Part 7 of a continuing Monday series.  If you have not been with us, you really need to backtrack and read the first 6.  Even if you have been, with a week off, it might help to reread at least the last couple.

            Remember those stop signs you made last week?  Run and get it before we start.  You are really going to need it this week.  And more than that you will need to be willing to examine what you truly believe and the words and phrases you commonly use. 

            First let me ask you this:  why do you pray?  Believe it or not, there is a theology out there that does not believe God will change His mind if you ask.  Now don’t be so quick to judge.  The word they use is “immutability,” which we often use ourselves, and which is NOT a Bible word. 

            First, let’s look at a few passages.  Will our prayers indeed influence God?

            In his discussion of the coming destruction of Jerusalem Jesus said, “Pray that your flight not be in winter or on a Sabbath,” Matt 24:20.

            He also says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! Matt 7:7-11.

            And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Luke 18:1.

            Jesus seemed to believe our prayers would make a difference in God’s actions.  The word “immutability,” though, means “beyond the ability to change.”  Add that to the word “omniscience,” also a word not found in the Bible, which means “knowledge of everything past, present, and future, and therefore never surprised,” and you get a doctrine that says since God knows everything, then He knows the best course of action and the right thing to do and any change would mean He had made a mistake.  That is mainstream theology.

            STOP!  You are sitting there getting ready to say, “Yes, but---“  Don’t.  Just listen, and more important, read what God has to say about Himself.

            In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, “Now, O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD, and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.” 2Kgs 20:1-6.

            And I[God] thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Jer 3:7.

            “‘I [God] said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me. ​Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the LORD.’” Jer 3:19-20/

            And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Jer 7:31.

          And have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind-- Jer 19:5.

          They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. Jer 32:35.

          STOP!  You’re about to do it again, I know you are.  You are trying to explain away the plain statements of God about Himself.  What you are doing is trying to make an incomprehensible Being comprehensible to a human mind and that is the ultimate irreverence.  Guess what?  We are not finished yet.  This one will knock your socks off:

          He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Gen 22:12.

          STOP!  Someone out there is thinking, “Are you trying to say…” I (and the teacher I sat under last summer) are not saying anything.  God is.  Do not tell God what He means to be saying and then call it respect.

          There are many, many times in the Bible that God says, “If.”  This one may be the most famous:

          Then the word of the LORD came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Jer 18:5-10.

          Here is the conclusion of all this; God always bases His action on men’s behavior.  And that means not everything is set in stone.  Even God says so.  When you try to push these un-Biblical words on people and define them so strictly, then you wind up with doctrines never taught in the Bible.  And when you do, you wind up with things that are totally inexplicable, like the following passage.

          David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” Then David said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will come down.” Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will surrender you.” Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. 1Sam 23:9-13.

          Oops!  God said something was going to happen and it didn’t.  Why?  Because men’s behavior changed what happened.  When we force things on our understanding of God, we always get into trouble.  Better to let God tell us how He acts and thinks, and keep from putting both our feet into our mouths hip-deep. 

          Keep your stop sign handy.  There is more to come.
 
Dene Ward

I finally did it a year or so ago:  I went to amazon and began a wish list.  There isn’t much on it because I have very few wishes—at least ones that a human can do anything about.  And for most of our married life we have lived so closely that wishes for earthly things just made me discontent and unhappy so I avoided making them.  But every time I ordered something we needed from amazon, there was that wish list icon in the top corner, so I gave in and made one.  I had to browse to come up with more than 2 things to put on it. I haven’t touched it since—and neither has anyone else

            Lately, we have had so many church potlucks that I have been thinking about going to that wish list and ordering one of the things on it myself—one of the top-rated insulated casserole carriers.  I have needed it at least three times in just the past two months!

            I hear that some people have spiritual wish lists too.  Usually I find out when they come up to me and say, “I wish I had as much Bible knowledge as you do.”

            Let me set the record straight first.  I don’t have a passel of Bible knowledge in my hip pocket.  I have to look things up just like you do.  And, the knowledge I do have is courtesy of a husband whose knowledge is nearly encyclopedic and whose willingness to help is overflowing.  He is, in fact, the one who taught me how to study, so you could say that he is responsible for all of my so-called knowledge, both the answers he has given me and the things I have learned on my own.

