IS GOD LOVING? Answers to 12 questions from Sunday, July 26, 2015

Answers from Pastor David Staff * Christ Community Church, Ames IA

1.  What makes God’s perfect love feel less like that for so many?  Should I explain it, or show it to them?

People are at so many different “places” when it comes to their expectations of what God should (or should not) do, or whether or not they feel God is intervening in their lives with His love.  As I’ve suggested, so many expect God to UNCONDITIONALLY ACCEPT them (and what they choose to believe and do) while at the same time UNIVERSALLY PROTECT them (keep all the bad stuff).

God’s perfect love means He knows what each of us needs to happen in our lives.  He also knows how we’ll respond to what He is quietly arranging or allowing.  It takes them a while to realize what a perfect Father is doing toward them.  His goal, of course, is for us to be humbled before Him and to trust Him.  That process of learning to trust Him may or may not feel loving.

Of course, we should all join you in both explaining God’s love to someone else, but also showing it in the way we love them.  The explanation may not be accepted, especially if there is truth that stings in it.  But then again, when disinfectant is cleaning a wound of what infects, it may sting, but ultimately it heals, right?

Of course, persistently showing God's love to someone is the very best way for them to see the Lord Himself, and be drawn to simple faith and trust in Christ.  Love on!!!

2.  With the “innermost” love of God, is it possible in your view to move in and out of that love?

All of us vacillate through seasons of being disobedient to the Lord (in one season) and then being obedient to God (in a season of humility and repentance).  In the OT period of the JUDGES, God’s people would repent (and God would draw near and help), and then later they would rebel (and God would draw away and discipline).

Jesus’ John 14-15 promises are very simply stated.  Obey God in the things His Word and Spirit teach you, and you find yourself drawn into greater intimacy with the Lord.  Disobey and go your own, willful way, and it is likely you will experience a detached prayer life and a distance from your Father.

3.  What is the elevator-answer or summary on why horrible things happen to good people,  sometimes on a very large scale?

I’m a bit wary of “elevator” answers.  People ask important questions that are complex by their very nature, and unfairly expect a sound-bite response that satisfies.  Horrible things happen to good people because we live in a very fallen, sin-drenched world.  There is a complexity to the things that ripple through our everyday lives.  Hope for moving beyond our tragedies is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ, who rescues us from the penalty of our sin, and promises that accounts will be rectified and settled when God one day judges sin, and ushers us into a new world where righteousness dwells.

4.  How do you get someone to want to talk about how awesome God is?  How can you be a model for Christ?

One suggestion might be to have this friend read a book about the wonders of God’s creative hand.  Richard Swenson’s MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: Fascinating Glimpses of God’s Creative Design would be a great book to read.  Tough to put down, and could be a real coffee-shop-discussion starter.

5.  How do we know the difference between what is God’s love vs. evil from the devil?

At one level, we may not be able to “tell” it right away.  For example, when all that stuff hit into Job’s life (OT Book of Job, chapters 1-2), he really didn’t know who was behind it.  He later laid the blame at God’s feet.  In Job’s case, God let the destructive power of the devil have some impact in Job’s life. 

It may not be, ultimately, important to know the source of the struggles.  More important to remember is that if we love God (Romans 8:28), God is “able to work all things together for the good…for those who are called according to God’s purpose.”  God is asking us to TRUST HIM no matter what happens, or where it comes from.  Even Job’s struggles had a limit because of God’s restricting hand.  And, in the end, God worked all things together for the good in his servant Job’s life.

6.  How do we embrace and receive God’s love?

First, we can embrace and receive God’s love by understanding what God has told us about His loving.  This is why I presented this teaching from Scripture on July 26.

Second, in the experiences of life, we embrace and receive God’s love by framing our experience with the truths that we know from the Bible.  Sometimes, we hear God tell us something, but then later in our experience, we forget what He’s said.  We fail to apply the truth in the situation in which we are living.  To not apply is to forfeit embracing God’s love.

Third, I think we best embrace and receive God’s love by sharing His love with others.  Being loving to others.  Doing God’s love helps us understand what it is.  Whom in your life is experiencing God’s love through you these days?

7.  If God is love, what is (the) devil?

Jesus said that the devil, whom He called “the thief,” comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (see John 10:10a, the 1^st ½ of the verse). The devil does not love people (i.e., sacrifice himself for their good).  His only objective is to take life from them, kill what is good in their lives, and destroy them through sin. 

8.  God’s discipline or punishment for my sin?  Isn’t my sin cleansed by Jesus’ blood?  How do we continue to accept that punishment and continue our faith?

