Imagining God

How do we describe the indescribable?  How do you imagine God?

One Sunday morning a little seven-year-old was listening to her Bible teacher describing what the Garden of Eden must have looked like.  The little girl got out her crayons and started drawing.  The teacher asked her, “Mary, what are you drawing?”  She replied, “I’m drawing a picture of God.”   To which the teacher replied. “Mary, no knows what God looks like.” Mary replied. “They will in a minute!”

God is a mystery.  As mere humans we will never understand the inscrutable mystery of God.  Neither His being nor His nature.  And yet the only way we have of knowing about God is though human language.  God is always more than words can describe.  Even the language found in the Bible are human expressions.

God has many names or metaphors in Scripture.  He is a Shepherd, a Rock, a Husband, a Father, even a Wrestler! Remember when Jacob wrestled with God?  (Genesis 32:22)   All Biblical images of God are a lens through which we gain some new insight of what God means to us humans.  We must have human language to understand His relationship to us.  No single lens or image can describe God.  Rather, words are only a human view of what God is to us.  Words are just various views of God’s characteristics.

Although we humans are unable to see God himself, we can observe His handiwork.  “The Heavens declare the glory of God and firmaments declare His handiwork!”   

Mankind believes it has developed replacements for God.  Using the latest technological advances, we believe that having a divine entity is no longer necessary.  Mankind doesn’t need a Creator.  We are self-sufficient.  We can even move to other planets if necessary.  Life on Mars isn’t impossible.  Spaceships are now taking folks on tours!  With the new AI or artificial intelligence, machines can think, reason and do complicated math problems.  What need do we have for God?

God may not appear physically, but he has revealed Himself through Jesus.  Jesus has the divine attributes of what God has instilled in you and me.  Even though we are plagued with sin from the first Adam…. God brought us Jesus.  He is called the second Adam.  The first one failed but the second one succeeded in keeping the divine attributes of the original creation.

                                 So how would you describe God?

Mary thought she knew. 

                                                           First Things First

We all have priorities in our life.  Many times, it is simply what I must do…. rather than I would rather do something else!

A smart man made the following statemen:” We worship our work; we work at our play, and we play at our worship.”   Perhaps this is true.  Too often that which should be first is often last! 

Worship isn’t simply attending church once or several times a week.  Worship is what we do when we cook dinner…. eating what God has proved; thanking him for giving us another day; enjoying friends; our surroundings; our blessings, even the job that you have.

I looked at a fallen oak leaf this morning.  How grand it was.  It was perfect in design.  I knew there was a Master Craftsman who had done this.  The Great Designer has given us gifts to enjoy.  I didn’t worship the tree as a giver but the One who gave us the tree! 

We worship our Work:  This can be said of most working families.  Parents spend more energy, time and enthusiasm at their jobs than the family.  Mothers and fathers are exhausted at the day’s end.  No wonder we have an overfed and an undernourished society.  No time or energy to prepare supper. Let’s just buy some fast food!   After all, there is still loads of laundry to be done, breakfast dishes to wash.  The kids need their bath.  No time for God in this, except perhaps for a short little prayer before bed.  No real time for worship.  Reading the Bible together and making it meaningful. 

We work at our play.  Adult recreation is big business.  This also includes the kids.  Instead of togetherness with parents, kids now have their play stations, cell phones or TV.  Mom and Dad have their golf, football, or shopping malls.  Churches spend thousands on recreational programs for teens.  Is the church reaching out to families to build up the family relations or are they creating less family time?

We play at our worship.   Are we dabblers in our faith?  We want our worship only in small doses.  Many times, the attitude is “I can go to church on Sunday, AM, PM, and Wednesday but the rest of the time is mine.  I want just enough church to satisfy me.  I don’t want to be too “churchy!  Isn’t that enough time for God?”

Perhaps we need to reassess our lives, our family and our time with God.  Are we involved with disciple making? Are we taking more than we are giving in this life?  Are we often stunned when things simply aren’t the way they should be?

                                “With all of my churchiness I expect God to do His share! “

Perhaps the sense of peace isn’t just going to church or having things.  Perhaps the real blessings come when we are showing God’s love to others.  Just perhaps this is what Jesus meant when He said………….
                              “Come follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”              

Have you ever wished for a personal conversation with the Lord?  Not our prayers, which are usually us asking for something and hoping He hears us and answers us to our liking.

