Reflections on God

   As I write this morning in a old New England seaport, God is faithful despite our issues. It seems we all have a "dead place" in our hearts that He desires to heal. He created us to love Him, and receive His love. Yet God is not a one dimensional Santa Claus, someone who only exists to give to our needs and wants. We need to sacrifice ourselves to receive Him fully. My wants, desires, needs must be submitted to Him to "know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God," to walk with "Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." (Ephesians 3:19-20.)
     The same Holy Spirit who inspires Paul to write 1 Corinthians 16:23-24 "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus," writes in the preceding verse 22, "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!" (NKJV) To know God fully we must accept verse twenty-two just as completely as we do verses twenty-three and four. As humans most of us desire and welcome love and grace but having God curse those who don't love Christ strikes us as harsh and jarring. Yet we should seek the revelation of the Holy Spirit to illuminate this for us. Rather than try to rationalize or explain it away, we should remember that God's thoughts and ways are higher than ours. (Isaiah 55:9) We are created to glorify Him. "Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." (Isaiah 43:6b-7 NIV)
     One of my favorite memory verses is buried in the depths of the "Minor Prophets," Nahum 1:7. "The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him..." But let's look at the context, a blood curdling wrath against the people of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire.
   "Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him. The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him, but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into darkness." (Nahum 1:6-8 NIV) May we know the God, who is love (1 John 4:16), and a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29).