family, the same fortune or ruin. He meant they will even begin to share the same goals and ideals and ethics. But He did not mean that they would be one person. So when He said 'I and the Father are one' he could have been saying that He and You have similar thoughts, similar spirits, similar plans, and similar powers.

"And there are other times in the Bible when Jesus might be implying that He is God, but He never directly says that He is God."

God stood there silently as if He was waiting for me to say more. But I could not think of what else to say. Finally, God spoke. "Because Jesus never uttered the exact words 'I am God' you have found it difficult to believe the He is God. Is that true?"

"It was true," I answered. "But not anymore, I accept that Jesus is God. Jesus is you."

"How did you accept that Jesus is God?"

Once again, I found myself deep in thought. Realizing that Jesus is God may have been the biggest faith step of my life. How should I describe to God Himself how I finally accepted that Jesus is God? I concluded the best explanation was the simplest explanation.

"I prayed many times to have the answer to this question revealed to me. The prayer was answered. I had been struggling with this question for a long time. And I was worried that it would be the undoing of my faith. Finally, I confided my uncertainty to one of my dearest friends. Her name is Nikki and I have never met a more faithful person in my life. She asked me to give her a day to think and pray about how to help me through my uncertainty. The next day she told me about the Book of John, Chapter 1, verse 1 that says 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' And John follows that up in verse 14 with 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.' John, Chapter 1 clearly says that the Word was God and the Word was Jesus. Therefore, Jesus is God."

God smiled. "There are people such as you who need direct answers to questions before they will understand the answer. I could have answered you immediately after you asked if I, Jesus and God, really are the same, but I knew that Nikki would help you and that you would be reading John within a few months and thought it best for you to have your answer then. You would have a deeper and more meaningful understanding if you followed your own path. I knew that path would lead you to the answer that I laid out in the Bible."

"By the path you laid out in the Bible," I said. "Do you mean that you put that explanation in the Bible specifically to answer that question?"

"Of course," God said. "I knew that I would hear the question 'Is Jesus really God' millions of times. So when I inspired the writing and assembly of the Bible, I answered that question, both through the implication in Jesus' answers to the Jews and through the direct teaching of John, Chapter 1.

"But Dale," God said, "do you know why I became Jesus?"

"The reason most people accept is that Jesus was born to save mankind from the consequences of sin, which is death. But I believe there were several other reasons."

God encouraged me to continue. "And what were the other reasons?" He asked.

"Jesus came to show man once and for all that you exist. Humans are naturally skeptical. We question what we see. We attribute the existence of life as nothing more than biological coincidence. In fact, we attribute the existence of everything to nothing more than coincidence. Many of us believe there used to be nothing, literally nothing. Actually these people believe that everything that now exists came about because of the explosion of something that is billions of times smaller than anyone can actually see. They believe there was suddenly a big bang and out of this tiny piece of nothing, huge amounts of matter were scattered throughout the universes. One of those huge amounts of matter was the Earth. And through a series of millions of coincidences life happened on Earth.

"Before Jesus came to live with us on Earth, people would go blind and no one knew how or why. Blind people would suddenly see and no one knew how or why. People thought that forces of evil beyond our control caused bad things to happen to people. And they thought that, quite often, if something bad happened to someone it was because that person was a bad person or had done something wrong.

Jesus came and he touched a blind person and the person could see. He fed thousands of people with a few morsels of food. He even raised people from the dead. Jesus proved that God was more powerful than whatever energy it was that caused bad things to happen.

"Jesus also came to save mankind from death. There must be consequences for every action a person takes. If someone does something good, something good happens as the result. If I give food to a hungry person, that person is no longer hungry. If someone does something bad, something bad happens as a result. If I kill someone, the obvious bad result is that someone dies. Society may decide that I must die as well and in that case two people die. Every action has a consequence. Many bad actions that a person takes are considered sins. The book of Romans, Chapter 6 verse 23 says that the wages of sin is death.

"Jesus substituted his own death for the death of every person who believes in Him as the savior. God the spirit became Jesus the man. And because Jesus is God, His life is worth more to God than the life of every person who ever lived. When Jesus willingly died on the cross he was telling us that with His life He would pay the price for sin that every person is due to pay. With His death, Jesus purchased our eternal lives. So our lives belong to Jesus and when we die Jesus will decide our fate. He has told us that if we believe in Him, we will live with Him in Heaven.

"There is one final reason God became Jesus. Jesus will one day preside over a great battle between good and evil. And once good triumphs, Jesus will reign over the Kingdom of God forever."

God seemed amused and delighted. "Well Dale," He said, "you say that you want to ask me some questions, but the answers you offer to those same questions are quite right and sufficient. But I know you have been waiting for much of your life to ask me these questions, so what do you want to know next?

CHAPTER 11

THE KING OF THE JEWS

God waited patiently for me to ask my next question. I was deep in thought trying to figure out the correct way to ask it. Finally, I once again decided the direct approach was best. "Is Jesus Jewish?" I asked.

God smiled, then chuckled, then frowned, then smiled again. "I notice you did not ask 'Was Jesus Jewish?' which is a question I hear a lot. The question 'Was Jesus Jewish?' is a past tense question. For some reason people usually think that even if Jesus was born Jewish, He stopped being a Jew when He died on the cross.

"But you asked 'Is Jesus Jewish?' Tell me what you think Dale. Is Jesus Jewish?"

"I think Jesus is Jewish. But I'm not completely certain and here is why. Jesus is you. There can be no question whatsoever whether or not Jesus the man was Jewish. Of course he was. He was born into Joseph's family, a family that traces its lineage back to King Dale.

"Even though Jesus was raised in Galilee, He was born in Judea, the traditional center of the Jewish faith of the time. People who believe that since He was raised in Galilee, He might not really have been Jewish overlook some key indicators. Jesus regularly celebrated the Sabbath and attended Temples. He even healed people while teaching in a synagogue. In Luke, chapter 13, Jesus heals a woman whose body had been bent beyond her control for 18 years. Perhaps the most recognized example of this is when Jesus overturned the table of the money changers in the courtyard outside a Temple. Once he did that, he began to teach. In Mark, Chapter 11, verse 17 Jesus says 'Is it not written? My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer. But ye have made it a den of thieves.'

"He celebrated Jewish holidays and commemorated special Jewish events. Much of what He taught was based on the law that you gave to Moses in the Pentateuch. In fact, everything Jesus taught was probably based on the law you gave to Moses. He attended synagogue and observed the Sabbath, even though the Pharisees did not think so sometimes.

"Maybe the best evidence of all is how the Pharisees opposed most of what Jesus did and taught. Pharisees emphasized strict interpretation of the law handed down by Moses. They commanded respect from most Jews. Because of this they held positions of high authority in many synagogues. But they feared the Jewish people would respect Jesus more and them less. Jesus posed a clear threat to their domination of the Jewish faith which is why they opposed him.

"In Matthew, Chapter 10, Jesus sends forth His twelve disciples to preach that the 'Kingdom of Heaven is at hand' He instructs them to preach to the 'lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to preach to the Gentiles. This does not mean that Jesus ignored gentiles. The ministry of the Apostle Paul is evidence of that. But clearly Jesus had a special focus on the children of Israel, the Jews.

"And I think the best evidence that Jesus is Jewish is that His last meal was a celebration of the Jewish Passover.

"So, it is clear to me that Jesus was Jewish as long as He lived. The question is whether or not Jesus continues to be Jewish. And I have to be honest with you. I am not sure. When Jesus is Human, there is clearly some kind of separation between Him and You. But since I do not know in what form the 'Holy Trinity which is you, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus exists I cannot be sure if Jesus is Jewish when He is not human."

God put His hand on my shoulder. He looked pleased. "My compliments Dale," He said. "You have a way of pinpointing the exact spot where confusion begins even if you do not know how to clear up the confusion.

"But the answer is simple. When Jesus lived in human form, He was Jewish, even until His death. When Jesus died, He died a Jew. But I should point out that when Jesus returns to Earth signaling the approach of the Kingdom of Heaven, there will be no religion at that time. There will only be good and evil, right and wrong, righteous and unrighteous. And once evil and unrighteousness have been defeated, there will only be one way to live."
CHAPTER 12

SIX DAYS ...REALLY?

"Did you really create everything in six days?"

God chuckled and tilted His head back and thought for a moment as He looked upward. "Well Dale, I'm going to play the part of a therapist again. What do you think?"

This time I chuckled as I realized once again that God knew my thoughts. "Therapist," I thought to myself again.

I began by reemphasizing my belief that God can do anything. "When I think of any question about what God can do," I began, "I must always begin with a simple fact, something I have already said I believe; you could have created everything in six days if you wanted to. You could have done it in six seconds or less if you wanted to. You can do anything.

"Still, I do have a mind and reasoning capabilities, such as they are. Let me focus on mankind whom the Bible says was created in a day. When I look at the compelling evidence presented by scientists, and other well schooled people, that points to the probability that it took many years, maybe millions of years, for humans to evolve, I do wonder what a day must have been like to the people who wrote the Bible. The theory of evolution states that man went through thousands of changes, over many generations, into what we are today."

God interrupted me with another chuckle. "Scientists and other well schooled people are often wrong as evidenced by the long held belief that the world is flat."

"That is true," I said. Then I continued. "Some theologians and others say that since the Bible in the book of Peter, Chapter 3 says that a day is like a thousand years to you, it actually took six thousand years for you to create everything. Using that reasoning, it would have taken a thousand years for you to create man. But if that is supposed to cast doubt on the notion of evolution, it fails miserably. Even a thousand years would not change man much from an apelike creature into the man of today. Evolution, by definition, consists of many tiny changes in characteristics, some of which take entire generations to complete and would hardly be noticeable except to someone like a scientist. Because of that, it would take millions of years to change people from ape to man. In fact the theory of evolution suggests that it did take millions of years for man to evolve into our current form.

God interrupted me again. "Just like scientists are often wrong, theologians are often wrong also as evidenced by the Catholic Church insistence until just a few hundred years ago that the Sun orbits the Earth. But anyway, I'm sorry for butting in. Please go on."

I continued. "Darwin, the originator of the theory of evolution, acknowledges that for the theory to be correct there must necessarily be fossil evidence of each tiny change. In fact, the evidence that has thus far been presented only uses a few different fossil remains to support the theory of evolution. Where is the fossil evidence of each of the thousands of changes that must have taken place? Still, I do not think this lack of fossil evidence necessarily discounts evolution as the mechanism you used to create man."

God rolled his eyes. "That's all very exciting stuff," he said as He covered His mouth to yawn. "It's riveting, really. But the question you asked is 'did I create everything in six days?' So what do you think? Did I do it in six days or did it take millions of years?"

"This is going to sound foolish," I said. "Since I asked the question someone might think that I believe it is important. But actually I do not think time is something that you care about at all. You do not have to keep track of the passage of time, so until you created man and then told man the story of that creation, time did not exist to you. But you needed to help man understand the different stages of creation so you created a different segment representing each stage of creation. Then when you described each segment to man you used the period of time that man understood, namely a day.

"So whether it took six minutes or six million years, how long it took does not matter. And whether you used evolution as the means to create the universe or just said 'Poof, let it all exist', how you did it does not matter either. What matters is that you did it."

God smiled once again. "Dale," He said, "as I told you earlier, you seem to have the answers to all the questions you are asking. And your answers seem reasonable to me. What question would you like to ask next?"

CHAPTER 13

REPLENISH THE EARTH

"What is man's obligation when it comes to taking care of the earth?

"Before I answer that," God said, "do you think the earth today is in the same condition as when I first created it?"

The answer to me was clear. "No it is not," I said. "I have often imagined the earth at the beginning of creation and I have wondered what the air was like, what the water was like. Was the grass the same color green as it is today? If I had lived back then, would I have hesitated to go down to the river and drink water from that river? No, I would not have hesitated then, but I would now.

"I used to work on the 30th floor of a high rise building in downtown Phoenix Arizona and sometimes my job required me to sit next to a window for an hour or two. I did not mind at all because the view of the city and the surrounding hills was really nice. But if I sat next to the window at the right time of day, usually early in the morning or during the middle of the day, I could literally watch as the hills almost disappeared from view because of the haze that was thrown into the air by car exhaust. Early in the morning, many people drive their cars to work. In the middle of the day, many people drive their cars to lunch.

"If a person dies when a room is on fire, the person often does not die from the fire itself but from smoke inhalation. The smoke has volume and substance. It occupies the space in a person's lungs so no air can get in. The haze from car exhaust has volume and substance as well. That is why it obstructs the view of far away objects as it builds up in the air. I have often been saddened by the knowledge that if I breathed the air, I was breathing the haze that was in the air.

