Around The Campfire

Around The Campfire

          Remember when you were a kid, setting around the campfire at camp, or Scouts, on family vacation, or maybe just in your own back yard? Do you remember any of the creepy stories that were told? Can you remember how uncomfortable you were when you had to use the restroom and didn’t want to leave the security of the group? You knew, logically, that Sasquatch wasn’t behind that huge tree you would have to pass and no killer was crouched in that slight dip in the ground before you could reach your goal, but why take the chance? Remember, how for weeks after you laid awake for hours listening to strange bumps, and thumps and creaks that you had not noticed before?

          It seems that we enjoy being scared. That is why we love rollercoasters, scary movies, and Halloween haunted houses and foolishly speeding to beat the red light.

           You are an adult now. You realize that the stories that scared you so badly then, if you heard them today, would probably make you laugh. Have you wondered why they affected you so much? For one, it was deathly dark. Everyone knows that evil lurks in the dark. Sometimes the adults told the scariest stories and you believed their stories were true. The other kids were scared too, didn’t that prove that the stories were true? If, you had not believed the stories were true facts, they would not have bothered you in the least.

          What do you fear the most today? What do you talk about around the watercooler or over your coffee at the kitchen table? Sin, disease and death. Why? Because your life is so involved in them. ”Did you hear? Jim’s son ODed and they said that he might be a vegetable,” “Mary’s sister’s cancer has spread, she only has a month to live.” “I have to lose weight. My doc said my cholesterol and triglycerides are over the roof. I can have a heart attack or a stroke any minute.” No campfire, but horror stories never the less. What is fear? A complete lack of trust.

          I read a lot of religious books and I am appalled at the misinformation they present as fact. There might have been an excuse when people were superstitious and worshiped idols. They couldn’t read and had to rely on other people to teach them and they had nothing to compare what they were told was God’s word, and the absolute Truth.

          Do you believe there is One God who created everything? And that everything created was Good? Then who created evil? Consider what one book has to say on the subject.

          “The New Testament, however, reveals Satan as the ‘god of this age,’ does not have to ask God’s permission before doing evil. If, he did, the so-called “war” raging between the forces of good and evil would be a sham.”

          It is a sham in so many ways. {1} Heaven is no place for a war. {2} If, God did not create evil, {and He did not!}, Satan, the devil, sin, sickness, and disease do not exist. Therefore there is nothing for God to fight. {3} If, Satan were a foe that God had to fight; it wouldn’t be much of a contest. God has won.

          Another quote, “Righteous people do suffer even great trials and tribulations, and that although God does what He can in every situation, the devil is “the god of this age” and it is under his control.”  

          And again. “Scripture makes it clear that God’s deliverance of His people is His will, and that He often can do so miraculously, but there are times when He cannot.”

          Really? Is the Creator of all so limited that He cannot defeat a nonexistent adversary? Good common sense will tell you that it is only our belief in the often told lie that there is an entity that can cause us trouble, make us miserable. But if there was that something, where did it come from? Either God is ALL or nothing. Refuse to believe in evil and it will disappear like a shadow on the wall.

          You laugh at the campfire stories now. How long will it take before you laugh at the water cooler stories? When can you understand that there is God and nothing else? God is our Father-Mother-Creator. Without God we would not be here. He gives us unconditional Love. There is nothing in the dark to harm us and nothing to challenge God.

          The devil is nothing but a lack of trust in God’s Reality which is All Good.

          776 words       Loretta Ellen Edwards