God has taken lots of bad raps throughout history. He has been labelled and ridiculed as being unfair, bizarre, foolish, preposterous and ludicrous.
He has been assumed to be conceited, egotistical, imperious, lofty and even narcissistic.
Yet, I reckon one the most unfair assumptions of our Almighty Father is that He is some sort of “comic killjoy’ sitting up on his towering throne high above the heavens – throwing lightening bolts at us when we dare step out of line!
Daring us to make mistakes, laugh or even giggle. Just waiting for us to make a snicker and then pouncing on us with condemnation and damnation.
Heaps of people think that God is anti-fun and they think the Bible is just one big rule book – where we have to be super religious, pious ecclesiastical and sanctimonious. That is just so far from the truth.
God is far removed from what we may envision as the grimacing judge of the universe banging His holy gavel, pointing out our faults and stifling any sense of joy in our lives. So sad and so unbiblical.
On the contrary God is far from a cold, disagreeable grouch, instead He is the very one who restores us to Himself and gives us pure joy – a joy unknown to most of us.
Jesus came and people flocked to see Him – children came to Him voluntarily – That alone tells us what sort of man He was – If He was a grouch would children come to Him – hardly!
John 10:10 tells us that Jesus said that He came to give us life and life to the fullest – not a life of drudgery, rule keeping and religiosity.
Of course it certainly doesn’t mean that we will have a life free from trials, strife and struggles, BUT what it does mean that deep down we have a sense of peace and yes! even joy knowing that He is with us – every inch of the way – guiding us as we follow Him.
We sometimes get the idea that being ‘joyful’ in a Christian sense only relates to meditating, serving in church and reading the Bible, which does and can of course give us joy, but joy is not exclusively found in these and these alone for us.
God created us us to experience recreation. He delights in us experiencing fellowship with others, using our gifts He gave us to enjoy sports and creativity etc.
Our main aim here on earth is to glorify God but also to enjoy and appreciate His marvelous creation.
On saying that, we must take great care not to make an idol of pleasure. We can so easily fall for the trap of making idols of all sorts of things in our lives and certain pleasures can become addictive.
The very sad truth is that we live in a world where pleasure itself has become a god to worship it has become perverted and so what God intended us to enjoy has become our master.
There are many ‘pleasures’ that the world deems as ‘legal’ and yet God sees them is sin. Drunkenness, adultery, pornography in fact anything that takes us away from Him and onto our ‘idol’, whatever that may be, God will not condone nor tolerate.
These ‘pleasures’ are wrong and will certainly not produce long-term joy. They are seasonal and will not bring lasting happiness or joy.
So rather than killing fun or becoming the ‘fun Police’, God is actually protecting us by giving us boundaries much the same way as we give our own children boundaries that will ultimately only benefit them.
Our lives in Christ have such a deep deep meaning. Jesus paid such a HUGE price for our salvation that we must be careful to give Him utmost respect and reverence. We were created to delight in God and to enjoy His creation BUT we must not consider life to be joyride either.
We can have fun, joy and happiness; appreciating all the great and good things he has given us to enjoy, BUT our focus has to remain on Him the Creator of the gift not just the gift itself.
So, is God a killjoy? Short answer – NO! He is the creator of joy; The Holy Spirit that He gives us at salvation produces joy in our lives and contentment in our souls whatever we are going through at the time.
Psalm 16:11 says “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
The world promises a temporary joy at best and often with long-term consequences; God on the other hand offers full time and long-lasting joy no matter what life dishes out to us.
Enjoy His marvelous creation. Maybe we can call or get together with a friend who is going through a rough time and encourage them to find joy in Christ – a long-lasting and fulfilling real joy.
Faith in God is believing His Word over anything you may see, hear or experience. Married to SueAnn and living in Newcastle NSW Australia – We both love Jesus – he is our strength, our Hope and our Redeemer.
Categories: INSPIRATIONAL ARTICLES
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For every god’s a nice guy type of passage you can find I can fine one about how you should set people on fire, stone them to death, how god’s gonna kick your ass, how he’s smited people, killed innocent bystanders and so on.
Your version is nicer, but it’s just your version the same way the version of the fire and brimstone fundamentalist is just his version.
This isn’t about God being a nice guy, nor is it about God having some imagined vendetta against people. If you choose not to accept God as Lord and Savior that is your choice…although it is a bad choice. 🙂
In the Old Testament people were stoned for some sins that is true. God has never killed an innocent person.
Look at this way…would you let your children run amok and do anything they want to? Of course not, and when our children do things they are not supposed to, we punish them hoping they will learn from their mistakes. God does the same with us!
