A Light Came - 3

There’s not a person in the world that doesn’t have a story. I love the line of a song made popular by Amanda Marshall (NB: I’m not promoting her music. Some of it is downright offensive and in your face. Listen with caution!). The song is “Everybody’s got a story that’ll break your heart.”

Who of us couldn’t share a story of a bad decision or dreams gone sour; stuff that roots regret in the soul and cannot be undone.

I think the only thing worse than bad decisions and wrong choices is when we don’t come to admission; that we justify the mess as someone else’s blundering. If the world was so messed up and people weren’t….

You can fill in the blanks. You know what lines you’ve used!

The greatest travesty with creation is our blinded notion that we could be as wise and all-knowing as God; that we wanted to be gods, as if we could be on the same plane of existence, knowledge and power as He. We made choices that made the world a mess and then we have the audacity to do what we do best – blames Someone else; not capital “S” as a reference to God. Why does God… Where is God… How can God… I don’t know but I may be simplifying this a little too much. I don’t doubt that. But I won’t let us off the hook thinking the answer to our problems is to blame Someone. He didn’t create this mess; we did.

If you started reading the Bible from page one and kept going you’d see a theme. The theme goes like this. God loves humanity and longs to be in relationship with us. We reciprocate and love Him back. Then we decide we’ve had enough and want to do other things; our things. We get in trouble, misbehave and create a mess of life. God, being true to the disciplines that are required in any successful relationship has to abandon us to our wishes. He won’t tinker with our free will. We reap what we sow. Then, in time we see the error of our ways and when – or if – we dare venture back to God with a heart to turn around He is, faithful as always, waiting for us to come back.

Woven into the fabric of this drama is the only means to bring about restored relationship that is saturated with misbehaviour. That process started when God put skin on…

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A Light Came - 2

Do you know what it’s like to make something? It might be a woodworking project; or creating a program that captures your vision for something you want to achieve. There is a wonderful sense of accomplishment to create something that is an expression of who you are and what you value.

Then people start trampling your creation. Someone things one part is good but you should change another part. Or they think your idea can’t work; it’s too something-or-other for their liking. You wonder why no one else can see what you see. Until now you thought it was a great idea, an amazing dream. Now you wonder if you should have even bothered.

God created us in his image. You don’t believe in creation? Are you willing to risk exposure to truth? Will you dare risk changing your point of view? Read “The Case for a Creator” by Lee Strobel.

Back to creation … God liked his design. He created light and darkness, land and sea, plants and trees, sun and stars, creatures of every kind, animals and livestock and finally – the best of all creation - he made people; people who contained his image and perfection. The Scriptures say; “and it was good” several times as God worked through this creation process (Genesis chapter 1).

But then things started to go downhill…

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The Real Thing

You know the title of this ‘chat’ is the tag line of an earlier Coca-cola commercial. The intent I suppose is to suggest to the consumer that any other variant sodas are not the real thing, that they are imitations of the real thing. Other imitations cannot compete with their carbonated, sugar-infused, soda that has ingredients you don’t know what they are or how to pronounce them!

We do religion the same way. Who’s right or has claims to “the real thing”? Popularity charts suggest that Christianity is the leading religion in Canada (33%) followed by Islam (21%) and several others after that. Even in the context of Christianity the word means so many things to so many different people that associating with the label of Christianity is not a clear message.

Let’s put all the labels aside. I’m not appealing to you to become a Christian. I am inviting you to learn about Jesus. The evidence of Jesus’ activity in the world is not hard to find. You can read about it for yourself.

The invitation is more than learning about Jesus however. I’m inviting you to meet Jesus. The message of the Bible is that Jesus came to the world, from his rightful place in Kingship with God, his Father – our Father. Jesus is different from ordinary men that make up religious groups. The message of Jesus when he walked this earth was he is God in the flesh. One of Jesus’ followers (disciples), Philip asked Jesus to show God to him. Jesus responded with “Philip, don’t you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (St. John 14:9, Holy Bible)

Many people challenge followers of Jesus to prove he is God. I suggest that if you learn about him and get to know him personally you’ll prove it for yourself that he is God. If that’s not appealing to you then I put the challenge back on you and prove he isn’t God. I believe he is God, the Son of God, and the Messiah who came to put us right with God. I have nothing to prove. Those who ask for proof can find the proof in the Holy Bible and if you care to put that to the test you’ll find your answers.

Jesus is the real thing!

The fact is, God created us to be in relationship with him. We chose a direction that is contrary to His design. The end result is we’ve moved ourselves away from relationship with Him. Many of us try to keep the relationship intact but even that is hard because we often want to go in directions that threaten to take us further away from Him.

Here’s the sad part of the story. We don’t mind what we’re doing. We do not have a conscience about our misbehaviour as God’s children. Our focus is about whatever we want, when we want it and however we get it, whatever ‘it’ is. God’s heart is broken by this and His answer was to build a bridge, hoping we choose to walk on it toward Him through Jesus.

I won’t invite you to religion. I won’t invite you to Christianity even. What I will invite you to is to take a risk. I dare you to get to know Jesus. He’ll rock your world and give you life and pleasure you could never have imagined possible.

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