Thursday, September 4, 2014

The Painter is NOT the painting!

John 1: 3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.  John 1: 3

I had a memorable conversation recently with a neighbor who. with his wife and young
son, had just moved to America. He has no social security card, no green card and speaks
very little English. He is from Czech Republic, and upon hearing that I was an English
teacher, wanted to just talk "English."

Well the conversation headed toward a discussion of God. I asked him to tell me about God.
Oh, said he, God is everything; God is the tree, God is an animal and God is me. He could
tell without me speaking, that, regardless of the language, I wasn't in agreement. Gently
I asked him if he prayed. He assured me that he did. I asked then if he prayed to himself or
to the trees. 

This is really a direction in which many people who live here in the United States are dangerously heading. The direction of pluralism, new-age religious acceptance even a
form of Hinduism. God is seen as His creation. Anything can be God. Anyone can be God.
No, God is God.

God, the creator of all things, is separate from His creation, outside of His creation, outside
of the space-time continuum of people. He cannot be anything but what He is and has been
since before creation, everlasting to everlasting. God is not in need of His creation; He does
not derive sustenance from what He has created; He sustains it. He controls it. He is
above yet directly involved with what He has created, but He is not the created for
He was not created.

Alistair Begg lists five things that God is:  Creator, Sustainer, Ruler of all Governments
in His creation, Father and Judge. He sustains the world and all that is in it. But He
is not of it. He is Holy and apart. He is the lion. He is also the lamb. He is the redeemer
who was willing to walk inside that which He had created to allow for the redemption
of all who are guilty of sin.


It is true that we can see God within His creation, in fact the Bible suggests it. But we
must remember that He is not His creation. He gave to all artists the gift of creativity.
What they create is not equal to who they are. What God created in His grace and
in His power is not God. God is God!


Praise Him!


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