Where Does God Stop?

by Molly Davis

How big is God? And if God has a certain size, then where are the lines that draw the point of demarcation, where God is and where God is not?

It seems to this observer that the Bible (that roaring, laughing cacophony of pages compiled by God-watchers, God-followers, and God-seekers) doesn’t give a friendly response to those who etch their answer in lines of permanent ink. Is there no comforting Biblical pat given to those who know where God is and where God is not?

“Old friend, where you are, God is not.”

Job’s friends spread outstretched arms while whetting iron tongues, the stabs, to them, acts of true friendship. Because, well, God was not with Job. They knew this because everybody knew it. The roof of the home smashed in bones and flesh and blood, the sheep were lost, the cattle gone, and the taut skin of the grieving man was clothed in dribbling pus and open sores. There was no God here (but perhaps Job’s repentance could persuade God back?)…

Esther sat in the capitol city of where God was not. There was no God in the land of Babylon. We sing melodies about how we can’t wait to dash the brains of Babylonian babies in on the rocks, because there is no God in Babylon. There can be no God in Babylon, because God would not go there. We know things, and that much we know. God will have nothing to do with that place. God is only in special places.

God cannot be in the heart of the city of Babylon. God cannot be in Babylonian babies. There are rules, and this is one of them. There are brains you can dash and brains you cannot.

Mark out the beaten man on the side of the road as an area where God is not, because we have important business to attend to. There are programs, ministries, and certain buzz words to drop, and I can’t stop to talk. Perhaps if he was in my theological camp, I could help—if he was someone important—but, really, a simple beaten soul? I can’t help him or love him or, honestly, even see him at all. What man on the side of the road?

I have sermons to preach, errant theology to correct, great visions to pontificate, and ministry programs to administrate. The little people are there for taking care of the little things, like beaten people that I can’t see, and I am not a little person. I am a big person, and God is not over there on the side of the road. Not for me. God has called me to the big things. If it doesn’t smell of power, it doesn’t smell of God. Not my God, anyway. God is in the agenda, not in the people. God is in the moments where everybody is watching. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a ministry meeting to attend.

Let’s draw the marker line around the wise old woman, too, because God is not upon the woman who would dare give counsel, direction and judgement to a man. Especially not a Deborah, foolish female who went out and made herself available, not mincing from her rebellious leadership gifting but accepting it, acknowledging it and making it available to her country. Anathema!

We know where God stops. The Bible is very clear that God stops before this place. There is a “monstrous regiment of women,” as the reformer said, and Deborah is one of them. God does not walk with those who challenge the status quo. If she would have only found her place as helper behind her husband…

I know my God, believe you me, and I know where God is not. Ha. God is most definitely not with that Man.

Pervert. Walking with a prostitute. Look at her, unabashedly adoring Him, flanked by tax-collectors and unclean refuse trying to cop a feel of His robes. It is disgusting, what goes on in the name of the Lord around here. People are so desperate, they’ll follow anything.

If these schmucks would just get their act together, maybe the messiah would be able to show up. As it is, we’ll never get messiah to come, not with the likes of this Man walking in the middle of the city streets. It makes my stomach sick.

These people need to get right with God. Their theology is a disaster, their devotional life is a joke, they do not attend my church regularly, and they most certainly do not dress or talk properly. If only they could sit through some of my sermons.

My views on things, God’s views on things would save them. Really. It would. It’s that simple. Get your theology right and your behavior will follow, as exemplified by me. It’s a crying moral shame that they won’t listen. But, no, they have to hang around with Reject Man. It’s a disservice. It’s a disservice to God. If I know anything, I know that there is a Man in whom God is not.

There’s got to be some way to get rid of Him. I mean, honestly, it would be doing God a huge favor…

“Who has set limits to the spirit of the Lord? What counselor stood at His side to instruct Him? – Isaiah 40:13

marshall lawrence

Thought provoking. Right on!
Molly Aley

Thanks.
I’ve been thinking heavily on the general concept of “us vs. them” and other versions of the same…and it’s really been bothering me. I understand there are things that can be black and white, but there are so many things that I once thought were…and, as I have matured, have turned out not to be so. How much I missed because I had my world all laid out on a grid of “right vs. wrong,” when so many times that grid was devoid of love and neither the supposed “right” or the supposed “wrong” meant anything at all (except in my mind-lol).

I am really enjoying the exploration of a God who is so much bigger than I ever could have imagined.
- marshall lawrence
  
  Molly,
  
  Exciting! Oh to see the people around us as God sees them. I am the kind of person who pasionately dislikes rules and boxes. (By the way, I am Susan’s father-in-law.) Keep on looking around you with new eyes. I have a problem with taking myself too seriously. Maybe you can think about that and write something about it some time. Years ago I thought I had overcome that in some ways only to be reminded lately that I still have to work at it. ML
L. James Everett, III.

