Are you in the box business?

 

Hebrews 11:31

Moving from Houston to the Canyon Lake area of Texas, I discovered that moving requires many boxes, and it is always the box that you do not have, that is needed.  Now that I think about it, life seems to be all about boxes, those who are in ministry go into a box, those who provide services that we need go in another box, our family and friends go in another box, and government goes in a box that is full of all kinds of junk.  And what about God, do we have a box for Him?  My answer is for many years I did have Him in a box; it was a Baptist box, and it was for a god who I could understand, he was a very small god, but he fit into my Baptist box.

In that box a good Christian looked like Mary the mother of Jesus, or maybe Billy Graham, but not me.  I had no doubt that God was loving and merciful, but I also believed that He put up with people like me.  So what box do you think I put the Easter and Christmas Christians in; you are so right, it was a very small box.  And when it came to law- breakers and prostitutes, the box was so small that only by the grace of God could anyone get into or out of that box.  Oops, now you might call this a box exposer, or a conflict of faith, because it was by grace through the faith that God had extended to me, that I came to know Christ.  So what must I do with all these boxes?  It required the same action as the move from Houston, those boxes went in the trash, and the ones in my mind also needed trashed.  Romans 3:22-24, and 1 John 1:8-9, confronted me, so many boxes that needed removed from my life.

In my Baptist box there was no place for Rahab the prostitute, but as a character in a Bible story, you might say she was more of a fill-in character or stand-in but not in the lineage of Christ.  One small problem I encountered was Matthew’s gospel, the first chapter gives the genealogy of Christ and verse five gives this account: “and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.”  Rahab the prostitute is in God’s hall-of-fame, because she acted on the faith that had been given her by God.  Hebrews 11:31, “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.”

It has been sometime since I attempted to put God into that Baptist box, and this I know; God is not containable, His thoughts are higher than mine, His ways are not my ways, He is the Creator, and I am the creation.  So my question is: are you in the box business? 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice