Festive ponderings

Over the last few weeks these are the things that have been bouncing through my head and the conversations that I've been having.

Some have kept me awake at night...
Some have been pondered over for hours...
Some have flashed though my subconscious and been quickly dispensed with...

Should your idea of God change with the experiences you go through? If so, how much?

How do you lead people into the presence of a God when you yourself don't particularly want to be there?

How do bad things effect the transcendent (arms length) character of God and the immanent (nearby) nature of God?

If God is absolutely sovereign (or is He?) how can He then be mourning with you in your time of grief?

Can you hold God to ransom?
Can you say that you won't do xyz until He does abc, or that you will only do (or continue to do) xyz if He does abc?

If God gives you chance after chance (which He has!), shouldn't He deserve AT LEAST one when you think He has let you down?

How honest should you be with set backs in your life to those you minister to? Should you tell everyone everything? What should you withhold? If you do tell, how do you do it?

Not all of these questions have been answered over the last fortnight. I didn't expect some of them to be. Some don't have answers this side of heaven.

But as a guy who was fairly confident that he held a fair portion of the answers (as evidenced by the blossoming Apologetics section of the blog), these questions still trouble me.