"Oddly enough, at about the same time that I noticed the car exhaust haze, I read an article describing how little mankind pays attention to the effect we have on the earth. The example this article used is a set of car tires. When the tires are new there is probably about three quarters of an inch or more of tread on the tire. After a year or so of driving, there may only be a quarter of an inch of tread or less on those same tires. The article sited one of the basic laws of thermodynamics which is that the amount of matter and energy in the universe is constant. In other words, something may change its form, say from solid to liquid, but it never actually disappears. So the article wondered where the other half inch of rubber tread goes. The tread that was missing from the tires had probably been changed from solid rubber to gaseous fumes and distributed into the air. Again I thought about the fact that if something is in the air and I breathe the air, I breathe whatever that substance is as well.

"And that is when I first thought that the earth is not as clean now as when it was created. I wondered what you would think about that and how you would react. Then I wondered if mankind has been taking care of the earth the way you want us to take care of it. I have had discussions with several people about it. Some of them are concerned about how we have polluted the earth. Others believe that the air and the water have a way of cleaning themselves. Still others believe that since you gave mankind dominion over the earth, mankind can do whatever we want with it.

God's eyes flashed with anger again. "Where did they get the idea that I gave them dominion over the earth?" He demanded.

"From the very first chapter in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis," I answered.

"What exactly does Genesis: Chapter 1 say?" God asked.

I was a little confused and frankly, a little frightened. This was the second question in a row I had asked God that had gotten Him mad. "The first chapter of Genesis tells how you created the earth, what steps you took to create it, how you created man, and how you gave man dominion over the earth and ..."

God interrupted me in mid sentence. He spoke to me in a very measured, hushed tone of voice. "I did not give man dominion over the earth," He said.

"What?" I asked. "But I thought you did."

"Let me quote the Bible for you," God offered. "Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28, 'And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' I gave man dominion over fish and fowl and every creature that moves on the earth. I did not give man dominion over the earth."

Well, I was surprised; shocked might be a better description. I had always thought God had given man complete control over all the earth. Yet, there He was telling me that was not the case at all. And once I looked at the sentence regarding the dominion God had actually given to man, I suddenly realized God had not given the earth to man at all. God had given man a responsibility to replenish the earth. "So what is man's responsibility regarding taking care of the earth?" I asked.

"If you give someone something to take care of for a while, what condition do you expect it to be in when they give it back to you?" God asked.

The answer was clear. "I would expect it to be in the same condition as when I gave it to them or pretty close to the same condition," I said.

Then God, in a hushed tone of voice, said "Each person who has done something to harm the earth or make it dirty will have to answer to me and explain why."

CHAPTER 14

RELIGION

I thought it best to be silent for a while, so I waited for God to say something. After a few moments, He shook His head as if trying to clear his thoughts, and then He asked me what I wanted to know next.

"Is religion okay?" I asked.

"Religion," God said matter-of-factly as if he was talking to himself. "How many times have I been blamed for the tyrannical actions of zealots perpetrating unspeakable acts supposedly in the name of religion?" Once again He was quiet, deep in thought for a few more minutes.

"Religion," He said, "if it is used to gather people together who believe in me so they can worship and learn about me and what I expect of them is perfectly okay. Religion if it is used to persecute people because they do not believe in religion or because they do not believe in me is evil.

I was somewhat puzzled. "Do you mean that you do not want religions to persecute people who do not believe in you?" I asked.

"I do not want religions to persecute people for anything!" God emphatically exclaimed. "Every person ever born is my child. Why would I want any of my children to persecute any of the other of my children? The purpose of religion, of church, should be to bring my children home to me in an atmosphere of worship and thanksgiving. Persecuting people because they do not believe in me is not likely going to make them want to come home.

"People often think of worship as extravagant respect or reverence. It is reverence and respect, but is that such a bad thing? Humans have created ways to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. If a person has worked in the same place for a significant period of time he or she is admired and respected. A party may be held to honor that person.

"Everyone, me included, wants to be loved and respected. People gather to worship so they can honor me and show me that they love me. But that's not all. They receive confirmation of their blessings and learn how to live their lives."

"What do you mean by confirmation of their blessings?" I asked.

"A priest's confirmation that your sins are forgiven is a blessing from me," God explained. "A priest cannot forgive you himself, but a priest can absolutely confirm for you that when you ask with a sincere heart for forgiveness, I absolutely and completely forgive you."

"But what if no priest is available or I feel uncomfortable confessing my sins to a priest? Or what if my religion does not have a traditional priesthood, but ordains people as pastors or ministers." I asked.

God smiled. "You should not get trapped into using literal definitions of words but rather look to the principle meaning of the word. When I said priest, I did not mean that only a person with an official title of Priest could help you understand how and when I extend my mercy to you. When I say priest, I mean the person within a specific religion or church organization that has been chosen to guide the congregation."

"If you are someone who needs the human confirmation of knowing you have talked to me, you can go to a priest and the priest will help you ask for forgiveness. But you are always welcome to come to me personally and privately. I will always hear you whether you speak to me individually or come to me as part of a group of people.

"In life people often meet to give information or spread good news. Many people also gather together to worship me. Be assured that you do not have to gather in a group for me to appreciate your desire to be near me. But when you do gather together you can share different views, different perspectives, and different ways of understanding me and each other.

"To illustrate my point, let's use work as an example. In almost every workplace there is a hierarchy of authority and responsibility. The leader of the workforce regularly calls the people together to have meetings to discuss specific situations or problems and establish unified methods of operation. Let's also use non-work clubs and associations as another example. People regularly belong to homeowners associations, or parent-teacher associations, or golf clubs or Moose clubs. The organizations provide a place where people with a common purpose can gather and share fellowship."

"That makes sense," I said, "but are all religions okay?

"Not all religions are okay," God answered. "Religions that believe in and teach that there is a creator and the creator is their lord and master; religions that believe in and teach that there is a definable, definite, unchanging right and wrong concerning most human behavior; religions that ask and expect people to gather together to learn about and worship the creator and learn about right and wrong behavior, those religions are okay. The idea of religion is good, but not all religions can be right."

I did not completely understand. "What do you mean when you say not all religions can be right?" I asked.

"First let me say that it is possible for all religions to be wrong," God said. "For example, suppose that I do not really exist. Suppose there is no such thing as a creator. Suppose there is no connection between anything that exists and anything else that exists. Suppose that everything really is random. That would mean that almost every religion in the world is wrong. Most religions believe in a creator or something that binds everything together in a synergistic way. And even those religions that do not believe in an individual creator but rather believe in an all encompassing something that binds everything together, believe that that all encompassing something creates and maintains an order to the way life unfolds. So if there is no such entity, one of the basic principles of all religions is wrong."

My head was spinning. I was standing there talking to God who was saying that if He or something like Him did not really exist, then all religions are wrong. "But even if you do not exist," I said, "religion still serves the purpose of helping people understand the difference between right and wrong behavior does it not?"

God shook His head. "No," He said. "If I do not exist there is no such thing as right and wrong. Right is an imaginary concept that only exists on a sliding scale and right and wrong can be redefined over and over indefinitely. Consider this, if someone killed you simply because he did not like the color socks you were wearing and that is defined as being wrong today, it can be made right tomorrow simply by the killer successfully getting the people around him to redefine it as being right. In such a circumstance, right and wrong only exist when people allow them to"

I was still unsure what God was saying and I tried to clarify. "Let me make sure I understand, if all religions are wrong and You or something like You does not exist, then right and wrong does not exist. Is that what you are saying?"

"Yes," God said. "If there is no creator, there is no right and wrong, except as defined by the emotions and sentiments of the day. What is right today, may be wrong tomorrow. In such a case, there is no right and wrong."God responded.

I stood there silently contemplating the chaos that would probably exist if God did not exist. Finally, God put his hand on my shoulder and said "Don't worry. After all, you're standing here talking to me aren't you?" Thankfully, that brought me back to the moment.

"So, it is possible for all religions to be wrong, but it is not possible for all religions to be right," God said. "To help you understand why this is so, let's review some of the hallmark beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism several of the world's major religions.

"Judaism, the Jewish faith, teaches that there is one God, the creator. Jews believe in a life after death in Heaven. They believe that man is sinful by nature and must seek forgiveness of sin to be allowed into Heaven. They recognize Jesus existed, but do not believe he is the Savior or the Son of God. They do not believe that a person has to convert to Judaism to be saved but salvation is earned by being ethical. Jews do not believe that humans are sinful by nature.

"Christianity teaches that there is one God who created everything, but that God exists in a Holy Trinity consisting of God the father, Jesus the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. Christians believe that man is sinful by nature and must seek forgiveness of sin to get to Heaven. Christians believe that God became man in the form of Jesus and that Jesus lived as a man and gave His life as the ultimate sacrifice so that man can be forgiven for his sins. They believe the only way to be forgiven for sins is to believe in and accept Jesus as the Savior and the son of God. Christians believe in Satan, who tries to lead people astray from God's plan.

"Islam teaches that there is one God. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims. They believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, but they recognize Jesus only as a prophet, one of a line of prophets that includes, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Dale, and Muhammad. They do not believe Jesus is the Savior or that he is the Son of God. In fact they believe the notion that Jesus is the son of God is blasphemous because they believe God is indivisible. Muslims believe in divine scriptures including the Torah, the Psalms and other prophetic books in the Bible and the Qur'an. They believe that Muhammad was the last prophet and the Qur'an was dictated to him by God's Archangel, Gabriel. Muslims also believe in Satan.

"Hinduism traces its origins to many cultures and sects, each of which is dedicated to a specific deity. Therefore, Hindus do not recognize a single God. But most people believe there are three major Hindu deities; Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver, and Shiva, the Destroyer. In general, Hindus recognize that Brahma is the supreme God. Hindus believe in Transmigration of the Soul. In other words, after a person dies, that person's soul migrates into another human body. They believe Karma results from the way you live each life and how the next life will be lived is determined by whether your Karma is good or bad. Muslims believe that a person can be born into a higher level through pure acts, thoughts and devotion.

"Buddhism is an attempt to try and reform Hinduism. Buddhists do not believe in a supreme deity or God. They believe that all people are reincarnations of previous lives and Karma, good and bad results from previous lives. There are four Noble Truths that Buddhists believe in: All life is suffering; birth, sickness, death, and unsatisfied desires are examples; the cause of suffering is craving or desire, thirst for sensual pleasure; elimination of craving can end suffering; cravings can be eliminated. The ultimate goal of a Buddhist is to achieve Nirvana, a permanent state of unity with universal Soul and freedom from Karma.

"Taoism for the most part is difficult to define and categorize but it teaches that deities are mere human constructs and do not exist. Taoists believe there is a universal power known as the Tao that envelops, surrounds and flows through all things. It regulates natural processes and nourishes balance.

"Confucianism teaches that man is the center of the universe and the ultimate goal is individual happiness through peace. Followers of Confucianism believe a system of values: Li which includes ritual and etiquette; Hsiao which is love of family; Yi which is righteousness; Xin which is honesty and trustworthiness; Jen which is benevolence and humaneness; Chung which is loyalty to the state.

"As you can see, all of these religions have numerous good qualities, usually centered on morality, compassion, and decency. But some of them believe in one God, some of them believe in more than one God and some of them do not believe in a God at all. Only one, Christianity, believes that salvation can be achieved in only one way which is the acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior. If Christianity is right about that, then no other religion or belief system can be right. If God does exist, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism cannot be right. If there is only one God, Hinduism cannot be right. So, not all religions can be right. That does not mean that religions that are not right are bad."

Now I was really confused. "If a religion is wrong in what it believes, how can it not be bad?" I asked.

God smiled. "I understand the seeming contradiction, but religion serves the purpose of teaching values and right ways of living. All of the religions I just described believe in a set of ethics that focus on decency, compassion, and virtue.

"I established the Jewish faith for the Israelites, but what of all the other people of the earth? Should they not have an organized way to come near me and share their love and respect for me? Numerous religions have been established for that purpose. Not all religions know me personally, but they know that something beyond themselves and greater than themselves is responsible for creating them and everything around them."

I was still not sure I understood, so I inquired further. "Does that mean that a religion that has been established to honor a creator they believe exists but have never personally connected with is okay?"

"Yes," God said with a knowing smile as if He knew what the next question would be.

And I did ask another question. "I am Christian and I believe that Jesus is the Savior of mankind and I must accept Jesus as my personal savior before I can be saved. Earlier in this same conversation, you told me that if a person's heart is sincere and if that person believes in Jesus you would unconditionally forgive that person when they ask forgiveness. Must I believe in Jesus to be saved?"

Again God smiled. "Yes," He said. "But one thing that most people do not understand and religions do not always teach is that I will spirit, not the body. The spirit of a person lives on long after the body has turned to dust, in fact a person's spirit lives for eternity. There is a path to salvation for every faithful spirit who has believed in me and has lived a righteous life. And every spirit must accept my son, Jesus, as Savior before that spirit can enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

I was still confused. "Does a person have to accept Jesus as his or her savior before that person dies?" I asked.

