Help with Your New Year's Quest

Consider for a moment the Transcendence of God.  Webster defines transcendence as exceeding the normal limits.  As it relates to God he exceeds all imaginable limits.  He is absolutely unlimited and incomprehensible.  A.W. Tozer, in talking about the transcendence of God said " He is not the highest, he is absolutely transcendent."  We can understand the difference between a bike and a jet.  The bike has 2 wheels, the jet many; the bike is powered by man, the jet by engines, the bike is limited to the ground, the jet flies through the air; the bike is relatively slow by comparison to the jet.  Yet to compare the jet with God there is an infinite difference.

            The Crab Nebula is exploding star discovered in 1054 ad by Chinese astrologers.  It is some 6000 light-years away.  When discovered, those astrologers were only observing the light from its explosion shortly after its creation.  It is 3,520,000,000,000,000,000 miles away.  It would take you 85 lifetimes of 70 years a piece to reach the crab nebula.  To put that in perspective, shining a flashlight At the moon, the light would reach the moon in 1.5 seconds.  It is difficult to grasp the immensity of our universe.

              It is even more difficult to grasp the transcendence of God.  Job 11:7-8 says "can you find out the deep things of God?  Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?  It is higher than heaven -- what can you do?  Deeper than Hell -- what can you know?"  Isaiah 55:7-8 says "for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways," declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Romans 11:33 says "Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways." We cannot begin to imagine how big and awesome God is.  It is something that will never be able to comprehend. God's transcendence must cause us to honor, respect, trust and stand in awe of Him. 

            At the same time is a personal God.  The psalmist called him "my Shepherd" and we can too.  In one sense we ought to be overwhelmed with the magnitude of God.  However, we should not be so overwhelmed that we just give up and sink into Deism which is often referred to as the theology of despair: the belief that God got things started and the only hope we have is a blind leap of faith.  That theology tends to morph into elevating experience over Scripture and leads us into inventing our own god, and worshiping that god in our own way, pleasing the flesh and making us feel good about ourselves. 

            So, that leads us to ask a very important question: can we really know God?  If God is incomprehensible and the Bible tells us he is unsearchable than how can we or can we really know Him?  The answer is in the fact that God is not only transcendent he is also immanent which means He is near to us.  We can know Him because he is near to us.  Psalm 145:18 says the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.    Psalm 34:18 says the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves that crushed in spirit.  When we come to the Lord humbly he will be near us.  We often complain about not knowing Him or not being able to know him because he seems so far away.  The reason he is so far away is often because we have made ourselves too big and He has become small to us.  We desperately need God!  Paul says it best in 1 Corinthians 12:9 my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

            Understand that while God is transcendence, He is also immanent.  In your quest to get to know Him come to Him humbly.

New Year's Quest

         It's that time of year again, New Year's resolutions.  For those that make them the question is how long will it last?  Most don't make it past January but it doesn't hurt to try.  I would like to challenge you to try something different.  We'll call it a quest.  The quest is this: pursue hard after God this year.

Let's start with a few questions.  How well do you know God?  How much could you write about God?  Would you be able to write a sentence, a whole paragraph, fill up a page?  How accurate would what you write be?  How practical or useful would it be?  Those are all questions with which I hope you wrestle. 

         God wants us to know Him.  Consider what Jesus says in John 17:3 - this is eternal life that they know You are the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  A lot of us think of eternity in many different ways.  Some think of the splendor of heaven, the pearly gates the streets of gold, asking your favorite Bible characters questions and other thoughts about what might or might not happen in heaven.  Jesus said however, eternal life  is knowing God.  That seems to be a lot different from how we think of heaven.  God give us a lifetime here on earth to get to know Him and then eternity to know Him further.  Since God is transcendent and incomprehensible it will take an eternity to know Him.

         I love what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 9:23-24 - if you boast, don't boast about your wisdom strength, or wealth, boast alone that you know and understand God who practices love justice and righteousness in the earth.  It seems like we waste a lot of time in things that do not matter.  Let's make 2014 different from every other year.  Pursue hard after God.

