Absolutes

Today I woke up thinking about my health insurance. If Obama wants to fix something, work on this: When I was laid off, my insuarnce was stopped within 4 days. When I was called back, I was told my insurance would not kick in until 30 days after the beginning of my first calendar month back- the first of March, 45 days after I began paying on it again! If this doesn't tell you that the insurance 'business' is a racket like any other financial service, be they bank or broker, nothing will. Once a business has as its purpose the collecting, holding, and /or the investing of money, it is inevitably taken over by addiction to greed and the need to find any way possible to liberate you from your money without return to you. I began to think about what was said in the Bible about usurers and the like, and the path to hell anyone in charge of such businesses are taking. Unless you repent...
But is the greedy actions of a business enough to send one to hell? We have a tendancy to think that the good or evil of a man is the sum of his actions. Thus, Hitler is more evil than Joe Blow the atheist, and Mother Teresa is better than, say, Jim Bakker. But this is man's construct, not God's.
God is absolute in all things. He is not judging us on the basis of the sum of our actions. How does He judge?
1. God cannot be in the presence of sin. If you do not sin, you merit heaven, if you do, you merit hell.
2. We all sin. This is born out throughout the Bible. We all have some points at which we transgress the Law.
3. If we break the law in even one minor point, we have still broken the law. Do you get it? Absolutes.
4. The insurance company's dishonesty, Hitler's genocide, my failure to forgive the guy that's driving too slow in front of me, they are all different levels of breaking the law, but they are all breaking the law- and the consequences are the same.
5. The rub comes where God's love is absolute too. So absolute that He came into flesh and died to pay the price for all men- bankers, Hitler, and me- leaving it up to us to accept that sacrifice.
6. That means, faith in Christ is the dividing line between heaven and hell. Period. The Weight of our deeds has no bearing on our ultimate destination. If Hitler sincerly repents of his deeds and calls upon Christ before he dies, he goes to heaven. If Mother Teresa, with all her charity, does not call on Christ, she goes to hell. Absolutes.
7. Again for emphasis, the weight of our deeds has no bearing upon our ultimate destination. However, they will have an affect on our rewards/punishments in heaven/hell.
Will Mother Teresa have a better chunk of heaven than I will? Probably, but its the difference between a good neighborhood and a great one. Will Hitler have a worse spot in hell than Joe Blow the atheist? Depends, but neither one will enjoy Eternity.
So, here's my application: Jesus tells us to love our enemies; and we, with our human, weight-of-deeds perspective , ask how? The answer is right here: Without Christ in our personal equation, we are no better than they. And more to the point, we are no better off. Except for the absoluteness of God's love, we are all in the same boat.

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Just a side note to keep track before I forget: the animal count is up to 2 bunnies and three deer.