Our devotionals have often led us to adore God as the all-knowing One. He is omniscient. Nothing takes Him by surprise. The Bible, however, goes to great lengths to personalize God’s knowledge. He is not to be considered as a super Braniac, coldly controlling nations and individuals like so many puppets. Rather, He is seen as an intimate Insider, whose heart is touched by the world He so completely understands, and, yet, so deeply loves. God not only knows, He sees.
Archive for the 'Nature of God' Category
What do you think of when you hear the word–father? When a human term is used of God, we take the core of that term–what it basically stands for–and strip it of all imperfection, sin and limitation. Only then may it rightly reflect God. And even then it captures only a small glimpse of who He is. Though God has revealed Himself through many terms, Jesus clearly identified one title as His favorite. “This, then is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven…” (Matt 6:9). Fatherhood at its core is strength, dependability, courage and love. God is our perfect and unchanging Father in all these and many more ways. He is “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:6).
Life is full of tests. When we pass a test, we celebrate because we have proven some progress or achievement. Since tests cause stress, there must be a good reason for them. They aren’t fun; but they are important. Tests happen when it has become necessary for someone to prove something. So, passing or failing tests prove something about us. God tests us. Sometimes severely, like Job. “But he knows the way I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Or Abraham, who was told to offer“Isaac as a sacrifice when God tested him” (Heb 11:17). Or like the people of Israel, “For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs” (Ps 66:10-11). So, what is the purpose of the testing of the Lord? Do we really need it? David understood and wrote, “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity” (1 Chron 29:17a). The heart is a tricky thing. It is hard to read. Hard to uncover. God knows what tests will uncover the true state of our hearts. “Test me, O God, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth” (Ps 26:2-3). God tests our hearts to reveal to us whether we really love him and his truth (See 2 Thess 2:5-12; Deut. 13:1-5). We need such testing because we can fool ourselves into thinking our hearts love God when they really don’t.
Everyone “thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps 42:2a). Life and death are absolute opposites. The one delights & refreshes while the other destroys & repulses. Life is real, true existence. Death is nothing–the end of existence. So, no mistake could be as fatal and harmful as this: to trust death to help you, to fulfill you, to save you. This happened whenever one trusted in “worthless idols” rather than in “the Lord (who) is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King” (Jer.10:10). But, idols do not have to be wooden. “Greed is idolatry” (Col. 3:5b). Whatever & whomever you crave MORE than God is your idol at that moment. And all idols are deadly! To fondle them is to play with stinking, wretched death. We are warned to “Turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth” (Acts 14:15b). It shouldn’t surprise us that God does not look lightly on those who turn from life to death. From what He promotes to what he condemns. Especially when desperate sinners like us turn away from Jesus, who is the water of life, the bread of life, the light of life (John 4:14; 6:35; 8:12). In fact, Jesus simply is, life itself (John 14:6a). He is greater than death. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25).
When something is perfect, a pattern or model is made of it. This helps preserve its perfection and reproduce its superior beauty or usefulness. Since God is absolutely perfect, there is no possible improvement to him. When God created man he said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule….” (Gen 1:26). So, there are ways in which we are like God. “With our tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness” (James 3:9). The reason humans are cursed is that the image of God in us has been largely lost due to our sin. This loss of perfection has led to the loss of heaven. Can the image be renewed? Can we be saved?
Over and over again, the Scriptures reveal God as one who “longs to be gracious” to us, as a God who truly loves the world. He is one who seeks, who pleads with his insane, straying people: “Come now, let us reason together” (Isa. 1:18a).
God’s nature is immeasurably greater than ours. He is infinite, eternal and unchanging. We are finite, limited & changing. He is God the Creator and we are human creatures. As Isaiah said, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isa 64:8). It is a humbling thing to be likened to clay and to let God alone be God. To acknowledge that he is actually the only one in ultimate control. Why is it so important to believe this? When Adam sinned, he brought sin and death to both himself and to all his descendants. As a result, all born naturally have a sinning nature. Here is the verdict: “The Lord looks down from heaven…to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Ps 14:2-3). As Paul concluded, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). The dilemma that our sin created was that we all became lost, absolutely incapable of saving ourselves. Praise God that he did not allow us all to go our desired way towards sin and eternal death! He had decided to show his love, making a divine choice.
Picture a still lake, an undisturbed forest, a mind at rest, a couple quietly holding hands as they sit out back on their glider. In all its many forms, peace is beautiful. Like other good things on earth, the gift of peace “is from above” (James 1:17). Peace is not homegrown within the human heart. As Isaiah wrote, “Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us” (Is 26:12). Paul agreed, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” (Gal 5:22). God is the author of peace.
To say that God is king is to affirm that God is sovereign. Webster’s defines “sovereign” as “above or superior to all others; chief greatest, supreme.” If God is a King, we must understand the scope of his kingdom. The Bible answers, “Our God is in heaven, he does whatever he chooses” (Ps 115:3; 135:6). “How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth” (Ps 47:2). “…His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” (Dan 4:34-35).
It’s nice to receive a personal invitation to a friend’s party. But have you ever received one from a celebrity? They get framed and put on the wall! Do you realize that God has given you many such invitations?