            But about that knowledge you wish you had—why don’t you just do what I did and fulfill your own wish?  No one can do it for you anyway.  All it takes is time.  By that I mean hours at a time over a succession of years.  Do you really think I learned what I know in 2 weeks?  I have been working on this so long I have even had to unlearn a few things, because that’s the next step—growing in your knowledge as you hone your understanding of what you have learned.  It isn’t just a list of facts; it’s a compilation of concepts that weaves itself into a complex tapestry, and the more you learn the more clearly you will comprehend it.

            Don’t talk to me about “not having enough time.”  Nearly every one of us has changed our schedules to add something that was important to us.  You added children to your life.  That really changed your schedule.  You went back to school.  You started exercising.  You took on a new job.  When it mattered to you, you found the time.        
  
            I have learned this about wish lists—don’t put anything on them that you really need.  You may never get it when you are depending upon someone else.  Instead, buy yourself the present. 

            Buy this one—knowledge--with the same time and energy you spend on things that are not nearly as important. 
 
​Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. Prov 23:23
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…Hos 4:6.
 
Dene Ward

Part 6 of a continuing Monday morning series.

Before we start this segment, you need to do something.  Find yourself a piece of deep red poster board.  Cut it into an octagon shape at least 10 inches across and high.  Attach a one inch wide stick of some sort (like a Popsicle stick) as a handle.  Now write on both sides “STOP.”  Yes, you have made yourself a stop sign, and no, I didn’t literally mean for you to do this little exercise.  However, as we go through this part of the study you will be tempted to say, “Yes, but…” and a little further on, “But God does (or doesn’t) _______.”  Every time we read a passage and you have that feeling, hold up your [imaginary] stop sign and quit trying to 1) explain away a scripture, or 2) make God comprehensible to the human mind.  You are only denigrating Him when you do so.  He is above us in every way, and that includes our ability to completely understand Him.

            Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. 1Chr 29:10-13

            This is a picture of God drawn by David.  It presents God as one who creates and then relates to the creation.

            Then we have another couple of passages to try to fit in.  See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse, Deut 11:26; choose this day whom you will serve…Josh 24:15. 

            We, God’s creation, have free will.  And we are held accountable for our choices, a proof of that free will.  God is sovereign, which means He has the power to impose His will, but how does that affect our free will?  The question is not does He have the power, but how He chooses to use it.  And that very sovereignty gives Him the freedom in how He uses that power.

            Common theology views God as a novelist—He has absolute control over the characters in His novel.  Here are some of their pet passages:
I am the LORD. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord GOD.” Ezek 24:14

            ​God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Num 23:19

            And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” 1Sam 15:29

            Almost always those passages are taken completely out of context instead of making them fit with other passages.  For example:

            I regret that I have made Saul king…1 Sam 15:11, and The Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel, 1 Sam 15:35.

            Wait a minute!  What happened to the sovereignty of God in this circumstance?  Didn’t God know how Saul would act?  It seems apparent that God did not anticipate these events.  STOP!  You are already trying to do it, aren’t you?  Why can’t we accept the plain meaning of words?  Why can’t we accept God the way HE reveals himself rather than the way we choose to understand Him? 

          There are dozens of passages along this same line and we will eventually get to more of them, but here is the explanation:  God chooses to interact with us, not control us.  How does that go with all those “omni” words?  It doesn’t really, because we define them according to our minuscule, human understanding. 

            And how can we ever understand this?  God has made a covenant with us.  He started from the beginning with Noah, Gen 9:9, moving on to later covenants with Abraham and David.  Covenants are two-party agreements.  God, who made all the earth obligates Himself to an unworthy people.  The covenant with Israel was formalized in Exodus 24, and God keeps His half of the bargain through the ages.

            Why?  Because God wants something He does not have.  Can you imagine that?  ​Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the LORD. Jer 31:20.  “Yearning” implies a lack of something.  Does that word fit into your “omni” understanding?
And how about these? 

            Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. ​I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. Hos 11:3-4

            How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.  Hos 11:8

          God is willing to experience pain, heartache and intense desire for reconciliation.  A pure and holy God actually wants us that badly.  And why is that?

            When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it… for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Jonah 3:10; 4:2

            God wants that interaction with us not because of His sovereignty, but because of His love.

            Keep that stop sign handy.  We aren't finished yet.
 
Dene Ward

Part 5 of a continuing Monday morning series.
 
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” ​​​​​​​God created man in his own image, ​​​​​​in the image of God he created them, ​​​​​​male and female he created them. Gen 1:26-27

            This passage contains one of the most discussed phrases in the Bible.  What does it mean to be made in the image of God?  The passage itself is full of repetition.  In the Hebrew language (I am told) repetition is used as emphasis because it contains no intensifiers like “very” or “most.”

            ​From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” Isa 24:16.      The repetition in that last line is obvious.  According to the Hebrew language, these traitors must be the most traitorous of the bunch.

            Now look at Ex 26:33.  You are to hang this curtain under the clasps and bring the ark of the testimony in there behind the curtain. The curtain will make a division for you between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.  “Most” is not in the Hebrew.  Instead it reads:  “the holy holy place.”  The repetition is the intensifier.

            All of that means that the Genesis passage where we began is emphasizing that we are indeed created in the very image of God—“image” or “likeness” occurs four times.  Scroll up and read it again and see if you catch that.  Now let’s see where that takes us.

            This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. Gen 5:1-3

            The concept in this passage is of a father being presented with his newborn child.  He “creates” him, then blesses him, and finally names him.  That is what God did with man, vv 1, 2.  Adam did exactly the same thing with Seth.  He fathered (created) a son in his own image, presumably blessed him as was the custom in ancient times, and named him, v 3.  You only name what belongs to you.  The parallel shows that just as Seth was related to Adam and belonged to him, somehow we are related to God and belong to Him.

            Being in the image of God is so intrinsic to us that it did not change when man sinned.

            “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Gen 9:6.  This applies to any man, not just godly men.  We are not to kill that which is made in God’s image.  It was still so after the flood.

            With [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the image of God. Jas 3:9  It is still true in this age.  James uses that fact to show us the severity of cursing another man.  So how are we made in the image of God?

            Refer back to part 2 of this series.  God is spirit, God is light, and God is love.  Obviously we are not invisible spirit, nor are we a light so holy that man cannot survive it. 

            So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 1John 4:16-17.  Love is what God is so when He gives love, He is giving of Himself.  We are thus “as He is” when we love others, and when we return love to Him.   God intended to create man with the ability to return or reject His love.  Love can only be genuine when it is given by choice.

            Sin is the rejection of God’s love.  When God gave us freewill, He gave us permission to hurt Him.  His wrath, then, is the wrath of a jealous lover, one who has every right to expect that His love be returned.  This righteous jealousy is for the relationship, not against the lover (Zech 8:1-8).

            When we refuse to love others we are rejecting our relationship with God.  We are denying our “image,” one of someone who loves unconditionally and of his own freewill.  Reviling and mistreating anyone, whether they deserve it or not, is a far more serious matter than we realize.
 
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Eph 5:1-2
 
Dene Ward

I was the typical first timer, scared to death that I would not know what labor was when it actually hit me.  All I had ever seen were television and movie versions of labor where the woman grabs her rounded abdomen and gasps, so that is what I expected.  Turns out I was right to worry.

            About twelve days before my due date I suddenly began having contractions.  This was surely it, I thought.  I told Keith and we waited it out for a couple of hours as they gradually faded, never having hurt at all.  Yes, they were the old Braxton Hicks contractions, so named for the English doctor John Braxton Hicks, who finally figured them out.  Some people call them “practice labor,” but that practice did not help me a bit.

            Four nights later I sat at the table trying to finish up a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.  We lived in Illinois and I had been stuck inside most of the winter because I did not have a coat that would fit around me, so I wiled away some of the long hours with puzzles. 

