Brainy Thoughts

By Raoul Pascual

Raoul’s Two Cents: March 3, 2023

Stubborn

WARNING: Spiritual insights. Move on to the jokes if you aren’t interested.

As my Bible study class neared the end of the book of Hosea, a recurring theme came to mind. I realized despite God’s warning to the Jewish nation about their wrongful obsession with Baal and other false man-made gods, they were too stubborn and lost to help themselves. God even warned them of the dire consequences. But would they listen? Nein! Non! Hindi! No!

Remember Cain? In Genesis, God warned him that “sin was crouching at his door” and that he should stop entertaining those envious thoughts. But did he listen? Nein! Non! Hindi! No! Cain eventually murdered his own brother.

Remember Judas? At the last supper, Jesus already told Judas he knew of his plot of betrayal. But did Judas stop? Nein! Non! Hindi! No!

It’s a little like a Bruce Lee movie. There’s a gang of thugs about to get whipped by this lone Kung Fu master. Bruce whacks the first assailant unconscious, signals with his hand for the next fool to enter the ring. But do they stop? Do they run away? Nein! Non! Hindi! No! Instead, they foolishly line up to get their share of punishment. Silly bad guys … silly us!

Man has always sought to be independent of God. We push Him away because we want to do things our way. Yet, God designed us to be dependent on Him. God could have created us to go on and on like the Eveready Bunny but no. We need to eat. We need to rest. We work to be able to eat. The day we are born, we know we will one day die.

Even if we get rich enough to have all the material goods we want, there will always be a different kind of need. The need to be loved, need to create, need to be successful, need to earn one dollar more, etc. Don’t envy Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Rather, we should pray for them. I’m sure they have their own “rich” problems. Howard Hughes, the richest man on earth in the 70s created his own pitiful self-induced problems that led to his infamous death.

“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” — Matthew 19:24-26

Oh, how pathetic we humans are. The more we are told NOT to, the more we do it. The more the only solution is God, the more we run away from Him. We do not do what we know we should because we really can’t … at least not in our own strength. With man it is impossible. With God, we can do anything.

TGIF people!

Raoul