The Power of IF

 

Yesterday I found myself in a facebook thread where a man I didn’t know questioned my declarations about praying for our country. He retorted with a mocking comment, “If there is a God…” While I continued my conversation and shared scriptures that diminished his claims that God doesn’t care about our country or our leaders, afterwards I began to ponder his initial question that started it all. “If..”

What if there isn’t a God? That’s a very common question asked by many non-believers, and a good one at that! But an even better question non-believers should ask themselves is, “What if there IS a God?!”

I’m a firm believer that science solidifies God’s existence. I’ve seen and read evidence that proves the bible to be accurate and historically true. Yet many non-believers want to use this notion that we believe in fairytales. How can we believe in something we don’t see? And yet, these same naysayers believe in science fiction stories that are much more far fetched than an Almighty, omnipotent God—stories they too never saw or witnessed. Every evolution theory is just that: a theory. There is no solid evidence to verify their points, and even so, their stories change every few years. Their fact-finding proof is often debunked a few short years after their claims…by the very people who insisted it was an absolute, undeniable, undefeatable truth.

God’s story, however, never changes. God Himself does not change. In fact, we keep finding data and clues that testify the Bible can be held accountable as absolute fact. 

But let’s get back to the question at hand: What if there isn’t a God? I would challenge those who use this inquiry as their foundation to not believe to instead consider the consequences of not looking at this differently.

If there is no God, and you spent your entire life believing there is, when you die, what have you lost? What did you give up? If you chose to live for Christ, ministering to others and giving the gift of hope to the hopeless, what damage was done? They won’t know the difference once they’re dead and gone. All they would have had was a much better life of peace and freedom, instead of strife and turmoil. What would they have given up in turn? They would have given up the world’s views of who they were. They would have given up the notion that there was no meaning to this life at all, and instead found that their meaning went beyond themselves. They would have given up lifestyles that were demoralizing and detrimental to their well being. They would have given up destructive behaviors that would have diminished their families and crushed all their relationships.

Now when I say, “give up,” anyone who has given their life to Christ knows full well that we don’t need to “give up” anything, we just need to surrender to Him who will deliver us from those self-destructive choices. He instead fills us with His Holy Spirit who guides us to better choices and lifestyles that uplift instead of tear down. He offers us a life no longer full of regrets and disappointments, but of healing and redemption. He gives our pain and suffering meaning.

So the real questions non-believers should then ask is, “What if there IS a God? What if I have lived this life doubting because of this big IF, and when I die I find out God is absolutely real and I blew it?” How will you stand before God and justify your decisions when people have shared the truth with you and provided you with evidence?

What if there is life after death? You may not have lost much during your physical life on earth as a non-believer, but you will lose EVERYTHING in the glorious afterlife! It is literally a choice between Heaven and Hell. And despite how the world glamorizes hell, it won’t be a fun party place of sex, drugs and rock and roll, where all the cool people end up. No, it’s a place of darkness, torture and pure evil. Jesus tells us in Matthew 13:42, “[The Son of Man’s messengers] will throw all that wickedness into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That doesn’t sound very fun to me.

In this lifetime is your only opportunity to choose Jesus, NOT afterwards. God won’t offer you a chance to believe Him once you see Him face to face. Jesus told his disciples after He had risen and revealed Himself alive again: “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are all those who never see Me and yet they still believe.” (John 20:29 NLT/the Voice).

There is power in the question, “If…”, but only if it’s the right “if” question. Challenge yourself not to ask, “What if there isn’t a God?”, and instead ponder, “What if there IS a God?”

God tells us that if we draw near to Him, He will in turn draw near to us. He also promises that if we seek Him with our whole heart, we will find Him (James 4:8 and Jeremiah 29:13). Those are promises that millions of people throughout countless generations have experienced firsthand. There’s a reason faith in Jesus Christ has carried on throughout the millenniums. It’s because so many people have literally been transformed and changed by His redeeming power simply by asking and believing.

What question will you ask today?

