An Angry God, and Broken Michael W Smith CDs...

In case you haven't realised, I can be quite an angry person...

Its true...

Ask my mum...

I get angry far more often that I'd like...

I get angry at really stupid little things. An example? Last night I got angry because the covers on my bed weren't big enough...

Stupid little thing...

That's not to say that I don't get angry at big things either. The cowardice of a lot of Christians...that really ticks me off. Its equivalent to someone going up and punching a complete stranger square in the jaw for no apparent reason. It makes me very angry.

Hold on, you might say...Christians aren't meant to be angry.

Right?




Wrong.

Despite what modern culture and the media, and even some pastors say, Christians get angry. Its a fact. We're human. Its not because of our sin nature that we get angry. Its because we're made in the image of God.

Jesus gets angry. He gets angry quite a lot.

We've just read the passage where He's chucking over tables and throwing merchandise in the temple so many times that its lost its power.

It'd be like Jesus walking into a Christian book shop, and deciding to burn the entire self help section, all the while crushing Michael W Smith CD's.

Now wait a second there Phil. God isn't angry, God is love!

Very true. I won't deny that. The Bible clearly states that God is love. If I were to deny it, I'd be denying a big part of scripture.

But more often than not, God is attributed in scripture to being holy and righteous and just. And so He gets angry.

At what?

Sin...

and sinners...

But what about hating the sin and loving the sinner? What about that Phil?

That's never mentioned in the Bible. What is mentioned however is that, in places such as the Psalms, that God hates all that do evil, ie. sin.

Read that again...

God hates ALL that do evil.

Not just some, ALL. That includes you and me.

I'm not supposed to tell you this. Christians are meant to be nice, that's how much of the world perceives us.

Yes, we're meant to be kind...but we're meant to tell the truth...even if it offends people.

Really?

Yep...in case you haven't figured this out, we worship a guy who got murdered, who claimed that there is only one way to salvation, and it is through Him. The cross is an offence. And if we don't proclaim it as such, then we're lying to people.

I'll stop with the whole "Rob Bell" style of writing.

Seriously, if we don't proclaim what is written and what we believe without sugar-coating it, we're lying to the world. And ultimately we're offending God by not proclaiming His word. So if its to come down to offending God, or offending a person, the person's gonna get it every single time. Its ridiculous how Christians today are so cowardly! Why? Cause they're afraid of what the people they're talking to will say!

That shouldn't matter. God is the only one who should matter, what He thinks is the most important thing in our lives. Not the opinions of idiots. Cause lets face it. We're all idiots. Maybe not by choice, but we are by nature. After all, we turned down a happy relationship with God for an apple...

But there's no excuse for us not to proclaim that Jesus is the Savior of all man-kind, and if you don't believe in Him, then you my friend are going on a very long holiday...tempurature...INFINTLY HOT!

In case you don't realise, I'm describing hell, although not a lot of people seem to get my humor.

We're made in the image of God, and if God gets angry, then so should we! Its incongruent with who He made us to be. The verse from which this all stems from is Nehemiah 13 v 8;

"And I was very angry..."

The gist of the story is this. Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem, rebuilds the city, constructs a new temple, and gets people to start running it. He goes off back home, and then when he's an old guy, finds out that the city is being run by God haters, and that the people of the city are acting like douches and falling back into old habits. So he goes, kicks out the God haters, and hires new guys to make sure that its run smoothly.

And the whole back drop on this is the following...its OK to get angry. What depends is whether its righteous or unrighteous anger. Lorcan knows what I'm talking about here, I've had this convo with him before. Righteous anger is being angry for the right reasons and responding in the right way. Unrighteous anger is being angry for the wrong reason and/or responding in the wrong way.

If someone was to get raped for example, they're allowed to be angry. Who wouldn't be! Its a sign that we're agreeing with God!

And I know this post has been kinda jumpy, going back and forth between one idea and the other. But I'll close with this. The reason why Nehemiah came back to fix the problem in Jerusalem was that the guys in the city weren't going to fix it.

