Recipes forLiving God

The following was supposedly written by eight-year-old Danny Dutton of Chula Vista, California, for his third-grade homework assignment. The assignment was to explain God.

One of God’s main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn’t make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.

God’s second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn’t go wasting His time by going over your Mom and Dad’s head asking for something they said you can’t have.

Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don1t think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church.

(Jesus) used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and performing miracles and people finally got tired of Him preaching to them and they crucified Him. But He was good and kind, like His Father and He told His Father that they didn’t know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said "O.K.”

His Dad (God) appreciated everything that He had done and all His hard work on earth so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So He did. And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take care of Himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important. You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.

You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there’s anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn’t come out at the beach until noon anyway.

If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can’t go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared in the dark or when you can’t swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.

But you shouldn’t just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and He can take me back anytime He pleases. And that’s why I believe in God.

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This essay has been shared over e-mail and whether or not it could be verified, there is a beautiful childlike approach that is refreshing. We begin as babes, perhaps with God seeming like a Santa Claus figure, but Paul, on his missionary journeys, reminded his converts that there is growth in the spiritual life as there is in the physical. He could not speak to them as adults but as "babes in Christ" who would go on to maturity.1

One day at Fun Church, I asked what would happen if Jesus came to the door. What would we say to him or he to us, what would we do? First grade Danie said, "I'll show you what I would do," and he toppled over in a faint. Actually, Danie's reaction was Biblical. We may speak in a folksy way about God as "the man upstairs," etc., but those who met God in a direct confrontation could only fall on their faces.2 Isaiah and Peter were so stunned by the holiness of the divine that they exclaimed about their own unworthiness.3

Through the centuries, preaching about God has changed. Within the lifetime of some of us, there was the hellfire and damnation approach and the response was for fear of his judgment. From there the pendulum swung to emphasis on love, sometimes portraying a God so loving that "anything goes." In the feminist movement, any reference to God in masculine terms was absolutely taboo, while others found it equally objectionable to pray to Mother-Father God. And through it all God's words came ringing through: "I, the Lord, do not change. (All else) will be changed but you, Lord, are the same. .Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." James refers to the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.4

What, then, of the Old Testament God whose partiality toward the Israelites (Jews) is so glaring? In the books that record the conquest of the land promised to Abraham and confirmed to his son, Isaac, there are many accounts in which God ordered the destruction of entire communities. "The total of those who fell that day, both men and women, was 12,000- all the people of Ai." "Joshua defeated the whole land...utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God commanded."5

In his study of the Gospel of John, William Barclay wrote, "We may ask, 'What about some of the things we read in the Old Testament? What about the passages which speak about commands of God to wipe out whole cities and to destroy men, women and children? What of the anger and the destructiveness...of God that we sometimes read of in the older parts of Scripture?'" His answer is this: "It is not God who has changed; it is men's knowledge of him that has changed...They could only grasp and understand God's nature and his ways in part. It was only when Jesus came that they saw fully and completely what God has always been like."6

The Bible says that God is spirit and God is love.7 The parable through which Jesus illustrates the nature of God's love is the Prodigal Son.8 The dictionary definition of "prodigal" is "wastefully or recklessly extravagant." In the story, the younger son asked for the share of the father's inheritance that was due him. He went to a "far country" and there he squandered it all. When he faced the fact that he was destitute, reduced to feeding swine- a job that would be the greatest indignity for a Jew- he realized that even the lowest servant in his father's household

2 Ezek. 1:28; Acts 22:6-7

3 Isa. 6:1-5; Luke 5:8

4 Mal. 3:6; Heb. 1:10-12, 13:8; James 1:17

5 Gen. 17:8, 26:4; Joshua 8:25, 10:40

6 Volume I, page 38

7 John 4:24; 1 John 4:8

8 Luke 15:11-24

fared better than he. He "came to himself' and decided to go home to his father. This is a portrayal of our lives, the mirror in which we see ourselves, when we are lured by worldly fascinations and are finally brought to realize that they are shallow and temporary. When they are gone, we; are left with nothing. It is then that we understand what the psalmist wrote, "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness."9

