A DOUBLE MINDED GOD?

Sometimes I wonder if God is not just a bit double minded. In some verses of the bible he is destroying, ripping up, invading, punishing and in other verses he is patient, kind, gentle, forgiving.

I have wrestled for years with my understanding of Gods anger at sin and yet his forgiveness of sin. I have had many a great debate over the concept of a God that says, “come to me, I love you” in one breathe and then says,” If you don’t come to me and let me love you I will destroy you” in another breath.

In John 3:16-18 we read,
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son”

Notice in verse 17 where he writes about God not condemning us, but desiring to save us.
Notice in verse 18 that the ones who are condemned are the ones who have not experienced the transformative power that the name or the authority of Jesus gives to them.

In my mind this is how the justice and mercy of God fit together. God is perfect, complete, and holy. Because he is complete, perfect, and holy nothing can exist outside of God, with out his permission that is not complete perfect and holy. His perfection, completeness and holiness must consumes and destroy all that is not like him.

We as humans with all the incompleteness that our disobedience has produced in us, should not be able survive one nano-second before a Holy God. We should be consumed. We are already condemned by our imperfection. But God because of his mercy and love has intervened in our lives and offers us a way of escape from the consuming tsunami of His perfection. God accepts Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as if it was our own death. God then covers our incompleteness with Jesus and when God looks at us he does not see what we are, but who we are in Jesus. God makes us perfect and complete in Jesus Christ…and we are not consumed.

Here is the difficult fact to get our minds wrapped around. God will eventually consume, destroy and eradicate everything that is not complete, perfect and holy. He is compelled to do this. The very characteristics of completeness, perfection and holiness can not exist in a universe that does not match those characteristics.

God has some how placed himself under restraint for a certain duration of time in order to display his love to us and give us the opportunity to respond to that mercy. One day that restraint will cease. God will then consume all that has not been made perfect by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This event in history will be known as the unleashing of the wrath, or anger of God. Love demands destruction of all that is not love. God is love and he will not exist in an environment other than love.

This world and all that is in it is condemned before God, ready for demolition. God offers you a way out through the blood of Jesus Christ that purifies you from all condemnation.

WHEN GOD SAYS," That's Enough! "

I wonder if we as a society believe in the concept of “consequences” any more. Do we believe that there is a reaction to every action, a result to every behaviour, a punishment for every crime? We may say we believe in the law of consequences but it seems to me our behaviour makes many of us out to be liars. Take my weight problem for example. I understand the law of caloric intake which simply stated says that if I eat more than I need my body stores the excess as fat! But I choose to ignore the law of consequences with every slice of cherry cheese cake I devour.


Almost every one has seen the scientific evidence that smoking cigarettes shortens people lives. Most people have seen pictures of badly blackened lungs taken at autopsies of diseased smokers, but we defiantly keep on puffing, willfully ignoring the known consequences of our behaviour.

Here is a truth for you! You can ignore the consequences of your behaviours but the consequences of your behaviours don’t ignore you. Eat too much you get fat. Smoke and you get sick. Run away from God and you get caught!

I think that as a society we want to believe in some form of justice; that at some time right will prevail over wrong, that unfairness will be compensated for, that restitution will be made, that somehow the inequity of illness, loss, corruption, the domination of the disadvantaged will all be made right.

I think we want a God who can do something about the mess, the pain, the oppression. Not just a God who lets “stuff" slide by unchallenged, and uncorrected but a God who has the guts to “call” this world on its abuses and its abusers, and dispense appropriate consequences.
If that is the God we really want, a God who will do something, a God who will call it like it is, a God who will ensure that what is right ends up being right, then perhaps we need to give God permission to begin that same process in our very lives. Perhaps we need to give God the opportunity to call our lives like he sees our lives, to call us on our disobedience, our own injustice, our own self consumption. Perhaps we need an awakening to the law of consequences, our own consequences and understand if we want God to judge the inequities and iniquity in our world he most likely has to begin by judging the inequity and iniquity in our own lives.

Sound scary? Well here is the good news…We can judge ourselves or God can do it! We can pay attention to the consequences or ignorantly ignore reality. When a consequence comes to claim what is its right…don’t blame God!

THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN BEING A SURVIVOR

It seems almost everybody you meet today defines themselves as a victim of “something”. Just think about this for a moment. People are victims of credit card fraud, ponzi schemes, thefts of all kinds, sexual assault, divorce, wayward kids, road rage, and even drive through screw ups!

I wonder why so many of us want the identity known as victim. Some people even define their life by their victimization. The stories they tell are from some by-gone wrong that was perpetrated on them. They have no new story, nothing about today and worse no story about what their future could be.

I am not trying to minimize the seriousness of tragic events that happen to well meaning people. I am seeking the answer to the question of why we would want to define our lives by some event in the past.

