This Out of Control World

                This should be my best blog post ever.  I am actually sitting at a coffee shop and drinking awesome loose-leaf tea.  If I only had a Macbook, I would be a professional writer.

                Anyway, if you are even a causal news follower, you know that we are living in a crazy time.  A giant tsunami has left Japan in chaos.  Homes and businesses have been destroyed.  Power plants are on the verge of catastrophic meltdown.  In the Middle East, nations are in chaos as revolts rise up in Egypt and Libya to overthrow dictators.  Even in our country, we are not immune.  We face the issues of rising gas prices and a struggling economy.  All these events can lead us to ask some serious questions about God. 

Are these things beyond God’s control?

               

                Are these events just acts of nature and chance?  Is God unable to stop them?  These are legitimate questions in the face of such tragedy.  However, the Bible is clear that there is nothing beyond the control of God.

 Psalm 115:3 tells us that God can do whatever he wants to do.  I love this passage. There is nothing that God cannot do.  Whatever he wants to do he does.  The only thing that limits God is God.

Even nature is under the control of God.  Genesis 1 makes the point clear that God created all of nature and, as creator, he has supreme rule and control over his creation.  God is in control of the sun and rain. (Matthew 5:45) All of nature falls under his dominion.

Is God just an absentee creator?  

               

                In the movie The Adjustment Bureau, the God character steps in and out of control of world events.  During the movie, one of the “angelic” figures gives an overview of history.  He points to the worst times in human history being the times that God stepped back from control of history.  Is this what is happened now?  Has God taken a vacation?

                Psalm 121:3 is a very encouraging passage.  The psalmist is comforted in the fact that God is in control, keeping Israel from completely falling apart and God never ever sleeps.  (This makes me feel pretty weak in comparison.) God is always aware of what is going on.

 God knows the intricate details of each of us.  Psalm 139 describes the intricate knowledge God has of us, from the time we in our mother’s womb throughout our entire life.  Most amazingly he knows it all right now.  (Isaiah 46:10)

                God is in intimate control of every aspect of creation.  This is not to say he is the active cause of all things, but just to say that nothing happens without God’s knowledge or beyond his ability.

Is God evil in not stopping these tragedies?

                First, we must realize that we are all sinners, meaning we are disobedient of God.  (Romans 3:23)  This sin leads God’s wrath to be poured out.  (Colossians 3:5-6)  We really deserve nothing more than for God to crush us.  (For more on this check out my last post)  Thus, it is not evil for God to allow tragedy but it is a great mercy that God limits tragedy.

                Second, God has a plan even in horrible things.  Jeremiah 29:11 is often very poorly interpreted but in its context it is amazing.  God is speaking to the people of Israel while they are in exile.  Their land has been conquered.  They have been dragged to a foreign land.  All that they have hoped in seems dead.  And yet, God says to them that he has a plan to prosper them.  While we cannot apply this passage directly to us, we can see that God even uses terrible events to do great things in his ultimate plan.

                Finally, Romans 8:28 encourages those that believe in Christ that even the worst events in their life will be used by God for their good, either in this life or the next.

                In summary, even though our world seems to be falling apart, God is still in control.  God still has a plan. God will use all these things to the glory of his name and the furthering of his gospel.  So, I hope that addresses some of your questions.  If you have more questions, leave a comment below.

God Hates Sinners

                This may be the most controversial post I ever write.  I have debated over the past couple days if I even want to write it.  Finally, after much thought, I have decided to write this post.  This is not because I want to be controversial, though I do like to make people think and seek after answers.  I want to write this just to see what I write.  I want to write this to see what ends up on the page.  I want to write this in an attempt to finally reconcile this in my mind.  And thus, today’s adventure begins.

                Have you ever had a passage from the Bible that just messes you up?  You read this passage and your mind almost explodes, which would be very disgusting if it really did happen.  I’m not talking about a passage that is hard to understand.  Passages that mess you up the most are the ones that are easy to understand but hard to reconcile in your mind.  They are the ones that you get what they say but that you wish they didn’t say it.  They are the ones that mess with how you think about life, God and/or yourself.  They blow up your preconceived notions and bring you to a fuller understanding of a God we will never fully grasp.

                This passage was first brought to my attention by my friend Ryan almost three years ago.  We sat in a cabin at summer camp, with a group of guys, and discussed this passage until the wee hours of the morning.  This passage was messing all of us up and no one seemed to be able to find a good answer.   Since then, I have not thought of it much until this week when I heard a pastor, Matt Carter of the Austin Stone Community Church, use it in his sermon.  That sermon caused me to reflect once again on this passage, this time with some helpful insight, and, while I grasp the passage more fully now, it messed me up in a totally different way.

