When God Offends You

Looking back, I realized that my university days were when I was the most zealous for Jesus.

I would spend hours in the Bible, prayer and personal worship. I was active in a church worship band, evangelistic concerts and in music lessons, to hone my skills. And I would practice both the piano and the guitar a lot. I wanted skill, and skill that would last, so that I had more to use when serving in the worship ministry.

“Did you get any studying done those days, JJ?” Errr…

Ever since then I have gone down a lot. Life responsibilities, such as work and family, make me more like a normal Christian, who has to be seriously disciplined to seek God. Practice time is less (ironic for a music teacher, right?) so I have to make the best use of whatever little practice time I have.

Now I could be disappointed. Given the amount of zeal I had in those days, I was expecting that I would be a hard-core, effective servant of the LORD, teaching the Word and being used in healing the sick and all that kind of stuff. But even though I am nowhere near what I dreamed of in my university days, at least I am still walking with God. He has been holding on to me all these years.

And I am grateful!

Not all the people I knew from those days are still walking with the Lord. A few have fallen and are no longer serving God or walking with him.

And it bugs me. I remember looking at them, seeing how different they were from me in terms of personality and giftings, and yet sharing the same purpose: Glorify Jesus with whatever we had and in everything we could do. I was thinking things could only get better, and we would, working together but in our own unique ways, keep on serving God, achieving more and winning our nation for Christ.  

Then offences struck. And people stumbled.

Offences can come from men

Luke 17:1-2 (KJV) - Then said he unto the disciples, “It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.               

People in church can offend you. And to get a sense of what kind of offence we are talking about, the word used for “offences” is the Greek word from which we derive the word “scandal” from. It means to trip up, to stumble or entice to sin. Jesus said that it WILL happen.

Knowing that it will happen is our best defence. When we know that it will happen, we will not lose our faith just because people in church fail us. Guess what? If we set our hopes on people, rather than on the LORD, they will disappoint us.

Psalm 118:8-9 (ESV) - It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.

So people disappointing us is no excuse. So what if your pastor is a hypocrite? So what? So what if your church people don’t love you as God commanded them to? So what? I mean, if love was so easy, God wouldn’t need to admonish us to love one another, right? Obviously, divine love is not nature to us in our fallen nature. Did God ever promise us that the rest of the believers will love us properly, as he desires? I don’t think so. So why let yourself be stumbled just because people in church let you down?

Offences can come from God

John 6:61-62 (ESV) - But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

 

Again the same Greek word for offense appears. In effect, Jesus is saying, “Does this scandalize you? I am still holding back. You ain’t seen nothing yet!” Jesus then delivered his doctrinal bombshell.

John 6:65-66 (ESV) - And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

 

Maybe it won’t be salvation doctrine that offends you. How about the way God forgives and blesses sinners?
 

Luke 15:29-30 (ESV) – 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!'

 

When the Gospel, preached in its entirety, offends, some people turn away from God entirely. Sometimes they go doctrine shopping, looking for a church, religion or philosophy that excuses their pet sins or justifies their beliefs and preferences.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 (ESV) - For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

 

How do we hold firm when God himself offends us?
 

John 6:67-69 (ESV) – So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."

 

Jesus has the words of eternal life, which means they cause us to know God, to perceive and be sure of him (John 17:3). His words are Spirit and they are life (John 6:63). But they are no benefit to us unless we actually let his words abide in us (John 15:7). We need to actual taste and experience God’s goodness (Psalm 34:8), especially through the Word (Hebrews 6:5). We start by believing that Jesus is the Holy One of God, then when we grow in our experience of his Word and his goodness in our lives, we end up knowing for sure.

My Faith Crash

I had a massive faith crash years ago.

It was so painful. I was experiencing the presence of God in worship and the Word. I had answered prayers and many significant signs that hinted that I was on the right track. I was returning back to serving God in ministry, and re-discovering the joy of setting my hand to the plough for the Kingdom of God and being fruitful in ministry.

And then the crash came. What I prayed to God earnestly for, I did not get. Even worse, I got the opposite of what I really believed God would give me. He brought me so far, why would he not complete it, right? I clung on in prayer, stayed faithful in ministry and in my own personal time of seeking God, and continued to experience his presence and even answered prayers.

Yes, God continued give me what I asked for. Except for what I wanted the most, desired the most and had reasons to expect the most. For this part of my life I still have no answers, no resolution, no completion. I cannot come up with some spiritual-sounding lesson and say that I now understand why God did things that way during that season. I still don’t.

So what do I have? I still have God with me. Nudging me forward when I totally doubt that he was going to lead me where I am supposed to go. Answering prayers still. Meeting with me in my own personal prayer and worship time still. There is just only one matter, over which I wanted nothing but his will, worked out his way. And when I had finally come to believe I knew what it was, and that I was going to receive it, I didn’t get it. And the shame still remains. Did I ask God for the wrong thing? If so, how could I have missed it so badly?

