The Danger of Laughter

In Genesis 17, God establishes his covenant with Abram, who is now 99 yrs. old. God established a covenant with Abram that held so much significance it required change. His name was changed from Abram to Abraham, his wife's name was changed from Sarai to Sarah, and all of the males in his household had to undergo a physical change by being circumcised. After telling him about all these changes that occur, God tells Abraham that he and his wife are going to have a son. They were 99 and 98 yrs old!! What do you think Abraham's reaction was, he laughed in God's face! He thought that it was ridiculous and even asked God to just bless the son he already had. That just sounds outrageous. How can someone laugh in the face of God over his promise of a miracle? Yet, are we any different? There are so many times that God promises us miracles that we refuse to believe. We say, "Yeah, I know He can do it, but He won't do it, at least not for me." The problem with this is that we are faithfully trusting in Him. We have to remember, when God establishes a covenant, a change has to occur. What is the covenant He established with us? The promise of eternal life in heaven with our Holy Father. His son died on a cross for that covenant to come into affect. We are not without responsibility. As a sign of this covenant, our lives our changed through the work of the Holy Spirit, and the miracles God performs in us and through us. Don't laugh in God's face because you don't want to have the faith that it takes to change your life. 

An Understandable God?

Sometimes we find ourselves trying to wrap our brains around one of God's mysteries, such as the fact that He has always been and always will be, or that He is omnipresent (everywhere at once), or that He is omniscient (all-knowing). There is always one of two results to this pondering: 1) We decide that we'll find out when we get to heaven and accept the fact that we will never understand it in this life, or 2) we come to the conclusion that we really can't believe in God because we just don't understand Him. Well, there is a problem with the latter choice. The problem is that if we CAN understand God, than He is no greater than we are. Who would want to worship someone who is no greater than themselves? The fact that we don't understand all of God's mysteries points to His greatness and should make us that much more excited to get to know Him better. We will still find ourselves struggling over His grace or maybe even the seeming injustice of the world, but when that does happen, we can be reminded of Deut. 29:29 "The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may practice all the words of this law." There are things God has kept from us, but He has given us so much to discover!