“Two things are true: One there’s a God, and two: It ain’t you.”

The lyrics above popped into my head this morning but I can’t remember what artist penned them- let me know if you know! Anyway, they fit perfectly with what I wanted to talk about the today.

When Christians do something as crazy as dare to believe the Bible is actually the word of God, they get all kinds of shade thrown at them.

Here’s the thing: God hates sin. Here’s the other thing: it’s not up to me or you to say he doesn’t; or to redefine what sin is. He spells it out plainly. Here’s the other other thing: ALL of us sin. And we are all deserving of hell.

I cannot change what God has said simply because it hacks some people off. He’s God. I’m not. And neither are you.

So if people get incensed when Christians actually believe in the authority of God, or in the hell that Jesus refers to; let them.

I can’t “cover” for Jesus. He doesn’t need me to.

He said what he said. And he means it.

What I can do is point to the love of God displayed in Jesus on the cross; dying for your sin and for mine. And I can tell you he’s worth trusting; and that anything we give up in pursuit of him is well worth it.

So think about it. Did Jesus really come to earth to show his great love in calling sinners to repentance and dying in our place? Did he really rise from the dead, proving he is God? Or is it a fantasy? It’s one or the other. There is no middle ground.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to …. Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.” -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

God is the author of love. Our sense of justice originates with him. He’s the one who instilled us with a moral compass. We can see plainly from all he has made that he does, in fact, exist. And he is worthy of our submission and worship. And, he has the right to do as he sees fit with his creation (me and you). He is GOD! His word tells us who he is, and what he expects.

You, friend, have the choice to reject him, his commandments, and his offer of salvation. But, if he is not God, there is no hope for any of us. There is no claim to morality. There is…nothing. A bunch of evolved swamp goo has no standing to say “this is right”, or “this is wrong”. Anarchy reigns in this scenario; survival of the fittest. No evil is off limits. And we die in futility.

But…

If he is God, there is great hope for even the most hopeless sinner! I have so much in my past to be ashamed for; and yet, in Christ I stand forgiven and I can instead focus on how much I have to be grateful for! That the God of heaven would offer salvation to the girl who can never get her ish together (even as a Christian) is unfathomable..and yet, it’s true!

What we cannot do is fashion a God who is more to our liking. He is who he is. Take it or leave it. But please, take it.

Lay down your pride. Stop trying to make God in your own image. It doesn’t work that way.

You are loved beyond your wildest imagination.

Angela