Stern love
A couple days ago, I came across this wonderful quote at the Serven Clan's blog...it's from the book Knowing God by J.I. Packer (which I still have yet to read)...
"God's love is stern, for it expresses holiness in the lover and seeks holiness for the beloved. Scripture does not allow us to suppose that because God is love we may look to Him to confer happiness on people who will not seek holiness, or to shield His loved ones from trouble when He knows that they need trouble to further their sanctification."
That is SO true...yet hardly ever preached in modern churches anymore! It (the "stern" part) reminds me of a short "oral presentation" (we all had to do them) given by one of the young men in my DTS...his title (or key phrase) was "God is good, but not nice."
While in Thailand, I ended up going to the local "farong" (the Thai word for "foreigner", "white person", etc.) youth group two or three times. (I am not usually a big supporter of youth groups at all and in that instance I really only went so that I could have some contact with kids around my age...but even then I only went a couple times since it wasn't what I thought/was hoping it would be.) The first time I went I end up getting into an arguement/discussion (though I thought of it as a discussion, I think that he thought of it as an arguement!) with the speaker (don't worry, it wasn't during the time that he was actually "speaking", just afterwards!) because he said that God "wants us to be happy" and I disagreed. Where in the Bible does it EVER say that God wants us to be happy?! Yes, we are to "rejoice always..." (1 Thess. 5:16), but that's different from "being happy". There are SO many Scriptures that equate suffering/trials/hardships with being refined, growing in the Lord and becoming more like Jesus. I did a Bible study on this (suffering) before and was amazed at the amount of Scriptures contrary to the popular modern church belief that Christian's life is supposed to be happy and "full of blessings". THAT IS NOT TRUE! "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." (2 Tim. 3:12) A far cry from the popular lie satirically put forth in this ad about American Christianity. (Found through Amy's blog) We are to "take up the cross, and follow" (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; 10:21; Luke 9:23)...do you think carrying a cross is very "happy"? Oh...I could say so much more about this sad, unBiblical belief/worldview found in so many Western churches...but I won't right now. However, I am planning on posting several more links to pieces (spoken and written) by saints much more articulate than I. You should definitely read/listen to them!
"Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'" ~Luke 9:23