Month: April 2019

Theology matters….And Why???

Theology matters because of Panida. Panida was fourteen when she was taken from her home in Thailand to Malaysia by a sex trafficker. She arrived in a city she had never seen before, and was told that she had been sold. She was told she had to have sex with between five and ten clients each night, every night, if she was to pay off the debt. If she refused, she would be beaten, and would not be allowed to eat. She was allowed to sleep between five a.m. and three p.m., in a locked and barred room with seven other slave girls, and was forbidden from even putting her head out of the window. Helpless and terrified, she sat on her bed, waiting. Thousands of miles away, a group of lawyers and investigators had seen something of the character of God. They had read Amos, and the Psalms, and Isaiah, and encountered the God who championed the cause of orphans and widows and victims. Taking seriously God’s anger at injustice and the biblical commandments to set free the oppressed, they set up an organization that (among other things) prosecuted child traffickers and freed sex slaves, funded entirely by the charitable donations of others who had also gained revelation about the God of justice. International Justice Mission (IJM) was born. Panida never saw her first client. The night she was going to start, a raid was conducted with local police, based on an undercover investigation done by IJM. She was set free without ever having to pay or prostitute herself, and ninety-four other girls were released in the same series of raids—ninety-four rape victims made in the image of God, who were set free because some lawyers they had never met read their Bibles and discovered something about the character of the living God. 1 Theology matters. Theology matters because of Dave. A tall, sociable salesman in a small town in England, Dave had no background in Christianity and no interest in getting one. Like millions around him, he was destined for an eternity without God. That is, until his first child was born. Looking down at the miracle of life in his hands, Dave couldn’t believe it was an accident, and marveled at the wisdom that God, if he existed, must have in order to create his daughter. It was a life-changing moment. He and his wife Julie repented of their sins, got baptized, and committed themselves to their local church. Twenty years later, having brought up two Christian children, given generously to further the gospel, and run a marriage course numerous times, Dave and Julie are moving three thousand miles away to help build the church in Canada. Revelation of the wisdom of the creator God changed a man, a family, and a church.

Andrew Wilson

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God vs our small view of Him

Wayne Grudem captured this concept beautifully when he wrote, The difference between God’s being and ours is more than the difference between the sun and a candle, more than the difference between the ocean and a raindrop, more than the difference between the arctic ice cap and a snow flake, more than the difference between the universe and the room we are sitting in: God’s being is qualitatively different. No limitation or imperfection in creation should be projected on to our thought of God. He is the creator; all else is creaturely. All else can pass away in an instant; he necessarily exists forever. 1 When we encounter God—uncreated, all-powerful, self-existent, maker of all things, uncontained, unbreakable, unfathomable, and infinite—we find perspective. We learn to embrace the smallness of who we are and marvel in the vastness of who he is. Earthly pleasures can no longer take the place of knowing God and being known by him. We are left ruined. Satisfied and dissatisfied at the same time. We begin on a journey, thirsting for more of God, desperate to understand more clearly the character and nature of God. When we encounter the reality of God, true worship is the outcome. The church needs to recapture a big picture of all that God is. Our view and understanding of him will have a significant impact on our worship. As Graham Kendrick said, “Worship is a response and will grow or shrink in direct proportion to our view of Him.” So, let us continually dig a bit deeper and press on into the mystery and character of God.

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