Love Lets You Choose

Before we dig deep into the hard questions of real life on earth, we need to understand one thing clearly: real love lets you choose.

God is love.  Love is the foundation of his universe, his government.  As we saw in the story of creation, He wants loving relationships with the creatures in his universe.  But in order for that love to be real, the possibility has to be there that we could refuse to love back.

Otherwise we wouldn't be human; we'd be robots.

The Bible makes it clear that God wants our love, our service, our dedication of our lives to him to be a freely given choice.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.  Deuteronomy 30:19-20

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.  Joshua 24:15

And with the option of choice, God opened the door to the option of evil.

Where's the Love?

So if God is love, and he created the world based on love, how come everything is so screwed up? Well, that's the million dollar question, isn't it? That's the thing everybody wants to know.

If God is love, how can he let two little boys be ripped out of their mother's arms to drown in a hurricane because the man in a nearby house is too hard-hearted to let them in?

If God is love, how can he let Malala be shot in the head just because she wants an education?

If God is love, how can he stand by and let all the pain and suffering that happens daily on this planet go by without putting a stop to it?

Those are fair questions. I believe that those are questions God wants us to ask. I believe that those are questions God is prepared to answer for us.

And that's what I'm going to be writing about here.

So if you have ever asked those questions, pull up a keyboard. If you know someone who has asked those questions, send them a link, and let's get ready to talk. Bring your hardest questions. Bring your crankiest curmudgeons.

It's gonna get REAL up in here. Because either God's love is big enough and strong enough to handle our real questions, or it truly isn't worth our time, our attention, definitely not our worship.

Minor spoiler: I think it's big enough and strong enough. And I want to explain why.

Will you come along for the ride?

Nope, Not One Thing

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~Romans 8:38, 39 NLT

Gungor - "God is not a White Man"

Thanks to reader (and friend!) Susie who shared this with me over on Facebook.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  It's a catchy little tune, and what a great message to have stuck in your head!

In the Beginning was Love

In the beginning God (Genesis 1:1) was the Word (John 1:1), and the Word was Love (1 John 4:16).

Looking at the first chapters of Scripture, we find a portrait of the God whose unfathomable Love forms the foundation for everything we know.

This is a God who creates a world built around companionship. He creates a man and immediately says that it's not good for the man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Creating humanity in his own image requires two humans; the image of God is not complete without both male and female (Genesis 1:27).

This is a God who rests immediately after creating his perfect world and his perfect humans (Genesis 2:2-3), creating a holy space in the rhythm of life especially for enjoying companionship with God and each other.

This is a God who takes the time to walk in the garden during the cool part of the day with his creatures and misses them when they don't show up (Genesis 3:8-9).

True, it's backstory we get later, but this is a God "slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8) -- a God who has already planned to sacrifice himself to solve the sin problem he knows his beloved humans are going to cause.

It's a God of Love who built a world around love to lavish Love on people... people like you.

And that's the beginning.