The Enigmatic Alpha and Omega Lamb

Had some fun with that title, but... there is no equal to the mysterious, splendid
God/person, Jesus Christ. 

John 1:29   Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.

His arrival on this earth was quiet and foretold His goal of servitude to mankind and
His Father. He came as an unassuming man who walked among the imperfect,
healed afflictions and spoke the truth. 

When one thinks of the images of Jesus, He comes across as gentle, often surrounded
by children. I know that it was almost shocking to me to understand His scorn and
challenging words to the Pharisees. His compassion for His followers is truly evident
in His teachings and His walk. His words were full of warnings, of the need to
treat others well, of the goal of loving His Father with all one's being, of wanting
people to not be afraid. He was the ultimate teacher who made it clear that there would
be judgement upon the earth. His courage is beyond question; he marched ahead
toward a torturous death upon the cross because of His love for mankind and His
Father. A victorious God/man who rose in triumph over death and Satan.

Revelation 22: 12  Behold I am coming soon!... I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

The power of these words, spoken from Heaven, is symbolic of the Jesus one
meets in Revelation; a powerful Lord who has defeated the armies of Satan and ushered
in the end times, the new Heaven and Earth, the final judgement. He is the
all-powerful Lord over all creation and one doesn't have any difficulty understanding
His glory, His sovereignty and His Strength. I don't believe that He is the
antithesis of the Lamb born into the world; He is simply the completion of
the embodiment of our glorious savior and king.

Can't wait to fall on my knees in His presence! What a glorious moment that will be!

The Wondrous Curse of Free Will

God's plan for this world included the concept of human free will. A creation that had
no free will brings to mind things like "The Borg," where resistance was "Futile!"  A creation that is controlled like a puppet show would surely not provide satisfaction. Although
mankind quickly fell into sin using free will , I would suggest that God foreknew this
as an eventuality as part of His plan for eventual salvation through the Lord Jesus
Christ.

Nevertheless, free will creates all sorts of problems and dilemmas because we are
broken and susceptible to sinful wrong choices. If it is really free will, then I would
suppose that God does not control or predetermine what our choices will be. I do
believe that prayer and faith may lead to clarity of choice. I am sure that God does
not want or encourage us in any way to make choices that are sinful. The fact
that only one human being ever made all the right choices means that God is aware
of the pitfalls that come along with human free will. This world and the influence of
the great deceiver make choices difficult even if we have the best intentions.

God, nonetheless, has provided some safety nets. His word in His Holy Book offers
hope and direction through the lives of those within. The Holy Spirit within us
makes us aware, when we grieve Him, that we have reason to repent and pray for
guidance. Being in the presence of fellow Christians and the church provides 
encouragement and support when we need it and even when we, on our own, may
be unaware of a choice poorly made.

Of course, the most devastating and calamitous decision would be to reject the
gospel of Jesus Christ, a decision that would literally be eternally damning!

The greatest provision is the Gospel message of forgiveness, atonement and
love that asks us to accept the One who died on the cross to make us righteous
through His blood and acceptable to God. It was always part of the plan. We are
created beings blessed by the love and will of our holy God.

Our Underestimation of God

An infinite God can give all of Himself'
to His children. He does not distribute Himself
that each may have a part, but to each one
He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were
no other.

A W Tozer


I love Tozer! I invite you to read the above quote several times so that its
message may sink in. 

As we study and experience the qualities of God, we have every reason to be amazed
and fearful out of respect and awe. We may be created in His image, but we are
obviously so very very different from Him. That's what makes Him holy, holy holy.
The concepts are very tough to get a hold of; His transcendent abilities, such as the
ability to be in all places at all times, His knowledge of everything that is happening,
even every thought we have, just seems unbelievable... because it is.

Yet this awe and respect may have the effect of making Him appear distant. We
may have the feeling that we simply can not possibly matter in the scheme of things.
How could the creator of he entire universe care for our daily comings and goings,
the path our lives take, the tears that fall when we are sad.

Well the Bible is full of scriptures that suggest, much as Tozer has stated, that these
incredible characteristics and Godly abilities, do, in fact, make it fully possible that
God knows each hair on our head, each tear that falls, each care and concern. He
wants and wills to be an active part of our lives because He created us and loves
us. He delights in our successes and has compassion for the roadblocks that this
world throws our way.

He also has expectations; that we will be aware of the incredible opportunity created
by the very death of His own son. That we will strive to live lives of righteousness
because of the blood of Christ, that we will strive to humble ourselves and follow His
ways with diligence and consistency.

He is God... we are His children. What a comforting thought!

