Defying Logic

"There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death." writes the writer of Proverbs (14:12) - possibly Solomon. It's the path of certainty. It uses man's wisdom and disregards Faith.

To our extreme detriment.

Christianity more than any other religion requires a leap of Faith. To step out of what we can receive with our five "natural" senses and into the realm of Hebrews 11 to see the manifestation of the substance of Faith.

The Old Testament is full of it. Abraham trusted God (eventually) and had Isaac and all mankind can be reunited with God by Jesus because one man trusted. David refers to Goliath as "uncircumcised" referring not to his body, but the lack of a Covenant with the Living God. The he stuns the giant with a single shot from his sling and beheads him with his own sword.

The Prophets, major and minor, all point to Jesus - as do many of the psalms. It all needed to be recorded and remembered so Faith could grow.

But inspite of walking through the Red Sea and being fed every day the Jews were not satisfied. Sounds familiar? It should! We do it every day.Every one of us has had a Red Sea moment we choose to forget. It's unhealthy to do so, which is partly why I write. If it goes from my head.I can refer back to my writing.

But logically it shouldn't leave my head. It should be the most logical thing in the world to hold onto what I have been supported by for over 25 years.

The most read entry on this blog to date is "Illogical Disbelief", centering on the lack of faith in the rulers of Jesus's time, but easily adapted to look at society today. Those who fail to learn from History will repeat it. Sodom and Gomorrah were not destroyed by God for homosexuality - although it is clear that in the Old and New Testament God is condemning of the act - not the people, but the sin itself - in a way that is different from His response to any other sin. Paul's letters expressly refer to homosexuality as ungodly, yet despite this we have people saying there's no mention by Jesus so it's irrelevant. One little thing they leave out: Jesus represented God perfectly in His actions. He supported weddings and marriage, but He  condemned those who sat in judgement. He was blunt and scathing towards the Samaritan woman at the well who had been married five times and was living with a sixth man. It must have been a gentle tone in Him or she wouldn't have responded the way she did, but the action was deemed unacceptable while the person was accepted.

Our "logic" steps in and throws the person out because they are not good enough, without allowing them to be real. It keeps people away from churches because they can tell the church pays lip-service to them but actually they are horrified that there's no growth before the person darkens the church door. We want to catch par-cooked, cleaned and filleted fish, not what we've actually caught. Fish are cold, wet and feel slimy. But these things pale at our treatment of these broken people. We expect them too often to be perfect and shining examples before they are "ready" for church. We forget that when we were accepted by Christ there was nothing good in us. We tend to become arrogant as we get older in Him. We separate ourselves from the World but in so doing we end up distancing ourselves from the very One we are trying to draw close to.

His logic is not our logic.

His wisdom is not our wisdom.

But His Love is available to us. To flow through us to the World.

Love the unlovely. Forgive the enemy.

Defy the World's logic and turn the World on it's head.