I’m taking about a real down to earth Question and Answer.  What would you ask?  What do you want to know? And moreover, what do you really need to hear?  Not what to want to hear.

Apart from the time Jesus spent in the desert with the devil, He is almost never alone.  When He leaves the desert, He is baptized by John.  He chooses the twelve apostles and followed by many disciples.   They believe Him to the be the Messiah and following Him as their rabbi. Their teacher.  He seldom is alone.   That is why he must go up to the Mt of Olives to pray.  By himself.  Alone.

There are crowds everywhere He goes.  Even indoors, people sit at His feet or cut holes in the ceiling to get near to Him.  A quiet conversation seems out of the question.   People listen to his teaching and want him for healing.

 One person had the opportunity:   A real one on one real conversation.  But she didn’t know who He really was.

The Samaritan women.  We call her the woman at the well.  We never know her name and He doesn’t ask.  He knows.
The disciples are away to get food.  It’s noon.  Hot and dry in the desert.  They are all traveling through Samaria. The Jews and Samaritans hate each other.  But here they are.   The apostles leave Jesus alone sitting at a well.  No one around.  It’s the chance of a lifetimes to speak to Jesus alone.  But it’s not what this woman is after.  (John 4) 

We aren’t told much about her except that she is coming in the heat of the day to fill her water jugs.  Why at this time?  Most people are home and not venturing out in the heat.  But here she comes, by herself.  Perhaps she is brooding over her life.  She isn’t happy. 

She sees a man sitting at the well by himself.  He’s a Jew.  She can tell by His robe with the fringes.  Why is He here anyway?  She will just get her water and leave.  She doesn’t want any conversation with this man. 

Thirst is the point!  She needs the water to quench her thirst.   But its more than just water she needs.  It’s a thirst to be seen for who she is….to be treated like a person of significance.  To be liked.  To be understood. To be loved!

But this Jew….told her about Living water.  He quenched the dry thirsty soul within her.  He knew her and accepted her for who she was.

She ran to tell others……. she heard the truth and she knew.  He was the promised Messiah!   He had come to Samaria to teach her.  To teach all of them.  She became a disciple of the Good News.

Are you also thirsty?

Philippians 4:6……..”Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplications, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

What is Paul telling us?  How can we not be anxious as well as afraid?  Perhaps your home was just destroyed by a hurricane; you lost everything you owned; everything you know and loved is gone!  How can you not be anxious? 

Thankfully, I am not faced with this problem.  However, there are hundreds of people who have lost most of their worldly possessions.   How can I possibly tell them not to anxious or afraid? 

                                                               I cannot!

 However, I know this.  Paul’s letters were more concerned about his readers being threatened with their lives than losing their possessions.   Many of these Philippians faced torture and death rather than forsake their faith.   Could you and I stay firmly planted with our faith in the face of death?  Do we have the courage to face what challenges God allows for us? 

You who are reading this might, indeed, have lost everything.  Will you still believe that God is in control or just a capricious unknown and unloving entity who allows suffering? 

Always a favorite question of Atheists……..How can a good God allow suffering?  How would you answer that question?  Many sermons, books, comments and blogs have been written on this subject.  We humans can only come up with mere suppositions. 

Paul wrote these new converts with love and compassion for the Lord that consumed him.  Recently coming out of their pagan culture to become new Believers in a Jewish Messiah, these believing Philippians were besieged within their own community.

While Paul probably wrote this from his prison cell in Rome, he is encouraging his little flock to retain their faithfulness and not be overwhelmed by anxiety.  He assured them that God’s grace through the Spirit would sustain them. 

He tells them to stay the Faith……pray always and be anxious in nothing.  God will provide, sustain, and be with them always…..even unto death.  He firmly believed that God allowed him to be in this prison and wrote with conviction that God will sustain them as well.

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things!!!” (Phil. 4:8)

Here’s a thought: When our lives our interrupted with anxiety’s and fearfulness …..concentrate on God’s good gifts………replacing the “what if’s” with He loves and wants the best for me.”  Now repeat after me and slowly!

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard my heart  and my mind and give me peace,  through our loving  Messiah….  Jesus. “

We each have our own ideas about the Creation story.  Even many Believers, assume that God is allowed to be involved with millions and millions of years of creation.  Did God really use evolution to come up with the perfect man made in His image?  Really?  Is that how you believe?

