March 23, 1999
When ABC reported last month’s Grammy Award winners, they noted how much better the ceremonies were than last year. They said, “even the acceptance speeches had class” and went on to describe the responses of Sheryl Crow, Will Smith, Madonna, the Dixie Chicks, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. They missed the classiest of them all.
Hip-hop artist and surprised at her wins, Lauryn Hill was named Best New Artist. Her album won Album of the Year. When she received her Grammy, she choose to acknowledge her heavenly Father. Apparently most news services did not consider this as “class.”
Christians are almost always surprised when God is left out of the news. We know the wonderful things He does and the glory of His character. He is worthy of our praise. When reporters omit that praise, it seems they do not hear the words or at least do not realize their significance. They seem blind and deaf to God.
Yet if Christians are surprised by that, it is because we have forgotten an important truth. Apart from the grace of God and His transforming power, we would not ‘see’ or hear Him either.
A religious leader came to see Jesus at night. Perhaps he was afraid of his peers but he was curious. He began with, “We know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus did not respond to his comments. He could have expounded on His qualifications as a teacher or miracle worker, or that God had sent Him, but instead told the man, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Today, those last two words have become a huge turn-off for many people. Some recall television preachers who claimed to be “born again” yet behaved as badly or worse than the sinners they condemned. Others recall the loud claims of celebrities naming the name of Christ but living as if He never existed.
Who can blame people who cringe at the term “born again” when pride-filled people hold it up as a spiritual status symbol: “I am born-again and you are not. You need to be like me.”
Put aside those conceptions and look again at what Jesus is saying. Especially notice the preceding words. He says no one can “see” God’s realm unless their life changes. A few verses later, He adds that no one can “enter” this realm without this same change.
To understand what spiritual birth is, we need to know more about the kingdom of God. One theologian explains it as a parallel reality. God (and what He is doing) is all around us yet unless He opens our eyes we cannot see Him or His activities. We are born spiritually blind.
Think of physically blind people. They know nothing of color. Red and green are foreign to them. They may see some light and shadow but not clearly. In the same way, those who are spiritually blind also see shadows and some light, yet the realm of God (who is Spirit and Light) is closed to them unless God transforms their hearing and vision.
Christians are foolish if we expect everyone to see what we see. Others observe many of the same things; we are aware of the failures of those TV evangelists, just as we are aware of our own failures. However, God has reserved some things for Himself and some for our eyes only. The Bible says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us (His people) and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
Rather than being upset or perplexed at the media for not including Hill’s classy speech, we need to remember that those reporters may not have ‘heard’ it. But, if we did hear and join her in praise, we need to thank God for opening our eyes and our ears to the wonder of His kingdom.
Showing posts with label seeing God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seeing God. Show all posts
Monday, August 28, 2017
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
How to See God ............. Parables 385
August 31, 1993
American astronauts, at least a few of them, have said that the view from “up there” makes it difficult not to believe in God.
Whoever thinks God is merely a figment of human imagination find such statements quite frustrating. There is no solid evidence, they say, and they are right, no one can actually prove God exists. However, the Bible makes no argument about the existence of God. Those who wrote it claim God revealed Himself in several ways, outlines those, and leaves believing it up to the critical observer.
It might be that those who say God is only found in our imagination have too high an opinion of human creativity. Instead of looking inside our imagination to discover where the idea of God came from, they ought to turn their eyes elsewhere. Psalm 19 says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”
Astronauts aside, an objective observer does not have to rocket into outer space to see creation’s mysteries. Many things right under our feet and noses have no explanation other than they were fashioned by an intelligent Someone.
The Bible itself is another way God reveals Himself. He spoke to “holy men” who recorded what He said. This book spans several thousand years of history, was written by 40 or so people, and presents a unified message about God. If these people merely imagined Him, it is odd so diverse a group would agree on even one of His characteristics, let alone all of them.
A third way, not as reliable as the first two, is that God reveals Himself through people. We are made in His image and have some capacity to demonstrate something of His goodness. The downside is that everyone is also prone to disobedience and resisting God. This conflicting capacity to demonstrate evil is not of God or even like Him, but how do we know God is not evil? Nature sometimes seems that way, at least if we look at tornadoes, floods, vicious animals and aggravations like weeds and mosquitoes. Some even think the Bible portrays God as an evil entity, full of wrath and vengeance, who destroys whole families and nations and sends fire from heaven on those who dare to shake their fist in His face.
