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Time Puts Things in Perspective

June 10, 20090

I was recently discussing my book that I am writing by the same title as this Web Site with a young man.  When I told him the title he stated, “but God doesn’t make sense.”  When I asked him why, he responded with a question I get often – “why do bad things happen to good people?”  That’s a question that probably all of us have wondered about and been troubled with at one time or another.

I’m not going to attempt to answer this question in full in this article.   The scope of that question is too large to address in one blog.  What I ‘d like to do here is put forth something to consider when you are thinking about that question.

Have you ever had a bad day?  Of course you have.  That time you did poorly on the test or you had that fender bender that was your fault, or when you got that speeding ticket.  Maybe it was when you lost the championship game.  At the time these things were frustrating, even sad.  We would classify them as bad things.  But as time went on they bothered us less and they certainly impacted us less.  Maybe enough time has passed by now that they seem almost trivial.  If not it one day will.  They seem almost unimportant in the overall story of our lives.  The two or three hours or even few days that were “ruined” by these things seem minor in the full picture of our lives, especially if you are someone who has lived say 40 or 50 or even 70 or 80 years or more.

While I certainly do not wish to diminish the pain and suffering that come with more serious things in life like cancer or the death of a loved one, lets consider how they fit into the overall picture of things as well.  Things like these are serious and they cause pain and sadness.  The test, the speeding ticket, the car accident mentioned above became less of a defining item in our lives as more time passed.  Is it possible that these more serious matters may also?

As Christians our view of life is that it is eternal.  We do not view life as lasting merely 60, 70 , 80 or 90 years, but for all of eternity.  Consider what the cancer, or the loss of a loved one will be like in comparison to 100 million years. 

I know this doesn’t ‘explain’ why bad things happen to good people.  We will try and address some of that in future posts.  But maybe it helps put it in some perspective and makes it a little easier to accept and understand. 

Consider this question.  Why do good things happen to bad people?

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Jesus Hangs with the Unlikely

June 2, 20091

God doesn’t always fit into our box.  Reality is much more complex and complicated than we would like to think it is.  We picture the kind of people that Jesus would like to hang around with and the kind of people He would choose to work with and then, the ones He actually chooses don’t fit our ideas.

In Matthew chapter 9, it says that Jesus saw a man sitting at the tax collector’s booth, named Matthew, and He said to him, “follow me.”  That doesn’t fit who we might expect Jesus to choose.  Matthew was a man working for the enemy.  He collected taxes for the Roman government, the oppressors of Israel. 

Matthew was also a man who liked to hang with the non-church crowd.  After Jesus told him to follow Him, He decided to have dinner with Matthew and some of his friends.  The church folk (the Pharisees) asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

Isn’t it interesting that the church folk did not see themselves as sinners?  Aren’t you glad that Jesus does indeed choose to hang out with sinners?  His response to the church crowd was, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Our salvation is not obtained (and retained) by our actions or our deeds, but by mercy, because of the grace of God.  Those who are righteous do not need forgiveness and grace, but those who are sinners do.  We need to recognize that there is not one who is righteous on their own – we all need forgiveness and grace.  We all need doctor Jesus and His mercy.

Our prejudice against those different than us reveals something about our soul.

Scripture reference Matthew 9:9-13

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The Bible Makes Sense – Like God Makes Sense

May 21, 20090

I recently received the following question that I would like to address.  “I definitely believe in God. I am certain I believe in the same God of the Christian bible, my struggle is with the bible itself. I find so many contradictions that nobody can explain for me; faith shakers. I want to know my creator, but it is hard when my bible is so tainted by interpretation of man.  God never held the pen, nor did he hand pick the books of the bible. This was done by a committee of men.  I am not an atheist, nor do i try to play devil’s advocate. I am just a person searching for answers. In the exodus for example, it says that the pharaoh would begin to want to comply, but then God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart and made him defiant.  How could the God of love and all living things harden the Pharaoh’s heart, thereby sealing his fate? And what of Judas? Did the God of love and infallibility take free will from these men and damn them?  So even though I believe very much in a loving God, the inconsistencies in the bible cause me to doubt the whole dynamic of salvation through Christ.  I have no choice but to think that there is a possibility that Christ’s role in the bible could have been misrepresented.   I just want the information given to us to be consistent. I apologize for the length of the question as well as punctuation and grammar, but what i want to know is, where can i find a god that makes sense? (content modified for grammar and length).”

First, let me say, while you are looking for a God that makes sense, rest assured He has already found you.  And while that may sound trite it lies at the heart of the answer to the concern mentioned above.  If there is a God (and other posts on this site have already begun addressing that point, as will more to come) who is the Supreme Creator it stands to reason that He would desire to communicate with His creation.  What would prohibit Him from doing so if He desires?  As Paul describes for us, the law is written on our hearts and our conscience also bears witness (Romans 2:15).  The witness of God is upon our hearts from birth.  God begins His communication with us at the very beginning of our existence.

It is more difficult to believe that God would not communicate with us than it is to believe He would.  He certainly has the ability to communicate with us.   God has communicated with us in three primary ways first , the Son, Christ.  He is the fullness of revelation.  Secondly is the Bible, which entirely compliments the revelation of the Son.  The third means is through prayer.

