You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. – Psalm 86:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 3, 2016): Psalm 86

To paraphrase Morgan Freeman from his series “The Story of God,” the Christian God seems to be an individual God – we make of him what we want and  mold him to fit our own beliefs, purposes, and needs. For some Christians, including me, the statement makes us want to scream “No. God is God and we do not mold him to our purposes, he molds us to his.” But the reality is that that, at least in practice, is probably not the truth. We constantly seem to remake God in our own image. And so we have a God that seems to be as comfortable in the humble rural church with a ‘plain reading of the text’ philosophy as he is in a mega church chasing after a ‘prosperity gospel.’ We serve a God that is as alive in tongues speaking churches as he is in a staid, predictable non-tongues speaking church. And maybe on the fringe, Christians serve a God who seems to be able to love the LGBTQ community and be present in a church that says that God actively hates them. But deep down I believe that there needs to be a search for the real Christian God. After all, he does not seem to be able to actually be all that we make him out to be – and in all the churches that fit in between the extremes.

For me, the essential nature of God goes back to his core characteristics of love and forgiveness. And, no, we do not always get that right. But as I read the Bible, this is the truth that I receive over and over again, in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Testament. God is love. If there is hate against people (I will concede that God hates sin) then true Christianity is absent. David Meece in the 1980’s actually got it right.

Where there's hate give me love
Where there's pride make me be humble
Where there's pain don't let me feel resentment deep inside
I want You to make it right

So replace it with Your love in my heart   

                                                (Replace it with Your Love, David Meece, 1983) 

To all who would like to make the primary message of God hate, it just can’t be done. God is love. And I am not sure that even all of the Biblical writers understood that. But consistently as I read the Bible, I see God nudging his creation toward love, even in a culture that was wrapped up in hate.

I get that sometimes the love of God is not obvious. I struggle hard with the violent texts of the Bible and the messages that they contain. I have said that I believe that every time God stood in judgment over his creation, that deep down he was hoping for a Moses to stand up and pray “God have mercy on us.” And too often both in the Bible and in Church history we have refused to be the ones who would do that. But that needs to change with us. We need to be the ones in our generation that beg God for mercy for our sin, both personally and the sins of our culture, and not the ones who invite his wrath to fall on those who do evil (and even David fell into that trap.) But the reality that David also understood was that it is all of us who stand in need of God’s forgiveness and love – and not just a special subset of people. As Christians, we need to rise to the role of being the conduit of his forgiveness and love for a world that is craving just that – no matter what they might say.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 101

Personal Note - My grandmother turns 101 today. I am so thankful for the difference she has made in my life.