As a young boy, without looking, I once bit eagerly into a beautiful golden-yellow cling peach whilst running happily around my grandparent's swimming pool. After I had already swallowed that first bite, it was only as I approached for my second bite, that I then noticed that the core was a soggy mass of dark brown with a plethora of white worms swarming outwards from the centre, a teeming assembly of foul which I had just swallowed a mouthful of. This condition of the rottenness "coming from inside" is an object lesson God teaches us all on the principle that goodness comes from the CORE, and not from the appearances. Which is also why God chose David over his brothers to be king, because God looks unto the heart, not unto appearances. Before I had taken my first bite of that beautiful-looking peach, from its outward appearance, it had actually looked incredible in every way.

     Continuing with the theme of rottenness, when it comes to man's own corruption, all sin comes from a "process of spoiling", a process that begins first "on the inside". When man falls "in the natural", being that outward moment where what is birthed in the heart then becomes flesh, he has already fallen "in the spiritual". And at the heart of ALL sin, whether we like to admit it or not, is "the pride of selfishness". The Fall is synonymous with the the heart of selfishness. The decision of Adam to live separate from God, and alienated from the very heart that created him in love, and that also gave him everything in love, was one of the most selfish of all decisions. Not only for that moment for Adam, but for what that decision set in motion for everything else "that is now flesh" or the outward evidence of that decision. We have all individually and personally witnessed the far-reaching consequences of that decision .

      The preamble and prelude to the Fall was first a decision at the CORE (in the spirit of man, for that is where Adam and Eve where deceived) to choose for self what is right and wrong, and good and evil. The subsequent Fall represents the fall of "a once glorious nature" fashioned in the pristine gold of the divine nature now reduced to "the ashes" of the nature of worldly man today, a nature wholly perverted from the original since all is now purposed and predicated on filling the "vessel of self" by the self and for the self. It is the complete reversal and abasement of the original form and function of "For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen" (ROMANS 11:36) into the lifestyle and belief system of "From man and through man and for man are all things. To man be the glory forever!" So, from the core of the spirit, the "spoiling rot" moved outwards, and then "became flesh". Which is the outward manifestation of what we see in the world today. 

     What we see today is that God's creation of the earth, a gift from God to man, where man was given stewardship over all its affairs, this stewardship has been turned rotten to the core, where it's a case of "every man and government for themselves", and not what it was originally intended for. Which was for the greater good of all humanity, and the wellbeing of the earth. Instead, the earth now bears the scars of a humanity "turned in upon itself", where every appetite and motive is centred upon "storing up for itself" all that it can, at the complete exclusion and expense of all others and all else. The earth has been raped and pillaged to the point that "all of earth groans". What should have been enough for all, has been amassed into the storehouses of the greedy few, leaving the earth as a "living carcass" of what it should have been, which was a tree of life. For at the core of everything in "the kingdom of the world" is the example and the principle of the priority of selfishness, and the sovereignty of self. If managed properly, and out of a culture and a DNA of love, as opposed to out of a culture of selfishness, the earth was always more than enough to meet all the "daily bread" needs of all of man indefinitely. 

     What this shows us, ultimately, is that all sin is forged upon the ceaseless anvil of selfishness. The reason why the "kingdom of the world" is so opposite to "the kingdom of God", and why it is placed contrary to the kingdom of God, is that the kingdom of the world is all about self-gain, self-glory, self-aggrandizement. And we only need to look about us everywhere to see that plainly for ourselves. And where do we see the origins of this preoccupation of self for the very first time? It was first architected in the belly of "the morning star" that summarily fell from heaven to earth with a resounding "Big Bang" that has ever since left the earth reeling in its shock waves. Every motive, every plan, every purpose of the cunning enterprise of Satan is strictly and whole-heartedly selfish, being entirely and exclusively about his kingdom, his glory, his gain. To the very last cubit. Everything is "turned IN upon himself" as opposed to "turned OUT in sumptuous magnanimity" for all. As such, "666" being the mark "of a man" is the embodiment of all that is man separate from Christ and not born of the Spirit of God, and all that is hard-wired to the altar of self. 

     If you have ever bitten into an apple that looks beautiful on the outside and found that it has spoiled on the inside, such is the nature and essence of Satan. Which is where the term "rotten to the CORE" comes from. Selfishness turns one inward upon oneself, and completely contaminates the entire being, beginning from the core to the extremities. It's the attitude of heart and the lifestyle that turns a blind eye to the spiritual and physical orphan and widow, and to every person in need. It's the predisposition to cross the road and walk passed the man lying beaten for dead in the gutter. The earth was given to provide for EVERYONE's needs, and what we see by the marginalisation of the many masses of humanity left on the periphery of life through acute starvation and prevailing lack (spiritually and physically) is testimony to a perversion of the original nature of man become ROTTEN TO THE CORE.

     Which all points to and supports the law of physical science known as "the law of entropy", which is the principle that everything "degenerates" and declines towards a state of decay. The only law that reverses the process of decay and corruption, and that has the power to "regenerate" anything, is the love of God. Love is also the opposite of the world's law of diminishing returns. The kingdom of God, underpinned by love, is where there is always "more than enough". There is never lack. And there is never diminishing returns. Which is also why the Holy of Holies is in "the deepest core" - so that everything following on after of that, being the spirit of man, the soul and the body, subsequently takes its leaning from the divine nature and will of God. Which is the way and the truth and the life that is love. And it is for this reason that love is a requirement of all who want to be sons and daughters of the Most High. 

     There is an old saying that "quality is better than quantity". By contrast, "selfishness" is the domain of "QUANTITY", whereas "love" is the realm of "QUALITY". And quality always outweighs quantity. For the sons of "the kingdom of the world", its all about amassing "quantities" of "Gold, Girls, Glory" or "Wealth, Woman, Worship" for the self. For the daughters of "the kingdom of the world", it's all about amassing "quantities" of Mammon, Men, Majesty for the self. But in the realm of the "the kingdom of God", QUALITY always supersedes QUANTITY, for it is the kingdom of LOVE. For love is most certainly not selfish, and man will be known by his fruits. Instead, 1 CORINTHIANS 13 tells us exactly what the nature of love is, which is the divine nature of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

"13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-13.

"Now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, be the honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen." 1 TIMOTHY 1:17.

God's richest blessings, for ever and ever, amen.

Wayne Biehn