An Old African Legend

When I lived in the Congo I was told an old tribal story that had been passed down for generations. The story answered the question of why God no longer walked freely with humans. Before I tell you the story however, I need to describe a few things about preparing Pondu for eating.

Pondu is the manioc leaf.
The mortar is the bowl.
The pestle is a heavy stick used to crush the pondu inside the bowl. It is lifted high into the air and slammed down into the bowl of pondu.

Years ago when God walked freely around the village, the women of the village crushed their pondu with pestles as they do even today. But when the women lifted their pestles into the air before bringing it down into the bowls, the pestles pushed into God's stomach, which annoyed him. So he told the women to stop what they were doing. However, the women did not listen to God so he left the village.

In the center of Africa, long before White men came to the villages; long before the Bible was introduced to Africans, there was a story that explained to a tribe that God had left them and was no longer with them. The story of God's departure reaches the depths of human understanding. It explains that there is a separation between God and humanity.

The Bible also tells us that there is a separation between God and humanity. Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve lived with God in a garden that was made for them with all types of fruit trees and plants for food. Adam and Eve were told not to eat from one tree - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Eve took from it, ate and then gave to Adam who also ate. Both disobeyed God and for that they were banned from the garden and all of humanity was separated from God.

Like the African legend, Genesis tells us that there is a profound separation between God and humanity. My next blog will describe the solution to the problem of separation.

SCRIPTURE FOR CONSIDERATION

After sending Adam and Eve out, the LORD God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24).

Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ,... without hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12).

Deep Hurts That Keep Us Away from God

For some of us excuses to keep us from spiritual change are distant but effective, but for others excuses come from very personal stories that are deeply seated within, stemming from an event or events of the past. You are angry at some person or persons as well as at God. It could be a priest, pastor, deacon or Christian hurt you in some way, offended you, rejected you, abused you, or any number of possiblities. As a result you believe you have a good reason to stay away from church, from God or from both (I have heard many horror stories of people who will not step into a church because of something terrible that has happened).

Believe it or not, you may be closer to God than you think, or should I say He is closer to you than you realize. Throughout the Bible God stands beside those who are wronged. You may not feel it or even realize it, but God may be a lot more for you and your cause than you know. God does love you even though someone who claims to be His has hurt you. God loves you even though it seems that He abandoned you in the past.

I cannot explain why God let bad things happen to you or people you love. I wish I knew.... But I can tell you that you are loved.

For you the solution is difficult. It goes against everything inside of you, but I promise you that in the end you will find it is the right thing to do for you.

First of all let's look at your current situatation.
1. Something very bad happened to you.
2. It was unfair.
3. You cannot or will not let go of the hurt, because letting go of the anger over the past would say that the event didn't matter or was't important.

Whatever happened to you not only hurt you in the past but even today it haunts you and steals life from you. You could or maybe you do see a counselor to help you deal with the past. And this may or may not help you.

Whether or not you see a counselor it is important to know that God can and desires to help you find a better life... a life that is not filled with anger, regret, hate or hurt. Instead of the negativity that eats away at what is good within you, you can find peace.

SCRIPTURE FOR CONSIDERATION

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted... (Isaiah 66:13).

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4).

God told Isaiah, "I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble... (Isaiah 57:15).

God's Invitation

If God is drawing you to Himself it is good to know what you are getting into. God wants to build a relationship with you...in other words, he wants you to get to know Him as a friend, as a guide, but most of all as your God - the only one you will follow for the rest of your life.

Jesus said, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20)." In the days that sentance was written, people ate only with those who they trusted, respected, or loved. Jesus is inviting you to an amazing relationship.

OTHER BIBLE VERSES

Matthew 11:28 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Jesus used thirst as a metaphore for our need for God and said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."

Excuses as Tools

I catagorize excuses into 2 distinct camps. First of all there are those excuses people use that are no more than tools to keep them from facing the spiritual truth about themselves and God. The second catagory are those excuses that are steeped in emotional hurt. In this blog I will deal with the first of these two catagories; the type of excuses that are tools to protect us from a reality we don't want to face. The second type of excuse, I will write about in my next blog.

For some reason many of us grow up making excuses that keep us away from getting too close to God. Something deep inside knows that God wants something from us that we do not want to give. It is also possible that we feel that God wants more from us than we are able to give. Whatever it is, it unsettles us to the point that we build excuses and explanations for why we either give enough to God already or don't need to give anything more to Him at all.

Our excuses can be somewhat based in reality. In other words there is enough reality in our excuses for us to hold on to them. However, ir we look carefully at most of our excuses, they are not as solid as we believe. Take this excuse for example: "Christians are hypocrites." There is a lot of truth to this statement - there are many hypocrites in churches... but not all Christians are hypocrites. In fact, there are many Christians who are very genuine.

The excuse that Christians are hypocrites can also betray some unrealistic expectations we have for Christianity such as Christians should be flawless. Unfortuneatly, the reality is this: We are all flawed, even Christians.

Most of the excuses we use are not as solid as we think, in fact, the reason we have excuses is simply to keep us from giving any more to God than we already do.

On the flip side, some of us don't need negative excuses because we have already told ourselves that we have done all that's necessary to keep God happy. For example, many of us think that believing in God is all that's needed... If we believe there is a God, then all is well. Or we may believe that if we do enough nice things to others God will certainly take note and all will be well.

This is a list of just some of the excuses that are very commonly used:

1. Focus on Others
a. Christians are hypocrites.
b. Abusing pastors and prists in the news.
c. The church just wants money.
2. Focus on Self
a. I don't have time for church or God.
b. Someday I will, but not now.
d. I'm a nice person and that's all that God wants.
3. Focus on God
a. God is mean and vengeful.
b. I believe there is a God and that's all I need.
4. Focus on the Bible
a. The Bible is a fairy tale full of lies.
b. There are contradictions in the Bible.
c. People wrote the Bible.
5. Focus on the World
a. If God is so loving then why is there suffering in the world?

I don't have the time or energy to deal with each one of these one by one. Besides the real issue is not the commonly used excuse but the real issue is why the excuse is used.

Before I became a Christian I held on to many of these excuses, but a day came when they just didn't matter any more; I wanted God so much that my excuses faded away and I didn't care about all my reasons and excuses I held on to for so long.

Today is the day to let go of your excuses. Its time to face spiritual reality. You need God and something in you is drawing you to Him. That is more important than all the excuses you can build together.

Why Should I Choose Christianity?

If you are reading this blog it is because you are interested in Christianity for some reason. Chances are somebody has talked with you about it and you are curious. If this is the case you may be in for a bit of a surprise.

The origin of your curiosity goes beyond normal questioning. The Bible says that the desire you have comes from God who is creating in you a curiosity or maybe even a hunger to know more about Him. Philippians 2:13 says that it is God who is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

OTHER BIBLE VERSES

In John 6:44 Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me."

Jeremiah 33:3 - Long ago the LORD said to me: "I have loved you with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself."