Stuck

During the past week I have encountered some interesting reading and situations.  A man came by needing some help but lingered as (I believe) what he really needed came to the forefront.  He was stuck.  His questions were the commonly complex questions of humanity ... "why is there pain and hurt? ... can a good and loving God create a place of punishment? ... can anyone stop the pain in my life?"  I spent some time on two of these questions.  As we talked I was taken by how much his common questions and his need for easy answers are just like some so-called experts who try to give cliche' answers to many Biblical questions.  They seek the easy out.  They want a quick fix.  Their arguments are designed to cut off those who don't buy their shallow view of an immense, unfathomable God.  Phillip Yancey addresses these same issues in his book "Where Is God When It Hurts."  His sick friend is visited by Christians who use the 'shallow God' technique with all of the pat terms that come along for the ride.  I thought of how useless those words are when I am speaking to a man losing his livelihood ... a woman with a third diagnosis of cancer ... a teen whose father puts money first and everything else as "fluff" ... a faithful disciple with a terminal illness ... they don't need cliche' arguments.  They don't care about the multitude of translations (i.e., interpretations) of Scripture, the tracking of the races in Genesis, the theories about the authorship of Hebrews or whether or not Jesus used a stick or His finger as He drew in the dirt in John.  They want to hear from Christ ... how His Words speak healing into their pain and how they can have God's peace.  They need the company of the Psalmist who weeps and groans with them.  They connect with Job who lost everything except his life.  They need the story of a Father who saw His Son die to conquer death, once for all of us.  They don't need "what did you do wrong?"  And "God caused this to make you stronger!" drives them running and screaming from their only means of salvation.  Litmus tests of non-essential doctrine that they 'must' believe is an insult to Christ who said we are saved by (and only by) our faith in Him (guess that is why Jesus taught using faith principles).   Let's try another approach ... God's plan is to bring you safely home to Him (Exodus 19) ... God isn't always the source of our hurts but He is always sufficient (Paul's understanding of his chronic pain) ... God's desire is for every person to choose Him and live in eternity with Him, a place with no pain (John 3:16 and Revelation).  God does heal, sometimes using doctors, sometimes using miracles and sometimes through death and resurrection.  Though people make evil choices, do evil things to other people and are sometimes in the wrong place at the wrong time, only God has the ability to turn the evil of this present age to His good (all things work for good to those who place their faith in Him).  God sees the beginning and end of our issues (good and bad) and if we place Him first His destination for us will always be inside the perfection of His leading (though we should not be arrogant enough to think we will always see it or know it in this life).  My heart hurts when we spend energy, resources, time, anger, conflict and life on issues that will mean nothing in eternity.  We could free-up most of the internet, lots of bookshelves, scores of emails and most of our brain space if we got rid of the useless things we know (or think we know) about God.  John relates his take on this as he tells us, "In the beginning was the Word ... and the Word was God and the Word was with God.  Through Him everything was made."  He is saying that the game has changed.  The lens through which we look at the world is now the Word made flesh.  We have been given the true revelation of God in Jesus.  We look back through the lens of Christ.  We see the present through that lens ... we are blessed because of this, yet we continue to seek the wisdom of the Pharisees.  And, praise God, we see and have a future because of that lens.  God's Word says we can store up treasures in heaven or store up wrath in hell.  When we lead people into life-consuming pursuit of doctrines that claim to be "key" when these doctrines place themselves above the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus, we (in my belief) are not storing up heavenly treasures. Pastor Randy