GOD PURE AND SIMPLE–HE IS HOLY

Disclaimer: this subject is the most difficult I have ever broached and will be so imperfect. Also, this post is longer than usual, and it might even be rambling. Please try to stick with me and read my heart more than my words.

 

The subject of holiness can be so uncomfortable. Especially because 1 Peter 1:16 commands His people, the church, to be holy because God is holy, just like He originally commanded in the book of Leviticus. How could I possibly be holy like God is? The foundation of this imperative is that He is our God and we are His people, therefore we should be like Him. Our conduct, thoughts, and words should follow that truth.

But this post is about God, not us.

With Him, it’s different. He is holy in essence, not just conduct, thoughts, or words. He is totally set apart, unique, and one else is like Him. It is a complete “otherness”, meaning He is in a category all of His own. He is a cut above everything or anyone else.

In two instances in scripture, heavenly creatures cry out holy, holy, holy in reference to God. What would that mean? In simple terms, it is an emphasis on this particular facet of His nature. Nowhere in Scripture are his other attributes emphasized in this way. You won’t read He is love, love, love. Or God is just, just, just. Even though He is these things. Also, it is possible the creatures declared His holiness three times in reference to the triune nature of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The point is this: God. Is. Holy.

I’ve been reading the chronological Bible this year. I’m still in the Old Testament. A common thread lately is that the prophets go off on Israel and Judah (at this point, they are separate kingdoms—so sad and so avoidable) for their adulterous idol worship. Having the only living God as their God, they still chose to make graven images out of wood, stone, gold, silver—ironically, resources God himself provided. And then they worshiped them. As if a chunk material called Baal or an Asheroth pole could answer their prayers or protect them from anything. Before this, they had the calf that priest Aaron forged out of gold (although he claimed he threw the gold into the fire and the calf just popped out. Seriously?) while poor Moses was up on Mount Sinai getting the ten commandments to set their messy lives straight. Moses was not a happy camper when he came down saw what was going on. To prove it, he smashed the tablets it took him forty days to get.

Friends, man is always trying to come up with something to compare to God or outdo Him or in some way make Him more tangible, more accessible, more in our own image. And it just isn’t going to happen. He is out there all on His own. In every single area. And it would behoove us to accept that and to embrace His holiness.

We are loved and cared for by the same holy God who also sustains the universe. Yes, sustains. He did not create it and then just walk away. As much as I enjoy the series, The Big Bang Theory, the whole concept of that ideology doesn’t hold water. If God weren’t paying attention, all the galaxies would collide and spin into oblivion and we would immediately be thrust into an oxygenless black hole “somewhere” that only He would know how to find.

All this is all part of His uniqueness, that part of Him He doesn’t share.

I don’t know how you feel about it, but the bigger and better and holier, the more unlike me I can grasp God is, the more I respect Him, the more the awe factor is jacked up to the nth degree, and the more I can trust Him. Why would I want to trust someone flawed, selfish, and imperfect like me to hold the universe together or direct my path?

If He is holy, is He also perfect? Absolutely. Down to every single detail.

So, when Scripture says He “repents” for doing such and such, is it saying He made an error? No in the sense of its normal usage. It seems that it is the best word the translators could come up to explain a concept. The intention is more like, “What you guys did makes me sad, and even mad. I wish I hadn’t had to do it, but I did have to. And now you’re seeing the results and will have to live the consequences.” All with a purpose.

It must be so hard to be God. Not a job any of us would aspire to.

I want the holy God to be bigger than my imagination. I want His being to fill my mind, my thoughts, my emotions, my goals, my yearnings. I don’t want to stand in the way of Him being everything He promises to be in my life.

In conclusion, please let me share two of my favorite Scriptures:

Amos 4:13: For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Jeremiah 9:23-24:  Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

If the Holy God, the Lord of hosts, wants to be known, then I want to take him up on it.

How about you? Please share your thoughts.

GOD PURE AND SIMPLE–PATIENCE AND LONGSUFFERING

Our church has a really good Bible institute. The new pastor does most of the teaching, and he’s excellent. The transition from our previous pastor (who was my son, a U.S. citizen raised in Chile) to our present one, who is Brazilian, has been colorful and fun. Who would have thought in a congregation in the town of Quilpué, Chile we would have our own little melting pot of cultures?

