RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD: MEETING UP WITH DA JUDGE

June 8, 2013 at 9:28 AM (God Thoughts, Musings)
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THE PRESENT AFFECTS THE FUTURE

THE FUTURE AFFECTS THE PRESENT

Everything that I believe and do in life stems from my basic belief concerning God. It’s this. God is Real. He’s Alive. He’s True. His Word, the Holy Bible, is true. And God is true to His Word. It’s an act of faith on my part. I know that. And I’m cool with it.

If I end up being wrong, what have I lost? Believing what I believe has made me a better person, it’s given me a meaninful, purposeful life,  and I don’t regret that for one minute. Make that a nanosecond.

When it comes to the sins and pleasures of the world and body, really, seriously, what have I missed? I’ve never known a boozer, druggie, junkie, or erotomaniac who enjoyed living, who enjoyed life. They were miserable and diseased. They hated themselves. Hated what they were doing and how they were living. Lots of them died an early death or ended up killing themselves.

So in this lifetime alone I’ve proven my case, namely, A BELIEF IN GOD AND A LIFE LIVED ACCORDING TO THAT BELIEF GIVES ONE A BETTER LIFE IN THIS WORLD. A LIFE FILLED WITH PURPOSE AND MEANING. GOD MAKES A BELIEVER A PERSON OF INTEGRITY AND CHARACTER. GOD MAKES A BELIEVER A BETTER PERSON.

Can a person who doesn’t believe in God live life with meaning and purpose? Can they be truly happy and self-fulfilled. Can they be good people? Of course they can! In a way, I’m happy for them because I begrudge no one their happiness. I’d rather see people happy than miserable. But, believing what I believe, I also feel very sorry for them because no matter how happy you are in life, A LIFE LIVED WITHOUT GOD WILL END UP IN A LIFE LIVED WITHOUT GOD.  I’m talking about eternity and Hell. Speaking of which…

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you really wanted to tell someone off, but lacked the courage to do it personally to his face? Of course you have. We’ve all been there. We went on and on about the miserable dog behind his back. But we wouldn’t  act or talk that way in front of him. Why? Because we lacked the guts to do that. We were also afraid of what he’d do to us, or say to us, if we told him off.

Here’s a second scenario. Have you ever been so convinced of something that you were willing to go to the top, go to Heaven or Hell, as it were, to argue your case? You did that. You went to the boss. You argued and debated with your best friend, your worst enemy, your most ardent critic. You gave it your best shot, confident you’d win the argument or case. And what happened? To your total shock and surprise, you were shot down! Turned out, they had a better argument than you did. They had the kind of convincing data, proofs, evidence, and smarts that proved you wrong. You couldn’t believe it! You were wrong in spite of the fact you believed you were totally right. And, having been proven wrong, you were so totally humiliated! We’ve been there too. All of us have. And it definitely was one of those times in life that we’d just as soon forget.

In either scenario, this is what’s gonna happen to us when we stand (I’d probly be kneeling) before God the Judge. The Bible says every knee will bow to Me and every tongue will acknowledge that I am God (Romans 14:11). Every means everyone. You and me included. It doesn’t matter whether we believe in God or not. God says there’s a time coming when every single one of us will get on our knees before God and acknowledge the truth, so long denied by many, that there is a God and they’ll actually get to meet Him. You can choose to stand. You can dare God to His face and stand. You can say that now. But when you actually get there, you will kneel. And you will say the words you’ve refused to say all along: There is a God. And you, God, are God. It’s gonna happen. How do I know that? Because God said it’s gonna happen and I believe Him. I believe Him more than I believe you or anyone else. He never lies. He’s never wrong. Why in the world would I believe a fellow–no matter how smart, convincing, or well-meaning–who’s prone to lying and being wrong?

