On Episode 75 of The Edge of Innovation, we’re talking with Arthur Morris who’s living the dream as a world renowned nature photographer! He’s sharing with us the story of how it all began!
Tag: life
The Art of Bird Photography With Arthur Morris
On Episode 74 of The Edge of Innovation, we’re talking with Arthur Morris, world-renowned nature photographer, writer, & educator! He specializes in birds and is author of the book, The Art of Bird Photography.
Solving Power Management Problems with Emerging Technologies
On Episode 73 of The Edge of Innovation, we’re talking with entrepreneur Simon Wainwright, president of Freebird Semiconductor, about solving power management problems with emerging technologies.
Show Notes
Freebird Semiconductor’s Website
Contact Freebird Semiconductor
Find Simon Wainwright on LinkedIn
What is GaN?
Freebird Semiconductor to attend and present at 2018 Space Parts Working Group
Incredible Hulking Facts about Gamma Rays
Displacement Damage Testing
The Radiation Laboratory at UMass Lowell
Texas A&M University – The Cyclotron Institute
Die Adaptor (FDA) Products from Freebird Semiconductor
What Is Hermeticity?
Link to SaviorLabs Assessment
Sections
Three Types of Radiation Testing
Device Performance Based on Testing
The Entrepreneurial Rollercoaster Day
How Freebird Semiconductor Got It’s Name
What Do We Do?
Should You Start Your Own Business? Advice From Simon
The Three Freebird Semiconductor Products
What is Hermetically Sealed?
Solving Power Management Problems with Emerging Technologies
Three Types of Radiation Testing
Paul: Alright, so you do radiation testing too. Now that sounds exciting/scary. How do you do that?
Simon: There are essentially three basic different types of radiation. So I’ll run you through each of those three. So the first one is gamma radiation. It sounds like something out of a comic book, doesn’t it?
Paul: Yeah. Exactly. Well, I think there was the Hulk, right?
Simon: That’s right. That’s what I was talking about. All the components turn green and break out of their packages.
Paul: So yeah. If I see some of your employees running from the building like that, we’ll know. Okay.
Simon: That’s when we ask them to do the radiation testing. So the basic gamma, you have a radioactive source, which essentially looks like a pencil shrouded by lead. And then you lift the lead up, and it emits radiation, and you put your parts in the path of that radiation, and you can measure the dose that it receives. And that’s called total ionizing dose. Gamma radiation, that’s one of the three types.
And you can do high-dose rates. So you can do a very quick rate of exposure, or you can do a slower dose rate. We don’t see any difference. So we do the high dose rate so we can test things faster.
Then we have displacement damage, which is essentially neutrons. So you bombard these with a flow of neutrons and that essentially is like trying to see whether the neutrons actually displace the lattice, the crystal lattice of the things causing electrical defects and therefore non-functionality of the part. We actually do both of those things locally. The neutron, the displacement damage in the University of Lowell and the gamma radiation in a local company out in Chelmsford.
Paul: Oh, cool.
Simon: And then the third one is ion. Ion bombardment essentially. So it’s called single event effect. So there are different types of single-event effects. We go down to Texas A&M, so Texas. I think it’s agricultural and mechanical university down in…
Paul: I, I think it’s agriculture and mining actually. But yeah…
Simon: I just see the bills.
Paul: I know. I understand.
Simon: So we, we go down to TAMU and we use their cyclotron. So they have this almost like a big washing machine full of lots of different ions and atoms. They accelerate them around in a circle, and then basically, they open a door and certain ions of a specific weight leave. So you can, by opening the door at different energy levels, so to speak, you can tune it in so that different ion species come out. So we test with two different ions species — xenon and gold. So we fire gold at our devices while they’re biased, and that’s the same as if you get a… You imagine a swimming pool full of ping-pong balls, you get a bowling ball, and you throw it in, that’s what we’re trying to simulate to see how that affects the structure.
Paul: And so you’re doing these because I would imagine there’s some mapping to real world events.
Simon: It’s the closest we can get on Earth to maybe an ion that’s floating around in space from a solar flare, for instance, so you get stray ions that are just floating around, and you may get hit by an ion, an ion atom, or ion, at least.
Paul: An ion. Yeah, exactly. So that’s how it maps back. So there are these things in space that are just moving around and you need to be, if you’re in the way, you need to be hardened to that. Or certainly understand the failure mode before you send it there.
