Politicians, Actors, and Cats

There are lots of things in our lives that are complicated. Politics, Hollywood, and cats are just a few complicated things that come to mind. They are fickle, moody, and unpredictable.

Many people would say that God is complicated.  You can’t see him. He has no beginning. He’s defined in all sorts of ways. There are 12,143 words in the Bible, which contain hundreds of doctrines that are argued and debated.

But God’s not complicated

Last week I came across a book entitled, “23 Ways to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit.”  I laughed to myself because I had just been studying the story of the Apostle Paul coming to the city of Ephesus.  He found some followers of Christ there and asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit. They responded that they had not.  Paul laid hands on them and prayed for them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  Seems he skipped a few steps.

Our doctrine of Christ teaches us that Jesus was all man, yet all God. His name, “Emmanuel” means, “God with us.”  Jesus said, “if you seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” So God is revealed in the simple and down to earth person of Jesus Christ.  

But we make God complicated

Ask someone how he or she is doing in his or her walk with the Lord and you will often hear, “I need to pray more. I need to read the Bible more. I need to get more involved at church.”  Very few Christians will say they are just simply enjoying their fellowship with Jesus.

The Apostle Paul knew this over-complicating the things of God would create problems. So he wrote,

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
(2 Corinthians 11:3) 

I firmly believe there is a strategy of Hell to “add” things to our faith.  Conditions. Rules.  Qualifications.  Procedures.  Levels.  These all leave people with the feeling that they can never quite measure up.  But Jesus declared from the cross,

“It is finished!”

That means everything that was needed to know God, to enjoy Him, and to have a relationship with Him was completely taken care of by Jesus Christ at the cross. It’s not complicated, fickle, or conditional, because God isn’t. 

This is why so few politicians, actors, and cats are Christians.