Let me switch scenes here for a moment. Matthew 7:21-23 gives us a sobering picture of what lots of people are gonna be faced with when they get before the Judge: Not everyone who calls out to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter.  (22)  On judgment day many will say to Me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and performed many miracles in Your name.’  (23)  But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you who break God’s laws.’

In a similar scene, Matthew 25 tells us that all the peoples of the earth will be brought before the Judge and He’s gonna divide the good folks from the bad. To the bad, here’s what He says: Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.  (42)  For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed Me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give Me a drink.  (43)  I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite Me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give Me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit Me.  (44)  Then they will reply, Lord, when did we ever see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help You?  (45)  And He will answer, I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these My brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help Me.  (46)  And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life (Matthew 25:41-46).

So what’s my point? Remember those times when your boss, friend, or critic shot you down because you were wrong even though you believed you were right? When you’re wrong God’s gonna do the same thing with you and shoot you down because He’s right. HE’S ALWAYS RIGHT. When we present our defense to the Judge we can say whatever we want to say. We can make our case. Prove our point. Like all those times we thought we had an air-tight case, but didn’t; God’s gonna shoot us down if He’s got the convincing, damning proof against us. If it exists, He’ll have it! And He’ll use it against us. God’s gonna have the last word and our arguments aren’t going to win the case! That’s just the way it is and no one, but no one, is gonna fool the Judge.

What am I saying in all this? What happens now in this lifetime, here on earth, will also, and eventually, happen when we’re brought before the Judge. I honestly can’t look God in the face and tell Him He’s wrong. I can’t say that to His face and that’s why I don’t say it here on earth. Why? Because He’s not wrong. He’s never wrong.  You guys can say whatever you want to say about God now. I guarantee—okay, I believe—you’ll be whistling a very different tune when you actually get to meet Him.

I can try and argue my way into Heaven; fudge or finagle the facts; twist the truth just a bit. But THE JUDGE’S NO FOOL. THERE AIN’T ANYONE GONNA FOOL THE JUDGE! It won’t work when I stand before Him and that’s why I don’t try and do that  here on earth. A knowledge—okay, a belief—in what’s gonna happen on the day of judgment is what keeps me acting and living the way I do right now here on earth. It’s a good way to live. A good way to die. And a good way to be judged.

THE PRESENT AFFECTS THE FUTURE: what I do now, or how I live now, affects what happens to me in the future when I meet God. But, just as importantly, THE FUTURE AFFECTS THE PRESENT: what I know will happen when I meet God is the reason why I live the way I do today. It’s a good way to live and I wholeheartedly recommend it to you.

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RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD: GOD’S LOVE AND HELL

May 2, 2013 at 10:32 AM (God Thoughts, Musings)
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Talking about sinners today is a really tricky, sensitive issue because it makes it sound as if the Christians who are talking about it are hateful, insensitive, intolerant, and judgmental. We’re accused of being unloving. Worse yet, gasp, unchristlike. Unscriptural.

Yes, there are Christians who go overboard and become unchristlike in their stance for righteousness and the truth. Some mean well and don’t know any better. Others are just plain hateful. So, yes, whenever anyone of us acts unchristlike towards anyone, the unsaved especially, we deserve a good tongue lashing and verbal trashing.

But what happens when we take a stance for truth and right and we aren’t hateful, self-righteous, judgmental, or unchristlike about it? What happens when we speak out with love and in love? Would taking a stance against sin be wrong or inappropriate? Truth be told, a lot of people would rather that everyone just shut up and not say anything about sin or sinners.

I’m not hateful or judgmental. I love sinners. I really do. I hate the sins they’re doing. But I’m concerned enough about their souls and eternal destiny to speak up against their sins and lovingly offer them the hope of salvation and the hope of a changed life found in Christ.

I was thinking about God’s love not too long ago. Namely, John 3:16, For God so loved the world. He loved the world. He loved and cared enough for sinners to send them His Son as a saving sacrifice for sin. If you had one, and only one, son would you kill your son, or have him killed, to save the life of a stranger or an enemy? God did. Jesus is God’s undeniable proof that He loves sinners and wants to save them from Hell. God is love (1 John 4:8). He loves sinners.