            I had come close to finishing that night, when about 10 pm I noticed a little twinge in my back.  Pregnant women have backaches all the time so I thought nothing of it.  But about 2:00, when I had still not been able to get to sleep, that twinge suddenly became stronger.  “But this can’t be labor,” I thought.  “It’s just a bad backache.” Then my water broke.  Good thing because that was my only clue that it was indeed labor, a labor that, counting the time from 10:00, only lasted six and a half hours, and never found its way around front.  I might not have made it to the hospital on time if I had not suddenly found myself awash with the evidence.  At 4:45, I had a posterior birth, sunny-side-up the nurses call it, a nine plus pounder, twenty two inches long who, because of my anatomy and his size, could not make the final turn.  When that happens you get “back labor,” which is why I did not recognize it. 

            Two years and one week later, a day before my due date, I was in the front yard weeding my flowers.  We were in South Carolina this time so that early in May my plants were already blooming.  Suddenly I felt a little twinge in my back.  This time, because of my previous experience, I paid attention.  A half hour later I felt another.  Five hours later another sunny-side-up nine plus pounder entered the world.  This time I was ready for it because I could now tell the difference between false labor, a pregnant backache, and back labor.

            The Hebrew writer tells us, But solid food is for fullgrown men, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil, 5:14.  That tells me that sometimes deciding what I need to do in a given situation is not always a simple matter.  Just like I had to learn from experience what was and wasn’t labor, sometimes I need to “discern” the Word to decide between good and evil, or maybe between good and better.  In fact, “discern” is translated “decide” in 1 Cor 6:5 ASV, “weigh what is said” in 1 Cor 14:29 ESV, and determining what makes things “differ” in 1 Cor 4:7 ASV.  God gives us guidelines and we must determine the best course of action, always following those guidelines. 

             The Pharisees had a difficult time with this.  They took the easy way out and simply followed a set of rules without weighing the circumstances, and where there were no rules, they made some up.  Their guideline was often their own best interests.  “Instead of taking care of your aging parents, you must give to the Temple treasury,” they preached, Mark 7:11.  In other words, God always trumps people.  And even if that money never was given, as long as it was declared “dedicated to God” (Corban) they could keep it for their own use and not be counted guilty for not honoring their parents.

            Though it was told as a story, one can easily imagine the priest and the Levite saying, “Going to the temple services is more important than stopping to help this poor man because God must always come first,” in Jesus’ narrative of the Good Samaritan.  It perfectly fit their little formula for how to determine the “right” course of action.  What they forgot was that serving his children is one way we serve God—“inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me.”  They would pull their oxen out of the ditch, but castigate our Lord for healing on the Sabbath.  Their pious formula, “God trumps people” was an out that served only to make him angry, Mark 3:5.

            Jesus said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone, Matt 23:23.  They had forgotten the obligation to “discern,” to “weigh things out,” and make a decision based on years of experience with God.  And maybe that is our problem, too—we don’t have enough experience with God in his word.

            Over and over Jesus reminded those people that it was not simply a matter of a rote following of the Law. Sometimes you have to think, “What is the greater good here?”  That “good” must always be lawful, which should go without saying or it would not be “good,” but when our decisions always ignore grace and mercy, we are forgetting the very thing that caused our Savior to die for us.  How can we possibly think we will receive those things from him?
 
And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless, Matt 12:7.
 
Dene Ward

Part 4 in a continuing Monday morning series.  Read this one carefully, and do NOT skip the scriptures!
           
Last time we talked about God’s immanence, his desire to connect with us and have a relationship with us.  God wants “to dwell in our midst.”  But what makes that even more amazing is God’s transcendence, His “Otherness.”  God is so far beyond our understanding that we cannot even comprehend the difference between Him and us.  But the ones who truly realize this show it in fear.  Please note:  “fear” is not a naughty word in the Bible.  It is an entirely appropriate emotion in the right place.

            For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. Isa 8:11-13.  Whom you fear shows your faithfulness to God.

            There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. Isa 11:1-2  Even the Messiah would “fear the Lord.”

