God’s great love for this world is so complete that he gave us Jesus, so that our belief in him would transform ruin into life, the kind of life that is true and complete and beyond the limits of time. God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to invite us – all of us – into grace, goodness, mercy, light, healing and love – to live into the promise that is ours as God’s children. – John 3:16-17 (author paraphrase)
It was, as we anticipated, a beautiful experience to be back in worship with our church family Sunday morning. That, of course, is the key idea – the fact that we “anticipated” a great experience in worship. Rebekah and I always intend to show up at worship for God, not for us; for prayer, not for performance; for a word from God, not to critique the preacher; for what we can contribute, not for what we can get.
The ancillary benefits, of course, encompass so much of what we yearn for as human beings. But that’s a given because we were created specifically for fellowship with God and with one another. Church, in other words, is a no-brainer.
Our friend David Huffman was guest preacher and he shared a thoughtful message around the Abraham and Isaac “sacrifice” story. He believes Abraham and God were so close that the outcome – offering the ram conveniently caught in the thicket instead of his son Issac – was a foregone conclusion, because of how deeply God and Abraham trusted one another.
God was not testing Abraham so much as teaching him
My take has always been that God was not testing Abraham but teaching him. The setting for the story was a primitive world dominated by superstition and paganism, a place where human sacrifice was not uncommon. Abraham was part of that world and God was calling his family out of it. It is my belief that God intended for Abraham to wrap his head around a new way of thinking, to understand once and for all that a relationship with the One True God would never – could never – involved any human sacrifice, let alone a child.
“You need to understand that I am not that kind of a deity,” God is teaching Abraham, “The world needs to know this about me and it will be crystal clear when you tell this story.”
This evolving religion, this worship of Creator God who Abraham knew and loved, is of a God who gives everything to and for humankind – including life – not the other way around.
Likewise I believe God’s orientation toward each one of us today is also more in the way of teaching than testing. God already knows me, as God knows all of us, all the way to the depths of who I am – God doesn’t need to set up tests to catch me out!
What God does desire is to see me grow and to fill me with more knowledge, and faith, and grace, and wisdom and love. God is in the business of teaching me and encouraging me to put Love into Practice.
Day by Day…
After church we caught up with our friends; well, those who are not currently out of town and traveling themselves.
As we settle back into the routine and rhythm of day to day here in Tarboro, there is one foundational truth that is bedrock to our life. That truth is the Good News.
Our friend David brought the Good News to our worship Sunday morning and he delivered it with joy. So far as we are concerned, this is exactly what the world needs to hear.
Not just hear, but live into. If just a handful of you read this and live the Good News today, then we are well on the way to real healing, the kind that Jesus came for.
In love and because of love – DEREK