Burn Your White Flags (Hebrews)Sýnishorn

First impressions are incredibly formative for our interactions and relationships. 

You know the feeling of 'hitting it off' with someone or adversely 'getting a bad vibe'. Whether your judgment is correct or not, this is a universal human experience. 

In our day and age we must ask: What is our first impression of God?

We live in the age of reduction. We like things simplified and streamlined and if we are honest with ourselves, we tend to be allergic to mystery or paradox. 

And if we ever get an inkling that somehow God Himself or the journey of faith contains mystery, we can too quickly use a structure or system of thought as an antihistamine in order to cure that rash. 

But God is deeper than any 'system', and we must allow the infallible Scriptures to dictate who God is rather than the other way around.

We find a picture that our present culture has not emphasised and is one that many, even within the Church, may find hard: our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). 

This is good news. 

“Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).

God is not to be trifled with and in the words of Mr. Beaver: “Safe? He is not safe. But he is good.” 

And so let us throw off any notion that we can contain God, that we can control God, that we have a hope in manipulating God, that He is small. He is the Giver and King of an unshakeable kingdom, and He is the Lover of your soul. Receive this for yourself this day.