How Involved Is God?

Micromanager? Macromanager? Somewhere in between? Well... do events in the past have any more historical significance than what happens today? It would appear that in the past God had plenty to do with the events that shaped the destiny of people. Every person had a destiny, and each one was subject to God's sovereign will... at least at some level. Was sending His Son, Jesus, the only or last time God intervened in human affairs? If the Bible is any indication (for Christians it's the ONLY indication), certainly not. If Revelation is the prophetic book it claims to be (Revelation 22:19), then God will continue to be intimately involved in human affairs until the end of time.

Joseph was sold into slavery by ambivalent brothers, and he ended up being given the ability to interpret dreams which ultimately ended in the second highest leadership position in Egypt. This ultimately ended in his being present to save his family from starvation during a famine. He never believed that God was uninvolved in what was happening to him - despite the fact that he continued to be faced with difficult circumstances.

Daniel and his friends believed that God was involved enough to save them out of a blazing furnace. In fact, He came down and had fellowship with them in that furnace. If He had just set earth spinning, why would He do such a thing?

The genealogy of Christ Himself was determined through the line of David and included Ruth and Rahab - results of God's involvement in the destiny of mankind throughout the Old Testament. God impregnated Mary - I doubt if there is any more intimate involvement possible with a human. Not only did God impregnate her, but he sent her and Joseph both comfort by means of an angelic visit to ease their fears. Was this necessary? No.

Maybe it could be reasoned that these Bible stories are just stories, and that I am naive to believe them, but that's all the Bible really is - a series of stories - anecdotes? If I can't believe all of them, I won't believe any of them, because where does the skepticism end, and who determines where that point is? If I believe that Jonah and the fish is just a story, then why not the immaculate conception? It's just as implausible and just a few pages over in the Bible.

John 15, in the Vine and the Branches analogy that Jesus Himself gave, he said the words "apart from me, you can do nothing". (John 15:5) That doesn't sound like the speech of a God who strives to be marginally involved. It would be cruel for Him to go so far as to say that we need Him for everything - in this case bearing fruit that he calls for us to do as proof of our salvation - and yet to fail to do the enabling He promised.

If I could name one of my most consistent private faith struggles, it would be this: How can there be a "the Lord our God, the Lord is One" (Deut. 6:4 and Mark 12:29) who has given us "one spirit" (1Cor. 12:13, Eph. 2:18, Phil. 1:27), yet there is so much conflict amongst Christians and so much debate over who God really is? One "born again" person believes whole-heartedly that God is largely uninvolved, while the "born again" person next to him believes just as steadfastly that God is deeply involved in each of his/her days. I can only conclude that "One God" is either one or the other (apathetic or embroiled) ... not both at once. This sometimes, I am loath to admit, causes me to doubt the very existence of God. I have to remind myself, however, that these things are man's definitions of God - not the actual "who" of Him. The only way I can figure out the actual WHO is to pursue Him with all that is in me. (Jer. 29:13)

What I learn of God through Scripture is that He is not the God of "halfway". He isn't marginally concerned. I need only look at the albeit tainted creation around me to recognize that God doesn't undertake any project in a haphazard way. I acknowledge that persons can relate to God in different ways, and I believe each of us must in fact relate to God in a way that is just as unique to us as the way we have been created. There is no formula to a person's relationship with God. But I have yet to understand WHY I (or anyone) would ever want anything but a deep relationship with a Savior. Doesn't the word "Savior" imbue passionate gratitude? I needed to be pulled from the jaws of eternal death, and my Savior did it, yet I would choose a largely impersonal relationship from that point forward? I was loved by that Savior, not just by words, but with an ACT - in a way that I could only ever hope to be loved by anyone else on the planet, and yet I would choose to believe that's where His involvement ended? My passionate nature is sickened by the idea.

The only way I can imagine accepting such a ho-hum idea of the savior/saved relationship is if the impact of the savior's sacrifice was lost on me... if I thought that somehow I was capable of saving myself. If I fool myself into thinking that I would have somehow gotten out of the "pickle" I was in without the help of a savior, I could easily dismiss my need of that savior... and therefore the obligation of relationship to him.

Most Christians believe that the atheist seeks to have control over his/her own life by claiming the nonexistence of God. However, I would go so far as to say that one who claims that God set the world in motion and backed off involvement seeks to do the same thing by a different method... saying that, "God left me on my own. Therefore, I am less responsible to Him for my actions. "

Darkness is only absence of light? Cold is only absence of heat? Sin/death is absence of God? Scripture is the method God chose to use to reveal His character and the way He relates to us. Yet I can't find a single event in Scripture (even in sinful times) in which God proves absent. I believe that many/most tragedies are a result of a fallen world (which God also allowed). But what about joys? Every good and perfect gift is from the Lord. (family, friends, work, food, shelter, clothes, etc. - James 1:16-18) Apart from God, the earth would cease to exist. Hebrews 1:3 says he "sustains all things by the power of His word." Every animated thing man has ever made requires a power source... a battery, electricity. What about the animated things God has made? Animals, man? What is our power source? From where did we get our ability to "go"?
He alone sustains our life and does it or ceases to do it each moment.

Romans 9 talks of God's sovereignty and Exodus 33:19 goes so far as to say that it is God's prerogative to show mercy and compassion or to not show it. Yet we have the audacity to believe that we can choose better than He, or that we can cast judgment upon the decisions He has made?

Philipians 1:6 says that He started working on me, and that He will continue to do that until Christ's return. One thing I know... I need A LOT of work. I believe that - at least in me - it won't be accomplished without His daily involvement in my life. I am on board with that. I want nothing less than His deep care and involvement in my life. I am surrendered, by His grace, to whatever level His sovereignty takes. For me, that's the best place I can be - just accepting of whatever level of involvement He wants to have with me. He walked with Adam in the "cool of the day". I hope that He wants that kind of companionship with me too. I'm confident that He does.

Did you ever notice that the greatest love stories have a damsel in distress, a hero, and a villain? What if there was no distress? What if no villain? Just a damsel and a hero. He says, "I love you." She says, "Yeah, me too." They get married and live "happily ever after". It doesn't have the same appeal, if you ask me. If you think about it, your favorite love story is bound to have two people - kept apart for one reason or another (class, family expectations, circumstances, etc.). Hero has to prove his love for damsel by sacrificing something GREAT (sometimes risking his own life) in order to get her back. That's the Bible. That's what God put within us. It's built-into our design. Our desire for unconditional love and rescue (if we're a woman) or to be a hero (if we're a man) starts as early as we can remember (for most of us) and, although we may lose hope and give up on those feelings along the way, we can be sure that those deep desires didn't evolve from our ape ancestors, instead given as a gift from our loving Creator. We can be equally as sure that they can't be solved by finding the perfect human to meet those needs. People were never meant to meet a need that God created.

The knowledge of the truth is written on your heart but suppressed by the part within you that doesn't want to submit to what we believe may be a constrictive religion or a tyrant God. Romans 1:19-20 says, "...what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

I'm going to close this blog with the lyrics of a song I heard yesterday by an artist named Jason Gray. The song is called "More Like Falling in Love". It's a beautiful song, and it says it all so well.

Give me rules
I will break them
Give me lines
I will cross them
I need more than a truth to believe
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet
It ought to be

More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It's like I'm falling, oh
It's like I'm falling in love

Give me words
I'll misuse them
Obligations
I'll misplace them
'Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
It's gotta be

CHORUS

...It's like I'm falling in love, love, love
Deeper and deeper
It was love that made
Me a believer
In more than a name, a faith, a creed
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me