Recently in a conversation with a millennial that believes God put life into existence and then removed Himself from personal interaction in order for man to make his own way, I shared with him (in part) the following reply.
And…I…also…wonder why the holocaust of mother’s choosing to kill their babies in gruesome and painful measures with the governments help, push and provision of providers still takes place on a daily basis (in our enlightened and educated society) in greater numbers of deaths than all the wars America has ever been involved in (all the while this is now somehow viewed as normal). And… why many people who cry out to God only when they are in danger and could care less in normal, everyday life (spending most of their day cursing God and denying His existence) of a personal relationship with Him or the life they could have in serving Him. It could look like God has removed Himself.
But unlike you, I do want to rejoice with those who experience His provision and life on a daily basis and, as well, weep with those who do not receive the answers they were hoping for or suffer great, inexplicable harm. For me, it is mostly about living life in a Genesis three world (‘fallen’ by our choice – where fallen, evil people do evil things and the innocent are affected – like abortion, wars, refugees, terrorism, random shootings and the like) and not the Genesis one and two world that our Father created and planned for us. But thanks be to God for a second Adam -Jesus – and His redemptive plan! (I Corinthians 15:45)
I fully trust Him to not only hear my prayers, but to answer them as well even if it is not the answer I was looking for, because I love Him more than life itself. The fact remains, He loved me first (and every other human on the earth) even while I was still a sinner (Romans 5:8). And, I too (out of this relationship) pray some selfish prayers at times…just like I do selfish acts in life and fall short.
So, when I am serving Him in Haiti or walking in the largest slum in the world in Nairobi, Kenya and/or the homeless in Philly I, too, see the inequity of it all. I am not blind to it and neither do I somehow live above it…”by faith.” If my theology told me that this can’t be so, then I am looking to my theology (which has a better chance of being wrong than right) to be God; to bring God down to my human thinking and standard, and frankly my theology, along with my psychology, will never, ever save anyone from anything, only Jesus can do that (I Timothy 1:15).
I know no more than this…at this point in my brief life.
I know of scarcely anything more difficult, more challenging and more humbling than expressing forgiveness. But at the same time, I know of scarcely anything more freeing than forgiveness. In the Holocaust documentary titled Shoah, a Warsaw ghetto victim states, “If you could lick my heart, it would poison you.” Nothing depicts a non-forgiving heart better than that picture. Author Gary Thomas once wrote, “We will be sinned against, and we will be hurt. When that happens, we will have a choice to make: We can give in to our hurt, resentment, and bitterness, or we can grow as a Christian and learn yet another important lesson on how to forgive.”
Forgiving is not something we naturally love to do. Even though we have been forgiven of so much and have fully come short of God’s ideal, we love to withhold forgiveness simply because (we might tell ourselves) the person has not suffered sufficiently for what they did to us. The truth is, One already suffered so we could be forgiven; we must now make the choice to do likewise (See Colossians 3:13). To do anything less is to take a position of critical judgment, freely giving ourselves over to the use of the evil one in heady, heartless self-righteousness.
This blog is from a spiritual father who loves this generation enough to share truth from a man named Peter who walked with Jesus. Please consider Simon Peter’s admonitions below, who we all know was not perfect, but who went on to be one of Jesus’ greatest spokesmen in the New Testament church.
5. Commitment to a local church, to relationships, to accountability and to discipleship is vital for our generation: Maybe you feel like you do not need the church, but does that church (people) need you? It is not just commitment to a building or a place, it is commitment to God’s children, your family. Love the brotherhood of believers… I Peter 2: 13, 17; I Peter 4: 9, 10
A number of years ago I regularly met with a spiritual father, who graciously volunteered to counsel me, read what I was writing and hold me accountable in my walk with Jesus. I loved those sessions from this seasoned man of God who was – over a long and amazing life – a farmer, then a missionary, then a pastor and then a college professor. In one of our meetings he gave me a copy of his musings about how his marriage lasted over six decades. I have listed his eight pieces of advice for you below.
Last week we considered 13 ways a wife felt secure within her marriage and I thought it best to not leave the men out of this one. So, here are 15 ways a man can feel secure within his marriage as shared by a husband.
aries concerning relationship with the opposite sex.
knees and in health…” Remember that statement? Does anyone foresee sickness? They’re just words of tradition, right? Actually they are words spoken as a promise, a vow. But quite honestly, we were young and the young do not get sick or have a frame of reference for a long-term illness. Some of those spoken vows said in our 20’s or 30’s are not tested for another thirty or forty years. When sickness comes, the depth of our love and commitment will be examined.
aring for the future by growing your marital oneness today, this month, this year?
Determine today to grow old together, because there is only one thing that is greater than young love in a marital relationship and that’s old love.
“In order for me to feel good about me, I need to know that you feel good about me.”
For the first two questions the answer is: reconciliation. To reconcile means to go from an unacceptable state to an acceptable state. Christ has done that work by first accepting us. (Romans 15:7)
The next two have an answer as well: justification. Before my performance, I am justified. To be justified means that I am forgiven of my sin; I am free from my shame and my guilt and I am in right standing with God. Again, not because of what I have done or can do, but because of what Christ has done. (Romans 3:21-28; 5:1; II Corinthians 5:21)
We all deserve punishment, however Christ took that punishment for our past, present and future sin upon Himself and that’s called: propitiation. Propitiation is when God placed His Son upon the cross for us to make atonement forever. (I John 4:9, 10, 18)
Lastly, I can change. I am not up for a vote. The answer to change is: regeneration. Robert McGee once said that who you think you should be is less than who you already are. To be regenerated is to become a new creation. To become born again is to get to start over and participate in His divine nature. (II Corinthians 5:17)
This is a blog about “church,” so-to-speak, but maybe we miss the mark a bit if we don’t keep putting the focus back on the One who precedes the church and everything else. The church is, no doubt, meant to be a much more radical movement than we have understood it to be. How much more important is it for us to see that Jesus, the head of the church, is a far more radical man/God than we can even begin to understand. He is the One we, His church, are designed to imitate. Perhaps if we get Jesus right, and our imitation of Him in keeping with who He is, we will naturally get church right.
In I Corinthians 7:5 the Apostle Paul tells us that abstinence within marriage will distract us from a healthy prayer life as a couple. Many read this verse to mean that having sex as a married couple will actually distract us from prayer, but I believe just the opposite is true. Author Gary Thomas says it this way, “Use marriage the way God intended it. Meet your sexual needs by making love to your spouse. Then your mind and soul will be more open to prayer.”
Steve Prokopchak 