Skip to main content

My God...

            Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)

           Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

          …Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”

          He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” (Genesis 18:23-25 & 32)

 

             “I would never worship a god who….”

            “My god would never ….”

            I hear people say things like this, and I don’t know quite how to respond because if they are setting the rules by which their god is permitted to act, they are the god, not the god about whom they make such statements. But at the same time, I think of passages like the one above, in which Abram argued with God or Jacob spent the night wrestling with God at Peniel.

            We’re told in the first passage that God is a consuming fire, and we should treat Him with due respect. The point of this passage seems to be that God is God, He has the right to do as He sees fit, and we should treat Him with respect He’s due. Sometimes, I’ve heard it said that to say, “No, Lord,” is a sort of contradiction. If He is Lord, we have no right to say, “No.” And yet…there are times when God listens and grants what we have asked even though it contradicts what he’s said. Moses told God that if God wasn’t going to go with them, Moses wouldn’t go, either, and the surrounding nations would mock Him.

            I’m not saying that we should treat God with anything other than respect. But how do we deal with these seemingly contradictory ideas? Is there a time when we can and should rightly say that “My God would never…”?

            There is one difference between the statements. When the person says, “My god would never…” or “I would never worship a god who…” they are talking about their god or about God. What Abram, Jacob, and Moses did was argue with God. The one who says “Never” is dividing himself from God, while the one who argues with God is coming together with God because you can’t argue otherwise.

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen!

  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)            Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.            ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more