Since we assume science can answer most of the questions about the beginning of mankind, we let them have their say.  I rarely encounter or read of the scientific community believing in the Divine creation account.  When reading the National Geographic magazine or Smithsonian magazine, or visiting a Natural History Museum, we see these amazing relics from ages past.  That huge T Rex………he was 12 million years old!! 

There is a society called Creation Research Society and several others, who stand firm on the Creation story as found in Genesis.  Very few pastors and teachers want to touch the subject.  They are fearful of not being scientifically educated.

However, without a proper understanding of Genesis, and man’s betrayal of his original design, we must also omit the idea of sin.  For without the first sinners, then we really don’t need a Savior either.   

Since I am not a scientist (I hated Science in High School!) I feel free to quote more knowledgeable people than myself.  But I do believe this.  That God created man in His image and that the original humans betrayed His grand design for mankind. 

The Gap theory might appeal to those Christians who want to believe that evolutionary science might not be all wrong, while at the same time still use Genesis in their belief of the Creation.

Basically, the Gap theory is this: that millions of years passed between Genesis verse one and verse two. 

“The earth was with form and void.” (Gen 1:2) The Gap people translate the verse, “The earth became without form and void.” One little word……….Big difference.

In short, the Gap theory teaches that Day One was not really Day One (Acts and Facts, Creation Research Society, Oct 2021)

Gap theorists believe that the phrase, “In the beginning” was a world that existed millions of years ago. Then God destroyed that world and began a new one and that earth became without form and was void of any life. Did God make a mistake the first time and corrected it later? 

The big picture concerns us.  Are we part of God’s original creation plan or are we a product of the evolutionary tree…….was your uncle a monkey?? 

In other words, perhaps God had pre-Adamite races.  He destroyed them and started again.   
Why do Christian theologians try to compromise belief in the accuracy of scripture to accommodate the scientific community?

I for one do not want to “bridge the gap.”  I read my Bible as reliable. 
God doesn’t need millions of years in His grand design for mankind, the heavens, or the earth we inhabit. God doesn’t need man’s theories.  We were not the result of some accidents in the great distance past.  
We can’t take a jaw bone and believe it came from a lady named Lucy who lived 15 million years ago!

We aren’t accidents!  We are a special creation by God who has designed us for His purposes and in His image. 

                                                Yes, you are I are very special!!!

Poor Moses!  He was brave when He needed to be.   He himself escaped from Egypt when he had committed murder and killed an Egyptian who was beating a Jew.  The Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt and were now part of the thousands of slaves who were building the hundreds of tombs, palaces and pyramids.  

He managed to escape and brave the desert to reach the land of Midian.  He had taken a wife, was a shepherd and had a good life.  However, deep within his soul there was a restlessness…anxiety.  He tried to forget but he simply could not.  His people were suffering at the hands of a new Pharoah.  He was happy in Midian so why was his spirit uneasy?  His father-in-law was a high priest, he had married one of his daughters and had a relatively easy life.

His brother, Aaron and sister, Miriam, were still in Egypt.  He had been adopted, through miraculous circumstances, into the Egyptian household.  The daughter of the Pharoah had found him in a basket floating on the Nile. She knew he was a Jew, but that didn’t matter.  She viewed him as a gift from the river god.  He became a prince of Egypt. 

Now, God was calling him to do something that he didn’t feel qualified to do.  Can you feel his anxiety as the Lord told him that he was to return to Egypt and tell the Pharaoh to release the Hebrews from bondage? He had all sorts of excuses.

“Oh Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant.  I am slow of speech and tongue. “(Exodus 4:10)  

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, God could have given Moses and eloquent tongue.  But He didn’t!

                         Instead, God sent Moses back to Egypt with all his weaknesses. 

The apostle Paul felt he could do better with his ministry, if God would just remove, “my thorn in the flesh.” As strange as it might seem God told him, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Upon hearing that, the apostle responded.  “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of the Messiah may rest upon me.  (2 Cor 12: 9-10)

We have all sorts of excuses as well.   We would be a better disciple if only……..( add your excuses here!!)

However, we must equip ourselves. We must be ready to give an answer as to why we are Believers, and Disciples of a Jewish Messiah.   Being Jewish, is not acceptable.  It never has been and never will be.  If that is so, then you must find confidence in accepting that the Jewish Jesus can do what you and I cannot.

Since our beliefs are based on the Bible, from beginning to end, then we must also realize that we are simply unable to keep God’s commandants perfectly.  Therefore, there is only One who was able to do that.  You know His name!