I love our versatility and what it brings to the table.

A few months ago, Pastor Ider (who does not dance samba, in case you were wondering) asked us all to fill out a form and tell him where we would like to serve in the church. I have done just about everything (I call it being Mentholatum) except serve as an elder or a pastor, so it took some thinking.  After careful contemplation, much to my surprise, I discovered what I most wanted to do was teach in the Bible institute. What I didn’t expect is that Ider would have taken me up on it.

I taught my debut class last Saturday.

My class encompassed Colossians 1:9-14, just six little verses. Which, by the way, grew to humongous proportions in my mind, driving me to conclude that since I had made a world out of half a dozen verses, who was I to think I could teach a full course? Self-doubt still pummels me over that one. But I did the class. And I loved doing it. Don’t know when it will happen again. I’m still waiting for a full-blown evaluation.

I found some nuggets to share here since my posts have been about God’s attributes. Paul mentioned two of them in the passage. Yes, he referred to the Colossians and how they should have them. But they are God’s communicable and transferable characteristics.  If you have been following me, you know this means they are characteristics He has in plenitude, perfectly, and without limit, but has shared them with us. We, of course, have them imperfectly and with all kinds of limits.

Truth be told, we’re kind of a mess.

It is a head-shaker how much He has done and continues to do for us. Paul talks about patience and longsuffering as responses to circumstances and people surrounding said circumstances or just in our routine life.

The Greek word for patience in this particular passage and in most others is hupomonē or hypomone. This is a special kind of patience. It doesn’t mean you just bow your head, cringe, grit your teeth, and let the waves of circumstances wash over you while you hope and pray you don’t get sucked into the undertow.

It’s the ability to not only hang in there, but the capacity to change difficult and overwhelming situations into something glorious. To God’s glory.

It is a conquering patience, the kind that triumphantly faces anything that we come up against or comes up against us. It is patience with joy and hope. You already know why.

It’s because we wait on Him who is in control and knows the bottom line in every circumstance and situation.

Longsuffering, on the other hand, (although a kind of patience) is makrothyméō, meaning long-tempered. You could think of someone with a long fuse. It has everything to do with having patience with people. It is the mental and heart ability to handle, put up with, be patient with, love without becoming bitter or getting irritated with people who are pains, mean, and cruel. Their lack of love doesn’t diminish ours, we don’t get desperate when they do things that are off the wall bad choices, and their foolishness doesn’t exasperate us. Makrothyméō is the spirit that never loses patience with people or stops believing in or hoping for them. Oh man!

I need more makrothyméō in my life, people!!

Can you imagine if God would have simply given up on mankind because we are pains, mean, cruel, and oh yes, rebellious? True, His patience has to do with our salvation, our sanctification, and His purposes. You read in Scripture where eventually his forbearance does come to an end and He disciplines, but He does so to make the rebellious come to our senses and turn back to Him. Nothing random  or merely reactionary and His responses. It is for a purpose not because He loses control and lashes out. But have you read in the Bible how many times when people turn back to Him and repent, that He starts the process all over again? Gives them a second chance, even knowing He will once again be disappointed.

It’s the epitome of patience and longsuffering. It’s what makes it clear He’s God, and we’re not.

Life is hard, folks. We are in this together.  But…His word does command us to support one another, to forbear (have a long fuse), and have patience with one another.

If we ask for it, God gives it. Am I brave enough to do it?

How about you? Do you need more hypomone and makrothyméō in regards to circumstances and people?? I appreciate your thoughts and insights.

 

 

 

GOD, THE OMNISCIENT

Psalm 147:4-5: He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
⁵ Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

Psalm 139: 1-4: You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. ² You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. ³ You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. ⁴ Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

Proverbs 15:3: The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

It is amazing, and perhaps more than a little embarrassing in some cases, that God is omniscient.