Only thing is, God left the gates of Hell open. He didn’t shut them up. I mean, if I saw the entrance to an underground world of eternal pain and misery I would shut the entrance up, cover it over, and secure it so that no one would ever fall in. This is love, isn’t it? You would do the same thing yourself. Why? Because this is what love does. Right? Yet God in His love for sinners didn’t shut the gates of Hell. Why? Damned souls are still falling into that pain pit at a record clip. These souls He loves He lets perish in the pit. And yet, He calls Himself, He is, the God of love.

The very talk of Hell causes many to deny God’s love. In their view, there’s no way God can be love if He sends people to Hell. Hell, to them, is proof that God isn’t love. He isn’t loving.

But God is love—even with Hell and in spite of Hell—because that’s what He says He is and I naively believe God for who He says He is. Besides that, I have human and world experience to prove it. Read on and I’ll show you.

God is love. And He works very hard and long to try and save sinners. 2 Peter 3:9 shows us God’s heart of love towards sinners, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some people think of slowness; on the contrary, he is patient with you; for it is not his purpose that anyone should be destroyed, but that everyone should turn from his sins.

No, God doesn’t send people to Hell. All of us are free to choose our way and make our own decisions. God honors and respects our choices.

But choices have consequences. We suffer whatever consequences our decisions bring. We can blame God and everyone else for the consequences we suffer. We can choose to reject all blame or responsibility for our decisions and actions. But doing so will not relieve us of the self-inflicted consequences of our choices.

It’s like the crook who cries Foul! behind prison walls. He’ll ramble on about the unjust nature of his  incarceration and blame a cop, a lawyer, a jury, and a judge for being in prison. But for us who know better, the guy robbed a bank. He got caught. His imprisonment is his fault and no one else’s.

Generally speaking, a crook doesn’t commit a crime with the intention of going to prison. He figures he’s gonna make a clean getaway. If he gets caught he’s smart enough to beat the rap. Yet, for all his smarts and swagger, he lands up in the prison he never thought he would see.

This is the way it is with sinners and Hell. For all their bravado, sinners don’t want to go to Hell. But they end up there because of their sins. Now, really, whose fault is that? God’s or their’s? God didn’t make them sin. They chose to sin. They wanted to sin. So if Hell, like prison for a crook, is where sinners go to be punished for their sins; why do we blame God for sending sinners to Hell? If, in our right minds, we don’t blame a cop, lawyer, or judge for a crook’s incarceration; why are we so otherwise minded to blame God for all the damned souls in Hell?

God is love. In our preferences of love, He could have covered over Hell’s gates. He could have done away entirely with that miserable place and make it non-existent. But what good would that do? Seriously, stop and think about it. What good would that do?

Let’s translate the question into the reality of our day. What would happen if we closed all our jails and prisons? What if every prisoner was freed and loosed? What if no rapist, murderer, or pedophile was locked up or put away for good? What would our society and community look like then? Would we want to live in such a dysfunctional, No Hell, “utopian” society? The fact is, we’re already surrounded by gobs of people with criminal tendencies. That’s scary enough! Would we want to add to that sense of insecurity by emptying our prisons and letting every criminal go free? Life wouldn’t be normal as we know it now: it’d be a war zone where everyone’s attention would be riveted around self-protection and preservation. You can choose to live in such a society if you like. But I believe I speak for the majority when I say that that’s not the kind of place I’d like to live in.

It’s lamentable that people choose to be criminals. It’s sad when criminals are locked up. But it’s for everyone’s good. It’s what we call a necessary evil. A necessary evil that’s spurred by society’s care for its citizens, its efforts to promote the common good, and it’s vigilant, unceasing work to preserve peace, security, and the pursuit of happiness.

