Guest Post: "We Have A _______ God"

In year two of iron sharpening iron on this blog, I thought it would be both appropriate and fun to have occasional guest posts. I was inspired to do this after an email conversation with a loved one yielded some inspiring thoughts that I wanted to share. So I asked that person to draft a "guest post" for this blog. I am pleased to bring you guest post #1:

We Have A _______ God

“Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Mark 8:34b

“Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Matthew 12:31, 32

“And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Matthew 5:30

“And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou has smitten me these three times?” Number 22:28

“And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.” II Kings 13:21


What do these five passages of Scripture have in common? They are just a handful of dozens of passages that are evidence of this:

We Have A Radical God

Usually, in this day and age, radical has a negative connotation, so let me hasten to say that the definition of radical here does not mean ridiculous or outrageous, but rather, intense or extreme. And it is meant in the most positive way. Our God, the God of the Bible, is extremely good, extremely loving, extremely brilliant, extremely powerful. And because of these wonderful qualities, His words and actions, while always perfect, are, on occasion, no less jolting.

Thank God we have a radical God. We are living in radical times: we have a radical economic crisis, we are seeing an increase in radical acts of nature (most recently, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan), and most tragic of all, a radical moral crisis where Judeo-Christian values are being thrown aside like so much dirty laundry.

None of this surprises our radical God. He saw it all coming hundreds of years ago and has warned us about it in His word, both Old and New Testament.

He has proven Himself over the centuries to handle the most radical of problems. There was the parting of the Red Sea, Daniel in the lion’s den, Noah and the Ark, the Resurrection of Jesus, just to name a few. These were boldly radical events, but there was a lot of quietly radical living that went on in between.

Think about Noah. We remember that it rained for forty days and forty nights and Noah and his family were kept safe on the Ark. But what led up to that? We know that he built the ark, according to the Lord’s command. For a hundred years. Measuring and sawing and hammering. For a hundred years. Quietly, radically, obeying the Lord.

What about Jesus? He lived between thirty-three and thirty-six years on this earth, but He spent the first thirty, with the brief exception of his time in the Temple when He was twelve, being quietly radical. I can only imagine that, at age twelve, Jesus was like a race horse, chomping at the bit, anxious to break out of the stall and burst on the scene. He was teeming with knowledge of and passion for His Heavenly Father. But His parents chided Him, because they had been searching for Him for days. So what did Jesus do?

“And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them….” Luke 2:51a

Quietly radical. For eighteen more years.

We, too, as Christians, will have many quietly radical days, and months, and years and probably just a few boldly radical moments.

We recently moved into a home that is much larger than our previous home. I was overwhelmed as how I was going to keep this house clean. But I prayed about it and the Lord gave me a basic plan that has proven very effective. I knew that, in order to be a good steward, I should take good care of the house, which of course involves keeping it clean. But I sensed that keeping the house clean had an even greater significance…it almost seemed like a godly assignment.

Still, I would have misgivings. I would watch the news and think “The world is going to hell in a hand basket, and I’m scrubbing toilets.” I wondered, “Shouldn’t I be doing something more significant?” But the conviction persisted: just keep doing what you’re doing.

Finally, the Lord’s vision for this house began to materialize: In December my husband and I hosted a meeting where a report on a mission trip with “As Our Own” was given. Then in March, we held a ladies mini-retreat for women from three different churches.

I have begun to understand that the Lord has some wonderfully radical things that He wants to do, but I must continue in quietly radical obedience until He is ready to do them.

In the cases of Noah, and Daniel, and even Jesus, (as well as many others) their quietly radical way of living led to boldly radical events that changed the world.

We may be tempted to think, “Well, I’m not a Noah or a Daniel, and I’m certainly not Jesus. What I do isn’t going to make a difference, one way or another.”

Have you ever had an ingrown toenail? An ingrown toenail can cause a great deal of pain. Pain usually distracts and can even be an energy drain. As your body compensates by favoring the foot with the pain, it can even throw your skeleton out of alignment, leading to knee, hip, and/or back problems.

So even if you think you are nothing more than a toenail in the body of Christ, what you do matters.

The day to day, seemingly mundane, living that we do as Christians are links to great things that our Lord wants to do. Every time we resist sin, every time we obey the instructions the Lord has given us in His Word, whether it be resisting gossip or resisting sexual temptation, wives choosing to reverence their husbands (yes, that’s in the Bible), being kind to neighbors, friends, and yes, enemies. These are part of a radical way of living that we call Christianity.

And it’s the way to be on the same page with our radical God.