Jimmy turned toward me. His beefy face, stale cigarette breath and
thick-lensed-glasses were just a mere 5 inches from my face when he said these
words. I was a college kid, working
afternoons in a Kroger grocery store in Donelson, TN.
I was a good little Christian, attending
a Christian college nearby. Jimmy and I
had had a few conversations about God in the past, and I knew he had some
rather severe points of view about God that didn’t exactly jell with my own
thoughts, and I had prayed for him a time or two in days gone by.
On this particular Thursday night, I
guess I pushed a wrong button in Jimmy and that is what caused this outburst.
“GOD SUCKS” he said, and he stretched the
words out, and emphasized the last word a bit more strongly.
I don’t know what happened to Jimmy. A short time later I left that store, and
never saw him again. Down through the
years I’ve pondered his words.
My point is this …
God has survived Jimmy’s words about His
character. My idea of God has survived
Jimmy’s and other’s assault on God as I know Him.
Can you handle that?
God is not diminished by any one person’s
rants, ravings, chants, Bible burnings, even church burnings and the martyrdom of
believers around the world.
God’s nature is still intact.
God has survived the rights and wrongs of
your life and mine. He has survived the
ugly scars that might decorate your body, and He certainly has survived all the
thoughts, good and bad, that have traveled through your mind and mine.
And God is surviving all that is happening
in our world today. The news paints a
dismal picture, but God is still rising above it all. He is not diminished in any way. His power of redemption is not stopped at any
border, or by any gun or sword that is raised in protest.
This post is really about our view of God
rather than the things that are despairingly said of Him. He survives it all, and in His time of
choosing, He has acted and will continue to act as serves His greater purpose
and timeline.
Allow your God concept accept that.
Can you and I allow God to be God and trust that He is
working all things for the good?
Even though we may walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, God is with us.
That is a hard and fast promise I trust.
A confession:
I used that title simply to suck you into
this post. And if it brings you
enlightenment, that is good. The story
is true. Jimmy is his real name and he
was a real person.
The rest of the story is still being
written. I think God wants to stretch
our confidence factor in Him. The world
can distort, confuse, blame, condemn and cast out God in whatever forms or
rules it chooses to use, yet God is not diminished. His hand is not shortened. His power is not limited in any way.
That is the message I leave with you for
now.
In Revelation 1:8 we find …
I (God) am
Alpha (the beginning) and Omega (the end).
I am the one who is, who was, and who is to come – the Almighty One!
Do we trust?
P Michael
Biggs
Offering
Hope
Encouragement
Inspiration
One Word
at a Time
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