The TRINITY at The Shack

This is an interesting combination, eh? Probably one of the most difficult concepts for we humans to attempt to understand is the notion of the Trinity, and one of the most 
controversial manifestations of that concept is revealed in the book, The Shack. 
One God in three persons... Christianity may be monotheistic, but this makes things,
"interesting!"  
If you haven't read the book, a man trying to recover from the tragic kidnapping
and murder of his youngest daughter, is beckoned by a mysterious note
back to the very location where his daughter was killed. The
fact that the note is signed, papa, plays a part in his decision to return since his
wife refers to God in this manner.
Long story short, he is met after a transformation of the location from winter to
spring, by God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The presentation of these three persons
in one God is what many find problematic or worse. God is pictured as a large,
black woman, Jesus as a plain-looking middle eastern handyman and the Spirit as
a shimmering entity that comes and goes. The story never suggests that Father God
is female in gender, only that this manifestation will help this grieving father as he
attempts to come to terms with a world where tragic things happen.
The interaction among these three God components is very interesting and, to me,
rather refreshing.  Their purpose is to guide the father through a process that allows
him to understand sorrow, grief and God's love for him, his daughter and us all.
Personally, I feel this book, that became a sensation, could be considered a success
if it allowed people to spend some time thinking about the tri-une nature of God,
the love that He has for those He created and the realization that He is in control of
all things at all times. 
Sounds like a book report...but if you haven't read this book, you might enjoy it.

Atheism is a lie

One of the best parts of blogging is that one doesn't need to argue, just state an opinion.
I have never known or met an atheist. I have certainly spoken to people I would call
agnostics.

I simply do not believe that anyone, in the depth of his heart, can deny the existence of a
creator. Having been born in the image of He who created us, I contend that there is an inborn
desire to know God. Even someone who has never entered a church or picked up a Bible,
must "see" around them the design and beauty of a creator. It is this innate need to find God
that leads me to believe that an atheist is simply not telling himself the truth.

I'm skipping the ridiculous notion that our ancestors crawled out of a pond somewhere and
evolved into humans. Things do evolve but not cross-specie. Even on the days when I
wake up slowly and feel like slithering, I'm human and related to humans, only.

I'm perplexed that anyone could go through life feeling that there is no purpose, no meaning,
no hope, not future beyond this life. When such a person reaches his final moments, they may
state that they know no God, yet I am wondering if they, deep down, are searching and
praying, to themselves perhaps, that there is one.

Can people simply turn away, decide not to believe or place themselves in the position of'
God themselves? Yes, we are all able to reject God since He gave us free will. I wouldn't
suggest it! Nevertheless, I still believe that atheists are simply telling themselves a very
dangerous and ill-advised lie. I find this very sad, indeed.

God is the reason we live this life; praise Him and glorify Him with your lives!

Twice born..Once dead

All we humans are complex, differently unique and created by God. The two things we all
have in common are being born and facing death. I don't remember my birth in much detail, and that's probably a very good thing! In a previous blog entry I called the birth process Miraculous, and I stand by that assertion!

One of the things I found most odd prior to truly accepting Jesus into my life was the concept
of being Born Again. Like the man who questioned Jesus about the idea of retuning to the womb,
I found the concept almost amusing. I believe that Jesus makes it perfectly clear that this
rebirth is a prerequisite to being a part of God's kingdom. That makes things a lot more serious;
it's a process of changing from lost to saved, from world centered to God centered, from
prideful to humble...I could go on. It's a process performed at the heart level, it's passive
in the sense that it is done to us, not by us. Serious, yet simple in the sense that we simply have
to give our lives over to Christ Jesus.

Now on the other end of things, we all are mortal. The wages of sin is death. All of us will
face this inevitable end, even though we often refuse to accept it until it is happening. Having
a spiritual tie to Christ and to God makes it less fearsome. I truly am no longer afraid of
death, yet I am fearful of the dieing process. The fact that there is the eternal hope provided by
the gospel, that Jesus conquered death in his resurrection and that we are saved by grace to
an inheritance in the family of God, make this end point a lot less fearsome.

But...we do not want to die twice! That second death, yes second death, is the one facing those
who have rejected God. It's the death that follows judgement, the judgement faced by all of us
in the end, where we stand before God on our own merit or on the merit of the Son of God.
We cannot save ourselves from the wrath God holds for our sin, but we can accept
salvation through the atoning blood of our precious savior, Jesus.

As Rich Mullins says in the song,:" Everyman, "  There's room for everyone at the foot of the
cross! I'll see you there!

The cartoon on your shoulder

Remember (I'm dating myself, here) the cartoons where a person about to make a decision
had two little characters on his shoulder? One was a tiny angel with halo; the other was a tiny
demon complete with pitchfork! Kinda cute..... maybe not.

The understanding of right and wrong seems to be inate; we have a conscience provided by
our creator in whose images we have been created. I can remember feeling guilty at a very
early age! Now some ignore this moral thermometer; there are some who are labeled a sociopath,
someone who either does not know right from wrong or who chooses to ignore the difference.
But, sociopaths are the exception. So if we know what's right and wrong......?

Well, that little devil on your shoulder is very very powerful! He is the personification of sin and
he is cunning, wise, knows us all too well and is quick to provide rationalization when we let
him lead us astray. The Bible talks about putting on the full armor of God. That armor is
specifically designed to help us fend off the sinful nature that is within all of us. We need all
the help we can get because the "pull" of sin is a substantial enemy. We can believe that we are
strong, that we can make the right decisions, that we can remember the cost Jesus paid on the
tree to provide atonement for our sins... and yet, it seems that even that cannot erase the temptation
to fall back, to sin and to disappoint.

Not so easy to flick that little demon off of our shoulder, is it? Go ahead, put on that armor and
fill your heart with the determination to do what is right. That and prayers to God will help make
this battle a bit more even.

Flick!!!