Pulled over for speeding. Mercy or Justice?

I was in a hurry, we had spent too much time in the Faculty club. I had to get him to the Airport,  and me back to class. I heard the siren and pulled over.  - “You were speeding sir”. - 'Yes'. -  “What?” -  'Yes I was speeding'. - “Go on,  get out of here”. -   When I got back in the car, I told my friend “That is what I want when I die”.  - 'What?' he asked.  -  “Mercy, not justice”.   What about you, what do you want/expect?

If there is a heaven (and I assure you there is), it has to be different from down here.  I mean if we get there, we will be there for ever and ever and ever.  John Newton's definition of infinity 'When we've been there 10,000 years .. we've no less days, to sing God's praise!'

In light of this, how much manipulation, would you want there, how many cutting remarks, how much rejection, anger, exclusion, selfishness, mean spiritedness, put downs, one upmanship, how many bad days, how much grief, pollution, unforgiveness? Well you get the point.  If Heaven is to be heaven these things cannot be there, and that  excludes you and me as we are. No question.

Now He is  working on me (if you think I am bad now, you should have seen me before He stared – well maybe not), but there will still need to be a radical change on that day. The good news is that  He has provided the way.   In His love and wisdom, at incredible cost to Himself (that is what the Cross is all about), He paid the price to justly forgive us. We do, of course,  need to come to Him in the right spirit to be forgiven.  Its called repentance. When we do this, as part of the package,  we give Him permission to change us to be fit for heaven. If and when we see this, and understand that regardless, we will have to give an account, we will surly choose mercy over justice.

The Church is full of hypocrites

Don't worry brother, there's enough room for two more, me and you :)

I hesitated to put that in. What if I offend? It would not be the first
time. Well it was meant to be funny. Its like Billy Graham's wife's
comment about the those who seek the perfect church. If you find one
don't go. It will no longer be perfect if you are there.

I like to soften that too by including myself. But in neither case is it
an insincere softening. I mean which one of us lives up even to our
own standards, let alone God's? Jesus is the only one who practiced
what He preached. Love your enemies, He said, and while they nailed
cruel spikes through His hands and feet he prayed Father forgive
them. I am not there yet.

The problem of religious hypocrites though is not new. In the time of
Christ we had the Pharisees, and Jesus reserved some of His most
stunning criticism for them. "Woe unto you Scribes, Pharisees
Hypocrites". No pulled punches there. Talking to a friend who is quite
angry (and rightly so) about some of the things that happen in the
church, I told him my problem is worse than yours, I have to love
these people.

But would we let poor sales persons put us off the perfect product?
Christianity is about Christ and He is amazing. I don't have too many
heroes, but He is definitely the top of the list. And it was He who told
us to leave the weeds with the wheat together until the harvest. After
all you and I might change or be changed and rescued.

You don’t believe in Adam and Eve do you?

One of the problems in writing this blog is that at this point in time I
don't know who I am writing to.  It is the same problem with my book.
If I am writing to Christians only I will need to be aware of certain red
flags that I must not wave.  “Red flags”,  as in the phrase “red flags
to a bull”. He will change. There are equal and opposite red flags to
non-Christians. We are told to be all things to all men. What this
means to me,  is that it is important to meet people where they are
“at”, not where I may want them to be. 

I did not always believe what I now believe about the Scriptures (see
about me), in particular I wrestled a great deal with the opening
chapters of Genesis. What I did, was to study these chapters carefully
and prayerfully. Let me take you back to what I learned at that time.

What struck me, and what started me on my journey to where I am
“at” right now,  was the thought “This book (the Bible) knows me”.
This is never more true than the early chapters of Genesis. If we are
to get the  most out of Scripture it is helpful to ask three questions:
what does it say; what does it mean; and how do we apply it.
Interpretation (what does it mean)  of these chapters are double red
flags. So at least for now I want to avoid them. Lets skip to
application,  and look at Adam and Eve as a representative of the
human race. Here is the story.  In the beginning is the honeymoon.
They are naked, as in no secrets, no hidden agenda, no manipulation,
no shame, perfect communion and perfect loving communication.  A
single poor choice is made. This choice has consequences,  and these
consequences like ripples on a pond go on and on and on.  The choice
affects the significant other. Adam must choose her or God. He
chooses her. Now everything changes. Whereas before they felt no
shame, no need to hide, now they need to hide from God, they put on fig leaves. So they are hiding not only from God, but  from each other, and ultimately from themselves.   They start to pay the blame
game. “What have you done Adam?”  'The woman You gave...... she
.....” Its her fault God, and actually God its Your fault too, You gave
her to me. The earth is cursed, work is hard, nature is red in tooth and claw.

So here we have modern man's dilemma, alienation of man from God,
alienation of man from man, alienation of man from himself, and
alienation of man from creation.  I know of no other explanation that
describes so well our condition.  My thought “This book knows us”.
It also offers the solution.  Later perhaps.

“I know too much Science to believe in God”

If you are like me, there are times that you only think of what to say
when its too late. At the time of this conversation, I was frustrated
with the Science Faith debate, or rather non-debate. The problem, 
especially in the University setting,   is not  that Christianity has been
debated and  found wanting, but rather it is that it ridiculed and
dismissed without debate.

It feels a bit like not being allowed to speak and at the same time not
being allowed a  lawyer.  Meanwhile the prosecution has free range. 
In my frustration I missed an opportunity to say something.

What I would say now to this young man is “Well no, actually you do
not know enough Science to make a statement like that”. The point is
that just like the question “what is love”, the existence of God falls
outside of the scope of what Science can answer. What repeatable
experiment can you perform  to prove God's non- existence?  Most of
the so called contradictions that Science throws up are matters of
interpretation of the data, which flow out of the  (often hidden)
presuppositions that are imposed on the said data. 

By the way you can be convinced that you are loved, but it defies
Scientific proof. Let's see. Null hypothesis - the wife loves me. 
Experiment,  enter newly cleaned  kitchen with muddy boots.  If
the wife really loves me she will tolerate my behaviour.  Experimental
data: 99 times out of 100 the wife got mad, sometimes really mad. 
Reject the null hypothesis!