Sometimes we try to define God’s words and actions too perfectly. In our arrogance, we think we can adequately describe exactly what God always means in all situations. This easily can lead us into thinking our doctrines are God’s doctrines. We act as if God is sitting on the throne studying our catechisms and judging by our standards.
When we do this, we’re trying to put God in a box. The biggest problem with this is that when God decides to draw outside the lines, we run the risk of misidentifying a move of God as a heresy that violates one of our rules.
It’s good to devote our efforts to grasping the meanings of God’s Word; however, we must always be aware that it’s possible to veer from seeking understanding into believing we’ve cornered the market on that valuable commodity. We just cannot reduce the immensity of God into formulas.
In any equation, we devise to represent God, His Word, or His actions the “X” of God is always undefined. Eternity, infinity, and omnipresence are all terms we can define but we can never fully comprehend. The reality of God, the only self-existent One is as far removed from our understanding as the operation of a supercomputer is from an amoeba. The prophet Isaiah told us, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”
We must acknowledge that we can’t think our way to or through God’s truth. Our human minds are fundamentally incapable of encompassing such immensities. The Word puts it like this, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Many unbelievers and skeptics try to cast aspersions on the Word of God by pointing out what they perceive as contradictions in the text. When we’re reading or meditating in the Word if we encounter anything we feel is a contradiction, we don’t let it weaken our faith instead we stand on faith. Instead of wavering do as one of the Biblical authors suggests, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
And don’t despair, don’t think I just can’t understand this. Don’t think God has given us a puzzle instead of a revelation. Just because we can never fully understand all of it doesn’t mean we can’t understand any of it. Just because we can’t use God’s Word to develop a spiritual unifying field theory for every person everywhere every time it doesn’t mean we can’t understand enough with God’s help to have a reliable guide for life. The man God used to write the largest portion of the New Testament tells us, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
Don’t fall for the siren song of glorified humanity. Don’t accept the old as sin New Age traps of believing we can come to an understanding of God by chanting a mantra or staring at our navel. We can’t think, imagine, or guess our way into the secrets of eternity. God has revealed all we need to know to take His hand as He reaches out to us. He promises if we seek Him, we’ll find Him. His revelation is in His Word. If we’ll dive into His Word, we’ll find not only the peace we seek, the joy we desire, but also the life we need to stand before Him with no sense of guilt or shame.
Don’t delay for we’re here today gone today. Few have the privilege of knowing in the morning that we won’t see the evening. We don’t know when eternity might reach up and snatch us out of this bubble of time. The Lord comes as a thief in the night and we always need to be ready for eternity. We may have hours to kill but we don’t have a moment to spare. Do it today. Don’t tell yourself you will do it tomorrow for tomorrow may never come.
The choice is ours. Let’s choose life.
Author: Robert Owens
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2019 Contact Dr. Owens [email protected] Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
