the sacred discovery

...what do you do with passages that seem to suggest, or even explicitly state, that God changes his mind? Let me give you an example.

1 Samuel 15:11, “I regret that I have made Saul king.” And that’s the same passage that God says in verse 29, “And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” (yea, that seems super-CONFUSING!!) How can God “regret” and be a God that does not “regret” all at the same time?

Let me explain it this way. When my baby cousin was around two, and still developing her speech, she used to ask for her milk by saying, “papum, papum”—don’t worry that’s not a theological term, just baby talk. Sometimes we would even ask her if she wanted milk by saying “papum” back to her. Now, we weren’t trying to add a new word for "milk" in the dictionary, we were just trying to communicate “milk” in a way that was comprehensible to the mind of a two year old child.

Similarly, you might apply the same logic to passages like the one above. Perhaps, God is speaking in terms comprehensible to such finite, small-minded creatures such as us. Saul had earned divine disapproval by his disobedience, and God responds by saying, “If you, the human, ever regretted doing something, then I want you to understand that regret would be the best level of disappointment that I, the transcendent God, have for such sinful disobedience.”

This is what theologians call “anthropomorphic” (big word, I know) language. Basically, it means to attribute human emotions or terms to the transcendent God, who is beyond our mental grasp. Sometimes, when we think we’ve changed God’s mind, could it be that he, who is never subject to change, is trying to relate with people who live in inexplicable, constant change?

Btw, I know that one can be a little deep, so I’d love to clear up any question you have. Comment below.

Someone asked me this question this week and I thought it was such a good question, I should blog about it :).

Here are the two truths we are confronted with when we talk about praying to change God's mind:

1) God is a good God
This means that God’s intents and thoughts for us are always good. He seeks always to accomplish what is good for us, though it may not necessarily seem good to us. So then, why do we need to change his mind? Unless we think that our good God has devised something evil to destroy us and plummet us to the pit of hell. Perhaps, then our god is not the God of the Bible at all, but maybe he is some sort of idol or even the devil.

2) God knows everything
This is what theologians call divine foreknowledge or omniscience. If you believe in the God of the Bible, then you must accept this essential truth about an all-powerful, all knowing God, who knows past, present and future by virtue of his eternality. This seems to beg the question, “If god knows everything, from what we do—with all possible outcomes of those actions—and what He does (or can do) in order to work good in our lives, then how at all is it possible or necessary for finite creatures, such as we, to change His infinite mind?” It seems to be an ambitiously frivolous and ultimately needless cause.

So then, why pray at all?

To answer this question, we must look at the motive of the man praying, rather than the mutability of the God being prayed to. If your desire is to change God, whether it’s his mind or character or whatever else, you are out of luck. The God of the Bible is unchanging. But if your desire is for him to change you, then welcome to the proper posture of prayer. Prayer is where the Christian finds hope, faith and satisfaction. You may pray for better circumstances, better perspectives, or even a better you, but why pray for a better God, when you have the best?

Can it be that beneath the frailties and the failings of our lives, under the seeping mire of this depraved world, we in our fallen state could uncover the one true God? Can we, in any reasonable terms, discover a God who could choose to hide himself?

Now, we’ve all attended one of those surprise parties where friends of the ‘suprisee’ huddle behind lamps and beneath tables with the lights dimmed, shushing and hushing till the door cracks open. However, in that very moment, everything is dark to person of the hour, he or she is quite unaware of their hidden loved ones’ proximity. Yet, in the moment to follow, all that will change.

Many of us get lost in the language of “finding” and “seeking,” that we forgo the notion of a hidden God that wants to be found. Luther, the great church reformer, taught that God hid himself from humanity, choosing to reveal himself purposely in Scripture and perfectly in Christ. To know him outside these generous bounds is to not know him at all. So then do we find God or does God find us? Both. God chooses to reward the seeker, and satiate human anticipation with the incomparable discovery of Christ and his gospel. In finding him, we may know confidently that he has indeed found us; and in his uncovering us, we’ve come to begin to uncover him. This is our sacred discovery.

If we’re Christians and we preach the gospel…shouldn’t our “gospel” music be given away for free?

.:I recently found out about a Christian music label that gives away free music. In fact, you can actually download all the CD’s of any of their artists without paying a single cent. They don’t ask you to register for spam mail, or fork over credit card info, or even donate if you don’t want to.

They call themselves musicianaries(like musicians+missionaries, I guess). I thought it was an interesting way of doing ministry. When you consider the fact that Worship music has been the cash cow for many Christian labels, with almost every artist and band coming out with a “worship” album, it seems somewhat counter-intuitive for this young unknown group of musicianaries to give away their music (their way of sharing the gospel) for free.

Anyways, check out the link below and let me know what you think in the comment box.

http://comeandlive.com/artists