The Nice God

Just some thoughts …

 

I cruise around a lot of Christian sites from time to time and this observation has struck me of late … God in general seems to be pictured as, for lack of a better word at the moment, “nice.” There seems to be a want for a God that provides but not one really who meddles in our lives. A God who protects but never demands, never judges, keeps His distance … This nice God doesn’t seem to say much but greeting card slogans. Sheesh! A God who is basically a wimp!

 

But the fact of the matter is God is not just nice. God is a consuming fire! Although He cares for the sparrow, the fragile, the hurt, He just isn’t all that pampering. God’s main business isn’t getting us the best parking spaces at the mall or otherwise make us nice and comfy. His main business is making us holy which requires the niceness …. And sternness of our God.

 

Let me share this verse from Exodus 20:20, “Do not be afraid, God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” Do not be afraid … Only a God we fear, and yet not be afraid of can make our hearts burn with a passion. The God who truly is, who seeks after you and me is far more loving and comforting than the “nice” God depicted seemingly everywhere. He is also more fierce and fearsome than this “scorekeeper” God of those who threaten us with damnation with every misstep and misthought. His anger is not just irritability … Its the distillation of His justice, His hatred of evil. This is what we want, even demand from a good God. A God who can kick tush and maybe even spank our own when necessary…

 

A nice, kindly old man type of god could never drive us to our knees in desperate prayer. He could never set us up on our feet in fierce determination ready to roll. A nice god could never inspire fervent worship, awe or sacrifice. The nice god is someone easy to dismiss unless we want or need something. How can we possibly explain a God that has His Son die a cruel, bloody death for us with a picture like that? God demands all …

 

In Hebrews it says its a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Yet the thing more dangerous than that is to NOT fall into His hands! God may not be all sweetness and fluff … But He is good!

 

Just wanted to throw this out there …

Practicing the Silence

 

Even though I live in this small town my life is rather noisy. Kids work,, the phone, the list can go on and on. Many people cannot abide silence, for whatever reason. They cannot drive their cars without the radio or some other noise…err…music device operating at all times. Similarly, there are those who have the TV on all the time, even if they are not sitting down actively watching it.

 

Being silent means more than just holding your tongue. It means listening for the softest, most subtle sound of all – the sound of the soul. And every time someone listens to that voice of conscience, every time someone chooses to do what is right, regardless of the consequences, every time someone listens to that inner voice and does something generous or compassionate, that for me is beautiful evidence of God.

 

Sometimes, I will sit still, close my eyes, and empty my mind of busy thought, and be conscious of the silence. But it’s not really silence, as in the total absence of sound, but rather, it’s the small daily-life sounds no one notices in the usual cacophony of their typical days. It’s the hum of a refrigerator, the whirring of a fan, the whoosh of cars passing in the street, the chirping of birds and crickets (I really like the crickets!), the howl of a train’s horn, the roar of a lawn mower, and so on. I’ve found that practicing the silence will many times inspire me to write, and will even sometimes bring on a feeling of contentment that I can’t quite explain. 

When someone speaks in a whisper, you cannot hear him unless you are very close to him and everything else is very quiet. You cannot hear God’s Whisper unless your heart is quiet and you draw near to God. You may experience storms in life; your child might get sick … disaster happens … But you must listen to God’s still small Voice. Thoughts?

Learn To Be Quiet

Franz Kafka 
 
You need not do anything.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, just wait.
You need not even wait,
just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.
And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

 
Franz Kafka, 1883-1924, was a popular Czech novelist and short story author.

if they would just believe …

Some thoughts early in the morning … have you ever met a person or been friends with someone that every night would leave you praying that if they could just be a Christian, that would be it. they’re such a good person! they’re nicer than my Christian friends! (etc. etc.) I have more than a couple friends of mine that are closer to being like Christ than people in my church that claim to have an “intimate” relationship with Him yet are unable to back it up with their words and actions. and occasionally that leaves me thinking, if they would just believe….