But see God in this parable. Dr. George LaMore, professor in the Department of Religion at Iowa Wesleyan College, spoke of the omnipotence of God, saying that omnipotence is an adjective. God is an omnipotent what? An omnipotent parent. The parable says that while the son was still far off, the father saw him. Was that the first time the father had stood in the road, scanning the horizon, watching for his son? How many days had he stood there hoping? Then, before the son had an opportunity to ask for his father's forgiveness, the father was filled with compassion and ran to him. He called for a robe- the "best one," a ring which was a symbol of authority, and sandals which nobility wore-slaves went barefoot. In other words, the father reinstated this prodigal son to full acceptance back into the family.

"I stand at the door and knock," says Jesus, "If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me.10 God has trusted humankind so much that first he gave over the care of his creation to us11 but additionally he gave us free reign. We can choose our course of action but not the consequences and there is a consequence for every act.

Many years ago when I was working in the church with youth, there was an effort to form a junior/senior high school ecumenical district youth group. They planned a large rally to initiate their program and invited a speaker from Des Moines. When he asked them to choose a topic, they suggested the issue of sex. Young people were far less informed on the subject than in these days and my curiosity was immediately aroused. What would the speaker say to a group of such an age range? And this is what he said- for every act there is a consequence. For breathing, not breathing, doing or not doing, and all else. At that time the dangers of premarital sex were thought to be pregnancy and disease, but he went beyond that to the Biblical concept of union, "the two become one flesh."12 Those whom are promiscuous literally fragment their own personalities. "Do you not know that whoever is united with a prostitute becomes one body with her?"13 This is as constant as the natural laws built into the universe- water always freezes at 32°, water rises to its own level, etc. Incredible as it seems, those laws remain and are so dependable that the most modem technology builds upon them. Dr. E. Stanley Jones has said that we don't break God's laws. We break ourselves on them.

And we break the heart of God, who said through Moses, "If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them

and with their children forever." Jesus said, "How often I have desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing!"14

It has been said that there are 3,000 promises in the Bible awaiting our use. Are we concerned for our nation? "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." Are we exhausted from the pace we are living? "Come unto me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Jesus said, "If in my name (according to my nature) you ask me for anything, I will do it." And perhaps the most inclusive promise, the promise that gives us all that we search for, is the promise that the Holy Spirit in our lives produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. The psalmist wraps it up: "Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."15

For all of these, it is necessary to look beyond the present and beyond the physical. If we do not, it is hard to understand why the lives of those whom God has chosen to serve him have seemed to go so unrewarded. The author of the letter to the Hebrews tells about the treatment of God's "mouthpieces," the prophets, who were mocked, flogged, and/or imprisoned. Some were sawn in two, others killed by the sword. They were destitute, persecuted, and tormented because the world could not accept their message. Paul wrote of what he endured- beatings, stoning, shipwreck, all kinds of dangers and hardship- and of course God's own Son was put to death by the most brutal means used for the most despicable criminals. 16 But Paul undoubtedly spoke for all of them as he wrote, "I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us."17 God gives a new set of values, kingdom values, when we choose to give him charge of our lives.

What can be said of the nature of God? Dr. George LaMore tells that the Hebrews had a phrase, "neti neti," which is to say that our most elaborate words fail to portray God- there is always more, always something beyond definition. We are the pot attempting to describe the potter.18 And yet, God can be known. The entire Bible assures us that God desires more than our knowing about him, but that we know him. "If you seek him, he will be found by you." 19

Personally I could not live without assurance that there is wisdom higher than mine, a control of final destiny beyond mine, one that I can always turn to and sense a presence, God who loves and understands, to whom I am accountable and whose judgment will be final. 20