WHAT HE WAS INTERESTED IN

Oh-oh. I realized in order for this post to make sense, I'm going to have to write at least a little summary of last night's old film:

It's about a boy who gets a wild pony and foal on an island, (saving the life of the almost drowning foal as it crossed the channel). After taming--not breaking, but a gentler way--the filly, he is challenged with the champion black steed, which he beats clearly. The day before a horse race, the boy, unable to bear seeing the mare's unhappiness whenever she hears her mate's call from across the channel, returns them to their island.

"And I beheld and lo, a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand." (Rev. 6:5)

In the human world, "black horses" symbolize advantages, ways to get ahead. But Father, it's like You're not interested in "getting ahead," are you? In yesterday's video, the owner of the pony, the day before the big race, saw his own could beat that fast black stallion all hollow. He heard the call of the mate across the channel day after day and let his horse go free, seeing how it wanted to go back. THAT OWNER COULD'VE HELD ONTO THE HORSE AND WON ALL HIS BETS THE NEXT DAY IF HE WAS INTERESTED IN WINNING, BUT HE WAS WAY MORE INTERESTED IN THE PONY'S HAPPINESS.

Some people say foolish things like a self-serving God just wants humans to praise Him. If God were really interested in just that, He wouldn't have chosen to have His Son born into obscurity into the town of Bethlehem to an unwed mother where shepherds would come to worship Him, not even relatives. (But wise men did come from afar!) And God wouldn't have chosen to have that Son grow up in Nazareth where "nothing good comes from" in a carpenter father's shop, subject to neighborhood gossip of being a bastard. Nor would God have allowed the religious leaders of the day to ban him from the synagogue nor forbid people to follow him. At the very least, a God Who craved praise would not have allowed His Son to be betrayed by one of his own disciples, denied by another, forsaken by the rest, shamed and tortured in public, framed and condemned legally, sentenced to a slow death of suffocation-drip bleeding and thirst.

No; God was NOT Interested in "GLORY" for Himself in the way some people accuse Him of. The glory ascribed Him results in those He LOVED and GAVE HIS LIFEBLOOD FOR. They love Him.

In the film, I noticed at the end, the pony's little foal whose life the boy saved from drowning as it came across the river ended up staying with him. The worship, adoration we end up giving God because He saved our lives is something we choose to do and should not be denied with the claim that it is something a "greedy God desires!" It would be just as senseless as refusing to let that foal stay with the master he has grown to love.

The balances the rider on the black horse of Rev. 6:5 seems to be kinda whacko. "God is Love", will lead to salvation, joy, and peace. But man's common sense, when it starts out with "God desires Praise" cannot lead to "gentle"-ing a horse. The film showed you can forcefully break a wild stallion into submission, OR you can slowly ease it into wanting it to trust you, and then you have a friend for life. Conflicts can be tamed temporarily by breaking them into submission, it is true. But it's only regeneration of the soul that will motivate acts of permanent loyalty.

God does not break us then just call us His good submissive servants. He dove into the water for us when we were drowning and called us friends.

How can we not love Him forever?