Merriam-Webster defines omniscience as: possessed of universal or complete knowledge. The dictionary gives God as the only example of that. This means, in a nutshell: God knows everything all the time from the beginning of time and until the end of time about everything and everyone. He could give us a moment-by-moment running commentary, verbatim, of every single thought, every single action, and every single word of every single person in history and in the future. All at the same time, I might add. No software is going to solve that one. How might He do that? Beats me. He’s the Omniscient One.

Obviously, we do know stuff. Why is that?

Omniscience is one of the transferable or communicable attributes of God. This means he gives us a little bit of what he has all of. We can acquire knowledge, think, reason, delve, create, etc. But we will always be limited and imperfect in our acquisition and execution of knowledge.

Another important detail: the fact that God gives us a little bit of what He has by no means diminishes the knowledge He possesses.

It is not like only such much knowledge exists out there, so God gives us some, but He keeps the lion’s share. As if He only has only so much knowledge available, so since He shares it with us, His is depleted. No. He has made us in his image with the ability to reason and acquire knowledge, but the infinitesimal percentage doesn’t even exist to quantify our knowledge in comparison with his. It is a waste of time even to try. And He doesn’t continue to learn, either. He knows all that will ever be.

God is not only Independent (self-sustaining and doesn’t need us, but wants us), Immutable (does not change), Omnipresent (everywhere all the time in fullness), Eternal (no one created Him, and He always was and always will be),  He knows absolutely everything–always has and always will.

These truths trigger an emotional response in me.

On the one hand I feel small and insignificant—the tiniest little speck in the midst of infinite nothingness and everythingness. But on the other, it leaves me breathless that the indescribable God is interested in this little speck. Not like a scientist might be in viewing an intriguing fleck under a microscope, but involved. Communicating, sharing, providing, loving, disciplining, blessing, rescuing, judging.

Remember what I am always driving home: God’s plan is to have a people and for Him to be their God. For that, all of the above is part of it.

How about you? What do you think about God also being Omniscient? Does it have any impact on your life? Please share your thoughts.

RESURRECTION THOUGHTS

Hundreds of thousands speeches, articles, sermons, manifestos, posts, books, theses, essays, and even protests have been about the resurrection of Jesus. Absolutely nothing I could say here would be original or better said than all the aforementioned.

I won’t be writing a post to defend an event I hold to be true and I claim to be the  linchpin that fastens together my faith and that of countless others. Plenty of evidence exists out there to prove it is true if one takes the time to look for it. People give their lives every day in countries like Iraq and even Egypt because they know Jesus is who He said He was and did what He said He would do.

So, what could I possibly say to you today?

Steve talked to me this morning about his conviction regarding the resurrection, and it triggered something in me that I can share here, too.

I cannot ( and don’t want to) imagine what my life would be like if Jesus’s claims were not true, if the prophecies regarding his death and resurrection had not panned out, and if this life on earth, a mere 90 years or so, were the only one. What would be the point? Because yes, the resurrection of Jesus implies our own resurrections and then life beyond earth. Be it in heaven, or be it in hell. I am sorry if that offends you, but it is the bare truth, and truth is one of the promises I have made on this blog.

These truths are cornerstones that give stability and credibility to the Bible—God’s word and my life guide.

Without the Bible and its truths, my life would be a mess. And this is from someone most would refer to as a “good girl”. While growing up, I obeyed my parents. Admittedly, much was out of fear more than anything,  but that is fodder for another post. My sister somehow got past that whole fear thing enough to get away with a lot more than I did. However, I was the child they practiced on, and she was the favorite. If she reads this, I am so going to hear about it. But now she is the good daughter, and I am the liberal aunt. Love it!

By the world’s standards, I have lived a decent life, although I have some big time sins on my roster. If I didn’t believe Jesus’s resurrection to be true, I would have no chance for a clean slate. Plus, and this is a choice tidbit: God. Is. Not. Keeping. Score. It took me so long to figure that out. And really believe it.

If Jesus’s resurrection were not true, why in the name of all that is sane, would I have left the good ole U.S. of A. to come live in a dusty, ugly, little town in Central Chile to get ridiculed, spit on, defamed, and taken advantage of? Just because? I might be naïve and have made a lot of mistakes, but I ain’t that dumb.

