Trust God

Man was created to worship.

I believe that there is just something about man that makes him want to worship something. I also believe that whatever it is that makes man want to worship is something on the inside of him that is searching for and reaching out for God. And that it was put there by God. I believe that God put it there so that when a man embarks on a sincere quest to find the creator of the universe, he would find God. Or to put it more succinctly, he would find a God who was already looking for him.

Even when a man’s spirit is not regenerated, there is something in him that makes him seek for something to revere, to hold in high esteem. There has always been something that he feels is deserving of his “devotion”. Mankind’s history is full of stories of men “worshipping” something or the other. In the world today, we hear stories of different tribes of people who worship or hold certain animals in high esteem. To the Hindi’s, the elephant is highly revered because of its association to Ganesha, the Hindi god of prosperity. Other cultures revere cows, snakes, goats. Then there are other cultures that worship trees, metal, precious stones. There is no limit to what the imagination of man can ascribe the attribute of being worthy of worship to.

However, there is a tendency in man to try to understand what it is he is worshipping. In the Bible, we have the example of the Israelites who had just been liberated from Egypt in the book of Exodus. They were ready to worship God, but being a people who walked by sight, they were not comfortable walking or worshipping a God they could not see. They were more comfortable with Aaron making a golden cow out of all their golden ornaments. To them, it was a representation of the god that had brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. In the book of Acts, we see the men of Athens who erected an idol to the “unknown god”. They had their “gods” which they worshipped but they had a feeling that there had to be another god somewhere out there.

In the world today, we see people who like the Israelites do not believe in a God that they cannot see. Rather than reach out in faith to find God, they turn away and worship something else and creating an idol out of what they worship. Some people worship themselves and make a god out of themselves. There are those who, while not worshipping themselves, worship an ideal or a concept and make it a god. They worship the ideal or the concept of equality; freedom or some other concept. Then there are those who worship things like knowledge. And because they worship knowledge for the sake of knowledge, they miss the truth. They think thank because they have found knowledge that they are too wise to believe in a God that they cannot see. And because they have totally given their minds over to these ideals or concepts, there is no space for a loving God to reach them.

When we seek to understand God, we try to put him in a box. We try to confine him and make him predictable. It’s like a mathematical or scientific equation. We would feel more comfortable with God if he were like the mathematical equation that tells us that 2+2=4. Or that two molecules of hydrogen mixed with one molecule of water will give us water. Always. That makes it so comforting, the fact that in any given situation, we know what will happen. That in any given situation, God will act in a certain way. But God it’s so good to know that God cannot be boxed or his action predicted. Because if it were otherwise, we wouldn’t be serving an all knowing, all powerful God whom the Bible speaks of by saying that “his ways are past finding out.” We can’t predict him or understand him. But we can trust him. Just because he has said so.

In the absence of understanding, trust is the only thing that can enable worship. If there is no trust, there can be no worship. God has asked us to trust that not only is he God, but that he has our best interests at heart. The important question is, if we don’t trust him, who can we trust? Other men who are just like us. Unfaithful, unreliable, untrustworthy men like us? I don’t think so. Should we trust in money, our jobs, or the economy? Even before I finished that last part, a chuckle rises up. In these times of turmoil, I doubt that those things are worthy of trust. Is it wood, plastic, silver or gold? These things like everything else will perish. That leaves God.

Trust God. He is the only one who won’t leave you in a lurch. He has promised to never leave nor forsake you. He has promised, not to take away all your troubles (like the politicians) but has said he will go through the trouble with you, he will feel your pain and give you peace to bear the trouble. And in the end, when you come out of the trouble, you’ll wonder why you were ever worried in the first place.

Trust God.  

DEFINITELY NOT APOLOGETIC

I once read an edition of the Daily Bread Devotional where one of the writers made mention of a poster on the wall of a Christian college student. The poster depicted a lone fish swimming in the opposite direction from all the other fish. The poster had a caption; “Go Against The Flow”. The whole thing painted a picture in my mind of a fish that was committed to what it believed and was ready to stay the course, no matter what the other fish did.

I love Marks account of Jesus promise of what would happen to the Christian here on earth. Peter had just asked Jesus what reward they were going to get for leaving their livelihood to follow him. Jesus answered, “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sister, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” (Mark 19:29-30). If that’s not enough to scare you then I don’t know what will. But the fact is that we don’t follow Christ because of what we hope to get from him. We follow him because the Holy Spirit has convicted us of sin and we realise that we need God. However, if there is anyone who is following Christ because of what he hopes to get, then he should be ready to take the good with the bad. You can't take one without the other. Christ never promised us a life of ease.

