Is it possible that justice and mercy can be the same thing?  Justice is making things right, giving people what they deserve for wrongs they have committed.  But does that fully repay the victim?  Don’t they still experience the loss?

If the offender is given another chance, is that true mercy?  Won’t the victim feel slighted, with no closure? And are there certain crimes that don’t deserve another chance?  I wonder how the justice of man compares to the justice of God.  We can certainly agree on the fact that God searches the heart and would know if the transgressor is truly repentant.  God could tell if he or she would not repeat the crime.

God’s fire is often shown to be his judgement.  It can consume, or it can torture.  It can warm, or it can burn away impurities.  How does that relate to our salvation?  Or to our sanctification?  Is the death of Christ for our sins the final measure of his perfect justice?  Does God’s justice bring death and life?

It seems that God should hold us all accountable for not only what we’ve done in these bodies, but where our minds are in relation to him and those around us.  And where does love fit in?  Can God love us even after we’ve picked the wrong interpretation of his justice?

Let God be true, and every man a liar.  (Romans 3:4)

Scottish theologian and storyteller George MacDonald wrote, “I believe that there is nothing good for me or for anyone but God, and more and more of God, and that only through knowing Christ can we come near to him.”

How much of God is enough?  Can you have too much God?  Many people go through their day with a token God (or god), not really throwing themselves into their creed, but allowing God to intervene for some inane event or favor. Others eat, breathe, sleep or even die for their deity, denying some of the most precious pleasures that God’s creation holds.

How do you get more of God?  Praying?  Reading your Bible?  Going to every gathering that your church offers?  What about just living your life, conscious of the fact that God is in his Heaven, and all is right with the world?  Is that just a cop out?

Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)  How do we do that?  Accept his teachings?  Pray to him to put a good word in to God?  Receive him as our Lord and Savior because he died on the cross to atone for our sins?

What about the bazillions who don’t even believe in Jesus?  Are they doomed? Is all of their searching for God futile?

I guess it all comes down to what you believe the character of God to be.  If he’s like most of us, forget about it.  If he’s a furious Father, always prepared to smite, then who can be saved?  Maybe he seriously wants to know what each of us thinks.  Maybe he can’t get enough of us.

He created everyone.  So why did he pick the Jews?  He decided to send his son (or himself, depending on what you believe) to earth to die for us.  So why wasn’t Jesus African or Japanese?  He promised that all believers (at least those who trust in Jesus’s atonement, depending on what you believe) would spend eternity with him in heaven.  So why would he roast billions and billions and billions of people in hell just because they didn’t say the right words on salvation or agree with the accepted plan?

Red and yellow, black and white, how many are precious in his sight?  Where does God’s love end?

I asked a fellow the other day if he had ever considered the fact that everything we believe is totally dependent on our trust of the people who taught us.  Obviously, we can’t prove any of the ancient positions on religion to be true, so sincere belief is necessary.  An assurance in your heart, so to speak. But aren’t we obligated to challenge those same teachers on the reasonableness of their statements?

My friend replied that, if we start challenging what we believe, we open ourselves to the temptation of Satan and will soon fall into serious sin.  Say what?  Is this guy one of God’s favorites?

I think we need to back the doctrinal bus up a bit and reconsider it.

Mountains are beautiful.  Sunsets are beautiful.  So are flowers, children, puppies and rainbows.  But how do we know God is beautiful?  The God of the Old Testament seems anything but beautiful.  The people were deathly afraid for him to come near.  And he instructed them to slaughter men, women and children.

The New Testament appears to paint a picture of a more loving God.  Jesus said he himself was just like God. Some say he was God.  So, was Jesus beautiful?  Not if you read the prophetic description of him in Isaiah 53:2.

Is God just beautiful on the inside?  He can create beauty, but he can’t be beautiful himself?  What, after all, is beauty anyway?  It certainly can be physical, in that our mind’s eye recognizes color, shape, softness and other qualities tending toward flawlessness.  But are we being prejudiced by recognizing physical beauty, let’s say, in a person, when the rest of us are bordering on ugly?

Does God want us to shun physical beauty for inner beauty, those characteristics that transform a homely person into a beautiful one?  I believe my wife is beautiful, but she tells me, given my age, that my eyes are not seeing clearly.  Are her inner qualities that I have come to love over the years actually masking the fact that she is getting older?

Maybe beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but who can know?

I can’t take credit for the title; it was on a church sign.  You gotta love those church signs!  It made me chuckle. Then it made me think.

Usually that type of phrase is associated with negativity.  Like new day, same old stuff. We have a new year, but we’re stuck with the same old God.  I know that’s not how the church meant it.

They anticipate the New Year to bring change, both good and bad.  They foresee trouble on a global scale.  Unrest, hatred, ugliness.  But, thank God, he never changes.  His promises are sure.  He never goes back on his word. When he makes a resolution, he keeps it.

I do find comfort in the fact that God is somewhat predictable, as best as we can determine.  I mean, nobody wants God to go postal on us.  When those around us become untrustworthy, he remains faithful and true.

But may I be so bold as to say that I might just advocate a new year, different God?

Read more »

I don’t know if this was the title of the country-western song I heard (or partly heard), but the phrase came up in the refrain.  And it’s certainly a great line for discussion.  Of the three observations the first two seem to be ranked, and the third appears to be unrelated.

What makes God great?  Let’s say a good ole’ country boy is down to his last few bucks and was given a choice of buying a case of beer or putting that cash in the church offering plate.  Which would he choose? I’ve got a feeling the ranking would be reversed:  Buy the beer and avoid the church.  Like the mealtime prayer, “God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our booze.”  It’s the American way.

Read more »