"No," God answered.

"But the person must accept Jesus as his or her savior before entering the Kingdom of Heaven?" I asked.

"Yes," God said. "No one will enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless Jesus accepts that person."

"That seems to be a contradiction," I said.

"There are things about life after death that cannot be understood by humans."

CHAPTER 15

CHURCH HIERARCHY

I was not sure how to word the next question because I was not sure exactly what I wanted to ask. I have always been unsure how strong the obligation is to follow the dictates of church officials and hierarchy.

Finally, I decided to ask the simplest question I knew how to ask. "What role should church hierarchy play in my life?"

God's brow furrowed. It seemed to me as if my question caught Him off guard even though I knew it could not have. "I know that has always puzzled you," He said. "Even so, I was not sure you would ask the question. But I'm glad you did.

"In the beginning, I communicated personally and directly with numerous people mostly through dreams or by sending the Angel of the Lord to speak to them. I did not allow anyone to see my complete form or my face because in my perfect form my energy would consume any living human being in my presence.

"The first of these were in the Jewish faith were Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob. They were the heads or patriarchs of Abraham's family which I had chosen and set apart from all other people on earth as my chosen people. The entire number of my people Israel descended from these three prophets. I communicated my will and expectations to them so they could establish rules of living for Israel.

"Moses was the first prophet I chose for all of Israel and as such was the first messenger between me and all the people of Israel. He was the first person I allowed to be in my presence. I spoke to Moses on Mount Horeb, appearing to him as a burning bush, and appointing him to be leader of my people Israel. He is the only person I have ever let see me in my perfect form. I only allowed it once and even then I could only let him see me from behind as I moved away from him, or he too would have perished from the power of my energy.

"Through Moses, I established proper methods of worship and offerings of praise. I set rules for conducting business and living every day life. And I established punishments for offences against those rules. I gave the people a way to redeem their souls through sacrifice for sins.

"I instructed Moses to appoint Aaron as Israel's first priest and to succeed Moses as leader and prophet of Israel. I established the succession of priesthood through Aaron's family. In the manner I just described, I established the first hierarchy of the church of Israel and also established an order of succession within that hierarchy.

"As time went on and the people of Israel were fruitful and multiplied, there were too many people for one prophet to serve, so I appointed other prophets to deliver my messages to the people of Israel. Even so, I only allowed Aaron and his descendents to be the priests of my original church.

"Eventually, the people of Israel became hard hearted against my prophets because they pointed out when people were disobeying my will and demanded Israel return to behaving as Moses had taught. So they cried out for kings to rule over them. I was angry because this meant Israel no longer wanted to be ruled by me but by a human person, someone like them.

"This was not a good idea. A king with absolute power over them would eventually become drunk with his own power and would turn away from me and my guidance. But the people continued to demand a king, so I appointed Saul. Saul did indeed disobey me several times. So I appointed Dale to succeed Saul. There were numerous kings over Israel. But their leadership was lacking and Israel split into two kingdoms.

"In my anger over the kings' unwillingness to submit to my will, I withdrew myself from directing and influencing the kings of Israel in person. But I still needed a way to communicate my will to my people. I decided the church would be the mediator between me and mankind. Through the church, I continued to establish rules for worship, sacrifice and redemption.

"I separated the church from the influence of the governance of kings and civilian leadership so I could continue to direct my people regarding morality and ethics and matters of their souls. And I allowed kings to govern the matters of their physical and material selves.

"To maintain consistency and continuity within the church, I established a succession of leadership of the church. This succession named who was the leader of the church, who would be that person's successor and that person's successor and so on. A method of choosing and training the lineage of leadership had to be established. At each stage of training and development, the leaders were given titles. Deacon, Pastor, Bishop, Priest are some of these titles. Thus a hierarchy of the church was established.

"That is a long story that ends with a simple answer to your question. The church is the way I communicate my will regarding morality and ethics to mankind in modern times. The hierarchy represents me to the people. Therefore, church hierarchy speaks for me in modern times.

"Something you must know though is that the church, any church in any religion, only mediates matters of the group of people. In other words, the church is my representative to a community of people. Therefore the church establishes guidelines of behavior and how to live based upon the church's understanding of my will. Each individual person must establish a personal relationship with me before I will help that person understand what I expect of him or her personally.

"The church's role regarding an individual's personal relationship with me is to introduce that person to me and give that person an understanding of my expectations. But until someone reaches out to me personally, independently of the church, I do not usually participate directly in their everyday decisions and actions.

"It is important that you understand that. The church communicates guidelines of behavior to the community ... to the community ... of believers. But before I enter anyone's heart and begin to guide his or her actions, that person must come to me personally and say: 'Here I am. Help me understand who you are and what you want me to do.'

"This is not a perfect system. When I withdrew myself from directly leading my people by speaking through prophets and leaders, and allowed kings and church hierarchy to lead them, I allowed human error to become part of state leadership and church teaching. The possibility, even probability of people going astray and turning away from proper conduct and behavior increased. But I did not abandon my people. Anyone, at any time, can come to me and ask for guidance. And I will answer each person who comes to me."

I thought about this for a moment. I saw one problem with what God was saying. Once again, I decided to be direct, even blunt. "How do You expect us to hear and understand your answer if You do not speak to us directly?"

God's face lost all expression. He looked at me and stared for a moment. I was scared for that moment, but then I realized that he was not really looking at me, but he was staring into the distance like I have sometimes done when I was thinking about a complex issue. Then He spoke. "Ask the question, then be quiet and be still. I do not mean stop living until I give you your answer. Continue your everyday activity, but know with certainty I will answer you. And be patient.

"The difficulty will be in recognizing when I am answering and what the answer is. Each person has lived a different kind of life. And throughout that life has been taught how to behave and how to live. Sometimes the teaching is exactly right. But sometimes the teaching is wrong. This is because no one, except Jesus, has ever lived a perfect existence. A person learns from parents, teachers, friends and community how to live. If those people are flawed or the environment around them is flawed, the teaching can often be flawed. As each person grows and matures, various things; what that person is taught, who has done the teaching, where that person has lived, and other things, create personal characteristics and tendencies of behavior.

"Often a person will ask me a question and before I have answered, will subconsciously hearken back to personal experience and tendencies to reach for the answer. Based on that personal experience, he or she thinks of a possible response to the question and because he or she may have just asked me for the answer, believes the thoughts that are coming to mind at the moment are my answer. So they mistakenly reach out to the wrong answer.

"Introduce yourself to me personally. Establish a personal relationship with me. Trust me. Ask me your questions, then be still and be patient. I will answer.

"But we got somewhat sidetracked did we not? Your question was 'What role should church hierarchy play in my life?' The church should provide a sense of identity to a community of believers and provide guidelines for the community to live by. The church and its hierarchy should also teach people how to find me, how to talk to me. The easiest and best way to do that is to teach people what the Bible says and what the Bible means. Beyond that, since the church, through the donations of it members, and by virtue of its numbers, has access to more resources than individual people, the church should provide programs and opportunities for the members of the community to introduce me to non members of the church. Examples of these programs might be teen outreach or prison ministry programs"

CHAPTER 16

HOW WILL I BE JUDGED

Next I decided to ask about judgment. "Is it okay to judge people?"

God's eyes widened and He chuckled. "That depends on what you mean by 'judge people'. "Do you even know what it means?" He answered.

Up until then, I had not thought very much about what it means to judge people. But now I realized the definition might not be so cut and dried. "I guess 'judge people' can mean several different things," I responded. "It can mean to assess a specific action by someone and decide whether what that person did is right or wrong. And depending on my role in society and my relationship with that person, that judgment may include imposing punishment or requiring restitution if the person's actions harmed another person or someone's property.

"In cases like that," God said, "it is okay to judge someone's actions and determine if punishment or restitution is called for. To maintain order and discipline, society and communities within society must establish rules of behavior. When someone breaks one or more of those rules, it is appropriate and necessary for society to set up a system to judge that person.

"I established such a system for Israel very early after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. I gave Moses and Israel the Ten Commandments, along with other more specific rules for the community of Israel. Those rules ranged from property rights to personal intimacy between two people to hygiene to proper methods of worship. In some cases I gave Moses specific punishments or atonements for specific misbehaviors. In many cases I left the disposition of cases up to Moses' discretion.

"The people of Israel became so numerous and the times when judgment was needed became so plentiful that Moses appointed other judges to help him hear cases. Some judges heard cases from small segments of the community and only heard simple cases. Others heard cases that affected large segments of the community or were for more serious transgressions. That system worked similarly to how the American court system functions today. Lower or smaller courts hear cases that are more local and less important. Higher courts hear cases that are more serious and affect larger groups of people.

"So that kind of judgment is okay? I asked.

"Yes," He answered.

"How about a case where society has determined that the maximum penalty for a particular transgression is death, is it okay to judge people then?"

God breathed a heavy sigh. "I hate answering this question," He lamented. "It confuses people dramatically. When I gave Moses the law, I did allow for someone to be put to death for certain specific actions. So if a person commits one of these specific transgressions and that person's rightful judge decides that person should die, that judgment does conform to what I have said. But I have also said that you will be judged according to how you judge others. So when the possible prescribed penalty is death, it is better for you if you let me be the judge in that case. You may need to separate someone from the rest of society for the protection and good of the community, but decreeing the maximum penalty for any offense puts the judge at risk of being judged accordingly by me.

"I have one other thing to say about the death penalty. Some people say that even Jesus advocated the death penalty when He talked to the Pharisees about why His disciples did not wash their hands before they ate. In Matthew, Chapter 15 and in Mark, Chapter 7, Jesus told the Pharisees they were hypocrites for following some laws and traditions like washing their hands while ignoring others like honoring their fathers and mothers. He pointed out that the law said people who did not honor their fathers and mothers should 'die the death'. People who advocate the death penalty say this is evidence that Jesus also advocated the death penalty.

"They also point out that in Matthew Chapter 5 Jesus said not one jot or tittle will pass from the law until all is fulfilled. They say this means that Jesus is reaffirming everything in the law including the death penalty.

God frowned and continued his explanation, "I will only say this about that; anyone who studies the life of Jesus and reflects upon the reason for Jesus' existence and draws a final conclusion that Jesus advocated killing anyone, that person has missed the entire point of Jesus' life."

I assured God that I did not and have not ever thought that Jesus would advocate killing anyone. He said that He already knew that about me. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I went on to another kind of judgment. "Judging someone can also mean assessing that person's character based on his or her overall life and what that person has done in his or her lifetime."

God laughed. "Is there anyone you know today who you have known every day of their life since the day they were born and have spent your entire life with that person?"

I said there was no one like that who I knew but there may be other people who knew people from the time they were born.

God disagreed. He said no one has spent every day of someone else's life with that person. One or the other of them goes away to college, or visits relatives, or goes on vacation. "There is no way," God said, "that you or anyone else can know the quality of another person's entire life or the quality of that person's character. You may be able to give a rough estimate and you may be really close to the reality. But being close to knowing another person's character is not good enough.

"The answer to your question in this regard is simple. No. It is not okay to judge the quality of another person's character or life. Let me be the judge of those things as well.

CHAPTER 17

DESTINY'S CHOICES

I already knew what I wanted to ask next. "Before you answered my last question," I began, "you said you were not sure if I would ask about church hierarchy at all. I have always been taught that you know everything, including everything that is going to happen. Is that true?"

"It is true," God answered, "but only partially. I know what is going to happen next, but most of the time, I do not really know for sure what is going to happen after that. There are some sequences of events that I know from beginning to end because I plan those events. For example, I knew that Jeremiah was going to be born and I knew when he would be born. I knew he would be a prophet and I knew how his life would unfold. I specifically told everyone that I knew these things in the first chapter of the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah, chapter 1, verse 5 I said 'before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.' I decided long before Jeremiah was born that he would be born, and that he would be a prophet.

"Another example of me planning a series of events from beginning to end is when I had Moses lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. When I first spoke to Moses on Mount Horeb and told him to go back to Egypt, to the Pharaoh, and to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt, I knew the Pharaoh would not let my children go because I kept Pharaoh from letting them go so I could demonstrate that my power exceeds even that of a king. I used the seven plagues to demonstrate that I can control what happens on earth and that I am the Lord. I knew that even after Pharaoh let my children go he would change his mind and come after them. I used Pharaoh's own hard heart to destroy him and his army.

I was astonished. "Wait," I said. "Do you mean that you kept Pharaoh from releasing the people of Israel even though you sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to ask him to release them?"

