Our God

God amazes me. I see more and more what the psalmist meant when he talks about God's ways being too much; too lofty for me to understand. This big and awesome God cannot be described using mere words. He can only be experienced and even then, only in small doses because all of His GLORY is is too much for us. It terrified the Israelites; it is the presence that brings us to our knees; His HOLINESS, His WONDER, His LOVE is simply too much for us to fathom so He lets us have Him in dozes we can handle. This MIGHTY God who loves us simply because it is who He is. He gives us drops of Himself and we are overwhelmed from it. He that is more than enough not just for me but for every single one of the several billion people on this earth. I don't get this God that is so HOLY, so set apart from us yet He chooses to have a relationship with each person. It's a bit (very very little bit) like a human choosing to commune with ants, to know each by name to love them, to see to their needs... it sounds too ridiculous to even understand , yet He chooses to do so with us; to call us sons and daughters. God's son is Jesus Christ who is fully God in His very essence and person and yet God the Father chooses to elevate us to that very same level? To call us sons and daughters, to even makes us co-heirs; to allow us to call Him father, Abba. We can never fully understand what those privileges mean because that gesture of LOVE and ACCEPTANCE is too big for us. We don't know that kind of LOVE. We don't deserve that kind of LOVE. Kings are meant to Lord it over us. WE don't know this GIVING LOVE; we don't know this SELF-SACRIFICING AUTHORITY; we don't know this SERVANT LEADERSHIP. It is simply too simple, too foreign in its goodness. Yet what little we do understand of this MAGNIFICENT GOD cripples us. It stops us in our tracks, it changes our entire lives; it turns our world upside down and makes simple fishermen and laymen look like drunks and then eloquent speakers. I can see why we would doubt the existence of such a God that is simply 'too good to be true'. Yet GOOD and simply so by His very nature is what He is. We learn very quickly that LOVE is not our version of love; and what is GOOD is simply impossible for us to achieve alone and thus comprehend. This is the God that allows us to know Him and serve Him. This God that not only orchestrated the greatest jail break in history by taking our place on the judgement seat and choosing to die instead of us, but also pours out His very essence, His Holy Spirit into us. How something so precious can be placed in such unworthy vessels is completely beyond our understanding. He goes far above and beyond because HE IS THAT GOD. Not one of those in myths; not another handsome demi-god performing small physical feats that are too hard for humans; He IS THE ONE AND ONLY GOD doing things that only He can do. The kind of God that not even humans could create because HIS WAYS go beyond our logic and imagination. God the Father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit; three but one, the Triune God. This is God and one day all creation, every single knee (living and dead) will bow before God, not because He is any less now than He will be then, but because He will reveal enough of Himself that we will no longer excuse His glory for other things; it shall be undeniable. You see, He is not a sentiment; He is not a comforting bedtime story; He is not a nice belief; He is not an old wive's tale; He is not a figment of man's imagination; He is not a means to an end. HE IS LOVE, HE IS GOOD, HE IS WISDOM, HE IS BEYOND TIME, HE IS THE UNCREATED CREATOR, HE IS SOVEREIGN, HE IS JUST, HE IS MERCIFUL, HE IS EVERYWHERE, HE IS ETERNAL, HE IS AWESOME and not in the pop culture reference, but as one who leaves us all in complete and total AWE of His being. HE IS; whether or not we acknowledge it. He allows us to choose to ignore Him or serve Him, but one day we will have made a choice. Regardless, EVERY KNEE WILL BOW BEFORE HIM; whether it will be for the first time in fear and terror or as a usual gesture of submission before our KING and FATHER, will be up to you. YOU CHOOSE 

Wisdom versus call to love; can I really kick someone out of my life?

I have recently started working with the young adult church on Sunday mornings and my goodness! Those conversations are stimulating! I have been helping out with the bible study although as a fellow young adult, not much qualifies me per say, to be their leader apart from the fact that I work at the church. Nevertheless, it has been quite an experience. We are studying the book of 1st Timothy and I decided to just share some of the things that have popped up from the study as well as my own life. 

