The Exclusive Life 6-7-09
I saw a television show last night which made me think about my relationship with God. In this episode, two characters had managed to sneak into a very exclusive party attended by the super-rich and the super-beautiful. When they first entered the enormous main room, one character remarked to the other, “this is where God would party,” to which the other character replied “if he could get in.” This statement was meant as a cute way to indicate the exclusivity of the situation in which the two characters found themselves, but it did something else as well (at least it did for me). It raised the question: do we desire to go places and do things where there is no room for God?
I had to think about what God has done for me: creating, nurturing, protecting, guiding, and blessing my life in many ways. As said in the Psalms:
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13 NIV)
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23 NIV)
No matter where I have gone, God has always stood by me – not always pleased, but always protecting. In fact, God has even conquered death for me! So, to my shame, what have I done for God? Nothing! There is no claim I can make for glory about my deeds; there is no profit for God in my life. I am a beggar, coming to the Master asking for the barest of sustenance and I am instead received as a long-lost son, picked up and dressed in the finest of clothes with a ring on my finger and a celebration planned in honor of my return to the family!
So, in view of this situation, where am I going to take God? I have these new clothes – where should I go? I have been welcomed back into the family of God – with whom should I “hang out”? A recovering alcoholic should stay away from bars and a recovering gambling-addict should stay away from casinos. Recovering sinners should avoid sinning! If God is not welcome in places to which I am going, I need to question why I am going there. That doesn’t mean I cannot go (for instance, if the place I have to work at is hostile to God), it just means I have to make sure that I keep God close in my heart and constantly in my mind when I am there. But if I am going to a place for my own entertainment, I should not be ashamed in front of God to be there. If I am, then that is a place (or activity) to which I should not go.
We can forsake God, after we have known him. But it is never a good thing (and sometimes it is eternally fatal)! Look at three examples: Peter, Paul, and Judas. Peter knew Jesus more intimately that any other disciple except possibly John. But in the confusion of the revelations at the Last Supper, the arrest in the Garden, and the trials of that night, Peter forsook God because of fear and exhaustion. Saul (Paul) was a devout Jew, raised with the best education in the Law, Prophets, and traditions. But in his zeal to stamp out a heretical sect, he forsook God because of inability to accept that he and his teachers were wrong. Judas saw the miracles of Jesus and witnessed God bringing the messiah out into the public view. But he forsook God because of his desire for money and the trappings of this world; he rejected the living god for thirty cold pieces of silver and received a lonely death.
Don’t forsake God! It will always lead to pain and heartache, and can even lead to eternal death! Choose carefully if you are going to be a Christian, or someone who goes to church and lives your real life away from Godly things. God has chosen you; make sure that you choose him too!
-Charles Peterson