An excerpt for "Becoming Love. Avoiding Common Forms of Christian Insanity" Exploring how God is faithful when we need Him most!
Many people are under the impression that the holy God flees in the presence of sinful people, He cannot stand our sin and removes Himself from us, but as we have seen it is quite the opposite. You can find Him smack in the centre of the mess that life often is, where a loving parent would be with their beloved child.
A few years ago, I experienced a couple of challenging events within a short span. On both occasions, it involved friends, both of whom were raging alcoholics, who needed some medical care. In the first case, I held my friend’s
hands and told him stories while the massive boil was lanced, relieving the acute pain and the vile infection. In the second, I stood beside my friend after an industrial accident as the doctor removed the bloody glove from his mangled hand, revealing shredded flesh and splintered bone. I can still hear the sound of the bone as it was cut away. If I can love my friends and stay with them through the ugliness of these procedures, then how much more faithful and loving is God?
Light dispels darkness, love dispels fear and while I was still a sinner, helpless to the cancerous plague of sin, that ravaged me, God sent Himself in Jesus. He wasn’t repulsed by my brokenness with its stench and ugliness nor did He flee in my greatest moments of need. He was and is present and this is the Love Paradigm.