Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Changing the Unchanging

I still don't get this,

how is it that God can change His mind? It came up last night, that in the book of Jonah, God once again seems to have changed his mind. " Jonah 3:10: “…He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened.”


Hmmmhhgh? Hold on just one second. He threatened them, but then didn't destroy the Ninivites? If He knew that He wasn't going to destroy them to begin with, then why would He have threatened them? To coerce them to reject their evil ways? Is that alright?

To seek a random second opinion, I here lift a quote from a certain gotquestions.org .

"The Scriptures that are interpreted as God seeming to change His mind are human attempts to explain the actions of God. God was going to do something, but instead did something else. To us, that sounds like a change. But to God, who is omniscient and sovereign, it is not a change. God always knew what He was going to do."

This was quoted from what could be called the concluding statements of the article. This is what it all boils down to... and we make one big circle back to were we began. We go from Original Question -> The Bit we're specifically questioning. -> Weak Rebuttal -> To the bit from which my original question was spurred.

If God always knows what He as going to do (because He's already done it... because He's transcendent of time), then there can be no changing of mind. Unless it has been specifically calculated to bring about a specific outcome. Which would mean that God is manipulative. At which point the question becomes, are righteousness and "manipulation" mutually exclusive?

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

In the Meanwhile

The mind is truly remarkable in capability. It's hard to fully grasp the majesty of complex biology going on right behind the eyes that let me see, that let me know that I see. That allow me to respond to what I know that I see.

God has given us a mind to know things...to know Him, of course, but to know other things too.

This week has been one filled with many...other things. That is, of course, a freedom we have pre-packaged with our free-will. That's the amazing part of His grace and generosity, that He would allow us the capacity to ignore Him. He gifted each of us with the capability to forget, the intellectual choice to think outside of Him.To let slip slowly from our active mind as innocuously as a bead of sweat or change from a torn pocket; the wonder of Christ. The reality of Him. Our place in the midst of it all, momentarily lost in the meanwhile.


And so He waits patiently for our return, because He knows that we will, or will not. There is no frustration, only love and incomprehensible understanding of us.


He is waiting for me.

and I am too busy...

In the meanwhile, I have forgotten...

Thursday, May 7, 2009

His Distant Presence

I cannot run from His presence... He will never forsake me, yet how is it I can feel so detached? So distant. I don't even remember running away, and even if I did, how could I be farther away? He's like the air that surrounds us. Like the atomic bonds that bind us. But stronger, more pervasive, more.

More than we can know...so where is He? Where am I? How did I get here?

I feel that there should be a more concrete basis behind Christ. I'm told faith isn't a feeling. So, alright. I'm not feeling all that much of anything in particular. That's good, right? If it isn't a feeling, then how is it that we struggle so much when we aren't feeling spiritual? Our perspective must be totally screwed. We should feel perfectly natural in the absence of a Holy high. A Christ fix. These are the day-to-day. Weekend retreats and missions trips only come seldom often.

But this isn't the case.

When we aren't feelin' it, we read books. We pray harder. We blog: "Where are you?" Workshops are held. Coffee and donuts provided. The pillers of your spirtual community are soughht out. All to be told, it's not a feeling. Tough it out. Faith is a committment.

It must be more than this. It must be. Please, let it be more than this. I thought that filling "the void" with Christ was what was to fulfil me. Is not fulfilment a feeling? Contentedment. Not feeling that you are lacking, even if you seem to be.

But it's not a feeling. It's a committment. It's a pledge to something you can't always feel, but that should bring you feeling.

But God is Love. Love is a committment and a feeling. Not always a feeling... wait a second, maybe I'm on to something...

regardless... I feel distant. A cold distant planet longing for a sun... I feel full of my head and empty of my heart. I could think of a dozen reasons why Christian morality is beneficial and worthy of pursuit, but what of the belief? Ah, the preverbial carrot before us: Heaven. Ahhh... that's another fun nut.