Enough

With too much free time, one has too much time to think ...

What does God expect of me?
What does God expect of any of us?
How much is ENOUGH?

Yeah, these past three years have been a mighty horrible.
And anyone would be a liar if they were not to wonder about what God expects of each of us ...

Of course, I am old German by upbringing - everything is viewed as being black and white.
As my father told me  as a child, "There is definitely a God, and you must recognize that he exists, but he really is not nice and you really do not want to know him."

Well, as I was to understand decades later - his viewpoint was skewed as a troubled Swiss youth whom chose to join the Reich, it was the duty of every Germanic after all.  His family, all strong Zwingli Christians, violently disagreed.

So, I do KNOW there is a God.
I do KNOW Him to be loving and personal.
And I have seen Him exacting His justice .....
Hence, I learned how He works ... so at least I know I am not under wrath (whew!)

But what does He expect of us?
How much are we expected to take in silence ..... ?

Well:

• God exists (whether you acknowledge Him or not!)
• God is sovereign over your life (whether you like it or not!)
• God is molding you for your eternal life (whether you want it or not!)
• God will push you to your limits (until you submit to His Will!)
• God will sustain you through your shaping process

So when you think on the more than human characters preserved for us in the Bible, we can see just how far God is willing to go to mold someone, as well as,  how He works in our lives.  Think of Moses, David, Ezekiel, or the lives of any of the apostles!  Winners, losers, lots of people in the Bible whom endured or failed ... and endurance apparently can include failures as the less than perfect basis of our growth!

But through these thoughts I am reminded of the question I heard so long ago: "Which Jesus do you serve?  The one of the Bible, the one of man's creation or the one in your mind?"

God has a really stringent requirement that you know whom He is and what He stands for.
He is the creator of all we can comprehend.  He demands we place nothing in front of our worship of Him.  I need go no further.

Intellectually, we discount God asthe  creator, we question the why and the how of creation, we go out of our way to destroy His creation!  We create laws to outlaw conflicting thought - we mock those whom we declare unenlightened.  We have so many false gods it is almost an endless list which encompasses all of us!  Just think of sports, sex, drugs, alcohol, our jobs, our families ...... our mostly pagan churches calling upon culture rather than Biblical values in their teachings and judgements!  Accepting sin as normal or excusing it!

No, we never will have perfect anything!  Not you, not me, not my friends, not my church.  But it is possible to at least know and be able to discern where we fail - and repent our failure ..... and not repeat it!

So where does that leave me, in my frustration?

God is testing, God is teaching, it is the only way in which to view these many years.
So ya just gotta keep on, keeping on  .....