Saturday 22 February 2014

The Infinite God


Sometimes I just can't equate the God of the Old Testament to Jesus in the New.  they are the same God - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost - one God, three distinct personalities.  I came to a conclusion. How can we, who think from a human perspective, with finite minds and finite actions understand a God who is everywhere, all knowing, all powerful and all creative.

I look at some of the judgements of the Old Testament where people were to be cut off from their society or stoned. I think about the earth splitting open and swallowing up those who rebelled and my heart would almost cry out, "no, this cannot be God".  Yet somehow I know, that I know, that I know, God is Love and He is just.  He is also Holy yet He is Mercy.  When I look at His Mercy, surely it outweighs His Judgement.  It certainly did when "the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us".  God, Himself, manifest in Jesus Christ, sacrificed Himself on that cross to redeem us from death to life, from judgement to justification, from the curse of the law to freedom in the Spirit.

So how does this reconcile the Old with the New.  I know that I will never understand from my earthly perspective for we see in part but one day we shall see more clearly. (1Pet 13:9-10) I do know that in His Love and Grace, God chose for Himself a people, the Israelites from all the nations and with this came great responsibility.  As God's people, they were to be a witness to nations and from them would come the fulfilment of the Seed promised in Genesis to Eve, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who would save people from their sins and reconcile His people, the Jews and the Gentiles to God.

Ephesians 2:11-18 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” which is done in the body by human hands— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Colossians 1:19-20 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

The Old Testament clearly shows the effects of sin on the nation and creation.  Yet God promised them if they would obey Him, he would heap upon them blessings after blessings.  The nation was blessed and prospered yet His people continually gave themselves over to the prostitution of other gods.  So the cycle of apostasy is clearly seen.  Judgement fell and they were carried off as captives to the nations whose gods they worshipped.  In their captivity would cry out to God and He would deliver them and heal them and bring them back into their own land.  The cycle would start all over again.

What a lesson for us.  God is a jealous God. Not in a human, worldly sense but jealous of anything that would break the sweet communion of fellowship with Him where His abundant blessings flow and He showers us with His Love, Joy and Peace.  Outside of that covering fellowship, God knows that we are easy picking for the adversary of our souls.  As Jesus said,

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
We have a choice.  We can accept the gift of life Jesus came to give us or we can choose to go our own way.  His way is the way of Life and blessing.  Even in tough circumstances, His way keeps us and strengthens us, guarding our hearts and minds as we lean upon Him and keep our focus on Him.  Choose today, life or death, blessing or curses.  This is our choice, freely given by a God who loves us and desires to wrap His arms around us in that Love.  He has blessings for us, in our obedience, but we get to choose what we prefer.

Sunday 2 February 2014

Spiritual warfare

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Cor 10: 3-5

Divine power!  This really caught my attention as I was reading this scripture.  The weapons available to us are supernatural with inherent divine power.  I wondered about these weapons we have to demolish pretensions and arguments that seek to destroy our spiritual faith and walk. Arguments that stop our belief in the knowledge of God.  The bible tells us that those who know their God shall be strong and do exploits. Spiritual enemies like nothing more then to spread their lies and pretences for us to believe rather then what God has communicated to us in His Word. When we don't know who God is, we don't have faith in what He can do.  Whenever we don't see God as a loving, Almighty Creator of all, who dwells in the eternities and loves us, we have no confidence that He can and will deliver us. God is good. He desires good for His children. We just need to look at how Jesus died for us on the cross to see His love and desire for humankind,

So what are these divine, powerful weapons?  My thoughts went to Revelation 12:11.

"And they overcame him because of their testimony and the blood of Jesus and they loved not their lives unto death."

We are in a spiritual war for our souls and being in this spiritual war, we need spiritual weapons which God has given to us.  Our testimony - what God has done in our lives and how He has saved us is a powerful witness to those who are struggling with the same things that God so graciously freed us from - strongholds and bondages of being in a fallen world.  His Word has power to free us from these strongholds and bondages that grip our minds - lies we have believed about ourselves and God which are contrary to the Word.  Our testimony brings hope to others. I recalled the verse of scripture from Ps 149 4-6, 9

For the LORD takes pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation
Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hands.....
To execute upon them the judgements written: this is the honour of all His saints.  Praise ye The Lord.

This reminds me of the scripture in Hebrews 4:12 that tells us that the Word of God is active and powerful, like a two edged sword.  The testimony that is most powerful is the Word of God that comes from our lips. Declaring God's word over our situations and loved ones will bring the divine power of the Word to actively change, reconcile, heal or bring repentance.  It defeats the enemy's plans to kill, steal and destroy.

Oh the blood, the powerful blood of the Lamb that washes us clean from our sins and begins to restore.  The blood is an effective, powerful, spiritual weapon against the enemy and accuser of our souls. The blood covers and protects. Death could not take the Israelites when they sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the lintels of their doors when waiting God's deliverance from Egypt.  The death angel had to pass over when he saw the blood and this was a type of what was to come.  Jesus bled His blood out, laying down His life for us and in doing so, gives eternal life to those who plead the blood.  The enemy has no weapon against the blood of the Lamb which has redeemed us. We have great worth having been purchased by the imperishable, incorruptible blood of Jesus Christ.

The final weapon, and loved not their lives to death, is also very powerful and can only be accomplished in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. When we are willing to lay down our lives for each other, living in love and desiring only the best for others, the enemy has lost his grip on us.  When we refuse to gossip, be envious or take offence and instead encourage, love and support others, how can he influence us in any way and will therefore remain a defeated foe.  Love is definitely a divine weapon.

Let us ask God for the boldness to love as Christ loved us and to be able to fearlessly proclaim Him who called us out of darkness and into the light and to give us revelation of His word and His wisdom for all situations we find ourselves facing.