The God we cannot follow

I am going to take a break from pandemic thinking and write about something else that continues to be on my mind.

Are you ready?  Here we go...

I am mad.
I am raging mad.
Someone did me wrong.
I am going to hurt someone.
I have to get even.
I am not just going to hurt someone, I am going to kill them.
I am going to torture them.
I am going to make them suffer as no one else has.
The last few hours of their life are going to be miserable.
I must have blood.

Oh.  Now they are dead.
Oh.  Ok.  
Whew, now I am good again.
Ok, I'm good.  You're good.  
We're all good.

Let me ask you.  Does that sound like normal thinking?  Do healthy, kind people think like that?  What would happen if I really thought and behaved like that?  You cannot follow someone like  that unless you want to end up in prison.  Would we want to teach our children to think and behave like that?  ABSOLUTELY NOT! 

Yet, this is what many believe about God.  Sure there are scriptures that make God sound just like what I wrote.

But you have to decide what you believe about God.  You have to decide what scriptures to hang your hat on.

Is God an angry, vengeful murderer?  Or is God a God of love?

Love.  A loving God.  That is where I hang my hat.
1 John 4.  God is love.
John 3.  God so loved.

That is something to follow.  That is something to emulate.  That is something to teach your children.
May we release ourselves from the anger, the vengeance, the blood and the murder and hold instead to his loving hand.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.