During our visit we walked along a paved trail on the canyon’s
south rim, and I could not help but notice a couple of obvious
facts wherever we turned. First, the signs of a cataclysmic
event, described as the Noahic flood in the book of Genesis
were undeniable when viewing the landscape and walls of the
canyon. Second, nearly every book, postcard, placard and sign
we came across, as well as the live lectures and films that were
offered denied the very existence of such an event and the God
who sent it. There was certainly no shortage of “reasons” for
how and what formed the Grand Canyon, but to be sure, you
would have been hard pressed to find one that gave credit to
The Creator!

Now, as we strolled along and I grew more and more aggravated
with this seemingly blatant disregard for the Almighty, I could
not help but find myself pondering Psalm 14:1; The fool has
said in his heart, “there is no God”. Like any good Christian
parent I felt it my duty to point out the error of Darwinian
evolution and its false worldview to my children. How foolish
the thinking was that we saw posted everywhere! Perhaps you
are in agreement and would have done the same thing. But as
our time at the Grand Canyon passed, I began to reflect on
another aspect of Psalm 14:1, one that is perhaps often missed
by most of us. I began to ponder how we believers live out our
lives at times in the same manner, that is, as if there is no God.

To be clear, let me say that the reality of this type of living,
and why we do it is much more subtle than what we see in
the culture around us. Christians don’t intentionally verbalize
a lack of belief in the existence of God. But you see this type
of living is played out in everyday life for the believer; in
our relationships, our sinful choices, and in the secret and
“unnoticed” areas of our struggles. We don’t see ourselves
denying the reality of God when we choose to not forgive
others, harbor jealousy, or lash out in anger. Neither do we
see ourselves denying God when we give into temptations like
“minor cheating” on our taxes, or taking advantage of others
in business or the workplace. Are we so foolish to think that
since no one else seems to know, that the very God who knows
us better than we know ourselves does not notice either? The
Scriptures are full of warnings of the opposite; that all of life is
lived out before the very open eyes of the Lord. (Proverbs 15:3)

Now, lest you leave this article with your head hung low, as if a
massive guilt trip has just been hoisted upon you, time would
be better spent considering not only how we, at times, live as
if there is no God, but why we do this and what God, through
Christ has done about it. Indeed, the Gospel is once again good
news to every believer. It lifts our heads, our hearts, and our
outlook. We must not miss its significance in our struggle, or we
risk its true message being veiled.

To do this let’s examine a little closer some of the examples I
sighted above, the first being forgiveness. When we choose not
to extend forgiveness to others, be that our spouse, our children,
other family members or someone in the church, we are in a
sense living as if there is no God, at least the God we claim to
know. We may speak of His attributes or the virtues of Christ
to anyone listening in our Sunday school class or community
group, but when we face the difficulties of living together do
we represent these attributes of grace, mercy and the unmerited
forgiveness we have so richly received in Christ?

Both the apostles Paul and Peter spoke of the truly indescribable
grace and mercy that God, in Christ extended to we sinners.
They pointed to our union with Christ and all the blessing and
empowerment that it holds, enabling us to fulfill our calling
of being his image bearers. Peter went on to say in the second
chapter of his first epistle, “For to this you have been called,
because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, so you
might follow in his steps”. You see, when we do not demonstrate
a willingness to forgive, we exchange what we know to be true
about God for another worldview; one that gives no attention
to the Savior who accomplished so much for us. In contrast,
a true, un-warped evaluation of our hearts leads us to an
appreciation for God’s grace demonstrated to us by His Son
Jesus. The absence of this is a devastating lack of grace in our
relationships, which leads to exacting payment from others for
wrong received. This is exactly the opposite of what the Gospel
teaches and granted freely to us at great cost to Christ. The
Gospel is all about giving people what they do not deserve.
We must take great care to recognize when we have lost our
focus on the Gospel so we can avoid emphasizing something
quite the opposite in our actions. This is one way we live, albeit
temporarily, as if there is no God.

There are perhaps many other examples of how we believers live
at times with an absence of God in our decisions. It is vitally
important we identify these areas of sinfulness and repent from
them. It is also crucial that we seek to understand why we do
them in the first place. In many cases our choices spring from a
lack of trust in God. We forget that He has promised to supply
Jesus on our behalf. Our greatest need was provided for when
God placed our sins on His Son, pouring His wrath out on
Jesus instead of us. This act of mercy reconciled us to Him,
secured for us eternal peace, gave us union with Christ, and the
ability to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
(Rom. 5:1, 2 Cor. 5:21, 2 Peter 2:24, 2 Cor.10:5) Indeed, what
the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians provides great comfort
to us; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

My dear Brothers and Sisters, if you recognize yourself in
the struggles mentioned above, you certainly are not alone.
Much of the theme of this article is born out of my own sinful
tendencies. Fortunately, the remedy for us all is the same;
the saving and transforming power and reality of being new
creatures in Christ. He has set us apart, not only giving us a new
standing, but the promise of finishing His transforming work in
us. When we stumble and our failures are revealed, the Gospel
picks us up reminding us of our forgiveness secured by Jesus.
We do not have to live like there is no God because He is the
reality of our lives! He has put an end to sin’s dominion over us
and empowered us to live out the Gospel in every area of life.
In closing I would like to share a final memory from our visit
to the Grand Canyon. During one of our last walks on the rim
trail, we noticed a placard that was placed near a stunning view
of the canyon below. In the midst of all the other humanistic
messages throughout the area, it simply read, “All the earth
worships Thee; they sing praises to Thee, sing praises to Thy
name.” Psalm 66:4.

