Real

Is God real?

(I for one sure as heck hope He is)

I think sometimes we have the odd day when this question haunts our thoughts and we encounter doubt and questioning. I guess this can be caused by trouble or pain or strife or some such. But I don't really want to dwell too much on the proofs of God and the logical arguments for the existence of God as we know Him.

The question i want to ask is 'Is God real?' in the sense of 'Can I be real with Him?'

You see, Most of us know that God is lovely and awesome and kind and generous and compassionate and forgiving and peaceloving and holy and sinless and kingly and lordly and fatherly and mighty to save and full of life and wise and guiding and wispering and shouting and praise-worthy and reigning and majestic and wot not but how many of us know that He is real.

Do i really think that this God could be real with and to me.

Sometimes, i think i read about God as if He was a fairy tale.

"Once upon a time there was a wicked devil called Satan and he attempted to rule the world with hate and anger. However, before the nasty Satan could achieve his plans a wonderful Hero called Jesus joined with His friends, Father and Holy Spirit and won a wonderful victory and they all lived happily ever after for all eternity"

On a good day I think i might try to translate this fairytale into reality. I take the above story and then finish it with "Thankyou Jesus for being my Hero" or "Holy Spirit, teach me how to make your kingdom lovely"

No, seriously now...

Too often i forget that God wants me to be real with him in response to how he has been real with me.

You see, there are elements of truth to the story - there is evil in the world, it does attempt to rule and reign, it was beaten by Jesus death and resurrection and there is the opurtunity to live for all eternity in communion with God. But the point is, I think I make this such a make-believe environment that the words I say to God and how I react to God just come from some sort of make-believe me.

I forget about the reality of God.

He is a God of emotion...

He get's angry and happy and loving and I guess he cries sometimes and laughs at other times and thinks that i'm silly sometimes and then loves me anyway and then thinks of the dreams he has for me and then gets excited and wants to tell me about stuff and so he waits with baited breath for the 10 minutes before bed time when he knows I'll make time to hang out a bit and then when I turn up in his court room all he gets is a whole load of religious jargon and christianess expressed with pecial elloquence with the emotion metticulously removed...

Ok, slight exageration.

See, I think i want to be someone who experiences the reality of God and then expresses the reality of who I am in response to this revealed reality. (I understand that I'm never going to know the 'full' reality of who God is)

Let him see the roar pain of my laments and the overflowing joy of my happiness. Complain about the rough-ness and give thanks for the gifts. Give glory to the king and then hug him like a father.

He's my God. He already knows the messy details. He made me with them. I think I'll stop hiding them from Him and remember what it means to have a real relationship with Him again.

Oh, I do know about His Holiness and the 'Awe' of God too. I pray in all honesty and deep sincerity that i will get to understand and respond to this more too. (It's stupidly hard not to make this last sentence sound dreadfully sarcastic but it's really not supposed to be!)

Relevant

Today was a special day for me. After morning lectures I hurried (with a noticeable amount of anticipation) to the dining hall for lunch. In the dining hall I found what i expected - food and fun. However, today, along side the food and the fun was a book store. After a good few moments perusing the hundreds of books i came upon a rather substantial volume entitled Old Testament Ethics for the People of God by a gentleman called Chris Wright. This being a subject I'm somewhat intrigued by at the moment, I promptly paid the reduced price(£15) and took the book back to my room.

Special times...

As I open this book to read, the question I have is this: 'Do Christian people really believe that the whole of the Old Testament is completely relevant to the church and the world today?'

There are some countries where the Old Testament (or Hebrew Scriptures) is not a regularly read part of the Bible. There seems to be a number of believers who confess with their mouths to believing the Bible but spend little or no time seeking the LORD through Leviticus or Ecclesiastes or Song of Solomon.

However, I lay this aside for the moment. Let us agree that the Old Testament was accepted by Christ and the early apostles, and it is a justified and essential part of the Holy Scriptures of God. It is relevant to the Church and the World today.

If it is relevant, then, how is it relevant?

Is its relevance held solely in the necessity of knowing the history of the Jewish, and consequently the Christian, faith?

Is its relevance held only in seeing how God related to man pre-messiah?

Is its relevance held in knowing the mindset and rules which Jesus had and had to deal with?

Is it a combination of one or more of these things?

I think the Hebrew Scriptures hold their relevance to us today in, among other things, in revealing to us aspects and characteristics of the nature of God that are revealed to us nowhere else (at least not as blatantly) and yet which still exist within the nature of God at this precise moment in time/history/eternity.

The nature and character of the God of the Hebrew Scriptures is still the nature and the character of the God of today.

The giver of the law hasn't changed but those who are receiving it has.

I think we have to learn to read the Hebrew Scriptures as if we were Hebrews.

Not only this, we have to read them as if we were ancient hebrews; with the mindset of ancient Hebrews.

Read the pentacheuch as if you were Moses.

Listen to the Psalms as if you were David.

Mourn as if you were Job

Moan as if you were Solomon

Get outraged at the prophecies of Jeremiah.

Long to go home with the Exiles of Judah.

Long for social justice with Micah.

Fight for purity with King Asa.

Rediscover the law with Josiah.

Has anyone ever told you that the God of the Old Testament is Sexist? Did they tell you He was violent and unfair? Did they say he was unforgiving? Did they say he was pro ethnic cleansing and pro slavery? Did they say He was a contradiction? Did they say He was biased towards the Jews? Did they tell you He was a God of condemnation and anger? Did a Christian tell you God relates to man differently now?

