So what if right now, everything is wrong?

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any other powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

You will hear it within your lifetime, the perfunctory claim that a loving God would never subject His children to suffering, let alone the ridiculous notion of an eternity without Him. You will be tantalized by the "logical" argument that the nature of God has evolved from the vengeful, hateful God of the Old Testament to the loving, gracious God of the New Testament.

Children, beware that you do not create God into a more palatable image that will resolve your discomfort of not being able to fully comprehend the Divine.

Do not mishandle scripture. Yes, we are memorizing Romans 8:38-39 as a family. And yes, you can take the verse out of context and completely misunderstand its intention. You can claim, "See! Nothing will separate us from God's Love!! Everyone will reach God eventually. It doesn't matter what you believe."

Read the entire book of Romans. Study Chapter 8. Who is the "us" in the above verse? Those who are in Christ Jesus. Does our Loving God remove suffering for His beloved. Heck, no. Rather, we have an obligation to suffer for our Lord.

Just yesterday, I was having a conversation with you, my daughter. I spoke on how society is becoming more secular and licentious as the years go by (True -- there is nothing new under the sun. The pendulum just swings back and forth.). And while many changes appear compassionate and tolerant on the surface, the changes are silencing those of more conservative backgrounds. People are afraid to speak what they truly believe, even if they choose to speak with grace and respect. Why? Because they will be labelled as heartless, prudish bigots. On certain opinions, our prevailing political ideology does not allow us the courtesy of dialogue. Apparently, we cannot agree to disagree.

How will our family equip ourselves to live in contrast to an Hedonistic society, where you are bombarded with the scintillating lyrics, "If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad"*?

"So what if right now, everything is wrong?"*

God is not concerned about your happiness. He is incredibly concerned about your holiness. So much so, He died for your lack of holiness. And if you accept that He did that for you, through Jesus, you are HOLY. And nothing, NOTHING, can separate you from the LOVE accomplishing that impossible feat for you.

*Sheryl Crow, If if Makes you Happy, 1996

Popular posts from this blog

Is God Good?

During "at home learning", I helped my daughter design an experiment on plants. She set up four identical pots with the same amount of soil in the same location on our deck (controlling her variables, right?). She planted two bean seeds in each pot. She watered three out of the four plants with various amounts of water (1/4 cup, 1/2 cup and 1 cup). The fourth plant only received whatever water naturally fell from the sky. At the end of one month, her hypothesis was partially verified. She thought the 1/4 cup water plant and 1/2 cup water plant would grow the best, which was true in the end. On the other hand, she guessed the others would not germinate at all. Interestingly enough, while the one that was drench in water (1 cup) did not germinate, the one she did not water at all actually grew! It germinated late but had the most steady growth. Is God good? I have been thinking about this question a lot these days. A global pandemic is still raging over our planet decimat...
Read more

Daunting {But Not Impossible}

I rarely watch the news. I catch up on the world's happenings -- where often the horror is reported -- via Google News. Or the brief blurb before classic rock on our favourite radio station. But very occasionally, at the end of the day, I take in the images of national and global headlines. Yesterday I watched the masses trek across Europe, searching for a safe haven away from war-torn Syria. I witnessed little kids crying as they tried to rub away tear gas sprayed by unrelenting border police. The message? You are not welcome in this country. I choked up as a father and his son fell to the ground after being tripped up by guards. The look of desperation on people's faces was heart breaking. Our country is nearing a Federal Election in October. Many voters are curious how the next Prime Minister will address the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Here is an excerpt from The Globe and Mail : Mr. Mulcair [NDP] and Mr. Trudeau [Liberal] condemn Mr. Harper [Conservative] for lacking...
Read more

Banking in the Now

This month we are trying something different: banking in the now instead of the tomorrow. Oh, it is nothing new, really. I used to operate like this in my single days. But then the lure of credit cards with reward programs persuaded me otherwise. While I never gave Visa the joy in collecting any interest payments from our bank accounts and I always payed our credit card bill before the 21 days of grace were up, I probably spent more than I should have some months. Why? Because I didn't have to pay for it immediately . It was not until last year that my credit card habits started to bother my conscience. Up to that point, I felt proud of the fact that the credit card company was paying me to use their plastic. I received stuff for free, even after paying my annual fee. Free fuel. Free flights. Free hotels. Free is good, right? My perspective started to change after I read a blog post penned by my sister. Her and her husband cut up their credit cards after a series of events, o...
Read more