"Yes," God answered. He knew this was surprising and puzzling to me so He went on to explain. "I kept Pharaoh from letting the people of Israel go so I could demonstrate that I am Lord, that even the power of a king is no match for mine. Each time I sent Moses to ask Pharaoh for Israel's release, I hardened Pharaoh's heart so he would not release them. Then I had Moses predict a horrible plague and followed the prediction with the actual plague itself. This demonstrated that I was talking directly to Moses since he knew what I would do next. And it demonstrated that I could do whatever I wanted.

"The rest of the story is well documented in the book of Exodus. But my point is simple. Sometimes I plan out a sequence of events from beginning to end and in those cases I do know exactly what is going to happen.

"But I do not always plan everything and I do not know everything that is going to happen until the end of time. I usually let events unfold as they will as a result of what people do. I could plan everything that happens in nature and everything that everyone will ever do, but I have chosen not to do that.

This puzzled me. "Why would you not want to plan everything that happens so you can make sure everything turns out the way you want it to?"

God smiled. "I have decided to give mankind free will," He said. "Everyone has the right to do whatever he or she wants to do next in response to what has already happened. I have given each person the right to determine what kind of life he or she will live, what kind of person he or she will be, and what kind of existence he or she will have after this physical human life is over. Since I allow each person to decide for him or her self what to do next, I cannot plan what will happen next. Until a person does something, I do not know what the outcome of any situation will be.

"But when I see that a person has come to a crossroads moment, a point in time when the next thing a person does will affect the quality of that person's life and the kind of person he or she will be, I will plan the next event so that person can make choices between right and wrong. For example, let's say you are driving in a parking lot at a business shopping center. You find a parking spot but as you pull in, you take the turn too sharply and scrape some paint off of the parked car next to the open space. You get out of the car to inspect the damage. You notice that there is no one around. No one saw what you did and no one heard what you did. You could pull back out of the parking space and drive away, never taking responsibility for your little accident. I have seen all of this happen. So I decide to have one of the shopping center security guards change his normal routine and patrol the area where you are. You notice the security car driven by the security guard coming around the corner. You could still drive away and no one, including the security guard, will know what you have done.

"I knew you would hit the car, but I did not know what your reaction to hitting the car would be. So I had the security guard come by giving you a clear choice between right and wrong, between notifying someone about what you had done, or driving off and taking no responsibility for what you had done.

"So I know a lot about what is going to happen. And I know what all of a person's possible reactions will be, but I do not know what specific reaction choice the person will make. Even so, I know what I will cause to happen once one of the choices is made.

"Listen Dale, I could take free will away from mankind. And then I could plan what will happen in every second of every person's life. I have chosen not to do that. I have chosen to let mankind determine its own destiny. And I have chosen to let each individual person determine his or her own salvation or damnation.

CHAPTER 18

MY BROTHER'S KEEPER

"What is my obligation to my fellow man?" I asked. "Am I really my brother's keeper?"

The smile left God's face and He bowed His head and stared at the ground for a few moments. He was so serious at that moment that I knew I had asked an important question. When He finally spoke, He did so quietly, slowly. "Why do you think I became flesh and sent my son to live among you?" he asked.

"To save mankind from the consequence of sin which is spiritual death," I answered.

God shook His head. "No," He said, "not to save all of mankind, but to save those who are deserving of salvation. But that was merely the third purpose why Jesus lived on Earth. First, Jesus was to teach mankind how to become deserving of salvation. Through His teaching, He removed all doubt about how to live and behave. He explained each person's obligation to God and to each other.

"The best example of this is His Sermon on the Mount. If all you heard or knew of Jesus is what He said and taught in that moment, you would know everything you need to know about how to live your life. He told you who among you is blessed and will be saved. He told you that knowing the right thing to do is important, but He emphasized that knowing the right thing to do carries with it an obligation to actually do the right thing. He verified that everything written in the law of the Bible is still valid, but He redirected the focus of the law from obedience and consequences to the faith, hope, and love that the law requires. He explained that who you are is revealed in what you think more than in what you do because your spirit is who you are, the real you, and I recognize your spirit more than your body. He said that your obligation to love extends to everyone around you including those you think are evil because while you see the body, only I can see the spirit. Therefore only I know who is deserving of salvation. What a person does can be influenced by so many environmental factors such as societal expectations, what that person has been taught, and so forth. You may think someone is evil when that person is behaving the only way he or she knows how to act.

"What a person is likely to do is influenced by the quality of a person's spirit. No one has to tell you not to steal something. You inherently know it's wrong. That's why if you do steal something, you do it in secret and hope no one finds out.

"But just like your physical and mental abilities are not fully developed at birth, your spiritual abilities are not fully developed either. For example, one of the physical actions you have to learn is how to walk; and one of the mental actions you have to learn is how to talk. As you grow and mature, you learn more and more; for example how to use tools to build what you need to live or how to solve problems like not having the right tool to complete a job. Those are examples of physical learning and mental learning. And there is also spiritual learning. Jesus taught your spirit what was right and wrong and how to behave.

"The second reason I became flesh in the person of Jesus was to give mankind first hand examples of how to apply the law to enrich the spirit and how to behave toward one another. The emotions of the heart are the blueprint of the spirit. Measure a person's love, compassion, understanding, generosity, and sympathy and you have measured that person's spirit. Good spirits have these qualities in abundance. But the connection between having those qualities in your spirit and knowing how to use them to benefit yourself and your neighbor is not always there.

"When I sent Jesus to teach mankind how to behave, many people had lost the connection between their physical selves and their spiritual selves. They knew something was missing in their understanding of how to behave, but they were unable to identify exactly what it was that was missing. Still, they knew they had to find it or they would be lost. The only tool they had was the law. So many people became slaves to the letter of the law and became totally obedient to the technicalities of the law.

"One of the best examples of this is found in the book of Mark, Chapter 1 when the Pharisees objected to Jesus healing a man's withered hand on the Sabbath. They were devoted to the law, but they did not realize I gave the law to mankind to help man, not to hurt man. When Jesus healed the withered hand, he taught that when given a choice between not working because it is the Sabbath or helping someone overcome pain and suffering, choose to help that person. Man was not created to serve the Sabbath; the Sabbath was created to serve man. It is far more important that you love one another than it is that you do no work on the Sabbath.

"In Matthew, Chapter 25: 35-36 Jesus spoke of man's obligation to his fellow man by using himself as an example. He said, 'For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.' Jesus went on to say in verse 40, 'Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.'

"Jesus demonstrated your obligation to help your fellow man by doing things like healing a man with a withered hand. And He taught your obligation to help and take care of your fellow man by simply telling you that is what you should do.

"But long before Jesus set the example for loving your fellow man and showing compassion by helping anyone in need, I told you that you are in fact your brother's keeper. In Leviticus, Chapter 19, I told you not to harvest the edges of your fields or collect the gleanings of the harvest. I told you not to glean your vineyards or gather every grape. I said you were to leave those portions to the poor and to the stranger. Tell me Dale, why do you think I gave those instructions?"

I had thought about this many times and I had my answer ready. "You were telling us that we should look after and help those people who are less fortunate than us," I said.

God smiled. "That is partially true," He said. "But you have placed a condition on your help by saying that you should help 'people who are less fortunate than us.' How do you determine who is less fortunate than you. There are many people who lack basic necessities like food and shelter, yet they are often happier than someone living in a mansion. A person with a disability, someone who cannot walk for example, may look less fortunate than you. But that person may wake up every day thankful to be alive while you may wake up every day dreading going to work. There should be no condition on giving help to your fellow man. You should help anyone in need."

I saw a problem with that. "But how can I tell who is in need?" I asked.

God smiled. "You can't tell who is in need," He said. "You would have to be me to be able to read someone's thoughts or see the sincerity of someone's heart. Therefore, if someone asks for help, and you can help them, you should help them. But be careful to remember that you are not your brother's master. Do not expect any payment for your help. And you are not obligated to help someone when the help they seek is beyond your means.

"And remember this: Everything that exists is mine. Even you are mine. Everything you have, you have because I let you have it. And I am telling you when someone needs something give it to them if you can. And be careful how you define if you can. Do not use 'if you can' as an excuse not to give it to them if you actually can give it to them."

I was not sure I understood what God was saying. "Do you mean that, even though I have worked hard for what I have, I must share it with someone who asks?"

"Yes."

"But I worked hard for it," I said. "I earned it."

God's eyes flashed with anger. "You worked hard for it; you earned it; really?" He asked. "There are people in the world who work a hundred times harder than you, yet they have a hundred times less than you have. Are you trying to say that someone working in an office in front of a computer for eight or nine hours a day works as hard as someone working in a field under the hot sun picking cotton for eight or nine hours a day? What you have is more related to how lucky you have been than it is related to how hard you have worked. Be careful Dale, I can reopen the book of your life."

I was not sure if God was kidding or not, but I knew I better let him know I understood what he was saying. "No, no, that will not be necessary!" I exclaimed. "I understand what you are saying. I have had similar thoughts about that hard work thing myself on several occasions. I understand it, I really do."

"Alright then, I'll let it go this time. But you are your brother's keeper and you better take care of him. Now what's your next question?"

CHAPTER 19

FAITH vs. WORKS

I thought for a moment and decided to follow up on what we had just talked about. "I have often heard people say that all they need to do to be saved is to believe in Jesus. They say a person is saved by faith and not by works. I have even heard Priests and ministers say it. But is that really true? If I believe in Jesus, is my soul saved?"

Again God smiled. "I did promise that whoever believes in Jesus as his or her Savior is saved from eternal damnation and death. And I keep my promises. But what do you mean when you say you believe in Jesus?" He asked. "Do you mean that you believe He actually was a living person? Do you mean you believe He was my son? Do you mean you believe He is the savior of mankind? Do you mean you believe He is Me?

"I believe all of those things," I answered. "And I believe Jesus is my personal Savior. And I've always been taught that belief guarantees my salvation. But I have always struggled with a need to prove my belief through my works. After all, didn't James who was the brother of Jesus, say that faith without works is dead?" That conflict causes me significant frustration.

God smiled at me. "I understand your dilemma", he said. "Let me try to help you understand why both of those beliefs are true. When you profess your faith that Jesus is my Son and your personal Savior, your salvation is guaranteed. Your place in Heaven has been justified by your faith. But here is why what James said is also true. I need you to be an example; to show how faithful people conduct their lives and behave towards one another.

The Bible, especially the words and works of Jesus, is the absolute best blueprint of how to think and how to act. But when many people read the Bible they read stories like the parting of the Red Sea and Jonah being swallowed by a whale and still living and to them these things are impossible. So they reason that if they can't believe many of the stories in the Bible, how can they trust anything else they read in the Bible. Even the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is a seemingly impossible happening.

I need advocates for Me to those people. I need people to see how a faithful person acts, what a faithful person does, how a faithful person lives his or her life. People see you and they trust you. They believe in you so they will listen to what you say when you advocate for Me and for Jesus and for the Holy Spirit. That is how your works bring your faith to life. And why James said without works faith is dead.

Also, your works are important in determining your rewards in Heaven. This is explained in Revelation, Chapter 20, verses 12 and 13 which says 'And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

"I did promise that whosoever believes in Jesus would not die. Perhaps the most famous verse in all of the New Testament of the Bible is John chapter 3, verse 16 which says 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' And I repeat that promise again in John chapter 11, verse 26 when Jesus raises Lazarus from his deathbed and says 'And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.'

"Everyone who believes in Jesus as Savior is saved from eternal damnation and will receive just rewards in Heaven. The works each person does while on Earth will determine what heavenly rewards that person deserves and receives."

CHAPTER 20

LUKEWARM FAITH

"If I am justified by faith and not by works isn't believing in You and Jesus and the Holy Spirit enough to save me even if I do nothing else"?

God closed his eyes, covered His face with both of His hands, and breathed a heavy sigh. He stood there like that for what seemed to me to be an eternity. Finally, He spoke. "I was hoping you would ask that question," God said. The belief that faith alone will save a person's soul has become one of the most extreme vexations to My Holy Spirit.

"One of mankind's biggest shortcomings is picking a single thing out of a group of things and using that single thing to describe the meaning of the entire group of things. For example, if someone sees a single piece of a jigsaw puzzle, that person's tendency is to manufacture in his or her mind what the jigsaw picture is. Let's say you find a piece of a jigsaw puzzle and the picture seems to depict a body of water. Does it mean that the picture is a depiction of a ship at sea; does it mean the picture is of the wharf of a port city; does it depict a water fountain outside a public building or in someone's back yard? Until you have assembled the pieces of the entire picture, you do not know what the picture is.

"How many times in human history has a single sentence been yanked away from the body of an entire conversation and used to make it seem that the person who spoke the sentence was saying something entirely different from what he or she was actually saying? That is what is happening when someone says that faith alone, and not works will save anyone. In effect, someone who says that is saying that a person has no other obligation to God or to man than to believe in Jesus.

