I think blogging is so good for me... as I write and wrestle with different topics, I realize how much I don't know. There are things that I think I get, but as I try to write it out I realize that I'm not sure it's actually biblical. I've really been tested lately with something Matt Chandler said in a podcast of his (I honestly don't remember which one... Colossians maybe?) But he said this...
"I don't care what you think, I care what the Bible says."
That may seem like a simple truth, but I have felt convicted about this because of the way I often approach the Bible. If there is a verse that I don't necessarily like or one that makes God look "mean," I try to find a way to justify it or "explain it away." For some reason I think that God needs me to defend Him, that He needs me to dress Him up and make Him look "nice." I've been really convicted about coming to know the God of the Bible... the FULL character of God... His mercy, His wrath, His love, His grace, His judgment, His kindness, His justice, His peace... His everything.
Do you know that God?
Yes, He did destroy everything on earth with a flood (Genesis 6-7), He sent plagues (Exodus 7-12), He gave the men of Israel over to the men of Judah where 500,000 were killed (2 Chronicles). We could go on and on about stories of the Bible that don't seem "right." "It doesn't seem like a loving God would do those things," we might think.
Well He did. Are you ok with that? Do you understand why? Do you get the big picture of the Bible? And if you don't, can you wrestle through it with Him? Do you know the full nature and character of God? Or do you just know "Easter Bunny Jesus," as Matt Chandler calls him? (Sorry, I steal his phrases left and right!) But basically, do you invent this idea of God in your head that is only "nice" and is what you want Him to be?
We can't make God out to be who we think He should be... otherwise we are worshiping an idol. He is who He is. We can't "enhance" Him as we talk to others about Him... we can't control how people feel about God, we can only talk about who He really is. I'm trying to make sure I only talk about the God of the Bible, and in order to do so, I need to know the God of the Bible. I'm questioning the things that I often assume about God and making sure they are actually Biblical.
And I have a long way to go.
And so I sit, with my 9 blogger drafts... wanting them to be perfectly Biblical, wrestling with what is Biblical, and honestly sometimes just being too lazy to try and figure it out.
I wonder how many drafts we all have going. How many things have we assumed about God... how many things have we held on to about God to make ourselves feel better, to make others feel better or to make God look good. And how many things are we just being lazy about? How much of Him do we not know because we simply have not tried to know?
Let's continue to edit our drafts about God, whatever they might be, so that they conform with the Bible. Let's stop assuming and start reading, so that we actually know Him... and his full character... plagues and floods and wars and all...
And as I said, I have a long way to go.
"And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols." - 1 John 5:21-22
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