My Bible reading this morning includes 1 Corinthians 13. This has to be one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible. You’ve heard it many times. In it, Paul describes love in great detail and with great specificity. I’m not sure, but this passage was probably read when Cindy and I were being married.

Over the years, when I have read this passage, I have have always thought about Cindy and about our relationship. I have measured my performance as a husband and father against it. And I have often fallen short. No surprise there. But, this morning, I had an epiphany.

The overriding message of the Bible is that we are required to love. This passage tells us in detail how to go about it. So far, so good.

But, the greatest command in the Bible is not to love our spouse, though we must do that as well. The greatest command in the Bible is to love God.

Until this morning, I have never used 1 Corinthians 13 to measure my performance in loving God. And that is the challenge this week. I want us both to love God with a love that is consistent with Paul’s description.

Love is:

Patient
Kind
Not arrogant
Not rude
Doesn’t insist on having its own way
Not irritable
Not resentful
Doesn’t enjoy wrong
Seeks truth
Bears all misfortunes
Believes all things
Hopes
Endures
Never ends

I fear that I often fail to love God in the way Paul describes. No doubt you fail as well. So here is 1 Corinthians 13 as it applies to loving God:

I will be patient when I wait, perhaps for a lifetime, for God to answer a prayer.

I will be gentle and unassuming with God.

I will remember that I am the servant, not the sovereign.

I will treat God with respect…..and not misuse his name.

I will put God’s plan for me ahead of my plans.

I won’t gripe or be angry when God overrides my plan.

I will resist wrongdoing; mine, as well as others.

I will seek the truth, even when it is inconvenient

When things go wrong, I will trust God to make them right……in the end.

I will accept the word of God as truth, even when I don’t understand it.

I will live my life in the hope of seeing God, face to face, in paradise, no matter what goes wrong before l get there.

I will accept the reality of eternity as my true home.

It turns out that there is a lot more to loving God than I realized.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Paul, 1 Corinthians 13: 4-12, ESV

God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Satan.

You get the idea.

But, have you ever met an eternal being…….face to face? Have you ever had a conversation with an eternal being?

You’d be surprised.

The fact is that everyone you meet is an eternal being. Our bodies will age and ultimately fail. But, our spirit is eternal. Every one of us is both a physical being and a spiritual being. Every one of us has a spiritual nature that is eternal. We put a lot of effort into taking care of our bodies…….and our body will still die. But, how much of our effort and our resources do we spend on our spirit?

Eternity is huge, in fact, endless. But our temporal, physical life is very brief……..figuratively, the blink of an eye. What, then, should be the focus of our efforts? Philosophers talk about ” the urgency of the immediate”. This is a very real thing. It is normal. The joys and problems that are right in front of us draw a great deal of our attention and effort. For most of us, the immediate gets the vast majority of our effort. For some of us, it gets the entirety. This is human nature.

But, is that distribution of effort wise? Is it right?

If our physical life is extremely short and our spiritual life is eternal……endless, shouldn’t most of our effort go into supporting our spirit? Perhaps, the amount of time and effort that we actually spend planning our day, our week, our career, our retirement is out of proportion to the amount of time and effort we should spend planning our spirit for its eternity. So far……so good.

But, there is another side to this coin.

What about the time and effort that we spend on the eternal beings who surround us? Is it possible that our neglect of the thousands of eternal spirits around us is just as big of a problem as our neglect of our own spirit?

Every one of these spirits is important to God. Every one of these spirits is loved and valued by God equally. God loves and values the drug dealers and the human traffickers just as much as he loves and values me.

Let that sink in.

It sheds an entirely new light on the issue of evangelism.

I probably won’t bake up a batch of brownies and take it and a Bible to my local gang-banger. But, maybe I can spend a little more effort in praying for them…….in loving them.

Consider this:

A minute praying for and loving a gang-banger could do as much to promote God’s kingdom as a minute praying for your pastor.

Or

You could pray for and love someone in the periphery of your world who is a real, first class, gold plated jerk.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus explaining love in the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5:44-48, ESV

First, let me get one thing clear.

