Contrary to popular belief, God is not safe.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Aslan was not safe

In the book, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Mrs. Beaver is explaining to Lucy that Aslan, the king of the land, is a lion.  Then Lucy asks if he is safe.  Mr. Beaver said, “Of course he isn’t safe, but he’s good!”  Aslan loved all of the beings in Narnia and was kind to those who were righteous.  But he was also a just king and punished those who were not righteous.

This story has been made into a movie and has remained popular for over fifty years.  No one seems surprised when Aslan and his followers exact revenge on those who have done evil in the land of Narnia. No one expected the movie to end with everyone winning the war.  The righteous were able to win because they had Aslan on their side.

Parents should not be safe

We have been told by society that we must give our children positive reinforcements when they do right, but to ignore the bad behaviors.  This sounds great, but what are we teaching our children?  This isn’t the real world, folks!  What will happen when your children grow up and get a real jobs.  How are they going to feel when the only time their boss notices their work is when they do something wrong?  In the long run, we are setting our children up for failure.  What kind of parent wants their child to be a failure?

Parents need to teach their children to respect the rules and to know that there are consequences when they don’t obey the rules.  They need to know that there are winners and losers in real life. Not all actions will bring pleasant results and not everyone can win.

God is not safe

God has given us the Bible to teach us how He expects us to live and the difference between right and wrong.  For some reason, we (and this includes most Christians) have convinced ourselves that God is love and that’s all.  God is a just and a jealous God.  He will show kindness and rain down blessing on those who follow His commandments, but He will exact revenge on those who do not!

Today, we are more concerned about offending some one than spreading the truth and following God’s commands.  When we stand by and do nothing, we are not following God’s word.

Yes, God is love and He wants all to be saved.  But God hates sin!  If someone chooses to sin against God’s will they will be punished.  You don’t get the prize is you don’t earn it.  We are saved by grace (Jesus died on the cross for all), but if we don’t follow His commands (earning that grace) we will be lost in eternal damnation (God is not safe).

Wake up folks!  We need to learn that loving the sinner and loving the sin are two different things.  If we continue to allow the world to convince us that hating the sin and speaking against it is the same as hating the sinner, we will be lost and will soon find ourselves victims of God’s wrath.

Thank you to Brother Denny Howell for allowing me to use his sermon as the basis for this post.