Those who choose not to accept Jesus, well the ultimate punishment is death, separation from God forever. However…God does NOT want it to be this way. He did after all send His only Son to die for our sins…so although the consequences for not accepting Him are stern, He has provided a way for you to be saved from all of that by His own sacrifice. Who else would do that for you? Just as if you have children you would most likely be willing to give your life for them, God was willing to give His life for you when you accept Him as Lord and Savior.
I realize there are many things that people do not like in the OT, some I don’t like either. Things are different in the New Testament. When a woman was caught in adultery and brought before Jesus, He did not accuse her as no one else had either. Jesus had told the people that whoever was without sin could cast the first stone…no one did. Therefore Jesus did not condemn her either…but warned her to cease sinning before something worse happened. If we ask for forgiveness of our sins and are sincere, Jesus will forgive us. We all sin…it’s whether or not we ask for forgiveness that matters.
“This isn’t about God being a nice guy, nor is it about God having some imagined vendetta against people. If you choose not to accept God as Lord and Savior that is your choice…although it is a bad choice. :)”
Imagined vendetta? Yeah, the god of the bible is not vengeful or wrathful at all, atheists are just imagining things.
“In the Old Testament people were stoned for some sins that is true. God has never killed an innocent person.”
You turn right around and say that he sent his innocent son to die brutally. This is of course ignoring the flood story and the promises to punish the descendents of people who do not worship him ten generations later, slaughtering the firstborn sons of everyone in egypt when they had done nothing wrong and all the other stories in the bible where god happily kills innocent people just to throw his weight around.
“Look at this way…would you let your children run amok and do anything they want to? Of course not, and when our children do things they are not supposed to, we punish them hoping they will learn from their mistakes. God does the same with us!”
You’ve convinced me, when I have children I’m going to burn them to death right away. I just hope they learn a valuable lesson from it. Thank you for showing me how to be a good parent.
“Those who choose not to accept Jesus, well the ultimate punishment is death, separation from God forever.”
This theology is based on a passage that says jesus will “in flaming fire take vengeance” on those who do not know him and punish them with everlasting destruction “from” the presence of the lord. Christians, in order to civilize god, ignore every single word in this entire paragraph except the word “from” and conclude that hell is just grouchy atheists choosing not to join into god’s big warm group hug. This theology is nothing but willful self-deception.
“However…God does NOT want it to be this way. He did after all send His only Son to die for our sins…”
I have never in my life (despite asking many times) found someone who could explain how that makes any sense at all. God arbitrarily decides I deserve to die (before I am even born), then arbitrarily decides he will forgive me but only if other people murder his son (also before I am even born). Imagine if I told you that you deserve to die because your great great grandfather murdered someone, would that be just? What if I then said “but it’s okay, just murder my son and I will let you go”. Would your response be to well up with tears and thank me for being so merciful and forgiving, or would it be to call the police and tell them about a deranged lunatic talking about murdering innocent people to pay for non-existent guilt?
“so although the consequences for not accepting Him are stern, He has provided a way for you to be saved from all of that by His own sacrifice. Who else would do that for you?”
In religion prometheus comes to mind, he sacrificed himself to save humanity and was punished by eternal mutilation and torment – unlike jesus he pretty much went to hell in our place. In real life the monks who set themselves on fire in protest of the viet nam war come to mind. Actually many people have, through a belief that it would help others, sacrificed themselves. Especially in times of war.
“Just as if you have children you would most likely be willing to give your life for them, God was willing to give His life for you when you accept Him as Lord and Savior.”
I think your tenses are a bit off there.
“I realize there are many things that people do not like in the OT, some I don’t like either.”
You don’t like god’s perfect, infallible justice and beautiful wonderful wisdom? If setting people on fire is good shouldn’t it be just as pleasing as “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”?
“Things are different in the New Testament. When a woman was caught in adultery and brought before Jesus, He did not accuse her as no one else had either. Jesus had told the people that whoever was without sin could cast the first stone…no one did. Therefore Jesus did not condemn her either…but warned her to cease sinning before something worse happened.”
Yes, jesus is a much nicer person than… himself.
“If we ask for forgiveness of our sins and are sincere, Jesus will forgive us. We all sin…it’s whether or not we ask for forgiveness that matters.”
Jesus can no more forgive you for harming someone than I can. Only the person who you harmed can forgive you. The idea of hurting someone, saying a prayer and walking away absolved of responsibility while the person is still hurt is obscene. As is by the way the idea of someone else being punished in my place. If I truly deserved to be punished that too would be a gross injustice. What would you think if we started rounding up innocent children and executing them instead of murderers and serial killers? Some moral ideas in the bible are beautiful, but some are disgusting.