            That fear did not stop in the first century, under the New Covenant.  So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. Acts 9:31

            That word, while it can be translated reverence, also means dread and terror.  Do not minimize it or weaken it because then you will miss the point of God’s transcendence.  In Ex 33 18-23, Moses asks to see God.  God tells him that He will allow Moses to see His goodness, but “you cannot see my face for man cannot see my face and live” (Ex 18:20.  It isn’t that God will kill someone who sees Him; it’s that we mere humans cannot stand to see such a glorious Being—we would die from it; our physical bodies cannot take it!

            Think for a minute about the call of Isaiah.  Chapter 6 begins with the statement that he saw God on his throne, but what did he really look at?  The throne, the train of his robe, the seraphim above the throne, and the smoke filling the room.  Nothing at all is said about how God Himself looks, but even those surrounding things send Isaiah into a panic, sure he will now die because he, a man, has been in the presence of such holiness.

            Look at Ezekiel’s experience in 1:26-28.  He uses the words “like,” “likeness,” “appearance,” and “as it were” again and again.  Is he really seeing God or something that looks like it might be God?  And even that causes him “to fall on his face.”

            When we weaken the concept of fearing God, we lose even the minute understanding we can have of God’s greatness, His glory, His holiness, and His might.  Even the term we often sing about—awe—has become a word denoting the trivial.  “That’s awesome,” we say of everything from basketball shots to a free ice cream cone on your birthday.  We’ve turned God into a big Granddaddy whose lap we can jump into and say, “Hi Pops!”

            When we lessen the fear, we lose the thing it was designed to create as well.  that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son's son, …by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Deut 6:2, and in Ex 20:20, that the fear of Him may be before you that you may not sin.  The fear keeps us from sinning.

            And do not for a minute think that fear lessens love.  For one thing, recognizing the awesomeness, in its true meaning, of God, and knowing that still He wants to have a relationship with us in spite of the great divide in our beings, should inspire love.  God expects this love to be a natural reaction from us.  “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, Deut 10:12.

            A proper recognition of God’s transcendence, a being so far above us that He should not even care about us, yet He does, is essential to serving God properly. 
 
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. Ps 130:3-4
 
Dene Ward

Last time we talked about knowing who and what God is, and the way He interacts with people.  Let’s look a little further at the reason and the method He chooses to interact with us.

            You shall not make yourselves detestable with any swarming thing that swarms, and you shall not defile yourselves with them, and become unclean through them. For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Lev 11:43-45.

            And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the LORD your God. Lev 19:1-4.

            Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. Lev 20:7

            You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. Lev 20:26

            After reading those verses back to back, one cannot help but be impressed with the holiness of God, that this is the “why” of every command God gives.  After this beginning, whenever He gives a command, God merely says, “I am Jehovah,” and expects them to remember that His essence demands their holiness if they are to relate to Him at all.  Check out Leviticus chapters 18 and 19 to see for yourself.

            From the beginning, God wanted a relationship with his creation.  And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day... Gen 3:8.  It seems He had a regular date with Adam and Eve to get together and talk, an appointment that was lost in their sin and that He took great pains to regain.

            When He brought His people out of Egypt, He tried to set up the same sort of relationship. 

            And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exod 25:8

            There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God. Exod 29:43-46

            I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. Lev 26:11-12

            Once again His people rejected that relationship, but do not relegate that concept to the Old Covenant.  God is still trying to reach us in this intimate way.

            What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2Cor 6:16

            in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Eph 2:21-22

            The first of those two passages applies to individuals and the second to the church, his spiritual Temple.  God wants to be among us.  In fact, God wants what He had in the beginning, a relationship that, this time, will continue for Eternity.

            Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband….through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations… And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God, Rev 21:1-2; 22:2; 21:3.
 
Dene Ward

On our last camping trip we once again canoed the Blackwater River.  This time Lucas was along so things were easier but more exciting at the same time. 

            I didn’t have to paddle.  Instead, Lucas did the steering up front while Keith supplied the power from the rear.  I sat in the middle on a cushion with a pair of binoculars and the backpack of water bottles and snacks, like a queen in a floating sedan chair.