But Jesus Hung Out With Sinners

To use the excuse that "Jesus hung out with sinners," is a ridiculous notion that our sin is okay. The tax collector did not continue collecting taxes on anyone, and certainly not on Jesus. The prostitute did not continue selling herself, and certainly NOT to Jesus. Those "sinners" left their sin. While they were not perfect, they gave up their "lifestyles," to follow Christ in His ministry. Do we really believe Jesus in all His "love" would have tolerated and ACCEPTED the prostitute to keep living that lifestyle in FRONT OF HIM?

"It's scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip off the cover of those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ." (Ephesians 5:12-13 MSG)

 
Then consider this: When the rich man came to Jesus and asked him what he had to do to have eternal life, Jesus told him, to paraphrase, "Give up everything..." The rich man couldn't and wouldn't do it. I find this story ironic, because the man became "sad" that he would have to leave his lifestyle behind in order to be saved. The rich man was not willing to leave the worldly and fleshly desires behind as Christ commanded. When we hang onto our sin with justifications and excuses, we are not willing to be true servants of Christ. We want God with conditions, and we want God to accept our sins instead. We don't want the real God, we want a god who will coddle us as the world does, with fancy labels and diagnoses.

Now imagine those sinners continuing their sin while in the camp, so to speak, with Jesus. Fornicating. Soliciting. Lying. Cheating. And now imagine two men making out in  front of Jesus. Is this a scene that anyone truly thinks Jesus would smile upon and applaud? This is blunt, but this is reality. This may be offensive, but the gospel of Jesus Christ will absolutely be offensive to many people. The problem with the church is that they don't want to offend anyone, so they've watered down not only the gospel, but Jesus Christ Himself!

"Is the offense of the cross ceased?” (Galatians 5:11).

Now don’t get me wrong. Jesus still loves us, even when we do sin. But when we make a conscience, deliberate decision to keep sinning by making excuses to continue living in our sin lifestyles, Jesus cannot be near us, and we cannot be near Him. It is a repentant heart that is appealing to Jesus. It is a real surrender of everything that we know to be wrong in our lives and a willingness to let it go that Jesus will honor. That is real grace.

I struggle with sinning in my anger. I know anger is not the sin, however what I possibly do when I’m angry can be sin. I know that if I spank or yell or ridicule my son in anger, I am sinning. I can use the excuse that it’s a knee-jerk reaction, which is it, but I refuse to admit that those behaviors are not wrong. I repent and seek God’s forgiveness, and ask God to help me to do and be better.

The world and their sin is making excuses: “I was born this way. And if God made me this way then it must be okay.” But let’s consider this: I was born a sinner, too, but that doesn't mean I walk around excusing myself and justifying those very sins. God didn’t create me in sin or to live in sin, but we were born “into” it, into a world of sin. We were all born with our own personal sinful nature. I try--desperately--to resist my sinful nature. I don't always win the battle, but I have a God who gives me strength daily to obey Him and love Him from a heart that wants to please Him. His mercy and love surrounds me, but if I merely justify it and continue to sin, then I am spitting in God's face and all of His goodness. We were created to glorify God and live a repentant life, willing to give up our fleshly desires at any cost. 

Grace is not earned, but grace is not a ticket for a free-for-all, either. Grace matters in our lives when we truly seek to be holy. When we are willing to resist temptation and we are willing to walk away from our sinful nature. When we are willing to let God’s Word be our true guide to all the answers we may have, and not try to fudge with Its meaning, instructions, and God’s intentions. When we don’t try to change God to conform to us, but we are willing to conform to Him instead. When we don’t overlook Jesus’ rebuke to the Pharisees and the merchants at the Temple by making Him some “love” crazed hippie who accepts sin BECAUSE of His love for us.

The church should absolutely welcome any and all sinners. But we shouldn’t be ashamed of the gospel by trying to change it to be less offensive. If we do that, then we will not only be leading them down the wrong road, but we will also be held responsible for being their guide. The church was always supposed to be the place where sinners could find hope and forgiveness, a life with Christ. But now the church simply offers loopholes for sin, merely leading them in the opposite direction of repentance and hope.