my God is so big

I've been slowly making my way through chronological readings of the Old Testament and have now reached the book of Daniel. While it contains some spooky and weird stuff, for which I've been getting a bit of interpretation help from a basic commentary, there is one theme that stands out clearly and prominently...

God is powerful.

He shuts the mouths of lions (Dan 6), he can bring the mightiest ruler low (Dan 4), he can even sustain strapping young men on a diet of vegetables (Dan 1)! He rules everyone and everything (Dan 7:11-14).

Sometimes I feel uncomfortable focussing my thoughts on God's power, because I don't want to presume that he will exercise it on my behalf in the ways that I want to prescribe for him. He isn't a magic genie god after all (Dan 3:16-18).

However, it's enormously encouraging to know that God is more powerful than anyone or anything else in the universe. He's more powerful than the people whose approval I crave, he's more powerful than the people who are able to harm me or disrupt my life, he is able to exercise his strength in the situations that I feel hopeless about. Above all, he has exercised his power to save me in Christ (Eph 1:17-21).

What a great gift and privilege it is to know and be able to pray to our powerful God.

when things look shaky

With regard to Hebrews 12:28, F. F. Bruce says

... in a day when everything that can be shaken is being shaken before our eyes and even beneath our feet, let us in our turn give thanks for the unshakable kingdom which we have inherited, which endures forever when everything else to which men and women may pin their hopes disappears and leaves not a wrack behind.

p. 392 of The Epistle to the Hebrews by F. F. Bruce in the NICNT series, published by Eerdmans.

Mexican standoff in the bunny hutch

Food has always been a bit of a divider for our bunnies.

Every meal time they hear one of us approach with their pellets and are stirred into a frenzy of anxiety. Will there be a sufficient supply for both? For a while they simply growled at one other and acted a bit agro until the pellets arrived, at which point both would go heads down, tails up into their bowl.

Now, however, bunny paranoia has reached a new level. The attitude runs something like this:

If there are to be enough bunny pellets for me, then I need to keep you away from them, so that I can have them for myself. However, keeping you away from the pellets involves vigilance on my part, therefore I cannot enjoy the pellets either.

I have never claimed that they are intelligent creatures!

Until a human intervenes, or the hunger pangs get too strong, no bunny gets to eat. The pellets disappear far more slowly over the day, rather than vanishing within an hour or two of first being put out as they used to.

(Lest anyone mistake us for cruel people who underfeed our bunnies, it is worth pointing out that they always have plenty of hay, and usually also grass and vegies supplementary to their pellets. Both bunnies are amply proportioned.)

I was tempted to call this post "bunnies are just like people - 3rd installment", but I restrained myself. While I did take a small portion of potato from my husband's plate yesterday, I didn't growl at him as I did so, nor did we both go hungry while protecting our meals from one another!

However, there is a fundamental lack of bunny trust in us as their carers and protectors which I find disheartening. In many ways this is very similar to how we treat God - He gives us everything and promises to provide all we need, yet most of the time we act as if there isn't enough to go around, and assume that we ought to get whatever we need on our own terms, even if it means hurting someone else. (Rom 1:18-32)

Even just this afternoon I have been reminded of my need to keep on trusting God in prayer for everything I need. May I act toward Him and my fellow humans far better than the bunnies treat their owners and one another!

God and natural disasters

I'm writing this with some caution, given recent events in Burma and China.

Georgina has asked a great question: what we are to make of natural disasters which cause so much pain, death and destruction, when we also know that they are from the hand of God?

Here's an outline of a biblical response to this:

1 Before humans decided to disobey God, there were no natural disasters in the world as everything worked exactly as it should in perfect harmony (Gen 1-2).

2 As a result of our choice to disobey God, chaos has entered into the world (Gen 3, Rom 5:12; Rom 8:18-25). We are all subject to decay, and the created order isn't exempt. Natural disasters are just one outworking of this chaos in creation.

3 People who suffer and die in natural disasters or accidents are not necessarily any more sinful than others (Luke 13:1-5). Sometimes we suffer directly because of our sin (eg. John 5:1-15), but a lot of bad stuff just happens to people without any rhyme or reason to who is or isn't affected.

4 I'm extrapolating a bit from Luke 13:1-5 here, but I take it that natural disasters should serve as a warning for us to repent. Reminders of our mortality should drive us to make sure that we are right with God.

5 Finally we see that natural disasters aren't God's ultimate intention for us. When we read Rev 21-22 we see a renewed, transformed world where everything works as it should. The curse has been reversed (Gen 3; Rev 22:3).

Now, there is still a big area of mystery. Why does God choose to operate in this way at all? Why some people and not others?

I don't know.

What I can say for sure is that when I look at the start (Gen 1-2) and ultimate fulfilment of creation (Rev 21-22) I see that God is good and has good plans and purposes for His world. When I look at Jesus I see that God suffered in the most costly way possible in order to rescue us from our sin and the chaotic world that resulted from our disobedience.

Does a loving God judge?

Intuitively, teaching Christians who are struggling to trust God about judgement and hell seems like a really bad idea.

However, over years of working in Christian ministry, and in working through my own struggles, one particular aspect of hell and judgement has struck me as being enormously comforting. It is simply this:

God's judges because He cares.

A few years ago I was chatting with a friend who was studying the history of slavery as part of an arts degree. She was most disturbed because she had been learning about the transportation of slaves from Africa to North America. Some had been left to die of starvation during the voyages across. Had God just forgetten about them? Did God really care? By extension, was God at all concerned about the things that she was going through?

Most arguments for atheism, including one I heard recently from Peter Singer, revolve around unjust human suffering: if God cares about us, why does He allow so much suffering without intervening? Either God doesn't exist, or God is bad.

One facet of a response to this question is to consider the judgement of God.

God does care about wrongdoing, and He cares about it so much that He judges evil. This happened when Christ died on the cross (1 Peter 3:18), it is happening now as He allows people to continue in their sin (Rom 1:18-32), and He will finally and ultimately judge in the future when Jesus returns (Acts 17:31).

The vivid descriptions of the judgement of God in Revelation are not written primarily to scare the living daylights out of us - though this isn't necessarily an improper response to the texts - they are written to comfort and encourage Christians. God will see that justice is done. The Lamb will win (to steal a line from Bewes) and evil and wrongdoing will be done away with. Revelation 19:11-21 is one of my favourite passages in the Bible (well the first half anyway) - Jesus is the triumphant victor who has redeemed His people with His blood, who enacts judgement on all evil. He is the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

God will see that justice is done for the African slaves who died on the boat, God will see that justice is done for children who are abused, God will see that justice is done regarding Burmese officials who refuse aid workers access to their country, to name only a tiny drop from the great ocean of injustices that have been and are being committed in the world.

Of course, we must be careful about being too zealous in calling for God's justice, because we know that if he enacts justice with regard to our lives and doings, we will be in deep deep trouble. We all deserve God's judgement, but God in his kindness takes away the punishment that we deserve in Christ.

Gordon has recently put up a great post that explores the encouragement we can derive from this forgiveness and rescue from hell, called "Hell: a help for depression". It's well worth a read.