            On this trip we were able to identify the water bird we chased upriver the last time—a kingfisher giving a strident rattling call as he dove from a tree limb and skimmed the water, racing around the river’s bend.  Once I was able to catch his profile, high atop a dead cypress, a bird over a foot long with a shaggy, blue-gray crest and back, and a heavy, pointed bill.  After we left one behind, we soon came upon another.  These birds are highly territorial and know not to cross the invisible boundaries.

            Every time we passed fallen trees in the water, I raised the binoculars again and was usually rewarded with one or more turtles sunning on the logs, some with shells as large as hubcaps, some brave and daring as we paddled closer, others slipping quietly into the water as soon as they sensed us closing in, with no splash at all, a perfect score in Olympic diving.

            If it were just me, I would have been happy to continue on like that, a peaceful, beautiful, relaxing float on the water.  But with two guys, both of whom have the adventure gene in them, it was not to be. 

            We often passed small streams emptying into the larger river, but also a few backwaters—larger, deeper creeks that quietly flowed into the river.  Lucas pointed one out over our shoulders as we passed it, and Keith suddenly said, “Want to go up it?”

            Lucas grinned, “Sure!”  So with a little effort they managed to turn the canoe and paddle upstream to the tributary. 

            It was obvious no one had canoed that waterway in years.  The banks were overgrown and we stirred up more wildlife in fifteen feet than we had on the whole river.  Immediately we came to a tree trunk fallen over, spanning the width from one side to the other, probably ten feet.  All of us had to lie down in the canoe in order to get past it.  Still we paddled on, through water lilies, cypress knees, and flooded out brush.  Eventually, after a couple hundred yards, we could go no further.  The stream narrowed and water plants blocked the way, allowing the water itself to seep through, but too thick for a vessel of any size.  So we turned the canoe again, a little more trouble in the narrow inlet, and headed back out to the river, ducking one last time as we neared the mouth of the stream.

            It was fun to go where no one had been for a long time.  It was interesting to see things we could not have seen in the middle of the river and would never have seen where several canoes a day disturb the isolation.  But it was also good to get back to the river, where we knew others had paddled and we would ultimately find our goal—the beach just past the second bridge.  

            Meditating can be a lot like that.  If all you ever do is travel the same old path, paddle the same old stream, what will you find that others have not found before you?  The scriptures talk about musing, pondering, and meditating on God’s word, on his statutes, on the things he has done.  If we want to grow in the word, we need to do exactly that, and it may require going places we have never been, thinking thoughts we have never thought, wondering about things we may never be able to find out one way or the other.  But isn’t that what growth is all about?  Isn’t that why we often sit and listen in wonder at teachers who have dared to do those things, and who always make us see a passage in a different light, in a deeper, exciting way?  I would much rather learn from a man like that than sit in a class where all we ever hear are the same old platitudes.   

            But even more I would love to find those things on my own, and that will never happen unless I start thinking on my own, daring to wonder about things that may even seem a little heretical.  Most of the time, we will discover that they aren’t, that someone else found them before we did, and another old chestnut that is simply wrong will be debunked.

            Yet we must always be tethered to the larger river.  We must always recognize when it is time to turn around and come back.  Exercising our minds in the scriptures is a marvelous thing.  It brings understanding, Psa 119:99.  But God warns us to keep our eyes fixed on his commandments, Psa 119:6, so we don’t get so far off the beaten track that we never find our way back and are snared by the backwoods trappers who lie in wait.  It’s one thing to lie down in the boat so we can pass under a “low bridge.”  It’s another to get so entangled in the water brush that we cannot get loose.

            So today while you paddle your way down the river of life, be sure to check out a tributary or two.  But always be aware of the bowline that tethers you to God’s law, and turn around before you stretch it so tight that it breaks.
 
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.   Psa 19:13,14.
 
Dene Ward

Part 2 in the series taken from a class on the nature of God.
 
