Tag: Alistair begg

30daysofpraise, Bible, bible study, Christian, Christian Church, christian encouragement, christian men, christian parenting, Christian women, Faith, god, Jesus, Jesus Follower, prayer, religion, scripture, Uncategorized, wisdom

The Incomprehensible God: Living Faithfully with Unanswered “Why”

krisshetter

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” – Romans 11:33

Humanity’s oldest question may be only one word long: why. We have answered many “whys” about the universe—about stars, seasons, and gravity—yet each discovery seems to open the door to even deeper questions. When suffering touches our lives, the question becomes painfully personal. Why death? Why tragedy, broken relationships? And still, the answers often remain just beyond our grasp. 

Scientific atheism pretends it can answer all our questions, from astronomy to psychology and biology to zoology.  Yet, like an annoying two-year old, we can still ask “yes, but why?”  Of course, a big question is why does God’s incomprehensibility matter for how we live and suffer?

Great Mysteries in Job

In the Bible, the book of Job seems to lead us into so many of these “whys” with a few “hows?”  Why did God let satan torment Job?  Why did God have to punish a man who seemed so loyal to Him?   The scripture has God telling Job something we humans just don’t like to hear:

“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” – Job 11:7

My father struggled with this very problem of “why?”  He couldn’t allow himself to acknowledge that if God is God, then there is no ability on our part to fathom Him in entirety.  I’m not even fully assured we will understand Him completely when we find ourselves in the new heavens and new earth.  

God is God and we are not.  Oh, we may try really hard to fill our minds with solutions to the mysteries of the world.  But let’s be honest, there are just some things we are not meant to know, at least not yet.  As modern people we get caught up in thinking we know so much more than the ancient peoples.  We set ourselves up thinking we don’t need God to explain anything of this world.  But the more we “discover” the more questions we find ourselves asking.

Knowledge Revealed

“He replied, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables so that, though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’” – Luke 8:10

“It is the glory of God to conceal things” Proverbs 25: 2

I love how these two scriptures tell us something so amazing about God.  It is His right and authority to conceal things.  And because we are told throughout scripture how much God loves us, I would imagine He conceals things we can’t understand or accept at this time.  Scripture also tells us that He has been revealing secrets to us for a long time.

When Jesus came about 2,000 years ago, He came revealing the Kingdom of God.  In parable after parable, He showed us what God’s kingdom is like for believers.  And for those who hate God, they struggle to see His truths.  I’m always surprised at how atheists view God and specifically the Christian faith.  They call it a “cult” or “hateful.”  Yet all Christians know that we come freely to Christ to repair our broken lives.  We are told to forgive, release all greed and malice, avoid immorality, love others especially our enemies.  While not every Christian is a perfect example of this, we all should be working towards these goals.

Mystery In The Ordinary

Living our ordinary lives in light of God’s mystery was the topic of my BSGs’ study on the book of Ruth by Alistair Begg called “God of the Ordinary.”  Naomi was a perfect example of a person who struggled with the “whys” of life.  She became bitter and angry with God.  Then through others she began to see Him at work in ordinary people in ordinary situations.  God revealing Himself a bit at a time to her and her daughter in law, Ruth.  As believers we have to opportunity to see God’s providence in retrospect.  It’s a gift to look over generations and see Him at work in the most ordinary of ways. 

Friends, we all ask “why” throughout our days.  We should be comforted, however, knowing that God has us safely positioned in His great plan.   When tragedy strikes, illnesses are revealed, or relationships fail let us look to God the incomphrensible in faith knowing we are in good hands.

I Am Not Skilled To Understand (1st stanza) Dora Greenwell (1873)

“I am not skilled to understand
what God has willed, what God has planned;
I only know that at his right hand
is One who is my Savior!”

Bible, Christian, christian encouragement, christian men, christian parenting, Christian women, Faith, god, Jesus, Jesus Follower, prayer, proverbs, religion, scripture, Uncategorized, wisdom

Loving Enough

krisshetter 
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Hello Friends!  I haven’t written for the blog in over a year and have missed hearing from you with your comments and insights!  Many of you know that this year has been one of many highs and lows.  In April, I commenced being a full time caregiver to my father, diagnosed the July previous with advanced bladder cancer.  It was a blessing filled with trials, sadness and laughter.  In September, my eldest daughter and I sat by his bedside watching him take his last breath.

As many of you have experienced yourself, being a caregiver not only takes up your physical time but also your mental and emotional time.  The thought of researching and writing was a dim, distant light this year.  Recently, that light has burned brighter with each passing day.  My prayers have included this burning desire.  I just today began gathering materials for a possible study in Romans.  I don’t know where it will lead but I know being in His Word is always fruitful.

Holy Spirit Nudges

As always happens when I start pondering writing with more fervor, the Holy Spirit nudges me and reveals truths to me.  Today, in fact just a few moments ago, was no different.

In my Truth for Life devotional (Alistair Begg), I was challenged like King David, to repent and humble myself.  To stop covering lies and let God cover them for me.  I wrote that I don’t love God as I should, nearly enough.  It was a hard truth to write but one that has weighed on my mind for some time.

And because God loves a great illustration to bring His point home, as I was sitting indisposed in my bathroom, both my dogs came up to check on my progress.  I say “both” because my dad’s dog now lives with us.  A dog whose fur is the exact color of my now deceased mother’s hair.  A dog who has lived most of his life in an unhappy home, full of strife and anger.  

As both came to nuzzle against my knees, I begrudgingly petted Ben – my dad’s dog.  Yet when my dog Tucker put his cold, wet nose on my skin I leaned in to snuggle with the big lump.  Tucker wandered off and little Ben laid close to my feet.  And I felt that Holy Spirit nudge on my heart.

You see, my allergies have gotten terrible with a second dog.  And after just one day of my new carpet Ben peed on it in two places.  He’s kind of neurotic and yelps at the slightest movement.  He follows me around breathing heavily and anxiously wherever I go.  He wanders off when we are at the beach as though he’s forgotten what I look and sound like.  His bark is sharp and annoying.  He’s underfoot and over needy.  

And I don’t love him like I should.  Like he needs.

Loving At Arms-Length

Ben is cute as a button.  But I don’t want to love him.  I don’t want to give myself fully over to him.  He represents a terrible past that I just want left behind.

In that moment in the bathroom, I realized what it means that I don’t love God the way I should.  I stand at arms-length from Him.  Because if I were to truly love Him, I would have to give all of myself to Him.  I would have to accept the good things and the bad things that come my way through His hands.  I would have to give up my fears, my prejudices, my preferences.  I would have to go “all in.”

While God may not sneak over to a corner and pee on my new carpet, He might bring people (or dogs) into my life that will.  People who need mercy, forgiveness and love.  I know this because He put me, a broken, sinful person, into other believers’ lives.  And I pray for their mercy, love and forgiveness towards me.

More Jesus

Ben, sweet goofy Ben, needs a lot of love and patience.  I need a lot more Zyrtec.  More than that, I need a lot more Jesus.  I need to love Jesus a lot more than I do.  So, I prayed for forgiveness today that I don’t love enough the God who sacrificed His Son for me.  Who has forgiven my yelping and my anxiety.  For making a mess on beautiful things.  

While I know the coming year will be full of unbelievers doing terrible things, I also know that God will be at work.  He will be in the tears and the laughter.  His glory will be available for anyone to see.  And I want to be sure to see and love Him at all times, in all places and in all circumstances.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ben and Tucker