May our lives visibly declare the reality of our God and Savior
in the midst of an otherwise perishing world.

~Tim Menez

But something inside of her eventually calls her back to her
roots. She’s instinctually drawn to her place of birth in order to
give birth. Like mass to gravity, the pull is irresistible. However
the trek home is anything but like what she initially experienced
when venturing out into that uncharted abyss. She must this
time swim upstream, perhaps hundreds of miles, in the same
watercourse she first found consoling but now present the most
death defying obstacles of life.

The journey seems absolutely impossible. There’s
acclimatization from saline to fresh H2O. There are jagged
rocks, crushing waterfalls, and swift driving rapids that must
either be herculean hurdled or prodigiously pressed through.
Starvation, exhaustion and lacerations bring the fish to the
brink of death, all the while, and unbeknownst to the salmon,
her flesh is turning from a luminous pink to a radiant snow
white. With unflinching perseverance, she amazingly reaches
her destination never to return from whence she came. Now
she satisfyingly spawns that life may continue from her sacrifice.
It cost all she had – her life. Such was her destiny, and the
seemingly impossible was somehow miraculously possible.

There’s a lot of swimming upstream for us Christians – a lot
of “impossibilities” out there. This should come as no surprise.
Jesus said that, “In the world you have tribulation” (John 16:33b).
These are life’s raging rapids and perilous fish ladders of stress,
physical suffering, broken hearts and the like. Thus is the nature
of existing in a warped world. We live in an expanse, much
like the salmon in the briny sea. Yet we are not of it, much like
those same salmon from the fresh water river. We are “those who
reside as aliens, scattered throughout…” the world, “… chosen
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying
work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His
blood” (I Peter 1:1b-2a). Hence our destiny, living the seemingly
impossible through the One who makes it possible, all the while
drawing notice to the miraculous possibility-Maker who has
overcome the world.

But He who first made life here possible is the same one who
seems to convey that life beyond is also impossible. Jesus
appears to leave little room for coasting downstream to get
there, perched in the comfort of this world. “He who loves his
life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life
eternal” (John 12:25), said the Master. “… sell all that you possess
and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven;
and come, follow Me” (Luke 18:22b), He tenderly instructed the
rich, inquisitive young man. “If anyone wishes to come after Me,
he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me”
(Luke 9:23b), was Jesus’ “dead-man-walking” directive to His
best of friends.

Life here most certainly does seem impossible at times,
the travails overwhelming. And life beyond? Why utterly
unattainable. It’s the upstream struggle of swimming into
eternity, the starvation and exhaustion of wholly letting go
of our lives with resolute persistence to the very end. Jesus’
closest and most intimate friends eventually concluded with
exasperation, “Then who can be saved?” (Luke 18:26b)

If we stopped with the disciples’ question, then hopelessness is
all we’re left with. There’s no sense making the voyage, and we
might as well just float in our world out there and soak it all in
while we can. But Jesus leaves his friends, and us, with hope. In
fact, it’s extraordinary hope. Except it’s hope not found here, but
there. He makes this abundantly clear when He gazed into their
eyes and replied, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for
with God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27b) However it will
cost something. In fact, it will cost everything. For our Creator
the price was His prize, the Son. To the contrary for us the price
is free, for “freely you have received” (Matthew 10:8b; cf. Romans
6:23). And now, like the salmon’s skin, sin’s crimson stains are
washed whiter than snow. (Elvina M. Hall, “Jesus Paid It All”)

But does the free gift of grace set us free from the cost of even
our own lives? Can we now just roam about in this vastness
without ever treading upstream to head home? “Grace alone does
everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before”,
sarcastically declares Dietrich Bonhoeffer of many Christians.
(“The Cost of Discipleship”) Can this be said of us? How
so knowing that Jesus died for all in order that we no longer
live for ourselves, but for the One who died and rose on our
behalf? What love! From Him, which now controls us. (cf. II
Corinthians 5:14-15)

So the course of our love is to leave the known and venture
into territory we know will not be at all what we left behind.
And to set our course in that direction, upstream if you will
and right in the face of peril, requires the impossible of man
from the possible God. Selling possessions to give to the poor,
abandoning the “American dream” by leaving homes to rent in
“undesirable” urban neighborhoods, saying goodbye to family
to love abroad, forsaking vocational success to increase margins
for benevolence, serving the incarcerated, sacrificing vacations
to give to the needy, welcoming the homeless, departing the
comfort of Grace Bible Church to plant another, and appearing
foolish all for the sake of Jesus that life eternal might proliferate,
these are but a drop from the deep of radical possibilities in an
impossible world. And when we live this way, in the opposite
direction of the world’s current, we “live a life that demands an
explanation” (Francis Chan). And Christian lives that demand
explanations can only be explained by one thing, and that
one thing is not us. It was never us, but always Jesus, for we
are those who “… are His workmanship, created in Jesus Christ
for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should
walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) If Jesus created us for this,
long before we ever basked in that balmy and secluded pool of
amniotic fluid, then we can remain “… confident of this very
thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until
the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

The water’s cold, the shallows hazardous, the falls crushing, but
let’s go swimming anyway… upstream.

-Tom Kruggel

Each day we’ll search the pages of the Bible as we decode answers The Creator has given us to life’s big questions: Did we come from ape-men? Are people equal to animals? Did parts of our bodies just “happen” or were they specially designed? Is all Human life valuable? Do our lives have purpose?

Registration is $25 for the first child and $20 for each additional sibling. Space is limited! Please register early to guarantee your T-shirt size. For information on how to register, visit http://graceforus.org/TheEgyptFile.

We hope to see you at The Egypt File!