I am not a fan…….of New York City.

Sure, it has a lot of great theaters and museums. But, it is noisy, dirty, crime-ridden, and way too full of people, many of whom are just not nice. I’d rather spend a day in my backyard.

Now, imagine that you are sitting down to breakfast with your 12 year old son. Jesus appears to you. He tells you to take your son to Times Square……….and kill him.

That would never happen, you say. And yet, that is exactly what happened to Isaac. Isaac loved his son. He had plans for his son. He would do anything to protect his son. And then, God showed up with God’s plan for Isaac’s son.

Kill him.

Our plan……..God’s plan.

Things are just fine when the two plans agree. But, what about when they don’t agree? It all comes down to one simple question:”Who is in charge here?”

It all comes down to sovereignty, a word we don’t hear much in our modern society. Even worse, we don’t recognize its validity. We live in a secular humanist culture where we are at the top of the pyramid. We are sovereign. If someone tells us something. The very first thing that we ask ourselves is, “Do I agree with this…….. do I like this?”

What is the most hated thing that a child hears from his parent?

“Because I said so!”

What is a very common reply from the child?

“You are not the boss of me!”

Sovereignty…….who is in charge here.

Christianity says God is sovereign. Secular humanism says I am sovereign. We talk a good line about following God. But, what if God walked up to you and said, “Sell everything, go to Africa, and wait for further instructions.” What would you do? Your answer will define your understanding of sovereignty. Your answer will define your commitment to the sovereignty of God. Quite frankly, I find this terrifying. The “African scenario” drove me away from Christianity for decades. It drove me away from Jesus because I was not willing to relinquish my sovereignty to God. I was not willing to put God’s plan ahead of mine.

I still struggle with sovereignty. God is probably not going to ask you to kill your child. But, what if an illegal showed up at your door and asked for a place to stay for a night or two?

God is sovereign……..full stop…….end of conversation.

If…….when……he does something that we don’t like…..God is sovereign. If…….when……he asks us to do something that we don’t want to do……God is still sovereign. We need to get comfortable with this idea now.

We will spend eternity experiencing it.

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Daniel, 4:35, 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.”

Job, 1:21, ESV

Cindy and I are in our 70’s. It’s been a great ride. But, realistically, it is nearing the end. It seems like every joint aches. We both have multiple medical issues, any one of which could ultimately be our end. Welcome to senior living……just another phase of life in a temporal world: birth, a vital healthy youth, a fulfilling middle age when we build our “empire”, and then the physical decline to death. I’m not whining. This is simply the truth that we live in.

You too, are operating somewhere on the same continuum. When you are young, it seems that you have an endless amount of time. In your middle age you are distracted with your career and family. Then, when you are very old, you realize that there is not much time to work with. But, the cold hard truth is that the teenager, the middle-ager and the senior are all in the same, time limited, boat.

Depending on your belief system, the physical universe is either millions of years or thousands of years old. The spiritual universe is either eternal, or non-existent. Take your pick. In comparison to the 70 or 80 years of a human life, the difference is inconsequential. My physical life……your physical life……is the blink of an eye. If you don’t believe me, write this down in your journal and re-read it on your 70th birthday.

And there it is.

Either this incredibly brief temporal world is all there is…….or there is an eternal spiritual world…….a world that is ultimately far more important. Either we are a brief, inconsequential, puff of wind in a giant cosmic accident…….or we are important. Either we are doomed or we are a meaningful part of something huge…….something spiritual. And that is about as far as science and logic can take us.

If you restrict your search to science and logic……if you ignore or deny the spiritual…..you will miss the big picture. And that is exactly what our secular humanist society insists that you do. They have accepted their doom…….and they want you to join them. Misery loves company. They are not malicious. They are confident that they are right. You may be one of them.

But……what if there is something better than doom?

What then?

Look into your heart. Are you important…..or are you doomed? My heart screams the answer. I am important. I am loved. I am created. And so……..I reject doom. I reject secular humanism. And so……..I must seek my creator, my sovereign, my Lord. Because he is the only alternative to my doom.