Simon: Exactly.
Paul: Wow. Who’d a thunk?
Simon: Yeah. Exactly. So we’ve had great success with that in fact. So we’re very proud of our results for that in our product portfolio.
Device Performance Based on Testing
Paul: And is one device compared to the next device going to have different performance based on that and what is the different? If it is different, what would make it different?
Simon: I would say, if you buy a commercially available device of anything, yes, that is the case. But if you buy a specifically radiation-hardened parts, then no. We have to eliminate that variability upfront. Otherwise, we don’t have a business. We’re playing roulette. Do we get good lots?
Paul: But is it intrinsically because of the way you built it? Is it the materials you used? What makes the cake taste good each time? Is it because you’ve used good flour, good sugar, you know, all the precise recipe, or is it something else?
Simon: No, we keep a very tight control. Firstly, there is a difference in the process, which I won’t go into the details, but there is a difference in the process that allows us to have this performance, which we worked very closely with EPC to develop. Then secondly, we do a lot, as I said, of screening, a lot of testing. So we have a very, very tightly controlled process. And then, not only do we have a tightly controlled process for the chips that come off the line, we then verify that with all these screenings and conformance inspections and life tests before we actually ship.
Paul: So are you going to be like Intel where you take the chips that are partially failed and just make it an i3 and an i5 and different clock frequencies?
Simon: I’m saying nothing about Intel. I don’t want a lawsuit from Intel.
Paul: Well, but so, I mean, is there a market for your underperforming parts?
Simon: Yeah. We convert them into commercial parts. Electrically, they will be within spec or they won’t even get that far. So then people can use them for doing their tests, their engineering tests on a breadboard or something like that. So that can use that, and they don’t have to go through all of the radiation testing. Electrically, they will be the same. It’s just that they would not be as rugged, radiation-wise.
The Entrepreneurial Rollercoaster Day
Paul: So let’s get back to the entrepreneurial idea, the business idea. It’s, again, when you wake up Monday morning, you’re not employed. You gotta get up and do the work. Have there been any anecdotes you can think of that are like, “Oh, my gosh. What have I gotten myself into?” Or…
Simon: Every day is a rollercoaster. Every high is very high. Every low is very low because you know that nobody else is going to step in and, and solve it for you. And that’s the same, I imagine, in any business. And, there’s nowhere to hide.
Paul: That’s true.
Simon: There’s nowhere to hide. You are it. You are it. You know, the buck stops with you, and that’s the biggest, you know. If you work for somebody else, you can go out. You go to work. You come home, and you can forget about it until the following day. We, we can’t turn off. We can’t turn off.
Paul: That’s true, but it is fun.
Simon: Oh, absolutely.
Paul: It is very much fun.
Simon: You know, it gives you a certain flexibility in life as well, I would say, as well.
Paul: You know, what I find is it’s the creativity that you’re allowed to do that getting things to work. It, it’s complicated. It’s hard getting people to do what they’re supposed to do, I can imagine. So you’ve got not only the people part, but you’ve got the technology part. We’re in a world where we do some creative work, but we make technology work. So we’re not like inventing the computers. We’re just making them work, and you’re inventing the computer as well as making it work. And you’ve got to manage the people doing it.
Simon: At least the power supply.
How Freebird Semiconductor Got It’s Name
Paul: A least the power supply. Yeah, exactly. Very cool. So we’ve been talking with Simon Wainwright, president of Freebird Semiconductor. What’s with the name?
Simon: Oh, there are three different reasons, and depending on who you are, I give a different reason. So I’ll go through each of them. Please, nobody who is listening to this tell anybody else. This is secret. So firstly, the three owners, the three founders worked at the same company, and we left the company, so we were free birds. So we spread our wings and we left. That, that’s one.
Paul: That’s one story. That’s a good story. Okay.
Simon: That’s one of the versions. The second version is that a bird is a colloquialism in the space industry for a satellite. So it’s a free bird.
Paul: They’re certain not free, though.
Simon: Ask the accountant about that. So yeah. So it’s a bird. It’s a colloquialism for a satellite, is a bird.
And then the third one is that, you must have heard of Lynyrd Skynyrd, so there you go.
Paul: Well, what about Lynyrd Skynyrd?
Simon: We’re all from that era. We were in a bar in California, and, “What should we call the company?”
