The God of Order

April 12, 2008

Evangelical Christians in the West love to loosely paraphrase 1 Corinthians 14:33, especially those who are of a Calvinistic slant, and remind folks that “God is a God of order, not confusion.” We usually say this in heated conversations when someone has dared to not accept blindly our neatly structured, logical arguments that make perfect sense to us. Or, we might say this before or after making what we consider to be a profound point, as if this punctuation mark gives automatic acceptance and veracity to what we are saying.

“I just don’t think things are as neat and tidy as you make them appear,” someone says to us.

“Well” we respond, stretching to add an extra half inch or so to our frame as we stand erect in pious propriety, “you need to understand that God is a God of order, and when you know how to rightly divide the word of truth, even a child can see the logic, order and structure of God’s truth just as I am explaining to you.”

I find it interesting that we play this “God is a God of order” card so quickly as though everyone knows this and agrees, when there is not a single verse in the Bible that directly says that God is a God of order. Those of us who cling to the purity, inspiration and preservation of every word of Scripture quickly become masters of paraphrase, dynamic equivalence and implication when discussing the sacred doctrine of the God of order. And, to top things off, we do so by pulling and twisting scripture out of proper context. I know this because I’ve done it myself!

Now, those of you who may still be stuck in the pious propriety mode, calm down! I am certainly not suggesting that God is not a God of order and all that. Many who have ventured into the sphere of natural theology have established the intentionality of design in the universe, though we are far from understanding the totality of the design. I’m just trying to make us think before we toss around clichés, and hold us accountable to honesty and integrity as we deal with the sacred scriptures entrusted to us.

The basic foundational truths we all hold dear are clear enough for a child to understand. These truths are evident and applicable in any culture and language on the planet. Yet God is so much bigger than we are that there is still much that we cannot mentally grasp much less control. There are divine concepts far beyond our comprehension.

So what does the Bible really say?

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 14:33

Clearly, God is not the author of confusion. But, it does not say he is the God of order, rather of peace. And, the context is not cosmology but the the confusion of the Corinthian church where the immature understanding of spiritual gifts had made their worship times together a chaos. Considering the context and what the scripture does not say, we should perhaps be a bit more circumspect as we borrow this verse from it proper context to make a point.

Now, check out this photo from the Hubble telescope. This is what got me thinking along these lines.

This is a picture of two galaxies colliding. You can see a higher definition picture here, and you can also learn more about this spectacular cosmic collision. So, there you have it. Pure order and structure. Right where we can get up on our little soap boxes and expound all about it. I’m thinking this looks somewhat like what’s left of one of my very orderly, logical and structured sermon outlines after the Holy Spirit gets hold of it!

Make no mistake. God obviously has an ordered and structured purpose in this collision that appears anything but neat and orderly to us. This is my point. God has it all under control, yet we are kidding ourselves if we think we understand it all. I wonder if this is a good illustration of cultures in collision — messy, painful, confusing to us — yet God always is at work accomplishing his purposes.

Think of possible galaxy collisions of culture in our world — Islam and Christianity, mixed marriages from totally different cultures, missionaries struggling to navigate what is to them a strange and resistant culture, clash of old sin nature and new nature in Christ, or the generational collision of what type of music we are going to sing when the church comes together in one place. These are all real and serious issues that often leave us confounded. Hopefully, seeing the bigger macro view of the universe will encourage us to trust in God even when life at times seems like a train wreck or galaxies in collision. God is always God.

http://www.kcbt.org Jeff Adams

Sunny, You are not crazy; you are human. Yes, it is evident that you are hurting. You are not alone. We can all relate to the deep pain of ruptures in human relationships.

Sometimes, even after forgiveness, amends and restitution have been made, friendships never return to what they were before. Sometimes it is necessary to walk away with a clean conscience, having asked forgiveness for whatever corresponds to our part of the relationship. Once that happens, there is the chance that time can contribute to the healing process. Healing is prevented when there is a failure to recognize responsibility for sin, bitterness or irresponsibility.

I encourage you to talk to someone who can help you grasp the details of this situation more than can be shared in a brief cyber format and who can help you find the appropriate biblical principles to apply to see you way through this difficult time.

