Reasonable Rationality

The problem with Christianity is not in the audacious claims made by it.  Everything about Christianity is really quite reasonable and logical.  Its difficulty lies in the simplicity it presents.  Who can't imagine a God making the universe?  It really isn't that stunning a conclusion!  And what is so odd about that God loving His created beings with unquenchable affection?  Is that hard to consider?  And can we be so shallow in our thinking that we can deny the possibility that there is universal right and wrong; that some things always are good and fair and others have for all time been wicked and bad?   What can we say about a God who is willing to take the extreme measure of dying Himself to make a way for His beloved people to become wholly good and thoroughly flawless?  Is that too strange a consideration?  What marks the Christian is not the illogic of her assumptions; it is the complete reasonableness of her thinking!  No Christian should apologize for believing that God is love and eternal and holy.  That is the logical conclusion.  What is irrational is the determination that evil is somehow desirable and life is temporary and behind all of this we see and smell and touch is the random unthinking of empty space.  Just consider for a moment the love you feel for a baby griping your thumb for all he is worth or the joy you experience making a new friend who really does want to be with you!  Is that the stuff of nonsense and balderdash?  The beginning of wisdom is that love is really Love and good is really Good and life is Life and darkness is too small to contain the Light.  Perhaps just a moment or two is enough to resettle your senses and grasp the simplicity of your faith, that God loves you and really does love you and is working out every detail of that life of yours for good that is eternally good and intelligently loving and in your favor.  You are not alone.  You are in the lap of Love and that Love does not give up on you even when you want to give up on Him.

 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."     Matthew 1:23 NIV

An Extension of Christ

Do you know a "hard case", someone who is so far from God that he seems to be impossibly lost?  Have you come across the soul who is irascible, who is such an irritant that you are ready to be done with her?  The great temptation is to give up on certain people; to dump them in the hopeless bin.  And yet there is not a single person who is "hopeless"; otherwise what good is the cross of Christ.  Zacchaeus was content in his greed and selfishness and certainly many must have prayed for his demise.  Was he hopeless?  Saul was a human butcher, cruel and a prig.  He must have been the subject of many a cry for destruction, the Christian community surely longed for God to take him apart.  Was he hopeless?   We are astonished by David's miserable wailing when he found out Absalom had been killed because it was Absalom who despised David more than even his worst enemies; who although a son, wanted him dead and publicly humiliated.  Was Absalom hopeless?  David didn't see him that way and he is our standard for evaluating others.  No one is too wicked to be scorned; no one is too lost to be rejected.  Jesus died for all, not just those who were good prospects for holiness.  If His love extended beyond the natural bounds of affection, then ours can and must too because He lives within us.  We never have an excuse for giving up on another; for quitting on her.  We may be discouraged by the outer show of things but our Lord went straight for  the heart and loved even the most haughty of sinners.   We must stand firm in Christ and let Him love through us and not confound His efforts by letting our dislike for someone keep us from being the Lord's good and faithful servant.  It is no use complaining to the Lord who was beaten in the courtyard of Caiaphas.  The Lord sees a place of hope in your Pilates and Matthews.  Nothing warms the heart of our Lord quite as much as having a friend who sees that hope too.   Ananias did not want to go to Saul and touch Him but he did and the world has not been the same.  Extend your reach past your feelings and let Christ win you over.

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it.  Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord--Jesus…"  Acts 9: 17