For instance, and please don’t take this as complaining because I lack modern conveniences. I don’t have some compared to the U.S., but I have so many compared to other countries. Like no central heating, but I do have a wood stove. No dishwasher, but I can get hot water. No screens on the windows, but I have glass in them.  And no public lending libraries, people! That’s a crime.

We have to have bars on the windows, an alarm system, and it’s smart to chain down anything you leave outside that can be carried off. We’ve had patio furniture and hoses stolen I don’t remember how many times. The most uncanny incident involved a thief unearthing avocado saplings. Really? Those can be sold in the outdoor market for maybe 75 cents or a dollar.

The most painful things have involved the times we’ve lost our shirts for trusting people who had no intention of keeping their word at all. I know this happens everywhere, but I am trying to create a scenario.

When we got ready to leave the U.S., our boys were still in diapers. Josh slept in a crib. We had to have a garage sale, where we sold stuff like we weren’t coming back, even though it was supposed to be a two-year internship. That should have been my first clue that our 2-year stint would end up being a lifetime.  Silly me. The thing that sold the moment the sale started? Josh’s crib. I was all like, “Where is my baby going to sleep tonight?”  Somehow, we all survived, and now that garage sale is part of our story.

If I didn’t believe the resurrection of Jesus to be true, why would I have spent my youth, all those glorious, energy-packed years, in a place that up to now, collectively-speaking, has not shown all that much appreciation for my “sacrifice”? Just because?

If it weren’t for Jesus, I could be so embittered I wouldn’t even want to be around me. Instead, He reminds me I gave Him my youth, and this is where He chose for me to spend it. That gives me such a different spin on it.

I have moments when I want to toss in the towel. I mean, don’t we all? Moments when I would like to just do whatever I want and forget about a mission or calling. In our family, we joke about it and wonder what it would be like to have what we call “el momento de confianza”. Meaning, you have sixty seconds to whatever you wanted, no-holds-barred, and God wouldn’t take it into account. But you know? Even now the desires of my heart are so soaked with Jesus and His resurrection, nothing even occurs to me within that framework anymore.

He is my reason to be. Maybe that sounds religious or cliché-ish.  But it’s true.

And knowing what I know, living what I have lived, I would have it no other way.

How about you? Have you checked out the evidence regarding Jesus’s resurrection? Have your conclusions made an impact in  your life?

I’d love to read your comments.

 

GOD, THE OMNIPRESENT

 

Everything around us is always changing. Have you noticed? Ask anyone a lot older than you (if you know anyone, LOL!) whether or not things are different now from when they were kids. Ask them about toys, food, books, games, school, haircuts, and clothing styles, just to name a few. Change can be confusing, uncomfortable.

We already talked about God’s immutability. He doesn’t change—no matter what goes on around us. We also established this truth is a cornerstone for trusting him.

Let’s move on to another attribute. Remember that attribute is a characteristic belonging to one’s basic nature, in this case, God’s. Some of those characteristics are communicable, meaning God may share them with us—like justice, love, mercy, kindness, or peace. But another one of His attributes that is non communicable, meaning only His, is omnipresence.

Let’s break it down. Omni means “wholly or completely,” and presence is “the state of being present.” In a nutshell, omnipresence tells us that all of God is everywhere all the time.

ALL OF HIM

Before I figured out what omnipresence meant, I imagined God stretching Himself across the universe—a tiny bit of Him in Russia, while a thread of Him would reach the Antarctic. Like Mister Fantastic or Plastic Man to the thousandth degree. But I was wrong and had left out an important detail. God is spirit, not flesh and blood like you and me. So He is not limited by time nor by space.

All of God is everywhere all the time, not just a piece of Him.

Everything God is—the Creator of the universe, the God who opened up the Red Sea, who pulled Jonah out of the big fish, who sent Jesus to earth—is with you and me right now. And He’s giving us all His attention.

EVERYWHERE

Omnipresence means all of God everywhere: Chile, Iran, Rhode Island, Minsk. Identify all the continents, countries, cities in the world, all their rivers, mountains, and then start in on the sun and the moon, the named and unnamed stars, the known and to-be-discovered planets . . . He is there.

