JR. Forasteros - September 1, 2019
What is the Bible?
What is the Bible? What does it mean to say the Bible is inspired? Far from being a divinely dictated book or a book of theological but human reflections, the Bible is both: a fully divine and fully human book. What does that mean? And how does the Bible help us know God better?
From Series: "Rooted"
How do we know God? Not just know about God, but have a deep, personal relationship with the creator of the universe - how do we KNOW God? In this series, we'll explore our four sources of knowing God: what we experience in our life, the cloud of witnesses we call the church both local and universal, our ability to reason and the Scriptures. How does each of these four sources help us better know God?
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What does it feel like when God is angry at you?
Off the cuff, you might wonder if hitting more red lights than usual is a sign of God’s wrath. But more seriously, when we hit hard times, it’s easy to feel like we made someone up there mad. When we get sick, or when we have one of those weeks, months or years when it’s one thing after another, we want to blame bad karma or say the universe is against us or question what we’ve done to make God mad at us.
It doesn’t help that, whenever tragedy strikes, there are plenty of pundits who want to make sure we know God’s to blame.
Every natural disaster, every national tragedy, you can find at least a few crazy Christians trying to explain how and why we’ve angered God so God threw a hurricane or tornado or airplane at us.
And in times of personal tragedy, that happens too. Well-meaning people put a gentle hand on our shoulder and ask if we are right with the Lord, implying that we’re probably not, and that’s why this is happening to us.
Is that what it looks like when God gets angry?
Well… no. Like all the best lies, this one has a grain of truth in it
But the idea that God is essentially Thor, throwing lightning bolts at those who cross him is just plain wrong. Understanding God like that makes us afraid, and it actually keeps us from responding correctly to God’s anger.
Let’s talk about what it looks like when God gets angry, and how we can respond to that anger. Because God’s anger – like every other aspect of God – arises from God’s love, a perfect love that casts out fear. And ultimately, God’s anger is about life and hope.
