Too wonderous a God

“There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yes, four which I do not understand: The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a virgin.” (Proverbs 30:18,19)

These enigmatic verses are sandwiched between passages that refer to children that disrespect their parents and adultery. They speak of a relationship between God and Solomon, who has been taken by surprise and intrigue by a God who relates to him from different aspects and directions. Solomon is flabbergasted. God has rocked his world. He sits in amazement at the ways that God chooses to touch his life.

This is how God works in the life of someone who has been spiritually bankrupted. His spirit is broken; he is exhausted with his own efforts, and lays his heart out before God. Like Adam, he first runs away and covers his shame with the closest thing he can find. In Adams case, it was fig leaves. Adam is lost and destitute, having his relationship with God severed. No more evening walks with God.

Adam does not search for God. God comes looking for Adam. And so the relationship has been restored, Adam and Eve removed from the Garden of Eden so they can’t eat of the tree of life and live forever in their mortal condition. By God’s grace he leads them out into a world that will one day bring death and then immortality and incorruptibility at the day of resurrection. He has extended to them His mercy and not His judgment.

And so this is how we must restore our relationship with God. We must abandon ourselves, and by this I mean all of our resources we use to understand God from our perspective. God must come to us and relate to us from His perspective. How He does this is both awesome and wondrous.

God doesn’t shove theology into our faces. He approaches this relationship with supreme knowledge of our most inner selves. He knows everything that makes us tick, what moves us, what hinders us, and what is right and wrong about us. He doesn’t judge us; have unrealistic expectations, or an agenda other than healing what is broken. And in this way we begin to know Him—which is the true intent of theology.

His character is complex. We will never know Him completely, but He wants us to try. Knowing our weakness and our strengths, He comes to us as an Eagle, spreading His protective wings over us. He comes as a wise serpent provoking our attention. He comes as a ship in the sea, tacking in different directions, getting us off course, confusing us with the wind direction, but always calming the sea when we have called upon Him for help. He approaches us with the tenderness of a lover.

He’s the Spirit that comforts. He is the Father who protects and corrects. He is the husband that relates to us intimately. He is in Solomon’s own words, wonderful and mysterious. We know we are in a relationship with Him when we feel off balance and dizzy. We cannot initiate this relationship. All we can do is respond to it.

Dr. Michael Brown

I have not posted anything for the last couple of weeks because I have been reading and writing--things I felt not compelled to blog. But in my eternal quest for messianic believers I have found someone that I feel very much compelled to share with you. The web sit is below. I believe you will find it very interesting if you are seeking messianic relevance in your walk with the Lord, or if you are seeking truth from a messianic perspective. Dr. Michael Brown is a Messianic Jew who has been a follower of Yeshua for thirty-eight years. He has written many books and has debated with rabbinic Jews. Shalom.

http://www.realmessiah.com/

Choices We Make

When I was employed at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, I had to take courses on "Control Theory." It had been a "Twelve step" program when I was hired, having been run by the Salvation Army, until it came under new management of an existentialist elitist. The bottom line was transforming lives and destinies without any adaptation of spirituality. For him God was off somewhere playing golf and had no time for the world He created. Therefore it was his god-like responsibility to take control of his and everyone else's life around him. All it produced however was chaos (which he enjoyed quite thoroughly). He had become his own higher power.

In the right perspective, taking control of life's situations is not totally wrong. However, independent control may not lean toward moral and ethical behavior that can adversely affect other people's lives. If a person desires that kind of control then he should live alone on a mountain top. But manipulating people is like water and air to them.

We have to have some control in our life, God made us that way. It's what we do with that control that is going to make the difference between being human or humane. Ultimately, God is in control no matter what decision we make about our life. So it's really important we make the right choice. I'm sure Pharaoh didn't wake up one morning and say, "Hmm, this might be a good day to have a blood river, flies in my lentil soup and locusts eating up all my corn." Pharaoh had made his choice before God brought all of those plagues into his life, and He would have brought it no matter what Pharaoh was thinking of doing because God had a plan to bring His people out of Egypt and nothing was going to deter His efforts.

If we don't get on the same page with God, He just may remove us totally from His book. People just don't believe that God is sovereign anymore--not since hyper grace was introduced to the masses a few decades ago by evangelists spreading a half gospel. Since then the premise has been "I can do all things" instead of "I can do all things through Messiah who gives me strength." What people don't understand is that grace is not a license for selfishness, but it's contingent upon obedience to God through faith. Instead, they have been content to worship a golden calf of prosperity, eat well and dance the night away--indifferent to God. Let us eat and be merry for tomorrow we die!

When the Apostle Paul died daily to himself he didn't stop controlling his life, he simply gave his life new meaning by allowing God to use Him for His purpose. Paul had a choice, as we all do, and with that God-given ability he chose to put himself in God's hand. If we go through life thinking we don't have any control then we set ourselves up for someone else other than God to control us.

God is very active in His creation. He's not napping on Neptune, meandering on Mars, snoozing on Satu--well you get the point. He loves us more than we can ever imagine and He only desires the best for us. This implementation for His plan for us may differ than the concept we have for ourselves. This is why so many are unhappy and accuse God of indifference toward them and mankind as a whole.

The breath of God can be felt in our daily lives. Yeshua told Nicodemus that no one knows which the way the wind blows, where it comes from or where it is going. I'm sure He was illustrating the Spirit of God, who in the beginning was hovering over the waters, and remains hovering over creation as a faithful and caring Creator. We have only two major choices in life that affect all of our decisions. We either choose to serve God and others, or serve the world and ourselves. Shalom.
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