So, with all our weaknesses, and foibles, we must put on the whole armor of God, as Paul commands his readers.  (Ephesians 6:10) Be prepared to answer those who question why you believe. 

           Times of testing are upon us. 

                                  Who, Me?     Yes, You!!!

There are many things about God we don’t understand.  If we did, then He wouldn’t be God.  All knowing and all wise. 

What does it mean that He has no beginning and no end? How can He hear a million prayers at one time?  How can He deal with each prayer individually, without benefit of email, text messages or I Phone?

For one thing, God lives outside of time and space, but He can reveal Himself in any He chooses.  He did show us His human side when He sent our Messiah who was the reflection of Himself. 

Therefore, God has a personality.  Aren’t we created in that image?  We each possess our own personalities. 

Therefore, God has a personality.  He is not merely “The Force” as in Star Wars.  “May the Force be with you!!”  However, our God knows each of us personally and He wants us to know Him. An impersonal “Force” doesn’t know us or care how we live.  But a loving personal God does!!

Not only did He reveal himself in the form of a human, Jesus, but He manifests himself as a spirit and dwells within the Believer. 
“And I will pray to the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.  The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans, but I will come to you. (John 14:16-18)

We see the power of the Holy Spirit as one of the God’s personalities. The spirit personality was always of God.  The Spirit is part of the essence of God.    The Spirit was from the beginning.    

In Genesis 1:2 “the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” 

Because the Spirit is so unexplainable, rarely do we hear sermons preached or discussions about the Spirit.  It’s a touchy subject, even today.  The idea of the Trinity was unknown among the early Believers.  But they knew the Holy Spirit.

The word Trinity itself is never found in Scriptures.  It was the early gentile church fathers who needed to define the Spirit in more concrete terms.  It isn’t a Jewish thing.  God is One Being, but He manifests Himself in different ways. 

When Jesus used the word “Helper” He means the Holy spirit. He is our Helper.  As Believers, He will intercede for us in our prayers.  He helps illuminate scripture and gives us peace.  God has not left us alone.  Not only do we have His Word recorded, but after Jesus left the earth, the promised Holy Spirit would come to dwell in a special way in each Believer.

 Jesus also told us that circumstances in this world may range from good, not so good, and just plain terrible! 

But, by belonging to Him and allowing the Spirit of God himself to live within us, true peace is possible…..even now. 

                                        May the Spirit of God Be With You! 

The problem of eating food offered to idols must have been a major concern of Rabbi Paul.  He devotes various verses of three chapters in his letter to the Corinthians to deal with this issue. (1Cor 8 through 11)

So what?  How does that concern us?  Perhaps we should skip over those verses since we don’t have idol worship today.  Do we? 

The Jerusalem Council also warned against this problem in their letter to the Gentile Believers in Acts 15:23-24.  Not only that, but two Assemblies, are rebuked by the Lord for eating “food sacrificed to idols” (Rev. 2:24; 2:20.)  Pergamum and Thyatira. Perhaps we need to understand what was happening in the 1st century pagan world and why the Jewish Council, Paul and then again Jesus were so concerned with this problem. 

Do you know that several primitive societies in the Brazilian jungles also consume the flesh of the dead?  It’s still happening.  But why? 

In the 1^st century, when food was brought to the pagan temple as a sacrifice to the gods, only a small portion of it was actually burned on the altar.  The majority of the offered food was to be either sold by the priest in the marketplace or eaten by the worshiper in a dining area located in the temple.  These dinners then became a type of worship and cultic ritual.   

Believers were forbidden to join in these meals because their participation involved a level of intimacy with the pagan god.  The very food offered and then eaten entered and became one with the person who consumed the food.  He would then be identified with the god himself.  Therefore, the Believers in the early Assemblies were forbidden of eating this food.  They now had a new identity with the Jewish Messiah. Eating the ritualistic food would be considered idolatry. 

In our world today the idea of idolatry seems to be a thing of the past.  However, our idols are not wood or stone but idols of the spirit.  Any form of temptation, desires, lust or participation in what God has forbidden is a special form of idolatry.  We have determined what we want and desire.  We become our own idol!   We want to serve ourselves without sacrificing our Wants to help others.  I become self-serving!

Disappointments, failures and sickness might leave us bewildered and adrift from the foundations of faith.  I have come to recognize this in my own life.  Through prayer and worship, and daily repentance, we have a chance to overcome the need for the “meat” of idol worship.