I like these questions.  They are important.  Here are several words we need to be clear about. 

DISCIPLINE – this word speaks of God using difficult circumstances in living to shape and develop and strengthen Godly character.  There is no punishment involved.  Rather, difficulty is used to make better. 

PUNISHMENT – this is the death penalty that comes with sin.  You are right to remember that Jesus took our punishment for sin, fully, on the cross.  God never punishes his own children, who are declared righteous in Christ, for their sin. 

CONSEQUENCES – God’s children may experience the inherent consequences in their lives should they choose to sin.  For example, Proverbs says that a man who “commits adultery against his wife lacks sense…like someone who takes burning logs and hugs them in his bosom.”  The point – adultery destroys what is good in  a person’s life.  It’s an unavoidable consequence when anyone chooses sin. 

Summary – God doesn’t punish his children for the sin that Jesus paid for.  That debt is paid.  God may discipline his children, using difficult things which come into life, to mold and shape their character into godliness.  God will allow his children to experience the consequences of sin if they choose to do it, not a s a punishment, but to teach that chosen sin is indeed a foolish choice.

9.  Does the world not understand God’s love because they don’t know the battle is spiritual and not physical?

I believe the world often misunderstands God’s love because people in the world are not aware of the character of God nor why He does anything in the world.  It may be correct that they assume struggles are merely physical things, and thus think that they can simply manage the physical and life will be great.  Of course, we know that the world doesn’t work that way.

10.  How do we best recognize when God is trying to teach us through hardships?

James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom (about the trials you are going through), let him ask of God, and God will give it (wisdom) to him”  [James 1:2-4].   A simple direction – ask God for insight into your hardship.  He gives wisdom about these things generously, if we are willing to ask and wait for Him to speak.

11.  If God is love, why does He take the ones we love?  My brother died in a car crash at 27.  He was a great believer and man.

I’m sorry for the (temporary) loss of your brother.  No doubt the hurt and absence in your life is very real.  We don’t know why God’s hand takes some of his own special servant “home early.”  You’ll remember from Actds 7-8 that a very gifted and committed Christian, Stephen, was stoned to death and went home to be with Christ, whom he saw “standing at the right hand of God.”

Even in the tough, seemingly pre-mature losses of loved ones, God assures of this.  “It is very much better to depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23).  Let me ask you – do you believe that?  That to depart and be with Christ is “far better” than staying here?  We struggle to accept that.  WE think that it would be far better for your brother to still be here.  Should we not, though, believe what God has said about this, rather than our cherished opinions.  I would nudge you to believe what God has said.  It is better – though hurtful for us – that He is with Christ right now…what could be better?

12.  If Christians don’t obey, are they Christians?   Matthew 7:18-21?

We know from the letters written to Christians in churches in the New Testament that very often Christians disobey?  Don’t you disobey sometimes?  To be sure, as Jesus points out, when a Christians lives disobedient lifestyles, they are not showing the fruit of Christ to the world.  Some pretending Christians may also be among those who show their true colors by not bearing any fruit in their lives.

But we mustn’t, I believe, deny the reality that very often, Christians struggle to obey.  This is why Paul wrote to the Ephesians, for example, and said, “Look, you have to take off the old man and put on the new man (Eph 4:20-24), replacing some very bad, disobedient habits (like laziness, filthy speech, etc.) with renewed-in-Christ habits (like hard work, pure speech, etc.).  Christians can disobey, and should be in a process of becoming more and more obedient to the Lord Jesus.

 

 

Answers to 18 Questions from GOD IS RIGHTEOUS teaching - July 19.2015

July 19, 2015 Questions from Sermon  

GOD IS GOOD: “Straight Arrow” Righteous

Answers from Pastor David Staff

 

1.  Was it common for animals to talk since the snake spoke to Eve?  I would say probably. There was a talking donkey too. But I thnk it was only when God made them talk through the HS.  Not all the time.  BUT not sure about Garden of Eden?

As you’ve observed, it was NOT common for animals to talk.  Interpreters of this passage (Genesis 3:1f) have noted that this should have been a troubling signal to Eve (and Adam, who was with her, vs. 6) that something was amiss.  But how could this serpent speak? 

A common theme in Scripture is that evil spirits in the spirit world seek to find or have a physical habitation (cf. Matthew 8:30-31, 12:42-44).  Here, it seems, Satan himself was allowed to inhabit and even transform a snake’s natural capabilities, and suddenly, you have a created animal with the ability of language communication.  Elsewhere in Scripture, spirits that are aligned with Satan do find an abode in physical bodies, and even communicate through them (cf. Mark 1:23-25, where unclean spirits speak out through a man).

