Hammer on Anvil '

Judges chapter 4 tells the story of a great battle. The Lord spoke through the prophetess Deborah, who was a judge over Israel in her time. She passed the Lord's message to an army captain named Barak:  he was to take troops to Mount Tabor to defeat the leader of King Jabin's army (Sisera). Barak's response seems almost comical in context to the time. He would not go unless Deborah, a woman, went with him. God turned Barak's lack of faith into a lesson for all time: Sisera was not delivered into Barak's hand, as the Lord had originally said. A woman, Jael, was credited with his death. She was not important under any other circumstances. She was the wife of Heber the Kenite, and according to the customs of the time, she had no value apart from her husband. But the Lord granted her the wisdom to know Sisera needed to be stopped, and the means to do the job.

God uses the most unlikely people in history to change its course. Rahab, a prostitute, was instrumental in getting the Israelites into the promised land. Hosea and Gomer, the most unlikely union between a prophet of God and a prostitute. God used their relationship to send a message to Israel of their unfaithfulness to Him and His unstoppable love that kept coming after them. Paul, a former "bounty hunter" of Christians, became one of the most charismatic and faithful leaders of the early Christian church. Esther, an orphaned Hebrew girl, became queen and saved the entire nation of Israel.

The Bible is full of the stories of people just like these who had no business being in the circumstances they found themselves in, other than as a part of the plan of the Creator. Like us, these ordinary people had no idea the larger role their lives would play in the course of history. Many of them probably experienced moments of insecurity about their value. Surely they wondered if their lives meant anything at all.

As we struggle to find our place in this world and in God's kingdom, we need to remember who has the answers. The Lord is our Creator, and only He has the authority to define us. We can do nothing apart from Him, including decide who we are. Spend some time with the Creator of your soul and find out who He has made you to be. When we live in the center of God's will, we shine, but if we don't take the time to discover what His will is, contentment will elude us.

The last two weeks, we’ve been talking about the coming of Christ. The Advent season is near, and the weeks leading up to Christmas can go by so fast for us living on Earth. More than anything, I wanted to slow down this time and savor it for what it is in the midst of what it's not. Week one discussed the many miracles God displayed to bring about the birth of Jesus. On week two, we talked about the relationship God wants to have with us through Christ. This week, we’re going to talk about why God would go to such lengths for us.

The simple answer, in one word, is love. God loves us so much He doesn’t want to live without us. No matter what we’ve done, no matter how far we have walked away from our relationship with our Heavenly Father, he wants to see us restored to Him.

That simple concept is not the whole story, though. The disadvantage to this is that we have to dig into God’s Word to find the complete truth. The beautiful advantage is that when we explore it, we can’t deny how uncomprehendingly special God has made us.

In Jeremiah 1:5, God tells the prophet, “Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” David understood the central role that God played in his life: “You made my whole being; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way. What you have done is wonderful. I know this very well.” Psalm 139: 13-14

We are chosen by the Creator of the Universe to be His children. He lavishes His love on us, and will guide our every step. He gives us the Holy Spirit to live within us, to give us power to live a free, abundant life. Psalm 139:8-10“If I go up to the Heavens, you are there. If I lie down in the grave, you are there. If I rise with the sun in the east, and settle with the sun in the west beyond the sea, even there you would guide me. With your right hand, you would hold me.” He will never leave us, and He has made us holy through Christ who died for us.

The birth of Christ was the single most important event in the history of mankind. Everything that happened before and all that came after was divinely ordered. That includes you: whether you were born into riches or poverty, planned by your parents or conceived unknowingly, God planned you. Whether your childhood was happy or troubled, no matter if you chose the wrong road, God has a plan for the rest of your life as well. Accept Christ’s gift of life this Christmas, and begin experiencing the peace that surpasses understanding.

I read a story two days ago related to the "Occupy Wall Street" protests that quite disturbed me. An Iraq war veteran in his twenties suffered a fractured skull during a riot that broke out among the protesters in Oakland, CA. As saddened as I was to hear of this man's injury, I was even more discouraged to read comments posted by other readers-many of whom accused Oakland's police force of malicious brutality. Such blame-shifting shames and angers me.

In the wake of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and it's spin-offs, I feel it's important for all of us to have a reminder of the type of behavior we are called to as Christians.

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.-Colossians 4:5

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel-Philippians 1:27

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.-Philippians 2:3-4

For you were called to freedom; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but thorugh love serve one another.-Galatians 5:13

Christians are not perfect. Perfection is a standard we cannot hold-only Jesus could ever acheive that goal. We will stumble and fall many times throughout our lives as we strive to walk with Christ.

I believe that this culture like never before calls us to self-centered and apathetic behavior. My response to that is harsh. Don't be like the world. Take responsibility for yourself and your brother. Don't be politically correct. Be the truth.

God calls us to speak life into this world. You know what that means? That means we hold the key to life in our hands. We should be leading, not following. There are so many lost people out there-we cannot afford to be known as one of them. We are Christ's disciples. He knew us before we were born. He predestined us to become like Him. He has called us, and justified us, and glorified us for the purpose of glorifying Him. 'With great privilege comes great responsibility.' Let's see if we're up to the challenge.

In 2005, I really struggled with the concept of Predestination. We were discussing it at the Baptist Student Union and one student in particular was making a very compelling argument in favor of it. I don’t remember all that was said, but God gave me an analogy to make sense of it all.

