Book 1 of Musings A Sense of God

One of the great needs we have in Christian work is for a sense of God's timing.

One can notice some unusual features of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ - that is, unusual compared with the way we do things today. One is the fact that He would go where there were many people waiting to be healed and would touch only one. A second is that He would tell people whom He healed not to tell anyone. Our thought today is that you should tell everyone when a miracle is performed. Get the word out!

A third unusual feature is His statement concerning the parable of the sower. I was taught in Bible school that Jesus spoke in parables so people would remember what He said. But the Lord explained that He taught in parables so people would not understand Him, because if they did they would be forgiven.

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables, so that, 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'" (Mark 4:10-12)

You know, the above is really troubling. We would not accept today that Christ spoke in parables so people would not understand and be forgiven. Although God said this, we would find a way around it.

I am not certain the problem here is merely that we do not have a feel for God's timing. This is true in many instances. But there is something deeper here. There appears to be a democratic, humanistic spirit that has infiltrated Christian thinking such that we cannot accept God's way. This may be symptomatic of a deep rebellion against God, an unwillingness to let God be God and save and heal whom He will in the manner He chooses.

There is something fundamentally off base in the Christian approach to the Kingdom of God. We do not care about God's will or His demand for righteousness, only in enabling people to escape Hell and go to a place of joy.

I truly wonder how many Christian leaders of today would be willing to face the fact that we may not know what we are doing! Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you"; And their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this." (Matthew 9:29-30)

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