The Most Disturbing Verse in Scripture

The Most Disturbing Verse in Scripture

I'm sure most of you have been there at least once. You're up early reading your Bible and hoping God has something to reveal to you about himself, and you run across that verse. You know the one: Man, how did that get there? Surely God doesn't mean that? Yep, I've had those moments and I've wrestled and thought and prayed and fought in an attempt to better understand a God who does not do the understandable.

But this week's not-so-fun verse reared its head in Sunday School. This preacher's wife was doing what she's supposed to do, filling the seat she's supposed to fill, adding witty and poignant remarks to the biblical conversation (ha) and Romans chapter 9 verse 3 shows up:

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,my kinsmen according to the flesh.

Um, excuse me? You have GOT to be kidding. Now I am well aware of John 15's verse, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." And I even kind of get that. That sacrifice might even be relatively easy considering that there is Heaven to gain the moment this life is complete. I could come up with a list of people, of friends, for whom this sacrifice would be no question - My Beloved, my babies, family - the list can go on. But do not miss the fact that Paul is not repeating John 15:13. Oh no, he is going further. Frankly, he is going way further than I am comfortable even desiring to understand.

Suddenly I'm sitting in Sunday School losing my composure. Tears are falling and I'm trying desperately to hold myself together. I'm overwhelmed alright, but I'm overwhelmed withanger. I mean, WHO DOES THIS? What kind of bizarre-o freak is writing these words? What born again child of the Most High loves anyone with this kind of love? Sure, I know some good people, but this is not even in the ballpark of good. Yeah, Jesus can do this. In fact he did do this. He gave himself for vile, wicked people who did not even want him. But, He is GOD. I know NO ONE who loves like this. Does this disturbing verse mean that He desires I become so much like him I am willing to agonize for all of Tallapoosa (or America or the World) to the point I'm willing to sacrifice my very salvation? Paul is wishing himself an anathema - willing to lose his salvation and spend eternity subjected to God's wrath - so the entirety of the Jewish nation would come to know Christ. And oh yeah, check out verses one and two, he really means this.

Here I am 36 hours later and my heart is still restless and aching. If this is the kind of love that is required of those who follow Jesus then I am just not sure I am up to the challenge. You see, I like my life the way it is. I don't even mind not liking the people who don't like me. But, God has called me to a love that hurts. I don't want to hurt. I want to live a happy, pain-free existence. But God has called me to death. Period. And killing self on a daily and even moment by moment basis is not what I thought I signed up for. I would much rather quote Sunday School clichés like, "God First. Others Second. Self Last." live my best life now and be done with the whole thing. But that won't help me really BE like Christ. I said a few weeks ago that "Blessed are the meek" doesn't come without scars, but really Blessedness itself is what brings the wounds and the pain and the tears.

All in all I trust the One True God to reveal himself to me and show me where to find peace amid this aching. I serve a God who is big enough to take my fear of pain and grow that puny seed into more faith. I am trusting Him to continue to show me what it means to follow him - especially the parts I don't like. Because the truth is, the parts that are appealing are more like me and less like Him and probably need to be changed anyway. Oh I am disturbed - desperately - and I don't know how this tale ends. But if God is worth serving then He is worth serving on His terms alone. And am I willing to risk this life I have always wanted for the life He desires to give?

If God is God . . .

This morning I read a new blog written by a dear friend from college. I was excited to see that she is now blogging because she is rather a gypsy and difficult to track. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve seen her since leaving Athens nearly twelve years ago. Interestingly, she is also using blogging to help develop discipline in her life. As you well know I began this blog with the same goal and I am thrilled to see how she will use this challenge. I am greatly encouraged that I am not the only female nearing her mid-thirties who struggles with discipline!