Consider the movie Paycheck. In this movie, Ben Affleck’s character creates a machine that can see into the future. Because of this, he knows that his employers are going to have him murdered. However, he signed a contract that the company will wipe his memory soon, which means he will forget that he is going to be murdered. In order to remind himself and keep himself from being murdered, he mails himself an envelope with an assortment of everyday items. Any normal person looking at these items would never imagine they held any significance. However, because Ben can see into the future, he knows that these items will lead him down a path that prevents him from being murdered.

Let me give one example of how an item helped. At one point, Ben is sitting on a bus. He is looking at a diamond ring from the envelope and wondering why he sent it to himself when suddenly a kid grabs the ring and runs off the bus. Ben, thinking he needs the ring, runs after the kid. In the end, he doesn’t get the ring back. However, the really significant thing is that at the end of the chase, he is exactly where he needs to be in order for something else to happen that will keep him on the path of not being murdered.

When the kid took the ring, Ben had free will to decide how to respond. However, since he had looked into the future, he already knew that he would respond by running after the kid and ending up where he needed to be. Thus, he influenced his own free will to achieve an end he desired.

Now, with some careful thought, we can see how this analogy can give us insight into how God works. God is sovereign, which means He is in control at all times. What is it that God controls? He controls the items that are in the envelopes given to each one of us. As humans, we are very, very limited in how far we can see the consequences of an action, but God sees all of time, so He knows how even something small might affect things far into the future.

For example, let’s create a fictional woman named Jill. In the “envelope of items” that God has for Jill, there is a flat tire. Jill is driving down the highway one day when she gets a flat and has to pull over. As she is sitting there, worrying about what to do next, a nice guy named Jack comes along and helps her put on a spare tire. That is how Jack and Jill meet. From there, romance blossoms, they get married, and they have several children. Since God had a clear view of all of time, He knew that the flat tire would have this result.

The same kind of logic can be applied toward salvation and the concept of Predestination. Since God is in control of what items are in our envelope, He uses that control to lead us toward salvation.

But now we arrive at the point at which I struggled so much and the point that makes Predestination such a hot topic. If God is in complete control, if He determines the items that are in each person’s envelope that will lead them to the consequences He desires, why isn’t everyone saved?

Many people have attempted to answer this question and have come to the conclusion that if God can, but God doesn’t, God must not want to. In other words, God must choose certain people to be saved and certain people not to be saved.

For the longest time, I really struggled with this. I had always thought that God was all-loving and wanted everyone to be saved, but that didn’t seem to match up with the evidence that: 1) God can control our choices by controlling the items in our envelope, and 2) not everyone is saved. The argument could be made that we all have free will, which God cannot control. However, that is only partially true. Even though we have free will, God can control our actions by a combination of 1)controlling the items in our envelope, and 2) knowing how the items in our envelope will cause us to act.

Let’s say a fictional character named Joe is in a room. God wants Joe to leave the room, but Joe, who has free will, decides to stay. So God decides to put a fire in Joe’s envelope. A gas leak in the room is ignited by an appliance and the room bursts into flame. Now, Joe still has free will. He could still stay in the room if he wanted to, but God, who can see the future, knows that the fire will cause Joe to want to leave the room.

Even though we have free will, God can still influence every choice we make.

So, I hope now you can see the dilemma. I struggled with this to the point where I finally pleaded with God to either give me answers or give me peace of mind. He delivered. He led me to a verse for encouragement, then He gave me peace of mind for several years, and about a year ago, He gave me answers.

The verse that He led me to was 1 Timothy 2:4, “[God] wants all mean to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” This verse was particularly encouraging because it counter-acted the logic that if God can, and God doesn’t, God must not want to. Now I had an absolute statement that said in no uncertain terms that God does want everyone to be saved.

That being said, I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it all. I kept running into the same roadblock – the contradiction that 1) God can (through controlling the items in our envelope), and yet 2) God doesn’t (because not everyone is saved). Luckily, God gave me peace of mind for several years, as I mentioned, and I was able to be content knowing that God loves all of us and wants us all to be saved.

But about a year ago, God delivered again, this time by giving me answers. Consider again the logic: if God can, and God doesn’t, God must not want to. We have already proven through 1 Timothy 2:4 that God does want everyone to be saved. Logically, then, one of the other two statements must be false.

Prepare yourself, because you’re about to think that I’m either crazy or committing blasphemy. The false statement is that God can. Yes, you read that right. I’m saying that God can’t. Keep reading, though, because I am by no means questioning the power of God.

Even God has limits. In this instance, God is limited by the method He has chosen to reveal Himself to the world. He has chosen us, sinful human beings who are made acceptable to God only by the blood of His Son, to be His Body in this world. Just as Jesus was God on Earth in flesh and blood, Christians with the Holy Spirit are God on Earth. However, unlike Jesus, we Christians sin. And what is the definition of sin if not “doing what God doesn’t want us to or not doing what God does want us to”? How can God carry out His wishes if His Body on Earth will not respond to His commands? God can’t because we won’t.

If God tells you to talk with someone else about Jesus and you don’t, then that is one item that should have been in that person’s envelope that isn’t. From there, the situation snowballs. Since you didn’t talk with that man about Jesus (a.k.a. God’s Body wouldn’t respond to His desires), that man may never accept Christ, which means the items he was supposed to put in other people’s envelopes will never arrive. Now God’s Body has been denied growth.

Once again, God can’t because we won’t. Following this train of logic, I have concluded that God gets each person as close to salvation as God’s Body will permit Him to. It has never been so clear to me how powerful sin is or how vitally important it is that we respond to all of God’s desires. It breaks my heart to know that I am basically a broken limb on God’s earthly Body. However, I am encouraged that God continues to work and that, armed with this new wisdom, I will move forward with new determination to make at least my part of God’s Body completely responsive to all of His desires.