Ignoring the spiritual is intellectually dishonest. Making up some eternity on your own is intellectually dishonest.

If you too reject doom. If you want to seek your creator, begin by talking…….and listening. Begin with a humble prayer. Then study. The best place to start is the Bible. Begin with John and Acts.

What comes next is hard……so hard that many of us don’t even start the journey. You are going to have to submit to the sovereignty of your creator.

This bears repeating.

You are going to have to submit to the sovereignty of your creator.

A famous rabbi once summed it up, “Father…..your will be done”.

Sounds like a real buzz-kill. But, here’s the thing about submission. Your creator loves you and he is better at running your life than you are.

Or, you could choose the path of secular humanism. Take charge. Assume the job of sovereign of your universe. It won’t work. Know this. You cannot create eternity. You cannot even fix this temporal world. You cannot sidestep your doom…..which is only a few breaths away. You cannot save yourself much less the planet. The evidence is crystal clear.

Consider the alternatives:

Secular Humanism…………and guaranteed doom.

Submission to your creator………..and guaranteed life.

he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Jesus submitting to his father, Mark 14:35-36, ESV

There are things that are universal to the human condition. They essentially define what it is to be human. These traits are important……..so important that it is critical that we recognize them………so important that it is essential that we try to understand them. Some of these traits are physical. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. If we ignore this essential reality……if we fail to take it into account every moment of our life……..we die. These physical traits are fairly easy to see, measure, and understand…….like oxygen and carbon dioxide. So far, so good. But, there is a duality. Some of these traits are spiritual. These essential spiritual traits are harder to discern. And yet, they are every bit as real as the physical traits. Ignore them…….reject them……and you will wind up just as dead…….perhaps, even more so.

If you want to live a full, satisfying, joyful life, it is mandatory that you understand these spiritual traits and successfully navigate your way through them.

So…….what are these essential spiritual traits?

Love
Anger
Desire
Despair
Righteousness
Sin
Fulfillment
Pain
Sovereignty
Submission

I’m sure that there are more. Search your heart. You will find that every one of these spiritual traits lives in you. In fact, they influence you every day. You could go so far as to say that one or more of them drives every choice that you make.

Because these spiritual traits are absolutely universal, I believe that they are evidence of our connection to a spiritual reality. There have been hundreds of attempts by man to flesh out the specifics of this spiritual reality. I am a Christian. I believe that the correct explanation lies in the Bible and the Trinity.

So……how do we navigate our path through life…….spiritually?

Adam and Eve were created by God. They were physically complete, but spiritually, they were an empty slate. They were completely naive, spiritually. They were completely innocent. Then, they were given a basic set of instructions….rules.

Love and walk with God.
Remain naive.
Do this and live forever.

Adam and Eve began life naive, innocent. Then God introduced a very basic set of rules……the beginning of the law. Hiding in the law was freedom. By God’s design, we were given the freedom to choose. We could obey the rules…….of defy them. We could choose which spiritual trait or traits we would pursue. We were given the choice to accept God’s absolute sovereignty……..or to try to seize sovereignty for ourselves. And it’s been downhill ever since. God had to see this coming. How could God be so obtuse?

Well, it turns out that God is working out a plan…..his plan. God’s plan is rooted in the overriding spiritual trait of God……love. He loves us. And not just that. He desires our love in return. But, love requires the freedom to choose. Love cannot be compelled. Love that is compelled is not love……it is obligation. So, right from the start, God gave us a choice:

Love God, submit to his absolute sovereignty, and live.

Or

Seize sovereignty for ourselves and die.

Imagine a plant. It can accept its roots and thrive in its appointed place…….or it can cut itself free, take off on its own, and wither.

You may not like this. You may disagree.

But, your rejection of God’s sovereignty is irrelevant.

Because it is a spiritual truth…….just like oxygen is a physical truth. Search your heart…….and you will find this spiritual truth.

Choose it…….and live.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus, John 15:4-5, ESV

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19, ESV

We decide.

Every day, over and over again, we choose.

