Friday, October 26, 2012

What would you like me to ask you?

 What would you like me to ask you?

Steve Legg Launching Christianity Explored. UVBC 17/10/12
This may sound like a strange question but it's one that has had me musing over and thinking about for the last 48 hours.

Christianity explored started on Wednesday and my opening question to the 27 people present was,
'If you could ask God one question, and you knew it would be answered, what would it be?'
Some very good questions were raised with many centred on suffering and love, How can a God of love allow suffering, that sort of thing. Most of us who have experienced pain and loss in one form or another have struggled with this question and I'm pleased to say that it will be addressed as we work through our seven week Christianity Explored course.

But this question to God, 'What would you like me to ask you?' has stayed with me.

People that pray can often fall into the trap of praying requests or demands to God. Our faith and belief system if greatly affected by God's response or perhaps I should say our perception of God through God's response to our requests.

We can also approach God with the great questions of life- the 'Why' questions: 'Why doesn't God do this?', 'Why does God allow that?'  Here we wrestle with our understanding of God and our understanding of the Bible and we are often confronted with our own misunderstanding.

In Kendall Payne's beautiful song, 'Aslan', she captured the best answer I've ever heard to these questions:

'He won't say the words you wish that he would
 He don't do the deeds you know that He could
He won't think the thoughts you think He should
But He is good, He is good'

(As an aside this is one of my favourite songs that always brings a tear to my eye, I remember our worship leader Libby James singing it one morning service at Upton Vale)

But what does God want me to ask him?

A rich young man asked Jesus the question once, 'What do I need to do to get eternal life?'
He didn't like the answer he got. But maybe this is the type of question God wants us to ask him, and we run the risk that we may not like the answer either.
'How can I be closer to you?'
'How can I live a life that pleases you?'
'What do you want me to do?'

I challenged our church to always be asking God, 'What are you doing today God and how can I be involved?'

I'm going to mull over this one for a bit longer and I hope I have a good response for the next Christianity Explored evening. Next week its half term and I expect I'll be asking Mairi and the children their response as we enjoy our holiday cottage together.

I'm going to post this on face book and see what responses I get-  I'll post the comments on my blog when I'm back from holiday.

Christianity Explored is an informal  seven week course exploring the Christian faith.
We meet Wednesday evenings from 19:30 -21:00 in the Lymington Room at Upton Vale Baptist Church.
Our next session is on Wednesday 07 November and we will be exploring, 'Who is Jesus?'
Why not come along - you'd be very welcome.

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