Howdy! Hey guys, welcome again, and as usual, let's see what kind of trouble I can get myself into ☺️. God is not a cookie cutter God , and I believe that we want Him to be at times. God is a God of great variety and all you have to do is look at the church and all the beauty in creation to see that. All around the world, every tongue and Nation, every complexion, young , old male and female....tempted but not going there☺️☺️. We all read the same words in different languages and we encounter the living God. He just jumps off of the pages and He gives us hope, direction and envelopes us in His all consuming love. If this is all true , then I guess what I'm really saying is that , why can't I be the cookie cutter standard? ☺️You ever just wish that other people were just like yourself? Think of all of the conflict that would just no longer be there, if people just did things the way that I think they should be done. ☺️☺️ . And while you are thinking about that, just think how extremely boring life would be ☺️☺️.
God places those other different people in our lives as part of the refining process. I joke about us wanting other people to just be us, but there is a smidgen of truth to that. As a former recovering type "A" personality, I'm not always a fan of diversity. That's the correct word, but before it became a political hot potato ☺️. It has taken on almost a new and complete meaning with the emphasis that has been placed on it. Variety in its self is usually a good thing and some would even say the spice of life☺️. I both know and love people from all over the spectrum. The extremely left leaners to the self righteous right. We all have different dispositions and temperaments, and while some are freaking out over the cultural differences and the political landscape, to others it's just a mere speck of nothingness. Who's right? and does it really matter all that much?. As a historian, I just see a repeat of things that have already taken place before, and it's true of just about every culture, and on every continent . The whole cookie cutter thing represents a door that's swings back and forth on its hinges as I'm right and the rest of you people just need to get it together☺️☺️. We need to be careful with that one there !☺️There is just no shortage of opinions, view points and different interpretation of truth. We all believe and want our perspectives to be the correct one, but with all such contrasting view points, everyone can't be right.
I remember a time when we could disagree with one another and it wasn't a conflict to the death, as it is now. I also remember a time when we had opinions, but we didn't substitute those opinions for truth. Truth was a standard and it stood alone. It was that plumb line that everything else was measured up against and it got a thumbs up as yes being true or a thumbs down as being something other than truth. We forget that just because something is close to truth, doesn't make it true. I guess somewhere along the way we changed our minds about wanting there to a distinction between truth and us wanting it our own way, so we just made the convenient swap. It's all about having that all to important wiggle room☺️☺️. I don't like the standard, so I'm just going to change it up. The problem is that we loose and don't recognize what is true any longer. There will be subsequent changes to what you have already changed and the end result is a spiral into moral decay and depravity . Just take our currency for instance, we spend millions of dollars every year to defend against counterfeiting. What value does your hard earn money hold , if just anyone can print it up at will?. There is a standard. In a relationship with someone, just keep trying to redefine the parameters, the foundation of what your love or principles are , and see how well that works out for you. ☺️☺️ Ask your partner if they are OK with half truths or just things that you conveniently forgot to mention and see if they are good with that? ☺️☺️ I think that they may see it as some kind of betrayal. The standard has been changed, and that's a problem. That's the main point with infidelity in a relationship, there was a violation of the trust in the standard . It was us , and you broke and betrayed that confidence. It was an expectation of trust there , and when that's gone, it's a shambles. We see and recognize the importance of truth when we want to, but we have those areas where we want to flip the script because it holds us to a standard and erases our wiggle room and we just don't like that.
This may seem like a big old fat U turn to some of you, but just hang with me and see if I can put a bow on it or not☺️☺️. I get feedback all the time from people who say that I'm hard on or pick on Christians all the time. Well, there is probably some truth to that, because we are suppose to be representing God to people who don't know Him, and honestly we just all to often do a piss poor job of it, myself included ☺️☺️. It's not about being perfect because none of us are, but it's the just not even making an effort that I find disturbing. It reminds me of a college professor that I had one time , and his opening remarks to the class was I got mine and you got yours to get ☺️. He was referring to our degrees, but he took no care as to if we were successful or not. I think many times, Christians take that mindset with Salvation and it's a complete a front to the whole purpose of the church in the first place. I think that maybe, just maybe that's why it makes me so crazy with all of the politics stuff, makes my head just want to explode 🤯. I feel like they have never opened their Bibles, read it, understood it, or even believe the words written on the pages. If we read it and understood it , we wouldn't be such a repellent to the world that we are suppose to be reaching out to. It's not an easy assignment , by any means, and it's something that I wrestle with and I'm probably not the only one, but we have to grapple with it and not just check out all together.