Turns out, God is similarly-minded. He really is a God of love. He has the smarts on us. He knew what He was doing all along when He made Hell and He was doing it for everyone’s good. Hell is undesirable and unpleasant. It’s a necessary “evil” if you want to call it that. But necessary nonetheless.

Hell’s existence doesn’t deny God’s love, any more than all our jails and prisons are a denial of society’s need to protect itself and promote the common good. If anything, and to the contrary, in my thinking, Hell proves God is love. When you do everything you can for everybody’s good—Calvary and Hell included—that is good and that is love.

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THINKING ‘BOUT ME

March 21, 2013 at 11:07 AM (God Thoughts, Musings)
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A lot of Christians struggle with God’s love for them. They don’t believe God loves them. Not after they’ve failed Him. Not with all the bad stuff that’s happened to them. They want so much for God love them. But they think God’s turned His back on them. In their eyes, they’re the living damned. It’s a hellish existence and my heart goes out to these tormented souls. How can I possibly help them? How can I convince them God loves them no matter what they’ve done and no matter what He’s allowed to happen to them?

Let me put God’s love for you on hold here. I’m changing scenes, but stay with me to the end because it’ll all come together. Scene 1. I honestly don’t struggle with God’s love for me. That doesn’t make me any better than you. I just found a way to get past the doubt and rest in God’s love for me. It goes back to the fundamental core beliefs that I live by. Maybe if I share these beliefs with you it’ll help make it a whole lot easier for you to accept God’s love for you.

  • I believe God exists. Every one of us has to settle it at some time or another whether there is a God. And if there is a God, which ones of these gods, or which one in particular, is the true God. The world offers us a ginormous pantheon of gods to choose from. I grew up in a Christian home. But even after studying the world’s major religions in college, I chose to place my faith in the God of the Judeo-Christian faith.
  • I believe the Bible is God’s inspired, infallible Word. Every one of us have had to wrestle with whether or not the Bible is wholly true, partly true and partly wrong, or wholly fable and fiction. Going to seminary, I had lots of chances to doubt the historicity and validity of the Bible. For so many Bible scholars, the Bible was nothing but a work of men—not God. And since it was written by men, without God having any say or hand in it, then, yes, it’s only inevitable that we would doubt the Bible, either in whole or in part.

Doubt is tormenting. It’s hellish. It’ll drive anyone crazy. Faith is the complete opposite. It’s a peace and rest.

I choose to take God at His Word. I believe He inspired the entire Bible, it’s true, and He’s managed to preserve it through all these generations so that we today can know what He wants us to know. I don’t doubt the Bible because I don’t doubt God. It’s as simple as that. Until you come to this point of faith you’ll always have your doubts about some things that God said in His Word.

I went through nearly a year of doubt and argumentation with God when I was a teen searching for answers to life’s most puzzling mysteries and contradictions. But when it was all said and done, God showed me He was God, not me. His thoughts weren’t my thoughts. He was so much smarter than me. And even though I didn’t know or understand everything, His Word was still true. From that day on, I chose to believe the Bible at face value simply because God said it. End of argumentation, doubt, or debate.

For some, it takes a lifetime of wrestling and seeking to come to this point of faith. Many never come to faith. But if you profess to be a Christian you owe it to yourself—and God—to believe God exists, He’s the one and only real, true God, and His Word is true in every way without any falsehood or lie. If you come to this point of faith, then everything else about the Christian life and experience becomes a lot whole easier. You won’t understand everything. I don’t. We’re finite creatures with limited brain capacity. We’ll never understand God totally. But we can believe even without understanding. That can be challenging at times. But all that God has ever asked us to do from the beginning is believe Him.

