Animal Farm hit the bookstores in the same month of 1945, when atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Ironically, Churchill had formed an alliance with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin one year earlier.

The book was written following Orwell’s firsthand look at Communism in Spain. In Animal Farm the farm animals rebel against their drunken, lazy farm master. Having taken over the farm, the plot begins to develop around who will plan the work, who will do the work and who will avoid work.

The centerpiece for the “new world order” at Animal Farm is a set of seven commandments, designed to distinguish animal behavior from that of the detested humans.  Eventually the commandments are modified and reduced to three.  Finally, all of the commandments are thrown out and replaced with one revered motto:  All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Of course, you can see what has happened.  Things weren’t so perfect on the farm.  The real beauty in Orwell’s plot development was how the leaders (pigs) convinced the rest of the creatures that things were better, when they really weren’t.  The pigs began to increase their path to luxury, formed a bond with some select humans, started walking on two legs and consistently broke all of the seven original commandments — and explained it away to the others’ confusion and/or satisfaction!  In the end all of the farm animals had trouble picking out the pigs from the humans.

Isn’t that the way it is when you start messing with commandments?  The Jews proceeded to break the Magnificent Ten down to hundreds of little commands, becoming focused on the letter of the law rather than on the intent. Jesus came along to show them where they were wrong, how they had manipulated something holy into something doable with no concern as to whom they’re doing it to.

What makes you a Christian?  Is it because you carry a Bible around?  Do you attend church regularly? Give your tithe?  Pray before each meal?  Could you remove these things and still be recognized as one who loves God?

Jesus said whoever would be first must actually become last, putting others ahead of themselves.  When you talk to people, is the conversation usually centered on you?  When you do something for someone, do you expect praise or something to be done for you in return?  Are you quick to let others know what you have done for someone else?

Jesus came to serve.  He said so.  He came to teach us how to serve.  The bumper sticker says I’M NOT PERFECT, JUST FORGIVEN.  Sorry, that’s just not good enough.  Jesus said to be perfect.  Of course you’ll make mistakes along the journey, but you must never, ever give up on being perfect.  And your progress must only be monitored between you and your heavenly Father.  It’s no one else’s business.

The pigs in Animal Farm were determined to become just like the ones who had given them the desire to revolt in the first place.  And they used the most powerful force on earth in order to accomplish their goal — mis-communication.  Jesus said let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no,” because anything more than that is from the Devil.

The Son of God reduced the Ten Commandments to two:  Love God – and – Love Your Neighbor.  In so doing he made the Ten so much easier to follow.

I was noticing the other day the number of No Trespassing signs affixed to several of the houses where we walk.  And as I thought about it, I had to chuckle because the thing that struck me first was, if there was no sign, does it mean that it’s okay just to walk right into their homes?  Of course not.  So what’s the purpose of the signs?  I understand Beware of Dog signs or No Trespassing signs at the edge of large property, but posted on houses that are probably no more than fifteen feet apart?

I suppose the sign means, Don’t come in my house without permission, AND I REALLY MEAN IT. Whatever happened to neighborly love?  The funny thing is that there are Welcome mats on most of their front porch entrances.  Society has become increasingly private, keeping those around them at arm’s length. My guess is that the No Trespassing issue goes a bit deeper.

At the Methodist church where we attend it is common to be asked to recite the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) during the service.  We use the Anglican version, and one phrase of note occurs a little over half-way through the prayer and says, “… forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Other versions use “forgive us our debts” or “forgive us our sins.”

But I like “trespass” because it brings forth the idea of crossing a line.  As we trudge  (or skip, or jog, or run) on this road toward eternity, God has placed shoulders on each side, with warning tracks cut into them, so that we are aware when we are about to drift past his commands into areas of danger.  Of course there are convenient exits along the way, also leading to trouble, in order to allow us to willingly obey and stay on the narrow road.

