http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZH9ebAZouk As a Georgian, I have been in the thick (is that the right word?) of these winter storms that have been hitting the South. Other than confirming my present distrust in the fear mongering climate "scientists" and their global warming, these storms have spurned thought about God's sovereignty over the weather.
Contemporary (or "contemporvant") Christianity in America has done a great (and by "great" I mean horrible) job of removing any sense of transcendence & fear previously associated with God. This brand of Christianity has done a wonderful job of describing just how much God loves each and every one of us. Not just any sort of love but the deep down ewey gooey sort of love held between high school love birds (Favorite line: "There you have it, young love: full of promise, full of hope, ignorant of reality") but like I mentioned, it is utterly impotent in ascribing transcendence and power to God.
According to Proverbs 1:7 the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. In many current contexts where the Christian faith is proclaimed, there is nothing to fear in the Christian God. He only ever wants and tries to do good things for you and whenever something bad happens to you it most certainly wasn't God.
What does this sort of teaching teach us to fear? It teaches us to fear a supposed random chaos of the universe because it refuses to associate anything negative with God. Therefore, instead of having a holy fear towards God we instead have a shallow passion for God with a underlying fear that he is not truly in control of what is going on.
This is not what the Bible teaches us that God is like. The Bible teaches us that God is just that "God". He is in control of all things:
Job 2:10 — But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Psalm 115:3 — Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Psalm 107:24 — For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.
Mark 4:39-41 — And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!”And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
God spoke to Job out of a whirl wind. God created all things and controls them as he wills. Too often we are only too ready to ascribe to God things that we are comfortable with. But the Bible teaches that God makes us uncomfortable. God's ways are beyond us and we should remember that. Let us not let Lieutenant Dan have a better understanding of God's power than us!
Food for thought.
Michael