Change of scene.  Now we go to Scene 2.  There’ve been times when we’ve thought a lot about someone. Sometimes fear causes us to do that. Sometimes it’s jealousy. Lust. Or worry. But the one thing that most of us can easily relate to is love. If you’re married to the love of your life, like I am, you remember all the pre-dating, dating, and courtship time you spent dreaming, day-dreaming, visualizing, and thinking about the love of your life.  Longing for the next time you’ll be together again. The point is, a lot of your time was spent thinking about your love. It’s still the same way today, even after all these years of marriage. You think a lot about the one you love.

Change of scene again. Scene 3. Picture yourself at the beach. Just for curiosity’s sake, you make it your life’s ambition to count how many grains of sand there is on the beach. On all the beaches in the world. Impossible!, you say. You can’t possibly count each grain of sand that’s on all the beaches in the world. The point is, there’s so much sand in this world that it’s beyond numbering. And that’s just the sand on the beaches. Think of the enormity of the impossibility of counting each grain of sand in all the deserts of the world. That’s a lot of sand!

When it comes to God’s love for you, let me put these scenes altogether for you. Do you know that God spends a lot of time thinking about you? Yes, you my friend. I’m talking to you by name.  God spends an awful lot of time thinking about you! I know a lot of times we think that God’s so busy—like we are—that He can’t possibly think a whole lot about me. He’s got gobs of other people to be thinking about!

But no matter how many people there are in this world, the simple fact of Scripture is this: God is thinking about you. Remember that familiar verse in Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Wow! God is actually thinking about you! You’re on His mind! He hasn’t forgotten you! He hasn’t ignored you! He’s thinking about you just the way you think about the people you love. Now why do you suppose He’s thinking about you? Because He loves you!

What really clinches it for me is this. God is not only thinking about you, but He spends an awful lot of time thinking about you! He’s always thinking about you! Like the innumerable sands in life’s beaches and deserts, God spends a ginormous amount of time thinking about you! Read it for yourself in Psalm 139:17-18a, How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!  (18a)  If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. Wow! How awesome is that! God’s thinking so much about you that, if you were to count how many thoughts He’s thought about you, His thoughts would number more than all the sand that’s in the world! That’s an awful lot of sand! And that’s an awful lot of thoughts that God has thought—and is still thinking—about you! God must love you an awful lot to spend a lot of His time thinking about you!

Think He doesn’t care about you? Think He doesn’t know what’s going on with you? Look at what David wrote in the first four verses of Psalm 139, O Lord, You have examined my heart and know everything about me.  (2)  You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  (3)  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.  (4)  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. Dear friend, God knows you inside and out. God sees you every moment of every day. God cares a lot about you.

That’s easy for you to say, you might say. David was a man after God’s heart. God loved him. But I’m no David. If you knew all the things I’ve done, you’d know there’s no possible way God could love me.

But you’re wrong, friend. David was a man after God’s heart. But he was deceptive with the Philistines (1 Samuel 21). He got so angry one time that he was bent on killing a man (1 Samuel 25). He committed adultery with another man’s wife and ended up murdering the man to cover up his sin (2 Samuel 11). His General warned him not to count the army, but David insisted and, as God’s punishment, 70,000 innocents died in a plague (2 Samuel 24)! 70,000! I guess you’re right after all. You’re not David. You haven’t killed 70,000 people.

God chastised David sorely for his sins. But He still loved him dearly! And that’s the same kind of love that God has for you, my dear. Your sins, your past, or your present, do not keep God from loving you. He loves you still in spite of it all! And the amazing thing of it is, God’ll never quit loving you! You can read it for yourself in Lamentations 3:22. John 13:1 is my very most favorite verse of all time. I’ll let you read it for yourself. It’ll floor you. What these Scriptures are saying is, you can’t stop God from loving you!

God loves you, dear friend. He loves you lots. And He’s spending an awful lot of time thinking about you. Don’t doubt it or question it. Don’t resist it. Just believe it! Because that’s the way it really is.