And like the NO TRESPASSING signs in my alley, we erect such signs in our hearts.  We communicate to others by words, looks or body language that they can only go so far with regard to our private lives. Cross over that line, and there’s no telling what we might say or do.

I think God wants us to remove those signs.  Jesus clearly showed how we are to handle those who compel us (Matthew 5:38-42).  We should respond openly, fairly and honestly for two reasons:  First, God wants us to; it’s called obeying.  Secondly, it teaches us how to love. Jesus goes on to say that we have a tendency to only love those who love us.  What’s the benefit in that?  We should work on showing love to the seemingly unlovable, while still promoting the “comfortable” love.

Trespassing is the tension that helps us grow.  We’re either doing it, or having it done to us. The challenge is how to get back on the narrow road and how to love those who invade our space.  God’s forgiveness is readily available, and his help is at the tip of our tongue in prayer.  All because his love is abundant.

While neither of these scenarios is particularly appealing to me, it allows me to realize what a blessing each new day is.  Our brains are continually processing a wealth of information that has been received through our senses.  No one knows what the brain’s capacity really is, but scientists believe that the billions of neurons in the cerebral cortex alone are able to receive a lot more information than we could possibly have time to store in our lifetime.

I thank God for each new day, because it opens the door for God to start afresh with me.

A new day to greet the sun or shoulder the storm.

A new day to set things right for things gone wrong (or attempt to).

A new day to show God’s love to everyone, especially those who seem to be unlovable.

A new day to build on the things that I learned yesterday, or the days before.

A new day to start over on that diet, that attitude, that determination to get off of drugs, stop smoking, stop getting drunk, stop biting my nails, pay more attention to my kids and really love my neighbor.

A new day to talk with God and obey his commands, those messages that his Holy Spirit constantly whispers in my ear.

A new day to receive God’s discipline and to grow in Christ.

A new day to observe more, explore more and share more — even if it’s only a few feet away.

A new day to encourage others rather than judging them, to address their pain rather than dwelling on mine.

A new day to recognize the fact that there are many more days after I take my last breath, and each day counts.

A new day to forget, forgive and free myself from those things that bring me down.

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When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world.  The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new!       II Corinthians 5:17 (ERV)

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Welcome to the new day!

My dreams are not as grandiose as those of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  His dreams were filled with the hope of racial equality.  While I’m sure that his dream was for freedom for all races, he most certainly had black people in mind. He grew up in a country where race discrimination was played out every day.

But discrimination wasn’t something new.  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was not unusual to witness hatred or prejudice against Italians, Jews, Chinese, Irish and others, scrambling to climb into the giant melting pot called America.

I have vivid memories from my childhood of people (including my own family) looking down on the blacks who worked for us or sat in the back of our buses.  I remember feeling, not hatred toward, but fear of the Negros that I encountered because it was drilled into me that they were “not like us” and couldn’t be trusted.

Living in the South, I had no firsthand experience of spending time with a black person.  It has taken many years for me to understand their plight and to admire their strong faith and determination.  I also have observed that, just like whites, all races have their undesirables, those who remain or become angry, obnoxious or rude in their behavior to their brothers and sisters of a different color.

As much as I would like to say that racial issues are behind us, I am inclined to think that they will never be completely behind us, based on what I still encounter even here in the Bible Belt (go figure).  While I don’t agree with all of Dr. King’s views, and I don’t know the real truth about rumors of his lifestyle, I wholeheartedly agree with his message of God’s love and our reconciliation.

The love of God can only be real in our lives if others can see his love in us.  That means that we are to look upon others as our equals.  The Apostle Paul said that we should consider others above ourselves (Philippians 2:3).  Having come from a religious group, the Pharisees, he knew all too well what it was like to look down on others.

Paul followed the one who gave him a new heart, a heart of flesh, not of stone.  He learned from Jesus, the son of God.  Jesus told many stories that obliterated race boundaries.  His message was that of love, reconciliation and peace.