Peculiar Genealogy

Years ago I was asked if I preached on the genealogy of Jesus At Christmas time. I replied yes to which the person questioning me asked what you preach about the genealogy? I find Jesus genealogy rather interesting. The most interesting genealogy to me is the one we find in Matthew chapter 1. I find it most interesting because this particular genealogy includes five women. As humans we tend to hide from others what we might think is damaging to ourselves and our reputation. Matthew, on the other hand, included these five women who had some questionable backgrounds.

 

First of all they were women in a predominantly male directed society. Tamar, through a series of events we can find in Genesis 38, dressed up like a harlot and seduced her father-in-law Judah to sleep with her so she could have a son and keep the inheritance for her first late husband Er. 

Secondly there's Rahab. She was unknown harlot, she was not a Jew nor was she an Israelite. Yet God chose her to protect the spies sent into Jericho to scout for the upcoming battle and include her in the genealogy.

Thirdly there's Ruth. A wonderful story of redemption. However, she had some difficult barriers to overcome as well. She was a Moabite and her only connection to Israel was by marriage. After she lost her first husband that connection seemed to fade away. She is then married to Boaz after the first kinsman redeemer refuses to marry her.

Fourthly there's Bathsheba. She is the one with whom David commits adultery. David then has her husband Uriah killed to hide the sin.  Yet we find her mentioned in Jesus genealogy.

The last woman that is mentioned is Mary the mother of Jesus. She was betrothed to Joseph but was with child before they were actually married. In that day that carried the penalty of death. One couldn't hide pregnancy forever. It was absolutely scandalous.

If these kind of difficulties were in my past I would probably try to hide some of those things. But I think there's a reason God allows those individuals to be mentioned in Jesus genealogy. Consider the barriers: gender, nationality, religion, and sin. Three of them were created by God: gender, nationality, religion. Both God and man can cross those barriers. The fourth barrier sin, which was man-made can only be crossed by God.  God crossed all of those barriers and sent His Son Jesus to die for mankind. What grace and mercy!

God’s Bigness (Part 6 of 6)

The one thing that impresses me the most from the book of Job to all that happened in the book and especially to God’s discourse about Himself.  Consider Job’s reaction in chapter 40:3-5

Then Job answered the Lord and said:

 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?

 I lay my hand on my mouth.

 I have spoken once, and I will not answer;

 twice, but I will proceed no further

And in chapter 42:1-6

Then Job answered the Lord and said:

 “I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? ’

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

 ‘Hear, and I will speak;

 I will question you, and you make it known to me. ’

 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye sees you;

 therefore I despise myself,

and repent in dust and ashes

Most of the time, we just need to shut our mouth and listen!  God is not interested in our answers.  God wants us to be interested in the God of the answers.  I have often heard “I could never go through what Job went through.” If you have said that, you are probably right.  You are too big and God is too small.  When God is big,  we can face anything life or Satan throws at us.  God is so much bigger than life or Satan.  He is bigger than anything we can imagine!

God’s Bigness (Part 5 of 6)

As I write this portion of the blog, I am listening to the song More Than Wonderful.  How fitting! Towards the end of the book of Job, God speaks of His own bigness.  One would think that Job ‘s friends and especially Job had a great view of just how big God is, but God reveals to them just how much bigger He is than they had imagined.  Consider what God says about Himself by the questions He asks Job:  38:4-11

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

 On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone,

 when the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

 “Or who shut in the sea with doors

when it burst out from the womb,

 when I made clouds its garment

and thick darkness its swaddling band,

 and prescribed limits for it

and set bars and doors,

 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stayed’

This is just a taste of what God says about Himself .  He does not need a book, a satellite or a doctorate in physics to know these things.  He has all the knowledge He will ever have or need.  He cannot get any more intelligent or wise.  He is incomprehensible, yet He has given us a lifetime to experience Him, a lifetime to only begin to comprehend Him.  Just think of what Heaven will be.