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RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD: CONSEQUENCES

November 28, 2012 at 11:48 AM (God Thoughts, Musings)
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Back in the old days when I was a kid and when my parents themselves were kids, we believed in punishment. Corporeal punishment. We got spanked on the butt. And it wasn’t always with a belt or a switch (which we were made to fetch for ourselves). Sometimes the higher powers would use what we called the Board of Education. It was a 1×4 piece of lumber that stung your behind to high heaven and brought the toughest punks to tears.

You can call it punishment, discipline, or training. They were all the same to us back then. We got a licking when we messed up. It was part of parental duty and loving concern. They were making sure we learned the right things, cut out the wrong stuff, and grow up the right way.

Nowadays, that  kind of discipline is considered child abuse. Unfortunately, in the world in which we live today, a lot of parents and adults are abusive. And I, for one, agree that the laws against child abuse are a good thing. The children need to be protected if the parents aren’t going to do that. (Wish to God the government would protect the unborn children too!)

The thing of it is, back then, no kid ever died or ended up in a hospital after a licking. We didn’t grow up scarred or hating our parents. We loved and respected them (after the pain went away). We turned out the way we did—that is, pretty good folks, if I may say so myself—because of the discipline, training, and punishment that our parents lovingly gave us.

Today, we still believe in training and discipline. We’ve taken the corporeal aspect out of things, but we still levy a bevy of negative-type reinforcements to help teach the kids what’s considered proper and improper behavior. We ground them; withhold their benefits, rewards, or privileges; put them on a points or strikes system; and the like. This is what we do in the family or in an educational/institutional setting.

Let’s talk about law enforcement. Society has laws. It lives by laws. The laws tell us what’s good or what’s expected of us. And when we mess up, the laws have consequences. It may be a traffic ticket, arrest, trial, and imprisonment; a death sentence, a fine, community service, and the like.

As in child-training, the law’s punishments or consequences are designed to punish and discourage or deter bad behavior.

A civilized society has laws and consequences that are deemed for the overall good of society.

But even uncivilized societies—for example, the bush and forest tribes that have largely been untouched by modern civilization—have their own laws, morés, or codes of conduct that the tribes’ people are expected to live by. And when they violate the morés they suffer the consequences that are imposed upon them by the tribe.

Everywhere in human society, past and present, primitive and modern, we humans have accorded ourselves the luxury of making laws and enforcing them. We require people, including ourselves, to obey the laws. And when we don’t, we’ve set up for ourselves a bevy of punishments to punish and deter bad or criminal behavior. This we deem to be for the good of human society.

Imagine what life would be like if we didn’t have laws. I’m thinking of my younger days when I was in the Philippines. There were no road lines or traffic lanes. Manila was packed wall-to-wall with jeepneys, motorized tricycles, and buses, each forging their way. If I stuck so much as the palm of my hand out of the jeepney I would be sure to touch another jeepney—that’s how insanely close traffic was! I learned right then and there that it’s a good thing to have road lines and traffic lanes. And on a larger note, I realized the value of laws.

Laws are, for the most part, a good thing. I know there are bad laws too. But by and large, laws are designed with the public good and benefit in mind.

Now think if we didn’t have punishments. The laws wouldn’t do a bit of good if there were no consequences for violating them. The consequences play a part in deterring most people from breaking the law. Without punishments, think of the chaos we would live in if people could break in and steal or kill without being arrested, tried, and imprisoned. Crooks and criminals would roam freely throughout the community, terrorizing the neighborhood. We wouldn’t be safe or secure. We couldn’t live in peace or at ease.

So what am I saying? Laws are, for the most part, a good thing. They’re for society’s benefit. And as much as we may dislike suffering the consequences of disobedience, the punishments that society lays on the disobedient—be it in the home, school, the workplace, or society—are also for the general good of society.

Now here’s what I’m really trying to say. If we as humans accord ourselves the privilege of enacting laws and consequences—for the general good of society and all mankind; then why would we not give God this same privilege? I’m talking about God’s laws as written in the Bible and the human heart. I’m talking about Hell and God’s prerogative to be the sole and supreme Judge with the power to punish and damn the disobedient?

