Dear Fellow Children of God,
Do you ever have questions for God? Most Christians have questions. Even some who do not claim to be disciples of
Jesus would like some answers. Some questions
have crossed my mind. Other questions
people ask me because I am a pastor. For
example:
·
How can there be one God and three persons?
·
Who did Cain and Seth marry?
·
Why is there evil in the world?
·
How can Jesus be God and also be a man?
·
How can Jesus give His body and blood in the
Lord’s Supper?
·
Why does God answer some prayers just as I
hoped, and other prayers don’t receive my desired
answer?
·
How can the eternal Lord of all, die on a cross? I thought God was eternal.
There are many more questions that come to the mind of a
person of faith. Sometimes, not knowing
the answers to these intriguing and possibly troubling questions can be
frustrating. However, I think I was more
frustrated when I was younger, and now I am more accepting of the mysteries of
God. (Look at 1 Corinthians 4:1 or
Ephesians 5:32)
Actually, I find comfort in knowing that I don’t
understand everything. The older I get
and the more I have learned, I find out even more how much I do not know. The older I get, the more I realize how
finite my mind and my wisdom are.
God
tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9 8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 9 As the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts.” I find
comfort in knowing that God is wiser than I am and that His ways are beyond
mine!
Actually, the ultimate mystery of all is the cross of
Christ. If God is all powerful and
righteous why would he allow His Son, Jesus, to be falsely accused and brutally
tortured and killed? In 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
we are told, 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and
Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to
Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the
foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is
stronger than man's strength.
Sometimes God’s ways don’t make sense to our sinful human
minds. But God acts in ways that seem
foolish to us to give us His love and to save us from ourselves and our sin. We may not always understand what God does or
how He accomplishes what He does, but we do know that our Lord is reaching out
to all people to give eternal life through faith in Jesus.
There
are some difficult mysteries in Scripture.
But, there are also simple truths.
Martin Luther called John 3:16 the Gospel in a nutshell. "For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
There are some truths of God that are beyond our
understanding. By believing we accept
that God is working powerfully to save us through Jesus. This faith carries us through the frustrations
of life and gives us peace even when we don’t understand.
A Child of God, THANKFUL God is wiser than I am!,
Pastor Jonathan
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ABOUT ‘THOUGHTS FROM THE PASTOR’
- I am sending these e-mail messages, hopefully weekly, to all St.
John members and friends whose e-mails I have. (I am always adding new
names of friends and members – in case you are just receiving this e-mail for
the first time.) However, if you don’t want to receive this e-mail,
please let me know, and I’ll gladly leave your name off my list for this
message. . .
****
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