As she progressed through her post I was disheartened to see revealed her belief that the lives of humanity would be more full and fulfilling if we opened ourselves to “The Voice.” My friend goes on to describe this voice as an inner guide that will lead to happiness and prosperity if only we would take the time to listen. Though I want to chalk this up to Jiminy Cricket singing, “Always let your conscience be your guide,” she takes the definition of this voice one step further and permits this voice any number of names including, but not limited to: inner wisdom or connection to the life force, intuition, the divine, the great spirit, the universal intelligence, God.

Now guys, I love this sweet friend and I am certainly not knocking her attempt at a better life. I think there are entirely too many of us, myself included, who live life too safely and miss out on the adventure and abundance that is freely offered to us. I also know many people who claim this Deepak Chopra-style of religion and are completely satisfied to be guided by their inner goodness to a life in which they claim fulfillment. This voice is she is seeking to find can be one or more of the many things she named or something completely different and lacking a name, but it cannot be any of those things and also be God.

You see, by definition if there is a GOD then there is no other god. If there is an absolutely powerful creator-being in the universe he cannot and would not have created something as powerful as himself. A belief in a definite God does not allow for a belief in lesser beings or pseudo-gods that can also be omnipotent, omniscient guides. Sure, you are free (especially here in the USA) to believe what you want to and define God by whatever definition you so choose. But if you are honest and truthful at some point you must come to the question – If there is a God, a true GOD, how does he define himself?

And dear friends, this is nearly the entire reason, concise and definite, I believe in One True God and I believe that God is indeed the God of the Bible. The God of scripture has defined himself clearly and declared himself knowable to a dark and wicked humanity (in whom he has stated there is nothing good – certainly not anything worth seeking to follow). There is no other god in the universe claiming absolute truth and, if God is God, shouldn’t he have a corner on that market? I will be the first to admit that our Americanized, antiseptic Christianity has done the One True God few favors in helping the world understand who he is. The last hundred years have found churches to be social halls filled with brain-dead drones rather than gatherings of believers excited and changed by the understanding of what God has revealed about himself. But, because he is God, he has chosen to awaken an entire generation to the understanding that we don’t have to guess and decide for ourselves who God is; he has clearly revealed himself in scripture. We just need to take the time to investigate what he has revealed and not wallow in what we think we know or someone in a pulpit has told us we should believe.

Tonight I won’t go in to the veracity of the scriptures and how they have proven themselves truthful and trustworthy throughout history. I just wanted to take a moment to ask you to think about how you are defining God and what you are calling a god. Are you wasting your life worshiping an idol of your own imagination you call God; who is comfortable and loving, but lacking in every other attribute the Bible claims of the One True God? If you are searching for a god who can indeed make your life fulfilled and fulfilling look closely at what you give credence and what the gods you choose to follow are claiming. If your findings point toward anything other than a God who has defined himself in absolute truth, absolute power and absolute authority I would sincerely question any claim to god-ness made.

Work While you Work . . . .

I set out this week to write about the new school year and how all our school books came in and we’re ready to begin. But, while working around the house this morning another thought struck me . . . as I reflect on the past year I am amazed by how much I’ve learned. Oh yes, my babies learned and learned and learned some more and it is awesome to watch those little sponges soak in everything this marvelous creation has to reveal to them, but truly I am amazed by what I learn as their teacher. 

Last Friday I scrubbed the house down well and we’ve managed to keep the chaos to a low roar so I didn’t think I needed to do the cleaning job I did last week. I thought, “Well, I’ll just wipe down a few things and be done.” And you know what I discovered? This little poem we learned in school last year (and that I quote to my babies probably too often) is correct about life in so many ways. 

                                Work while you work.

                                Play while you play;

                                This is the way to be happy each day.

                                All that you do, do with your might.

                                Things done by halves

                                Are never done right.

The best part is that if you just do the work, often the job is easier and takes less time. In my morning wipe down I realized that the “easy” cleaning wipes were causing me to work twice as hard as if I’d just cleaned the bathrooms the way I normally do.

The Preacher working very hard!