            To begin this session of the class I have to tell you something I don’t really have any knowledge of—Greek.  According to my good brother, John 4:24 should be translated, “God is spirit.” Not “a spirit,” just spirit.  Something about the Greek means “a” does not belong—don’t ask me what.  Without the “a,” “Spirit” becomes God’s essence.  Now add a couple of other verses where there is, correctly, no “a.”

            “God is light” 1 John 1:5.
            “God is love” 1 John 4:8, 16.
           
            Okay, so what? 

            First of all, “God is spirit” tells us what he is, an invisible being.  “God is light” tells us who He is, the essence of holiness and purity.  “God is love” tells us how He relates to us—with grace and mercy.  Put it all together and you get this:  God is an invisible person who is entirely pure and holy, whose acts are always perfect love.

            Now add this to the mix: 
            But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 1Pet 1:15-16.  And--
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. Matt 5:44-45
God wants us to be like Him.  In order to be like Him, we must understand who and what He is and how that effects our behavior.  The verses we read at the beginning tell us the response God expects from the fact of who and what He is.

            First, God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24.  What God is, spirit, means we are to worship “in spirit and in truth.”  Our simplistic explanation of that verse, that it means we do the right things with the right heart, ignores the first part of the statement—“God is spirit.”  If, like God, your spirit is your essence, then God expects you to come before Him with your own true essence.  We may hide from others who and what we are, but we are to take the “real” us before Him when we worship.  He will accept nothing less.

            Second, This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1John 1:5-7.  If God is light, then He expects us to walk in the light.  Our lives must match what He is (pure and holy) or the blood of His Son will not cleanse us.

            And third, Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1John 4:8,16.  If God is love and He offers that love to us, then He expects us to love others the same way and to the same extent.

            So here is the point:  the essence of God, who and what he is, makes demands on us.  This is unique among all religions.  Spend some time studying those Greek gods and find any who desired that their worshippers be like them.  Find any who expected behavior to be changed by anything but fear.    

            Find any who can claim to be, in very essence, spirit, light and love.  That is our God, and that is who He expects His children to be.
 
Dene Ward

I saw a post on Facebook recently saying, “’Let’s see who’ll read this’ at the beginning of your post virtually guarantees I won’t read it.  Ever.” 
I’m a little the same way.  That phrase, “Let’s see who’ll read this,”  is supposed to make you feel guilty if you pass it by, nagging at your conscience to the point that eventually you scroll right back up and read it.  The same thing is true of all those “Copy and paste this if you are a real Christian/patriot/friend, etc.”  Now that one really bugs me.  If copying and pasting something is how someone else judges my Christianity, or my patriotism, or my friendship, then I am not the one who needs to feel guilty.

            God never used either of those things to get people to read His Word.  He simply laid it out there and the ones who cared enough to read and learn from it gained more benefits than they could have ever imagined.  God never tried to “guilt” anyone into doing anything for Him—he knew it wouldn’t be sincere if He did.  Josiah tried that with the people of Judah.

            Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. And Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the LORD, the God of their fathers. 2Chr 34:32-33.  No, they did not turn away from God—not as long as Josiah was alive to make them behave, but he was hardly cold in the grave before they were just as bad as before.

            A long time ago, my eleventh grade Advanced English teacher taught a unit on advertising and semantics.  I will forever be grateful to her.  I learned about the Straw Man, the Bandwagon, Bait and Switch, and a host of other sales/debate techniques I have forgotten the names of.  I see them on Facebook, on television and in flyers all the time, and thanks to her I seldom fall for them.

           But I never see them in the Bible, except when some evil man uses them to tempt God’s people away from Him, like the Rabshekah in Isaiah 36.  God never uses those deceitful techniques, his prophets never used them, his preachers never used them. 

           Jesus never used them.  In fact, he taught in parables to weed out the ones who would not care enough to try to understand them (Matt 13:13).  He didn’t want them if they didn’t want him.   Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you. Matt 7:6

           It’s up to us to read God’s Word ourselves, not to be forced into it by a guilt trip.  It’s up to us to live by them.  And a simple copy and paste won’t proclaim our faith in our Lord.  It takes a lifetime to do that.
 
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. ​For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Matt 13:16-17
 
Dene Ward