Xtraordinary – God's character from A to Z

I love that we have an outrageously extraordinary God, who works amazing and mighty miracles, but who also often works through ordinary people and ordinary circumstances to bring about extraordinary results. Only God can do that.

Sometimes I wonder which is trickier: pouring out Heaven’s power and wowing the world with an undeniably obvious supernatural intervention or marshaling mistake-making mortals to accomplish seemingly smaller tasks for the Kingdom of the Lord. It would appear far easier for the Almighty to speak the word and make it so than to include us in the process.

But then, nothing is too hard for our great God.

I think we too often just get in the way, even when we think we are serving valiantly and helping the Lord. Still, God chooses to work in, through, around, and with us. He calls us, inspires us, equips us, instructs us, encourages us, leads us, enables us, sees us through the thing, and then blesses us for coming along for the ride. How extraordinary is that?

God is anything but ordinary.

Watch Him at work, especially when we step back, stop striving, and let Him do what only He can do. See what happens, when we answer His call for a journey that could never be completed without His help.

“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:14, NIV)

But-but-but … we wanna fight-fight-fight and try-try-try and fuss-fuss-fuss. That’s sort of our most ordinary nature.

Remember? God is extraordinary.

But aren’t we supposed to do something – besides just sit back and let God do all the work?

It’s funny how Christianese jargon comes and goes with each generation. Folks used to say, “God helps those who help themselves.” Sometime later, they parroted this line instead: “Let go, and let God.”

Maybe both statements are valid. But then again, maybe neither one is wholly true. Or perhaps both hold some merit, when we find balance between the two.

Maybe faith and effort intersect most pronouncedly where we run out of everything we are and everything we have, and we cannot go on without the Lord’s intervention. Perhaps that when faith is proven, when we have nothing left, but the battle is still on, so we have only to stop and watch what He will do.

• It’s when the frail elderly lady stops would-be home intruders with a single glance.
• It’s when the runaway vehicle, careening off the highway bridge, somehow bounces right over the minivan full of kids below.
• It’s when the crippled man climbs out of his wheelchair and takes his first independent steps in more than two decades.
• It’s when the high-risk pregnancy produces a healthy child.
• It’s when the desperate drug addict comes clean.
• It’s when the shrinking paycheck somehow manages to last through an extra-long month of expenses.
• It’s when the long-time cancer-riddled body is suddenly found to be cancer-free.
• It’s when the rebellious soul gives up the fight and falls into the Savior’s strong, gentle arms in long-needed relief.

It’s when we see how extraordinary our God really is.

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Welcoming – God's character from A to Z

Even living in the American Midwest (a region often tagged as particularly friendly), I sometimes wonder if the world is not nearly as friendly or welcoming as it used to be. We live in a small town, sort of out in the country. We’ve been in the same neighborhood for almost 15 years, a subdivision with maybe 30 homes.

And we know about five families. I think I’ve actually stepped inside three homes besides our own. When I go jogging, I try to look up and smile or wave, but only a few folks even seem to look up.

Maybe that’s partly on us. Perhaps we’re the ones who aren’t wholly hospitable. I don’t know. But it doesn’t feel like the neighborhoods I remember from childhood. We used to play pickup kickball in the street. We’d knock on doors and holler and play hide-and-seek across the yards.

Not so much anymore.

It just seems as if people tend to steer up their driveways and into their garages, closing the doors behind them. No one appears to invite much interaction anymore.

God is not like that. He is wholly hospitable.

If God had a party (and He will have a whopper of a bash one day!), He'd throw open the doors and invite all His people. He'd want everyone to want to be on the guest list. (See Luke 14.) It wouldn't matter if everyone's kids went to the same schools, if they played the right sports, if they worked for certain companies, or even which flavor of church worship they liked. He'd welcome everyone who responded to His invitation.

God is 100 percent holy and would be altogether unapproachable, were it not for His great love and grace and mercy. But because He is committed to those He has created, He redeems us and calls us and welcomes us into His arms of compassion and forgiveness and acceptance.