"As I asked before, how can you say you believe in me and not live your life the way I asked you to? In the book of Leviticus I said 'And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.

When I said that you should not harvest the edges of your field but you should leave the edges for the poor, I was telling you to take care of the poor and less fortunate. You cannot step over or walk by someone who is hungry or sick while doing nothing to help that person and expect me to save you.

"I have heard many people say that since they pay taxes and part of those taxes support government programs that help the poor they are satisfying their obligation to help the poor. How many of those same people complain because some of their tax dollars go to help those people and would eliminate those government programs if they had the choice? Insincerity is always evil and often insidious because it masks a person's true motivation.

"Do you really believe in me, in Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, if you do not live your life the way we have asked you to live it? You may say that you believe, but where is the justification of that belief?

"Second, how many people who say they believe in Jesus and accept Him as their Savior would even give Him a second thought had it not been for Jesus' works? If Jesus had not turned water into wine; if He had not fed thousands of people with just a few fish and a few loaves of bread; if he had not healed sick people and raised others from the dead, how many people who believe in Him now would believe in him under those circumstances?

"If He had only criticized authority and overturned money changers tables; if he had only talked about helping one another and not actually helped anyone Himself, how many people would believe in Him as the Son of God?

"It was His works that proved He was My Son. In the book of Luke, Chapter 7, John the Baptist sends two of his disciples to Jesus to ask if He is the one that John speaks of as the Savior. In their presence, Jesus cures many infirmities and plagues. He then tells the two disciples of John to go and tell John what they have seen as the proof of who He is.

"Without Jesus' works how many people would believe in Jesus? It is important to remember that one of the focuses of Jesus' teachings is that what someone thinks is more indicative of the character of that person's spirit than what that person does.

"Third, works of the law when those works are performed only to fulfill ritual obligations do not justify a person's faith. The book of Galatians, Chapter 2, Verse 16 and 17 says "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid."

"The works of the law that Galatians is talking about are works that are based on Church doctrine and teaching. The book of Mark, Chapter 7, verses 5 through 9 says 'Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well had Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups; and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

"The authorities of the church insisted on strict obedience to the tradition and teachings of the church, losing focus on the importance of faith in me. Just like people will take a single sentence from an entire conversation, often incorrectly defining what a person actually said, people have taken the notion that a person is not justified by works but by faith and mistakenly defined it as not having to do good things to be saved.

"As a final point, I will refer to what James, Jesus' brother said in the book of James, Chapter 2, verses 14 through 17 says: 'What doeth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."

'So Dale, your faith is justified by your works, your works being the life you live.

CHAPTER 21

AN EYE FOR AN EYE

Next I asked a question that has bothered me nearly all of my life. "Is the death penalty okay?"

God hesitated for a moment then He said "I can see why this question has bothered you. It is easy to confuse my guidance on this. According to the law that I gave to Moses and the rules I subsequently directed Moses to set up for the Jewish people, the death penalty is okay, for certain crimes. I even laid out many of the crimes that would justify the death penalty.

"For example, in the book of Exodus, Chapters 21 and 22 as well as Leviticus, Chapters 20 and 21, and Deuteronomy Chapters 13, 21, and 22 I say that the death penalty should be given for murder, kidnapping, adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, and rape. There are a host of other offenses that I said warranted the death penalty.

"But there are numerous cases in the Bible where I talk about a person who has done something that warranted the death penalty, yet I did not kill that person. Instead, I showed mercy. The most prominent example of this is King David who committed adultery with Bathsheba who was Uriah's wife, and murder when he put Uriah in a position during a battle knowing it would lead to Uriah's death. Yet I let Dale live.

"You might ask why I would do that. Why would I contradict my own laws and rules? If you recall my answer from your question about whether or not you are your brother's keeper, you will remember I said that one purpose Jesus had on Earth was to change the focus of the law from obedience and punishment to love and compassion. While it is true that David lived before Jesus, I have known from the beginning that, over time, the focus would need to change.

"Here let me stray away from our current conversation for just a moment to correct a misinterpretation that has been going on for centuries. It is somewhat related to the death penalty so this is the appropriate time to say what I want to say.

"In the book of Exodus, chapter 21, verses 23 through 25, I say 'And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.'

"Many people have interpreted that as saying equal punishment must be given in all cases. In other words if a person takes a life, that person's life must be taken. But in fact, Jesus said that you should do less. And he laid out two reasons. In Matthew, Chapter 5, Jesus instructs that even though you have heard that one should take an eye for an eye, you should be good to people who do wrong to you. The reason for this is simple, He said. If you only love those who love you, what good is that? Even evil people do that. And you should be better than evil people.

"In Luke, Chapter 6, Jesus says that you should be merciful and not judge others so that you will not yourself be judged. He goes on to say that if you do not condemn people, you will not be condemned yourself. Then Jesus continues with a warning. He says that the way you judge is the way you will be judged. If you demand maximum penalty for other people's transgressions, maximum penalty will be demanded of you when you transgress. Applying that principle to the death penalty, if you demand people be put to death for their sins, I will demand that you be put to death for your sins.

"According to the law, you have the right to kill people for certain evil behaviors. But according to what Jesus taught about mercy and judgment, you should have mercy so I can have mercy on you."

CHAPTER 22

ABORTION

Until now all the questions I had asked were important and timeless. They pointed to issues that have, for the most part, existed forever although questions about Jesus did not become important until after Jesus' birth and Jesus was born after several thousand years of human history had already been lived. Now I was ready to ask questions that relate specifically to our time, at least to this time in history. In other words, I was about to ask questions that have divided only the last two or three generations.

I took a deep breath and asked, "When does life begin? And is abortion okay?"

God chuckled. I thought that was an interesting reaction since that question is tearing human kind apart at the moment. Then God asked me "When did I begin?"

If you had hit me between the eyes with a rock the size of my head you could not have given me a bigger headache than the one God just gave me by asking me when He began. Every philosophical question about life that had never been answered began to tumble into my brain. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Wouldn't something have to have caused the energy buildup that created the big bang? If everything has to come from somewhere, then where did God come from?

And then that crazy "Why is the sky blue?" question came popping into my head again. Will I not ever be able to get away from the "Why is the sky blue" question? Who cares why the sky is blue? Anyway, I tried to focus.

"I think only you know when you began," I answered.

"Are you sure that I know when I began?" God asked.

I had not expected this at all. God was asking me trick questions. I was asking a question that had plagued mankind's conscience for decades. The answers to that question would determine the fate of many souls. And God was asking me trick questions! Or was He? Was it a trick question? I mean, this is God. He has to be serious does he not?

Anyway, at that point all I wanted to do was forget about the question. It was not that important anyway, I reasoned. After all, I had already made it into Heaven.

God suddenly said, "Are you sure you've made it into Heaven? These questions tell me you still have much to learn."

Okay, now I was certain my head was going to explode which was kind of okay with me because that would mean that I would escape this situation. But before it could explode God put the brakes on that means of escape. "Exploding your head will do you no good," He said. "I will just put you back together and we will continue this conversation."

He paused for a moment and gave me a serious sideways look. My heart sank. I thought I might have jeopardized my chances of getting into Heaven. Then God threw His head back and laughed so loud it sounded like thunder. "It's okay Dale," He said. "You'll get into Heaven ... eventually." Again He laughed.

"Now where were we?" He asked. "Oh yes, we were trying to remember if I know when I began. Hmmm. Let me see. I have to tell you I do not remember a time when I was not here. So I guess I do not know when I began.

"I can tell you this though. I would not be very happy if someone had been there at my beginning and had stopped me from beginning. No. I would not have been happy at all.

"Before we go further, let's review a few things. People who deny my existence usually say there was a sudden big bang that created everything. A particle much smaller than an atom exploded and began to expand its matter throughout the universe. As it expanded, its mass increased. The big bang theory was proposed as an explanation to why the universe continues to expand even today. The earth was part of the matter that was created by this proposed big bang. And along with other pieces of that matter became your solar system. It was a nice effort to explain the origin of the universe and may actually be correct, but that is not what we are trying to answer is it?

"One theory of how life began on earth, the theory of evolution, suggests that various amino acids, also part of the original matter from the big bang, came together to form the first strands of DNA. DNA is a kind of hereditary map of life. It determines many; maybe all of the physical, mental, and emotional characteristics of whatever life springs from it. According to this theory, all forms of life on earth sprang from those original strands of DNA. It was also a nice effort to explain how life began and became what it is today. And that is what we are here to talk about isn't it?

"Let's imagine someone knew that all of mankind and all life on earth would result from the joining of those original few amino acids and purposely prevented those amino acids from joining or destroyed the DNA that resulted when they joined. Imagine that someone purposely prevented all of mankind from ever existing. Would that have been a sin?

"Now let's talk about how babies are born. Two people have sex. Sperm and egg join and begin the transformation into what will be a baby human being. If those two people decide to prevent the egg and sperm from becoming a baby, they have done, on a smaller scale, what I just described might have been done to all of mankind.

"Mankind might not have become mankind until 47,000,000 variations of the development of those original DNA strands had evolved, but if you had destroyed that original DNA in the first place, you would have destroyed mankind altogether. What if the amino acids had been destroyed before they became DNA? Is that as bad as destroying the resulting DNA? Destroying the amino acids before they became DNA and destroying the resulting DNA would have destroyed mankind. It was not inevitable that the amino acids would produce mankind. But once the DNA was formed the existence of mankind was inevitable.

"A sperm by itself or an egg by itself will not produce a person. Once the sperm fertilized an egg, if no unnatural thing interrupts the process, a person will be born. If you destroy an egg after it has been fertilized with sperm, you destroy a baby that would have been born. Abortion is not okay."

I took a moment to try and understand what God had just said. I have never heard life put into such a micro and macro context before, the large group versus the small individual. It made perfect sense. Why had I never thought of it?

"I have one more question," I said. "Are the person who gets an abortion and the person who performs the abortion condemned to Hell?"

God took this question very seriously. "I judged you individually," He said. "I will judge everyone individually. I'm sure you realize that you have done things that would justify me casting your soul into Hell. And yet I have not done so.

"A person's ability to understand what they are doing or have done is wrong; his or her intentions; subsequent life afterwards; whether he or she subsequently accepts Jesus as savior, all of those things will be considered.

"Always remember this. For a person's soul to survive through eternity, any sin that a person commits must be overcome by something. And any sin that a person commits can be overcome by accepting Jesus as the savior. That is the glory of Jesus."

CHAPTER 23

HOMOSEXUALITY

The next question I decided to ask God is perhaps the second most pressing moral question of our time. "Is homosexuality a sin or is it hereditary?" I asked.

This time God did not hesitate. "We talked about this briefly earlier when we discussed the death penalty. But you have chosen to discuss homosexuality by itself. And that is good because it is so important and of such consequence that it deserves to stand alone when discussing morality and behavior.

"In an odd way, the answer is yes in both cases," God said. "I know that may be confusing. And it will be confusing to many people because the answer is much more complicated than you will be able to completely understand. To help you accept the answer even if you do not comprehend its complexities, I will explain it in much the same way that I explained some of the lessons of the Bible. For example, it may have taken millions of years for me to create the universe, but so you could understand the meaning of creation even if you did not understand the process, I divided each task into a step and called each step a day.

"When I created mankind I specifically did not want members of the same sex to fall in love and become mates. When I inspired Moses to set forth 'rules' to live by in the book of Leviticus, I made sure a prohibition against homosexuality was included. Leviticus, chapter 18, verse 22 says 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: It is abomination.' Moreover, Paul in Chapter 1 of his letter to the Romans reaffirmed the original Christian church's understanding that homosexuality is wrong. Verse 27 says 'And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.'

"There are numerous reasons why I do not approve of homosexuality. The clearest and most obvious is that there simply were not enough of you to survive if a significant number of you did not procreate. If you strip away all of your preconceived notions about the need and reasons for the rules I set down when I gave the law to Moses, you will see more clearly that many of them were for health and survival. They were necessary if mankind was to continue as a species.

"So I set down a specific rule prohibiting homosexuality. Again, you should understand that many of the rules I gave to Moses as part of the law were designed to ensure mankind's health and survival. I made rules of hygiene; rules of what to eat and what not to eat; rules of how to treat one another. In many cases I set what the punishments should be for breaking these rules.

"When I created mankind, I specifically included a natural attraction toward the opposite sex in each person's DNA. But I also included adaptability in DNA. I knew that as mankind was fruitful and multiplied, many people would migrate to different parts of the world. These people would develop a need for different skills, abilities, and characteristics than the skills and abilities I originally gave the first people. The weather might be different; the geography of the land might be different. There would probably be huge differences in the kind of animal and plant life that was available for food and shelter. In one part of the world people might need to be faster to hunt animals for food or to protect themselves from those animals than they would need to be in other parts of the world. They might need to be stronger to climb mountains or cut down trees. People who were always exposed to the sun would need to have darker skin than those who were not.

