Our God, He Is Alive

Because it acts like He is dead or never existed, the world tells us that everything we see exists by accident or macro-evolution.  But, no matter how smart or advanced man thinks he has become, he cannot explain how something came from nothing, complexity evolved from chaos, how life arose from non-life, or how morality developed from instinct.  Claiming to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:19-22).

Rather, because “Our God, He Is Alive,” God is able to help us in many ways here and in eternity.

I.  John 1:1-3.  In the first and second stanzas of the song, God is able to help us as our Creator (Isaiah 40:28-31) and Communicator (2 Timothy 3:16-17):

There is, beyond the azure blue, A God, concealed from human sight, He tinted skies with heav’nly hue And framed the worlds with His great might.

There was, a long, long time ago, A God the prophets heard, He is the God that we should know, Who speaks from His inspired Word.

II. Colossians 1:15-20.  The third stanza shows God as Omnipotent (1 Corinthians 1:21-25) and Omniscient (Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 7:7-8):

Secure, is life from mortal mind, God holds the germ within His hand, Tho’ men may search, they cannot find, For God alone does understand.

III.  John 8:34-36.  The fourth stanza explains that because Jesus was our Sacrifice, He can also be our Savior (Romans 3:21-26):

Our God, whose Son upon a tree, A life was willing there to give, That He from sin might set man free, And evermore with Him could live.

Because we know that we serve a risen Savior, we see how He continues to help us in our daily walk with Him and prepares us for eternity, so we can declare to an unbelieving world that …

There is a God, He is alive, in Him we live, and we survive; From dust our God created man, He is our God, the great I AM.

From the Beginning

Since God is eternal without time, then what we know of time from creation to consummation is the smallest speck of dust on forever.  And yet, the humanists of our culture have cancelled creation to rid our existence of sin and consummation to rid us of judgment.  In their arrogance, they have declared themselves gods over a never-ending present time when we can all “do what feels good” without repercussions. Anyone who disagrees with them is cancelled or persecuted in other ways.

I.  Matthew 19:3-9.  When the Pharisees tested Jesus on the subject of divorce, He gave us a strategy of how to deal with the humanists in our culture today.  Twice, He referred them back to how God intended for things to be “from the beginning.”  For all of their insistence that their legalistic righteousness and standards they had established were the ones to follow (Romans 10:1-4), Jesus let them and the Jews who had believed Him know that slavery was found in sin and freedom in truth (how our culture has this backwards!).  Though they insisted that God was their Father, Jesus told them that their works and their inability to bear His words revealed their true parentage (John 8:31-47).

II.  Matthew 24:36-39.  The One who is from eternity confirms in these few verses the attitude of the culture before Noah and how similar it is to the attitude of the culture before He comes again.  He confirms the judgment on Noah’s world by a global flood by comparing the judgment to come on this present world.  Thus, Jesus confirms the salvation and covenant God made with Noah and his family we read about in Genesis 6-9 by comparing it with the salvation and covenant He makes with us through the water of baptism into Christ (1 Peter 3:18-22).  And yet through Peter, God also tells us that scoffers–mockers, humanists, evolutionists–will cancel us in the last days (2 Peter 3:3-7).

III.  John 1:1-3.  The eternal Christ is in the perfect position to tell us how things were “from the beginning.”  After all, He is God while being with God, and it is through Him that all things were made.  He was there “from the beginning” because He was “in the beginning.”  Here’s where the Pharisees or certain Jews of Jesus’ time on earth in the flesh are so like the humanists of our culture today.  Although they are finite in their limited existence, they nevertheless shake their fists at God when they declare themselves to be gods.  In their arrogant attitudes, they make earthly standards and then insist that all others adhere to them–or else (Romans 10:1-4).  It will not go well for them in the end.

Still, we need to know that the everlasting God (Psalm 90:2) is in control of our seemingly out of control world.  And we need to let Him and His Word control our attitudes more than the culture does.

Made in your image

Father, you made us in your image.
And when we defaced it, you sent your Son, in the fullness of time, to restore it.
You love us and sacrificed for our good.
You sent your Spirit to help us and gave us your Word.
We accept, O Lord, your grace.
Keep us from denying your love.
Keep us from believing the lie that we are worthless.
We rejoice in your kindness and patience.
We confess our need and therefore we seek your Kingdom.
In Jesus’ name we pray and praise you. Amen.

By Him All Things Were Created

Since the second Person of the Godhead is eternal, what was Jesus doing from creation through incarnation?  The Great Christology of Colossians 1:15-20 tells us quite a lot.  Far from just arriving on the scene for the first time in Bethlehem (Luke 2:11), God says that He alone would be the Savior (Isaiah 43:11) over seven centuries before.

I.  Colossians 1:15.  Jesus was active as the exact imprint or essence of God.  Ask and someone will say that Lincoln is on the penny.  Is he or is that his image?  Jesus backed this concept up with Caesar (Matthew 22:19-21).  Hebrews 1:1-18 further explains this and its necessity for Jesus’ preeminence over all things but especially our salvation.  He was God to be our Savior but man to be our sacrifice.  Though the subject of theophanies in the Old Testament isn’t conclusive that they are Christ and not angelic ambassadors speaking for God, being the exact representation of God would allow for Jesus to be addressed as God if was indeed Him (Genesis 16:10-13, Genesis 18:17-19, Joshua 5:13 — 6:2, Daniel 3:24-25, et. al.).