Since using the snake (or serpent) as his instrument of deception, Satan has been ever since identified as “that ancient Serpent” (cf. Revelation. 12:9, 20:2), God’s fallen-angel arch enemy.  His end has already been determined.

2.  I wonder if Adam after asking God what he should have do instead of listening to Satan, if he could have asked God to just remove that tree from the garden if God would have removed it?

While removing the tree would have been one way to, perhaps, eliminate the possibility of a wrong choice, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was necessary, in order that a true and loving relationship between man and God could happen.  As I mentioned in one service’s Q-A, for true and mature and enriching relational love to develop in us, choice must be present.  Otherwise we are nothing but robots, and not truly human nor made in God’s image.

3.  Is faith a work of righteousness?

No.  Faith in never presented as a work of righteousness, or a work that merit’s righteousness.  It is always spoken of in Scripture as simple trust in God’s promises, and not a meritorious act.  Cf. Romans 4:3-5.

4.  It is stunning how SPONTANEOUS Adam & Eve's choice seems. Apparently they had no idea of the cosmic cost of that choice. Are we any better at choosing God's Way of Shalom?

Not without the enabling help and power of the Holy Spirit, to be sure. 

Did Adam and Eve have an idea of the “cosmic cost” of their choice.  We’re not told directly, but Adam and Eve were brilliant individuals.  The crippling effect of sin had not been imposed on the physical world nor on their human capacities.  One might argue that they did know the stakes involved, and chose to believe that Satan’s suggestion would impact the “cosmos” better than God’s way.  Admittedly, speculative thinking about this, but the first human beings were very smart.

5.  Wasn’t it in God’s plan that adam and eve would sin?   HOW else would the story of the bible have unfolded?  What would our life be like now if adam and eve had not sinned?

This is a VERY interesting question.  Let’s break it down abit.

Was it in God’s plan that Adam and Eve would sin?  No, and Yes…I would offer as the right answer.  “No,” in the sense that God’s plan did not coerce or require them to sin.  Had they not sinned, but remained sinless and unchecked in their growth in God, a whole different story could have been told.  But “Yes,” God’s plan certainly anticipated that they would sin, and thus before the foundation of the world, it was planned that God the Son would come and be the Lamb-of-God sacrifice for the world that He had created (Revelation 13:8).   There is a mystery in this “no” and “yes” answer that we cannot fully explain or reconcile.

Life without sin could have been extraordinary….and will be in the new heavens and new earth (cf. Revelation 21-22)!

6.  I desperately want to follow God's plan for my life to honor His righteousness, but struggle greatly in understanding what that plan actually is.  Why might it be so difficult to discover His plan?

When the Scripture speaks of God’s “plan” or “will” for our individual lives, it appears to speak concerning several aspects of that plan.

One aspect – the primary one – is that it is the Father’s plan that we become like His Son (cf. Romans 8:29-30)…in our character, thinking, obedience, kingdom-living.  The details of what it is like to grow in Christ and become like Him in our daily living are very clear – outlined and taught in the New Testament books (or epistles) from Romans – Revelation.

A second aspect of God’s plan for each of us has to do with specifics concerning things like where to go to school, who to marry, what vocation to choose and work in, where to live, etc, and the timing of all those things.  This part of God’s will for us is more driven by the wisdom we get from the Holy Spirit THROUGH God’s Word (application of) and God’s people (who mentor us).  Scripture urges that we listen for wisdom and use it, in all of the choices God presents to us in life.

Both parts of God’s “plan” for us can be discovered if we patiently use the resources of truth and people that He places in our lives.

7.  How and why was Satan created if he was around in the beginning to be able to tempt Adam and Eve?

Scripture suggests that Satan was originally one of God’s most beautiful and capable angels (“Lucifer”), who had been given the power of choice even as an angelic being.  If the boastful careers and words of two ancient monarchs (who may have well be led and directed by Satan) are a revelation of what originally happened (cf. Isaiah 14, and Ezekiel 28), the “star of the morning” (in Latin, “Lucifier”) became proud of his beauty and capability, and attempted to dethrone God.  Unsuccessful in his pride and rebellion, he and angels who were aligned with him were cast out of heaven and confirmed in sin/unrighteousness. 

When this fall happened vis-à-vis the original creation of the universe, world, and humanity, is not precisely know.  But it seems to have happened before Adam and Eve were created, because Satan was present (in the Serpent) to get the man and woman to fall in sin the way he had.