Following Christ in light of the above therefore requires commitment. It’s not enough to say it, we need to live it. We know how it is. We all want to be loved. In a world that has totally become hostile to Christian ideals, at times we want to shrink from letting people know what we believe. We find it hard to profess our faith because we don’t want to be regarded as strange, even crazy. We want to blend it and not cause any waves. Or we’ve become famous and we realise not everyone that likes us believes the same thing we do. We don’t want to alienate our fans by letting them know what we believe, especially if it might hurt our finances. Whether it’s a lack of trust in God or something else, that’s story for another day. We get all apologetic about what we believe and we don’t stand up for the truth. It shows the lack of commitment we have to Christ.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were in no way apologetic about what they believed or stood for. They were ready for the consequence of not obeying Nebuchadnezzar and not bowing down to his idol. I wonder whether they had rehearsed it before then. Did one of them fear that the others might renege on their agreement not to bow? If one of them had bowed would the others have followed? I doubt it. Their words showed their convictions. I wonder if anyone of us knows how it feels. To be in a sea of human beings, with everyone bowing and some lying prostrate on the ground. Some doing it in worship, others in fear of what would happen if they didn’t bow. But they stood their ground. That was commitment and their words to the king showed they owed neither him nor anyone else any apologies for not bowing.

Carrie Prejean was at the final stage of the Miss America contest. She was the favourite to win. All she had to do was answer the last question in a way that pleased the organisers; the judges and the viewers at home and the crown was hers. To their shock, she held on to what she believed and the crown was taken from her. In the end, the organisers of the pageant were the ones apologising to people for her views. I thought about all the trouble caused and the whole furore over a simple statement about what she believed. Not even the chance to gain the applause of men dissuaded her from her views. Rather, like the title of a Max Lucado book, I believe she gained the applause of heaven. I believe that is what we should all strive for, what should move us. It was her story that made me write the novel DECEPTIO. We all need to remember that there will come times when our faith will be tried. Whether we stand for God or apologise for the views we hold, it all depends on us.

What do you believe?

J. C. Cruz

(P.S. I have been studying quotes by G. K. Chesterton and I have been thinking a lot about the faith that we profess. I hope to give my own quotes when I can, when I can’t, I will look for someone else to help me with his. My book, DECEPTIO is out now on WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers)

“I have always wondered why the act of defending the Christian faith and the people who write to defend it are both known as apologetics. Personally, I do not feel in the least bit apologetic about what I believe about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Church and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” J. C. Cruz       

Love vs. Law

This is my first post on my new blog and I want to use the blog to share about things I feel strongly about. I understand that a lot of people will probably disagree with my views but that’s life. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. But the fact is that, it’s my blog and I get to write what I want to write.

I remember watching Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married?” and feeling disturbed. It wasn’t that the film wasn’t nice, it was. What made me feel disturbed was the part where Tyler Perry’s character and his wife were arguing over having children and she blurted out the usual phrase that women all over America are familiar with, “It’s my body.” Every female of child bearing age (between the ages of 9 and 60) with those words, asserts her rights to control the reproductive processes of her body and thereby decide whether or not to have sex with her husband or boyfriend or abort or keep any baby that might be conceived as a result of the sex. And before the females think I’m about to go on an anti-female rant, I’m not. The thought came to me one day that even with all the rights that we as human beings have, the world is still full of pain, murder and people hurting each other. Then another thought came, that the rights we hold on to with a passion are just a substandard version God’s laws and of the ultimate law of God, the law of love.

Before I go on, I would like to state what love is NOT. Hollywood and the world around has made us believe that love is about sex and a lot of Christians have bought into that lie. You all know that movie, where the teenage male lead tells the girl he “loves” that she should have sex with him to prove that she loves him? We all sigh and go mushy inside even as we reach for our handkerchiefs’ when she says a tremulous “Yes”. We murmur about what a beautiful relationship it is. That is NOT love. That’s just sex. If he loved her, he wouldn’t ask her to prove her love in the first place. Love is not a mushy feeling that we get when we look at someone of the opposite sex whom we feel we love. The mushy feeling is just an emotion and like most, if not all emotions, it will disappear. The thing with emotions is that they are dependent upon the happening of an event and if a negative event were to happen, it would wipe out the former earlier positive emotion. Love is not an emotion as it is not dependent upon the happening of any event. Also, if you’re in an abusive relationship that you don’t want to leave because you think he or she loves you, sorry to break your bubble. Love is not about abuse. He or she doesn’t love you. He or she is just using you and you are obsessed with them. That is not love. Love does not intentionally hurt.

If all those things are not what love is all about, then, what is love? Forget about all those definitions that talk about eros, philio and all that. Love is much simpler than all that. Love doesn’t need to be broken up into all that. Simply put, you know you love someone when you want the best the best for them, even when what is best for them might be to your own detriment. I know a lot of people will probably not agree with that but the Bible is full of people who because they loved, helped the person they loved achieve what was best for that person even to their own detriment.