For the answer, we need to look at the last and most perfect revelation of God: Jesus Christ. The Bible says He “is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being . . . .” (Hebrews 1:3)
Jesus Christ is God putting on human flesh, God loving mankind, God willing to share in our humanness and suffer for our sins, dying that we might live forever. We see God’s compassion and power in Jesus. He heals the sick, comforts the hurting, and forgives repentant sinners. Both God’s holy wrath and loving mercy are seen in Jesus who expressed hatred for sin and hypocrisy, yet wept over the unbelief that kept people from recognizing who He was.
My pastor says, “The non-verbal world speaks a language everyone can understand.” Romans 1 puts it like this: “What may be known about God is plain . . . because God has made it plain to them. 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.”
God is not hiding.
American astronauts, at least a few of them, have said that the view from “up there” makes it difficult not to believe in God.
Whoever thinks God is merely a figment of human imagination find such statements quite frustrating. There is no solid evidence, they say, and they are right, no one can actually prove God exists. However, the Bible makes no argument about the existence of God. Those who wrote it claim God revealed Himself in several ways, outlines those, and leaves believing it up to the critical observer.
It might be that those who say God is only found in our imagination have too high an opinion of human creativity. Instead of looking inside our imagination to discover where the idea of God came from, they ought to turn their eyes elsewhere. Psalm 19 says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”
Astronauts aside, an objective observer does not have to rocket into outer space to see creation’s mysteries. Many things right under our feet and noses have no explanation other than they were fashioned by an intelligent Someone.
The Bible itself is another way God reveals Himself. He spoke to “holy men” who recorded what He said. This book spans several thousand years of history, was written by 40 or so people, and presents a unified message about God. If these people merely imagined Him, it is odd so diverse a group would agree on even one of His characteristics, let alone all of them.
A third way, not as reliable as the first two, is that God reveals Himself through people. We are made in His image and have some capacity to demonstrate something of His goodness. The downside is that everyone is also prone to disobedience and resisting God. This conflicting capacity to demonstrate evil is not of God or even like Him, but how do we know God is not evil? Nature sometimes seems that way, at least if we look at tornadoes, floods, vicious animals and aggravations like weeds and mosquitoes. Some even think the Bible portrays God as an evil entity, full of wrath and vengeance, who destroys whole families and nations and sends fire from heaven on those who dare to shake their fist in His face.
For the answer, we need to look at the last and most perfect revelation of God: Jesus Christ. The Bible says He “is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being . . . .” (Hebrews 1:3)
Jesus Christ is God putting on human flesh, God loving mankind, God willing to share in our humanness and suffer for our sins, dying that we might live forever. We see God’s compassion and power in Jesus. He heals the sick, comforts the hurting, and forgives repentant sinners. Both God’s holy wrath and loving mercy are seen in Jesus who expressed hatred for sin and hypocrisy, yet wept over the unbelief that kept people from recognizing who He was.
My pastor says, “The non-verbal world speaks a language everyone can understand.” Romans 1 puts it like this: “What may be known about God is plain . . . because God has made it plain to them. 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.”
God is not hiding.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Blind? or able to see? .................................. Parables 086
A dad brought home gifts for his two sons from a “rock hound” gathering somewhere in the United States. He had selected what appeared to be two ordinary items in a bin marked “Your choice - $5.00.” The newspaper article didn’t say whether he had an expert eye but it did say that the external appearance of the two rocks was deceiving. They turned out to be worth several thousand dollars each.
The old saying “You cannot judge a book by its cover” has been used to describe everything from human character to actual books. In this case, it was true of a stone. An uncut diamond is another example; its fire and brilliance do not appear to the untrained eye. Unless a person is able to look beyond what is actually visible, they will not see the value that is there.
Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet wrote about the external appearance of a servant of God. In the context, it is clearly a reference to Jesus Christ, who would not be born for several hundred years. Isaiah said, “...He has no form or comeliness (or splendor) and when we see Him, there is no beauty (or physical appearance) that we should desire Him.” (Is.53:2)
Jesus was apparently not what we would call a Hollywood type. His appearance did not attract people to Him. He was an ordinary man, at least in His external features, and because He was so ordinary, some “despised and rejected Him.” Perhaps their value system included that which is pleasing to the eye. Perhaps they were expecting their Savior to come in regal splendor and sparkling brilliance. Whatever they expected, they stumbled over what they saw, and then rejected Him.