It is the beauty of fellowship with other Believers that encourages us and gives us strength. Its our daily Bible reading and meditation that brings all of us closer to the Creator. 

“So, whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)

                                                No idol meat for us!!

Having recovered from my rather recent bout of pneumonia, I am supposed to do a few breathing exercises using this little plastic device.  Three times daily I was told!!  It’s a bother.  I might squeeze in twice!

Have you even been to the ICU unit in the hospital?  Perhaps it was a parent, child or even a dear friend who suffered a major heart attack or some other physical trauma.  There are beepers, buzzers, and the rhythmic pumping of machines.  Somehow these machines help to keep someone alive.  Every heart attack patient has experienced the trauma of fighting for their very next breath.

                                      Breath is precious.  

In everyday life, we don’t think about breathing.  It is one of the involuntary attributes that God gives us.  We take breathing for granted.  That is, until our very next breath becomes a matter of life or death.

In Kings chapter two, we read about Hezekiah, King of Judah.  We know that he was “sick unto death”.  We aren’t told whether he was fighting for his next breath, but we are told he begged God for a few more years of life.  He was granted his wish.  He was allowed to live another 15 years.

Scripture tells us that God formed man and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.”  (Genesis 2:7) 

When Jesus appeared to His disciples after the resurrection, “He breathed on them saying “receive the Holy spirit” (John 20:22)

These passages tell us that God is the life giver and that all life comes form Him.  Both physical and spiritual.  We live because He breathed the sacred breath of life into us.  No, we weren’t formed from some ancient slime a million years ago.

When we analyze the wonders of our bodies and how they are given to us for life in this world, we cannot help but to be amazed at the uniqueness of God’s creative powers.  We try to take care of our bodies and worry when they don’t function as we think they ought. 

Both the recovering ICU patient and King Hezekiah shared the privilege of another breath, and another opportunity to serve the Creator.

  But we don’t need to wait for a critical illness or catastrophic event to appreciate life.  Instead, we can look around us and observe God’s unique creation.  As we slowly inhale, and exhale let us be grateful for God’s gift of life.

We can be grateful knowing that every breath is precious because it represents the blessing of another moment. 

                         It is evidence of the gift of life from the Creator of Life.

                                                    Breathe Deeply!

                                  “Is the Lord in our midst or not?” Exodus 17:2

After the Israelites left Egypt for the land of Promise, they grumbled their way through the hot miserable desert.  Even though God had demonstrated His watchful care for them, they still felt alone facing the threat of starvation and thirst.  God did provide………both manna and quail and water from rocks and probably wells which might have been previously dug by the native peoples living there.  However, this is a huge group of people. 

They complained.  Their memories of the good food and homes in Egypt made them regret leaving……. even though it meant slavery.  They wanted the creature comforts and seemed forgetful of what they had suffered under the Pharoah. 

                              Would you have been one of them?

How long does our faith endure when we are tested?  “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”  In other words, is He keeping up with me?

The people had little choice but to depend on God.  No grain fields, no ready water supply, no real food.  The melons, grain, fruits, barley bread were left behind.  Their belly seemed more important than their freedom.

They complained to Moses in certain terms.  “Why did you bring us out here to suffer?  We weren’t so bad off in Egypt.  At least we weren’t starving. “(Ex :16)

                           God did respond.  He sent what they needed. 

But it was a daily exercise in faith.  Every day, they had to gather.  They needed faith for each day, that the manna would fall, and the water would flow. Only on the seventh day, the Sabbath, they were not to gather.  They must gather enough for two days, if not, then they had no food to eat. 

                                    God worked miracles for them.

But what about here and now?  Our we content with our “Daily Bread?”

The Lord used that same wording in what we call the Lord’s Prayer.  Each day we are to ask for our daily portion of what God provides. 

                                               And be thankful

In the Lord’s Prayer, (aka Disciple’s Prayer) Jesus tells his disciples that they are only to ask for the daily bread.    What, no long-term bread? 

In other words, we must consider each day a blessing for what the Lord provides.  Too often we take our blessings for granted.  Our daily bread is simply a matter of getting it off the shelf.  Our food as well as our homes, clothes, and creature comforts are all expected.  We rarely think to thank our Father for providing them.

I’m learning to take each day as a gift.  A blessing to live in America, food on the table, good friends and family.  Since each day is a gift, then tomorrow is up to Him. 

                        Yes, the Lord is in our midst………..you can depend on it.