II. Colossians 1:16.  All things were indeed created through Jesus (John 1:1-18), and so He has dominion over all things as our Sovereign Lord (Romans 9:16-21).  This also means that because of His sovereignty, all things were created FOR Him as well.  Throughout the Bible, God upholds the idea of property rights (Proverbs 22:28, Acts 5:4).  David brings us back to the concept from creation that all things belong to God (1 Chronicles 29:14-16).

III.  Colossians 1:17.  Jesus has also been active since creation (and still is) at sustaining all things.  This means what we often attribute to the laws of nature are really the laws of Christ.  Again Hebrews 1:1-3 deepens our understanding of Jesus’ work.  That means He was upholding the universe while challenged (Matthew 22:18-21), in the garden (Matthew 26:53-54), before Pilate (John 18:36-37), and at the cross (Luke 23:34).  He is sustaining it now while we are here in this chaotic world and for our loved ones who have died in Him.

That Jesus is in control is a comforting thought, especially when we are bombarded by the world’s headlines.  We must put our trust in Him and in His gospel!

Before the World Existed

In the 1st century, those who had been with Jesus or witnessed the power of the resurrection of the dead had a difficult time believing that He had been a man.  In the postmodern skepticism of the 21st century, many can’t believe He was ever God.  Jesus was more than a good man and teacher, religious philosopher or advocate for the common man.  The alpha and the omega, He is eternal and through whom all things were made.  Therefore, He cannot be placed on the buffet with other leaders from world religions.  Through His great love for us, though we were sinners, Jesus died and then was raised from the dead for our justification and sanctification.  Jesus stands alone.

I.  John 1:1-18.  Jesus was God and was with God before creation and at creation.  It was through Him that all things were made.  After the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, John records that the Son’s followers saw Jesus’ glory, the glory of the only God, who was at the Father’s side, who had seen God and made God known to us.  From eternity to creation, then, Jesus was in His glory and was awaiting His role as Creator and through whom all was created (Genesis 1:1-27).  Before He took on the image of man, Jesus made man in the image of Himself.

II.  John 17:1-5.  Before Jesus went to the cross, we glimpse from His own lips what He longed for in prayer–the glory He had with His Father “before the world existed.”  This rare peek into His eternal nature also gives us a clue how He endured the pain and shame of the cross.  While fixing His eyes on the glory that He would return to in complete fellowship with His Father, Jesus gave us a way to run the race that is set before each and every one of us (Hebrews 12:1-2).  Told to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Him, three of Jesus’ followers were allowed to witness that glory while Jesus was transfigured (Matthew 17:1-8).

III.  John 17:20-24.  Jesus will only give His glory to those who are seeking the Savior’s glory (Romans 2:6-10).  In this life we hope for it as He who promises it is faithful (Romans 5:1-2).  The sufferings of this life can’t compare to the glory that is promised to us (Romans 8:18-21).  The promise comes in a spiritual body that is resurrected in power and glory (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

This is why we forsake the world and all its glory (John 12:42-43).  Just as Jesus longed to be clothed once again in the glory He had with His Father before the world existed, we too must live every moment here in a relentless pursuit of the glory that is promised to us in Him.

Yours Is the Day

Yours is the day, yours also the night,
Creator of every heavenly light,
Sun, moon, and stars unnumbered,
Before your greatness man is humbled.

You do not sleep, nor nap, nor slumber,
The hairs of our head, you know their number,
We fall before your holy beauty,
Teach us, Lord, our divine duty.

The Eternal God of Tender Touch

Glory undimmed and growing splendor
Not time nor man nor demons diminish;
Creation in its precision proclaims
The eternal God of tender touch
And sovereign judgment. Save us, Lord!
Your hand has power, the heavens rejoice,
And we desire the world beyond,
Where pain and tears and pining death
Are banished, where streets are bathed in joy.

You Do Not Cast Us Off

A day for you is like a thousand years,
And a thousand years, a day; above all time,
You do not count the passing hours like man;
Nor sight is lost of promise, but every word
Fulfilled according to your eternal plan.
The power and glories of heaven are fully yours,
But still you see and care for the smallest bird,
And man—of all creation the most sublime.
Awry we’ve gone, our bundle of failures and fears,
My people and with them I as well, a prime
Example—You do not cast us off; your hand
Is ever upon us—hear and forgive us, Lord.

A perfect purpose

A perfect purpose planned
And carried out flawlessly,
Before the start of time,
When nothing was but You:
Spirit, thought, and Trinity,
Love contained in itself,
Desire to spread and touch
Another being, a soul
Free to choose or reject.

For such a plan as this,
O Lord, we give you praise.

Today we begin NaPraWriMo. Join in!

Prayer: A greater awareness of people

people-souls

Dear LORD God, thank you for the amazing gift of life on this new day that glistens with fresh sounds of song birds, gentle winds and marvelous light from the sun. All these remind us of your tender loving care for all creation.

Give us a greater awareness of people who are lost without hope of eternal life. Help us to show them the way to receive the precious promises of this new covenant through obedience to the teachings of Christ the Lord.

We pray in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

David Binkley, Sr., Cedar Key, FL