Paul: Did the song come on?
Simon: What came on the jukebox?
Paul: Did it really?
Simon: Freebird.
Paul: Are you serious?
Simon: Absolutely, yeah.
Paul: Oh, that’s cool.
Simon: But you’d be surprised how effective the name is because a lot of people associate it with the song and they say, “Ah…” And of course, we’re cool guys, so when we talk to procurement guys or whatever, they all remember that.
Paul: That’s cool.
Simon: But all three of the reasons I gave you really contributed to the name, I’d say.
Paul: I would have never imagined you could have gotten even the domain name nowadays. You know there are so many that are taken. That’s great!
Simon: Nobody want to be a freebird semi.
Paul: Semi freebird. Fascinating.
What Do We Do?
Paul: So yes, we’re sitting here with Simon Wainwright, president of Freebird Semiconductor. What would you say, if you were talking to the technical person? Say, “Hi, I’m Simon from Freebird Semi. We do…” You said GaN?
Simon: We solve power management problems with emerging technologies such as gallium nitride.
Paul: Wow. So that’s your elevator pitch.
Simon: That is what we do.
Paul: That’s what we do?
Simon: That’s what we do.
Paul: And is that what you tell nontechnical people?
Simon: I tell them that we’re faster, smaller, better, and we’re even nice guys.
Paul: We’re even nice guys. Okay.
Should You Start Your Own Business? Advice From Simon
So is there anything you’d like to cover, some specific things we haven’t talked about that you’d be interested…?
Simon: About business?
Paul: Yeah, business or…
Simon: No, I think it’s just a great way of making a living. We’re having fun. If there are people out there debating whether to become entrepreneurs or not, then do it, is the answer. But beware. You’re know, you’re going to have stressful nights. You know, it’s going to be tough. It’s not easy.
Paul: Have you had any good mentors, people that you’ve gone to when you’ve been like, “What do I do in this situation?” Or have you been pretty much organic?
Simon: No, we’ve been pretty much organic. The three of us are really tight. You know we shout at each other, but we hug each other as well, you know. So it’s good to have that backup of your other two partners, whichever of the three you are, you always have the backup of the other two partners.
Paul: That’s a good point. So would you recommend that over going it alone?
Simon: I’m not sure to be honest. I’ve done both. They’re both equally as good.
Paul: Or as difficult.
Simon: Yeah.
Paul: It’s not like it solves all your problems, having two other partners.
Simon: No. It doesn’t solve all your problems. Sometimes it creates them. You know, the thirds the thirds the worry.
The Three Freebird Semiconductor Products
Paul: So, how many parts do you have, model parts do you have? Or what’s your portfolio?
Simon: So our portfolio, we have three main products. Well, no, three main product ranges, ranges. So we have hermetically-sealed parts.
What is Hermetically Sealed?
Paul: In a Funk & Wagnalls doorstep with… So hermetically sealed. What is hermetically sealed? Everybody has heard that. Who is Hermie? Hermetic?
Simon: So he’s a guy that lives down the street.
Paul: Yeah. And he seals them for you.
Simon: That’s right. So we basically have a box. It’s essentially like a box that we connect the chip inside. There are connections that come out through that box, and then we put a lid on the box, and nothing can get in or out of that. So we try and fill the box up with nitrogen. Then we close the box, and basically, that is to protect the parts from moisture when they’re on the ground. There’s no weather in space. Space is a vacuum, so there’s no problem in space. But it’s to protect the parts. If they go down o Florida and sit on a launch pad for a couple of weeks in the humidity, it’s to stop moisture getting in and affect the electrical parameters of the part. So that’s the first, the hermetically-sealed parts, which we call the FBG series.
Then we have an even smaller version of that, which is called the FDA series, the Freebird Die Adapter series. So these are on a ceramic header, but there is no box. So this is a smaller version, almost a chip-scale product.
Paul: So how big is this physically? Quarter of an inch, eighth of an inch?
Simon: I can give it to you in mils.
Paul: Oh, okay. A scientist!
Simon: So the hermetically packaged part would be, a typical part would be 220 mils. So 0.22 inches by 0.15 inches. And that can conduct 30 amps. Yeah.
Paul: And not just like for a half a second.
Simon: No, no. Like, constantly.
Paul: Constantly. Wow. How do you get the conductors to get to that?
Simon: Big wires.