The Bible tells us that God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son ….” we all know the rest. God gave up Jesus to die for you and me so that he could redeem us back to Him. Have we ever wondered that maybe God harboured a little fear that might Jesus human nature might cause him to sin and cause them to be separated forever? Yet, He still gave him up. He suffered loss (albeit temporarily) so that you and I could have a relationship with him again.

Jesus also suffered the loss of his life so that you and I could find a way back to the father. He died so that you and I could inherit all the benefits of being sons and daughters of God. I know, some of you’ll say “Well JC, that is basically God.” Then what about Abraham? Abraham and Lot both became so prosperous that there were quarrels between their servants while they were both together in Genesis 13. In verse 9, Abraham gave Lot the chance to choose first, where he wanted to go. Even though Abraham was the one with the promise and Lot was only tagging along, Abraham gave Lot the chance to chose the good part of the land first, even though he would be left with the bad part rejected by lot. Abraham gave Lot the chance to choose first, because he loved him. Loving someone therefore means being ready to give up something so that the one we love can enjoy a benefit. This can be any situation in the home, with friends or the office. If I were to ask the men if they loved their office assistant, a lot would probably recoil in horror, stammering about how they didn’t think of the office assistant in that way. Like I said earlier, the love I am talking about has nothing whatsoever to do with sex, so relax. Put another way, even though she’s just an office assistant, would you be willing to do anything to help her get ahead in life, even if she became your boss? If you are afraid of her being your boss, then it’s probably because you have been a bad boss. The essence of love is that you think of yourself last. It might not be a conscious effort, going around saying that you’re thinking of everyone first. But life is about decisions. When the time for decisions come, then we will truly know whether or how much we have loved.

I know that thanks to Oprah and a lot of TV gurus, the usual thing is to think of yourself first. I have heard a lot of them say that you’re the first person you should think of when it comes to the issue of happiness. That if you’re in a marriage and you’re feeling unhappy and you’ve found someone else you think you love, the first person that deserves to be happy is you. What your children or spouse thinks or feels doesn’t matter because you’re the only one who deserves to be happy. That is not love. I know that in an era of self love where everyone is trying to get ahead regardless of the other person that is not popular. But that is the way God intended it.

When I went to Max Lucado’s HisIsMine project website to put down my story, I came across the story of a woman (whose name is Judy I think) who’s husband had cheated on her. They weren’t Christians at the time and while the husband confessed to other infidelities and wanted them to go to counseling, she just wanted to end the marriage. She collected as much information as she could and she found out that it would cost less for her to get a divorce than for her to go to counseling. In the end, someone introduced her to a pastor who would counsel her and her husband for free. That was what saved her marriage and caused her to come to the knowledge of Christ.

That got me thinking. We live in a world today that tells us we have rights. But the thrust of my thought is that when we accept those rights instead of walking in love, we fall short of what God wants for us. We think that when we allow. Like I said earlier, it’s interesting that we have so many rights that we guard jealously, yet it has not put an end to wars, murder and other forms of strife. Judy was well within her rights to invoke the law and ask for a divorce. But in the end, she chose to walk in love (albeit unknowingly) and allow her husband to have the counseling he wanted. In the end, she saved her marriage and her soul.

It’s very baffling to me how two people can say that they are in love, get married and then the moment one the man says he wants children, the woman replies with Roe vs. Wade. I find it especially strange when Christian women do it. I’m not saying it’s not their body or their right to choose when to have children. But my view is that it is selfish for her to unilaterally invoke the law and choose for both of them. The least she should do is at least talk with him so that they can both come to an agreement. It’s funny how two people get married and during the marriage ceremony before God and the congregation, pledge their bodies to each other and promise to honour each other with their bodies. Then the moment something comes up, she throws away her marriage vows and invokes the law. Yet, Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:4 tells us that spouses have no power over their own bodies. He goes on further at verse 5 to tell us that married couples should agree about when to have sex or not.

It really got me thinking. When we invoke the law one with another, not only do we negate love, we settle for something less than we would have attained with love. And even though I have used the example of a married couple, it doesn’t have to be a marriage. It could be a friendship, a business or working relationship. The law is not soft like love. It has sharp edges that are meant and used to inflict hurt on the other person. In the end, we hurt ourselves even though we are not aware of it. The law is a form of attack. Love on the other hand is a hand extended in fellowship and goodwill. It might be rejected or it might be trampled upon. But that is no reason not to show love. God has commanded us to be like Him, to represent him here on earth. God is love. We have no reason to be anything else.  

(J C Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO which is available now from http://www.westbowpress.com/store and from http://www.amazon.com and from other Christian bookstores)