Posts Tagged: God’s provisions
“Is God Allergic to You?”
Some of us may feel as if God is allergic to us. Yes, I often feel that way myself.
A friend of me did an online post in which he noted that his rescue cats, once their new master had earned their trust, would climb in his lap and purr contentedly. My friend concluded with a challenge to his readers to trust our Heavenly Master who has rescued us, and to be contented with what God gives us.
Contentment doesn’t come easily for me. Sometimes, it doesn’t come at all. I needed to hear about my friend and his cats. And, of course, I can never hear too much about God’s provisions.
One of the comments from a reader of my friend’s post was, “I’m allergic to cats. I sure hope God isn’t allergic to me!” My feline mind immediately jumped off the lap, and began to play with the notion of God being allergic to us.
There are some theologians who say that God is so holy that he can’t stand human sins, that God is, as it were, allergic to human wrongdoings. Perhaps they are right. I know that these thinkers are trying to safeguard the holiness of God, and also point out the deadly seriousness of sin. Points well taken!
However, this doesn’t mean that God is allergic to either sin or to us. According to the writer of the Gospel of John, Jesus was God who had come in the flesh. According to the New Testament, Jesus was God crawling into small, nasty cages to rescue us. Some of us bit him a lot in the process. He knew that we didn’t know any better.
And, according to all the Gospel writers, Jesus seems to have hung around with sinners. Good thing. We all are sinners—especially those of us who are pretty sure we’re not especially sinful sinners.
So, if God isn’t allergic to us, and if he is a most trustworthy of Rescuers and Masters, we should probably crawl up on God’s lap and purr contentedly. Don’t worry: It’s a big lap. There’s plenty of room.
“UNTIL QUAILS COME OUT OF YOUR NOSES!”
“. . . until it comes out of your noses . . .”
Numbers tells a common tale of human greed, stupidity, and faithlessness. The people of Israel were in the wilderness of Sinai, on their way to the Promised Land. The LORD God was providing manna for them every day, except for Sabbath. However, God was thoughtful enough to provide them a double portion of manna on the sixth day, right before Sabbath.
However, many of the Israelites decided that God’s faithfulness was pretty boring. They were tired of manna. I can hear them now: “Manna for breakfast, manna for lunch, manna for dinner! Fried manna, boiled manna, manna salad, manna casserole! WE HATE THIS MANNA!”
God’s response? He told them that he would send them plenty of meat, and that they would eat until the quail he would send would come out their noses!
Now before you (or I) go off on these ancient Israelites, we probably ought to consider our own selves. A little boy asked his mom, “Do we really need to thank God for leftovers?!?”
Right! Most of us have probably wondered the same thing.
A friend of mine and I were talking about work before our corporate worship service today. He has his own business. I asked him how business was right now. He said something like the following: “Almost too good,” he replied. “But whenever I hit a time when I don’t have a lot of work on the horizon, I start getting worried and cry out to God. Then he sends me a whole bunch of work, and reminds me of the story of the Israelites complaining about not having any meat. God says to me, ‘Pretty soon, you’ll have work coming out of your nose!’”
Complaining is a very serious sin. And it was not unique to ancient Israel. Paul refers to the events of the exodus from Egypt, and warns the Corinthian believers against falling into the same horrible trap.
“NLT 1 Corinthians 10:1 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground.
2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses.
3 All of them ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.
5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did,
7 or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.”
8 And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.
9 Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites.
10 And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death.
11 These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.
12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.
13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
These Scriptures and my conversation with my friend have left me with uncomfortable questions about myself. Am I taking God’s faithfulness for granted? Am I regarding His faithfulness as routine or boring? Am I complaining, when I really have nothing about which to complain? Do I really want God to discipline me by giving me what I want until it comes out my nose?
How has your nose been here of late?
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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- “The Process in Miracles and the Miracle of Process” March 11, 2024“2 Kings 5:1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids […]
- “The Power of Encouragement—Even for Old People” March 10, 2024“But encourage each other every day while it is ‘today.’ Help each other so none of you will become hardened because sin has tricked you.” (Hebrews 3:13, New Century Version) Yesterday, I was walking at a nearby park. There was a large group of young people some of whom were running while other young people […]
- “Endurance” March 10, 2024“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (Hebrews 10:36, English Standard Version) “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us […]
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- “Delighting in Being Told What to Do?!?” February 23, 2024“Psa. 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures […]
- “Character is the Real Lesson” January 19, 2024I am often confused about what lesson I’m really supposed to be learning. For example, this morning I was trying to knock out several Spanish lessons. My intentions were a lot better than my internet connection. I’ve done three lessons. Or rather, I’ve done two lessons. One of them I did twice because the internet […]
- “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked” January 1, 2024Each year, I try to come up with one word or a short phrase for what I intend to work on in the upcoming year. 2024 is “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked”. What?!! What does that even mean? So glad that you asked! Jesus said to his disciples, “Why do you look at the speck […]
- “Searching for the Noble One” December 26, 2023My wife and I were reading Luke, chapter 2 on Christmas Day. Luke 2 talks about the shepherds being told to look for this very special child—in fact, this King—in a stable. I prefer the word “barn”. I grew up on a farm. I know what a barn is. A stable is entirely too biblical […]
- “That Don’t Impress God Much” December 14, 2023DTEB, “That Don’t Impress God Much” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” (Song by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain) Micah 6:8 (MSG) “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be […]
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