Paul: I guess. I mean, coming down to this little tiny thing.
Simon: No, I mean, it’s everything is designed correctly to match that. But that’s 0.22 by 0.15 of an inch would be a 30-amp device. And we can go smaller, and we can go slightly larger but that’s a 30-amp devices there. If we take that same chip onto the FDA series, which is the chip level part, then we are looking at… Now I only know this one in millimeters. So you’re going to have to do some… You don’t get a free ride here.
Paul: 25.4 millimeters per inch. Okay. Go ahead.
Simon: You’re going to have to do some math on this. So, it’s roughly 4 millimeters by 1.5 millimeters.
Paul: So a little bit smaller.
Simon: So what’s that? Yeah.
Paul: 4/25 of an inch would be 2/13… 1/6 of an inch.
Simon: It’s about a third of the actual area of the hermetically…
Paul: Wow. And the same 30 amps?
Simon: Mm-hmm. The same. The same chip. The same chip.
Paul: Interesting.
Simon: Not in a box. It’s set on a platform.
Paul: Okay. So really, the differences between your products are the packaging.
Simon: Yeah. We, we have a range of products that goes from 40 volts through 100 volts to 200 volts, and then we have, uh, a standalone product which is 300 volts—
Paul: I see. Oh, cool.
Simon: —in terms of capability. Then the third product range that we have is a module. So we actually design circuits with our chips, with, the chip scale parts. We create a functional building blocks for power supplies. And for the more technical listener, it’s a half-bridge circuit with a driver. So we’re actually the first company in the world to actually supply gallium nitride drivers to drive the gallium nitride switch, which is the 30-amp on the output.
Paul: Very cool. So and you’re building these. Are these all built in Haverhill?
Simon: Yeah, yeah.
Paul: Wow. Who would’ve thunk it. I mean, in Haverhill, Massachusetts we’re doing such cutting edge technology. That’s really great.
Simon: Yeah, it’s good. We’re involved with a lot of very important companies and institutions as well.
Paul: Excellent. Well, you’ll have all the contact information for Simon and his team in our show notes, his website. And if we could get some maybe pictures of some of the technology that would be interesting for the listeners to see. That would be really cool because I think it would be neat, if you’re interested in this, or if you know somebody who is interested in this kind of technology, just to look at that and see what it’s doing and what it replaces. So we can have that as well. But anyway, well, thank you very much for your time and we really appreciate you coming in and hope to talk to you next time.
Simon: No problem.
Paul: Alright.
Simon: Thank you very much.
More Episodes:
You’ve been listening to Part 3 of our interview with Simon Wainwright! If you missed Part 1, you can listen to it here and if you missed part 2, you can find it here!
Also published on Medium.
Exploring Christianity: Who is God?
On episode 58 of The Edge of Innovation, we are exploring Christianity and who God is with Pastor Paul Buckley of King of Grace Church.
Exploring Christianity: The Good News
On episode 57 of The Edge of Innovation, we are exploring Christianity with Pastor Paul Buckley of King of Grace Church.
Show Notes
The King Of Grace Church Website
Follow Paul Buckley on Twitter
Follow King of Grace Church on Facebook
Listen to Paul Buckley’s recent sermons
Link to SaviorLabs’ Free Assessment
Sections
Made in the Image of God
The Foundation of a Christian Worldview
Heaven and the Afterlife
The Problem with Humanity – Loving our Neighbors
The Good News – Why God Became Man
Forgiveness
God is not an Angry Old Man
The Cost of Being a Christ Follower
The Core Needs in Life
Exploring Christianity: The Good News
Made in the Image of God
Paul P: We’re on the track here of Jesus died for your sins. I’m not sure why we would need to die for sins, but we’ll talk about that in a second. But you just said “made in the image of God.” You mentioned that a couple of times. If God is God in anybody’s measure of God, that seems a little bit boastful or a little bit…you know, I’m equal to the president. Or I’m equal to Tom Brady. Well, no. You’re not. So where does that come from?
Paul B: Yeah. Well the Bible teaches us that in the beginning chapters of the Bible, which are really foundational for all that follows in the Bible, it really tells us our origins, and it tells us that we’re made by God in his image. Really, we see both there, the whole storyline of the Bible is the invisible God, the God that is beyond physical sight, making himself known, making himself visible through his creation. He shows what he’s like through his creation, and he does that in multiple ways. He does that just in the things that we all enjoy, beautiful falls days in New England, the ocean, majestic mountains, all those sorts of things.
