God: Creator & Sustainer

Teaching a child to read can be a very difficult thing.  I remember one time I was babysitting a neighbor's children down the street.  Their youngest son was learning the basic words like dog and cat etc.  I decided to help him practice his book but little did I know how challenging it would be for the both of us.  The child was frustrated because he was seeing new words he had never seen before.  Even though he knew the basics of the alphabet he still struggled to remember all the letter sounds for simple words like "this" and "polly".  Some words for him were just black letters on a page with no apparent meaning.  Each time I babysat we would spend some time reading and over the course of the year I noticed huge improvements.  It wasn't until he was begging to read me a new book he just bought that I realized he knew how to read.  The metaphor of a child learning to read is sort of like us trying to read the Bible.  

It is possible for a person to contend the Bible to be nothing but black marks on white paper.  And this argument would be quite convincing for those who do not know Jesus personally.  Those who do know Jesus personally, however, will continue to insist that the Bible is full of truth.  Sometimes it's hard to spend time in the living word and we feel discouraged just like a little kid learning to read.  But if we pray and ask God for understanding and wisdom I believe he will help us understand exactly what he is trying to communicate.  If we never spend time in his living word, we will never understand God's majesty and glory.

There are countless verses in the Bible that remind us of God's majesty and glory.  Like in Genesis 1:1 where God says that in the beginning he created the heavens and the earth.  In Psalms 19 he says that the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the works of his hands.  Think back to the last sunrise or sunset you saw.  I remember this one sunset I saw a couple months ago.  I gazed at it in all its perplexity.  The colors and textures were incomprehensible to this simple mind of mine but I didn’t question its formation, I just looked in aww.  That sunset my friends was a work of God’s hands.  The skies around us proclaim the works of his hands.  His majesty and glory is all around me.  I can see it in the sunsets, trees, oceans and nature.  [I want to clarify on one point before I go on… nature is NOT God, but it is what he has created in all of his glory.] Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

When I look at the world and nature around me as a beautiful creation from a majestic God I begin to realize that God is so much bigger than our culture makes him out to be. If one doesn’t know the true and righteous God, he/she won’t be able to recognize God’s majesty and glory around.  Our culture is moving away from the truth of who God really is.  Shirts are created that say “Jesus is my homeboy” or “Jesus is my plus one”.  There is a problem with this friends.  Yes Jesus is our good friend, but he is SO much more than just that.  Jesus is not just our plus one.  We do not have our lives plus God.  Instead, we change and transform our lives to fit into Jesus’s perfect love and wisdom.

Someone once said:

“The core problem isn’t the fact that we’re lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians.  The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of god.  We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way.  We forget that god never had an identity crisis.  He knows that He’s great and deserves to be the center of our lives.  Jesus came humbly as a servant, but He never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves.  He commands everything from His followers.” { Francis Chan, Crazy Love}

Culture folds God into your pocket and tells us to pull him out whenever we need him.  This is not right.  God does not fit into our lives like a wallet that we pull out whenever we need to; rather he commands everything from his followers!  This is great news!  As we fixate our eyes on his glory and majesty we will become more like him.  2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the spirit.”

When we become more like God, we begin to receive the fruit of the holy spirit which are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control.  There was a time in my life where I wasn't feeling very patient, joyful, or full of peace.  My friends were all making choices I didn't want to make, which left me feeling very alone.  My grades were dropping which left me feeling very dumb.  And my stress levels were rising as a result of not being patient with God's plan for my life.  I remember when I began praying for the fruit of the spirit.  I started focussing on who God was, rather than my own unfortunate circumstances.  I kid not you not, it was only a few short weeks before I realized that I had more patience, joy and peace.  When we realize who God is in all his fullness, glory and majesty, he is faithful to sustain us.

As you leave here today, I would like to invite you to reflect on this question with me:

Throughout the normal course of your day, how can you become more aware of God's majesty and love?

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope you were encouraged by some of the truths that were on my heart in today's blog!