What Bothers You in God's Word?

Intro

In Morning Worship this Sunday (4/13/2008), we talked about things in the Word that we don't get, things that are hard to accept. The central character trait that God wants us to build in life is that of faith. Often, Jesus’ followers exhibit faith and still have doubts, confusions, misgivings. We see this in the Gospels when the man with a sick daughter cries “Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief.” We see this after Jesus was raised from the dead and shows Himself to the Eleven when we read “when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some were doubtful.” We see this in our lives when we read some difficult saying and ask the question “does He really mean that?” or say to ourselves “no, He must mean something else, it can’t mean that!” I know of a dear faithful woman that had read about God’s choice of some to be saved from sin and not others. She read in Romans 9:13 “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated.” Her response was to accept the truth of God’s election. However, she also reacted to that verse by saying “I hate that!” Granted, that verse doesn’t beat around the bush on the matter, nor is it very sensitive. But it is what it is and we need to come to grips with our misgivings and doubts and begin to believe and do what God has revealed to mankind in His holy Word, the Bible. So buckle up, it’s going to be a fun, honest, open, frank discussion of specific concepts that bother us in God’s Word.


Things We Couldn't Get To

You write "Hosea – his life was tragic for an object lesson!"
Very interesting observation. Hosea was directed by God to do some very hard things. I don't want to brush over that. Yes, God wanted to teach a lesson to His people thru this one man's experiences. Yes, Hosea had a very difficult life for the purpose of an object lesson. Why would God USE someone like that? Writing about the years of wandering in the wilderness, Paul tells us that "these things were written for our instruction" and later "these things happened for our instruction" (1 Corinthians 10). That later phrase is very interesting. It is useful to see all of human history as redemptive history and instructive to our generation's struggles. It was true of Hosea, it was true of the exodus Jews, it is true for all history. The saying goes "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" and this saying is shown in the 1 Cor 10 passage. Is it fair or nice of God to do this to poor Hosea? Remember the notion we did present in the morning message, God is the conductor of the orchestra, He ordains it all to happen the way He wants. We do not answer back to the potter. Read Isaiah 45 and Romans 9 on this idea.


You wrote "Violence in Jerusalem"
I think that this respondent was referring to modern violence in the city of Jerusalem... the nation of Israel in its struggle with Palestinian terrorists. Yet this is a historic struggle between God's chosen people (Israel) and the enemies of God. All throughout the Old Testament, there were wars between these groups. Why can't people get over it? Why when the New Testament, in particular, invites us into a worldview of peace can't the world be at peace? How can the angels announce on the first Christmas "hosanna to God in the highest and peace on earth, good will to men with whom God is pleased" when Jesus didn't bring peace to this world? That is to say, Jesus incarnated Himself yet there are still wars. There isn't a good answer to this. All I can say is that Jesus has brought peace to the souls of His people. While war and aggression seem to be ever-abiding and while Christians debate over their level of participation in the affairs of civil government, the Christian is invited to be at peace with God. We were once rebels against Him, in enmity with Him, yet Christ made the peace between us when He killed our rebel spirit on the cross. That is some pretty Good News, as I see it.


...more to come...