Thursday, March 31, 2011
Job 36 V 26 How great is God--beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.
One of the great mysteries facing us is the question in how large is the universe and how long has it existed?? Scientists think they are getting close to the answer with the "Big bang theory"; that the universe started in an instant and continues to expand even today. They can date the instant and roll out the clock to give you a timeline, can tell you when according to our clock but not how. The bible tells you how, God simply wished it into existence and formed it to his liking. How great is God that by a simple thought he created all. The bible also describes a timeline that he used to get it done but that time is told in terms of our time so we can understand it, but do we really understand God's time? I think his time and patience are beyond our understanding. We are his children and He loves us, as He loves those who came before us and those who will come after us. In our time here on the earth God lovingly made for us, we are the stewards of his work, the caretakers of what has been given to us by those who came before and charged by God to teach and nurture those who will follow. The constant in all our lives is a loving God existing in His own time reality beyond anything we can hope to understand, and the "now" that we exist in. The past is history, the records left by others are lessons we must struggle to learn from. The future is always ahead of us, sometimes a blink away and sometimes only a dream seen off in the distance. How great is God - He is before the past and beyond the future - He is now and forevermore.
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"Remember, then, to praise his workmanship." As we look around at what God has created, including us, we are in awe. Therefore, we start with worship.
ReplyDeleteThe other three words you're going to hear me talk about over and over again are discipleship, stewardship, and outreach.
Elihu clearly understands how great God is. His mistake is in the cause and effect nature of sin: "If the wicked obey and serve God, they'll have a good, long life on easy street." Really? "Evil—that's what's behind your suffering!" Are you sure? And is it evil from within or without?
This is gospel truth: "Those who learn from their suffering, God delivers from their suffering." If we misunderstand suffering and its purpose, we misunderstand God.
Our Father uses suffering caused by us, others, and a fallen world to spur us on toward endurance. He may cause some of our suffering, but not most of it. It's just like parenting.
As we learn from God, we can turn the corner toward character building. Then comes hope, which will not disappoint us.
We then become dispensers of that hope by being good stewards and reaching out to others. Let's stay the course, together.
God's love and power our beyond human understanding. He has given the human race the opportunity to use this gift of life for either good or evil works. The challenge is to listen for His voice and then act to do His will. Because of my self interest this is easy said than done at times. When I give of myself to something outside my own wants and needs there is fulfillment.
ReplyDeleteI really like the ideas you skirt around about God and Time. God outside of time, us trapped inside it....makes me understand the concept of prophecy much better.
ReplyDeleteAlso - on a completely irreverent note - I've had the lines of a song from "Animaniacs" in my head all day thanks to these themes.
"It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny!
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
Though we don't know how we got here,
We're an important part here!"
The concept of time is one I teach to my children in school each year. We hear the story of creation, the story of the beginning of life on earth, the story of humans, the story of language and the story of numbers. Each time I teach these lessons to the children I learn something new and am also able to marvel at all that God has done on our earth.
ReplyDeleteOf course at school I can't teach that God created everything, we teach much more scientific. But inevitably some child asks about God or tells us what they learned in church. I can then share my belief that God created everything however not all believe that and that there are many different theories for how earth was created and developed.
I find it hard to teach these stories without marveling about creation and Gods power. It makes me feel pretty insignificant in the great sceme of things, especially when I read Kelly's analogy of God outside of time and us in it. Really good stuff to ponder.