God's not a Slot Machine

So when did the casinos go up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast?  Sometime between my senior year of high school and when I hit college, I think... I remember riding down with my friends when I was in undergrad school and looking at the boring blank coast landscape change into flashing bright lights and enormous buildings... So it had to be sometime in my last few years of high school that those buildings went up.

I bring up the casinos on the Coast because it was a hot-button issue when they were being built and because one of the things that irks me as a Christian is this "God-is-a-slot-machine" theology... you know the one: give God your money and you will get more back... like He's some cosmic investing company.  Or pray a certain kind of prayer and God will do your biding.  I'm not trying to cast stones here, really-- if this kind of theology works for you: amazing... it has never, ever, never worked for me... But I bring this up only to make a point about the revelation I had today.  I don't know if there is a name for this kind of theology, but I call it "God IS a slot machine."  Because my rebuttal is "MY God IS NOT a slot machine."  There are scriptures that the "Slot Machine-ers" use to justify their claims and ideas, but the practice is disjointed and inconsistent and out of context.  And full of disappointment: makes one wonder why He doesn't respond to our prayers when we pray out of selfishness and out of what we want... like He's forsaken us... but it's just that we are missing out really on the whole entire point...

I go back to "it's not a faulty God that we serve, it's our faulty theology..."

So today, July 10, 2011, at Christ Community Church, worship service-- there was something about how the lights changed on the stage at two different times during two different songs:
First song was "Awakening," when we sang these lyrics: 
Like the rising sun that shines
From the darkness comes a light
I hear Your voice, and this is my awakening!
[and I thought, O, the sweet sound of His voice!  That's all I want out of life is to hear Him in my life!  All I need is His presence... and everything else will be taken care of!]
Awakening  [click on the link to hear the song]

The other song was "O, how He loves us!"  Again, the combination of the lights and these words:
He is jealous for me - Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy- When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory And I realize just how beautiful You are and how great Your affections are for me...
[and I thought, if we could all understand the depth and consistency of God's love for us... if we could get it, and be done with all the negative words that have been spoken to us over our life time... if we get that this is how much He loves us... what freedom!  what peace!  what joy!]
Oh, How He Loves Us So

If we got these truths about God, we wouldn't be so disappointed when He doesn't answer our prayers or respond to us like we think He should....  God is not a slot machine...

You all know what kind of troll I can be day-to-day... you all know how I freak out over stuff... you all know about my anger and depression issues...but I hope that you also know that the kind of God that I serve is revealing Himself to be gracious even to this troll... and if He is gracious to me, why not to you?