Give God a break

Having been a committed born-again believer in Jesus Christ
for many years, I find it very difficult to understand how people could not only
claim to be atheistic or even agnostic in spite of the things they can see
around them, which speak clearly of a creator.

Last Sunday morning, I searched out a verse from the book of
Job 11:7, which says: "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out
the Almighty unto perfection?"

Job 11:10 "If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who
can hinder him?"

The answer must be, of course, that you cannot find out God
or understand Him by searching, for He is beyond understanding.

We have a past, a present and a future, but Almighty God has
only a present, which tells us He has always been there.

Because the human mind cannot understand that, many people
choose not to believe in Him, and yet, space is also unexplainable, as there
appears to be no end to it. For if there was an end, what lies beyond the end?

This author believes that if there is no God who created us
in the first place, then we are definitely not here. For there cannot be a
creation without a creator. My next problem is how is it possible that God was
always there? And I find this question too difficult to understand; therefore by
faith I believe He always was.

We now turn to the NZ Herald, 20 September 2001, and
read an article entitled: "Put God on hold? Give him a break", by a writer
called Garth George. We quote in part:

"There have been those who have jumped at the chance to
blame religion for this catastrophe and while there's no doubt that religion
has been used as an excuse to perpetrate evil -– as it has been for hundreds of
years -– the number of Muslims, Christians or Jews who would do so is minute
among those bodies of believers.

And then, weirdest of all, have been those who have blamed
God himself. I say weirdest of all because it is obvious that none of those who
blame him believes in him, and how can you blame a deity whom you don't even
believe exists for anything is quite beyond me.

The suggestion that if God were put on hold, the world might
be a better place seems rather strange considering that in most of the Western
world, and in New Zealand for sure, he was put on hold a long time ago. Is New
Zealand a better place?

God does not impose himself on humankind. He gave mankind the
power of choice. We can choose to believe in him or choose not to; we can choose
to honour him or choose not to; we can choose to obey him or not to -– and the
number of times he has interfered with or overruled our choices are few and well
documented.

It makes as much sense to blame God for the American atrocity
as it does to blame Garth George.

I wonder why it is that God gets blamed only when things
go wrong and never gets any credit when things go right. What if the fourth
aircraft that failed to reach its target because a prayerful believer and four
others gave their lives to make sure it didn't? Does God get the credit? Fat
chance.

I wonder, too, what the world would be like if there were no
believers to carry out God's commandments, such as to love one another, to
feed the poor, to tend the sick, to bind up the broken-hearted.

Imagine a world without, for instance, the Auckland City
Mission, the Salvation Army, World Vision, the Christian Children's Fund -–
and tens of thousands of other similar organisations staffed by hundreds of
thousands of believers of all creeds who devote their lives to the service of
those less fortunate than themselves.

You don't hear much about them because most of them shun
publicity. These people of God are too busy trying to hold back the tidal wave
of human tragedy, sickness, poverty and hunger that engulfs so much of the
world, including our little part of it.

And I'll bet a goodly number of them were and are right
there in the thick of it in New York and Washington." (emphasis added).

I really feel that Garth George is on the right track and
that those who continually bash religion and in particular, Christianity, need
to think again as those people on the 102^nd floor of the World Trade
Center never had a chance to change their minds when the plane hit.

I am encouraged, however, by reading Romans 1:19-20, where we
read:

"Because that which may be known of God is manifest in
them; For God hath shown it unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are
without excuse:" (emphasis added).

Therefore, it is not up to me or anybody else to try and
convince any other person on the face of this earth that there is a God, for
they are without excuse. God has revealed Himself to every man and every woman
-– Praise God.