I blew it yet again

Once again I slipped into the role of snottiness in my interaction with someone who was equally gifted in snark. Well, try, try again.

All I know is, when an intelligent person willfully abandons reason and begins to posit finite infinities, causeless beginnings and beginningless beginnings, all I know is that I’m dealing with someone in a desperate attempt to avoid a philosophically unacceptable conclusion: Creator God exists.

All I know is, when an intelligent person willfully abandons classical historical scholarship and begins to deny known and knowable facts of history and claims that in all cases history is unknowable, when an intelligent person willfully and falsely claims to follow whatever ethical standard is currently in vogue and calls that a reasonable way to live, all I know is that I’m dealing with someone in a desperate, fearful attempt to avoid a philosophically unacceptable conclusion: Creator God exists.

All I know is, when someone goes in search of ever more complicated solutions, abandoning one after another, after another, after another, not because of new evidence but because of a need to avoid current evidence, and when that person never returns to a simple solution that coincides with current knowledge and common sense, I know that I’ve encountered an individual who has been confronted with a philosophically unacceptable conclusion: Creator God exists.

That is sad.

I was thinking some more about a person whose reaction to my laying out what the Bible said about hell was extreme in nature (Post: "Are you threatening me?) In fact, there seem to be more and more people like her. Because these people have no spiritual foundation upon which to build their value and worth, because these people have no accurate focal point upon which to anchor their security and belonging, any correction feels like a personal attack. Without God we are nothing more than our thoughts and behaviours and any comments about those things are determined to be comments about the "true" self. These people are so desperately seeking approval and validation from the world around them, a world by the way which seems to relish withholding approval, that they have no secure vision or sense of themselves. They really have no alternative since according to their belief system, they come from nothing. They’re going to nothing. Their lives are bereft of meaning and context and purpose. This is clear evidence of the devastation that is visited upon us when our relationship with Creator God is voluntarily and volitionally severed.

Lost - Forever Lost

We hear of all types of tragedies on the News - A family lost their house in a fire, A child has been lost since last week, A elderly person lost all her savings in some scam, An athlete lost his ability to play due to an injury, A surgeon lost her reputation due to a mistake.

We cluck our tongues and shake our heads upon hearing such news, but who worries about the loss of a person’s soul? Who weeps for someone that has put a lifetime of effort into gaining all the wealth and fame that the world has to offer, only to ignore the most cataclysmic loss that one can ever endure, that being the loss of an eternal relationship with one’s Creator?

I'm in over my head and I need Help

Every day, people struggle with things like:
The bank just foreclosed on my house. The x-ray showed a spot on my lung. My child was killed by an impaired driver. I can’t afford to feed my family. My spouse left me for someone else. The place where I’ve worked for the last 20 years is closing its doors for good. Insurance will not cover the loss. The person that raped me is still out there.

People’s thoughts go something like:
I can’t handle this. It’s too much. I can’t cope with this. The pain is too, too great. I think I’m losing my mind. I’m in way over my head. Why? Why? Why?

1st Corinthians 10:13 reads, “No test or temptation that comes your way is different in nature or severity than what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; He’ll never let your be pushed past your limit; He’ll always be there to show you the way out and to help you through it.”

That is an awesome verse. It’s an awesome reminder of God’s love for us. It’s a great reminder that our “Temptations” are not without purpose. It’s too bad then, that people have twisted this verse to mean something totally other than what it says. When it’s twisted, as people often do, it comes out saying that God will never give us more difficulty than we can bear, or more relational or emotional or physical pain than we can handle. They couldn’t be more wrong.

First of all, the verse is saying that God will not allow us to bE TEMPTED beyond what we can handle and that He will always give us a way out. We may not choose to escape from temptation but He will and does provide that option for us. When we have an opportunity to steal, God will give us a reason and a chance to not steal. When we’re tempted to gossip, God will make a way for us to stop. When we are tempted to judge someone as having less value and deserving less respect than someone created in the image of God deserves, God will remind us so we can change our point of view. When ever we are tempted to think or to act in a way that goes against the character of God, He will give us a chance to either choose to gain victory or defeat. That’s what the verse is saying.

The second and more important point is this. God can and does give us more than we can handle. He does it frequently and for a good purpose. The purpose is always to bring us out of ourselves and to Him. “We don’t need God,” is the rallying cry of the world. “I’m gonna do it my way,” is the deepest desire that we have. Well, God uses the consequences of doing it our way to show us that we do indeed need God. As the saying goes, “To what will you look to for help if not to something that is stronger than yourself.” Being in over our heads is how most of us came to be Saved / Born Again in the first place.

Once again, Paul gives us a hint at the true meaning in 2nd Corinthians 1:8-11 - “I don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally.”


This is what’s going on when we hear about jail-house conversions. Most people don’t believe in them but they are just an extreme example of what God longs to do with all of our difficulties. He uses tragedy to jerk our chain. He uses pain to show us that we’re on the wrong track. When an impaired driver kills someone, When a woman leaves her spouse because he’s violent with her, When someone loses a business because of gambling, When a man’s infidelity is exposed, all these and more are opportunities to changes one’s course in life. When our weakness is shown to us in the blinding light of reality, it’s time to pay attention. It’s time to turn around. It’s time to repent and give control of our lives to Jesus.

Rather than alter the meaning of 1st Cor. 10:13, those of us who have been granted salvation should say with Paul, “I rejoice in my difficulties, in my sickness, in my loss, in my tragedy, in the times when I’m in over my head, because “When I am weak, then I am strong.” When I’m at my wits end, when I’ve tried all my options, when all hope is lost, when I haven’t a clue what else to do, then, THEN I remember my God, my Creator and Saviour and Lord who will not spare anything, not even Himself to change me and shape me to conform me into the likeness of Jesus.

God is great and God is good. Amen.