8.  How do I navigate a sinless life when that's all that around me?

Scripture teaches that we CAN navigate a life that is pleasing to God when we (1) seek to become like the Lord Jesus Christ, (2) daily depend on the Holy Spirit for God’s work in our life, (3) stay connected for prayer and encouragement with other followers of Jesus.  Psalm 1, for example, suggests that there is blessing for the one who “delights in the Law (or Word) of the Lord, and in that law (word) he meditates day and night.”

9.  So why do you think God put the tree as a (test) or forbade them to eat of it?  He had to know what they were going to do....right?

          See the answer to #5. Above.

10.  Psalm 11:7 states that God loves righteous deeds.  Does God loves these deeds because they *are righteous*, or are these deeds righteous *because God loves them* ?

Interesting question.  I’d say, I guess, that God knows when a deed is “righteous” (that is, conforms to His standard of what is right, good, and excellent), and thus loves to see them done!

11.  Are believers "declared" righteous or "made" righteous?

First, “declared” (or reckoned) righteous by grace through faith, and then “made” righteous through an increasing Christlikeness in living through the power of the Holy Spirit and application of the Word.

12.  I understand why we need a new earth, but why do we need a new heaven?

God knows we need a new universe which is not under the curse and frustration of sin.  The whole universe was impacted by the moral choice of Adam and Eve (cf. Romans 8:20-23).

13.  Why did God give us free will if he knows that some people would just do evil?  Why does God let our loved ones die when they are sick especially when we pray so much for their healing? What are somethings to do to set my soul on fire and be all in for Christ?

See answer to #5. above. 

We die in this world because we are part of a fallen creation which is subjected to death.  Adam was told that his moral choice of disobedience would result in death.   We are encouraged to pray for healing, but we also know that God can and does say “no” to some requests for healing because He knows that what is coming, in the next life, is “very much better” (cf. Philippians 1:23 – “to depart and be with Christ is VERY MUCH BETTER”).  In other words, healing and staying alive in this life is not always the better result!  How about that!?

“Your soul on fire for Christ” – the more you know Him, the more your soul and your life will be all in for Christ (cf. Philippians 3:12-17!).

14.  Is there any idea of how long Adam and Eve lived before sinning?

We don’t know.  But it was before Eve conceived for the first time, and given the command God gave them to be “fruitful and multiply,” one might suspect that Adam and Eve began to be intimate very soon after they were created for each other.  That would suggest that the pre-conception temptation by Satan occurred fairly soon after the events of Genesis 2.

15.  Were animals created male and female? Before humans were?

It appears so, yes.  They were to also “be fruitful and multiply,” which would necessitate the complimentary genders in order to facilitate reproduction.

16. How do you respond to Intelligent Design evolutionists who claim that God imparted Spirit and humanness to a hominid to make modern man?

It’s an interesting theory, and I’ve heard it before.  The problem I have with it is that there is no literary or linguistic indication of it in the text of Genesis 1-2.  In fact the text of Genesis 2 teaches that God did NOT use a living animal of any kind as the entity from which a human being was created.  God did a unique work “of the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:6) in creating (“bara” – to create from nothing) the male.  Nor was the woman an existing hominid, but “fashioned” (different word, the word of an artist) the woman from the rib taken from the man.

17.  July 19 question #1. If God loves it when things are right, why do those that choose righteousness still feel the effects of a sinful world? Why do some that live righteously still suffer horribly?

There are several facets of the answer to your questions.  First, Jesus is the model for us.  No one lived more righteously; no one suffered more in this world as a righteous person.  Righteousness suffers in a fallen, not-right world, and God does not choose to alieve the suffering of the righteous.  In fact, He chooses to use their suffering as a powerful testimony both to the awfulness of sin, and to the hope alone found in the death/burial/resurrection of Jesus.

Second, if God had decided to simply alleviate the suffering of the righteous, we might be very much tempted to both be satisfied with this fallen creation, and to trust God in order to get from God what we want in this world – success and no suffering.  The bottom line is that God does not want us attached to a fallen world (note…he kept the tree of life from fallen Adam and Eve in the garden, Genesis 3:24, so that Adam and Eve would not attempt to live forever in their sinful bodies)…but asks us to anticipate a future, recreated one “in which righteousness dwells, 2 Peter 3:13).

18.  July 19 question #2. It seems every day we see the world (and more specifically our nation) reject Christ more and more. Are we experiencing a slow progression of turning away from Christ or have there been worse times in the past?

We are in the “last days,” the days between Christ’s Ascension (Acts 1) and Christ’s Personal Return (Revelation 19-20).  Here’s what the Spirit says about these “times” – 1 Timothy 4:1-4, 2 Timothy 3:1-5).