Is Your God Too Safe?

Not too long ago I read a book entitled, "Is Your God Too Safe?" by Mark Buchanan. It was a great wake up call to me and my "slouchyness" (don't know if that is a word....but it sounds good to me)

Anyway I was made aware through reading it that my God was too safe.....not that I made Him that way on my own...but through teaching from earlier years by leaders and the influence of others......I had made Him too safe.

One chapter relates to the differences between Jesus and the Pharisees. Weirdly enough, I found myself relating to the Pharisee (the people that I have grown to dislike after reading the scirptures) but I found that I had been acting alot like they did and I had not even realized it. From Buchanan's view the Pharisees didn't ask "How can I make others clean"....instead they asked, "How can I keep myself from getting dirty". They did not seek to rescue sinners, only to avoid sinning.

Jesus in sharp contrast, got involved. He sought to help, to heal, to save, and to restore. Rather than running from evil, He ran toward the good.....and so evil...in fear...fled. Those that are brave enough to leave their "borderland" environment and experience the deeper water will indeed set the captives free!

Jesus got close to people. He took tax collectors, the rough fishermen, the harlots, the demon possessed, and gave back to them "life". The Pharisees avoided these people lest they were infected and overwhelmed with their evil.

Buchanan quotes: "The tragedy is that we have often preferred the ethic of the Pharisee to the ethic of Christ. We have become self-obsessed in our doctorine of sin, as though sin were merely a personal flaw like acne, plantar's warts or crooked teeth. As though sin is merely about personal victory or defeat. We seldom see sin as a brokenness that's bone deep and creationwide. Overcoming sin requires MORE than avoidance. God desires restoration and reconcillliation----of relationships, of creation, or our own true selves. This is the wider and deeper meaning of the Cross.

The Word says that we will be known by our "fruits" not by our tree rot. And so with that we need to ask ourselves..."how can I be an effective witness....how can I be SALT" This challenges us to turn bars into chapels, drug dealers into evangelists, biker gangs into a gathering of saints. Don't get me wrong....there are risks to this.....one being.... succumbing to the world instead of overcoming it..... But risk are in everything....but that doesn't mean we don't do them. But consider the greatest risk of all.....NOT getting involved! Never leaving "borderland" Avoiding Christ......never becoming God hungry or God dependent. What a tragedy!

Buchanan quotes: "Jesus uses the marketplace to touch the sick with healing. There, He is Lord of Lords spreading His hands wide pressing those hands against scalding flesh that has fever or icy with approaching death, disease soaked hands grab hold of Him. That's Jesus in the marketplace. Then there are the Pharisees. Lords of the borderland....charter members of the safe God society. They avoid the residue, even the shadow of the sick .....they are minicing with each step, holding themselves tight, picking up items between the pinched ends of two fingers, rushing home to scrub up....lest they become infected. Jesus is about healing the sick, the Pharisees are about avoiding them and making sure above all that they themselves don't get sick.

I don't want to live in "borderland" ...I want to be discerning and dangerous at the same time.

There is an old saying that I grew up with and actually adhered to most of my life......but maybe now.....I don't want to abide by it any longer:

"It is better to be "safe" than "sorry"........

Now..... I would rather be "sorry" than "safe"