Paul P: Chocolate.
Paul B: Chocolate. He shows himself through all of these things, and we love engaging those things, but he shows himself through mankind. Mankind is kind of the pinnacle of him revealing himself and showing us what he’s like. We don’t image him completely and we don’t image him, perfectly, but we do image him. We do show what he’s like. He’s relational. He’s moral. He’s into creating and recreating and expressing himself through interacting with creation. Those are just some of the ways that we image God.
Paul P: It sounds sort of genetics, like you see somebody, and you say, “Hey, you look just like this person.”
“Oh, yeah. He’s my father.”
So that’s interesting. So it’s that children come out in the image of their parents. So I guess maybe that’s something to think about there.
The Foundation of a Christian Worldview
Paul B: It’s foundational to a Christian worldview, that we’re made in the image of God. And so I could argue for it from different avenues but most importantly that the scriptures reveal that truth, give us that truth to build other things on.
Paul P: Okay. So now let’s go back to what you were saying that Christ died for our sins. I don’t know. Did Confu—, did Buddha die for his people’s sins? Or is it channelized like that?
Paul B: Well certainly I think every worldview deals with the issue of failure, of moral failure. And Buddhism has its own practices and thoughts on that. But Buddha didn’t die to atone for sins.
Paul P: What do you mean, atone?
Paul B: He didn’t die to deal with sins and the implications of sins. Christ died to atone for sin. So he died to pay the penalty, the consequences of sin. So let me just back up. We were talking about the image of God.
We’re made in the image of God, and so, as such, we know right and wrong. Actually, the Bible would say we have an inherent sense of God, and so when we make choices not to love others, and most importantly, not to love God — because he’s made himself known just in creation — when we choose not to love him and to live that way, that’s sin. So that’s either by committing things that are wrong or failing to do what’s right. All of the law, all of the ways, the ethics of God can be summed up in two simple commandments: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; love your neighbor as yourself.
So failure to do those things is sin. And God is just. He’s good. Therefore, he has to be just, and therefore he has to bring consequences to bear. He has to deal with wrongdoing. We all have an inherent sense of justice. We want wrong things dealt with, and we want people who perpetrate evil things to be dealt with. God’s no different. Matter of fact, he’s the guy that made us like that. And, in his goodness, he judges sin, and the punishment for sin, the punishment for rebellion against God is to be pushed away from his presence, to experience what it’s like to be separated from goodness. We see that, to a degree, in the world we live in. The brokenness of our world is a consequence of sin, and there is a spiritual consequence of a broken relationship through our sin.
We believe as Christians that, should we not reconcile with God, and not respond to his gracious activity, we’ll live eternally separated from him. So Christ came, God came in the flesh, became a man, lived a life of love for God, love for others, and then laid down that good life on a cross, in our place, that paid for the sins that we deserved to pay for. So through faith in him, simply believing and receiving him as the one that rescues us and leads us onward, we are forgiven. Our sins are paid for, and we’re reconciled to God.
And that’s really the start of a new life. It’s a start of reconciliation of a new creation in God, and a life living, following Jesus and being fruitful people. That impacts us now, has a huge impact on how we live life now. And really, we believe, impacts us for eternity, leads us into an eternity of following Christ.
Heaven and the Afterlife
Paul P: So you’ve mentioned that Christ died for my sins or for sins or for… I don’t know. You can clarify that — died for sins that I might not have even known I had. I mean certainly I’ve done some bad things. But isn’t that just the way it is? I mean, so am I excluded from heaven? Is God actively keeping me out, or what’s the deal there? And is that the goal? So we’re sort of talking about is there an afterlife, you know, because if there’s not an afterlife, well then, do whatever you want. Right? Except we have this inherent concept of good and evil, and I shouldn’t hurt the people that I don’t like.
Paul B: Yeah. I think there’s a historic view of these things in light of, “I want to go to heaven,” you know. So I want to believe these things so I get to go to heaven.
