GOD MISUNDERSTOOD

For me to write about God, or for me to live in a church role for that matter, is contrary to what I envisioned when I was setting out to be whoever I planned to be.  I had many talents in baseball and comedy.  My problem was that I was never discovered.

Bummer.

And then God ran into me.  As though I weren't paying attention, He approached me with a plan that still carries wild potential.  The retirement package is out of this world.

Today....today....my heart yearns for those who may be suspicious about religion to get to have the same opportunity to meet Him, His style, His call.  I know.  Some are reading this with the feeling that God would never engage you in His work.  But oh how you need to rethink.

God used the cowardess of Moses to lead the entire nation of Israel.  He used the beauty of Esther for His cause rather than her self-serving interest.  Our God called fumbling Peter and hesitant Thomas and too-young Timothy.  On and on a vast array of classifications roll out the wonder that God truly invited the never-in-a-thousand-years-would-we-have-expected-God-would-call-that-one perfect system of effectiveness to reach the world.

The clincher as to whether this be true is the start-to-finish of His Son's earthly venture.  Born of a virgin, Jesus' beginning days were from a cattle trough in a Jerusalem suburb.  He grew so weirdly wise that at times even his family stood at a distance.  Eventually, Jesus was executed at the hands of what would be regarded as church leaders.

The empty grave still can't be explained.  But, neither can a bulb arising to become a beautiful flower, huh?

Why can't we understand God?

Several reasons could be weighed:

• The image of admitting to seeking God is too big of a cost for the famous.
• Christianity has become viewed as a meek dull people who sit in rows on Sunday.
• Church doctrine has been hijacked by control-freaks who run the show their way.
• The Kingdom is invisible and the flesh has a need to see where things are going.
• The church is not seen as adventurous; but rather, argumentative.
• We have avoided His grace; thus operating from our best will-powers.
• On and on the list could blossom.

These are erroneous sign-posts.  Yes, they are having negative impact.  But it is exciting to know this isn't the story.  Furthermore, it isn't the story of a vast amount of believers.

God isn't about the dull.  He is about the creative wonder; so magnificent that thousands upon thousands of years of science research are still making discoveries regarding matters He spoke into existence from Genesis One.

God is about impossible becoming possible.  He takes nobodies and makes them CEOs of missions.  Our Lord is the one who figured the best way to make a daring rescue of mankind was to infiltrate humanity by becoming one of us.  At Jesus' birth, placed in a manger with his blanket for warmth, one could say he was sorta under cover.  

God is about thrill; like feeding 5000 from a young boy's picnic basket.  He isn't restricted to walking on land if water is not as busy of a freeway.  The clincher to His wow-ism is sheer intrigue and suspense.  At the Cross it wasn't just Jesus hanging there, it was the Light of humanity.  Upon his last breath, it turned dark in mid-afternoon.  They had just killed the Light of the world.

By Sunday God, in His incredible and unchartable powers, crushed the permanence of death.  He killed death.  That, my friend, is a good day's work.  If you will fall into His system, your pending death will find that it was killed as well.  The grave cannot keep us.

God is misunderstood.  He is neither distant nor imaginary.  He bowed to our human form that we could arise to His eternal glory.  

Listen.  No, be still and listen.  He is calling all of us to enter into marvel and awe and wonder and luxurious hope.  You, my friend, really can believe such Love and Light.  It isn't rocket science.  It's bigger....much bigger.