What was your answer?

I once read this quote: "The New Testament is when God got religion"

I wonder if you're happy to settle for that?

I sure as heck aren't.

y

question: Why are you here?

Now, I'm not trying to be all deep and such. I'm not asking "Why do we exist?" or "Why do we exist in the here and now?" I'm not even asking about "How" you came to exist. Just Why are you here?

You are given only so many years on planet earth (at least on this planet earth, I have some understanding that there will be a new one at some point...), only so many precious days, only a few short hours in this neck of the woods and yet you choose to spend some of them reading my blog on the internet.

Why?

Why are you reading this? Do you expect me to say something new? I don't think many things are new under the sun... Do you think I will write something wise? Do you think I will reveal some great revelation? Do you think I can educate you?

Why are you here?

...

Why are you still here?

Is it out of love...? Is it out of respect...? Is it out of pity even? Is it out of boredom...?

Why am I here? Why do I still type? Do I still type because you still read or do you read because i still type?

Why are we both still here?

My time is precious. Precious to me perhaps, precious to others, maybe. more than definitely precious to God.

I wonder if i give Him my time very often. Maybe the time which should be for Him, I give to someone else. Maybe I give it to me.

I guess time belongs to Him anyway. Am I a thief? Do I steal from God His time?

Maybe God ordains that I should use my time not just on being with Him but on other people. People need time. Time is valuable. You give it to one who has value.

Maybe I should give it to those who feel value-less...

Maybe I should give my time to people who I would really rather not spend time with. Maybe I should no longer devalue them.

Who is worthy of your time?

Give it to others...

Give it to Him...

Give it to me..





(Scrap that last one, I'm just being selfish)

All Nations?

FYI: Andy has arrived at 'All Nations...

It strikes me that the only things we can truly know about God can only be revealed by God himself, at least at the point of conceptual origin.

The fullness of God is beyond the restraints of the knowledge of man.

Indeed God is beyond the world of man.

Man's knowledge, at least physically speaking, can only result from and be developed by what he sees and feels and learns in the physical world. A world in which the fullness of God cannot be contained or restrained.

Man's Spiritual knowledge, however, can only be strengthened and sustained through the intervention and revelation of God through His Holy Spirit. To grow Spiritually our knowledge e must be edified by the revelation of God. It seems that this spiritual revelation, once instigated in the Spiritual realm, can be taught and consequently learned through communication in the physical realm but the origin of each spiritual concept must find it's origin in the revelation of the Holy Spirit otherwise it would not be a true revelation of God.

For example, I may share with you that Salvation is found in the works of Christ and you may believe me. Although, on the surface, this may seem like a purely physical event i think, for this knowledge to be successfully transferred, there are a number of underlying spiritual transactions that must occur.

Not the least of these is the revelation given by the spirit at the moment that the receiver of the information believes this spiritual concept. It is commonly accepted that no receiver of this information can become a believer of this information without the revelation and conviction of the Holy Spirit. It is by the Spirit that we become believers.

However, where did this concept originate from? Has it not always been passed from person to person in the physical?

Has it always been an essentially physical concept lacking any spirituality save for the spiritual revelation given at the moment of belief?

The concept of salvation must have been given by revelation at it's origin. Whether it be the revelation given by Jesus Christ as revealed to him by the Holy Spirit or the revelation of the salvific messiah to some prophet or patriarch as given to them by the Holy Spirit, the revelation must have been originally instigated by God in the spiritual realm.

But what about concepts that teach us of God and which are seem to be clearly essentially physical concepts? For example, "God is the great provider."? Surely this is a physical concept learned in the physical realm and taught and learned solely in the physical realm and yet is it not an enhancement to our spiritual knowledge of God?

Well, how do you know that it is God who is the provider? Most people in western society, see themselves as the provider. They are the workers and the provision comes from their wages. They do not give thanks at the supper table. The only people they have to thank are themselves for their hard work or, perhaps, their employer for the provision of a job.

However it has long been the understanding of christians and Jews that any provision of any good thing comes from God himself.

One of the earliest records of man believing this concept is Job in about 2400BC. In Job 38:41 God himself shares with Job that it is He Himself who provides the raven with food. This is the direct revelation of God rgarding the concept of the providence of the Almighty God. It is from this revelation or perhaps a revelation earlier than this and yet undoubtedly similar that this concept has been passed down from generation to generation.

Everything we know about God, everything that expresses the truth of God and everything that educates us as to the nature of God, although passed on from man to man, must originally have been the direct revelation of God to man.

I feel it is good to remeber this. Maybe as a disciple of Jesus I seek out the most mature and most educated Christians in order to obtain revelations of God's nature. Maybe I only trust the concepts taught by great theologians or by tutors, lecturers, preachers, vicars, pastors or priests. Maybe I am too quick to disregard young christians and too quick to blindly accept concepts taught by mature Christians. Maybe I do not take enough time to search God's word for direct revelation from Himself.

Let us not be deceived.

I believe there is a certain credibility that accompanies the teaching of a mature Christian and a certain trust that may be given to one in whom dwells the richness of researched theology. But may we seek to see that the sweetness of any concept comes from the sweetness of the revelation of the Holy Spirit and not necessarily the sweetness of the vessel in whom the treasure has been deposited.