Monday, September 30, 2013
Wax or Clay
A few years back, I heard about a family from South Africa who had moved to an area in Canada specifically because of the lack of sunshine. The children suffered from, what was in essence, an allergy to the sun. They were unable to spend time in direct sunlight. Needless to say, this made life difficult for the family.
I wondered at this situation. I don't often think about the sun and actually probably take it for granted. I relish its every appearance during the dark days of winter and complain when the sky has been overcast for too long. I garden and play and relax in the sunlight, but when it gets too hot, I complain. To think that something so necessary to life can be painful and even deadly to some people is paradoxical. But then we need to realize the sun itself hasn’t changed, just a person's response to it.
Over the years, I've heard a lot of comments about the passage in the Old Testament where it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart so he (Pharaoh) would not let the Israelites go. There were people who said that wasn't very fair of God, hardening someone's heart like that and others who used the passage as a justification for predestination. Similar arguments were put forth about Judas. “These people can't be blamed for their actions if God made them like that!” Believing that everyone has a choice about accepting or rejecting God, these passages also confused me.
Then after I read about this family, things started to make sense. God is like the sun, He never changes. He is Who He is and my relationship with Him is entirely dependent upon my reaction, my response, to Him.
The same sun can cause either pleasure or pain depending upon the person. The same sun can both melt wax and harden clay. The same God can inspire either love or hatred.
I realized my response to God is entirely dependent upon my choice. Am I open to Him or am I resistant and want to do my own thing? Am I struggling to draw closer to God or to run away?
I realized that when the Bible tells us God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, it doesn’t mean that God purposely caused Pharaoh to spurn Him and to persecute His people, it means Pharaoh chose to ignore the presence of God and pursue, instead, his own goals. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened in the presence of God instead of melting and giving into God. Judas was the same. Instead of acknowledging God’s presence through Christ, he chose to follow his own agenda and thus betrayed Christ. His heart was hardened by the presence of God.
Am I wax or am I clay?
I know of people who claim to be Christian but who knowingly lie and cheat. They continue to do what they want to and when questioned, reply ‘I believe in a God of love. He loves me and will forgive anything and everything I do.’
In essence that’s true. God truly does love each and everyone of us. He wants to forgive us all and reconcile every single person to Himself, so much so that He sent His Son Jesus to do exactly that, but we have to co-operate. We just can't say we love God, we have to act like it as well. Ultimately, as my mother used to tell me, 'your actions speak louder than your words'. I can say I love God as often as I want, but in the end, my words mean nothing while my actions mean everything. I can say I'm sorry, but I need to show it by repenting and not repeating or continuing the behaviour which separates me from another person and, ultimately, God. I am foolish if I expect full forgiveness without true repentance, which means changing my actions.
After all, if I knowingly sin and comfort myself by saying 'God will forgive me', I am building up a resistance to God. I am, in essence, developing an allergy to Him and His love. The more I choose to follow my own wants and desires, the more I'm pulling away from Him, and if I don't want to be close to God in this life, how can I possible enjoy His presence in the next? If I turn my back on God now, will I be able to face Him later? I've been given time in this world to prepare for my life in the next. How I respond to God now will determine my place in the next.
Just as it is a painful, burning experience for someone with a sun allergy to be in the sunlight, so it is for someone with a God-allergy to be in the presence of God. Unfortunately, we can't hide from God the way we can from the sun. Since God is present everywhere, He, in His mercy, prepared hell so the pain of being in His presence for those who don't want to be, wouldn’t be as great. Hell is not a complete separation from God, but rather it is a ‘distance’ from Him.
God does not punish someone by sending him or her to hell, it is a destination determined by each person's choices in this life. It is inevitable that I will eventually be in God's presence, but whether I rejoice or suffer in His presence depends upon me and my actions in this world here and now.
If I'm searching for God now and doing my best to emulate Him, no matter how feeble the effort, if I sincerely try to love all those around me, to humble myself and to lift others up, I am doing well. If, on the other hand, I concern myself with myself, seeking pleasure, considering others as stepping stones to my own desires or ignoring them completely, then I am developing an allergy to God.