ALL THE TIME

God is constant. He’s not an eight-to-five, Monday-through-Friday, with-Sundays-and-holidays-off kind of God. With Him, it is 24/7/365. We sleep; He doesn’t. We get distracted; He doesn’t. We need a break; He doesn’t take one. The Bible says He is, He was, and He always will be. Remember: God has no limits—not space or time.Our minds do have limits, however, so sometimes it’s difficult to understand these concepts.

Just because we don’t fully understand them doesn’t make them any less true.

A CATEGORY OF HIS OWN

Consider your number one superhero for a moment. Come on, you have one. I admit to Marvel fandom. I like Iron Man. And Thor? Well, he’s just cute.

If you’re like me, you want to see all the movies. If you are a Sheldon Cooper kind of fan, you collect the comic books and the action figures. Maybe your favorite is Hulk, Black Widow, Captain America, Iron Man, or Thor. (Sorry, I did leave out DC characters.)

Each hero uses a super power to save the day, save the girl, or even save the world. But each one also has a fatal weakness, and if the bad guy figures it out, it’s possible he will defeat our superhero.

Unlike our superheroes, of course, God exists. He’s for real, not the product of someone’s imagination or invention. But like our superheroes, God does have an Enemy—a real one, Satan. Who doesn’t stand a chance. He’s not omnipresent, by the way. Nor is he is omniscient, omnipotent, immutable, or independent. He was created, just like the world, angels, and humans.

He’ll never defeat God.

Write this on your heart: God is omnipresent. All of Him, all the time, no matter where you go is right beside you. And He loves you. Trust Him on this.

TRUTHS TO HANG ONTO:

“‘Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?’ declares the Lord.” (Jer. 23:24)

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:38–39)

“Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deut. 31:6, 8)

I welcome your comments, super-reader.

 

 

AND YET…ANOTHER BIRTHDAY

This is going to be the most random post, ever. Please forgive me, folks, especially dear editor and writer friends, and more than anyone, the grammar and punctuation police. Yikes!

What about a birthday that triggers memories?

While writing this line, do you know the first thing that popped into my mind? (It is really crazy because it was a Christmas, not birthday, gift.) My red and white cowboy girl outfit with the suede fringe, my holster, and pop guns. Does anybody remember those?

It would probably be so politically incorrect today to play Cowboys and Indians like when we were kids. I am not sure why, considering most of the time in my games the Cowboys did not win, and even though Tonto perhaps was an unfortunate name, what would the Lone Ranger have done without his brilliant and brave sidekick? Oh, and I am a huge Tony Hillerman fan.

Those memories lead me to ponder what an amazing time it has been mine to be born in and live.

I’ve seen the first man walk on the moon, the assassination of the youngest and the first Roman Catholic U.S. president to be voted into office, Elvis Presley and the Beatles soar to stardom, the demise of too many actors who were the foundation of Hollywood and the film industry, and experienced Las Vegas growing from a cow town to a bustling metropolis.

The Berlin Wall came down, as did the Twin Towers. The computer age came into fruition, and sports have become a billion-, maybe trillion-dollar business.

The number one song the day I was born was Music! Music! Music! by Theresa Brewer, and on my fifteenth birthday, Stop in the Name of Love by the Supremes. Talk about a difference. Three years ago it was Happy by Pharrell Williams. Now I get why I love that song and him so much. Steve always sends me a Jib-Jab birthday card with that song.

I could go on and on. Literally.

It is an amazing time to be alive. I love it, and I hate it.

I love it because of all the things I mentioned above. Of witnessing so many amazing things that when I was born might have only existed in someone’s imagination. Plus, I am a mom three times over and have five amazing grandchildren. God gave me the perfect husband for the life he had in mind and sent us off on an adventure that has lasted more than forty years. It’s been quite a ride!

And I hate it because while I don’t hold that the 1950s or 1960s were “the good ole days”, or perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, the moral fiber of the of the family and society seemed to be more intact than now. That saddens me. And even though my parents did divorce, it was rare and not a fear I lived with like so many children today. Back then, nobody thought about prohibiting you to pray or read the Bible or salute the flag. This always weighs on my heart. At the same time, we had strict rules to adhere to (some pretty ridiculous) and all very much had to do with social norms and acceptance. I didn’t balk a lot then, but I would now.