                Without further ado, the passage I am talking about is Psalm 5:4-5.

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;

   evil may not dwell with you.

The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;

   you hate all evildoers. (ESV, emphasis mine)

                Notice that last line.  We want to believe God is a kind loving God, and there is much Biblical precedence for that.  We want to believe God shows kindness to everyone, and there is Biblical precedence for that. (Matthew 5:45)  We hear over and over, “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” This passage seemingly blows up all those ideas.  Read it again, “God hates evildoers.” And guess what that   word “hates” means in the original Hebrew.  It means, wait for it, “hates.”  It is clear what the passage is saying.  God hates sinners and cannot have them anywhere near his presence.

                How can God hate?  Isn’t God love? (1 John 4:8) Doesn’t God command us not to hate but to love our enemies? (Luke 6:27) Is God a hypocrite?  Those are all valid questions to ask of this text.

The answer lies in the nature of God compared to the nature of man. 

                (I have to pause and give a disclaimer here.  The nature of God and the nature of man are topics that authors struggle to cover fully in dissertations and books, not single blog posts.  I’m only going to give a few thoughts to get you started.  It is up to you to search out the Scriptures for a full understanding.)

                Isaiah’s vision of God can help to give us a background to understand this passage.  In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees God seated in the midst of the temple.  First, just take a minute to read through this description and be in awe of what is going.  Then take another minute and praise God.  This post will wait till you get back.

                OK, now that you are back, observe what the seraphim say about God.  They describe him as “Holy, Holy, Holy.”  This passage always leaves me in awe because it is not enough to just once say that God is holy.  The seraphim have to repeat it thrice for emphasis, which I believe still isn’t enough.  God is holy.  Holiness means to be complete, perfect, and without sin.  God has never made a mistake and his holiness demands that no one can dwell in his presence who has sinned.

                So, now that we see a glimpse of God’s nature, what about our nature?  Look at Isaiah’s response to the image of God.  He is distraught.  His sinfulness is laid bare.  He is in despair of his life, and rightfully so.   Isaiah knows that he, just like us, is a sinner.  (Romans 3:9-18)  As perfect as God is we are that imperfect.  Isaiah knows that the cost for that sin in us is death and the wrath of God.  (Romans 6:23)

                Do you see this starting to fit together?  God hates sinners because he is perfect.  God can in no way tolerate sin or those that commit sin.  Sin is disobedience to God and totally against his nature.  In light of this Biblical truth, Psalm 5:5 should not shock us.

                What should shock us is John 3:16.  What is amazing about God is not that he hates sinners but that he still shows them grace.  What is amazing is that God does not just wipe everyone out of existence.  God shows grace to everyone in letting us live for however long our life is.  (Matthew 5:45)  God shows amazing grace to anyone who will believe and put their faith in Christ by cleansing their sin and giving them eternal life.  (Acts 16:31)

                This is why this passage messes me up now.  I know that I am a wretched sinner.  I could fill pages with the things that I have done that disgust God.  There have been times that I have knowingly did what God clearly says not to do and in doing that I have figuratively spit in God’s face.  If we honestly examine ourselves in light of the Bible, it should be no surprise that God hates us.  However, it is beyond belief that God reached down to a rebellious man and, instead of pouring out his wrath, choose to save him by the grace of God.   He choose to cleanse me of my sins by the blood of his son, so, that I can dwell with Him in a loving relationship forever. God no longer hates me because he looks at me through the sacrifice of Christ and sees me as righteous.

                If you are a believer, be amazed that God showed love to a sinner such as you.  If you are not a believer, I’m not here to bash you like the people of Westboro Baptist.  I pray that you would experience the saving love of God in your life.   God hates sinners but he desires to save people and declare them righteous and sinless by the sacrifice of Christ, so, that he need not hate them anymore.

 

                “When our depravity meets his divinity it is a beautiful collision.”   David Crowder

Heroes

                Recently, I started watching the first season of the TV show Heroes on Netflix. (I realize that I’m a couple years behind.)   If you have not watched the show, it is about a group of people that realize they have special powers.  These individuals are busy with their normal lives and then, suddenly, they can do things that normal human beings cannot do.  One guy can time travel.  Another can read minds.  One girl can instantly heal, think Wolverine.  All of them are then thrust into an epic scenario in which they must save the world.

