Letter for July 1987

Dear Friends,

It bothers me as a minister of the Gospel when I talk to some people on the edges of the church fellowship because of the view of God and attitude to God that seems to be communicated to me.

There is faith in God and a realisation of his care over all his creation. There is also a desire for his help and blessing. But there is a very careless attitude towards him.

People seem to look for his blessing and help when they need it. They want God to order things comfortably for them. But they do not give him much thought or concern. They seem to treat him rather like a high tech robot programmed to keep the world running smoothly, and to sort out human problems. When he is needed he is thought about, but when he is not he is forgotten, but still expected to keep their lives happy and satisfied.

This is not perhaps the thought of God they would express when asked to give some idea of their view of God, but the thought of God which comes out in the way they live their lives, and allocate their time, and set their priorities. God does not feature in their thinking as deserving their time or their love, and if it is suggested that sometime could be given to him in worship, it is made quite clear that he comes very far ­down the list of their priorities, even if they give him any priority at all.

In a word, they expect God to be their best friend as far as loving them is concerned, but treat him with a careless indifference that would kill any human friendship stone dead.

What gives the most concern is that there seems to be a total inability to see that such an attitude to God is intolerable. Any suggestion that such an attitude to God needs correcting will either produce anger or will be shrugged of with indifference.

How can we treat God like this when we owe everything to him? How can we dare to treat him in such a cavalier fashion when he has absolute power over us?

A greater question is how God could still love us or bother with us when we behave like this? God’s patience and kindness is incredible. Seen against this background his love in giving Jesus to die for us reveals a love so infinite that it is beyond our comprehension.

My concern reaches further. What will happen to such people when they die. They seem to believe that they will go to heaven and everlasting joy. But if they don’t love God and his company on earth, how can they expect to be happy in his nearer presence in heaven. But will they go to heaven? The Bible is the only place with an answer to this question, and it makes plain that they will not, for they have none of the marks of God’s salvation in their living which show they have been forgiven and accepted by God. How can we expect him to accept us into his heaven, if we do not accept him into our lives on earth.

Jesus said, “Unless a person is born again, that person cannot enter the kingdom of heaven”. The first mark of new birth is that we love God and put him first in our lives.

In the light of these thoughts, what is your ­attitude to God? Are you right with God and truly on the way to heaven?

Your servant for Christ’s sake,