All to often we get it wrong by asking the wrong questions or having a jaded perspective, such as wanting to be powerful and influential and God says to have child like faith . This one is really hard for me and even when I try to keep it in front of me, I still find myself scheming and trying to influence and manipulate God with my prayers☺️☺️. We treat kids with a double standard in this country. We want to on the outside show that they are valued and protected, by such things as an Amber alert, but then leave the back door open, by letting the really weird ones argue that they have a right to use any bathroom that they want. I'm not sure when we are going to learn that we can't have our cake and eat it too.☺️ Children in much of the undeveloped parts of the world are lowly and posses no power of their own and are completely dependent on others. They are usually abused or marginalized in some way. That's some of the picture for us as God's kids, we should be dependent on Him and our real power comes from Him. If you have ever been a parent especially a dad, you probably remember a time, when your kids believed that you could leap a tall building in a single bound or you were faster than a speeding train and maybe even could stop bullets, ☺️☺️, but the point is that they thought that their dad was awesome and there was nothing that he couldn't do. There was no limits on the things that dad couldn't pull off. They just believed. If I took it to my dad then it was going to be okay, regardless of whatever it was . He could fix any broken toy or put it back together again.
The main thing about dad's are they made us feel safe. If I was up high on the monkey bars and got scared and my dad said, just jump, I didn't just trust , but I absolutely knew that he would catch me. He would slay any monster in a closet or under my bed and I never felt afraid when he was near by , because I knew that he loved me and would always protect me. Sadly , that's not a representation of all fathers and at some point we grow up and detect chinks in dad's armor , maybe around the same time that we discover that he was also Santa☺️☺️, and it goes from dad can do any and all things, to maybe dad becomes the person with the best advice in the world, so still extremely valuable ☺️☺️. This is the mindset that we need to have with our heavenly Father , except that He can do any and all things and He has no need for armor, because He is almighty God. He will protect us and slay any and all giants that threatened His children. He will move mountains and destroy falsehoods and strong holds , that keep us apart from Him. How do we know this? He purchased us with the blood of His One and Only Son, and if He did that, will He not give us everything else that we need.? He is both protector and provider. I will get pushback from people about faith being blind and I think that is only true if you don't know Him...God. it's impossible to walk with God and for your faith to be blind, it's just an impossibility, those two things are the classic oil and water, and we know how well they go together ☺️☺️
As parents we know that kids don't always listen to us and even the most compliant of children will occasionally want to test the boundaries from time to time, just to make sure that you are there and that they are safe , indeed loved, even if it's not framed in that context☺️☺️. Whether it's a miscommunication or willful disobedience, sometimes we will hear something wrong which can lead to use believing the wrong thing or having a misrepresentation of the picture. This can look like extremist who believe it's God's will for them to blow up abortion clinics or more times than not to doubt Gods love for us because of us experiencing tough times. Tough times are just a part of life, and why not caused by God, He uses them to mature us, grow us, stretch us, but most importantly to build our faith . There may be times when we feel like God has forgotten us or some how hasn't lived up to His part as a loving father.
We can fall off of our bikes and skin our knee, He comforts us , but the pain doesn't immediately go away, and sometimes leaves us with a really cool scar that we will tell stories about for sometime in the future.☺️. It's about trusting and getting back on the bike again and believing that next time out that you won't somehow skin the other knee, because God has you, metaphorically. ☺️God gives us the things that we need and we just don't always see it that way ☺️☺️, but most kids have blinders on about something , when it comes to their parents.
When I think about a child like faith, I think the first thing that comes to mind is innocence. There is no pretense or deception there. Kids are just so much more concrete in their thinking. They haven't learned about the abstract, but the bottom line is that they have not experienced life and some of the hard and brutal lessons that can be associated with life. The repeated disappointments and failures in life shape us into people who find it hard to trust and find that child like innocence. Kids just don't have that for the most part. Yes they get hurt and experience disappointments, I was really looking forward to that play date ☺️☺️, but they don't hold on to them. They just kind of move on to the next thing. Easily distracted at times, but they don't get stuck in whatever it was that made life disappointing for them. They have the confident belief that someone is watching out for them. It's the thing that makes little boys dare devils and little girls to starting plan their wedding at five years old☺️☺️.
Sometimes in our walk with God , He will give someone a promise, a reason for hope, and it's specific to them. It could be the couple who has experienced a half dozen miscarriages. Maybe it's the person who is waiting for God to bring the perfect for them person into their life, or a hundred of other things that we petition God for. I think it's split right down the middle and some of us find it easier to believe and have child like faith when we are desperate, and then there is maybe the rest of us , who behave with a lack of humility, and our faith is more like a dare. " if You are God, then do some God stuff"☺️☺️. A lack of faith is a lack of trust and it's impossible for us to please God without faith. Child like faith is believing that God is who He says that He is and that He will do the things that He said that He will do. I think that we sometimes trust with reservations, which I believe is OK to" some point." God is not afraid or intimidated by our questions. At the same time we shouldn't be approaching God every time out with the same skepticism, because that is what building faith is all about. He has in the past and He will again in the future, because of His love for us, He is consistent Faith is a muscle and it has to be exercised☺️☺️. Here's the deal, we all have something and it's different for all of us, something that's just not right in our lives. It could be a spirit of unforgiveness, some emotional or physical brokenness and the question then becomes, will we hold it with open hands, just as if it's a broken toy and bring it before God, knowing that if it's not right, then Dad is not done with putting it back together. Child like faith always hopes and always believes, don't forget how to be a kid again!!