There are basically 2 ways to live your life……..two paths.

In almost every choice that we make, the path that we choose colors our decision.

Kindness and anger.

We go through each day…….and things happen to us, around us, and to the people around us. Some of these things are good, others are terrible. Such is life. Much of what happens to us is completely beyond our control. But, how we respond to these events is completely in our control.

We are not responsible for the things that happen to us. We are completely responsible for how we react to the things that happen to us.

As I taught my sons: when trouble rears its head and you are seeking a solution, focus on the parts of the problem that you can control. Often this is a tiny, but powerful part of the problem. Control your response……because you cannot control the event.

Kindness and anger. Each of these has things that go with it.

Kindness:
Generosity
Love
Concern
Forgiveness
Forbearance

Anger:
Vengeance
Blame
Hate
Bias

And many more

There is no question that we are shaped by our life experiences. Cindy and I have had more than our share of tragedies. But, overall, I would say that we have been blessed. When things are going well, it is easy to be kind. It costs us very little. At the other extreme, I know a man who has had a much harder life. It seems as though bad things just keep happening to him. It is very easy to choose anger, when the system is out to get you.

Still, the choice is yours.

Job was blessed in his early years and he was a righteous man. Easy. Then, the blessings were ripped away. Tragedy stalked him. This stage of his life was much harder. His wife had an answer for his predicament: “curse God and die!” Job’s response was much harder to do………Job remained righteous. This is the lesson of the book of Job. The book of Job has nothing to do with why tragedy strikes. The book of Job is all about how we respond.

“Gimpel, the Fool” by Singer is the story of a man who was abused by life and everybody around him. And yet he chose kindness. I read this short story in college. It changed the trajectory of my life. Only the Bible has influenced me more. You really need to track it down and read it.

We live in a culture that teaches us to respond to bad things with anger. That’s what our heros do. That’s what the talking heads on our devices tell us to do. That’s what Clint Eastwood would do.

But that’s not what our creator tells us to do.

What our creator asks of us…….what our creator expects from us……..is kindness…..even in the face of tragedy………even in the face of abuse.

“I am Gimpel the fool. I don’t think myself a fool. On the contrary. But that’s what folks call me.”

Gimpel, in “Gimpel the Fool”

“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 responding to tragedy, Job 1:21-22, ESV

Most people don’t know it……but, it turns out that Marilyn Monroe was an extremely intelligent woman. A few days before she died, she spoke with Billy Graham. This conversation arose out of a “word” given to Billy Graham, telling him to approach her with the offer of salvation. At the end of the conversation, she told him, “I don’t need your Jesus”. I suspect that this statement put Billy Graham in his place and effectively ended the conversation.

It’s an interesting comment on several levels.

In the first place, she recognizes the existence of God…..specifically, the God described in the Bible…….Billy Graham’s God. She didn’t deny God’s existence. She didn’t deny his power or his authority…….his sovereignty. What she did was to deny her need. Considering what happened over the next few days, she clearly was desperately in need. On the face of it, she was catastrophically naive about her need.

Given her imminent death, she was wrong. She actually needed God more acutely than she had ever needed him before. I think that a more accurate…….more truthful comment would have been, “I don’t want your Jesus.” That is to say, “I’ve got this under control, I don’t want any outside interference.”

And that is precisely where most secular humanists are today. The secular humanist puts himself in charge……of everything. He is smart and powerful……without question, the smartest, most powerful entity in the universe. He understands just about everything. He manipulates his surroundings to his advantage. In order to pull this off, he puts himself at the apex of the power and control pyramid. The pure SH denies the existence of God……..the existence of any higher power……..the existence of any Supreme Being to whom he must submit. This is wrong……however, it is, at least, intellectually honest.