And I don’t think that’s really the whole picture. Sometimes it gets shortened and reduced and misses a lot of things. The issue isn’t heaven, per se. The issue is God. And the Bible is very clear that the reality is that we are separated from God by our sin. Just as we get into conflict we people, we do something terrible against our neighbor, it makes it difficult to interact with them. We don’t have a same relationship. So there’s a relational problem with God because of us, not because of him. He still is the same. He’s committed to being gracious and good and kind, but we have broken the relationship with our sinful choices, with the choosing not to love him, and not to love others. And we’re kind of stuck there. We’re, we’re addicted to dumb decisions in some ways.
Paul P: So you’re saying that the actual way I behave has an effect on how I know God or experience him?
The Problem with Humanity – Loving our Neighbors
Paul B: Yes. I, I think that we all have that problem, and collectively together, it makes a big mess. So we, we tend to externalize this, don’t we. Do we look at the news. We look at what’s going on in the world, and we think, what terrible people. But those are people just like us. And we could be the people doing that thing that we critique. Humanity has a problem. We have it as individuals. I think of, I think it was G. K. Chesterton. They asked people to write what they thought the biggest problem in the world is, and his submission was something like,
“Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G. K. Chesterton.”
Paul P: Oh, interesting. Was he a criminal?
Paul B: No. He was a very moral man, but he recognized it. So he’s an author and a theologian, back in the early 1900’s. And he understood that the biggest problem in the world is each of us individually and our broken relationship with God, that we live in this place where we make bad decisions. We follow the insanity of not loving a creator who has given us all these things, not loving our neighbors as ourselves. So that’s the reality. And that reality in our sin and in our brokenness with God, has cut us off from an ongoing relationship with him.
Paul P: So as I’m hearing you, I’m sort of thinking, “Well, why wouldn’t I like my neighbor?” Why wouldn’t I just be kind and nice to people and I know that certain people annoy me. I’m struggling with what’s the reason for that. Is this what religion is about, trying to answer that question, or is it trying to answer our relationship with God question? Or is it both, and they’re so closely mingled that you can’t separate them?
Paul B: Yeah. I’d say the latter. In the Christian worldview, that loving God and love our neighbors are connected. It says in one place we really can’t say we love God if we don’t love our neighbors. So they’re connected. And I think we all have problems loving our neighbors.
Paul P: But they’re not that bad. I mean, you know. I tolerate them. So are you saying it’s supposed to be better than that? I’m just struggling with what the problem is here. I will admit that I struggle with some people. But let’s say that’s something I could overcome. And I could just be nice to everybody.
Paul B: Yeah. I think your standard is a little too light from what I hear. It says the standard is love your neighbor as yourself and that we are to love our neighbors on the same level that we love ourselves.
Paul P: What does that mean? I mean, practically?
Paul B: We equal regard for their wellbeing that we do for ourselves. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that you spend as much time and energy on your neighbor as yourself, because I think there’s a priority of responsibility that plays into all that. But your regard for their wellbeing is on the same level as the regard for your own wellbeing.
Paul P: Now is this a religious teaching or is this a Christian teaching? Do all the religions teach this?
Paul B: They may or may not get into that level of defining what it means but scripture is detailed in that. The famous story of the Good Samaritan who went out of his way and was very much inconvenienced to care for someone who was his natural enemy. The implication of the story was that Samaritan was being a good neighbor to that wounded, needy man. So it’s detailed to a great level, just the depth of care, the depth of concern that that’s the action that’s supposed to be there.
The Good News – Why God Became Man
Paul P: So it sounds like there are implications as you discover different facets of this worldview. So as you discover, “Gee, God’s pretty cool. I want to be his friend,” well, just be his friend. But there’s this problem of sin. Oh, my gosh. What am I going to do? So can I just solve my own sin and just not sin?
Paul B: No. It would be nice in some ways, I guess, but we can’t. So we need help. That’s the core, really, of why Christ came, why God become a man.
Paul P: Why would he do that? I mean, what’s in it for him? So you’re telling me that this Christ came to earth, lived a good life, and… I mean, I think I’ve lived a good life. So how does that compare? We’ll ask that question. But then, so he lives this good somehow special life. And then he dies for my sins. So explain that interchange to me.
Paul B: Well, he lived a perfect life. He never failed in his intention. He never had lesser regard for others than himself. He never had a lesser regard for God the father. He loved God the father with his whole life, and he lived in that way being full of faith and full of obedience, full of goodness and service to others. He demonstrated that he was more than just an average man in his miracles. So his life was on a level way above any of ours in both the perfection and the scope of what he did. We’re not going around walking on water, raising the dead. He did. So he demonstrated that he was more than the average man. Way more than the average man or woman.
