Why We Fear The One Who Made Us

  A preview of April's email-only article.

Caleb Woods

DOES IT EVER seem like God is hiding from us?

If he's really out there, why won't he show us his glory?

It turns out there's a good explanation for this phenomenon, something we're examining in this month's email-exclusive article.

Every month I publish an exclusive article for my email subscribers, and if you'd like instant, free access, fill out the form below. (If you are already a subscriber, check your inbox!)

Here's a snippet of this month's exclusive:

GOD CANNOT BE contained in any analogy we could conjure, but have you ever considered the paradoxical nature of our sun? Without the sun we could not survive. But were we to venture too near the sun we would perish as well. Even gazing at the yellow dwarf proves injurious.

 

God is a little like the sun. We cannot stand in God's presence without ceasing to exist. And yet, since God is our creator and sustainer, we would not exist at all without him.

 

When Moses asked to see God's glory, God replied he would show Moses his "goodness," but he said, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live" (Exo. 33:19, 20). Even Moses, who met regularly with God, could not survive an unveiled glimpse of the Almighty.

 

Job was well aware of the awesome, terrifying, and potentially fatal repercussions of an interaction with God. And yet, what he wanted most above all else was an audience with the Creator so he could plead his case. So after preparing his arguments, Job requested two things of God: "Withdraw your hand far from me, and let not dread of you terrify me" (13:21).

 

This passage is intriguing. Here's why.

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If We Are God's Masterpiece, Why Are We So Broken?

Sin results in dust, but God has a restoration plan in place.

Thrive by Daniel Popper, photo: Marianna Smiley

 

THE BOOK OF Job is one of contrasts. You see the uprightness of Job juxtaposed with the evil of Satan. Job is wealthy and healthy one moment then brought to poverty and disease in the next. But perhaps the biggest contrasts we see are the stark differences between expectation and Job's reality.

Job's friends expect that only the wicked should suffer, so they blame him for his problems.

Job knows he's innocent, but he eventually gives up trying to convince his friends and instead starts petitioning God for answers. Job essentially holds the same expectations his friends have, which renders his downtrodden reality all the more puzzling considering his blamelessness. It's the classic, Why do bad things happen to good people? question that just about every human everywhere throughout time has asked at one point or another.

In the midst of these petitions, Job asks God the following:

One Harmful Consequence of Sin

A preview of August's email-only article.

Philipp Pilz

It would be kind of obvious to say sin is harmful, wouldn't it?

Nevertheless, I think sin has a consequence we often don't recognize until it's too late.

Every month I publish an exclusive article for my email subscribers, and this month we're talking about this consequence, and how to reclaim your peace. If you'd like instant, free access, fill out the form below.

Here's a snippet of the article:

YOU KNOW SIN IS BAD; nothing revelatory there.

God is the definition of good, and sin is the antithesis of God. Therefore sin is decidedly ungood. In fact, transgressions separate us from God which leads to death because God is also life.

Surely you know all of this.

But wrongdoing is even worse than we probably realize. Not only do we suffer the immediate consequences of a broken relationship with God, we also experience the compound effect of evil.

Proverbs 13:21 warns of this phenomenon.

 
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Can You Ever Be Good Enough for God?

   A preview of March's email-only article.

Patrick Schneider

What do you think?

Can a mortal man be right before God? Can a person be pure before his maker?

These are the questions posed not by Job, but by his friend Eliphaz in response to Job.

Every month I publish an exclusive article for my email subscribers, and this month we're asking the question: can one ever be good enough for God?

If the question sounds loaded, it is. But I think it's a critical query each of us must resolve in our own minds if we're ever to make sense of the Scriptures and of our lives.

If you'd like instant, free access to the article, fill out the form below.

Here's a snippet:

Job's friend here intends to juxtapose our finite and humble existences to that of God almighty who is everlasting, pure, and perfect.

He first posed the rhetorical, "Who that was innocent ever perished?" as if insinuating Job deserved the suffering in his life.

Then he circled back and reported the words of a voice he heard, asking, "Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?" (4:17).

Connecting the dots here, Eliphaz argues that the innocent will not perish, but that no one is innocent.

Fair enough.

We've all sinned, as the apostle Paul wrote in the book of Romans.

 
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