 

Why is it that this frustrates me so? that i believe that they are “depraved” and yet those that claim to be seeking after God are further away than those that have no care for Him at all? I must apologize, this is a difficult topic for me to convey in mere type, but do any of you get what I’m saying? I feel ashamed to say it, but there are times when I come across a non-Christian who shows Christlike character and I think “They are more deserving of God’s saving grace than I am!” Anyone relate to this?

Messy Christmas

Jesus is many things to many people, but to John he was Light and Life. The apostle must have remembered where Jesus was standing and what he sounded like when he referred to himself by those words. Although nothing is written in his book, there is a little inkling of the birth to be found in John’s Gospel after all. It is wrapped up in one short sentence, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”. This verse really should be read before Matthew and Luke. It prepares us to receive the full version of the story. The Light that is Jesus shines in, around, through, behind, beneath, beyond the darkness of the manger, the stable, the darkness of the world, the darkness of buried in our own hearts. Do we really understand it any more than the shepherds or the wise men did. Who can grasp the idea of Light and Life being contained in a body?

 

If you were a shepherd 2,000 years ago and were outside watching the sheep one night when an angel showed up with a message from God, well…what would you do? Once they got over the shock They probably thought, Oh, sheesh! What did we do now??? They had been told that God did not like people , sinners, who definitely are not all cleaned up, so they might have assumed the angel was there to tell them God was mad at them — or worse. Maybe God had finally reached his limit with all the crap in the world and was ready to do something about it — starting with them! But instead the angel began with these words: “Fear not.” It’s a familiar refrain, angels, who seemingly always having to preface their conversations with people this way. Then he told them how to find the long awaited Messiah:

He will be wrapped in rags, lying in a feed trough, surrounded by animals — kind of like one of your shepherd kids would be. In other words, here’s how you will know the Messiah when you see him: You will find him in the middle of a big stinkin’ mess!

The whole reason this is Good News — to the shepherds that night and to us right now — is that we really are all messy people. Every night, well dressed and manicured people appear on television and tell us how the world got a little messier today. We manage to mess up every single area of life: relationships, finances, work, family, the environment, the Church (especially there), our conscience, our habits … the list can go on and on. In fact there’s not a single place we haven’t managed to mangle … And we can’t seem to fix any of it!

So the angel says, “Here’s the Good News: God is not afraid of your mess.”

Say what??? Our God  doesn’t seem to care how messy our life is. It couldn’t be any messier than where He chose to come to earth. He was born in a mess — wrapped in rags, laid in a manger — and he died in a mess! And in between his first day and his last day, he mostly hung out with messy people, seeming even to prefer them! 

We make Christmas really pretty, with red velvet bows and evergreen branches and all that. But the real story of Christmas proves that you do not have to clean up for him. Cleanliness, it turns out, is far from godliness. If anything, it’s in the middle of our messiness that God shows up!  God is love and only love. In God there is no hatred, desire for revenge, or pleasure in seeing us punished. God wants to forgive, heal, restore, show us endless mercy, and see us come home.

Merry Christmas!!!

happy being unhappy?

 

Why do some people have to live with so much drama in their lives…. You know we all know at least one person like this….the one who every time you see or talk to them something “big” is going on in their lives……

I don’t mind helping and listening to others but then that one person comes into your life and they make you want to pull your hair out…its always one thing after another…and to make it worse they aren’t even trying to change it they thrive on the attention the drama gives them!

Maybe what I need is prayer for dealing with people like this in my life … I find that with these people you just end up smiling and try to stay out of as much as you can. there is no point in sounding like a broken record if they don’t want to listen. But it amazes me that people would rather be unhappy than actually try and work through things. Could it be that some people are happy being unhappy?

 

Christianity as Music

How many times have you heard that this person or that person, or maybe yourself is not acting very “Christian”? Vulnerability is a big risk, because there will always be people who will not like what you have to say or reject who God has made you and not like the experiences you have had. consider ways that you might share your experiences, thoughts, and dreams with others at church.  Expect that not everyone will rejoice with you or mourn with you, but I truly believe that anyone who really understands the grace of God will be grateful for your story and come away with a greater picture of the goodness of our God. 