I think it’s laughable, no, it’s insane, how a lot of people won’t let God lay down the law and punish those who break the law; yet we do the very same thing! If we can do it—if we can make laws and punish the disobedient—then why can’t God? Why do we find it so abhorrent, so primitive and unenlightened, to believe in a God who punishes disobedience? What is naturally found in civilized and uncivilized societies—the establishment of law and consequences—is, to me, a logical and self-evident argument for a belief in God’s law and Divine punishment.

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RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD: FEELINGS

October 31, 2012 at 12:07 PM (God Thoughts, Musings)
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DOES GOD HAVE FEELINGS?

I was laying in bed a short time ago having one of my “random” moments. What if God doesn’t have any feelings at all?  Whether any one of us will admit it or not, a lot of people believe He doesn’t.  

God can look at what we’ve done to the American Indian. The Negro of a dark, shameful era in American history. More recently, what America is doing with the unborn and the unwanted. And now, what America’s doing with God Himself. The nation is literally kicking God out of the public sphere. Whether we’re talking about public prayer, Bibles, the Ten Commandments, the freedom of Christian expression and conviction, or anything else Christian; vocal, militant, mainstream America wants nothing to do with God.

The nation’s assault on God has come to the very root, foundation, and core of any civilized society—the family. We’ve begun to change the traditional, really, the Biblical, definition of marriage and family.

What does God think about all these?

Anyone with feelings can’t help but be outraged by these travesties of justice and morality. You don’t have to be a Christian. You don’t even have to believe in God. All you have to be is a person of feeling, a person with feelings, and you will be outraged at all that is grossly and inhumanly wrong. We can talk about the treatment of animals. About what goes on in the farms and slaughterhouses where the nation’s meat supply comes from. We can talk about the poisonous chemicalization of our food supply, the depletion of natural resources, the rain forests, global warming, the ozone layer, and a whole host of other hot-button issues that people are so passionate about.  

We respond because we’re creatures of feelings. We feel pain. We identify ourselves with those who are pained—be it human or nature—and we get pretty vocal, even militant, about things that really get under our skin and arouse our dander. Why is that? It’s because feelings lead to a formative response. They lead us to action.

We can talk about the rightness or wrongness of our feelings-induced actions and responses. An anti-abortionist’s killing of an abortion provider; or a PETA person assaulting a woman in furs; are examples of the rightness or wrongness of an action that are matters of discussion or debate. Actions are another matter of discussion for another day. I’m simply trying to lay the groundwork here and say what we all already know: our feelings lead us to action.

What if God, unlike us, doesn’t have feelings?  Then it would be easy to understand why He can be so aloof or uncaring about all the evils that exist in our world. God doesn’t care!  It’s like God doesn’t exist!  He isn’t going to judge us for our evils or wrongs because He plainly doesn’t care. He doesn’t feel what we feel. He isn’t insulted, angered, or passionate about the things that we feel strongly about. He can look at what America has done to the Indians and the Negroes, or look at the genocide of the unborns, the killing fields in Russia, Europe, Cambodia, and Rwanda in bygone years, and not care or bring it to judgment because He has no feelings that would make Him care. Make Him mad. Militant. Responsive.

A person’s disbelief in God and consequent disbelief in prayer is a soothing and rational explanation for the presence of pain, suffering, and death. If God exists, if He feels what we feels, He wouldn’t possibly allow any of this to happen to us! The mere fact of pain and death are, to many, proof that God doesn’t exist. Or, if He does, then He plainly doesn’t care! And we flatly don’t need a God who doesn’t care!

But herein comes the problem. If this is so, if God doesn’t have feelings, then, within the framework of all of us who believe God made us, Can a God without feelings create people with feelings?  Can a God who doesn’t know anything about love, hate, anger, and the like, make people who feel such things? Feel what He doesn’t? Would God make us with something that He Himself doesn’t have, namely feelings?