"The physical body needed to be able to change to be compatible with the environment. So I included an evolutionary pattern in DNA. And the mind needed to be able to change to accept these differences in the body. That's the real story of evolution; not whether mankind, and all other life, started out as a few bits of amino acid and became what it is today; but how man has adapted to survive the surrounding environment.

"Fidelity is one of the most important characteristics I included in DNA. If one person fell in love with another person and needed to be with that person, he or she would be more likely to procreate. In essence, people need to pair up and create a family unit. The need for love had to be strong to encourage this fidelity.

"Some people could not find a mate. But because of the need for love that I wrote into their DNA, they still needed to love someone and to be loved by someone. Eventually, a few people who could not find a member of the opposite sex to love found that kind of love from a member of the same sex. It was wrong and they should have resisted and refrained because I prohibited that kind of relationship. But some succumbed to the homosexual behavior, just like all people at some point in their lives succumb to the temptation of other sins. In some cases, because of the relationship a person developed with another person of the same sex, that person became less lonely or maybe not even lonely at all.

"Other people saw that this homosexual behavior made some unhappy people happy. And some of those people tried homosexuality as well. In this way, over time, and over numerous generations of DNA adapting to these new behaviors, enough people participated in homosexual behavior to cause it to become part of the evolved character traits of some people.

"Homosexuality is contrary to the way I designed people to behave. I did not intend for it to happen. I did not want it to happen. But I knew it could happen and it has happened. Some people are homosexual by virtue of how their DNA evolved."

I listened to God's explanation of the development of homosexuality in human history and I was stunned. I thought this presented an unsolvable dilemma. "So are people today who are homosexual by nature committing a sin by being their natural selves and, if so, are they condemned to eternity in Hell?"

God admonished me for even asking the question. "Dale," He began, "Homosexuality is wrong. But my pattern of judgment is constant and will always be the same. I explained it before and I will explain it again. A person's ability to understand what they are doing or have done is wrong; his or her intentions; subsequent life afterwards; whether he or she subsequently accepts Jesus as savior, all of those things will be considered.

"There is one other important factor. A person's ability to resist the behavior will be judged. Consider this, if a computer has been programmed to add two plus two and come up with an answer of five, that computer will never, ever, tell you that two plus two is four. If your DNA has been programmed to love in a particular way, you cannot love any other way just because you want to.

"Always remember this. For a person's soul to survive through eternity, any sin that a person commits must be overcome by something. And any sin that a person commits can be overcome. That is the glory of Jesus."

"There is one other thing that you and everyone else needs to know," God said. "Mankind should do everything within its power to restore the natural order of sexual behavior."

"In what way, what should we do?" I asked.

"That is something mankind must figure out," God said. "I gave you free will as part of my DNA gift to you. I will say this: two people who truly love one another should not be told it is not okay to love one another.

"But wrong and right are not determined by a sliding scale. Homosexuality is contrary to how I want people to live their lives. I accept that people cannot change their DNA dispositions over night, or even in one lifetime. But over time, they can change those dispositions.

CHAPTER 24

PRAYER

Next I asked God about prayer. "I have often heard people scoff at the notion that you hear our prayers," I said. "They say it is not possible for you, wherever you may be to hear any one prayer. So my next question is simple. Can you hear our prayers?"

"People do scoff," God said. "But not just at the notion that I can hear when people pray to me, but at the notion of prayer at all. I am not sure why someone would object to someone else praying, but many people do object. Perhaps it is because some people think that I do not love mankind. As you said before, they doubt that a loving God would let bad things happen.

"But I do hear every prayer. And I do answer every prayer."

"Do you really answer every prayer?" I asked. "There have been many times when I have asked for something that I needed and yet I did not get it. Did you answer those prayers as well?"

God frowned. "You say you asked for things that you needed," he answered, "but even though you did not get what you asked for, your life was not destroyed. You managed to live a long, relatively healthy life. Did you really need the things you asked for or did you just want them?

"Did you ever consider that your life and your personality would have changed if you had gotten what you asked for? Is it not possible that if you had gotten what you asked for that you would have become proud or vain or mean? I know the answer to those questions. So I know the times when you ask for something that will actually make your life worse.

"And did you ever consider that even if you needed something to accomplish a particular goal of your life, that not getting it would increase your resolve to try harder and make you a better person in that regard. Perhaps not getting what you asked for caused you to change the course of your life and the new course you chose was actually better than the course you had currently been taking?

"And there are times when I did not give you everything that you asked for simply because you should not get everything that you ask for."

"But you can and actually do hear every one of our prayers?" I asked.

"Yes I do," God answered.

"What should someone say to those people who do not think that is possible?" I asked.

"You should ask those people if they have a cell phone," God said matter of factly.

"A cell phone," I chuckled. "Whatever does having a cell phone have to do with whether or not you hear our prayers? Are you saying that we should use our cell phones to pray to you?"

"No," God answered impatiently. "But you should point out that a person can use a cell phone to talk to someone half way around the world even though there is no physical connection between those two people. They pick up their cell phones, dial a number and they can hear the voice of a person thousands of miles away. How is that possible?

"They not only think it's possible, they know it's possible. With no connection whatsoever between them and the person they are talking to, they can hear what that person is saying. Yet they do not believe I can hear a person's prayers."

That made perfect sense to me. But I had another question. "There is still another reason some people are skeptical about whether or not you actually hear our prayers. They do not believe you could hear all the prayers that may be happening in any given moment. There must be thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands or even millions of prayers being said at any one time. Can you hear every one of those prayers?"

"Yes I can," God answered. "And frankly, I do not understand why that is so difficult for some people to believe. Consider this. In June 2008 scientists introduced a computer to the world that can process one thousand trillion calculations per second. So these people believe that humans can produce something that can do that many things in that short a period of time, but I cannot hear a few million prayers because they are happening at the same time.

"Now let's talk about the human brain. In fact let's just talk about the human eye. The retina in a typical human eye transmits ten one million point images to the brain per second. That's ten images per second, each image having a million points of varying degrees of light. The human brain is able to comprehend every one of those million points of light ten times a second.

"And that is just what the human brain comprehends from the human eye every second. Let's add in what it comprehends from what the ears hear or what the body feels or what the nose smells. Then let's talk about what the brain does involuntarily, behind the scenes so to speak, to keep your heart pumping, to keep your blood flowing, to keep your digestive system working, to keep other organs functioning properly. The brain helps you produce antibodies that fend off disease and performs a host of other bodily functions.

"Let's also talk about the things you do consciously. From the time a human is born, he or she is constantly learning; learning how to talk, how to walk, how to eat, how to use hands with opposable thumbs. People go into organized school systems and learn thousands of new things. How many functions per second do you think it takes for the human brain to learn the alphabet, or multiplications tables, or geography, or biology, or any of the other things that humans learn in school.

"What I'm trying to say is that the human brain can perform many times more functions per second than the fastest computer ever invented. And who created the human brain? I created the human brain. It amazes me that some people will believe that I created the universe and everything in it, but they cannot bring themselves to believe that I can and do hear their prayers.

"My energy extends everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean everywhere. You cannot go anywhere where my energy is not present. I see everything, I hear everything, and I feel everything. I hear your prayers and I answer every one of them, even when I don't give you what you ask for."

CHAPTER 25

CALAMITIES, DISASTERS, AND INJUSTICE

"All over the world there are people suffering," I said. "Some people suffer because of natural things such as diseases, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, and tidal waves. Others suffer because of the actions of the people around them. Many children are abused or neglected. Some people may be tortured. Others may have their possessions stolen. Every day people die of starvation. "Why do you let these things happen? Why do bad things happen to good people?"

God heaved a heavy sigh and stared off into space for a moment. He looked at me and started to say something, but stopped. I could tell this question bothered Him. He closed His eyes and appeared to be deep in thought.

"Dale, let's first talk about what man calls natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes. Mankind needs the earth or mankind ceases to exist. Without the earth mankind perishes. People do not completely understand the life cycle of the earth. And therefore may not understand how these so called natural disasters may have replenishment qualities for the earth. These disasters are disastrous for the people whose lives may be lost or significantly damaged because of them, But in terms of the survival of the earth and the continuation of mankind, they may be necessary in ways people can never understand."

"I admit that I am baffled," God began, "at why many people blame me for things that humans do. I gave mankind every resource it could possibly have needed to be happy and content. I gave you clean air and water. I gave you plants and animals that could be used for food and shelter. I gave you minerals and gems that could be mined for wealth. There is enough land so everyone can have a piece of it and there would still be land left over.

"It is true that no one person or group of people can own everything that they need. For example, one group may live on land that can support an abundance of crops such as corn and wheat that can be used for food. Another group of people may live on land that is rocky or mountainous. That land might not be good for growing food but is good for mining mineral and gemstone wealth. They could easily work out a trade; crops that can be used for food could be traded for minerals and gems. Still other people may live on land that is forestland. These people could provide wood for shelter or other necessities.

"But some people don't want to share what they have. Not only that, but they want everything that other people have as well. So they strengthen themselves until they can force other people to give them what they want. If the other people resist, they just kill them and then they don't have to deal with them at all.

"Humans have done that. And yet, there are people who blame me as if I had done it. They say that if I am all powerful and loving, that I would force everyone to follow the rules and behave. I certainly could do that. But it would defeat my whole plan for mankind.

"At first the rules I made were simple, designed to ensure survival and continuation of man as a species," God said. "As I have already told you, I gave mankind the gift of free will which includes the ability to decide whether to follow rules or not. As mankind was fruitful and multiplied and migrated over all the earth, more and more options of behavior became available and the need for more rules became urgent. That is why I gave the law to Moses. I wanted to make sure mankind knew the rules that I expected them to live by.

"Once the law was given and the rules were clear, I set up a system of reward and punishment. People who followed the rules would be rewarded; people who broke the rules would be punished. I decided there would be two times when rewards and punishments would be given; the first would be when a person was still alive, the second would be after a person died.

"The rewards and punishments for people still alive were designed to give incentive to behave. In the very beginning, there were not many people alive and breaking the rules often put everyone's survival at risk. To ensure mankind's continued existence, punishments to deter misbehavior had to be severe, even sometimes including death. As mankind became more numerous and the influence of a single individual on the behavior and welfare of the group as a whole lessened, the punishments could be lessened as well.

"I love every person who has ever existed so I do not want rules and punishments to be used by people to exact revenge. They should be used to correct behavior. But mankind began to place more of a focus on using punishment as revenge than on using it as correction. One reason I sent Jesus to live among mankind was to change that focus. As long as maximum punishments were always given for misbehavior there was little chance for offending people to reform, recover, and reconcile with me.

"People who reform, recover, and reconcile with me will be rewarded by having a place in Heaven. Once in Heaven they will no longer be hungry or cold. They will no longer feel the emotional pain of rejection. They will never be sick or hurt in any way. People who do not reform, recover, and reconcile with me will be cast into Hell and spend eternity in agony.

"To give everyone a chance to be with me in Heaven, I must allow them to exercise their free will. Until the moment of their death, they must have a chance to choose love over hate and good over evil. I could force everyone to behave. But if I did that how would I know who is deserving of Heaven and who is not?"

"Let me use this example. Imagine I am a teacher. At the beginning of a lesson, I have no idea what my students know about the subject and what they still need to learn. So I teach the principles of the lesson and periodically, I administer tests to find out what everyone has learned. I can give the answers to the test at the same time that I give the test and everyone will pass the test. But in reality I will have no idea what each student really has learned. So teaching the lessons might well have been useless.

"Likewise, if I step in and stop people from doing bad things, I will not know who among you should be saved and who should be condemned.

"I do not want anyone to suffer. No parent wants any of his or her children to suffer. But every parent knows there will be suffering in life. When a child is hurt, the parent does everything he or she can to soften the blow, ease the pain, and heal the wound. When I created you, I gave you laws and rules that could keep you from being hurt. When you were hurt, I became man and walked among you as a man, Jesus, to heal the wounds and teach you how to live without pain and suffering.

"When someone is hurt, I know that person suffers real pain. And it hurts me to see that suffering. But consider this. Imagine that eternity is a line. There is no beginning to that line; there is no end to that line. Then imagine the segment of that line that represents the life span of a person. By comparison, if a yardstick represented eternity, you would not be able to see that person's life on that yardstick even if you used a microscope.

"That does not mean that a person's life is not important. It is important. It is the most important thing I created in the universe. So I need to give everyone a chance to save him or her self by realizing the sinful nature of mankind and asking forgiveness for personal sins. If I step in and alter anyone's behavior, I have cheated that person of the chance to redeem himself. I am prepared to wait until the last breath from the last person to give everyone a chance to save him or herself.

