Wake-Up Call

 

Wake-up calls blindside us. We think we’ve got everything under control in our lives and then something happens making it very clear that we have some serious problems requiring very drastic and unpleasant changes. Wake-up calls are humiliating. They bring us to our knees. But after we’ve “woken up”, we’re grateful for them because without wake-up calls, we can be headed for destruction. 

It shouldn’t be surprising that God often uses wake-up calls to get our attention, but it is. We have been so programmed into seeing God as an old grandpa handing out free candy, that we have lost sight of the fact that sometimes He has to hurt us in order to heal us. It is for our good – it always is, but at the moment we usually resent those divine attention getters. 

There’s a dusty book in the Bible at the end of the Old Testament called Joel. If you have read it, you probably remember something about locusts! But the book of Joel is about a whole lot more than insects, it’s about God waking people up to what matters most. And that’s a subject we all need to take to heart. It’s easy to get so distracted from God in our day to day lives that we don’t even realize we’ve drifted far from him. Join us this Sunday for a wake-up call all of us need. 

Sunday Worship Time: 10:00 am

God’s Dangerous Love

 

There are those who express their disdain for the meek and mild Jesus. They believe he is like a stupefying drug which reduces humans to utter weakness, good for nothing more than being doormats for the strong who understand that life is all about survival of the fittest. 

On the other extreme are those critics of Christ who point to the Old Testament and paint God out as whimsically unpredictable, insecure, and violently angry. 

There is, however, a third alternative which Christians have been presenting for the last two thousand years. God is dangerous, but he is good. Goodness takes on many forms. We recognize that in our daily lives. Sometimes it is good to serve and put the needs of others first. Sometimes good is taking violent action to stop evil from overcoming good. For those who are serious about seeing life as it really is, goodness can be, at times, complicated. 

Does God need to be violent? If he never is, what will happen to the spread of evil? 

Does God need to be forgiving? If he never is, what will happen to you and me? 

Rather than pick and choose certain events in the Bible and create a God according to our own liking, it’s much wiser to see God as he has revealed himself throughout history. To try and make God into anything other than he is – well – that’s just plain dangerous. 

Join us this Sunday. Find out what a man named Hosea learned about these things. 

Sunday Worship Time: 10:00 am