I suppose that, yes, I should know this life lesson. I suppose that I should have learned at least this easy one by now. But, no. I am finding that it’s only been in the last few years that I am really learning and growing and acting like the adult I’m supposed to be. Too much of my life I’ve spent playing . . . I’ve played because playing is more fun, because it’s what I wanted to do, and because I wanted to avoid work. But the truth is - work is the life, the real life in which we all want to live and find joy. We forget that it’s only when we’ve exhausted ourselves in work that true play and relaxation and refreshment can take place. Without the work all is hedonism and there is no joy in hedonism.

I am reminded that God, in his graciousness, has set work before us; to both empty and fill. There are few areas in life that bring more genuine satisfaction than a job well done. The Bible reminds us in 2 Thessalonians that if a man doesn’t work, then he shouldn’t eat, but also shows us again and again the precept that hard work is an acceptable gift to the Lord. I am thankful that my Heavenly Father has seen fit to teach me and given me a spirit of willingness to learn so I’ll not waste more years on seeking the futility that is pleasure for pleasure’s purpose. And next time I am tempted to take the easy route, I’ll remember the poem I taught my children, the one that is teaching my own spirit the importance of working well.

~Megan

Why I ate Chick-fil-A Today

The recent political and moral outcry over the Biblically sound words of Chick-fil-A president, Dan Cathey, has weighed heavily on my heart. As a Christian, I find that I am both encouraged and appalled by the responses from both ends of the spectrum. I feel that most professing Christ have missed an amazing opportunity to share the true gospel with a world absorbed completely in its own sin.

  Christians taking a stand on biblical marriage must do so on the strong foundation of scripture that demands purity and holiness in every aspect of sexual life – not just the area pertaining to same-sex acts. If you choose to stand for Biblical marriage then you are choosing to make a statement about the appointed place of divinely created sexual activity and the recognized responsibility that sexuality bears. The resounding call for recognition of biblical marriage is first and foremost a call to Christians, to those who actually claim to be followers of Christ, to flee sexual impurity and to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy  of the gospel of Christ. We cannot afford to adopt the “Que sera’ sera’” attitude that seems to be pervading the Facebook posts and blogs. We cannot say, “You’re free to sleep with whomever you want to as long as you don’t tell me I can’t say what I want.” That is utter foolishness and is certainly not what taking a Biblical stand on marriage means.

 I am saddened that many of you are angered more because your freedom of speech has been questioned rather than realizing that the true, effectual stand to be holy and righteous in ALL our actions has been woefully neglected by the church as a whole these last hundred years or more. Beloved ones, this is tragedy in its truest form. I see that many of you are willing to trade this opportunity to repent and scrub your lives clean of sexual immorality because you would rather “speak your mind” and have no one find fault with your personal actions. Why in the world are we acting as though an angry response to a Biblical stand is surprising? We should expect the world to have something unfriendly to say about righteousness. As Christians, persecution is our lot in life. Jesus himself reminded us that the world hated him and it will love us no more. (John 15:18&19 explains this explicitly.) I find that not only are we surprised by any amount of negativity (I’ll not call angry posts on Facebook persecution), but our response is little better. We want to whine and cry that our freedom to speak our minds is being squashed. Beware of believing your freedom to speak is more important than your freedom to be a slave to Christ and of not using this opportunity to become more like Him.

 

My dear family, let us not forget that it wasn’t so long ago that we were the ones practicing sexual misconduct and any number of depraved and vile acts. We were separated from God by our sin, but thanks be to God for the glorious life, death and resurrection of his son, Jesus, by which we are free from all practices that separate us from Him. Are you born homosexual? I believe it’s probable seeing that we are all born in sin and not one of us is righteous. I was probably born angry with a terrible temper. Oh yes, we all have our struggles, and most of us, if honest, will confess to having some kind of struggle with sexuality. Guess what? As children of the King we are all called to the same righteous and holy standard of purity, regardless of our sin of choice. This is glory of salvation through Jesus that, in-spite of our pasts and who we were born to be, in Him we are NEW CREATIONS and we are made Remarkably Whole.

~Megan