Crazy Faith

If God made man perfect in the garden, then why did they choose to do what they were forbidden?

James 1:13-14

[13] When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;

[14] but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

According to James above, they had evil desire already...before they were tempted!

Does this bother you?

Do you not question God in order to get to know Him better? Would you marry a girl or boy without getting to know them?

Ask the questions!

Unless you are afraid He might not be good...

Oh, He is good. He is the best! Especially when we don't understand why He does what He does.

Isn't that what faith is? Not just knowing of them but rather believing that they are good in the midst of a criminal trial, and all the evidence points against them!

Yes, that is faith in Him.

No, of course He is not guilty of evil. Sure, He made evil, but evil itself has a good, no great, purpose...a perfect purpose.

We just can't fathom it yet. This is why over and over scripture speaks of His power, His goodness and a massive directive to trust Him.

There is no other option.

It IS the Way.

Yes, He made man less than perfect. That is obvious, unless you are not trusting God can be good even doing so.

Judging God without all the info...without even knowing Him a little.

Yes, He made the devil imperfect. Satan has a part to play, the same way Pharoah did, Judas did, and every evil man, animal or plant does.

Yes, He put the tree in the garden knowing full well what would happen. He wrote the book, using Himself as the very Word!

Do you trust Him still? Or cower away and find some comfortable excuse to make Him seem softer?

"This evil world is man's fault!"

You know Job's friends did that...even to the point of being rather insensitive to Job's plight. God doesn't need anyone to defend Him! He IS in fact perfect in both goodness, and purpose.

Faith, real crazy faith, like what Jesus demanded of His followers ("hate your father and mother") is as extreme as what I'm writing here. He can be trusted! He should be trusted!

In your heart, you know this to be true. It came as a package when He gifted you faith to be aware of Him, even in the smallest measure.

Remember the dude with only one talent? Faith requires a natural response. If there is no response, there is no faith.

Faith, that trusts in the face of opposition. Opposition that even comes from the heavenly realm.

This is what pleases God. It really does.

The first time I saw Him smile at me was around 1991 or 1992. I was talking to Him from my heart. Life circumstances were not going as I expected. In fact, they were downright bad.

As I talked with my Lord, I considered the difficulty I faced. I understood that He is God. I understood His power. I understood that if He wanted, easy, could happen.

I knew that He, being God, was ultimately responsible. Yet, even then, I knew the trouble was for me to grow. I was not new to it...just a wee bit tired of it.

So, I got mad. I pointed up at the ceiling of the apartment I was in and shouted, "it looks like you are trying to make me give up! It looks like you are trying to make me walk away! We'll go ahead! Throw everything you got! I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!"

I really expected some sort of punishment or rebuke. Instead, He smiled at me. It was a vision of sorts. I just knew it. He WAS smiling at me. I stopped yelling instantly and after a stunned moment, I sat down and just took it in.

That was all He wanted from me.

He just wants us to know Him enough to trust Him crazy like. To refuse to believe any lie, and know that in any storm, or even if we are hanging on a cross, just a moment from death, that His smile is more than worth the pain and difficulty.

He has a reason for all of it.

That reason is beyond good.

Don't believe it?

I'm sorry, but that is only because you don't really know Him.