From the Desk of Jeff King

Casual Christianity

Yeshua calls us friend if we obey His commands (John 15:14). According to a Christian quoted in this morning's newspaper, we also can be His buddy. The woman and her church are reading Rick Warren's best-seller The Purpose-Driven Life and going through a 40-day book study.

Buddy. That casual remark bothered me. A buddy is someone you joke with and take to the ballpark. Aren't we supposed to approach God in fear and trembling, which means in reverence? Perhaps that is symptomatic of today's seeker-sensitive approach to evangelism and church growth – God is reduced to a warm and fuzzy grandfatherly figure, beckoning us to climb onto His lap.

There is something wrong with that picture. Look at the respect afforded God by Jewish commentators in the ArtScroll Tanach Series book on Yechezkel (Ezekiel): "So intense was the holiness of the Shechinah, God’s Presence, as it rested in a cloud upon the Tabernacle that even Moses feared to enter (Exodus 40:34-35), and so total was its presence on the Temple that the priests could not enter (I Kings 8:11). . . . when Israel descended from the lofty heights of spiritual grandeur to the earthly depths of lust and iniquity, the Shechinah ascended from Israel's Temple which had become no more than a shell – beautiful but empty."

During Solomon's dedication of the Temple in 2 Chronicles 7, the Israelites bowed their faces to the ground as God sent fire from heaven to consume the offering and sacrifice. Verse 3 says the people "worshipped and praised the Lord, saying: 'For He is good, for His mercy endures forever.' " I doubt anyone that day addressed the Most High as buddy. No one barked like a dog, wobbled like a drunk or broke into holy laughter as some charismatic Christians like to do. But through YHVH – God's infinite mercy manifested through Messiah Yeshua – we can know Him as friend.