Give peace a chance.

It’s not unusual for Christian athletes (or athletes who are Christian) to thank God for their touchdown, soccer goal, prize fight knockout or basketball win. But this thing is really taking hold.  Maybe it’s because the Broncos, who hadn’t been doing so well, turned their games around after Tebow started playing regularly.  He was their talisman.  God was on their side?

As for Tim, I saw a televised interview, in which he came across as a humble young man who just wanted to express his faith, not necessarily drawing attention to himself.  But that’s just what he got. Attention.  So much so that his Tebow-isms became fodder for sports writers, late-night comedy, Twitter and Facebook.

So what do you think?  Is it okay, even encouraging, that you pray in public and wear Jesus on your sleeve?  Didn’t Jesus teach us to pray in private (Matthew 6:6)?  For the record, Jesus prayed a lot in private, but occasionally uttered a public prayer.  He gave thanks for food (Luke 9:16) and even made a point of wanting the people to hear him talk to his Father when he raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:42).

I know that we’re not supposed to be ashamed of our Christian faith (Romans 1:16), but is it really necessary to pray out loud for your food in a restaurant? I’ve done so and have been approached, at times, by others at nearby tables who want to compliment our family/group on the boldness of our faith. But, seriously, doesn’t that just boost my ego?  ”Oh, don’t thank me; God gets all the credit.”

And what about kneeling in the end zone?  ”Thank you, Lord, for giving me this touchdown?”  ”Thank you, Lord, that I didn’t get mangled?”  What about the other Christians on both teams?  Did they not win because their faith wasn’t strong enough?  I don’t have the answer.  I’m just asking.

Jesus gave us two commands:  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  We can say that we love.  We can pray for love.  We can teach about love.  But until we DO love, until we SHOW love, then no amount of Christian advertising is going to make a difference.

Now, I don’t expect that anyone in my lifetime is going to want to nail me literally to a cross. I know the disciples, and many of Jesus’s early followers, faced that threat, and some were indeed tortured and killed for the cause of Christ.  And I am thankful that I have never been put in a position of possibly having to recant my faith in weakness in order to avoid physical pain and/or death.  So can we still learn something from the death of Jesus that would be applicable to our daily walk with him?  Yes.

Jesus didn’t die because he couldn’t stop his attackers.  And he didn’t die because God was making him go through it.  He died because he wanted to go through it.  He wanted us to see him go through it. While his death was real and brought the same agony and emotions that we would encounter, the meaning of his death teaches us a greater lesson.

He died because it was God’s will.  He knew that God could remove him at any time.  But he also knew that God had a plan and a purpose.  Jesus’s role on this earth was to follow that plan and fulfill God’s purpose.  All of it was put into place for our benefit.

Each day we go through many life-and-death decisions.  I don’t mean “should I step in front of that speeding truck or not?”  I mean “Is this next thing before me what God wants me to do?”  What is he telling me?  My self may be leaning in another direction due to SELFishness. When Self persuades me to do something that will harm me or others, then Self must die.

Don’t worry.  It’s not a permanent death, because Self always comes back to life for the next challenge. This decision-making goes on for a long time until Self is gradually transformed into Will — God’s will.

I live in a free country where my belief in God and Christ does not come into conflict with a ruling power who can end my life or ruin my way of life.  But I realize that there are many Christians in other parts of the world where fighting daily temptations is the least of their worries.

What we may not realize, however, is that, by living daily to please God and saying “no” to the taunts of disobedience, we are supporting their cause.  We have joined with them in the body of Christ.  We also may not realize that, while they are facing physical threats for their belief, they are actually praying for our struggles daily.  This is because they belong to the same body of Christ.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “To me, the only important thing about living is Christ.  And even death would be for my benefit.”  Philippians 1:21 (ERV)

This hope and life/death dynamic is what binds Christian believers together the world over.

Or so it should be.

