Pastor's pen 27th September 2015

Is God a liar?

During my recent time in Brisbane I spent some days at Malyon (Bible) College doing some study I observed some of the undergraduate students in robust debate on theological matters. These discussions brought back memories of my own similar journey of discovery of God’s word. While such discussions can be helpful in coming to understand certain tenets of the Christian faith, I have observed in church life that differences in understanding of certain doctrines can be a destructive and divisive conversation. Such conversations pigeon hole individuals into different camps along the lines of what you believe. While a good understanding of biblical doctrine is important, I have come to see that there is a point when we must make less of what we believe and more of who we believe. This takes us past intellectual pursuit of truth to a relational faith journey with the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I make this point not to trivialise the assault continually being made on biblical truth by the world and the devil, but to emphasise a dependence on God Himself to live out our Holy calling in the mission He has called us to. More importantly when we shift from what we believe to Who we believe, we move beyond internal differences that mean nothing to those lost souls around us, to living a life of faith that has an impact. My point is this: Listening to God’s word as it speaks to our lives and our day to day decisions will have a greater impact on those around us, than simply trying to nail down some debatable theological position. As I was saying, faith is so much more relational than it is intellectual. We have a relationship with the Living God!

For our relationship with God to grow we need to believe what He says. In 1 John 5:10 we read, “Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar…” The verse is talking about receiving Jesus as the One sent from God. But this concept of making God a liar can impact our everyday lives. What is informing the decisions we make; the attitudes we adopt; and the priorities we set? Sadly, in many instances we too often allow worldly values to inform our choices and set our priorities. But by implication each time we choose to follow the world, it is not simply worldliness having a higher priority. No. To choose to follow godless counsel other than God’s own word, we are in fact making God out to be a liar. For if God is truly God, shouldn’t we be taking everything He says seriously; making Him the true guide of everyday decisions. Our faith is not just some abstract belief system but rather obeying the One person Who will always lead in the right way.

So this week when we are tempted to ignore God’s word and take more of a lead from the godless society around us, remember that when we choose to ignore God, we’re not just putting Him second, we are calling Him a liar and that means we are putting Him last.