Forgive me for my poor ability to communicate God’s Love for you.  That is after all, the entire drive behind my ministry, to describe, demonstrate and convince you that although this world leaves us empty, alone and bewildered, that the Almighty God of this and every universe, Loves you deeply.  Though my vocabulary and communication skills are insufficient to this task, that matters little.  For it is the Holy Spirit of God that speaks to you using my feeble attempts as conduit.  Please do not focus on my inadequacies, for if you pay them particular attention you may miss the treasure of my attempts.  He is there, He is alive, He is waiting to hear from you and develop an eternal relationship of teaching, care and peace provoking fellowship.

Where are you now?  What is happening right now?  What demons do you face, what troubles are you fighting, what pains do you suffer and what feelings overwhelm?  None you say, you are entirely self-sufficient, needing nothing.  I applaud your position.  My seasons however have changed and each time they do I realize how poorly supplied I have been in the past to overcome those inevitable changes of life.  I have been convinced of God’s unrequited, unflinching, perpetual Love for me.  So now my inadequacies don’t matter.  It is no longer me alone, facing each obstacle, some of them even life threatening.  It is God fighting for me, protecting me, guiding me, intervening in my circumstances with a promise to never quit, no matter the size, force and longevity of the battles I must face.  For nothing is beyond God and He loves me enough to be my Saviour if I will believe and submit to His Will for my life.

That is the problem isn’t,  submitting to God?  None of us would argue against God Loving us, for there is no cost in Him Loving us that much.  There are none other than the wicked who would avoid the idea that God truly Loves each of us.  When faced with having to obey His Word and Will or depend on Him for our provision, protection and prayer, then and only then do we meet the true conflict in each man’s heart.  For that is the moment of our greatest determination.  The moment when our pains, mistakes, victories and challenges either fall within acceptable control or we find the need to cry out to God for relief and help.

And that is why people hate Jesus, because they have no problem making a wooden or metal idol and rubbing it, asking three times for their wishes to be answered.  They have no problem with the man, called Jesus, preaching love, respect and freedom from the world’s troubles.  They hate Christ because He said He is God and told them that belief in Him is the “only” way to salvation and eternal life spent within God’s Kingdom.  They hate Him for saying that we cannot earn our way to heaven that it is out of reach of our own efforts.  That central idea is the basis behind the formulation of all false prophets or religions.  They hope that somehow religion might counter this assertion by developing new books, new rules or conforming the Word of God into a kinder, gentler, version of reality one that allows us to control our access into heaven.  One that allows man to save himself through good behavior or some set of behaviors and sacraments.  They hate Him for the truth.  Their only hope, since they are unwilling to humble themselves before God, is now to wish upon every star, that somehow Christ was wrong.

Again they have no problem with freely given love they have a problem with submitting to a “Sovereign” authority who has the Right, the Power and the Ability to pronounce judgment upon their behaviors and deeds.  Isn’t that the same circumstance that occurred in the Garden of Eden?  That the enemy twists God’s Word until it says what we want it to say and that man always seeks his own way instead of God’s, to his own demise.  Isn’t that why the Jewish Nation has been repeatedly disciplined by God throughout history?  They could not just accept His Sovereign Grace and instead developed rules, methods and rituals to earn their way into the presence of God.  It all comes down the central concept of do I obey a Sovereign God or do I choose to exercise my own foolish right of determination? Isn’t that the concept behind ethical relativism?  The mantra of today’s world, let each man be his own authority and respect each man’s choices of identity no matter how dangerous, odd or unrealistic they become. For to put rules upon any man implies that there is in fact a fixed, truth that bonds all men to what is universally right and wrong.  They killed Jesus for implying that any such Eternal and Lasting Truth exists.  What then do you believe they would do to me for making that same assertion?  It matters not for my life or death is in God’s Hands not my own.  I serve a Sovereign Lord.

I used to fight God, even when I began to trust Him and understand that His Will was “always” better for me than my own path.  Why?  Because, that is the battle to which each man is called to muster, the war between self and God.  Do I serve my wealth, my government or my religion or do I serve God?  It is that simple, but yet so complicated for us to comprehend.  We cannot afford for it to be simple because then we would have to make a rational and conscious choice and admit that God exists and therefore each of us must make a decision.  That is why this conversation is disallowed in all communities.  For even having the conversation clarifies our circumstance, destroys obfuscation and false argument.  This conversation introduces all men to the idea behind each of our lives.  Are we here by God’s Hand or by chance?  For through that discussion we all make the choice of whom we serve in this life and the next.

It was hard for me to understand that God would allow my disobedience.  I thought certainly, that when I chose His Way that He would force me to obey, but that was not always the case.  For God Loves me enough to allow me the free will to make my own choices and mistakes.  Although He never allows me to rebelliously disobey without direct consequence, as an indolent child, He allows me to struggle some times for His own purposes and my growth.  For in my struggle, I get my legs under me and I am taught to depend upon Him.  My struggles have grown me in wisdom and taught me that He never leaves, never ignores, never looks away in disgust at my inadequacies.  He is simply the God who “IS”.  God Loves you in a way that we cannot comprehend for every thing we do is finite or limited.  He is not limited or finite but is outside of time’s constraining influence upon definition and understanding.  When you have the opportunity to fight God or submit, I pray with all my heart that you give in and find the Goodness of God’s Plan for your life.  In Jesus’ Name.