Let me set the stage before we delve into the discussion. We've all been in this situation before. Your phone starts to ring and just by looking at the caller id, you feel tired. It's John, that guy you were close friends with but you realised the relationship was one-sided. You were only there to serve as a sounding board and he generally ignored what advice you offered him when he allowed you to get in a word.  Or maybe it's Irene; she's obviously just broken up with her bad boyfriend for the hundredth time so she now magically has time for you. You used to be close but she grew too busy for you and the girls when he showed up and you are tired of hearing what a pig he is because you know she'll never actually leave him. Perhaps it could be Mary the victim. You know her type; she just hops from one problem to another, ever the victim, never taking responsibility for her actions. She is always asking you to bail her out and you would probably have a small fortune if she ever decided to pay you back all the money she owes you. I could go on and on listing all the different types of 'negative friends' in our lives. They drain our resources; they take and take and take and take, leaving you feeling drained emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually just from one interaction. The only thing they bring to the friendship is problems. They are followed by a dark cloud of negativity and blinded by selfishness. You really don't know why they are in your life- perhaps you're related, or childhood friends, or classmates. Whatever the reason, they came into your life and are seemingly stuck to you like a barnacle to a ship. Perhaps it is a result of life experiences or perhaps they just have a terrible character. One thing is certain; they are hard to love.  So, you know these people are in your life, what do you do?

All conventional wisdom says you should ditch them- give them the old boot - cut the cord - see ya

later alligator - sayonara - don't let the door hit ya .... Take a look at  This article on buzzfeed . It makes sense really, that you should get rid of all the negativity in your life. After all, this is your life and you don't owe anyone access to your life. People do not have a right to your company and you should get to choose who you hang out with. Didn’t our parents always tell us that one bad apple spoils the whole bunch?  So we should just quit these bad friendships cold turkey; unfriend, unfollow, block and delete. That was actually my routine in many different ways. This was my exact thought process until late last year when something started nagging me. Was this the Christian thing to do? Where is the place of grace in my friendships? Was I really showing love? 

When we look at the bible, it gives us very clear instructions. I think sometimes we complicate it or we ignore clear instructions because they just seem too hard to obey. 1 Peter 1:22 talks about loving out of a sincere brotherly love, and loving deeply from a pure heart. 1Timothy 1:5 says that the aim of our charge (our calling, our mission) is to love out of a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith (I’ve paraphrased both verses). We know that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He loved deeply and we have been called to do so too. So what does that look like? I think it means loving those that we have labeled as 'negative' or 'unlovable'. We too were unlovable. The angels probably look at us and wonder why God would choose to love such a terrible and sinful people. Yet Jesus, out of love for us, came down and died for us. He chose to love us in our horrid state. Jesus set the standard when he dined and walked with the outcast of the society. As mere sinners who claim to follow Christ, who are we to judge and label others as negative? I have been one of the many that justify such behaviour by referring to the time when Jesus said that if something causes you to sin then you should cut it out. One lady at the bible study helped me see the real application of this scripture. Does your 'negative' friend cause you to sin? Are they tempting you by playing at your weaknesses? Is your interaction with them a causative factor in your sinning? If yes, then by all means delete that number and cut off all communication. But if you just want to ditch people because it is convenient for you and they affect your mood, then stop being selfish and live the life God called you to live. They do not have to be your core friends or besties, but don't kick them out because they took a different path in life or made a few bad decisions. You could be their only chance to experience true love ; pure love that stems from your sincere faith. You could be their only link to God. You could be the only light in their lives. Jesus called us the light of the world and that is what He made us; not so that we could hang out with other candles, but so that we could go into the darkness and shine His light on them and light other candles. My prayer has been that God would teach me what it really is to love deeply from a pure heart. We love from the overflow of His love in our lives so when we feel drained by other people, the solution is not to cut them off, we should go back to Him for more. 

Here's a link to a wonderful sermon that says it even better...