Is obedience ever bad?  Slaves are forced to obey, and employees are paid to obey. What would happen to such obedience if the conditions were removed?  Is complete freedom from obedience really what we want?  The world is divided into leaders and followers, with an apathetic portion of some people in between.

All can’t be leaders, and where would we be if there was no one to follow?  It seems to me that God has designed us to enjoy (or not) human interaction.  Children and soldiers obviously need firm direction. But what about the rest of us?  And what about our obedience to God?

God gave us ten commandments; they’re listed in the Bible (Exodus 20).  It’s a very concise list that helps us to address our relationship with God, our family and our neighbors.  From this list all laws are formed.

Jesus gave us one commandment:  LOVE.  It encompasses all of the ten from the Old Testament.  He has the authority to sum them up in this one commandment because he is God’s son.  He goes on to explain who we are to love:  God and everybody;  when we are to love:  all the time; and how we are to love: with all our heart.  That’s a tall order, which brings us back to obedience.

God knows that he can force obedience, but that doesn’t complete his love.  Voluntary obedience doesn’t even get it.  Only obedience out of love will bring true peace and happiness.

Obedience to earthly masters must be weighed against God’s standards.  Obedience to God doesn’t need to be challenged because he is perfect, and his commands will be true.  They are given so that we may become perfect in love.

But be careful.  If the voice in your head directs you to act contrary to the ten commandments or out of envy, hate or pride, then God has NOT spoken.

Jesus taught that we are to follow his commandments because, in so doing, we would be following his Father, and ours.  The Holy Spirit is given that we might be reminded daily the way in which we should walk.  Through the Spirit’s work, we are chastised, when needed, as well as encouraged and comforted.

But which comes first — obedience or love?  If we can truly love, then obedience is experienced without even thinking about it.  But not many of us can truly love.  Therefore, obedience, for the sake of obedience, is the way in which we learn to love.  Obedience without reservation.  Obedience without resentment.  Obedience that rests in the trust that we have of our heavenly Father.

For him to truly be in us, we must trust and obey.  There’s no other way.

Jesus is the reason for all seasons.  Not just for holidays like Easter, Christmas, etc.  He’s the reason for all joyful occasions, as well as times of hurt, depression or even anger.  He came to show us how to live, love and die.

He is the perfect son of God.  He is just like his Father — faultless and full of love.  While I struggle with many things in the Bible, I am more ready to accept the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the gospels.  I guess it’s because my heart tells me that they are true.  And they make sense.

I don’t think of Jesus as “another god,” as some Christians would protest to, claiming that Jesus and God are the same person.  The only reason that Jesus directed others to follow him is because he knew that, in so doing, we would be following God.  This was especially important to the Jews of his day, who had a very different image of the Almighty.

Jesus was continually focusing discussions on what his Father wanted from his children.  He taught us how to react and respond to each circumstance.  He gave us parables to show us the truth in earthly examples.  He also showed us how to give proper responses to questions, as well as to accusations.

He constantly reminded his followers that he only did and said what his Father gave him to do and say. He repeatedly established the Father-Son relationship for their (and our) benefit.  He tells me that I am God’s son.  That makes Jesus my brother — my older brother.

What a blessing it is to have a perfect older brother, since I am an only child.  What a privilege for anyone to have an older brother who doesn’t pick on you or put you down as the bratty little brother.

And yet I feel worshipful towards him, and that is at it should be.  He’s my connection to God, even though he has told me that I can talk to my Father directly.  Jesus is master of all that is good, and that makes him my master.  I feel secure with him.  I thank God for him.

It is Jesus’ hand that I look forward to taking, as he leads me to the loving arms of his Father and mine.

But rich people, poor people, fat people, skinny people, healthy people and sickly people share one thing in common.  We are all going to die.

God created us to enjoy food.  Unfortunately, we also can have the tendency to enjoy eating too much, as well as eating the wrong things.  He also gave us amazing bodies that are designed to self-heal.  I read somewhere that medicines don’t actually heal, but rather stabilize certain areas or relieve discomforting symptoms, while the body does the repairing.

