God Who is Known

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Thursday, November 10, 2016

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.  They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky.  Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature.  So they have no excuse for not knowing God.  Romans 1:18-20^(NLT)

It is obvious, for anyone who will put aside personal pride for three seconds, that God is not only real; God is the only rational explanation for everything that exists.  But that does not stop many from attempting to rationalize God out of the equation with either flawed logic, or outright, blatant dismissal.  

In the flawed logic department, there is the story of a Christian apologist who gave a lecture on creation.  At the end of the lecture an atheist posed an alternative view of the earth as being a giant ball, sitting on the back of a huge turtle in space.  The apologist asked, well, then upon what is the turtle standing.  The atheist declared, why, another turtle, underneath, of course.  The Christian pursued:  If that’s the case, how many turtles are standing on each other, in empty space, holding up the earth?  The atheist smiled and wagged his finger, ah, you can’t trip me up; it’s turtles all the way down!

Down to what?  Sooner or later you have to come to the base of any argument.  Where is the start?  If there is a big bang, who, or what set it off?  For every effect, so says science, there is a cause.  The cause, the big banger is God, Who is known.  And He is known primarily by His fingerprint on His creation. 

In the blatant dismissal of God department there are many who follow the primary example of the fallen one, Lucifer.  There is little doubt that God exists, it’s just that they don’t like it that God exists, and they simply refuse to either think about God’s prior claim on even their very existence, or they think so much about it they work themselves into a first class fit of anger and defiance.

And therein is the rub – it makes no difference how or why a person dismisses God, we are without excuse. 

The very acts of creation require a Creator and the created.  jThat presupposes and preconditions the response of the created towards the Creator.  In short, we are made by Him, and therefore we are made for His pleasure.  Any denial of that is a denial of reality.

And so, the choices are, as ever, serve Him or reject Him, because there is no such thing as ignoring Him. 

For You Today

It is a wise person who makes certain that his or her “serving” God isn’t just religious ritual that is really ignoring Him.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i] Title image: By User:BardFuse, via Wikimedia Commons

Gods or God?

Monday, August 18, 2014

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness.  Why let the nations say, “Where is their God?”  Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.  Their idols are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands.  They have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see.  They have ears but cannot hear, and noses but cannot smell.  They have hands but cannot feel, and feet but cannot walk, and throats but cannot make a sound.  And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them.                Psalms 115:1-8 (NLT)

When it comes to “god” the choices are fairly well defined:

             1. You believe in God

             2. You don’t believe in God

             3. You don’t think about God at all

Let’s consider the list as a countdown…in reverse order:

First…Not thinking at all about God

To refuse to think is what a lot of people do, simply because it’s easier.  Not entertaining the notion of a creator makes it a whole lot simpler to cruise through life like a leech, sucking up the “good life” while not worrying about weightier issues like morality or eternity.  Easy.  No brainer (at all).

Second…Not believing in God

To refuse to believe in God takes a lot more thought-effort.  After all, there is science to contend with, and what to do with all the natural order and where-we-came-from-and-where-we’re-going issues.  Then the metaphysical stuff gets in the way…ethics and why we think at all about good and evil and the meaning of our existence.  To refute the idea of “creator” and explain away all that takes a lot of work. 

Consider this fact:  science requires that things (substance) left to itself tend to come unglued – fall apart.  Yet in nature, the universe (if you don’t believe in a creator) supposedly came together in perfect order…all by itself.  Makes one’s brain hurt to do that without God!  Much more difficult than just not thinking about God at all.

Third…You believe in God

Well, good; the question then becomes, in what or whom do you believe?

You can choose something you can hold in your hands; a god of your creation (an idol).  And if that’s your choice, well then, Gee Whiz, if you created God, then you must be the Creator; you’re God!  Ooops…can’t bring that one to Sunday School now, can we?

Or you could choose to believe in an impersonal force.  In the Star Wars Trilogy Luke Skywalker chose the Force; something of a magical power, universal and unknowable. But it was something you could tap-into to defeat the other, the Dark Side.  Wow…sounds just like a struggle between good and evil, full of ethical and integral choices.  Kind of like spooky philosophy.

But, if you’re a traditionalist – a Methodist, perhaps – you just might chose faith in something a little more dangerous.  You might choose to place your faith in a God you cannot see, but whose works are evident every single nanosecond of time and eternity.

You can look at yourself and see Him; His image is imprinted on everything that makes you who you are.  Deep down you know this…and that’s why placing your faith in God is entirely possible.  He is the personal, knowable and eternal God of Scripture.

Unlike the gods you can create, who may have eyes (but don’t see), ears (but can’t hear) and so on…Lord God of Heaven is worthy of glory, honor, praise and worship.

For You, Today…

Go on and let it out.  Say it out loud – “Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow!”

Now you’re on the path to a great day!