"I personally feel everyone's pain. I really do. But I take some comfort in knowing that when this age is over and the world ends, those people who deserve to be saved will spend every moment on that time line of eternity experiencing complete happiness."

CHAPTER 26

HYPOCRITES

There was something else that has bothered me most of my life and I thought now would be a good time to talk about it. "I often hear people say that Christians are hypocrites. They point out that many Christians will lecture others about how to behave and yet they do not behave the way they claim everyone should. All of my life I had heard about people who go to church on Sunday and profess their faith in God and belief in Jesus, but do not act like they know what faith is for the rest of the week."

I went on. "People say they believe in Jesus and accept Him as their Lord and Master, but they do not live their lives the way Jesus asked them to. Jesus asked us to care for the poor and the sick. Many Christians say they provide for the poor and sick by giving to charitable organizations. Some of them even say that since they pay taxes and the government has programs for the poor and the sick, they are taking care of them that way. But many of those same people complain about how high their taxes are and they say that since they worked hard for their money they should not have to fund such programs as welfare since many people on welfare do not work at all.

"There are other people who make a show of giving to the poor. They will have a ceremony or make a speech about what they are doing or how much they are giving. These people are giving just as much for their own recognition as they are doing it for the benefit of someone in need.

"I have known people who insist that people who sin are not going to Heaven. And yet, those same people may be given too much change back when they pay for something and they keep the extra change, even though they knew they received too much. These people rationalize that they did not really steal it since it was given to them as part of the change for what they were buying. But they knew they were getting more money than they deserved. That money was not really theirs, but they kept it."

God's nostrils flared and His eyes flashed with anger. "These people may claim to be Christian, but saying it does not make it so. To be Christian, you must do your best to live your life they way Jesus asked you to. As for how everyone should treat and take care of the poor, you must realize that nothing you have is actually yours; that everything you have is actually mine. And you are obligated to use it the way I want you to.

"Jesus spoke out many times against such hypocrisies as those you have mentioned and many more. And there are numerous examples of this in the Bible. I will point out two examples in the book of Matthew. In chapter 23, verse 14, He says 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. In Matthew, chapter 6, verses 1 and 2 He spoke against making a show of giving to the needy. He said 'Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.'

God was perfectly still for a moment. He furrowed his brow and let out a heavy sigh. When He spoke, He spoke quietly, slowly, as if he wanted me to pay special attention to what He was saying. "Many people who claim to be Christian ARE hypocrites," He began, "in fact, too many are hypocrites. Anyone who quotes rules such as the Ten Commandments or precepts such as those regarding divorce and tells other people they must follow the rule or precept perfectly or be condemned is a hypocrite.

"Let me repeat that," God said. "Anyone who quotes rules such as the Ten Commandments or precepts such as those regarding divorce and tells other people they must follow the rule or precept perfectly or be condemned is a hypocrite.

"I understand that may be confusing because if you cannot teach rules and precepts when teaching people how to behave, how can you teach people how to behave? The answer is really very simple, no one can be perfect. If it were possible for even one person to be perfect and live his or her life exactly according to my expectations, there would have been no reason for me to send Jesus to save anyone. Since I gave all of mankind the same characteristic genes, if it were possible for even one person to be perfect, it would be possible for everyone to be perfect and there would have been no reason for me to send Jesus to pay the price for anyone's sins. Simply put. If anyone could save himself or her self, I would not have sent Jesus to save everyone."

As you might imagine, I was confused again. "Wait!" I exclaimed, "You seem to be saying that it is not possible to follow the rules set forth in the Bible. Does that not mean there is no real reason to have the rules or that the rules as they exist are unreasonable?"

"Aha!" God said. "You have identified the target of what it means to be Christian. When you decide that you believe in Jesus and you accept Jesus as your Savior, you accept that there is a specific way that you will be expected to try to live your life. And you accept that you will be expected to try to live that way. Please notice that I did not say you will be expected to live that way, but that you will be expected to try to live that way. No one is expected to be perfect. Everyone is expected to try to be perfect.

God pointed His finger at me and said, "listen carefully to what I am about to say. Many people believe there are three things they must do to be saved and go to Heaven: First they think they must believe Jesus is my son; second they believe they must accept Jesus as their Savior; third they believe they must ask forgiveness for their sins. Strangely, they do not seem to understand that if it is possible not to sin, there should be no need to ask forgiveness for sin since, according to them, sin can and should be avoided. But human beings cannot avoid sin.

"It frustrates me that people, including some church leaders, do not understand that sin is unavoidable. I very pointedly made sure to say so when I inspired John to write in 1 John, chapter 1, verses 8 through 10 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.'

"So, there are four things you must do to be saved: you must believe in Jesus; you must accept Jesus as your Savior; you must sincerely try not to sin; and you must ask forgiveness for your sins when you do sin.

"Sincerely try not to sin. That is the key to Christian behavior on earth. And it should be the cornerstone of what Christians teach other people about how to behave. If a Christian tells another person 'you cannot do this and you cannot do that and you cannot do this other thing and if you do any of those things you will no be saved, that Christian's words are bankrupt even as they are spoken. Why? Because everyone knows it is not possible to not ever do some of the things the Bible says it is wrong to do.

"So when Christians teach and preach that misbehavior is unacceptable and unforgivable they are teaching the wrong thing. They should be teaching that misbehavior is unacceptable but forgivable if we sincerely try to behave and ask forgiveness for our sins.

"Teach that all people are God's children. Teach that God loves all of His Children. Teach that God wants them to love each other. Teach that sin is forgivable because of a sincere desire not to sin and because Jesus has already paid the price for any sin we commit as long as we are sorry for the sin and we ask forgiveness in the name of Jesus.

"I have one last thing to say about this. When Christians teach that when Jesus sacrificed His life He paid the price for everyone's sin, they should also teach how it is possible that the life of one man paid the price for everyone who will ever live. I can help you understand it by giving a simple example. In this example everyone in a particular community buys homes paid for by mortgages taken out at the same banking institution. Everyone in that community also works at the same local factory. One day that factory goes out of business and everyone in the community loses their jobs. The mortgages come due and everyone is about to lose his or her house. Someone who is infinitely rich steps in and without expecting anything in return, except an acknowledgment of thanks, pays the mortgages on all of those houses and everyone's home is saved.

"Jesus is worth more to me than anything you can imagine. When He paid for your sins with His life, He paid the debt for you and everyone else completely.

CHAPTER 27

ARE PEOPLE MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEANS

"Okay Dale," God said, "it is time for me to go back to my place at the beginning of that line and see what kind of a dance the next person can dance for me. And this ought to be good. This guy was a lawyer. He's got a lot of explaining to do. I do have to admit though, most lawyers are pretty good dancers."

"But before I send you on your way and go give this fellow a good scare, is there anything else you want to ask me, anything else you want to know, maybe one last question?"

God must have read my mind. There was one other thing I wanted to know. "When you look at the earth and the people on it," I began, "are the people more important to you than anything else on earth?"

"It's that Rodeo-Chedeski Fire thing again isn't it?" God asked. "That has been bothering you for more than 15 years now."

"Well, yes," I said haltingly, "that fire pointed out a conflict in human nature that I am not understanding and it bothers me that I do not understand it."

"Okay," God said, "let's start by you telling me what you know about the fire."

It's always a good idea to start something at the beginning, so that's what I did. "The Rodeo-Chedeski fire was actually two fires, the Rodeo fire and the Chedeski fire, started by two different people two days apart. The two fires converged to become the largest fire in Arizona history. Before it was extinguished, it had burned more than 465,000 acres of land. It was the largest fire in Arizona history. It destroyed about 400 homes and 30,000 people had to be evacuated from the area.

"The Rodeo fire started on June 18, 2002 and was set by an out of work fireman who was trying to create work for himself. He worked as a seasonal firefighter for the Apache Indian tribal fire department. He was hoping to be hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of a quick response fire crew. I doubt there is any chance he knew the devastation he would cause. He thought it would be a small fire that would be put out very quickly, but it would provide him with temporary work and a little money. Still, he did set the fire purposely.

"The other fire, the Chedeski fire, was started as a signal fire by a woman who had been lost in the woods for two nights and part of three days. She and her boss were driving to service some vending machines when they encountered roadblocks set up because of the Rodeo fire. The roads they wound up having to take were unfamiliar to them and they became lost. To make matters worse they ran out of gas. The woman tried to use her cell phone to call for help, but could not get reception for her phone so she set out on foot to find higher ground and hopefully better reception for her cell phone. After repeated attempts to call for help, her cell phone battery went dead.

"She became lost and stranded. For two nights, she tried to find her way back to her boss' vehicle or some other person or place where she might find help. She had been alone in the wilderness for over two days. It got pretty cold at night. She had no food and could not find water. She was beginning to panic and became desperate.

"Then suddenly, she heard the rotor blades of a helicopter. With very little time to decide what to do, and after two days with no food or water, she decided to set a bush on fire to signal the helicopter. The pilot of the helicopter did see her signal fire and set down about a quarter of a mile away to pick her up.

"Finally, she was rescued, and very relieved. Still, she told the pilot they needed to do something about the fire she had set. The pilot had already radioed the coordinates of the rescue and reported the fire so they believed that help to put out the fire would arrive shortly and they flew to the nearest town so the woman could get something to eat and drink and recover from her ordeal.

Unfortunately, no one ever did show up to put out her signal fire. It became a full fledged forest fire on its own and eventually joined up with the Rodeo fire to become the Rodeo-Chedeski fire.

"The Rodeo fire was started on purpose by a man who wanted to be hired to work and put out that fire. The Chedeski fire was started on purpose by a woman who was desperate to be rescued and who made sure something was done to notify authorities of the fire she had set.

"The man who started the Rodeo fire was charged with arson, pled guilty and was given a ten year sentence. The woman who started the Chedeski fire was not charged with any crime. The investigator confirmed that she had left several voice mail messages before her cell phone battery died detailing her and her boss' predicament and asking for help. As a result of his investigation, he did not believe charges against the woman were warranted.

"The Arizona Republic, a phoenix newspaper, ran an article detailing the woman's situation. To review, this is the predicament she faced. Since she believed she would not be gone long and she would be servicing vending machines, she was not dressed for an excursion into the wilderness. She was wearing a tank top, shorts, and flip flops. She had been stranded in the wilderness for over two days without food or water. There was wildlife known to inhabit the woods, including bears. This woman's life was in real peril. Almost no one disputes that fact.

"A significant number of the residents in the area affected by the Rodeo-Chedeski fire and other people as well, believed she should have been charged with a crime, specifically arson, or at least willful destruction of property. It did not matter to them that she was desperately trying to save her own life or that when she was rescued; she told her rescuers about the fire and wanted to do something to put it out. In their minds she purposely set a fire that destroyed land and property and she needed to pay a price.

"When I learned that those people wanted her to be charged, I was incredulous. The thought bothered me so much that I began talking to my friends and coworkers about it. These were people who were not connected in any way whatsoever to any of the land or property that was lost. They had no vested interest whatsoever. Many of the people I spoke with believed that woman was indeed guilty of a crime.

"I cannot imagine that property or land is worth more than human life. And yet I found myself holding a minority view on that subject. Land can be replaced; a person cannot be replaced. Possessions can be re-accumulated; a person cannot be reanimated.

"Am I wrong to believe that we should rejoice because this woman's life was saved rather than seek revenge because we lost some property?"

God began to speak in a low voice. "You have described the situation well," He said. "Clearly you understand what happened. The revelations and insights that you received about human nature from that event have been somewhat traumatic for you. And I know that it has created some questions in your mind about whether your belief in people being worth more than property is valid.

"Trouble yourself no more Dale. Your belief in the value of a person is valid. People are worth more than property. And I tell you this. If I were not God and there were some thing or person more powerful than I who wanted me to give up a person to save property, I would die first.

"I mean it. If I owned the earth and the people on the earth and that is all I owned, and someone more powerful than me came along and told me that I would either have to give up the earth or the people on it, I would give up the earth. Even if every person on earth died except one person, I would still choose to keep that one person and let the earth go.

"You know, Dale, many people believe that I value people because I made them in my own image. No, that is not true. I made people in my own image because I value them that much. People are my children on earth.

"I gave people the ability to reason and problem solve. I gave them souls and spirits. I did not do the same for any other thing on earth, living or dead. I did not give those things to the land or the sea. I did give it to the creatures that crawl or swim or fly. I did not give them to the sun or the wind.

"No Dale, when I see events unfold like the Rodeo-Chedeski fire and its aftermath: When I realize that people are more attached to the material wealth they have accumulated, than to the living, breathing people around them, I realize they do not know the value I have for human life. We have talked at length about the purpose for Jesus' life. I did not send Jesus to save the animals or the trees. I did not send Him to save the houses or the cars. He did not live so that the gold and the silver could be saved. Jesus lived so that people could be saved.