Christianity is a beautiful and flawless piece of music composed by God. Sometimes, the musicians (us) attempting to play it hit a few wrong notes or play it off key. Sometimes we make such an awful noise that they cause their audience to run away from them, holding their ears! But every now and then, a musician who is practiced in their Christianity plays the music and it is glorious and wonderful and sweet. We shouldn’t fault the composer (Jesus) when unpracticed musicians play His composition; a composition should be judged when it is played by the best, not the worst.

The thing is that we are all immature and immaturity means that a goal has not been met.  Imperfection means that things are not as they should be at a given stage of development. There’s a big difference.  Adam was created perfect but he still required instruction to grow in his maturity.  Jesus was created perfect but even he “kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”  (Luke 2:52)

When I think about it this way a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders.  The big struggle of so many Christians, including myself, is a lack of patience with themselves or others for not being instantly “finished”.  I am convinced that when you read the Bible, you realize that the “heroes of the faith” tend to be no different – flawed people who nonetheless are chosen and loved by a God who is not too proud to be associated with them.  There is Peter, denying that he knows Jesus in Matthew 26.  And then there is God, calling himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6, among others), and proclaiming that Peter is the rock upon which he will build his church (Matthew 16:18), forever associating himself with his flawed yet beloved followers.

For all of my weaknesses and sins, I get the sense that God likes us, that God is using us anyways, and that because when we are vulnerable, God will get the glory for not kicking us to the curb but instead loving, forgiving, and using him to bring others to Him.  remember that the grace that has been bestowed upon us is so much greater than we can give back. Let us purpose to show this grace to others. The world is starving for grace and will take notice when we show this to each other. This is the music our world needs to hear!

For the love of God!

“Living in awareness of our belovedness is the axis around which the Christian life revolves. Being the beloved is our identity, the core of our existence. It is not merely a lofty thought, an inspiring idea, or one name among many. It is the name by which God knows us and the way He relates to us.”

–Brennan Manning

“Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation that you believe to be the will of God.”

–Jim Elliot

“The great spiritual task facing me is to so fully trust that I belong to God that I can be free in the world – free to speak even when my actions are criticized, ridiculed, or considered useless; free also to receive love from people and be grateful for all the signs of God’s presence in the world. I am convinced that I will truly be able to love the world when I finally believe that I am loved far beyond its boundaries.

-Henri J.M. Nouwen

 

Just some thoughts … The hospitality that Jesus demonstrates and further offers us, creates space for moral failures to be accepted, to be loved, to be given possibilities, opportunities, and the room for further growth and failure. What would it be like to offer this kind of hospitality to myself? To give myself the space for failure and growth, and to learn to accept and love myself as opposed to the false self that I have created? There are many of us who feel that their lives are a grave disappointment to God. Sheesh! I am beginning to see that God does love us so much more than we can know. “Morning by morning, new mercies I see.” That’s day after day, new sins I commit. I feel a tremendous optimism! God’s is the author of all our lives.  God wants to forgive, heal, restore, show us endless mercy, and see us come home!

Some thoughts this Thanksgiving …

Some thoughts this Thanksgiving … It’s the only holiday we’ve got left that doesn’t involve wrapping paper, greeting cards, novelty songs, or heavily discounted automobiles. And  Thanksgiving itself somehow retains its traditional low-key charm. It’s a holiday where the only thing you give is thanks!

I mean, let’s face it. Thanksgiving doesn’t have the flash and fun of Christmas. There are no colored lights to string or gifts given or received. It doesn’t have the high sugar quotient of Valentine’s Day or Easter or Halloween, and Halloween has the added bonus of being able to dress up in costume.  Even the Fourth of July has the warmth of Summer going for it, while Thanksgiving falls right in the midst of some of the coldest, bleakest days of November.

However … It is a time for seeing and visiting with friends and family, including some that you may not see but once per year. To balance the one or two that you would just as soon not see at all, there is always that favorite uncle or nutty cousin or old Mrs. What’s-Her-Name from one block over, the one who brings a plate of the most scrumptious fudge you have ever eaten. Family and friends…most definitely one of the reasons Thanksgiving is special. How can I not give thanks and count my blessings when I have so very much I have been blessed with?

I think Thanksgiving just became my new favorite holiday. 

Happy Turkey Day everyone!