Then there is what I will call the “survivor syndrome.” If I am fortunate and perhaps work hard I can move the definition of myself from a victim to a survivor. Sounds good to most people to be a survivor! I am just not so sure that defining yourself as being a survivor is any better than defining yourself as being a victim. Sometimes I think that a survivor is just a victim turned inside out. Life defined by a moment in time, defined by the past…perhaps a past that is healing but still the past. It’s the “in thing” to be a survivor today…every body is surviving some form of victimization.

Maybe being a survivor is like winning the silver medal in the men’s Olympic hockey final. So you won silver…so now we know you are the best of the losers! Not a winner! Simply being rewarded for losing! If you don’t believe me go back and look at the television footage from the silver medal ceremony at the men’s Olympic hockey game. There was not a happy face in the bunch…no not one. I am not so sure that survivors are necessarily happy people either…better than a victim but still not a gold medal.

The bible talks about an amazing class of human beings called victors. A victor is one who runs the race of life and comes in first. Not second, not third, just gold…pure gold. In fact, in the spiritual journey of Christian discipleship there is only one medal…gold.

God does not reward failure. God does not reward average. God does not reward excuses. God rewards only the gold medal race. Here is an amazing piece of information; God makes it possible for each of us to win Gold. He places His Spirit of love with in us and asks us to simply be obedient to Him… and He guarantees the gold!

Think about this statement, obedience guarantees the gold! God did not say we had to be faster, smarter, brighter, work harder, longer or wiser…He just said we had to be obedient to His word, co-operate with Him in His agenda for ourselves, this universe and the people in it…and you get the gold. There is no silver, no bronze…there is only light or darkness, love or hate, life or death…gold or no gold. Jesus Christ made it possible for us all to get the gold, it’s simply a matter of obedience. Simply a matter of choice…obedient or not obedient…you get to choose your reward. If you happen to be unhappy with it…remember it was your choice!

HOW TO LOVE DIFFICULT PEOPLE

Years ago I cam across a saying; “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. It is my belief that people are looking for understanding, acceptance and real love, not necessarily more information.

For years churches have dispensed information; information about God, theology, ethics, rules, regulations and the like. And for all of this information that has been given out from Sunday sermons, Sundays School classes, in midweek bible studies, on radio and television far too many Christians’ lives remain the same. They may have more religious information than any other time in history and yet very little if anything changes in their day to day behaviours.

Here is an incredible truth. You can know all sorts of information and never experience any transformation. We are ‘knowledge-aholics”. We crave more data, more information, more sources, more input…but we never seem to let that information affect our behaviour. We know a lot, we just don’t do much with what we know.

The Apostle John in 1st John calls it like he sees it! Simply put he says that talk is cheap! Even for Christians he says if you don’t live it, it doesn’t count. You can say you love Christ or are a follower of Jesus, but if you don’t reach out and help a brother or sister that you see in need…well to put it bluntly…he says you are a liar and there is non of Gods love in you.

The test that you are a true follower of Christ is this; you never pass up an opportunity to help when you have the God given opportunity to do so.
So here is the deal. The world we live in is so self focused that if people actually saw a group of people really helping others out…going out of their way to give practical care and assistance…they would sit up and notice. They might even wonder why in a world so “me” driven, people would sacrifice their own agendas for the benefit of others.

People do not care what religion you are or what beliefs you hold, whether you have the ‘truth” and great spiritual insight. They just want to know if you will care for them in real practical down to earth ways.

This is what Jesus ministry was all about… he hung out with the poor, he healed the sick, he taught the common people, he fed the hungry, he spent time with children, he ate dinner with prostitutes and the disenfranchised, was the life of the party, he visited the grieving, kicked the “stuffing” out of those who took financial advantage of others and had the guts to religious leaders a “brood of vipers”.

Let’s stop talking about and get done! Love can change the world but only if you live it!

IT"S OVER!

I find it difficult to believe that Christmas has come and gone already. Perhaps even more amazing to me is the recognition that in a few days this whole decade will come to an end. In my mind it was only a short while ago that so many of us were all in a panic over Y2K. So where did those ten years go?

One of my granddaughters is 10 the other is 9, so I know a lot of time has gone into investing in their lives, yet some how I think perhaps not as much time as there should have been. I didn’t realize the time would fly buy quite a quickly as it has. But isn’t that a silly statement? We all know time fly’s buy and the older you get the faster it fly’s.

Eileen and I will be married for 35 years on January 1, 2010. Once again I am forced into the recognition that the space between 25 years of wedded bliss on the infamous Y2K year and 35 years of wedded bliss has simply vanished like the steam from a kettle, into the surrounding air. I guess I am a bit wiser, though that may be a point for debate, especially in the light of my continued lack of understanding about the importance of shopping in a womans life, and that sustained conversation, with great details added, are critical to our continued sense of intimacy and yes, phone conversations when she travels are required to last more than ten words. ..“How are you? How was your day… fine, good night!”