You can mull on that while I move on. I’ve answered the question for  myself because I’ve read the Book and I know the Lord. God does have feelings. And, like us, He gets vocal about what He feels (the Bible); He’s responsive to what He feels (Calvary) and, one day, He’ll become militant about what He feels (the Tribulation and Day of Judgment).

In the meantime, regardless of where you’re at in Christian growth or where you stand in the Biblical, theological spectrum, rest assured that God has feelings. That’s why He’s going to bring every thought, every action, every person, every evil and travesty, to judgment. Feelings lead to a response at some time or another. We shouldn’t be surprised if they have this same effect on God.

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RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD: A PART TIME GOD

October 6, 2012 at 11:43 AM (God Thoughts, Musings)

A PART TIME GOD

I was driving to church the other day when a “random” thought, or rather, question, popped into my mind. What if our God was a part time God? Huh? Run that by me again. What if our God was a part time God?

What if sometimes He was astoundingly Almighty as to do the most unimaginable and impossible of miracles and feats; and sometimes so pathetically powerless and inept that even He would be no help or use to us?

What if sometimes He was in the office, ready to take our call, answer our questions, listen to our heart’s cries and prayers, meet us for our scheduled appointment; and sometimes on vacation at a distant galaxy as to leave us high and dry? What if He really wasn’t an ever present help in time of trouble?

What if sometimes He was so loving, understanding, and forgiving, as to forgive our gravest offence and love us still; and sometimes so angry, hateful, and unforgiving as to damn us and leave us in a solitary moment of His Divine anger? What if our God was bipolar and schizophrenic?

By now you should get the picture and see what I’m driving at. What earthly good is a part time God? We wouldn’t have use of such a God because we couldn’t ever depend on Him—not really. Not consistently.

No, we want a reliable, dependable, unchanging, full time God who’ll always be there, always be present, always be strong and invincible, always be loving, always be forgiving, always be attentive to our prayer, always be our help and hope in time of need.

A PART TIME CHRISTIAN

Then the Lord chimed in, How do you think I feel about a part time Christian? Ouch. No need to repeat the question, Lord. I hear You. Loud and clear.

Sometimes we’re such a model of what a Christian should be that, in a prideful moment, we think we’re an angel. Then, on a turn of a dime, we’re about as nasty and mean as nasty and mean can be.

Sometimes we’re so forgiving towards our child or close friend. But nowhere near as forgiving—in fact the exact opposite—when it comes to a stranger, coworker, or casual acquaintance.

Sometimes we’re so on fire for the Lord that all we can think and talk about is the Lord; we think, live, and breathe the Lord. Then sometimes it’s like the devil turns his fire extinguisher on us and gets us so stone cold, so callused, towards God that He’s nowhere in our thoughts or desires.

Sometimes we’re so dedicated to God that we show up in church every time the doors open and imbibe all that God’s giving us through the church. Then sometimes we’d go for weeks and months not knowing what the inside of the church looks like.

Part time Christians. That’s what a lot of us are. Thankfully, not everyone. If you’re full time, I truly thank God for that. But, at the moment, I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to the rest of us who are awesomely full time, sometimes; and pathetically part time, maybe most of the time.

Would we like it if our God was a part time God? No way! We wouldn’t put up with such a God. We’d dump Him in a heartbeat.

If God was like us—thank God He isn’t!—He’d dump us too. In a heartbeat! After all, what good is a part time Christian when God’s looking for, when He’s needing, a full time Christian?

Amazingly, God puts up with us part time Christians. Why is that? It’s because His goodness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). God’s giving us time, lots of time, and showering us with His goodness, His mercies, His love, because He’s longing for a time when we’ll reciprocate and give Him all our love, all of our hearts, all of our thoughts, all of our strength, all of our life.

God isn’t like us. He isn’t part time. And I, for one, am so thankful He isn’t.

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