Where was God and Where are you?

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him (Jesus) from the dead.”  Acts 17:22-31

As we conclude our first month of 2013, I want to encourage you with this thought: God is not far from us!

Amid the "most wonderful season of all" in 2012 came the tragic news of a deranged young man entering an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 27, including 20 children.  Tragically, Christmas for these families was one of grief and despair. 

Tragic events like this one cause people to ask many questions about God.  It is interesting to me that traumatic events either lead people to question God or call on Him.  Even President Obama, who spent countless hours campaigning for re-election without referencing the Bible, quoted from Scripture as he addressed the nation after the school shooting.  He even mentioned Jesus’ name when he said, ““Let the little children come to me,” Jesus said, “and do not hinder them—for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Where was God?  Why does God allow this to happen?

In his new book, God's Not Dead, Dr. Rice Broocks writes: "Atheists claim that the universe isn't what you would expect if a supernatural God existed.  All this death and suffering, they say, are plain evidence that a loving, intelligent God could not be behind it all.  The truth is that God has created a world where free moral agents are able to have real choices to do good or evil.  God made a world where choices are real and humanity is affected by the choices of other humans.  Drunk drivers kill innocent people.  Some murder and steal from their fellow men.  Though God gave clear commandments to humanity, we have for the most part ignored these directives.  The mess that results is not God's fault.  It's ours."

Why do tragedies like this happen?  Why do we respond with shock and awe?  Psychiatrist Keith Ablow said, "This kind of shock registers with people—because it seems like the unthinkable keeps moving into the sphere of our reality."

Franklin Graham wrote in a recent article:

The "unthinkable" first surfaced in mankind thousands of years ago when Cain killed his brother Abel out of mere jealousy and rivalry. God had warned Cain, "Sin is crouching at your door," but Cain ignored God's word and committed murder. God punished Cain for taking innocent life but the violent shedding of blood has continued for centuries. Why?

The Bible answers this question with certainty, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). In fact, the Bible gives clear testimony to just how evil the human race became. "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord "was grieved in His heart" (Gen. 6:5-6).

Tragedies happen because people have wicked sinful hearts.  That is why we need a Lord and Savior to rule in our hearts.  Once again, Franklin Graham explains our need for a Savior well.  He writes:

Society craves violence as long as it comes in the form of entertainment. Our outlook changes when we become its victims. This is precisely why God did not stand by unconcerned. His love for mankind is so overwhelmingly powerful that His wrath against evil is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men (Romans 1:18). The Bible says that people suppress the truth through unrighteous behavior that begins in the mind.

During this time, we should turn our minds and hearts from wickedness and remember what God has done for the world He loves. He sent His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to point us to the way of truth. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). His innocent blood was shed to cover our sinful hearts, and to those who will seek Him, He offers His abiding peace. He is the peace that surpasses all understanding.

The same God who gave the world His greatest gift, will also comfort the hearts of the grieving—in Newtown, Conn., or anywhere else—for He understands grief. He became a curse for us so that His promise would be fulfilled through faith in Him (Galatians 3:13). This is the shocking awe, that God would send so great a message in the form of a child.

Where was God?  Religions, creeds, and philosophies teach us in vain how to get close to God or become like God.  Christianity is not a religion, creed or philosophy.  It is about a relationship with God.  Christianity teaches that Jesus came to earth from heaven to be close to us.  When we repent of our sins, and put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This means that God, by the presence of His Holy Spirit, actually lives in all who have called upon the name of Jesus for salvation.  That is pretty close wouldn’t you say? 

Why wouldn’t we want to teach children how to have God live in them?  Why do we want to remove God from our schools and then wonder why God isn’t present?  Remember, it is Jesus who instructs us how to treat others like we want to be treated, how to love and pray for our enemies, how to control our anger because it can lead to murder, and many more teachings that have changed the world for the better (Matthew 5-7).

It is true that heinous acts are committed when God is not close.  No external laws are ever going to change the nature of the human heart.  Only Jesus can do that!  The sinful nature will always find a way to do evil.  Creating more laws is like putting a Band-Aid on a person and thinking it will cure them of cancer.

It seems that the more we remove God from school, the more we invite guns to take His place.  Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the U. S. House, knew how important it was to have God rule in the hearts of people.  He said, "Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet."

We can continue to argue over gun control, but in doing so we miss the bigger issue of heart control.  The most important issue is who is ruling and reigning in our hearts.  I appreciate former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee’s courage to boldly speak out on this issue.  He said:

Well, you know it’s an interesting thing. We ask why there’s violence in our schools but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability. That we’re not just going to have to be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day stand before a holy God in judgment. If we don’t believe that, then we don’t fear that. And so when people say, ‘Why did God let it happen?’ you know, God wasn’t armed. He didn’t go to the school. But God will be there in the form of a lot of people with hugs and with therapy and a whole lot of ways which I think he will be involved in the aftermath. Maybe we ought to let him in on the front end and we wouldn’t have to call him to show up when it’s all said and done at the back end.

I have one final thought about God being close to us.  Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God and enjoyed a close relationship with Him.  When they disobeyed God’s command and sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, they hid from the Lord and covered their nakedness with sewed fig leaves.  God didn’t forsake them, but called out to them, “Where are you?”  (Genesis 3:6-9)

We reject God, hide from Him, and even remove Him from our schools, yet He still calls out to us in His love, grace and mercy.  He has always been right there…real close!  We shouldn’t be asking, “Where was God?”  To me the real question is: “Where are you?” 

God isn’t lost, He isn’t hiding, and He is not far from any one of us.  He’s just waiting for us to seek Him, call out to Him, find Him, and realize that in Him we live and move and have our being!

Where are you?