God loves rebels?

To me there is no question; God does in fact love rebels. Now before my mom and wife get all in a huff I think we need to explore the difference between rebelling for God and rebelling from God. To explain rebellion from God I could throw most of my life story prior to a few years ago out there. I think I will keep it simple, as to not scare many of you away.

When I was 15, I regularly attended confirmation classes at St. Joseph’s church in Baraboo, Wisconsin. That is right I was raised Catholic and am very familiar with the term Holy Strobe Light. For those who do not know what that means message me later. As I was saying, I attended these classes. I received first communion in second grade, I did first reconciliation in fourth grade, and now all that was left was confirmation. I was an altar boy, different stories stem from that experience, ie; Holy Strobe Light. One evening my mom dropped me off for conformation classes, there were about 13 of us total and many of the guys in the class were my best friends. Prior to class starting that night, Father Walsh, kind of a scary man, pulled me and two others aside. Father Walsh then explained that he knew it was us who had stolen the sacramental wine and that he would no longer teach us. We were asked to leave. This story always gets a chuckle and parts of it my mom probably was not even aware of, but it was a definite rebellion from God. This is just one short story of the many times I was rebellious against Him.

So what does rebelling for God look like? Let’s take a look at God’s word and see what kind of examples he gives us. Moses, who both rebelled against and for God is a good place to start, Moses murdered as explained in Exodus 2:11-12, One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. But Moses learned to submit to God, becoming a rebel God could use. Being sent into Egypt to free God’s people, Moses was commanded to go to Pharaoh and say, ‘this is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’ Exodus 9:13b

From Moses we can jump to Jesus, now this is skipping many of stories of people who both rebelled for God and from Him, so please, for more information open your bible. I bet now, some of you are asking, how did Jesus rebel? I thought Jesus was perfect? You are right and this is how we know that God loves rebels. Jesus never conformed to this world; he rebelled against it, even if it meant getting angry or going against what the law says. Breaking man’s law is not okay unless it conflicts with what God is telling you to do. So let’s find just a couple examples of Jesus teaching us this. Matthew 12:9-13 says, Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. This means that Jesus went against what man has set as a steadfast rule to prove that God wants us to worship him by doing His will. Jesus also fled from arrest on multiple occasions. If you or I were to do so we would be a fugitive in the eyes of men, Jesus did so not to preserve his life but to preserve ours. Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp, John 10:39.

So what does it all mean, how does it apply to your life, and is it okay for you to be a rebel? It means that everybody is a rebel. Do we rebel for or from God is what we must internally ask ourselves, or maybe those around us. God wants us to stand tall against the worldly, fight injustice, and love as He does. To love as He does is not always viewed as the nice way but it is always the right way. Romans 12:2 tells us, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. If we rebel for God, we repel the evils of this world. It is definitely okay for you to be a rebel, as long as you rebel against sin and stand for truth.