Failure to look beyond mere externals for the value of a person is as foolish as a quick examination of a $50,000 rock and deciding to toss it into the $5.00-take-your-pick bin because it looked “ordinary.” Had the owner of those stones looked more closely, he would never have sold them so cheaply. Had the people of Jesus day looked beyond what they saw on the surface, they would have seen the brilliance of sinless perfection, the fire of a holy life. They would have realized that this ordinary man was also extra-ordinary, and they would have received Him. But He didn’t look good, so they tossed Him aside, without a second look.
Some people do that today. They somehow have false expectations about Jesus Christ and think that He will solve all their problems and make their life a bed of roses, but He doesn’t. Some suppose that He only welcomes “religious” people; but that is far from true.
Some see Him as too ordinary, without the power and brilliance they hope for and need. Their understanding of Him may come from paintings of a limp and even sickly form on a cross. Or they see a television and theater “Jesus” - weak, effeminate, dull, or boring, not even an uncut diamond but a plain, ordinary rock.
Some told the disciples, “We want to see Jesus...” but seeing Him with the physical eye did not guarantee that they realized His value. Everyone who saw Him, even His disciples, did not really know what they were seeing. As the Bible says, He certainly was “the stone that the builders rejected.” Just as a jeweler uses a special lens to enable his eyes to discern the value of a precious stone, God has a similar eyepiece for us. We need one because our sin blinds us to the true beauty of the Son of God. His eyepiece is the Word of God opened up by the power of the Holy Spirit, thus enabling us to have a good look at Jesus.
When we see His glory, we see that He shines far brighter than any diamond, His worth surpassing all that has value. Then we are willing to “sell all” and embrace this One as our own precious Lord and Savior.
The old saying “You cannot judge a book by its cover” has been used to describe everything from human character to actual books. In this case, it was true of a stone. An uncut diamond is another example; its fire and brilliance do not appear to the untrained eye. Unless a person is able to look beyond what is actually visible, they will not see the value that is there.
Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet wrote about the external appearance of a servant of God. In the context, it is clearly a reference to Jesus Christ, who would not be born for several hundred years. Isaiah said, “...He has no form or comeliness (or splendor) and when we see Him, there is no beauty (or physical appearance) that we should desire Him.” (Is.53:2)
Jesus was apparently not what we would call a Hollywood type. His appearance did not attract people to Him. He was an ordinary man, at least in His external features, and because He was so ordinary, some “despised and rejected Him.” Perhaps their value system included that which is pleasing to the eye. Perhaps they were expecting their Savior to come in regal splendor and sparkling brilliance. Whatever they expected, they stumbled over what they saw, and then rejected Him.
Failure to look beyond mere externals for the value of a person is as foolish as a quick examination of a $50,000 rock and deciding to toss it into the $5.00-take-your-pick bin because it looked “ordinary.” Had the owner of those stones looked more closely, he would never have sold them so cheaply. Had the people of Jesus day looked beyond what they saw on the surface, they would have seen the brilliance of sinless perfection, the fire of a holy life. They would have realized that this ordinary man was also extra-ordinary, and they would have received Him. But He didn’t look good, so they tossed Him aside, without a second look.
Some people do that today. They somehow have false expectations about Jesus Christ and think that He will solve all their problems and make their life a bed of roses, but He doesn’t. Some suppose that He only welcomes “religious” people; but that is far from true.
Some see Him as too ordinary, without the power and brilliance they hope for and need. Their understanding of Him may come from paintings of a limp and even sickly form on a cross. Or they see a television and theater “Jesus” - weak, effeminate, dull, or boring, not even an uncut diamond but a plain, ordinary rock.
Some told the disciples, “We want to see Jesus...” but seeing Him with the physical eye did not guarantee that they realized His value. Everyone who saw Him, even His disciples, did not really know what they were seeing. As the Bible says, He certainly was “the stone that the builders rejected.” Just as a jeweler uses a special lens to enable his eyes to discern the value of a precious stone, God has a similar eyepiece for us. We need one because our sin blinds us to the true beauty of the Son of God. His eyepiece is the Word of God opened up by the power of the Holy Spirit, thus enabling us to have a good look at Jesus.
