A Mother is angry. This mother’s son is attending a
church of another denomination. Her son and a boy
from this other church met at school and became friends.
Her son enjoys the other church more than the one he
grew up in. She does not trust that other church. If she
fails her son may become a passionate witness for Christ
at that other church. If she fails her son will not necessarily
be shot.
Another mother is angry. Her son refuses to attend any
church, anywhere, at any time. If she fails her son may be
shot in a drive by shooting.
In this way their worlds are different.
God is not a good fortune teller, He does not look into
the future, He does not look into the past. God sees
and abides in all time at the same time. God lives in the
infinite present, which is eternity, as well as every part
of the linear progression known as time. Therefore God
sees all of time and everything that has and will happen
much like we look at a map of the world. God sees the
beginning and end of great roads of history, boarders
of change, intersections of conflict and more. The most
important to him are small, short side streets.
Your life is a small, short side street.
Pharisees, Sadducees, and Teachers of the Law have
taught us many lessons. One of the most important
lessons is that religion and or religious culture can live
separate from, antagonistic to or even the enemy of the
life of Christ.
Many churches continue this lesson today.
When we first come to God he follows us and is with us
always, no matter where we go or what we do he loves
us and ever desires to be closer to us and bless us. In all
things he was crucified for us.
Then things may change.
If our love for God becomes deep enough we follow him
and are with him always. No matter where he goes or
what he does we love him and are ever desiring to be a
blessing to him. In all things we are crucified with him.
The second way is more excellent than the first I think.
A pastor must grow his church. He recruits Christians
from other churches. He recruits people from the world
he is familiar with. He studies the latest business models.
He drives past the crack house every day.
They are not good recruits neither are they mentioned
in his business model. They have not been invited. They
are in very good company. The spirit of God has also not
been invited.
I once owned a dog that was known as a fear biter. Fear
biters are dogs that are insecure and therefore always
intimidated by people and other dogs. This makes them
unnecessarily dangerous and destructive because they
will attack innocent people and dogs based on their own
unwarranted fears. These dogs always feel vulnerable and
threatened even when no threats exist. They are especially
dangerous when facing the unfamiliar or something
they do not understand. A fear biter that perceives
a nonexistent threat will attack viciously to protect itself
and its territory.
Note to self: As a Christian I must always and in every way endeavor to be better than a frightened dog.
Christians, the really good ones, know better than and
therefore take great care not to be associated with, be
seen in the company of, or risk their reputation with the
sexually immoral, drunkards, thieves or anyone else of ill
repute. In this way Christians, the really good ones, know
better than Jesus, who had the unfortunate circumstance
of being called the friend of tax collectors and sinners.
Augustine is intelligent. Augustine has studied many
books for many years and has many answers. One of
Augustine’s answers is that if there is a God at best he can
only be understood through a complicated philosophical
journey and at worst is unknowable. Augustine is not
aware that he and his books have found many answers,
but that none of these answers spring from the correct
questions. Many years later, Augustine has become St
Augustine and he says, “Understanding is the reward
of faith. So seek not to understand that you may believe
but believe that you may understand.” In this statement
we see that St Augustine has learned the most important
question and its answer.
The enemy of all souls works hard to shape this world in
his image. The enemy of all souls also works very hard
to disguise his hand in this shaping. This world provides
more food than is needed but people go hungry. This
world provides more land than is needed but we have
war. This world kills adults and children with preventable
diseases. This world provides humans with opportunities
and training to perform limitless forms of wickedness
and cruelty from our early life to our death bed. In all
the history of humanity we have never been able to slow,
much less stop, this systematic degradation.
The world as OZ…
Please pay attention to the mind behind the curtain.
See our God. He is laughing loudly. He is laughing in
heaven and he is also here on earth. The nations are very
angry. They are so angry that they point their water guns
at God and squeeze the trigger. He laughs even more. The
nations go into a rage. They call our God rude. They say
that to laugh while someone is trying to disbelieve you is
extremely impolite. They threaten to disbelieve him more
and also to shoot him again. This makes God hysterical.
He almost doubles over with laughter.
The nations have imagined a vain thing. They have
imagined that to disbelieve God is to make him not exist.
So they wave their water guns violently and disbelieve
harder. This makes God slap his knee and vibrate laughing.
Our God is laughing. Our God who longs to be their
God is laughing.
Our God is laughing to keep from crying.