Its the same with Jesus. God saw the problem of sin, saw that we weren't going to fix it, and so sent Jesus. And here's the thing. Jesus died for our sins. But not only that, He propitiated the wrath and anger of God from us to Himself. Simply put, He took the beating that we should be getting from God.

Earlier on I said that God is angry with all of us. I jumped the gun there. There are people out there that God is angry with.

But...if you've accepted Jesus as Savior, you can sleep easy...

He got his metaphysical ass kicked for you.

Let Him be the Nexus of your life...

My Life As Of This Minute...

So I haven't blogged in quite a while. Thought it might be an idea to change that.

"WELCOME BACK PHIL! WELCOME BACK TO THE BLOGOSPHERE!" I hear you calling, and it is very much appreciated, I can assure. Life has been pretty hectic for me the past little while, although the chances of you being someone I know is very great, and so you already know that little fact.

School is...well school...I have to be honest, I'm not very much enjoying the whole pressure dealio. I mean, seriously, there's like way too much pressure on LC goers, its ridiculous. Thankfully, I've had friends who have been able to calm me down, as well as knock some sense into me. Plus, my teachers are like so supportive. I'm the guy in class who carries way too much in his school back, so much so I wouldn't be surprised if I had to visit a chiropractor at some stage before the end of the year. But because of this, it can take me a little while to pack up my stuff. This gives each of my teachers the chance to ask me how I'm doing. Like seriously, my English teach is like one of the most supportive persons I know. She's always asking me how I'm doing, checking on me to make sure I don't stress out too much. She's even told me not to worry at all about the Christmas Exams coming up in two weeks. The may not seem significant, but its like such a big comfort to know that the teachers know what I'm capable of, that they say to take it easy for these exams, and just get ready for the mocks.

Apparently I'm also filming this is years Christmas Concert...which is kinda odd, seen as I have no idea what I'm going to be doing...seriously...I say seriously a lot don't I?

While from the above paragraph it may seem that my life isn't enjoyable, I would disagree. I am loving my life right now! I mean, I'm just thinking about school, but in like 7 months time, my exams will be finished and done with! Man, that really isn't a whole lot of time... I mean, the first 2 months flew right by. Its going to be awesome to be able to have lie ins, and not worry about comparing Wuthering Heights and Casablanca on Literary Genre...

But back to the loving of life, I'm really enjoying school to be honest. Its the stress I don't like, but that'll pass in time! I'm also loving all the down time I'm getting with my friends. You guys really are awesome, I don't know what I'd do without you guys. I mean, the Saturday before I was due to go back to school, I was invited out of the blue to go to a Tim Burton fest. I got drenched, didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but man did I just love hanging out the guys for an evening.

And of course, lets not forget about God. Ahh God...what HASN'T He done over the past little while? I've been able to rely more and more on Him when I need. That's not to say that I love Him just for what He's done over the past little while. To be honest, He's done something which have brought me to tears...but the thing about God that I'm really discovering, learning, and loving about is that He never changes.

Never.

Ever.

Never.

I may change, and my feelings toward certain people, certain situations, the world and Him may change too...

But He Doesn't.

Maybe I forget to pray one day.

He doesn't change.

Perhaps I say something I shouldn't, or do something I shouldn't do.

He stays the same.

And the other thing that I'm loving at the moment is God's foreknowledge. I am loving the doctrine of predestination! I know some of you may not be inclined towards that train of thought. I know, I've had conversations with you. This doctrine isn't something to be argued over, its something to be praised! The fact that God saves anyone is by itself a gracious miracle. The fact that He sent His Son to die for our sins is something else. That fact that He calls forward elect is remarkable!

"...even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved."

-Ephesians 1 v 4-6

God has been revealing wonders to me, and I am just so excited about the plan He has for my life. I've already got a meeting with my two pastors to talk about different Bible College, and will at some stage be looking for a group of guys to be going up to the Mandate in Belfast next year.

If I was to summarise this post into 3 words, they would be the following;

Jesus is AWESOME!!!

Let Him be the Nexus of your life.