CHAPTER 28

POOR, AND BLIND, AND NAKED

"Dale," God said, "there is one more thing that I want you to know. It concerns probably the biggest misunderstanding that mankind suffers from. And, more importantly, it will cause many people who say they are Christian, who say they are saved, to actually be cast aside on the day of their judgment.

"Most Christians are familiar with the book of Revelation. Chapter 3 of the Revelation, verses 15 through 17 says "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

"Tell me Dale, what do you think Revelation 3:15-17 means?"

I thought about it for a moment.

"I know you have thought about this before. We have already talked about faith verses works." God said. "Just tell me what you have been thinking."

"Okay," I said. "But I'm not as eloquent as you, and my thoughts are not as precise, so bear with me." I started by summing up what I think those verses mean. "That is when Jesus tells the Laodician Church the since the people of that community are neither good nor bad, he will spit them out of His mouth. Is that correct? And He says that since they have earthly goods and comforts they think they need nothing and need to do nothing else. He says that they are actually wretched and miserable. Does that sum up what Revelation 3: 15-17 says?"

"That's a pretty good summary of what it says. Now tell me Dale, what does it mean to you?"

"Well God," I began. "If you take bad and put it on one of the extreme ends of human behavior, then take good and put it on the other extreme end of human behavior, bad would be cold and good would be hot. In the middle would be lukewarm. I think people have been fooled into thinking that if they do not do anything bad, that means they are a good person. What so many of them fail to realize is that you are not good unless you do good things.

"If I do my job to the best of my ability, and take care of my family and friends, but ignore people who are hungry, or injured, or sick, or poor, I am not a good person. You see, I take care of myself because I want be comfortable and happy. I take care of my family and friends because I love them.

"But there is a world out there that extends far beyond what I see as my little sphere of comfort, the bubble that I try to stay in so I can be happy. Some of that world is more comfortable than me. But much of that world is in pain. If my brother is sick, I do what I can to help him. Would I do the same if I came across someone that I did not know? And yet, if we are all your children, are we not all brothers and sisters?

"I often hear people say that they realize we are all brothers and sisters. Then I watch how they ignore the pain and suffering of someone they might pass on the street, and I wonder if they treat their brothers and sisters that way.

"So when Jesus talks about spitting out the lukewarm church of Laodicia I believe He was saying that it is not enough not to be bad. You have to be good if you want Jesus to save you on the day of your judgment."

God was pleased with what I said. He smiled. "You have spoken well," He said. "There is a great debate among Christians about whether faith alone can save a person's soul. This seems to be contradicted by James, the brother of Jesus, in James, chapter 2. James writes 'Even so faith, if it hath not works is dead, being alone.' James would seem to contradict Paul. But he does not. He adds to what Paul said by pointing out that if you truly believe in and love Jesus you obey His teachings.

"To further illustrate this point, in Matthew, chapter 22 when Jesus is asked by a Pharisee which is the greatest commandment He responds by saying 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

"The point is simple. Jesus expects you to care for your fellow man with the things that you do. You cannot simply say I believe in what Jesus taught, then not do the things that Jesus asked you to do. You cannot say that since you do no harm, that means you are good and expect that you are saved. Doing no harm does not mean that you do good. And if you do no good, you betray the faith you say you have in Jesus.

"Jesus said in Matthew, Chapter 7, 'Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.'

Jesus is saying you need to do more than just say you believe. You must show you believe with the works that you do.

CHAPTER 29

WAKE UP

The time had come for me to be leaving. I did not know where I would be going from here, but I knew that I was saved and wherever it ended up being it would be a good place. I felt a little sad. I mean, how often does anyone get a chance to talk face to face with God? In my case, never, at least not when I was alive. Whew! I almost forgot that I was here because I had been hit by a bus and did not survive. But that did not matter now. I had achieved my ultimate goal and arrived at my ultimate destination. Still, there was one other thing that I wanted to know. Did I dare ask? After all, God did say he had a lawyer waiting at the head of the line and the line itself probably did not get any shorter while God and I had our little talk. But I did want to know.

God finally interrupted my thinking. "You want to know about the calling, don't you Dale?" He asked. I hesitated, but God said it was alright. He wanted me to know for sure anyway.

So I asked. "Did you actually call me to be a messenger for you?"

"Before I answer that," God said, "tell me the story again. It's a good story and I like to hear it. I know I've heard it numerous times. You've told just about everyone you know. But I like to hear about when a person figures out his purpose in life.

"Okay," I said. "It started when I was about 33 years old. I had just gotten divorced from my second wife and had been discharged from the navy. I decided to sell everything I had and travel for a while and find a new place to live, a place where I could start fresh.

"I am a pretty good person at heart and I think I always have been. But up until that point in my life, I did not always act like a good person. I had a terrible temper. I would pick a fight for almost any reason. I was arrogant and self centered and felt like I was superior to everyone else.

"I did very well in school, always making very good grades. I was on the track team, the football team, and the wrestling team. I was also in several plays. In fact, I was voted Best All Around person by my classmates at the end of my senior year.

"When I went to work out of high school, I started out as the morning maintenance person and early cook at a local fast food restaurant. Before the restaurant opened for the day, I would wash the windows, clean the concrete patios around the building, pick up the trash from the parking lot, things like that. Then when the restaurant opened, I would cook for a couple of hours before going home for the day. Before long, I was promoted to Assistant Manager and shortly after that, I was promoted to Manager and transferred to another store.

"When I decided I had enough of working at a fast food restaurant, I joined the Navy entering the service at the lowest possible rank, E-1, Seaman Recruit. But I did so well in boot camp that I was meritoriously promoted to E-2, Seaman Apprentice when boot camp was over. I was one of only two out of more than seventy recruits in my company to get promoted out of boot camp. Then I went on to trade school to learn my trade. I was going to be a Yeoman. I did so well there that I was promoted again. This time, I skipped E-3, Seaman and was promoted straight to E-4, Petty Officer Third Class. I was promoted again pretty quickly to E-5, Petty Officer Second Class, and again pretty quickly to E-6, Petty Officer First Class. I had achieved that rank in about five years, a feat that it normally took over 10 years to accomplish. Then I was chosen to serve on the staff of an Admiral in Washington D.C. That was quite an accomplishment as well.

"All of this success in my professional life contributed to my belief that I was superior to most people. But the entire time I was being so successful at work, I was failing miserably at home. By the time I got out of the Navy, I had been married and divorced twice and I had alienated most of my family. My air of superiority made them resent me and like I said earlier, I had a really bad temper which literally frightened them sometimes.

"When I got out of the Navy I traveled west to find a new life. I was intelligent and had experience in office skills so I had no trouble finding work. But my arrogance and feelings of superiority eventually alienated my coworkers and irritated my bosses. I always wound up quitting each job, sometimes just in time to avoid being fired.

"One day, in a moment of despair, I sat down and did some soul searching. It did not start out as a soul searching session. I started out as an exercise in denial. I asked myself why everyone else could not get along with someone as wonderful as me. Why was I all alone when everyone else should be falling over themselves to have me as a friend or husband or any kind of acquaintance at all.

"Then an incredible thought occurred to me. It was a pretty simple thought and when I look back now I have difficulty understanding why I did not realize it before I was thirty three years old. The thought was this: If I feel one way and everyone else I know feels another way, what makes me think that I'm the one that's right and everyone else is wrong? There may be times when one person gets something right when everyone else gets it wrong, the notion that the world is flat being one of those times. But usually, when it is one person against the world, the world is probably right.

"I realized that I needed to change. But it would not be easy at the age of thirty three to change as dramatically as I now realized I must. I knew that I had to find an anchor, something I could always count on and come back to when everything seemed to be difficult. I thought of faith and of you, God. And I realized that no matter where I went and no matter what I did, you would always be with me. I began reading the Bible and meditating daily. And I began to feel like I was moving in the right direction.

"I sought counseling and my daily meditations were designed to help me be more content and less controlling. It may sound trite, but I just wanted to be a better person. But I was still alone and I still had trouble controlling my temper. After months of effort, I did not feel like I had made much progress, so I did what comes naturally to me. I threw a fit. And I picked an argument with you, God.

"I said that it was not fair for someone to try as hard as I had been trying and yet to have made as little progress as I had made. I said that you knew how hard I had tried and it had not worked. And I issued you a challenge. I said that I could not fix myself so you had to fix me. I said that I was going to turn my problem over to you and that you must change me for me. I said I am going to bed and when I get up tomorrow I expect to be a different person. I said that if you are God and can do anything, then you need to do this for me.

"And then I took my soul into my own hand and risked gambling it away. I said that if you do not do this for me, if I am not a changed person when I wake up, I will never believe in you again. As soon as I said those words I knew I had done something serious and I was scared. I worried that maybe you would be angry with me and you would let my soul be damned. But it was the only thing I knew to do. I could not change myself by myself. I needed to turn the problem over to you.

"I had recently read Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1 which says 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' I believed you were there and this was the only way I knew to communicate to you the extent of my pain. But even though I did believe, I meant what I said about not believing in you any more if you did not change me. I felt that if you could ignore that kind of pain, then you do not exist.

"When I went to bed that night it seemed to me that I felt a comforting presence. And when I woke up the next day, I knew I would change. I knew it. And I was joyful. It was not the kind of giddy joyfulness that Ebenezer Scrooge felt when he awoke to realize he had been given a second chance to be a good person. No, it was quiet confident knowledge that the pain I had always felt was suddenly gone and there was no need for me to be so angry any more.

"And more than that, I had a feeling that you were calling me to be a messenger of Faith, Hope, and Love. I thought I was imagining it. I said to myself that surely God wants messengers that are way more qualified than me. I thought that You would want people like Billy Graham who had led righteous lives and had dedicated their entire lives to presenting your messages of Faith, Hope, and Love.

"I continued my daily meditations and it seemed that somewhere in the middle of each meditation, I would receive what I thought was a calling from you. I resisted. I thought that I was being arrogant again by thinking that you would be calling me to do something for you. I thought I wanted to be important so I concocted this 'calling' in my own mind to puff up my opinion of myself.

"Several times I felt so disgusted with myself during my meditations that I would stop the session right in the middle and find something else to do. Once, I decided to go shopping so I went to the local mall. While I was shopping, I felt myself being drawn to a bookstore. I went inside and wandered around for a few minutes randomly going down the aisles looking for something that might interest me. I said 'Okay God if I'm supposed to be here, show me where I should go. What book should I look for?' Suddenly, I found myself in the aisle where the Bibles were. And I had the eerie feeling that I should pick up one of the Bibles, open it and read the first verse I saw. So I did just that. I picked up a Bible, opened it and read the first verse I saw. It was 1st Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 13: 'And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.' Charity, of course, means love.

"For several weeks I had been resisting what I thought might be a calling to be a messenger of faith, hope, and love and now there I stood in a random book store, holding a random Bible, after having read a random verse which just happened to be about faith, hope, and love. And this happened after weeks of me thinking you were calling me to be a messenger of faith, hope and love. I immediately got chills like I had never felt before.

"I put the Bible down and wandered around the mall aimlessly for a while wondering if I was nuts or was this really happening. I wondered if You would really talk to me like that. I mean I knew I would not encounter a burning bush that talked or hear a booming voice from the sky, but would you really talk to me like that?

"I went home and resumed my meditation. And the feeling that I was being called was stronger than ever. And yet, I still resisted. 'God,' I said, 'isn't it arrogant of me to believe I have been called by you to deliver a message?' Suddenly, a profound thought came to me. It was a thought not as if I was thinking it myself, but as if You were talking to me. The thought was this: 'It is not arrogant of you to think that you have been called by me to deliver a message. It would be arrogant of you to believe that I have called you and then not come.' And in the middle of my meditation, I bowed my head and cried."

God reached over and put his hand on my shoulder. "You are not arrogant," He said. "I have called you. Now wake up and begin delivering the message."

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Thank you so much for reading DANCING FOR GOD. If you enjoyed it won't you please take a moment to leave me a review at your favorite retailer?

Thanks

Dale Hatfield

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I was born Myron Dale Hatfield on February 22, 1958. I decided to go by Dale at a very early age. Dale is easier to say than Myron; one syllable instead of two. Sometimes simple reasons are enough.

My father was Orville Hatfield, a descendent of the Hatfields in the Hatfield-McCoy feud. My mother was Caroline Nadine Merchant Her maiden name is Gibson and she married my father Orville, divorced him and married my stepfather Roscoe Wilbur Merchant. I have three brothers and several other half brothers and sisters.

I spent some time in the Navy and I have lived in many different places from Maine to Florida to Arizona to Washington State and many places in between.

Connect With Me

Friend me on facebook at

<https://www.facebook.com/DaleHatfieldWriter>

Visit my blog at

<https://www.allcreationknows.com/>