God can and does forgive me. But how can I draw close enough to accept that forgiveness if I can’t stand to be in His presence because I've spent a lifetime running away from Him?
Jesus tells a story of a man who asked his two sons to go into the field to perform a task. One said he would not go, the other said he would. However, as the day progressed, the son who had said he would go, never did. Meanwhile, the son who had said he would not go, changed his mind and went and did the task. Who received the father's commendation? Daily, I have to ask, which son am I most like?
I know I will spend eternity with God but it is my choice, here and now, as to whether it will be in agony or in ecstasy.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Image of God
I have never visited Rome, it's on my "Places to See before I die" list, (now known as a Bucket List, according to my children) but I've read a lot about it and have been fascinated with its history.
One place I would really like to see is the Vatican. These buildings have been standing for centuries and have been the destination for millions of people. Michelangelo is one of them.
In fact, Michelangelo was hired to paint the massive ceilings of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. It took him fours years to complete the work but when he was done, visitors could see his vision painstakingly illustrated on the ceiling in brilliant colours. Biblical figures, angels, demons and God Himself, were caught in one freeze frame of each of their stories.
But time wasn't kind to that work of art. Years of grime, soot and natural pollution dulled the brilliance of the colours, distorted the images and, in some places, even covered them completely. What we saw on the ceiling of the cathedral in the 20th century is not what Michelangelo painted nearly 500 years previously. But even though we couldn't see them, the images were still there.
'So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female He created them.' Genesis 1:27
I knew that Bible verse. It was probably one of the first I could quote. As I grew in faith, I began to gain understand it more. I realized it meant not only Adam and Eve, but each and every of us has been created in the image of God. In other words, every person in the world, past, present and future, has God's image within. No where in the Bible does it say God's image has ever been revoked from mankind or from a single person. God's image exists within every single man, woman and child ever created.
This was a revelation to me especially when viewed in the light of how I treat people. There were a lot of people out there whom I would consider less than Godly, and if I was honest, I would be one of them. So where was this image of God in the people around me? Where was it in me? And how could I make it more visible?
The answer was revealed to me in an article about the restoration of the Sistine Chapel. Just like Michelangelo's work of art, years of sin and spiritual pollution have darkened the image of God in all of mankind and within each person individually. The darkness varies from person to person, sometimes God's image may be quite apparent in someone. Other times, there may only be a rough outline or just the occasional a flash of its brilliance. And sometimes the image may be so buried under the grimy layers of sin that we wonder if it is there at all.
It is.
Michelangelo's paintings have been painstakingly cleaned over the years and marvellous things have been brought to light. There are colours no one even imagined existed back then. Figures and details hidden for centuries under layers of grime and soot have gradually emerged in all their brilliance. It is taking longer and involving more people to restore Michelangelo's original painting then it took for him to create it.
That was my revelation; the Sistine chapel wasn't restoring itself, there were dozens of people working to bring back the original images in all their glory. God in His wisdom has provided me with all the restorers I need to uncover His image within me. They are all the people I meet daily, not just those in the church, but those at work, on the street, at play; every single person is brought into my life to help my restoration, to help my salvation.
And there is more. I am not only responsible for helping to restore the image of God within myself, but also responsible for restoring it within others. They help me while I help them. Which means I have to work doubly hard to refraining from hiding God's image even more.
When I get annoyed and impatient with someone, insult them either verbally or mentally, or stereotype people, I am not acknowledging the image of God within them, I'm covering it up.
When I treat a group of teenagers with suspicion just because they are teens, when I'm impatient with the elderly and brusque to a telemarketer, I'm adding layers of grime to the image of God within each of them. But even worse, I'm adding double layers to the image within myself.
I think one of the hardest things to do is to see past the grime and the sin and seek out the image of God that exists within each and every annoying and scary person, and then to react accordingly. I figure the more I look and act like I see God’s image in every person I meet, I will be helping to restore that image, and not just in the person in front of me, but within myself as well.
