Stranger Danger

I heard a sermon by a friend of mine a couple years ago (I'm talking about you, Nick A.) that really changed my view of who God is. When I heard this for the first time I was still in high school. That seems like such a long time ago but every once in awhile I still think about it. Today happens to be one of those days. This will probably be one of my more serious posts so far but I will probably throw in some sarcasm at some point.

I used to have a friend that would always say that the most beautiful things in life are also the most dangerous. Things like fire, the ocean, and women. All very beautiful all very scary if you aren't careful.

Anyways, back to the whole sermon thing. The sermon was about God being dangerous. Not mean or spiteful or I'm gonna stab you with a knife if you aren't careful dangerous. Just not safe. Basically when you read stories about people who had face to face encounters with God they were all scared. God even tells Moses that no one can see God and live. Moses has to hide in a rock and after God walks by Moses pops his head out and sees where God had just been and his skin starts to glow.

My favorite story about someone seeing God is in Isaiah. Chapter 6 starts with a beautiful description of a huge God sitting on a throne. The first time I read it I thought Isaiah was getting ready to break into a Steven Curtis Chapman kinda song. Then he says something totally unexpected, "Woe to me...I am ruined!" I never thought about seeing God as something that would ruin somebody. I thought there should be harp music and God should be wearing a Dbacks hat. But Isaiah freaks out a little and goes on about how his life is pretty much ruined.

You see the point is that when a sinful person is in the presence of a sinless God they tend to feel very small, very unworthy. Our God is dangerous. I think if he were to walk into my house I would probably either die or react like Isaiah did.

I think part of my problem was that I got so used to hearing about a God who was made of cotton candy and jelly beans. Not really, but you get the point. I thought God was just a big softy who really like hugs. But its important to know how big God is. How dangerous he is.

Maybe the most scary thing is that when someone sees God things change. When Isaiah saw God his life got turned upside down. He had to go and he had to do and he had to trust God.