Apologizing for God

I have been convicted recently, and I want to share my struggle.  I can admit that I do think it is a sin issue, although I don't think I would have ever considered it such even a month ago.  However, the reality is that this struggle has hurt my relationship with God, and hurt my testimony to those around me.

I have been feeling the urge to apologize for God.

Sitting in a room with eager learners seeking real answers about the real God of the universe, I have felt tempted to apologize for what we find.

It's not that I am refusing to teach the truth of Scripture--I am much too convinced of the truth and accuracy of Scripture to do that...

...but what I seem to have lost conviction about was the goodness of God.

At the root, its about shame.

Shame, embarrassed to share the hard truths of the Bible.  The truth that the Bible tells the story of a God that is beyond our expectations and understanding.  The truth that this God does things that I can't defend or argue as good.  It has made me squirm to talk about how God has reacted to sin in the past, what he has called sin for all time, and so many more things that I can't begin to describe it.

And at the root is my culture, my generation.  Though better trained to know the truth, I am equally able to drown in the culture around me.  I find it difficult to separate myself, my identity, from the culture that surrounds me. The culture of tolerance and timidness; sarcasm and sexuality; activism and apathy.  This is MY culture, and it has a tremendous impact on my life.

And it broke me.  It led me into the lie that I can decide whether God is good or not, that I am somehow qualified to criticize the character of God.  The God who has created ten thousand suns and beyond, who knit my brain together and allowed it to think and work--I am going to try to criticize this?  I am going to try to apologize for his actions?

____________

A student sat in my office confessing a struggle; a sin.  Looking at me, they sought God's word on this issue.  What does the book say?  What does it reveal?

And I hesitated.

And that is when I noticed the destruction inside me.  That is when I resolved to make a change.  That is when I prayed for forgiveness, apologizing to God for how I had avoided Him instead of apologizing for Him to those around me.

And I felt his goodness around me, surrounding me and wrapping me in his truth and justice and goodness and love.

For part of the great truth of the gospel is that he is never far away, even when we try to make Him so.

And as I continue on this journey of being in love with the actions of God, the teachings of God, and the character of God, I ask--will you pray for me?

Have you ever found yourself apologizing for God?  What caused your hesitancy? I hope to hear from you!

Does Sexuality Exist?

It is a question that has been brewing in my mind for some time now.  It is a question that, I believe, goes to the heart of many issues facing the church.

Does sexuality exist?  Is sexuality a natural (read: biological, genetic) aspect of human experience?

This question is crucial because it also leads us to ask one other question:  Is sexuality a cultural construction?

You see, sexuality can be only one; it can only be genetic or cultural.  If sexuality is genetic than the nature of that sexuality will raise questions about how we are created, the depths of depravity, etc.  If sexuality is a cultural construction than it poses questions about how we identify ourselves, understand ourselves as humans, and how we have interpreted what it means to be human.

I do not have nearly enough knowledge to give a comprehensive answer to the question today, but today I would like to start a conversation about the nature of sexuality.  I hope you will join me in considering some of this information, and perhaps we can grow through it.

The Bible Is...Not A Science Book

Last week, we began to discuss what the Bible is, by discussing what the Bible is not.  This week, I would like to remind us of something that I believe we all know:  The Bible is not a science book.

Since Darwin began his inquiry into evolution, Christians have taken a stronger and stronger stance against scientific inquiry.  We have become convinced that scientists are out to get us, to destroy our faith, and to turn us into a secular society.  This is a sad turn in the church's history.

For most of the history of the church, we were the leading pioneers in the scientific fields.  We were the great doctors, scientists and discoverers.  We have let our great past become a corpse as we allow fear to keep us from looking fully at the world through science.

We cannot read the Bible expecting it to present us with the scientifically accurate presentation of the world because that was never the intention of the Bible.  God was not interested in providing the science behind what he did, but revealing the character with which he acted and continues to act in the world.

The first chapters of Genesis were not written to share a scientific account of creation, but were written to reveal the nature of the world God had created (and of himself--the Creator).  It was written to in response to views of a chaotic, angry creation God of the Babylonians and others ancient peoples.  It was written to show God's orderliness, goodness, and love for his creation.

The shocking part of this is that most of us don't even realize that most early Christians didn't focus on the seven days of creation as a literal amount.  People like Augustine were already calling it an allegory in the 5th century!

When we free the Biblical account from a modern need for scientific accuracy, it frees us to not only read Scripture how it was intended to be read, but also to see science as a blessed way to understand how creation was pieced together.  Science, while not absolute, is a great blessing that allows us to learn about the wonders of the world God miraculously created.


Why do you think Genesis was written?  What was the message God was trying to give?  Do you believe the Bible to be scientifically accurate?  Why or why not?  What other questions do we need to address to understand the issue more fully?

If you would like to do a little reading on Genesis and the best way to read it, I recommend this book by Tremper Longman.