Even before we come to realize it, we are thirsty for the water of life He offers.

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.” (Revelation 22:18, NIV)

Wait a minute. Who is the bride?

The Bible repeatedly refers to the Church as the bride of Christ. Revelation 19 paints a prophetic picture of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when believers are united forever and fully with the Lord. Revelation 21 (the chapter preceding today’s key verse) describes the New Jerusalem (the Holy City) as “a bride adorned for her husband.”

In many other spots, Scripture compares the relationship between the Lord and His Church to a marriage. (See Isaiah 54:5 and 62:5, Matthew 25:1-46, Mark 2:19-20, John 3:29, 2 Corinthians 11:2 and Ephesians 5:25-27.)

Throughout the Old Testament book of Hosea, the parallel between a fully loving husband (God) and a faithless wife (His people) is drawn. Clearly, this analogy does not portray all wives as unfaithful or all husbands as ideal. And the bride metaphor includes both men and women. (Take it easy, guys! We get it.)

But the relational symbolism does allow us to envision the unbreakable and unshakable bond God forms with us, even when we display our mortal mischief and misgivings, our weaknesses and willful straying from Him. He keeps His vows.

God is welcoming.

God calls His people back repeatedly, honoring His own covenant of love and grace and mercy.

Related item/s:

• Does the LEGO theory block fellowship?
• Liniment for the Lonely – Bible First-Aid from A to Z
• Relational – God's character from A to Z
• Will God let everybody into Heaven? 
• Zero Tolerance in Heaven?  

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Rabbit trail time: Reflecting on the restroom rumpus

Let’s talk about his and her restrooms for a moment.

Bear with me. As I write this, an ongoing debate is raging in the news and all over social networking. The whirlwind is all about washrooms provided by various businesses for public use. 

Only it’s not really about that – or, it’s not only about that.

When did the public restroom become a test-room for public policy and a cause for such unrest?

On the surface, the focus is on welcoming people of all kinds into the bathrooms of their choice, no matter what genders they are, have been, desire to be, or claim to be. But that's not the real issue.

One camp says the issue is about LGBT acceptance and freedom of gender identity. The other camp claims predators (of any gender or sexual persuasion) will seize upon this newfound lavatory liberty to fake their gender identities and harm others in bathrooms. (No one seems to be mentioning this much, but the new policies also include fashion fitting rooms in certain stores.)

I find it almost astonishing that bathrooms have become battlefields.

That’s how far our society has sunk. We’re fighting about restrooms. No one seems sure where this public potty policy (or commode controversy?) will lead, but it’s pretty clear we’ve all gone to pot.

I’m not aiming to plunge into this debate here or flush out raging comments from either camp. I just feel the need to state a few basic suggestions:

1. Parents, please accompany your own youngsters into bathrooms and fitting rooms. Whether potential predators are present or not, it’s a sound policy. There’s a reason plenty of people (even adults) don’t visit public restrooms alone anyway (except for one-seater bathrooms). Simply put, a public privy is seldom private.

2. Respectfully stating one’s position on matters of faith and ethics is important. Standing up for principles counts for plenty, and we should all do so with intelligence and compassion. A little research reveals this isn’t just a one-store policy. It’s possible to aim for a target, but still miss the mark. Instead of wondering what’s under someone else’s clothes, can we wrestle with what’s in our own hearts?

3. No matter what bathroom or fitting room you feel you fit, God wants to welcome you into His own household of faith. He loves you, and He invites you to enter His presence by His grace.

Maybe it’s time for believers to leave the toilet talk for a moment and step up in faith.

We need to approach the one and only holy throne of grace, interceding for our whole nation. Let’s call on the Almighty to turn hosts of hearts to Him. Let’s bring faith and grace and mercy and godly love out in the open and bring rest and refreshment to all those who need His living water – no matter which water closet they choose to visit.

We can, and we must. And it’s time.

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.”(Psalm 22:27-28, NIV)

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