Your devotional commitment to God is appreciated and you seem to have a commitment to do what is right. That’s a great place to work from. You need some objective guidance to take the proper steps necessary to heal and move on. Perhaps a pastor or leader from the church you love, or some other spiritually mature individual can be of help to you in this. There is hope!
http://www.kcbt.org Jeff Adams

Kirk, I do understand what you are saying. While it is true that God has the hair on our heads numbered and sees each sparrow who falls, I think we too often blame every detail of life on God. God’s wondrous creation spins according to the predetermined principles God himself established as a reflection of who he is. The injection of sin into creation makes it sound sometimes like a washing machine out of balance. God doesn’t have to dream up things to do to get our attention or make the details of our lives work out. I believe he most generally uses the normal circumstances of life to accomplish his will. He can and does, however, reserve the right to supernaturally intervene at any moment according to the counsel of his own will. Thanks for the insightful thoughts, Kirk.
Sunny

I am in an immense amount of pain that has occurred over five years and I just think, rather I know, the pain that I have put off because I have had to focus on life or other things, I think I am getting ready to deal with. It is very, very hard. I pray at a cross near my house often and of course, I read and meditate in the Bible. No matter how tired or how sleepy I am, I never forget to have a word with God. Sometimes, it is really early and sometimes, it is really late. Will God heal my deepest wounds, even if it is a loss of someone I dearly loved? How do I let God heal my heart?

There was a time in my life, in which I was very foolish and very wounded and I openly admit that I was very immature and leaned on someone emotionally a little too much. Does everyone do that? Over the course of time, I think I had lost a dear friend and that friend silenced me, amongst other things. I wholeheartedly take my blame in the failure of this friendship. But I have realized, that this person, too, has been wounded and perhaps is afraid of being loved in any way. Obviously, I don’t know for sure. A few weeks ago, I stopped praying for this person, because I told God, that this friend belongs to him and it caused me a great deal of pain to pray for this person.

I have stopped going to the church I so dearly love because this person also goes there. I have stopped going to the ministry we both belong to because this person goes. It is painful to see someone you love, talk to other people, when they don’t even bothering acknowledging you. I have tried numerous times to reach out but it does no good. Is it selfish of me to want a friendship with someon who may be afraid to have one with me because of their own fears and own woundedness?

I don’t know how to heal from this. I want to. I have said to God by keeping this door open, am I keeping other doors closed? Hanging on is painful, letting go is painful. By hanging on, I witness the pain on a regular basis and by letting go, I wonder what I am missing, if anything.

Am I a fool? Perhaps the unselfish thing to do is to walk away, wishing the person all the best in the world, which I truly do.

Maybe you cannot tell that I am in pain. I certainly don’t want sympathy. I just would like some guidance. I have no voice in this situation with this person. A person who seems to let go but fo the last three years, nearly four, has gone up to one of my best friends and has continually asked about me or made comments about me.

Maybe you are reading this and thinking that I am totally crazy. Sometimes, I think, I am. A bit of humor, I suppose.

Quite a disheartening dilemma, I must say.

Off the subject, I will say, that listening to you, has helped me realize my love for the overseas ministry. I took four years of German in high school and I so love foreigners. Spanish is the next class. I have always had a love for the people. Plus, you seem genuine. How did you get that and how do you keep it?

Cheerio!
Kirk

Jeff,
I dont’ know if I can effectively communicate this, I would really appreciate your comment on it.

Questions from events in my life have had me in wonder of this. I don’t say that I have a conclusion really, but I do think our – human – definition of “order” is based on our human definition of control and power. I think we really associate control with manipulation, I’m not sure the God of the Bible is that way, does he need to be? I think we really see God more as “magic” than we admit. Our God created this world, do we really stop and think about that or just look at it as magic? Poof, it just happened. I believe God intimately understands how this world works and how WE work and is fully capable of fulfilling his will with little direct manipulation of the environment around us – or with little action in maintaining order.

This can be a philosophical question, and maybe a waste of time. Still there are many people hurting from something that has happened in their life and instead of moving on, their stuck with “WHY???????”. Not even “why did God do this to me?” but honestly analyzing, trying to figure out why God would bring this event into their life, what does God want them to do with it – why why why? We do this with things we label as bad in life and we do it when we don’t know what to choose in life. Can’t God be in ultimate control without manipulating my life to bring this event in and that event out? Can’t he work on ME regardless of the environment around me? Kind of the reverse side of that principle “Prayer changes me, not the world around me” In the end it seems we have much more to gain by growing, living, serving God with whatever we have here and now. We obey him, confess and repent when we don’t obey him, we listen. For me, I believe he is just really “that good” he is really God enough to be there with me no matter what is going on and fully capable of working on me and doesn’t need to make someone sick or die or make this happen or that happen to complete his will in me. Maybe we still give too much attention and priority to the circumstances around us instead of giving all the attention and priority to the LORD Jesus Christ. We aren’t free from the responsibility of our circumstances but we are free from the worry and the WHY.
Maybe Phillipians 4 REALLY means what it says, nothing else matters but our relationship with him. I’m not saying that God is not involved in our life at all, but maybe his involvement is more with me that with my circumstances.
http://hiddenart.wordpress.com amanda

And the times when God takes a swizzle stick and stirs my cup of life, the times when there seems to be no order, those are the times when I cling to him the tightest.
amanda

Jeff Adams

The God of Order