Jealous.

So every Tuesday night I attend a huge worship service called Breakaway. Thousands, and I mean thousands of A&M students (and even friends from Waco and Austin) file into Reed Arena to worship and hear Ben Stuart speak. I know I've mentioned it before, but if you are looking for great sermon-type things to listen to, go here and you can subscribe to the podcast! I love to listen to these driving back home to Tyler and when I am running. Give it a try!

So, story time. I remember last year at OU a group of people would stand on the South Oval and shout to all passerby's how they were going to hell and many other sorts of things that really peeved me. I stopped and listened, watching girls go up and defend their Jesus (which gave me chills). However, one person also standing in the audience posed a question. "If you're God is so loving and great, why throughout the bible does he say that He is jealous? That doesn't seem like such a good quality to me." Um. Boom. I had no idea how to answer that. And either did the girl who was up there defending what she believed in. Maybe this isn't an idea you've struggled with in your faith, but I had never heard a great explanation of this quality before so it definitely was a stumbling point. I mean, it's God. He has to be good, He has to be right, He has to be perfect, so I knew there was some wonderful explanation out there that would set things right for me. And last night I finally got it. While it might not be complete and might be just the tiniest fraction of God's true character, it really resonated with me.

A wife and a husband. It is good, it is right for the husband to be jealous of anyone taking over his place in her life. Being committed to one person, loving one person with your whole heart. Isn't that what love is? Or a father. Imagine a father having to split his time with his precious child with a lesser, evil person who has nothing but bad intentions. Wouldn't you want your own father to be jealous for you? To be gnashing his teeth, screaming out your name, doing and being everything in his power in order to have you, and to have all of you? Isn't that the basis of unconditional love? Well my lovely little readers, we have that Father. We have that love. And when we put those "lesser, evil" things above our Heavenly Father and force Him to have a fraction of our heart, he gets jealous. He wants our whole hearts and nothing else.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God- Exodus 20:5

So how is a perfect God a jealous God? Because he loves us unconditionally and expects it back in return. He desires our hearts so much and wants nothing less. You tell me about a love like that in this world, and I'll point you right back to my Savior.

Whether this is a truth that you've known and grasped for a long time, or a spark that was just ignited, I think it's a great thing to be reminded of. Keep a look out for the Breakaway podcast from this week. Listen to Ben speak and hear in a ten-thousand times more eloquent way an explanation of this and ways for God's name to be hallowed.