I cannot answer the question of why God has chosen the Bible as one of the three primary means of communicating with us rather than choosing some other means.  But on the other hand, why not the Bible?  Written communication is a common and accepted form of communication (I’m communicating with you right now through written form).   Written communication is the recording of ideas that exist in someone’s mind, whether it be your own with you being the true author, or someone else’s, like a reporter or journalist would.   Is it so inconceivable that an all powerful Creator could communicate the ideas in His mind and heart to those He chose?  Wouldn’t a good author seek to insure that what He has communicated is published accurately and correctly, especially an author with unlimited power?  Why do we make the assumption that the Bible is tainted with the interpretation of man.  Has God shown Himself to be such a hands-off creator and subsequently communicator\author?

One of the test of any published work is how does it stand the test of time?  What other book has withstood such great investigation, scrutiny, cynicism and even attack and remained a timeless message?

 Now in regard to contradictions in the Bible lets really consider that.  I have heard my entire life about contradictions in the Bible.  As I mentioned, no writing in history has been more scrutinized than the Bible.  People have gone to great efforts to identify contradictions and inaccuracies in the Bible.  Where are they, really?  This blog does not have the space to address the many supposed contradictions specifically.  My book will address some of them as examples.  For now, lets consider the attitude that leads to tghe argument of contradictions in the Bible.  If one approaches any writing with the mindset that it must contain contradictions and fallacies, they are guaranteed to find them.  They will produce them.  It is assumed the Bible has contradictions becasue of what it claims to be.  It claims to be the Word of God.  Such an outrageous claim immediately awakens the cynic within us.  If we approach the Bible with the mindset that it is true and accurate we are able to see that the contradictions we thought existed really aren’t there.  I’m not promoting blind acceptance, but rather a different approach in our investigation with a more open mind.

As C.S. Lewis tells us in ‘Mere Christianity’, reality is very much different than we would have expected.  If we were designing the universe it would have been much more symmetrical and simple.  Instead, what we have is complexity that does not meet our expectations.  For example, if one were designing the planets they would probably be uniform in size, or maybe growing larger as they moved further from the sun.  Or they would all have one moon, or three, or some pattern.  Instead we have planets of all different sizes in no particular order, with a variety of moons, one with rings, etc.

The same would be expected if someone were putting together the Bible as a scam or a hoax or even just a good made up story.  They would go to great care to make sure that when people looked for contradictions they would not be able to find them as that would hurt the credibility.  Instead what we have is a book that seems to have (I emphasize the word seems) multiple contradictions, but somehow has stood the test of time.

To address the two examples provided in the question above, simply put, no, God did take away these men’s free will to choose.  Pharaoh did not begin to comply and then God harden His hurt.  There was no real compliance on Pharaoh’s heart.  He thought he could negotiate a deal, thereby placing himself on equal footing with God.  This is not compliance and is certainly not humility.  God hardened Pharaoh’s heart because he would recognize who God was.   The same is true of Judas.   If  not then why was Judas distraught and regret what he had done?  These men chose their own fate when they chose to be the god of their own lives.  This happens to all of us as we seek to make ourselves the God of our own lives.

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Word Notes – Always There

May 13, 20090

Word: Romans 8:31-39
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Notes: Who can stand against God, really? Even if one were to stand up to God against us, would it matter? Would they matter?

Word: … 34b Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Notes: Christ is not just sitting idly by as we face adversity. He is pleading our case, actually His case on our behalf. Who do you think is going to win that argument?

Word: …35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Notes: If Christ’s love cannot be separated from us, then it is always with us. If we are always loved by the most powerful and most gracious, what do we have to fear? We will all face at least some of these but will not face them alone. God does not run away from these things. He is not moved even an inch by hardships and adversity.

Word: … 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Notes: There is nothing that can separate us from God’s love. That doesn’t mean that He is just looking at us with a sense of pity saying, boy I wish they didn’t have to experience this. That would mean He is impotent. God is anything but impotent. He is Omnipotent. He is actively involved in us as we go through the adversity and hardships and trials. His power is with us, literally. We must recognize it, acknowledge it , and surrender to it and we will be more than conquerors.

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Word Notes – Good by Grace

April 30, 20090

Word: Romans 4:13-15
It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

Notes: We are not good because we obey the law. We try to obey the law because God has made us “good”. The law points out that we fall short of God’s standards. We do not obtain “goodness” by obeying for 1) we cannot be successful in fully obeying due to our sinful nature and 2) that is not the purpose of the law – to make us good. That is the purpose of grace.

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Coffee Talk Edition 1

April 28, 20090

I recently started something new in an effort to keep getting the great message of Christ to as many as possible in different ways. I got together with Rev. Dave Rodgers for what I call “Coffee Talk”. Coffee Talk is a time of informal discussion (sitting around with a cup of coffee) about matters of Christianity presented in a Podcast. You can listen directly to each edition of Coffee Talk here on the God Makes Sense website or you can download the Podcast and listen to it later on your favorite MP3 playing device.

The topic of the first edition of Coffee Talk is ‘Our Conscience – What’s it All About’

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Word Notes volume 1

April 21, 20090

Word: Romans 8:1-2
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life
set me free from the law of sin and death.

Notes: Through the sacrifice of Christ we are set free from the bondage, torment, guilt, and punishment of the law of sin and death.  It is the law of sin and death that drives us to actions and attitudes of disobedience (see Romans chapter 7).  This law of sin and death has been conquered by the sacrifice of Christ – but only if we accept it and surrender to it, is the victory realized in us.

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