On a personal level, I just want to state that getting older is so much better than I had anticipated. Seriously. When I was a teenager, I figured that by my sixty-seventh birthday I would be a crotchety old lady. If I were even alive. I am far from crotchety, if I do say so myself.

I am thrilled that I am still alive.

I am excited about what God still has in store for me. I don’t like the term Golden Years. Not sure why. Probably because I feel like it crams me into a category. Like being called a senior. But, I have to tell you the discounts are awesome.

I still feel happy and hopeful and pray God will use me up to my very last minute here on earth. May this white-haired, non-crotchety, still vital sixty-seven-year-old senior live out her days to His glory!

GOD, THE IMMUTABLE

“For I, the lord, do not change. . .” (Malachi 3:6a).

God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17)

God does not change, but He is the supreme Gamechanger. He alters circumstances, and He alters people, but He is absolutely immutable. If it were not true, it would be impossible to trust Him.

If you follow my posts, you know I’m a fan of the dictionary. Immutable, according to merriam-webster: not capable or susceptible to change.

So, if God is immutable, He is incapable of, not open to or subject to change.

It’s necessary to establish that God is always the same. He is so unlike us. He doesn’t evolve or adapt to circumstances or situations. He has always been, is, and always will be all that He is and ever going to be. Right from the get-go.

We talked about eternal last week. His immutability is also eternal.

As an aging human (people say women won’t talk about how old they are, but I don’t have a problem—I’m turning sixty-seven next week), I tend to pride myself on my resilience, my ability to go with the flow. Change. Especially since statistics show that seniors can’t change. I want to prove that statistic wrong!

But it isn’t just a pride thing. We do change. We take changeability to the extreme. We’re fickle. Dictionary time. Fickle: marked by lack of steadfastness, constancy, or stability: given to erratic changeableness. Please don’t be offended. But to a certain degree, this is true of every human being. We change—all the way from the furniture arrangement in our living rooms to the guy who heads up the nation where we live. It is hard for us not to change.

That is why God is so different from us. And why his attribute of immutability is so vital. What if one day he decided, for instance, that He was tired of sustaining the world? Or that we weren’t worth the effort? Can you imagine?

You might think I am driving this point into the ground, but that’s okay. God has an unchanging plan.. Can you recite it by heart now?

His plan is to have a people and for Him to be their God.

Folks, that does not change. It is what He had in mind when Adam and Eve chomped on the fruit from the forbidden tree. It’s the only thing that makes Jesus bursting into human history sensible.

God’s immutability is one of the cornerstones of our trust in Him.

But in what sense does God not change?

• In His essence.
• In His attributes
• In the promises that He makes.
• In the plans he makes.

If he is unchanging, and our post-modern world is revolutionized, computerized and all the other izeds you can come up with, what does that mean? That even today, a far cry from when the world was created, perhaps some 10,000 years ago, God is still the same. The same God who told Adam and Eve not eat from that tree, who asked Abraham to sacrifice his boy and then provided a substitute, the same God who told Moses to lead his people out of Egypt and then held back the waves so they could cross the Red Sea on dry land, the same God who came to earth in the form of Jesus and healed multitudes, died on the cross, and then was resurrected.

So, if that is true, is He somehow blind and not doing anything today? Did he decide that he is not going to burst onto the scene during our times like he did in the “old days”?

Indeed not. He is here and very much aware of all that is occurring.

So, why doesn’t he do something? Like what? Tell me.

 

GOD, THE ETERNAL

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:17.

 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:5.

In my last two posts, I established that God is Independent—He is in a class of all of His own, unique, incomparable, and He doesn’t need anyone or anything else to subsist. I also shared the humbling news that although He is all the things our finite minds can’t even fathom, He wants to be known. He makes himself available to us. Our relationship with Him holds a priority in His plan.

According to the Bible, His plan is to have a people and for Him to be their God.

Today, let’s take a brief look at another of his non communicable attributes. Just as a reminder, non communicable means it is a characteristic He alone has and does not share with his creatures or creation.

God is eternal.