My children are now officially adults and my mother officially has a senior citizen for a son.

Perhaps beyond the thoughts of grandchildren, grown children, a healthy mother and a healthy long term sustained marriage my mind also turns to thoughts of my spiritual life.

I wonder if the past ten years has been kind to me spiritually. Have I allowed the Spirit of God access to my personality to be able to reproduce in me the fruit of His Sprit: love, joy , peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self control. Sometimes I feel not. Then other times I feel we are making progress, God and I working away at the inner diseases of selfishness, pride, control issues, my constant propensity to be addicted to stuff like success or isolation or food or whatever! Whenever I get too introspective, which is way too often, and I feel like I am just not progressing the way I should be progressing and achieving what I think I should be achieving I am reminded of saying that my wife in her wisdom brings to my attention and often says to me in my darker hours,

“You may not be what you ought to be. But thank God you’re not what you used to be. And it’s not yet told what you’re going to be”

Ok, it’s not over yet! Bring on the next ten! Be patient, God and my wife are still working on me! I wonder if they both will get their way

‘Twas the Weeks Before Christmas

‘Twas the weeks before Christmas and all through the town,
the people were frantically running around.
The charge cards were maxed out with no room to spare,
in hopes that the lottery soon would be theirs.

On Costco, on Zellers, on Biancos they rushed,
With nary a thought that they soon would be bust!
Don’t worry, don’t worry, they called out to each other,
we’ll pay for this somehow, even borrow from mother.

‘Tis the season for giving, and gifts we must have,
for mothers, and brothers, and sisters, and Dad!
For cousins, and nephews, and uncles, and aunts,
must not be left out of this Christmas-time rant.

It can not be Christmas if we do not spend,
and overindulge in the booze to the end.
And eat too much turkey, and stuffing, and pie,
end up fighting, this is Christmas? … “Oh, my my!”

When what from the road side in my eye did appear?
But a Living Nativity and shepherds so near!
A donkey, and angels, a child like the Christ,
and carols of wonder and heavenly delight.

An old fashioned Christmas from a time long ago,
when spending, and drinking, and fighting, weren’t so.
And the gifts that were given didn’t come from a shelf,
the gift that was given was the gift of yourself.

So maybe this season will be different somehow,
We could ring some kettles, or volunteer now!
To give the gift, that can not be bought,
with money, and stuff that will all be for ‘nought.

But learning a lesson from days since long past,
would give the gift, that forever will last!
A gift that is given, not from a shelf,
but the real gift of Christmas, the gift of yourself.

A little poem I wrote for publication in the South Side Story, availble after December 6, 2009

WHEN THE DEVIL COMES TO CHURCH

The devil is a master of deflecting attention from himself and getting us to do his dirty work.

We live in a world that is reeling from psychic pain, a pain so systemic that it invades every area of our existence. You can see the emptiness in people’s eyes, you can hear the anger in their voices, and you can feel the frustration radiating from their bodies. You may even have been on the receiving end of physical, emotional or verbal violence. It may even have happened to you in church.

You see, the devil comes to church every time we in the church, war and fight with each other. That word said in anger, that critical attitude, that unforgiving spirit, gossip and slander, an accusation with out investigation; every time we fail to simply be kind or demonstrate compassion, give someone the benefit of the doubt we are doing the devils work on his behalf.

The bible is clear about the personification of evil as represented by the devil. It is his job to scheme against all that is good (Ephesians 6:10), to try and turn every good thing into pain. It is also his life’s mission to “go about like a roaring lion seeking whom he might destroy”. His work is to create a counterfeit to all that is God’s, including counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders (2Thessalonians 2:9).

It is time for the church to stop doing the devils work for him.

The church must become a place of safety, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
The church must become a place where forgiveness flows like a mighty river, where love pours down upon those who fail and restores them to new beginnings.
The church must become a place where words of compassion and understanding rise up against judgmental attitudes and where the redeemed people of God seek to understand rather than be understood.
The church must become a place where people can discover truth, uncompromised, but swimming in an attitude love, birthed out of the depth of understanding of who we are and what God himself in Christ Jesus has rescued us from.
The church must become a place where we cut people some slack, but not leave them to rot in their own messes.
The church truly must become a bride, a glorious church, with out stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, holy and blameless. (Ephessians 5:27)

The church can only become a safe place, as you and I allow Christ to transform out attitudes and behaviours into attitudes and behaviours that reflect his character and his nature.

We can accept the wounded and broken and remind ourselves that we too are wounded and broken and if it were not for Jesus, we would not be here.

We can simply refuse to be offended, we can maintain an attitude of instant forgiveness, by not allowing any judgmental word to stick to us or come from us.

We can start by refusing to let our mouths say anything that is not helpful and constructive, whether that is in the form of the spoken word, the written word, or a thought word.

An old spiritual song says “Shut de door, keep out de devil”.
Maybe “de shut door” begins with “de shut mouth!”