When we see His glory, we see that He shines far brighter than any diamond, His worth surpassing all that has value. Then we are willing to “sell all” and embrace this One as our own precious Lord and Savior.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Is Faith Really Blind? .............................. Parables 013
If you were invisible, how would you prove that you existed? Since eyes could not see you, would you make your appeal to ears and shout messages out of nowhere to make your existence known? Or would you appeal to touch and move objects to bump into people, hoping some would realize you were there? Or would you appeal to smell, or taste? Not if you know human nature . . . “If I can’t see it, I won’t believe it!”
God knows human nature. He knows we want to see to believe so He appeals to our eyes, even though He Himself is a Spirit, and no one has ever seen Him.
His first appeal is through the things that He made. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork . . . ” (Psalm 19:1). And our own bodies are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139). Also, “the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that we are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). He created us in such a way that we can perceive that He is . . . by observing ourselves and the beauty and intricacy of all things that He has made.
His second revelation of Himself is through the prophets. These holy men were moved by the Spirit of God to write the words that God wanted them to write, words that help us see that He does exist, and words that describe Him. It is said that one picture is worth a thousand words, but the words that reveal God paint a picture in our hearts that no artist could ever paint. The writers of Scripture describe Him with such clarity that even a random selection of verses leave little doubt to His nature and character.
His third manifestation of Himself is through the One called the Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.”
God became a man, and he became visible so that we could see Him. Jesus Christ is “the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.” He declared, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”
He also said that if it was too difficult to believe Him because of his words, then believe Him because of the works that He did. These works were not limited to touching blind eyes and making them see; humanity was allowed to experience Deity with more than eyes. Jesus put His fingers in deaf ears and they could hear Him. He touched the tongue of the dumb and they could praise Him. He healed the lepers, whose sensitivity to touch was eaten away by cruel disease, so they could touch Him. He healed the lame, the sick, and the infirm, so they could serve Him. He filled the hungry and multiplied a meager supply to do it. He turned water into wine. And He controlled the wind and sea. By This, people can know that He indeed does exist.
And He knows our problem with believing “without seeing.” His challenge is “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”
His challenge is accompanied by much evidence that “He is” -- His creation declares it, His Word reveals it, and the person and works of His Son prove it. Faith is not blind. There is much to see.
God knows human nature. He knows we want to see to believe so He appeals to our eyes, even though He Himself is a Spirit, and no one has ever seen Him.
His first appeal is through the things that He made. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork . . . ” (Psalm 19:1). And our own bodies are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139). Also, “the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that we are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). He created us in such a way that we can perceive that He is . . . by observing ourselves and the beauty and intricacy of all things that He has made.
His second revelation of Himself is through the prophets. These holy men were moved by the Spirit of God to write the words that God wanted them to write, words that help us see that He does exist, and words that describe Him. It is said that one picture is worth a thousand words, but the words that reveal God paint a picture in our hearts that no artist could ever paint. The writers of Scripture describe Him with such clarity that even a random selection of verses leave little doubt to His nature and character.
His third manifestation of Himself is through the One called the Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.”
God became a man, and he became visible so that we could see Him. Jesus Christ is “the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.” He declared, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”
He also said that if it was too difficult to believe Him because of his words, then believe Him because of the works that He did. These works were not limited to touching blind eyes and making them see; humanity was allowed to experience Deity with more than eyes. Jesus put His fingers in deaf ears and they could hear Him. He touched the tongue of the dumb and they could praise Him. He healed the lepers, whose sensitivity to touch was eaten away by cruel disease, so they could touch Him. He healed the lame, the sick, and the infirm, so they could serve Him. He filled the hungry and multiplied a meager supply to do it. He turned water into wine. And He controlled the wind and sea. By This, people can know that He indeed does exist.
And He knows our problem with believing “without seeing.” His challenge is “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”
His challenge is accompanied by much evidence that “He is” -- His creation declares it, His Word reveals it, and the person and works of His Son prove it. Faith is not blind. There is much to see.
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