You deliberately twist the words of God to suit yourself. You also twisted what I said.
You have no understanding of the Word of God, and instead take what you do not like and use that as an excuse to disbelieve. You do so to your own peril.
God the Father did not “send” His Son to be brutally murdered. Jesus died for us willingly…no one killed Him. No power in heaven or on earth could kill Jesus as He was and is God and man at the same time. You choose to see this as a horrible thing, that is your right. I see it as a gift of great value. Could the sacrifice of Jesus been avoided? Sure if God would have made us like robots totally subject to His will, as we would not have any free will of our own…then there would never have been sin and no need for a sacrifice to pay for said sin.
God wants those who worship Him to do so willingly, not by force. Forced worship would be meaningless and fake.If we had to be forced to worship God, then He would not be much of a God now would He?
You did a great job of twisting forgiveness into something it is not. You ARE correct in saying that we need the forgiveness of the one we wronged…that is in fact part of repentance of sin…admitting we did wrong and seeking the injured party’s forgiveness. But considering that we hurt that person, that is also a sin, therefore we need God’s forgiveness.
I also realize that Jesus was in the OT as well as the NT. It was Jesus who changed things in the NT, not me. The OT said an eye for an eye…Jesus said in the NT forgive all who hurt you, hatred toward anyone is the same as murder. OT…people were stoned for adultery…NT…still wrong and sinful but they are to be forgiven…this was the example I gave you that you twisted around. The idea here in that passage where Jesus let the woman caught in adultery go was this: we ALL sin…so not one of us is any better than another.
Parenting…you again twist what I said! Of course we are not going to harm our children, you are being ridiculous! I said we punish them, not kill or harm them and you know it. Just as we discipline our kids for there own good, God does so with His children. We are allowed to suffer things to hopefully teach us. Christians suffer just as much hardship as unbelievers do often. We are not exempt from life.
People being absolved from punishment? You completely misunderstand the Bible and what it teaches! Anyone who as you referenced here commits murder…that person may be forgiven by God if that person asks and is truly sorry for what he/she has done. That in NO way absolves them of punishment! God wants that person punished for what they have done, there IS forgiveness, there is NOT a free pass!
I have never in my life (despite asking many times) found someone who could explain how that makes any sense at all. God arbitrarily decides I deserve to die (before I am even born), then arbitrarily decides he will forgive me but only if other people murder his son (also before I am even born). Imagine if I told you that you deserve to die because your great great grandfather murdered someone, would that be just? What if I then said “but it’s okay, just murder my son and I will let you go”. Would your response be to well up with tears and thank me for being so merciful and forgiving, or would it be to call the police and tell them about a deranged lunatic talking about murdering innocent people to pay for non-existent guilt?
It makes perfect sense. If you had to force your spouse to love you…how satisfying would that be? God gave all humans free will to do as they choose, He will not force Himself on us. So…since we have free will, many turn their backs on Him, that is their choice…and by that choice the consequences are also their choice.
ALL of us sin, every one of us. God of course knew this would happen. Because God loves us more than anything else, He provided a way for us to be cleansed from our sin and then be able to spend eternity with Him in heaven. That seems pretty loving to me. Since sin entered the world through a man, the debt of sin had to be paid for by a man. This man had to be perfect…enter in Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life as a man. That He was a man is easily proven. Jesus got tired, He got hungry…God does not have to eat, and He certainly does not get tired. In the OT animals were sacrificed for the forgiveness of sin, and they were to be unblemished…Jesus was unblemished, perfect. Life is in the blood, that is why it was always blood sacrifice. The willing sacrifice of Jesus paid for all sin for all time. Jesus Himself said He could call down legions of angels to help and protect Him…what does that tell us? It tells us that He did not have to sacrifice Himself on the cross, He did so willingly in obedience to His Father…and out of love for us.
You confuse punishment and forgiveness, they are NOT the same. The thief on the cross next to Christ was punished most severely for his wrongdoing, he was crucified. He also received forgiveness from Christ and therefore eternal life in heaven with God.
ALL will have eternal life, the question is where will you spend that eternity? Heaven or hell…the choice is yours.
Have you ever lied? Stolen anything? Looked on another person with lust? These are all sins and it only takes one to be condemned. So we all need God’s forgiveness…which we can have by asking, if we are truly sorry for what we have done wrong.
Ever wondered why most people have an innate sense of right and wrong within themselves, a conscience? Regardless of race or religion or lack thereof? God put that in us…how else could this be?