Sovereignty of God

How do you view the world? Is it as a set of random events which are the result of individual and collective decision making? Or is it that God is sovereign and he is working out his eternal purposes in all things?

We may say that obviously it is the later, obviously it is that God is sovereign. But I wonder if we live life in the light of that reality, whether that knowledge saturates our actions or whether we live to all intents and purposes as practical atheists. I think the key to identifying which it is is seen in our responses to pressured situations.

That is not saying that we are atheists, but that actually because of the way we think we actually live as if we don't know that God is sovereign (practical atheism). We do believe in God and have a relationship with him through repentance and faith in Jesus but we just forget in the heat of the moment that God is sovereign and that we amazingly can call this sovereign God 'Father' and live as if we can't.

We allow ourselves to respond instinctively because we have not allowed the knowledge of God's sovereignty to saturate our thinking and our lives. So to take an example, a week before Christmas we buried my Grandad, who was a Christian but for the last few years of his life mentally degenerated seriously, to the point where he couldn't recognise anyone. A solid grounding in the sovereignty of God brings the comfort that God knows what is happening to my grandad and more than that amazingly through what is happening God is working out his purposes, though I still don't know what they are.

It is different from fatalism, because fatalism is the result of blind chance. Sovereignty gives us the comfort and assurance that a loving God who did not spare his only son but gave him for us is working through every circumstance for our good. The challenge, and it is a challenge we do not find it easy, is to live in the light of this.

Am I an alien?

Am I an alien? Sometimes people regard Christians as being well a bit odd. And we are meant to be different but all too often we are not regarded as odd because we are different but because we are odd - because we are not engaged in the real world.

I was at a conference last summer and heard John Piper speak, I've been reviewing my notes again and came across this phrase in my notes; "Nobody is too heavenly minded. We are just not engaged in the world." Driscoll, whose books I have mentioned, suggests that holiness is not removing yourself from the culture around you but striving to be different whilst engaged in the culture around you.

That is what taking gospel risks is. Its all too easy to withdraw from the culture in order to strive to be holy. But how much more radical to strive to be holy whilst engage with the culture. How much more would people take note of us if our holiness was seen in the pub or club or in the workplace. The New Testament seems to envisage holiness to be a struggle and also to be obvious to the world around us, it certainly was in the early church as they stopped idol worship (1 Thess 1:9) as they changed their eating patterns (1 Cor 10) and tried to live a life worthy of the gospel not in monastic terms but whilst engaged in the culture.

No divide of sacred or secular just God's redeemed people living out the call to be holy as I am holy whilst going about their daily life.

Making the good news known

People do things all the time that make us question their beliefs. Jesus certainly did in the gospels, that's why he has so many run ins with the Pharisees, as he does things that show he thinks differently about the sabbath, about cleanliness, about sin and righteousness.

For Christ followers the challenge is to do likewise. How do my beliefs show in my actions? How does being part of God's kingdom affect my living in exile in this kingdom? Do my friends and family see that my beliefs about life, about death, about God are different? Am I perceived as just being religious or do I live as a sinner saved by God's outrageous grace in Christ?

What would such living look like? It would mould my attitude in the office as I put on the mind of Christ; not worrying about my rights, not concerned about my position, knowing that living for God means I might be belittled but that God will lift me up.

Or as a parent, how do I live the gospel? What opportunities does the day present to me to teach my children about the outrageous love of God, as we look at the world and as they experience pain and joy?

Living like that provokes questions and gives credibility to our words as we make the great news about Jesus Christ known.