I don’t think the problem is erasing God as much as it is taping over God. If you ever owned a tape and didn’t punch out the tabs, anyone could come along and rewrite over what you previously taped. So here we have God in our midst, the Christ has come we know for sure He is the way the Truth and the Light and we want with all our hearts to join together as one body, one heart, loving one another but we don’t know about punching out the tabs…. and we allow others to tape over what God gave us until we no longer remember the very real experience of our conversion. Instead we are given doctrine and someone else’s interpretation of scripture. We sit and hear someone else tell us what God says. Instead of learning to listen, to hear God for ourselves we are encouraged to not question the scriptures or the pastor.

      Then sometimes it’s our cultural views or the very important issues of the day that we allow to block our view of Christ. Even amongst Christians I often hear more about the Presidential candidates then I do about Jesus. Politics won’t fix us. Christ exists within all types of governments, we weren’t sent to change governments. We were sent to change hearts. Ultimately, when enough hearts are changed, that is reflected in the culture.

(I left this here for a few days)

….and then Paris. I have wondered so often about what humanity thinks will change hearts and minds. I know Christ changed mine, I believe He is waiting to change those caught in Islam. The terrible truth is, they haven’t erased God, they have written over Him. Called Him another name, written another book… made up another doctrine. Jesus isn’t the Book, He isn’t the doctrine, He is God. We nailed Him to a cross, we killed the King of Glory and yet He lives. He never forced himself on anyone, He never forced the religious leaders to change their ways. He only offered His truth, He offered Himself, a living sacrifice to change our hearts and minds. He still does…

       The awful truth is… the mortality rate is 100%. We will all die. We have a choice while there is time, to choose love or hate, life or death. I choose to follow the God that loves. He loves Paris, Beijing. Washington D.C. He also loves Jerusalem and Baghdad. It doesn’t matter if you have the red, white and blue flag or the black, green, white and red flag… He died for us all. Suffered for us all. So my prayer is that the Lord raise up powerful, loving missionaries that will go into the lion’s den and preach Christ. Because after all, the mortality rate is still 100%. We may as well die for something worth while.

      We will never erase God, I see people turn their heads and pretend they don’t know He exists but we all know. Faith is a choice, it is also a gift. It must be received. Take it, its yours. As we all grieve for Paris and for the Middle East, I still choose to have hope, that the long ugliness will allow the beauty of Christ to shine through to those who need Him more now then ever before. As the one widower said, he will never allow hatred or fear to tape over the love planted in his heart. Powerful message from someone with all the reason in the world to hate except he knows only love wins.

      Be comforted, knowing the Lord is still on His throne and He is merciful, loving and worthy. God Bless, andrea