                What sticks out most to me about these people, however, are not their amazing powers.  There are many TV shows and movies that depict people with amazing powers.  What jumps off the screen about these people is that, even with all their special ability, they still struggle with the same problems that all of us face.  One is having marriage trouble.  Another is battling the pressures of high school popularity.  These “heroes” are not all that different from us.

                I have also been reading the book of Genesis.  My hope is to read the entire way through the Bible, but at the rate I’m going it could take a few years.  Anyway, the book of Genesis is filled with Bible heroes.  These are men, and sometimes women, that many of us have learned about since we were little.  Sunday School lessons are filled with the adventures of Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.  Their stories make for exciting children’s material.  We are taught to look up to these men and emulate their great acts, and we should.  However, those Sunday School lessons often do not give the full picture of these men.  Just like the “heroes” from the TV show these Bible “heroes” were often far from perfect and often struggled with the same issues with which we struggle.

                I remember when I was first enlightened to this a few years ago.  I was sitting in an airport in Manila, Philippines, very tired from a long flight over the Pacific and almost insane from way to many games of Bang!, a card game.  Our group leader, Skip, asked us to read the story of Samson, Judges 13-16.  He then led us into a discussion about the reality that, even though Samson is incredibly sinful, his exploits are a major part of every Sunday School curriculum.  This was an eye opener.  I had never looked much at the immorality of our Bible heroes.  All those years of Sunday School, Bible heroes were presented as perfect humans.

                After that experience, though, I didn’t think much more of this issue until recently, probably because the next two weeks were filled with an incredible mission’s trip in the Philippines.  Then, a month ago, my friend, Ben, brought this back to the forefront of my mind with his blog post on Genesis 9.   Ben discusses the story of Noah getting drunk.  This story takes place after God has brought Noah through the flood.  Even with all that Noah had experienced, he still falls into the sin of drunkenness and exposes himself, what a great example that is for a Bible hero.

                Finally, as I started my own study of Genesis, I saw many more examples of sinful heroes.   Abraham lies about being married to Sarah, twice.  (Genesis 12 and 20) Abraham struggles with doubts about God’s promise (Genesis 15) and takes matters into his own hands. (Genesis 16)  Isaac lies about being married to Rebekah. (Genesis 26)  I could fill an entire post with the sins of Jacob.  All these men are Bible heroes.  All these men struggled and sinned.

                What then is the point of all my ramblings?  Should we no longer study these men and tell our children their stories? No way! These were great men, who God used to do great things.  God has preserved their stories through many centuries for us to read.

                The accounts of these men’s sinful actions show us one very important thing.  Our Bible heroes are extraordinarily . . . ordinary.  The point is that these men are no different from us.  They had the same struggles and they were just as messed up and sinful as us.  God makes it clear that it was He working through these men to do great things. 

                This is a wonderful truth.  I don’t know about you but I am abundantly aware of my sinfulness.  It is easy to feel that I am so screwed up that God can never use me.  The great news is that God uses screwed up sinful people every day.  We do not need to reach a certain height of spiritualness before we can be used by God.  Even in the middle of our messed up lives, God can do amazing things.  As long as we are striving to serve God, he can, and will, use us.

                I do need to note that this does not give us license to just keep living sinfully.  We are called to strive for perfection. (Matthew 5:48)  God is working to make us like Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:18)  The point is that growing to holiness is a process and God uses along the way, even though we often mess up.

                In conclusion, be encouraged.  Your Bible heroes were not perfect.  They were much closer to being like you then they were to being like Christ.  There is a great God, however, who uses sinful men and women to do great things for his glory.  Seek to be used of God today, even as you are dealing with the sins and struggles in your life.  You may find that, in service to God, you also find deliverance from your struggles.

                Not to dampen the mood but I must finish with a few questions.  Do we need to change how we teach children these Bible stories?  When do we show them the imperfections in these heroes?  Do we do them a disservice if we never show them that Bible heroes are not perfect?

The Radical Obedience of Abraham (Sermon Audio)

Below is the audio from the sermon I preached February 27, 2011 at Hopewell GBC.  (Sorry, YouTube only allows for 15 minute clips, so I had to break it into four parts.)

I have to give some credit to Jeff Magnum of the Austin Stone Community Church.  His sermon on Genesis 22 inspired this sermon on Genesis 22.  You can check out Jeff's sermon at http://www.austinstone.org/resources/sermons/category/faith_is/P10/ .