I like dictionaries and decided to look it up in my favorite, http://www.merriam-webster.com,  but this time, it totally failed my expectation with a wimpy:  having infinite duration. On the chance it might be better, I navigated to http://www.dictionary.com, and to my surprise, this is what it said: without beginning or end; lasting forever; always existing. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

God always was, is, and always will be. No one created him, therefore no one was before him.

According to what I could find, worldwide, the average life expectancy at birth was 71.0 years (68 years and 6 months for males and 73 years and 6 months for females) over the period 2010–2013 according to United Nations World Population Prospects 2012 Revision.

My mom just turned ninety, and she never thought she would make it to that age. I talked to my ex-pastor’s wife on Sunday, who is seventy-seven. She told me the same thing. And my friend Linda’s mother-in-law is ninety-three and is just tired of living.

So, eternal?

I have no way to embellish this truth. As much as I love words, they fail me. It just is. No one created God. He just always was. And nothing can ever be done to make him non-existent. And just like his other attributes, this only makes me want to trust and worship Him.

I confess that the more He is unlike me, the more magnificent I find Him.

Although we are created beings, therefore not eternal in the sense God is, we do participate in eternity. In fact, and this is my opinion, so you can agree or not, my eternity started the nanosecond after I was conceived.

We are formed in Mama’s womb, are born and live here on earth, we die, and after that, whether we want to accept it or not, only two possibilities exist:  continuing on in a different place after death forever with God or continuing on at a different place forever separated from God.

But what happens during the time between Mama’s womb and the grave can make all the difference in eternity.

Did you see Gladiator? If not, it is a film worth viewing. If you saw it, do you remember when Russell Crowe’s character shouted, “What we do here echoes in eternity!”? Chills careen up my back just thinking about it.

But I imagine that after that scene, people came up and slapped him on the back. “Awesome, scene, Russ. Good on you, Mate.” (He lived most of his life in Australia, after all.) I don’t think the actor had ever said anything truer in his whole life and career. But my guess is that he didn’t give it another thought.

Sometimes I live my life as if it stopped here.

I fret, I fume, I waste time, I get sidetracked. Today, while writing a note to a friend, it hit me once more just how important it is to remember what this life is all about.

First of all, to get to know God. The gift of heaven is awesome, but I don’t want to meet face-to-face with a stranger when I get there.

Second, to get my priorities straight. What am I truly accountable for and what do I take on that doesn’t correspond to me? How important is it really what consumes my mind, energy, and time?

Third, if Jesus promised an abundant life here (and he did to his children), I need to live it! Can I do something to change whatever is thwarting that? He did not give his life and promises in vain.

Do I take stock of what I do, think, and plan and determine its importance in the face of eternity?

When I have to make choices, how does it hold up after I am gone from this earth? Making decisions could be a whole lot easier if I would just remember this principle, don’t you think?

Isaiah 57:15:
For this is what the high and exalted One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

God is, has always been, and will be. But, how is what I do here going to echo in eternity?

 

 

 

 

WHY DID GOD MAKE US ANYWAY?

 

In my last post, I discussed one of my favorite attributes of God: His Independence.

I shared the fact that God is independent in the sense that He doesn’t need anyone or anything else. Never has and never will. But God is also independent in the sense that no one else is like Him. He is unique and cannot be compared to anything or anyone in all of creation.So, it does ask the question:

If He is independent and doesn’t need anyone or anything, then why did He create man?

This is a question not easy to ask and even harder to answer. Only one thing makes sense, and it’s not particularly comfortable:

For His glory.

Because of this statement, many people consider God a narcissist. If he created man so that man would glorify Him, then He is full of Himself and must consider Himself the center of the universe.

Here’s the reason why that’s okay:

He is the center of the universe.

And the sooner we can accept and embrace this, the better off we are. Seriously. He is the center of all, and He deserves all the glory and all our praise. But He also created us because He wanted to love us. He wants to pour out His love on his creatures. Creating us for this purpose is hard for us to handle. The reason is because we want a logical explanation for everything.

Love isn’t logical.

Why would God love us? Let’s go back further. Why would he create us at all when He knew (if He did know, you might say—fodder for another discussion) that man was going to sin or fall from grace, as many fondly refer to it?

