God's Grief

My friend Kenny answers a question I've had for years.

God was grieved that He had made man because of man’s pervasive wickedness. (Gen. 6:5-11). A couple of questions arise: did God make a mistake when He made man? That He is grieved by his own creation seems to suggest a flaw in the Creator: unless God intended to be grieved. And this should be intuitively understandable to all of us who like stories that make us sad. And many of us particularly like sad stories that turn out happy. Similarly, we like to see our sports teams in danger of losing, only to win. God also likes this kind of contrast, as Paul writes that God made some people for wrath so that he could off-set them against those people He showed mercy.
This is a hard teaching, but not one beyond our intuitive understanding.

Ask in Faith

Each Believer is given a measure of faith. (Rom. 12:3) All measures of faith are not the same. Faith is a gift.

When we make a request of God, we ask in faith. (James 1)

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for… (Heb. 11)

Why do we inherently ask God, then ponder how we can accomplish the task for which we asked?

I had a friend, Marc, who prayed about a ministry with Campus Crusade. He believed God was calling him into this ministry.

Soon, I received a "Prayer Letter" in the mail. I was requested to check boxes if I would support him on a one time basis, monthly basis or in prayer.

When questioned, he believed that this is a way that God could provide. God, being God, can provide any way He chooses, however, it does take faith out of the equation. If I believe God is calling me, then I also must believe He will provide without my intervention. True, he may use people to provide but that provision is through God's prompting, not man's. When the finances materialize without involving anyone but God, without asking man (or asking them to pray about it, which is another way of asking them for assistance), then He gets the glory.

Many pastors do the same. They say God is calling them to build a building (or some other project). They then go about asking the members to give, to dig deeper, to pledge… They even go to a secular banking institution and agree to pay a percentage of "God's money" to the bank to give them a loan.

More people are hurt by these tactics and leave the church. This can not be of God, the flock scattered over a building project. They are caused to stumble as they see clergy acting out secular techniques to do God's bidding. They never learn to walk by faith.

If God is truly calling, He will provide.

Mike's reply to the Little Foxes

We have a tendency to focus on the foxes.
But what is the vineyard?
If we don’t know what our “grapes” are, how can we recognize when they’re being destroyed?
Are we trying to grow obedience? Integrity? Knowledge?
When Jesus was asked what the “first” (most important) commandment was, He responded “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength”  and the second: “love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Love of God must be our primary crop - - everything else comes from or after it.  If we don’t understand God’s love for us, we can’t love in return.
And we can’t love ourselves, which means we can’t love our neighbor.
It is interesting that when the scribe showed his understanding of what Jesus had said (he had “repented”, or changed his thinking), Jesus let him know he was “not far from the kingdom of God.”
If others don’t see that we love them, they don’t see that we are disciples.  We may be “Christians” (saved), but we really aren’t His disciples.  The foxes (petty issues between people) are destroying the vineyard (the love of God).
A military Chaplain and friend was the best example of this to me.  I could spend all day picking apart his theology, but I couldn’t overlook the love that radiated from him.  It was very, very obvious that he was a disciple of the Living God.  And it was that love, more than anything else in my life, that made me want to have a relationship with God and continues to motivate me.