Wow, cool images. I havent’ read it yet, will read later.
Robin Moore

Great stuff Molly!
I know intellectually to not define myself with “nots” but I realize I still do it at a deeper level and have been working on I am’s- your thoughts just got thrown in my brain-blender and are very timely for me. I am, I am not….God is , God is not….where does God stop??
susan

Molly, this is brilliant writing. I LOVE it, and I want to reread it about twenty times…
Julia Wurst

Molly, I love this post! It has walked into my spirit and saw down in me. Intellectually I want to see people the way God sees them but do I intentionally do it in everyday life? That’s the hard part. Thank you for sharing your heart!
L. James Everett, III.

Hi Molly ,

I hope this provokes some honest thought . I wonder how children respond to this. Just as long as Jesus would still own guns, then I’m open with whatever other things you may find. And god doesn’t smile pot and wear circle glasses. And he hates that Imagine song. Everything else works. Lj
- L. James Everett, III.
  
  Smoke pot I meant
Molly

Thank you all.
In Fowler’s Stages of Faith, his hypothesis is that one stage of personal spiritual development is an adult “put it into a box” stage, so to speak. http://www.usefulcharts.com/health-and-psychology/developmental-psychology/stages-of-faith.html I suppose this post really is speaking more to that stage, but not so much to the individual’s in that stage, but to the churches that are in that stage and are calling it “arrived.” Because while the “box” stage may very well be a viable and necessary stage, I don’t think it is where we’re supposed to stay.

LJE III, I will have to read it to my children and get back to you. I bet they’d all laugh and/or get mad. Children are pretty amazing about getting infuriated when God gets shoved into boxes. They’re often pretty quick to catch an inconsistency and loudly say it’s stupid. It’s later on, when we’ve trained them better through much repetition and authoritative proclaimings (lol), that they really accept the boxes. I always find that so interesting.

(Btw, though, no, I am not saying that there is no such thing as absolute truth, etc, or that nothing actually means anything, etc. Though I have NO clue about guns and Jesus).
- Mandy
  
  I clicked on the chart URL,but it’s no longer there. Do you have a new URL, or did the writer remove it?
  - Molly
    
    Drat! It is gone now… Well, just google “Fowler’s Stages of Faith” and you will find all sorts of things, including other charts and images.
    - Molly
      
      Or click on this (they must have changed their earlier url?):
      http://www.usefulcharts.com/psychology/james-fowler-stages-of-faith.html
http://www.tekinbound.blogspot.com Hannah-Lee Lawrence

Outstanding! This is so spot-on. You have inspired me to write a song.
Deborah

Molly, it does my soul good to have you back online!!! (I was probably debcita or Deborah at your old jaunt.)

I love this.

Fwiw, I doubt Deborah was a wise OLD woman if she led the nation into 40 yrs of peace after the victory, but I could be wrong. (As an aside, someone gave me a huge poster of that Deborah painting awhile back, although I never hung it and had to give it up in a move. I was a little uncomfortable being a Deborah w/ red hair and hanging a Deborah w/ red hair, you know? But it was a REALLY meaningful gift that I treasured b/c of who it came from and how, and it’s been awhile since I’ve seen the painting.)

*happy*
Deb
hoops

molly, this is not a one-time through, quick kind of read. i think i need to print it off and digest it. thanks.
Molly Aley

Deborah,
Yeah, that’s so true. We have no clue if she was old, young, or mid-thirties (heh, I have an affinity for that lovely age–lol). And I can pretty much bet that she was NOT a red-head…but the pic was just cool. I couldn’t resist. Btw, good to see you too, friend!

Hoops,
I’ve been digesting it myself for a while now (not the post, just the concept). Really did a number on my carefully trained head. But a good number, I think. My old theological paradigm kind of had this thing that said, “When in doubt, go with God being smaller.” Hence the ever-increasing additions to the rules, etc. Legalism sure loves that kind of environment.

These days, I’m sort of leaning more now to the, “When in doubt, God’s probably bigger than you think,” motto. I have a sneaking suspicion that Love is always bigger than most of us think.
http://theoblogoumena.blogspot.com EricW

Yay! You’re back!
Molly

*waves at Eric*
Molly

Thanks, Hannah. I’m a fan of song-writing myself. I don’t get a lot of time to do it, but sometimes I feel like music is one of the BEST outlets for spiritual expression. Words often just don’t cut it.
Deborah

“I can pretty much bet that she was NOT a red-head.” Lol, yeah. You do get some red hair among the Jews, but this gal’s looking more like a Scottish-German princess.
http://www.soulation.org Jonalyn

Mol,

Catching up on BR, this is some good stuff.

I wish you could have included one of Jesus and family.. how we do this to those we live with, bro, sis, mother-in-law, etc.

Why are family so hard to love, how come it’s so hard to see God in them?

Of course, Jesus wasn’t always quite so tender with family… but honor, love must extend to them, too.

wrinkled forehead,
J