The God of Order

There is order to the universe.  There is gravity and erosion and molecular change throughout God’s creation,  placed in perfect balance, effect and process.  This order and our human desire toward averting or prohibiting chaos are reflections of the King who made us.  This order is reflected throughout the Bible.  His Word makes sense, even the perfect flowing design that effectively lays out the wonderment of God’s Plan for human kind.  There is one place where this order is so clear that even the blind may see evidence of God’s reflection.  We have but to look to the two commandments that Lord Jesus told us which all the law and the prophets depend, both regarding “love”.  As with any other idea created by the Lord this rests on orderly principles for understanding.

Lord please allow me to say this in a manner that is both correct and appropriate for describing Your intention.  We must first Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, a love reserved for no one or no thing else.  Through our understanding of just how much God loves us especially/even when we were lost, broken, shaken, alone and wicked we begin to grasp the concept of unconditional love.  From this point we move to a similar understanding of self worth, based now entirely on the fact that if God loved us at our worst then we are in fact “worth” loving.  Learning at this point to love ourselves, because it feels good to be of value, a value that has been entirely established by God’s view of our worth, we start to understanding “how each of us wants to be loved”.  Having a solid grasp of this idea we can now see our way toward loving other people in such a manner, thus loving them as “we ourselves wish to be loved”.

All God’s teaching, demonstrates this same order and patience in “studying to show ourselves approved”  or “rightly dividing the Word of God”.  First we must read or hear a concept, spoken in God’s Word, this is the primmer for “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God”.  From that point it is entirely orderly to request more from God and seek answers, as is the nature of Kings, Proverbs.  It is orderly to hear a thing, study a thing, determine and choose to believe a thing and then take actions in life based upon that established belief.  We cannot believe what we first have not known.   Now as with Peter, there are orderly exceptions, faith in God may make us privy to ideas beyond our realm or station, but this is the orderly process of God in His reward of true faith.  If you seek Him You will find Him.  You cannot get more orderly, straight forward or simplistic than that.  Think on it, simple if-then statements are the most orderly formulaic concepts available in this world, if this then that.

I do not seek to serve God because I am odd, strange or simply hopeful of a different reality/universe.  I serve and love God because He loved me enough to leave me direction, providing order even where there is chaos.  Because of my relationship with God I am able to have PEACE in the midst of circumstances beyond any human control.  God gives me a semblance of His order to dissolve the frantic and fearful parameters of circumstance, taking my fear and replacing it with courage and victorious understanding.  Following Christ makes sense.  No amount of scientific pontification, charismatic oral presentation or repeated media implication/indoctrination will reduce the impact of God’s Orderly presence in the life of each Christian.  The enemy has been defeated in our lives, we have nothing to fear, even death has no hold upon our imminent future.  We have been sent free for eternity, and you know what that makes a whole lot of sense to me.  Choose Christ, choose order, receive life, forgiveness and freedom, a gift from the God of Order, Almighty God maker of both Heaven and Earth.  The one God, God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, holder of Truth, Justice, Righteousness and Faith.  In Jesus’ Holy Name.

The Night Will Come

Do you wish for me to whisper polite words of encouragement at all times, even those when fire is lapping at the hem of your garment or enemy forces are scouring the courtyard, searching for whom they might devour?  There will be times when my love for you requires, demands that I grab you by the scruff of your night shirt and bid you run to the woods for concealment.  Am I to restrict the appropriate demeanor or necessary force to awaken you from slumber to save your skin, just to respect some foolhardy, overly correct worldly brand of tolerance?  Look, the time of danger has either arrived or is marching, momentously toward us at breakneck speed.  There is no single thread of my spirit that would allow me to lie in complacence and watch you be overrun without warning.  I love you and just as in the military, compatriots, soldiers, brothers watch each others back.  Simply said, the time of preparation has not only come it is rapidly ebbing toward showtime.  If you must be angry with me for telling you the truth and shaking you from certain destruction, then I must accept your angst, with the knowledge that some day you will thank me in reflection.  So for now I say, either Run as you’ve never run before or stand in good courage knowing that the Lord your God shall prevail in the coming battle.

This is not a popular thing that I take upon myself as my duty prescribed by scripture.  I do not wish my name slandered, my family disturbed/threatened or the loss of friendship.  But when one smells fire it arouses internal mechanisms, when he sees the fire it calls for action, but when the crippling heat is felt upon ones skin there is no more time for standing in thought or indecision.  The time for action has arrived.

Act according to your belief.  What is that belief you say?  Well I must ask from whom do you gather wisdom.  Is it perhaps from a brief cable preacher bidding you send more money to buy you favor, providing twenty minutes of encouraging prattle that resembles Christianity.  Is it from a romance or fictional novel, maybe nightly news or worse yet council of the ungodly that bids you be scared but to do nothing with that fear?  Or have you sat in prayer, meditation and study with other believers, seeking the indwelling of God to fill you with Spirit and provide wisdom to calm the gathering storm?  Do you know what you believe and what you are meant to do with that belief?  If so, then do not expect me to stand idly, politely offering a cold drink on a hot summers day as the fire approaches our dwelling.  For I shall be the one who yanks you to attention and bids you man your position on the wall waiting for the dawn to arrive.  I am your friend and my love is real.  Do not ask me to be someone that you heard about in a movie.  I am real and I serve God and you, even when you wish it were not so.

Praise God, be patient, but be ready for whatever comes over that hill.  If I am wrong I will stand your derision, but if I am right then perhaps you will know how much I loved you when your lamp fires and we are ready for the Master’s Night Arrival.  Lord Jesus help us to be clear as the darkness approaches.