We live in a fluid world. We change. Our environment changes. We have free will…….we make decisions. God has a long-range plan………God makes decisions. It all goes into the mix……..the mix that becomes our life. The mix that creates our destiny………even our eternity. We control much of what goes on. Most of what goes on is beyond our control. God oversees it all.

But, here is where it gets complicated. God can control it all. Sometimes, he intervenes directly. Sometimes, he intervenes indirectly. Sometimes, he stands aside and lets the world evolve based on the decisions that we make…….based on the decisions that others make.

My brother was a bicycle rider. He rode thousands of miles a year. One day, a lady in a car, in a moment of carelessness, made a decision. She ran him down. He survived; but, he will carry the injuries……the results of her decision…….. for the rest of his life.

My son was a motorcycle rider. One day, a lady in a car, in a moment of carelessness, made a decision. She ran him down. He survived; but, he will carry the injuries…….the results of her decision……for the rest of his life.

On the other hand, I have led a life where everything just fell into place: a wonderful wife, children and grandchildren, a nice home, plenty of food, a comfortable retirement.

So…….where is God in all of this? Who gets the credit? Who gets the blame?

Life is a giant equilibrium. We intervene, others intervene, God intervenes. Out of that mix, our day unfolds. Good things happen. S..t happens. The equilibrium is so complicated that it is not possible to sort out the details. It is not possible to suss out one event and to assign credit……or blame. But, that, of course, does not stop us. Sure, we say our prayers of thanks and petition. But, in the end, we tend to pat ourselves on the back. We look at the good things and tell ourselves that they grow out of our hard work, our brilliant decisions.

And here is where we get into trouble. We look at the bad things that come into our life……every day……and we assign blame. Somebody got impatient. Somebody got angry. Somebody committed a crime. And then we turn to God. We recognize his power, in fact , his omnipotence. And we say, “God…how could you allow this!” Sometimes, we directly blame God. More often, we blame him for not intervening…….for not heading off the disaster…….a disaster caused by decisions made by others……or worse, a disaster caused by our own decisions. We have a couple of beers, get into our car, and run over a pedestrian. And we say, “Why didn’t God intervene?”

Something bad happens…….and we get angry at God.

The truth is that we don’t have the information necessary to parse out the blame. We will probably never understand how to assign the responsibility……for both the good and the bad in our lives. The equilibrium is just too complex…….and we have only a tiny sliver of information to work with. We are completely ignorant to most of the factors that led to any particular event.

What to do?

Acknowledge God and his love for you.
Trust his promise that he will make it right in the end……on his terms…..not on yours.

What to avoid?

Don’t take credit for the good things.
Don’t blame God for causing……or allowing…….. the disasters.

Accept the fact that you…..and I…..are ignorant.
Accept the fact that you…..and I…..are not in charge.
Act within those limitations.
Use your free will for the good of mankind.

Let God be God.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Galations 6:7, ESV

When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin,
his heart rages against the Lord.

Proverbs 19:3,ESV

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job 1:21-22, ESV

God promises that there is a good place waiting for those who honor him…..for those who love him.

I can understand those who reject the promise because they don’t accept the existence of God. That is, at least, rational.

What I struggle with is those who recognize God but still ignore the promise. Typically, these are Christians who have replaced God’s promise with a transaction.

The transaction goes something like this:

I will try to do good things and try to avoid doing bad things. In payment for this, God will provide me with paradise. The subtext is that if I do enough good and avoid enough bad, I earn paradise. God is obligated to me because I have paid in advance for admission to paradise. The transaction is flawed on several levels. First, it assumes a threshold. There is a cut-off in the ratio of good to bad. The problem is that we don’t know where the cut-off is. So…..we make one up. Typically, we decide that the cut-off is low enough that we are safe……no matter how much good we do…..no matter how much bad we do. Ask a Christian if they are going to paradise. The reply will often be, “Of course……I’m a good person”. And perhaps, if you tally up the good and the bad, they are. The second problem, the bigger problem, is that the transaction puts us in charge. We earn paradise. God is obligated to give us eternal bliss once we have crossed the threshold, once we have done enough good. God serves us. A transactional relationship is based on obligation. You can even have a transactional relationship with an enemy. Governments do this all of the time. You can detest God……and still do a lot of good. In a transactional relationship, it is possible to detest God and still earn paradise.

The promise goes something like this:

God loves you. God hopes that you will love him; but, he does not force you to love him. God wants a reciprocal relationship based on love. Eternity in paradise flows out of that two way, love based, relationship.

In the end, our relationship with God is a marriage. It is very much like a marriage between a man and a woman. Your marriage can be a transactional deal based on obligation or it can be a promise based relationship founded on love. It is the same with God. Marriages based on obligation often fail. Marriages based on enduring love last.

If your relationship with God is transactional…….based on obligation…….you should not expect it to be eternal.

