Don't Forget That He Chooses to Knock!

I'm reading a lot these days from young bloggers who are questioning not only the words, but seemingly even the motives somewhat of those Christians among us who contend that it is a tragedy that we have chosen to do public school in America in the absence of references to things religious.  These Christian bloggers remind us that God is bigger than we are imagining, can go anywhere He chooses to go, and, therefore, cannot be kept out of the public schools nor the public forum.

On the first two counts, I agree wholeheartedly.  Our God is always going to be bigger than anything we could possibly ever imagine.  And He can most certainly go ANYWHERE  He chooses to go.  No question.  However, since those first two are indisputable facts to the heart of every believer (I think even to the believers whose motives some of these bloggers question), the third assertion above might do well to be re-thought a bit.  The God whom Scripture reveals to us at times CHOOSES (because one thing for sure: He IS big enough to choose) to NOT go where He's not invited- like into the human heart, for example: "I stand at the door and knock- if anyone will open the door and invite Me in, I will dine with him, and he with me."  Holman Hunt understood this when he painted the scene of Jesus standing outside the human heart, hair dripping with the dew of the early morning from having stood there all night.  When a critic (of whom there will always be more than enough) asked why the door had no knob, Hunt replied that it did, in fact...on the other side of the door.  God does not beat His way into the heart with a battering ram.

I may be wrong, but I'm thinking that some of the Christians who are suggesting that perhaps we, as a society, had best ask ourselves at times like these whether or not God might could make a positive difference, are NOT wanting to diminish the size of our God, but simply to question whether or not we as individuals (because that's where it always starts), and, collectively as a society (the group of individuals choosing to take similar actions) have, in fact, placed a padlock on our hearts, thrown away the key, turned up the noise, and refused to allow an all-powerful God enter an arena (the individual human heart or the American public forum) that seems to be showing signs of being in desperate need of Who He is and what He can bring to the table.  Ultimately, it seems to me, it is not God's power being questioned, but human choice.  Our all-powerful God will not violate that.  How many stories in Scripture concern folks who got what they wanted and then don't want what they got.  I hear some believers simply trying to say, perhaps feebly, albeit passionately, that's where we are at the moment as individuals, families, and as a nation.  We've finally attained "freedom" from the shackles and restraints of "religious tyranny."  As a family counselor of nearly half a century, I would ask, "And how's that working for you?"

I commend those young bloggers for their passion in going to bat for our God.  Ironically, they'd be the first to say, the Lion of Judah really doesn't need us standing between Him and those who would "attack" Him- He's most capable of defending Himself, thank you very much.  I DO wish, however, that before Abba calls me home I could become eyewitness to a period in Christian history where generations on either side of the age spectrum could cease calling into question every word spoken by the "other side", could stop being embarrassed by each other, could stop apologizing for each other.  I read a book almost half century ago, written at the beginning of sixties revolution entitled Never Trust a God Over Thirty.  I fear some of the spirit of that book lingers.  I wish we could just get so busy loving each other as well as all of the "others" God brings across our path, so that this world would know we are Christians by our love.  By the way, at first I thought about not even writing this because God knows (He really knows) I love those young bloggers.  But then I realized that silence regarding this would not have been the loving thing to have done.  I think before they wrote their blog, they probably felt every emotion I just described, too.  Which means that their motives are pure and Godly and their writings meant to do good.  And I love them for that.  I hope they can still love me. 

The Day After a National Tragedy

Yesterday we cried for the children. And well we should. But what about six months from now? One year? Will we, by then, having passed a "good piece of legislation concerning gun control" have "solved" the problem to the extent that we can sit back, relax, and allow the tears to cease. OR, will we still cry...for the little boys and girls in those far-off countries who go to bed every night hungry or those in our own neighborhoods who, through neglect, suffer the same fate? For the children far away (or on the streets of LA) who are bought and sold in the international sex trade or for those in our own neighborhoods who are being sexually abused by priests, by coaches, by teachers, by multiple step dads, by luring looks from convicted child molesters in virtually every neighborhood, by hundreds of thousands of purveyors and predators of child pornography on the screens of every home computer in the world? 
Will we still pray for the little boys who are handed a rifle and told to go fight a war- or the children in our homes who, through neglect, are handed a remote and told "Get out of my hair, kid!", thus introducing them to their prime "baby sitter" through the most pliable years of their little lives? For the millions of children right here among us who, due to their parents' addictions to alcohol, or drugs, or work, are terribly neglected, arriving at kindergarten never having been read to and not knowing how to count to five?
Or the children of divorce in our culture who unwittingly become pawns on their parents' chess board, not out of love, but out of power and control- the one with the kids receives the child support money; the one without the children has to pay it.
Or the POC (product of conception- the euphemism we have created to ignore that, even in the womb, it is a child) whose parents, for reasons of convenience (We just can't be bothered by this right now!) choose to abort.
Yes, I cried yesterday. I've been crying for 48 years of counseling families. I've personally been eyewitness to every scenario just described. And I'm telling you, we'd better not think that a hasty piece of legislation will "solve" anything. The human heart is the problem. Scripture calls it sin. But we don't like that word anymore. So let's call it selfishness- Scripture says that's the same thing. We'd better "get over ourselves" and continue to cry for the children. Next week. Next month. Next year. In all the years to come until finally we allow God to call us to the high value He places upon all of life in general and the lives of children in particular. Until we get there, nothing will be solved. Come, Lord Jesus!!!

I keep hearing recently that 12/21/12, according to the Mayan calendar, will be the end of this world as we know it.  I, for one, don't know WHEN this world will end.  I'm thinking the Mayans didn't know either.  I do, however, know WHAT will happen when it does end and I know HOW the end will come.  Are you ready for this?  WHAT: no more wars, no more terrorism, no more fears of the all-imposing "fiscal cliff", no more congressional gridlock, no more fears of impending Supreme Court decisions, no more politics or concerns regarding political correctness, no more hate, no more bigotry, no more hunger, no more disasters, no more disease, no cancer, no ALS, no AIDS, no divisiveness, no anger, no "choosing sides",  no "enemies", no "accidents", no death.  WOW!

And I know HOW:  Messiah will come to usher home all believers in Him to live forever in the mansions prepared by and paid for with the shed blood of Lord Jesus.  It will all be about Him and Abba, and no one there will doubt that for even a moment.  DOUBLE WOW!!

So, IF it happens to arrive this December 21, I, for one, say without reservations "COME LORD JESUS!!!!"  And all the church said, "AMEN!!!!"