daily java - there is no God

Daily Java:

Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”  (Psalm 53)

This verse is misused too many times. We use it to say that those who deny God are fools. And when we do, we are usually thinking about some of the classical atheists who come along and deny the very existence of God.

But it speaks to more than just that. It also speaks to all those who claim that God cannot work in certain ways, or that God will not like what it is you are doing, or that God will not be with you in something you are doing.

In fact, usually when they do this, they have weighed what it is you are doing in judgment and have decided that God will not like it.

In other words, they have put themselves in the place of God and are judging what you are doing.

You start a new program and someone says, there is not way that will work and God will not be glorified. So they do everything they can to stop that program.

It may also be someone who has decided that the Lord only likes one kind of music and that he cannot or will not work through any other kind.

It may be someone who has decided that God only likes one translation of the Bible and will not allow himself or his nature to be shown in any other.

The God-denier may be one who looks at you and says that there is no way God could ever use someone as worthless and no-account as you, that you are useless in his kingdom.

The God-denier only likes one style of worship, he only likes one style of literature, he only wants on kind of anything. And when he does that, he denies God’s presence in whatever it is that you are doing. He says, in essence and very much so in reality, “There is no God in that.”

It is a curious arrogance that goes so far as to remove all that you do not agree with under the guise of doctrine, or teachings, or tradition, in order to get whatever it is that you want.

Any time you look at something and immediately judge it as being wrong in God’s sight, make sure that it is not your own ideas that you have substituted for the will of God.

It is hard to part with old ideas, that is for sure. And much of what we complain about not being in the will of God is pure jealousy or nostalgia gone bad.

There are certain kinds of music I do not like, yet I have seen young people brought to Jesus by that very music. It is hard to imagine trying to bring someone to the grace of God by using a version of the Bible that quite frankly is not that good. Yet, you see people who are touched by the simplicity of the version and are brought to Jesus.

After all, we are all imperfect translations of the will of God, yet we bring people to him through our foolish preaching to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21).

When it comes down to it, how do we measure up? Someone may look at us and say, “That person will never be able to bring some to Jesus.” And they may really and truly think so. Yet, so many are brought to God by those who otherwise were cast-offs in this world.

Whatever you use to preach the gospel, no matter what it is, if it is true to the teachings of Jesus, it is God in the process doing it.

And it doesn’t matter a bit what others may think. Jesus was the perfect example of this. Can anything good come from Nazareth?, they said. Can anything good come from someone so obviously unqualified as Jesus is? Yet it was he, the apostle Peter said, who was that chief Cornerstone that brings humanity into the presence of The Lord God Almighty. And it was Jesus who mandated that we go and do the same, as unqualified as we are.

People who say that there is no God in what you are doing are wrong. If you are in the will of God and live in him and serve him, God is in you.

And others will see it.