400 Years

So I was reading yesterday in the Bible and this one instance jumped out at me. I was reading in Luke 1 where Zacharias the Priest is doing his duties. As he enters the Holy place, an angel of God named Gabriel encounters him. Now what struck me as why this might be a powerful moment was not just the fact that angels don't typically appear to people and talk (unless of course you are a regular on daytime talk shows,) but that it had been four hundred years since God even spoke at all to his people.

400 YEARS! Now after that you might say that God has gone mute, or silent or just gave up on humanity... but in that moment God again steps on the scene right where he left off in the book of Malachi -full of power, love and faithfulness.

He was not mad. He wasn't holding a grudge. He actually was closer than ever as He was about to put on some dust and dwell among us. His love was full and oozing on humanity at that moment.

In our life, sometimes we find that God is silent.
"What have we done wrong?"
"Why does God reject me?"

But maybe, just maybe if we believe in the bleakest moment when it seems like 400 years have gone by and NOTHING... GOD will charge the space around us with His oozing love and say,
"I AM... HERE."

Knockin' on Heaven's Door

I have been reading a book of late entitled, "The Gospel of Moses: What my Jewish Friends Taught Me About Jesus" by Athol Dickson. Wow... the author joins what is called the Chever Torah (Bible Study for Jews.) As a Christian, the author writes about how he was challenged to delve deep into his Christianity which is actually strengthened by his experiences in the study.

One common question that arises out of these classes is the question of "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Why is it that people who seemingly have intense faith at times die of disease or ruthlessly murdered? Why is it that things like 9/11 and the holocaust took place and countless number of innocent lives were lost? Why is it that God seemily sits by idle and watches the destruction of the human race?

The Jewish people believe that "God loves an honest question." With this in mind, we can search into the depths of God's very character and find truth in the layers of his scriptures. It's when we walk away without searching for the answer that we miss out on the true answer God has for us. It says, "knock and it will be opened to you ... seek and you will find."

Church should be a place of where doubt is engaged. It should be a place of questions, where we can honestly look to God, through the Bible itself and find that the love of God really invites us to come. As God spoke to Moses... "Come up here" on the mountain, our doubt is the very springboard that launches us into the reality of a loving God and should never be usesd as some 'pat' answer of a sceptic that has never even checked the facts or searched for truth.

Let's learn something as Christians from our fellow Jewish brothers and sisiters and begin to truly seek instead of brush God off with our lame excuses.