Wisdom and comfort

We just finished James in the Bible reading plan that I follow. I like to think of myself as a person of action, so James is one of my favorite books. But this time I noticed something different. James tells us,

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

I do sometimes feel doubt, and those are the times when I most feel the need to ask God to grant me wisdom. When James says that those who doubt should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, it makes me feel that I am a failure as a believer.

But I realized that, perhaps, when James says that such a person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, he really means that they should not expect to receive wisdom. James is talking about asking for wisdom, so it makes sense that he would still be talking about wisdom.

It may not seem like that should make a difference, but it does! When I doubt and my faith is unstable, I cannot profit from the Lord's wisdom. What I need is the Lord's comfort. James does not say so here, but other verses make it clear that the Lord strengthens us and comforts us when we are weak.

Lord, I pray to you to give me wisdom when I am strong in faith and comfort and strength when I am unstable.

Prayer

Prayer is not a way to ask for gifts and special favors; God isn't Santa Claus. It's not some check box; God's not some bureaucratic manager who requires the forms to be filled out before he responds. God knows what we need and responds to us according to our need whether or not we ask. Prayer is not for God's sake so that he knows what we need. He already knows.

Prayer is for our own sake. Prayer is not so much our chance to talk to God (although we can; it's sometimes what we need). Prayer is our chance to let God talk to us. In the busy lives that we lead, we do not hear God's voice speaking to us. Prayer is our chance to quiet ourselves and just be with God.

If it seems like God gives us blessings in return our prayers, it is really because our prayers open our eyes to the blessings God gives us all the time.

Universal salvation

Madeleine L'Engle believed in universal salvation: everyone will ultimately be reconciled with God. She did not pretend to know how it would work, but she believed it to be true. The Bible supports this view, but it also contradicts this view. Madeleine gloried in contradiction.

Madeleine's believed separation from God was the punishment promised in the Bible. Unity with God was the reward.

Like Madeleine L'Engle, I know that I don't know all the answers, but I like this idea. My heart breaks when I think of people, even terrible people, being punished forever. Can even the worse sins on earth be worth eternal punishment? This does not seem compatible with a loving God. I also do not thing getting a an external reward or punishment can really provide lasting motivation to live a godly life. We should obey because the life we live when we obey is the best reward and the life we live when we don't obey is the worst punishment.

Universal salvation just gives us the chance to repent after death as well as before; death is not some arbitrary boundary between when you can repent and the time you can't. We always have the opportunity. If we have all eternity, we will all eventually repent. That, I believe, is what a loving God would want.

Jesus, our representative

Hebrews is a really challenging book. Two parts stuck out to me (always two!).

1 Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins. 2 And he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses. 3 That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs.

and

7 While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. 8 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. 9 In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him

I have always had a hard time understanding why Jesus had to die. If God is all powerful and if God is merciful, why would anyone have to die for him to forgive us?

I know this idea won't be popular with most people, but maybe Jesus had to die because God, despite being all powerful and all knowing (or maybe because of it), is incapable of understanding people. Really understanding them, I mean. He might know everything we think and see all our motivations, but he cannot, in his perfection, emphasize with us.

But Jesus is our heavenly High Priest. He acts as both our representative before God and as the one who deals gently with us. And he can do this because he lived among us and was one of us. Even though he lived a perfect life free of sin, Jesus experience human emotions and human passions. He experienced love, despair, rage, hesitation, and friendship. Because of these experiences, he can understand us and teach us gently, in ways that we can understand.

Cutting Between Soul and Spirit

In my daily Bible reading I read Hebrews 4:12. It says, 

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

I almost glossed over these verses. The idea is so familiar. The word is the living word of the living God.  But then I noticed something.

This verse says that God's word cuts between soul and spirit. Soul and spirit usually mean the same thing. It seems odd to say that God's word cuts between them. But the words are not always the same. The Holy Spirit, God's voice inside of us, is never called a soul. That still doesn't tell me what this verse means, but here's what this verse means for me: God's word helps us distinguish between God's voice (the spirit) and our own voice (the soul). Just as joint and marrow are both good and necessary, and so are God's voice and our own individual voices, but it's important to see the difference.

The verse also says that it's God's word which exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Not God, but God's word. This verse tells me that God's word exposes my innermost thoughts and desires to myself. God already knows them and, through His word, reveals them to me.

A Single Reality

Science is real. So is God. This frightens people, but we cannot escape reality just because it scares us. How can I understand this wonderful, terrible, confusing, and delightful world? I don't know. But maybe writing out some of my thoughts here will help me come to a deeper understanding.

I will go by Lina on this blog. That is not my real name. "Lina" is a tribute to Madeleine L'Engle. This wonderful woman who not only accepted that science and faith are compatible, she found it glorious. She was surrounded by religion that could not satisfy her longings. It was science that brought her to a greater faith. Some people shun her because she tries to make science religions. Other people shun her because she believed that science and faith were compatible. I think she is an inspiration. She knew she was wrong in many ways, but she grew more in her ignorance than many grow in their certainty.

In honor of Madeleine L'Engle and the richness she has brought to my life, I will go by Lina. I hope that I can follow in Madeleine L'Engle's footsteps and grow in understanding.