The God you Made Up in your Head

I'm sure there are people who think a Christian is someone who takes a bunch of things that would probably happen anyway and just say that it was God. An "answer" to prayer is really just their own thoughts - which they attribute to God. A miracle is just an unlikely thing taking it's turn - but we call it a miracle. If circumstances ever, sometimes just go against you, then it follows that they also must sometimes just go for you. Then you can just tell yourself it was God. And isn't He good?

In this way, you could impose a layer of God based conclusions over top of an otherwise normal world and say, "I believe - how can you not?"

But the thing is, for some of us who think we're following "Him", there are times when you find yourself face to face with a thing that really feels like it could only come from God. I think we all owe it to ourselves to try to live in such a way that creates the possibility for God but doesn't fudge the answer one way or the other. You can only trust the outcome if you've been honest about the process. It's why we call our church the Thomas Question. You can only trust your answer when you've honestly asked your question.

And by the way, I had one of those "could only come from God" moments this morning. You should look into it! He really is bigger than all my fears, more important than all my complications and more effective than all my efforts.

Or at least it sure seems like it...

CSW

Something to Consider at the Crash of a Dream

There comes a moment just before the fracture breaks the surface and a solid dream is torn apart - and in that moment, it finally becomes apparent that you're about to lose a thing which you've cared for deeply.

Here's something you can say in that moment:

"None of the appropriate adjectives about my future have changed (it is still good, engaging, worthwhile, purpose ridden and passion worthy). None of the appropriate adjectives about my future have changed - only my illusions about how they would come to pass. Whatever is happening was written - and God didn't only allow it, He's decided to use it. So I refuse to act as if there is no God by weeping, worrying, obsessing, blaming, shaming or hating. I will not nurse, rehearse, repeat or return. Instead, I will live as though He IS real by embracing what comes next."

The way we visualize our dreams is just a crutch we use to help ourselves believe that God could be good to us. Rather, it should be enough to simply confirm the outcome without the crutch: He WILL be good to us. Just not always in the way we visualized it. So hold your dreams loosely! But hold the one who holds your dreams tightly!

Just a thought. And I dare you to make it more.

The Lines We Hide Between

The following is from our email devotional. You can subscribe to at www.askthequestion.ca, you can contribute your replies and it will be followed by a podcast teaching from this coming Sunday.

For more than 40 years, prying eyes peered across the Berlin wall and suspicions were multiplied.  It's what a wall does.  You see enough of someone else to know they're doing something, but not enough to know exactly what.  And suspicions are multiplied.  
 
It would be fascinating to read a history on the concept of "us" versus "them".  Anytime you give into the idea of "other", you create something to be feared.  And that single toxic thought - that someone is different enough to be "other" - is the beginning of most of the worst things about us. 
 
One of the most radical features of Christianity is how it breaks down barriers, even to the degree of discomfort.  It shifts the meaning of all our labels to a friendlier category.  Strangers become neighbors, our friends are treated like family and even in the case of our enemies, our behavior is inverted completely, returning kindness for abuse, so that the category no longer even exists...
 
"After all, what good is it", Jesus asks, "if you love those who love you?"  Who doesn't already do that?  But if we were to shift from the normal patterns of relationships in such a bold way... now that would be something... 
 
So why not promote everyone a single notch upwards?  Erase your "enemy" and "stranger" categories so that the very lowest distinction you have available is "neighbor".  Who knows?  You may just tear down a wall.  Suspicious eyes may become understanding, a thing taken may become a thing willingly given, and a revolution may begin.  And what a powerful way to know if God is real - because it could only work if He is. 
 
Over the past few Sundays we've been searching for 6 sentences that will forever change the way we look at church.  Why not join us? 
 
Hope to see you there, and I hope you bring someone with you,
 
CSW

The Lines We Hide Behind

The following is our email devotional you can subscribe to at www.askthequestion.ca. It will be followed up by a podcast teaching from this coming Sunday.

DON’T FORGET our new service time and location!

Simon Wiesenthal was a young Jew imprisoned in a Nazi death camp during the Holocaust. One day, while on a work detail outside a hospital, he was asked to accompany a nurse to the side of a dying German SS officer. What happened next forms the basis of a book he wrote years after the fact entitled “The Sunflower”. For several hours that afternoon he sat and listened to the terrible confessions of the dying officer who then asked to be forgiven.

What would you have done?

Grace is something we know to be noble – but we also struggle to come to terms with it’s limits (if there are any). Are there situations which go beyond the limits of grace? Can we ever be in a situation where we need to forgive someone else more than we need to be forgiven, ourselves? Can grace ever be reckless? Can withholding grace ever be appropriate?

I guess it all depends on where you draw the line – and on which side of it you find yourself. So where do you draw the line? To go back to our original question, if you were Simon, what would you have done?

This Sunday I’d like to challenge some of your thinking about grace, forgiveness and where you draw that line. And I’ll also let you know what Simon chose to do...

Hope to see you there,

CSW