We are talking hard work here. Restoration is hard work but unlike the restorers of Michelangelo's paintings, we don't have to guess at about the original image. Jesus Christ is that image and He is master restorer. As part of the Body of Christ I am supposed to help; to help restore myself and others around me. Fortunately, I've been given a life-time to do it.
And, man, do I need it.
One place I would really like to see is the Vatican. These buildings have been standing for centuries and have been the destination for millions of people. Michelangelo is one of them.
In fact, Michelangelo was hired to paint the massive ceilings of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. It took him fours years to complete the work but when he was done, visitors could see his vision painstakingly illustrated on the ceiling in brilliant colours. Biblical figures, angels, demons and God Himself, were caught in one freeze frame of each of their stories.
But time wasn't kind to that work of art. Years of grime, soot and natural pollution dulled the brilliance of the colours, distorted the images and, in some places, even covered them completely. What we saw on the ceiling of the cathedral in the 20th century is not what Michelangelo painted nearly 500 years previously. But even though we couldn't see them, the images were still there.
'So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female He created them.' Genesis 1:27
I knew that Bible verse. It was probably one of the first I could quote. As I grew in faith, I began to gain understand it more. I realized it meant not only Adam and Eve, but each and every of us has been created in the image of God. In other words, every person in the world, past, present and future, has God's image within. No where in the Bible does it say God's image has ever been revoked from mankind or from a single person. God's image exists within every single man, woman and child ever created.
This was a revelation to me especially when viewed in the light of how I treat people. There were a lot of people out there whom I would consider less than Godly, and if I was honest, I would be one of them. So where was this image of God in the people around me? Where was it in me? And how could I make it more visible?
The answer was revealed to me in an article about the restoration of the Sistine Chapel. Just like Michelangelo's work of art, years of sin and spiritual pollution have darkened the image of God in all of mankind and within each person individually. The darkness varies from person to person, sometimes God's image may be quite apparent in someone. Other times, there may only be a rough outline or just the occasional a flash of its brilliance. And sometimes the image may be so buried under the grimy layers of sin that we wonder if it is there at all.
It is.
Michelangelo's paintings have been painstakingly cleaned over the years and marvellous things have been brought to light. There are colours no one even imagined existed back then. Figures and details hidden for centuries under layers of grime and soot have gradually emerged in all their brilliance. It is taking longer and involving more people to restore Michelangelo's original painting then it took for him to create it.
That was my revelation; the Sistine chapel wasn't restoring itself, there were dozens of people working to bring back the original images in all their glory. God in His wisdom has provided me with all the restorers I need to uncover His image within me. They are all the people I meet daily, not just those in the church, but those at work, on the street, at play; every single person is brought into my life to help my restoration, to help my salvation.
And there is more. I am not only responsible for helping to restore the image of God within myself, but also responsible for restoring it within others. They help me while I help them. Which means I have to work doubly hard to refraining from hiding God's image even more.
When I get annoyed and impatient with someone, insult them either verbally or mentally, or stereotype people, I am not acknowledging the image of God within them, I'm covering it up.
When I treat a group of teenagers with suspicion just because they are teens, when I'm impatient with the elderly and brusque to a telemarketer, I'm adding layers of grime to the image of God within each of them. But even worse, I'm adding double layers to the image within myself.
I think one of the hardest things to do is to see past the grime and the sin and seek out the image of God that exists within each and every annoying and scary person, and then to react accordingly. I figure the more I look and act like I see God’s image in every person I meet, I will be helping to restore that image, and not just in the person in front of me, but within myself as well.
We are talking hard work here. Restoration is hard work but unlike the restorers of Michelangelo's paintings, we don't have to guess at about the original image. Jesus Christ is that image and He is master restorer. As part of the Body of Christ I am supposed to help; to help restore myself and others around me. Fortunately, I've been given a life-time to do it.
And, man, do I need it.
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