If your relationship with God is founded on a promise…….based on love……..it will be eternal.

This is the heart of Christianity.

This is God’s promise.

So…..the question that you must face is this:

“Is your relationship with God transactional…….or is it based on promise and love?”

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Jesus explaining the promise, John 14:1-3, ESV

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Peter explaining the link between love and paradise,
1 Peter 1, 8-9, ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16, ESV

You can debate the politics of it til the cows come home. We can and will disagree on much of it. But, I think that we can all agree that the world is a mess.

Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Immigration, Crime, Riots, Corrupt leaders, and the Debt.

I could go on as I am sure you could.

And yet, in the face of all of this evil, God makes a promise. In the end, he will make it all right. Jesus will return, clean house, and collect those who love him. He will take his people to a “spacious place”…….forever.

Jesus will come.

As a matter of fact, that is arguably the most powerful prayer of petition in the Bible.

Come……Lord Jesus.

And yet, we don’t seem to use it very much. When was the last time you prayed:

Come……Lord Jesus.

I’m not talking about: Come Lord Jesus…….fix my car.

I’m talking about: Come Lord Jesus……….end this mess of a world and bring on paradise.

When you get right down to it……that is a pretty terrifying prayer. If you don’t believe me…..re-read Revelation.

What it comes down to is this:

The world is broken……but it is our broken. We are used to it. We think we understand it. The talking heads tell us that they know how to fix it. We tell ourselves that we have it under control…….or that we will soon elect a government that will fix it all. Never mind that over 200 years of history tells us that it gets worse after each election cycle.

The fix is not my political party……or yours. The fix is Jesus. And he will fix it……all of it. That is a promise, not from me, not from your favorite politician……….but from God himself.

So…….why don’t we pray:

Come Lord Jesus.

It is because we are afraid. And our fear is a direct measure of our lack of faith.

So……my challenge this week is to add this prayer to your daily devotional.

Come Lord Jesus.

If you have trouble with this prayer, then explore your faith……or lack of faith……in God’s greatest promise. Because fixing this problem in your faith will change your life.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4, ESV

The topic this week is difficult. It is intended for Christians……..people who have accepted Jesus as their saviour. I want to begin with a disclaimer. It is not my intention to damn Christians who don’t practice their faith the same way I do. This post is not about issues of style.

We moved to a new town. We tried out several churches. We settled in on one that we liked. We tried out several different services based mainly on the type of worship music that they played: rock, acoustic, traditional organ, etc. If you had asked us what we were doing…….we would have said we were “church shopping”.

Years later, our long time pastor retired. We hired a new young pastor. And a lot of people left. They went “shopping” and found a pastor that suited them better.

Church shopping is common. It is a normal part of the landscape. But, there is a danger. Every church is different. Every pastor is different. In our case, we were concentrating on issues of style. And that is fine. But, there are issues of substance. It is possible for a church to choose policies and beliefs that are different enough that they are a problem. I recently spoke with a leader of a church. If you asked her, she would describe herself as a Christian. The name of her church included the word Christian. She is a good person. She does a great deal of community service and she guides her church to do so as well; but, she said, “I have a problem with Jesus”.

And that gets to the heart of this week’s post.

I am concerned about an idea that pervades Christianity…….an attitude that, I fear, is growing. It is the idea that we get to go shopping. We get to try on the different “flavors” of Christianity until we find one that suits us…….until we find a church that agrees with us.

At the extreme…….we find a church that tells us that what we believe……is right. We find a church that tells us that God…….agrees with us.

And this really doesn’t sound too bad until you give it a good hard look.

Imagine your first day in paradise. You walk into a room. You have a legal pad and a pen so that you can take notes. God walks in. He sits down across the table from you. And the questions begin. What about abortion, divorce, tithing, etc. In essence, the meeting is a job interview. The purpose of the meeting is to determine if the guy across the table has the same values. I suspect that something along those lines is what we all expect.

But, here’s the thing.

Who is asking the questions?

Who is the one trying to decide if the guy on the other side of the table……is “suitable”?

Is God searching you…..to see if you are a good hire?

Or

Are you grilling God to see if his positions align with yours?

In essence, the question is this:

“Who is in charge here?”

It sounds ridiculous. But, isn’t that what a lot of us are doing when we go “church shopping”?

If you shop around until you find a church that agrees with your positions in every particular…….if you shop around until you find a church that doesn’t convict you of any failure……if you shop around until you find a church that tells you you are right……then you will learn nothing. You will not grow. Because, you will have become the guy in charge. You will have become the guy who plans on interviewing God to see if his positions agree with yours. You will have become the guy trying to decide if God is a suitable hire.

Good Luck.

“I don’t know if there is a God, but if there is, he’s got a lot of explaining to do.

Robert Dinero describing his plan for conducting his upcoming “job interview”.