Trust In The Lord

Can a man hide himself in places that I do not see him? Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?

Jeremiah 23:24

Recently some "Christian" rapper decided he was no longer "Christian" because he couldn't understand how a loving God could order the deaths of so many innocent lives in the Old Testament. It seems to me just from this little bit of information that he had things mixed up in at least two ways.

The first is that as an entertainer performing Christian songs he had been testifying to something he understood only by theology and tradition instead of by relationship and experience. Sadly, what ever background he came from, even if it was a church every night and twice on Sunday kind, had not actually led him to experience Christ as both Lord and Savior.

The second is that what ever background he came from had not properly taught and prepared him to discern and apply the Word of God to the great questions of the day. The shifting winds of present day morality were never buffeted either by true faith or by sound teaching. There was no sure foundation and thus in the end no sure hope that God can be both just and loving.

The purpose of the local Church apart from the gathering together to worship is to both evangelize and to instruct. A healthy Church continues to present the person of Christ to those who gather, it allows the Holy Spirit to be present in it's ministry, and then it lays from scripture a firm foundation upon which it continues to build the individual unto maturity. It is from the richness of a healthy and mature church that saints are equipped, trained and then sent out to serve but also to make more disciples of Jesus.

Over and over I keep reading about how the young are leaving the Church. These articles then provide suggestions about making the Church more relevant to the current generation. The answers seem to be to adapt to a certain form of worship, or preaching, or greeting, or fellowship, or service or whatever. I'm not against things being changed, updated or added as long as they are done with full consideration of sound theology and have the blessing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit behind them.

On the other hand I'm not for throwing out tradition just for the sake of making things fresh. Let me give you an opinion of an almost 66 year old man who grew up Catholic, became an atheist, found the Lord through the Charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church, eventually left Catholicism, worshiped in various Charismatic and non-Charismatic Protestant churches both large and small, and who was involved in home church for 7 years. - Sometimes I feel the waters of contemporary worship are very wide but it's depth is very shallow.

The problem of retaining the youth though is not solved by updating forms and methods. It is instead the failure to clearly present the person of Jesus in terms that our youth can understand and the failure to present both the Word and the will of God in all it's depth, in all it's power, in terms as well that our youth can understand. They need to know that God loves them and they need to learn to trust in the truth and wisdom found in the Word of God.
  

Shortly after I first became a believer I had a question about the inspiration of the Bible, specifically about whether there actually was an Adam and Eve or a Noah and a universal flood. Nothing I had learned in college or in life would have prepared me for accepting those scriptures as literal. But I'd been blessed since becoming a believer to have had a mentor who taught me how to read the scriptures in their context and who showed me how interrelated each part of the Word was with every other part.

Eventually I became convinced that I needed to believe in a literal Adam and a literal flood and hopefully God would someday provide me with an understanding of how they could be possible. This was not blind faith. It was trust based on whom I knew Jesus to be and how I could see the input of the Holy Spirit throughout the entire Word. Trust came first and then God opened my eyes to see and my brain to ask the proper questions.

There are many people apart from the rapper who do not believe that the Bible should be taken literally. For the rapper one problem was trying to align what he understood love to be with something like God's instruction to Joshua to wipe out ALL the inhabitants of Canaan. Perhaps you also are bothered by this and it is a fair question. Is it "fair" or is it "just" for God to want anyone killed, including innocent children and babies?

Now you should understand that the atheist who brings this up in an argument is not really interested in hearing the answer. He or she only wants to ask the question. Having judged God by societies standards they then think they themselves are justified. And it's kinda funny because part of the answer is that it is indeed a loving and a just God who will one day judge both the living and the dead. The fairness of the timing of the judgment then is really not relevant.

Scripture also portrays God as the potter and we as the clay. He designed us, fashioned us, placed us in time and space and has a perfect will for our lives. Life on earth is only temporary at best and it is His right to call in our earthly chips anytime and anyway He wants.

Thirdly there was a greater purpose for the Jewish nation in particular and for mankind in general involved in the conquest of the promised land. God in His wisdom and love wanted it to be a place free from the pagan practices, customs and idols of the Canaanites. By not doing what God commanded God's desires were corrupted and as a result the Israelites endured over the centuries tremendous suffering, death and destruction.

They did not trust that God knew best and so they could not understand what His ultimate purpose was for their lives.

The quote above from Jeremiah is actually one about trusting God. In the first sentence we see that because of sin man hides himself from God. From the time of Adam it has always been that way. We think before the deed that perhaps God will not see it and then afterwards we try to hide both deed and who we really are from before the presence of the Lord. All of us do this but God makes this statement: Do I not see?

Of course He sees but we, even as believers, still shy away. And the reason we do is that for some reason we don't fully trust Him. Maybe we don't trust that he can forgive us. Maybe we don't trust His ways will work out better for us. Maybe we don't trust that He can actually change anything in our circumstances.

God's second statement assures us that not only does He see us when ever and where ever but also that He is there in the when ever and where ever. He fills the heavens and the earth and if so then not only does He see us but also He is much more than an idol that one prays to hoping to get something from. HE FILLS THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH and so not only is He with us but it then only makes sense that we should trust one so awesome.

Learning to trust that God loves us, cares for us and has a plan for us is a life long process. Knowing that God is always in the process of teaching us to trust Him  helps explain the ebbs and flows that we go through in life. He is near, He is far, we rejoice, we don't understand, all are lessons drawing us closer. The earlier we prepare our children with a proper understanding of the workings of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of the Bible the better it will be.

There is no way I can begin to understand the height, the width, the depth, the love, the purity or the holiness of Him who fills the universe yet knows me as a person. Still, I can trust that whether I understand them or not, His ways are righteous and true.