If He knew that His perfect Adam was going to sin and that their relationship was going to be broken and that this sin would be passed on to every generation after him, why would God do it? Why would He go through the heartache of sending His son, Jesus, to earth to become a man, suffer the imperfection of the world, and then die on the cross? Just to save us?

The answer is love.

Is it logical? No. And for His glory? Didn’t He go through a lot of trouble for that to happen? Yes, He did. And well, let’s take another thing into consideration: History.

His story.

Let’s face it. It is all about Him. It is His story, and we are actors in it. It is all about Him. We can accept it or not. If we do, we will definitely be better off in life. If we don’t, we are smashing our heads against a wall and will eventually crack it. Our heads, not the wall.

God is an independent being. He needs no one. But He chooses to have a relationship with us.

It was a light bulb moment for me when I discovered what the whole thing is about. It isn’t new. You probably already know. It took me a while. The purpose for the whole thing, for God creating earth and then man and then establishing a relationship with him? This is it, simply put, but as complex as anything we can fathom:

God wants to have a people and for Him to be their God.

That’s it. I am so on board with that. What a privilege.

I welcome your comments.

Trying to figure out all the things to say about God is like diving into the ocean and trying to pick up all the grains of sand in the bottom. Of all the oceans, not just the Pacific or Atlantic. Impossible. That’s where the saying fathomless has to come from. Stay tuned while we continue on with God’s attributes.

God–Pure and Simple: Independence

Today I start to share about God in the purest and simplest way I know how. It will be imperfect. I will make mistakes. I can’t do the theme justice. But my heart is really in this. And I am asking the Holy Spirit to guide along the way.

We are going to talk about God’s attributes, both the communicable and the incommunicable.

Let’s break that down.

Merriam-Webster defines attribute as: a quality, character, or characteristic ascribed to someone or something. For instance, “Nelson Mandela had leadership attributes.” He had what it took to lead his nation.

When it comes to God, theologians have divided His attributes into those that are communicable and incommunicable.

Simply put, communicable attributes are those that people can possess. Incommunicable ones belong only to God.

Having said that, let’s dive into one of God’s characteristics that had a huge impact on me when I discovered it. More than likely, most have not thought about it much. I know I hadn’t. I figure it is because it does not directly affect us.

Theologians refer to this particular attribute as incommunicable. Meaning, it belongs only to Him. He has not passed it on to us.

God is independent.

One day in Sunday school, not sure what age (please give me a break—I’ve lived a long time, and most of those years I’ve gone to Sunday school) somebody asked (I’m sure it wasn’t me, because I was too much of a fraidy cat), “Why did God make us?” Good question. But the answer is what stuck with me, and at some level I believed it. “Why, honey, God created us because He was lonely and needed company.”

Think about it for a moment. Was God all alone before the creation of man?

In the  Genesis account of creation, Scripture says His Spirit hovered over the space of the waters. John 1:1-3 confirms Jesus’s presence during the creation. So, God the Father had Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and at some point he created a host of angels.

God had plenty of company.

Independence infers that God doesn’t need anyone or anything. He came into being with no outside help. He is self-propelling and self-sustaining. We will talk later about other characteristics that back this up.

The point is He has always been and always will be, and no one can help Him be any more than He is and no one can force Him to be any less than He is, either.

Let’s face it, as hard as we may try, we cannot make it here without anyone else. Just not possible. We can be hermits or choose not to see anyone. But still, we are not self-sustaining.

God made us in his likeness, so one could come to the conclusion that since we get lonely and need other people, then surely He does too. Something important needs to be noted in reference to the whole “made in His likeness” concept. We were made in His likeness in the sense that we have a spirit, that we feel and we think like He does.

But in no case, and in no way, is He like us. 

God is independent in the sense that there is no one else like Him, either. He cannot be compared to anything or anyone in all of creation.

Even though it seems weird, this particular attribute has become a linchpin that holds the rest of His attributes together for me. And it makes me trust Him more. He didn’t need to create us. But He did.

So, the question begs for an answer: if He is independent and doesn’t need anyone or anything, then…why did He create man?

Stay tuned. I welcome your comments.