Friday, May 30, 2008

Who is God?

Tonight we had a movie night at our church. Too bad more people didn't come, but it sure was phenomenal to see. As a matter of fact, my Tim, age 10 (who before we left to see it winced a bit when I said it wasn't an entertainment movie but a movie about God's creation), said that this is now his favorite "movie" and that he loved it! The film we watched was far better than mere entertainment. It was called "Indescribable" and the speaker, Louie Giglio, told in extensive form, using pictures taken from the Hubble Telescope, about how the heavens declare the glory of God. I tell you, our universe is beyond amazing in size, in beauty, in creativity, in variety. It definitely puts who we are in perspective, and makes all the more amazing how far God came to enter our dirty sinful little world to become like us, so that He could be rejected by us and die for us. It makes all the more unthinkable how He could even think of us, let alone love us as much as He has proven and continually proves that He certainly does.
One of the prayers that were given up afterward was regarding how in our current world, when we are able like no society ever before, to know just how amazing and intricate our universe and all of God's creation is, we are more accountable to seek and find Him and give glory to Him. It is all the more evident to us, when we see outer-space photos of the universe, in-the-doctor's office pictures of our corneas, in-the-doctor's office pictures of our babies growing within...when we know that we are made up of complex cellular structures, as are even the tiniest bugs and germs...we know that an amazingly creative God has put it all together. We are privileged to have this knowledge; just 10, 40, 80, 120 years ago, the knowledge was far more limited. Yet more people who hear of God and Jesus Christ reject and oppose Him than they did when humanity's knowledge was more limited. I don't understand why this is, but God's word said that people would fall away toward the end times, that His name would be used as a swear word, that people would exchange the truth for a lie, that they would worship the creation rather than the Creator. He is not surprised, He knew this, and yet He came to offer His life for us.
Who is God? He is love. We love, because He first loved us. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords. He is our Creator, Sustainer and Savior; He is the Friend of Sinners.
I think people think of Jesus as condemning. John 3:16 is often quoted, but less so John 3:17, which in the NIV version says, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." Jesus' reason for descending from heaven, a universe away, to come into our nasty insignificant world was, first and foremost, to save sinners from the penalty of their own sin. God is great--but admit it--we knew it already, didn't we!

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