Isaiah 54:4 (ESV) - Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.

What kept me going? It was the eternal life of God. It was continuing to experience God, even when in one matter I was disappointed. I did get one lesson I can share from that season though: You don’t need trust when someone does what you understand. You need trust when that someone is doing a whole lot of things you don’t understand. That is when you have to decide if you will trust that the person knows what he or she is doing, and has your best interests at heart.

And when it comes to people, your trust can be misplaced. But not with God. He has shown his faithfulness to me many times before and many times ever since. Will I stumble and be offended with God over one matter, or will I look at his past faithfulness and trust, even when I don’t understand? 

Conclusion:

I know this is really long, and I have shared some personal stuff. But I hope that some of what I shared here will be useful to you or to those around you, who are struggling with God offending them. Be blessed!

My Sons are Taken Care Of!

Working in a law firm makes the realities of day-to-day living even more real for me.

If I only taught music, I would seldom come across the harsh side of life, such as joblessness, serious illness and death. Wisdom tells us to be aware of these realities and prepare for them. We are to give thought to estate planning, to ensure we leave a good inheritance to our children (Proverbs 13:22) and to prepare at least one alternative income channel (Proverbs 27:23-24) in case of financial reversals (job loss or economic downturns).

But sometimes life hits us when we are unprepared. Take the example of the widow who approached Elisha in the following passage.

2 Kings 4:1-2 (ESV) – Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves." And Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?" And she said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil."

We see in this situation a devout man, who maybe wasn’t as careful with his money as he ought to have been, or may have been cut down in the prime of his life through sickness. You think such things don’t happen to godly people? Go have a heart-to-heart chat with your pastor and you will find out the truth. It is one thing that I don’t think I will ever understand this side of heaven, how mighty men of God, some greatly used by God to bring healing miracles to others, can sometimes die of illness too. 

So when human effort fails us, does God leave us to our own devices? Or does he intervene to help his people and show us mercy?

2 Kings 4:3-7 (ESV) – Then he said, "Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside." So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." And he said to her, "There is not another." Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest."

It is easy for me to get this miracle by Elisha mixed up with the one by Elijah, when he met the widow of Zarephath, described in 1 Kings 17:9-15. In a nutshell, God directed Elijah to Zarephath, where he met a starving widow who only had enough for one meal. She gave a small portion of it to Elijah, and God multiplied the rest to last them for the rest of the famine.

As a Word-of-Faith person, I saw in that account Elijah teaching the widow to use the law of sowing and reaping for her benefit. She sowed a token amount of food into Elijah’s life, and she received enough food to sustain her son and herself for possibly two to three years.

But the widow in Elisha’s case received a lot more than that. She received enough for her sons and her to not only pay off debts but even last until her sons grew up and started working. The Bible doesn’t give us the details, but I would not be surprised if this provision miracle was at least twice as rich and twice as long in duration as the one given to the widow of Zarephath.

Why did this disparity? I personally believe it is because of the difference in the seed sown. The widow of Zarephath sowed a token amount of food to a man of God. The prophet who died before his time sowed his life to seeking God. He feared the LORD and lived in a community of people who sought the LORD too.

And the issue of community is very important. We are not called by God to seek him by ourselves. We are to live in community with other believers, knowing that we can mature only in fellowship with other believers…

Ephesians 4:15-17 (ESV) - speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

And that also means being willing to supply the needs of other believers also.

Ephesians 4:28 (ESV) -  Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

The connection between sharing with others and receiving provision is clearly stated in the following verse.

2 Corinthians 8:14 (ESV) - your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.

This is a verse that does not get preached about very much. Think about it. The lazy, who want to find ways to sponge off others, want verses that tell them that they can expect to receive money without having to labour for it and without having  to sow financially into the lives of others first. The diligent who are prosperous and giving to church and the poor don’t want to hear that someday they may lose the material possessions they have laboured for and have to depend on the generosity and kindness of others

How often do you find a verse that manages to offend two very different groups of people?

Conclusion:

I am not sure what God will speak to you from this passage. For me, however, this is very assuring. I know I live my life as unto the LORD, but I have made financial mistakes before. Frankly, I end up worrying about how to provide for my sons. Will they have to suffer for my mistakes and wrong decisions?

So this account in Scripture tells me that no matter how I may have messed up financially, God is still there. He still has the desire to provide for my sons. And knowing that just gives me the assurance to just keep living my life for serving God. I know that my sons will be taken care of!

And I am also firmly reminded to look for opportunities to give, to sow financially into the lives of others. And I am especially serious about sowing into the bereaved families of servants of God. Like it or not, there will be men and women of God who have given their lives to serving the Lord, but have been taken from this life before their time.  They will leave behind families who need help and it is our role, our responsibility and our privilege to be used by God to supply for their needs.

What then are the lessons in this that God wants you to take to heart? Do share, that I too may be edified and encouraged by your faith. Be blessed!