Faith was not a new concept to Sam; he had been a Christian his whole life. Not a great Christian; not even an average one. To be truthful, he felt calling himself a Christian seemed a bit misleading; perhaps a failed Christian was a title more fitting; a pathetic Christian.
He smoked, occasionally shared his bed with strangers, was a reckless drinker and for years now had secretly felt repulsed by the church; attending only when required by family or a guilty conscious. He had a bible, but rarely opened it; he had failed to live up to any of the religious standards that were drilled into him by his parents and pastors alike.
It was because of these reasons that Sam had tried his hardest to distance himself from God. He had decided years ago to unshackle the yoke of faith from his neck; Sam had reasoned that he didn’t need the extra baggage; his disappointments were heavy enough to carry on their own.
He hadn’t always felt this way. Sam was once an active believer. He didn’t just have an academic, theoretical kind of belief; he had a real belief; he could still remember it. As a child, he had a belief in a wonderful God who loved him and cared for him, but over the years God, for reasons unbeknownst to Sam, began to change.
The God of love turned into a God of rules. God had, unfortunately, become terribly complicated. The open green pastures of faith that Sam freely played in as a child had, as a teenager, become a legalistic minefield he had to fearfully navigate through. Sam could still remember listening, every Sunday, to his pastor proudly preaching the expectations of God; a tsunami wave of laws and spiritual principles that washed away any belief in the God of his childhood; the simple God; the God who loved.
It was this complicated, law driven God that Sam had expected to meet as he stood terrified, eyes clenched and jaw locked, only moments ago. Sam could recall listening to countless bitter messages about the judgement of God and he knew, so he thought, what waited for a person of his lifestyle: fire, hell and brimstone. The fire however, never came.
It was the most incredible of surprises; instead of God’s wrath, Sam was confronted with God’s smile. Instead of being hurled into hell, he was invited to look into heaven. Instead of condemnation being heaped upon him because of his sins, he experienced an abundance of love being poured into his heart. It was a divine paradox; the most wonderful of contradictions.
To Sam’s amazement, instead of coming face to face with the God of law, he found himself being reacquainted with a long lost childhood friend; the simple God; the God who loved. (Continue reading)
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Yes, that is our God who shower us with His AGAPE Love. Sad to say, most people don’t see Him that way. They thought He was a God of condemnation. I believe that the more we seek God, the more we will find Him and the more we find Him, the more we will love Him. What an awesome God. I fell in love with Him everyday esp. in band times. Hallelujah!