But, there is a second tier of SH. This is where most Secular Humanists operate. This is where a great many Christians operate. These are the people who admit the existence of God. They just refuse to follow his instructions. They keep him boxed up in a corner of their life. They drag him out every now and then, give him a “to-do” list that promotes their agenda and then stuff him back into the box where he will not interfere with their efforts to control the universe. They believe that this will be enough to buy them a spot in paradise…….and they might be right. But, this plan is fundamentally dishonest. It reduces God, the creator of the universe, to a cosmic “gopher-guy”………a useful tool…….the guy who cleans up the mess after the party is over. They ascribe to God only the characteristics that fit in with their world view……with their plan. They ignore any facet of God that interferes with their master plan. In effect, this “mocks” God and his plan.

This might be the Christian who supports missions around the world, but who wants every last illegal alien rounded up and sent home. Why? Because the “illegals” are using up the resources that would otherwise go to supporting our American lifestyle……a lifestyle that is lavish by comparison to the rest of the world. It is a lifestyle where we spend more than we earn and put the deficit on our credit card. It is a lifestyle that is not sustainable. It is a lifestyle that will implode……soon.

The solution is to solve the problem of sovereignty. The solution is to run the world according to God’s plan instead of our own. That means every letter of God’s plan. That means honoring God’s plan…….instead of our plan. This means putting God’s plan ahead of our plan.And what is God’s plan?

Love God……love everybody else.

And here is the hard part. That will mean doing things that often do not serve our plan. This will mean sacrificing our plan into order to serve God’s plan. This will mean compromising our plan and, likely, our lifestyle.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:7-8, ESV

You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:34, ESV

As a part of my morning meditation, I do something that I never have done well. I sit quietly. I try to empty my mind. I pray: “Here I am Lord……..use me.” Sometimes, an idea comes to me……pretty much out of nowhere. Sometimes, this idea becomes the seed for one of these blog posts. That is the case today.

Use me.

Seems pretty straightforward. I am asking my king for my marching orders for today. This can be a little scary. Just like you, I have an agenda, a plan for the upcoming day. And not just that…….I have a plan for the week, for the month, for the rest of my life. My plan is a pretty good one. For the most part, it serves God’s community. For the most part, it serves my family. But a whole lot of my plan serves me. God has a plan too. He has a plan for me. And that is where the trouble comes in. Because, God’s plan is often different from my plan. No. God’s plan is usually different from mine.

So, how do I deal with the conflict between God’s plan for my day and my plan for my day?

There is a range of ways to get around this:

Eliminate God. If you deny God’s existence, you can eliminate as invalid anything that God asks of you that is outside of your plan.

Marginalize God. You pay lip service to God. If anyone asks, you say that you believe in God. You go to church on Sunday, you pray…..maybe daily, you might even tithe. But when you get up on Monday morning, you start working out your plan. You put God in a box for the next six days. You file God away where his plan cannot interfere with your plan. Maybe you read the Bible. But, you pick through the instructions……you use the parts that support your plan and discard anything that conflicts with your plan. Jimmy Carter was a good Christian man; but, his book “Christianity” is an instruction manual on this technique.

Enlist God. This is, perhaps, the tool that is most used by serious Christians. This is the tool that I often find myself reverting to. I put together a “to-do” list for God. Sure, the list includes a number of “kingdom goals.” But, there is always a line item or two, perhaps many items, straight out of my plan for the day.

I can divide the list of line items on my “to-do” list for God into two categories.

God……use me. Use me to work out your plan.
Example: “come Holy Spirit.”

God…..I need to use you. I’ll use you to work out my plan.
Example: “please let the Bengals win”

As an exercise, write down your “to-do” list from your last prayer. Now divide it between those two categories.

This will give you an idea of just how close your plan is to God’s plan. I find that this exercise is pretty convicting. But, don’t feel bad. Jesus, fully man and fully God, struggled with this same conflict.

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Jesus struggling with two plans….his plan and his father’s plan.

Luke 22:42, ESV

We are clearly told to pray for God’s help in working out our plan. But, we must be mindful of whose plan we are working on when we pray. That way, when we pray, our prayer becomes a tool for bringing our plan into alignment with God’s plan…….which, after all, is the real plan.

“Father……….not my will, but yours, be done”

Amen

“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

Abraham Lincoln considering which side God was on during the Civil War…….considering which plan to follow, his plan or God’s plan.

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