So he was unique in that way. And as God and man together, two natures in one being, he was fully able to live that life and then fully able in offering that life to be in our place, to pay for our sins and and basically earn for us all the blessings of a right relationship with God, simply through faith. So that’s the core of the Christian message. That’s the Good News, that he’s died for our sins and, and now there’s forgiveness and new life and go forth.
Forgiveness
Paul P: Okay. So there’s forgiveness. So I go and offend somebody, and I say, you know, “Your, your clothing is just terrible.” And I hurt them, and they cry, and I feel bad. This is sort of a trivial example here. So I go to them and ask for forgiveness, and they forgive me, and we make up. Is that what you’re sort of talking about here? But it sounds like to a different quantum level.
Paul B: Yes. Right. So certainly forgiveness with individuals is important, but forgiveness with God is most important. So when you say those things to your friend, you need forgiveness from them. But you actually need forgiveness from God because they’re made in God’s image, and he cares a lot about them, and he cares about you.
Paul P: So I’ve not only offend them. I’ve offended God.
Paul B: Right. More importantly. Yeah.
Paul P: Does it matter if they’re a Christian or not?
Paul B: No. It doesn’t. They’re human.
Paul P: Okay. So just a person. I go and offend them, and you’re saying I’ve affectively offended God.
Paul B: Right. Yeah. And that would be the more important, more serious, perhaps, offense in what you did.
Paul P: So, okay. I can breathe somewhat a sigh of relief when somebody says, “I’m no longer angry at you.” And maybe I can go to God and say, you know, “Forgive me for this,” and breathe a sign of relief that he forgives in some form or fashion. But I’m going to make another mistake. So do I have to keep doing this or just try really hard not to make a mistake?
Paul B: Yeah. You are. You are going to make another mistake and that’s why we need forgiveness. We need it all the time. We need it, to live in it. We need to define ourselves as forgiven ones. I think part of making mistakes over and over again is because we don’t define ourselves as forgiven and changed by God. So the Good News comes in and says we’re forgiven. God forgives us. He’s for us. See, God loves us. He wants to teach us as if we’ve never done wrong. He wants to bless us and help us. He wants to be close to us.
God is not an Angry Old Man
Paul P: Alright. So I had asked you earlier, well, what’s in it for him? Can you explain that? I think a lot of people have an idea of God as sort of like an angry man, an angry old man or whatever. Don’t do this. Don’t do this. Don’t do this. That seems very different when you say he loves us. Well, what does that mean? I think even a lot of churches I’ve seen will say he loves us, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be happy. So can you expound on that a little bit?
Paul B: Well, first off, he loves us, and he does want us to be happy. Getting us there might not be our best choice of how to get there. But he does want us to be happy. He loves us. As far as the question, What’s in it for him? I don’t think we can quite ask that question in the same way we might think in terms of human relationships because God is not like us. The Bible teaches us that he’s not in need. He doesn’t need us. He’s not lonely. He’s not sitting there thinking, “I just don’t have enough friends, so I’m going to go do this stuff to get more friends.” He’s perfect. He’s complete in himself. He’s three persons in one. It’s the mystery of the trinity. So there’s this relationship that’s been there forever. It’s a perfect relationship and full of all that you would think would come with an infinite being.
So he’s not needy, and he’s not trying to get a deal out of this. He’s just expressing who he is in creation and in the unfolding of time. In these actions, he’s expressing himself. He’s being himself. And part of who he is, he’s a God of infinite love. Has that much love that he’s glad and he’s eager to show that love to humans.
But he’s also a God of perfect justice and wisdom and goodness. So he has to deal with that side of things too. So the wonderful part of the good news is that God makes a way that he can pour out his infinite love and blessing on us and deal with the injustices that we’ve perpetrated in a perfect way so that we can be forgiven. That forgiveness doesn’t just mean petty, like, “I guess he’s not angry with me anymore.” No. It means full inheritance and rights to his love and all that comes with that. So being a Christian is to live in that love and to learn how to be more loving as well. So that’s where you’re going to make a mistake again. Yes. But when you start this walk and start to know God and live in these truths, there’s a change in our outlook. There’s a change inside of us. The scripture talks about being a new creation. And there’s the ability to start changing in what we do. Now we still fail, and we still need to remember that we’re forgiven, and we need to remember that we’ve been given a new relationship, and that relationship defines us more than our failures.