So our health, like interpersonal relationships, relies on thousands upon thousands of choices.  We all know the exceptions.  Like the healthy young person who loses a battle with cancer.  Or the octogenarian who, despite their vices, is “too mean to die.”  I had an aunt who was nice, but she dipped snuff daily since the age of 13, when she was working in the tobacco fields.  It finally got her at age 94!

But the bumper sticker message brings us back to reality.  No matter what we do or don’t do, the Grim Reaper is waiting at the end of the line.  Our days are numbered, although it’s debatable whether God sets the number, or just knows the number.

What does matter is what we do with our lives.  Most people struggle to fill their years on this earth with how to satisfy their needs, as well as their desires.  God knows that we naturally want to care for our bodies.  He also knows that we have spiritual needs, because we are made in his image.

I agree with those who teach that God wants us to look beyond ourselves to the needs of others.  The Apostle Paul had a lot to say about this.  In a hearing before King Agrippa, he testified that his message to people was that they were to “change their hearts and lives and turn back to God.”  (Acts 26:20 ERV)

In a couple of letters to new churches he challenged each believer to not “be interested only in your own life, but care about the lives of others too.”  (Philippians 2:4 ERV) He wrote to the people at Colossae that they were to “Show mercy to others. Be kind, humble, gentle and patient.  Don’t be angry with each other, but forgive each other.”  (Colossians 3:12, 13 ERV)  This too can improve your quality of life, both physical and spiritual.

Go anywhere in the world, and you will find people that will tell you their view on God or gods or nirvana or nothingness.  While they can’t all be right, it is certain that we all will get the same answer on the other side.  If the lights are still on when the earthly lights go out, truth will prevail.

I can’t help but think that the first question will be, “So, tell me about your life.”

While the UCC is one of the fastest-shrinking Protestant denominations, it joins a growing trend among modern churches and Bible translators to take the heavy off of the guy references in the Godhead.  Who is behind this movement?  Women.  But why?  I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with the fear (or weariness) of male dominance.

To be sure, the more fundamental Christian churches use the God-the-Father card, along with specific verses from both Testaments to outline the role of the man as head of the woman and the only sure bet for forcefully advancing the kingdom of God.  But, let’s face it, many men are complete idiots and still want to “lord it over” the less-than-submissive female.

I must admit that my only source of gender assignments in the Kingdom are from the Holy Bible.  And since it was written by MEN, I’m not really sure how God sees it.  We’ve got to make a lot of assumptions from holy manuscripts and traditions in order to keep the male authority alive.  So what facts do we know?

Men are bigger (generally) and stronger (depending on who you are arm-wrestling with) and think that they are smarter.  So it would seem natural to view God as a male figure, since we are made in his image.  But he also made the ladies and gave them specific abilities that no man can improve on.  But I digress.

Here’s my take on the discussion:

I’m not ready to give up the parent-child relationship in my Creator.  And I’m not comfortable in calling him Father-Mother, even though he is both to us. Jesus called him Father, and that’s good enough for me.  (I know, MEN wrote that about Jesus, but it’s the best I’ve got, call it a gut feeling.)

Lord knows we’re in need of some decent fathers, ones who stick around and do the right thing.  And I’m not in favor of teaching our kids that they were created by an asexual Being.  They’ve got enough problems with missing or less-than-loving earthly fathers.  They should at least have an unseen one that they can count on.

And, most importantly, we can lose the semantics and begin to focus on the greater thing:  LOVE.  Jesus taught it.  We should live it.  Even though a worldwide sweep of love is unlikely, like anything important, it starts with one person.  It starts with you — and with me.  I choose to believe that we can make a difference.

This Mr. or Ms. God thing?  Maybe if I were a woman, I might think differently. But it’s my blog, and I’m sticking to it.