God of Wrath and Love

   I have learned a lot over my lifetime. I have learned that it is not a good idea to put your hand on the stove when it's hot, learned that one the hard way. I have learned that adulting is hard; enjoy childhood while you can, children/college students. I have also learned that I don't know everything, especially when it comes to God.
   I have asked a lot of questions about God. Some I have learned the answers to, others I have not. One question I have asked is: why does God seem different in the Old Testament? He is about love in the New Testament and death in the Old, why is that? Believe it or not, after struggling with that, and after study at LBC, I have an answer.
   It is important to note before we go on that many people ask this question because of the fact that the Bible says that God doesn't change (Heb.13.8). If God doesn't change then why is Jesus all about love and acceptance?
   I'm glad you asked ;) It is true that God does not change, no matter how different he seems in the Old Testament as compared to the New Testament. However, God does change the way he deals with us. That may seem close to changing, but God's personality is still the same.
   Think of it this way: at the beginning of the world, God gave Adam and Eve one commandment. They were not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If they ate, the consequence would be death (Gen.2.16-17). You know the rest of the story: Adam and Eve ate of the tree and they died immediately, right? Wrong! God could have killed Adam and Eve right away because they disobeyed. Not only that, but sin entered the world then. God cannot look upon sin; therefore, God could no longer walk with Adam and Eve. God showed love to Adam and Eve by not killing them immediately.
   One part of God that I think we don't emphasize enough is that God is a God of wrath. He cannot be with anything unholy. When sin entered the world, God could have left us all alone to die; but, because of his love, he did not. He had a chosen people who were to be a light to the world: the Israelites.
   The Israelites did an amazing job at spreading the good news and everyone was saved. Ha, just making sure you are still paying attention. The Israelites were given commandments. In the end, they did not follow those commandments, continued to sin, and fell away from God. But, before that happened, they had strong Godly leaders, like Moses and Joshua, that led them in God's ways. During that time, God told Joshua every time the Israelites defeated a city that everything was to be destroyed. That meant that the gold, animals, men, women, and children were to be killed. Hold up, isn't God a loving God? Why would he make the Israelites kill everything?
   God knew that if the Israelites would keep those people alive the Israelites would fall into sin. That's great that God is taking care of His people, but why doesn't he care about those other people, the ones who were killed? God did care about those people. Israel's job was to be a light to the world. Do you think that the people in the towns the Israelites destroyed never heard of the miracles and victories the Israelites had? They did, in fact many times the cities joined with other cities to defeat the Israelites; but they were no match for God. These people in these cities were sinners, could they have repented? Would God have accepted them?
   The Bible gives us a few examples of people who joined the Israelites because they repented. In Joshua 2, we read the story about how Rahab helped the spies. After she helped them, she asked to join them because she heard of the miracles that occurred and knew God was with them. Rahab did something that the other people in Jericho did not do: she repented. She did not run from God, but ran to him and, because of that, she and her family joined the Israelites. I could go on with examples of people like Samson who turned from God but at the end turned back, Ruth who stayed with Naomi though it meant hardship, and even the whole city of Nineveh who turned from their evil ways. All of them repented and followed God. God accepted them because he is a God of love and he doesn't want any to perish. But, God cannot look on sin which is why he is also a God of wrath.
   Now you may be saying, "didn't the Israelites sin too? How could God look upon them?" The Israelites presented sacrifices to God. The only way that God could be with them is by a sacrifice of atonement that happened once each year (Lev.16 [specifically verse 34 if you don't want to read about how the sacrifice was made]). The reason why the sacrifice had to be made is because God sacrificed a lamb to make clothes for Adam and Eve. The blood of the lamb covered their sin. Sound familiar? It should because, I don't know about you but, I am so thankful that I don't have to sacrifice animals today because Jesus died for my sins. The Old Testament pointed to Jesus. The law was made to prove that we cannot make it to heaven on our own. We need Jesus to take our sin away. That's why Jesus came in and talked about love; because that's what Jesus came to share: God's love.
   So, do you realize that God is a God of love and wrath? Do you see that God has never changed? Do you believe that Jesus died as atonement for your sins?

   For more information on God being a God of wrath and love check out this blog.

   Image from here.

The Application of Knowledge

   What does this sentence mean to you?

   "When pipers pipe, they blow air into the bag through the blowstick; then they squeeze the bag so that air flows through the drones and the chanter."

   Shall I play the Jeopardy theme song to help you out? Go ahead take all the time you need to figure out what that sentence is talking about. Did you figure it out? Well, if you did good job. If you didn’t, I’m not going to tell you what it is yet.

   Some of you may know what this sentence is talking about. So, if you know what is means, you are the teacher. You need to tell everyone who doesn’t know what that sentence is about. All together now: bagpipes. There, now everyone knows what that sentence is about. So now you can all play bagpipes, right?

   You mean you can’t play bagpipes? Why can’t you? I just imparted the knowledge to you that the sentence was about bagpipes. Oh, you are saying I just told you about the bagpipes and I didn’t tell you how to apply the knowledge. You are right, I didn’t.

   This is how some teachers and preachers teach. They tell people the knowledge and theology; but they do not tell people how they can apply it to their lives. So if someone asked me what that sentence above was about I could say bagpipes. If the person asked me why they should care about bagpipes, or how to play bagpipes I would have to say I don’t know.

   See, if teachers and preachers are not helping me apply knowledge to my life then I cannot help others apply the same knowledge to their lives. I can have all the knowledge in the world; but if I don’t know how to apply it to my life then the knowledge isn’t doing me much good.

   I understand that everyone does have their own brain. If I look in the Bible I can probably figure out how to apply certain passages to my life. But, what if I interpreted those passages wrong? Then, what could be worse is I tell others what I think about the passages. I am spreading incorrect knowledge to other people. And,I am making other people apply that knowledge incorrectly. The only way I will change my ways is if someone sets me straight. I would need someone to guide me on the correct path like a teacher or a preacher.

   That is why it is the job of a teacher to guide others. Teachers need to not only impart knowledge but help others apply the knowledge. I’m not saying that teachers should say “this is the only way you can apply this knowledge.” But teachers need to help guide their students.

   Finally, if you are not a teacher, you do not get out of this. We are all teachers whether we like it or not. We all need to impart knowledge to others and help them apply the knowledge. If you don’t believe me then think about your children, or children you will have in the future. If you tell a child how to tie his shoes, but you don’t show him how. How does that help him? You must guide children.

   So, are you imparting knowledge to others? Are you guiding others in applying that knowledge in their lives?

   Proverbs 19:20 & Proverbs 4:6-7