And I think there’s great power in that to change and to be a better person that comes out of that.
The Cost of Being a Christ Follower
Paul P: Okay. That sounds pretty attractive, to say, okay. I am going to be forgiven from my sins, even ones I haven’t committed yet, or ones I commit in the future. So in other words, there’s this relationship, I guess, you’re talking about, that has been restored with God in some form or fashion. But what does it cost me? I mean, what’s the downside here? Do you have to dress a certain way? It sounds like too good of a deal.
Paul B: Yeah. Well, it costs you both nothing and everything. It costs you nothing because it’s through simple faith. It’s putting your faith his him, believing this message to be true, and then entrusting yourself to the person of Christ. So that really doesn’t cost you anything. You’re not earning something there. He doesn’t wait to see what else you’re going to do to cinch the deal. So it’s simply through faith, a faith that turns away from sin and towards Christ so that in that faith is a change, what we would call repentance. So it’s turning to him in faith.
So it costs you nothing in that sense. But it costs you everything because to be joined to him is to be transformed by him and to live a new life of loving him and following him. And really when we make that decision to trust him, we’re laying everything else down. We’re saying, “I’m going to trust you. I’m going to follow you.”
Now the sorts of changes that come in our lives, the sorts of things that his leads us into are, are not silly things. It’s not about wearing a special sort of hat or something around or an unusual costume or something like that. It’s about ethical changes, belief changes. Those are the sorts of things that we change in. So that’s where it costs us, in a sense. But those things follow from, from what we believe. And those things are actually, I think they’re really good things — those sorts of changes, those sorts of ethics that we live in, the sorts of decisions that we make as a result, I think, are good things and have a very positive impact all around us.
He doesn’t promise us a life of ease and comfort necessarily, but he does promise us himself and the strength, the help, the comfort that comes from being in a relationship with him that can take us through the difficulties of life.
The Core Needs in Life
Paul P: Interesting. So I’m trying to think what the core needs are in life. You know, we need food, shelter. But is it relationship? Is that the core thing we want? Because I was thinking in the analogy where I said somebody’s dress, or clothes were ridiculous or something and hurt their feelings. What I’m doing there is breaking a relationship and doing that. Now I might say, “Well, gee, you know, I want… Life to me is I want to be rich, and I want to have a lot of houses and cars and things like that.” What is the core need that we’re trying to fulfill? And how does that integrate or not integrate with being a Christian and knowing who God is?
Paul B: Yeah, I don’t think the core needs are food, clothing, and shelter. Those are important physical needs. It’s kind of hard to get by without them. But they’re not the core needs. It’s not really what we live for. We live for something deeper and greater. I think we live for things that come from relationships. But I don’t think it’s relationships, per se. I think we’re looking for purpose. We’re looking for love. We’re looking for acceptance. I think we’re looking for God really. I think that makes sense if we think about it. He’s made us in his image. He’s made creation to be a place where he shoes himself. So if we have a broken relationship with him, we’re going to try to find him, in a sense, even if it’s in a confused way.
So I think that’s what we’re looking for, and we can find a degree of that in healthy relationships. So we want to celebrate those things.
Paul P: But there seems to be so few examples of healthy relationships in media, and all the different things. You know, you hear Brad and Angelina break up, and oh my gosh, it’s terrible. You don’t hear about all the good relationships. So it seems to be our lot that we’re not having a lot of good relationships as humans.
Paul B: Yeah, there’s a lot of problems I think. But, you know, there’s a lot of good that we see out there, and we celebrate that. Right? So, you know, we were watching what’s happened in Houston, and we’re watching people respond and to do heroic things to help people. And we all love to watch that and participate as we’re able as well. So we’re looking for that. We celebrate. We love those things.
But yeah, we’ve living in a broken world. So at one moment, we’re reading these stories of heroism, and then another moment, we’re reading these stories of terrible relational things and tragedy. And again, we’re made in the image of God, and so we’re made to be like him. And he’s loving, and he’s like that. He lays his life down for us. And that idea of someone doing that inspires us. And he’s the one that rescues us from the brokenness, our brokenness. We, we need the help. We need reconciliation. We need a change in our lives to learn how to build relationships that are healthy, to do that in all the different contexts of our relationships.