IN A NUTSHELL

I’ve been reading a lot of books lately, and they are having an amazing affect on my faith, so I thought I would sit down and write down a summary of what I’ve read and what I believe. I am just writing what is on my heart and therefore I am not going to place specific references in this writing to direct quotes from scripture, but ask me if you want to, and I’ll get them to you. So….here it goes…

God has always been and will always be. I have a hard time wrapping my finite brain around an infinite God, especially the infinite past, though I’m not sure why it seems a little easier to grasp infinite future, anyway…in His infinite past He has always been complete and in perfect relationship with Himself, meaning, the Father Son and Holy Ghost. I didn’t want to put commas in between those names, because they are all one Somewhere in that distant infinite past He wrote a book, and this book was written before creation, but I’ll get to creation in a moment. This book has the names of every believer who was to ever be. Now, what I find amazingly cool about this book is that, not only did He write the names of those who would believe in Him, but also before the believers ever were, He knew their paths as well. And yet, once again, before He made creation, He had a redemptive plan that He would be put into motion, because although He does not make us do things, He knew the things we would do, and therefore He knew He had to rescue us, so that we would have an everlasting relationship with Him. So, though He doesn’t need us, He desires to be with us. I hope you’re still with me here!

So, I don’t know the exact sequence of every event, Genesis give us a pretty broad view of them, but I do know that He spoke and there it was; all of the matter in creation. What’s the matter you ask…well I mean all the stuff that never was before, all the stuff that stuff is made of, that your physics teacher taught you about, or in the case of my wife, that the teacher didn’t teach, but her dad taught her and several other friends…anyway…back to creation!!! And from the beginning of creation, the time as we know it began. With light and matter, there is time, and without it there wasn’t, time that is. This realization helped me to finally put my little brain around the statements I have always heard about God stepping in to time to be with us. It helps me understand His name, the great “I AM,” because before creation as we know it, He was and He is and He is to come (no comma thing again, because really its all the same thing with God:) ) When He says “I AM,” He is. I love it! It helped me with a riddle I have recently heard, but didn’t understand: INTO ISN’T WASN’T WAS. So, everything He created was good, and when He had created man, He said that it was very good. And why do I think He said it was all very good after creating man and woman? Because we were created in His image, and when He looked out and saw His image among the things of His creation, what other conclusion could he have come to? I heard a preacher ask this question once, “Do you know why the mountains and the trees are so beautiful to us?” and the answer is “because God said they were good.” Really there is no other reason!

And now we get to the reason the redemptive plan had to be put into action. The man of creation wanted to be like the creator…Adam and Eve, I’ll call them, since that is what God called them…felt like they might be missing something, lets just call that “sin.” These ideas came after having one “simple” conversation with the great deceiver. That’s it. I suppose I could just end this portion of my summary with that statement, but then that would mean I could do something else with my time, and frankly, I feel like this is what I am supposed to be doing write now, so…it may seem ludicrous at face value to think of the creation thinking they could equal the Creator, but I think it is a recurring battle in my heart in different ways as I live out my life. Like somehow I have a better plan for my life than He does, but anyway… let’s get back to their problems, Adam and Eve that is! So they eat this fruit they knew they shouldn’t and all Hell broke loose. Well, not really, it just probably seemed like it to them, because they lost there ability during this lifetime, to walk in the garden with their creator. And of course, sin entered the world through this one man, and it has been an issue ever since.

Now at some point this sin that entered the world through one man became so rampant that God almost ended His creation with a flood, but He kept a certain amount of His creation alive on Noah’s Ark. And the cool thing is He promised all living creatures, not just Noah, that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood, and He sealed His promise with a rainbow. Isn’t that cool? Every time I see a rainbow, God sees it, and I remember and He remembers the promise He made on that very day just after the flood! I don’t think He ever forgets, but I think He was speaking on our level, which once again I find amazing, that the Creator of the universe, talks to me at my level, anyway…At some point He chose a man named Abram, later God changed it to Abraham, and told this man his offspring would be greater than the stars in the Heavens, and they would be an example and a blessing to the nations. And this man was old, so he had to have a lot of faith in that promise. And sure enough it happened, through many years this people grew. And though they struggled with the blessing the other nations part, because they starting thinking they were special, God had a redemptive plan that would certainly come through the offspring of Abraham, so the promise would be fulfilled. Mind you, they were and are great, not because of anything they had done to deserve to be chosen, but they are great because they are chosen by God. And God gave them Ten Commandments to follow and then what is known as the Law. With these documents, they became aware of their sin, but it also provided a way of atonement for their sins. And the way was through blood. The problem, I know there is a better word, but I can’t think of one right now, so, the problem was that a sacrifice could be made for past sins, but as soon as the one providing the sacrifice left the temple, they most likely sinned again, and if they are like me, they sinned pretty quickly, and then what did they have to do? Purchase another sacrifice, which would consume a lot of time and money. So the sacrifice was for past, but not for future sin. So once again, God had His redemptive plan determined back before it mattered…get it… matter, before it…anyway…He knew that this Law would only be fulfilled through Him.

After reading through the historical portion of the Old Testament, we get to read some of the prophetic books. And in these books, there is a description of our Messiah as a Conquering King, but also as a Suffering Servant. In one of the last books in the Old Testament, God says “when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” So to the amazement and to the disbelief of many, He came first as the Suffering Servant. There are very graphic details of the way He would suffer and shed blood, remember, blood is required to atone for our sins, and in the end He shed His and gave His life for us. What is really amazing is that there is are historical documents other than the Bible that write that Jesus did exist and that He was crucified. There is even historical data that says the tomb is empty. Well, it was empty because He raised himself up from the dead! He said He would! He was called Emmanuel, which means God with us, and through faith we can believe that He is who He says He is and was and is to come. And if we just believe all that He says about Himself, and confess it, and repent of our sins, He is faithful and true to His promise that we will have, actually do have, an eternal relationship with Him. And that all our sins, past, present and future are forgiven. That once we believe in Him, we don’t get forgiveness, we have it. It’s called grace, and the amazing thing is that it is free; we don’t have to earn it. He earned it for us on the cross. As a matter of fact, I must emphasize this, we can’t earn it, it is not to be earned, it is by faith alone that He brings us into an eternal relationship with Him. It is the perfect gift from the Father of Life!

Some have a hard time with the redemptive plan, why one way and then another, which sounds a whole lot like they think they would have had a better plan, but let’s keep it simple. God is good. And really that is enough, but we can view the old way as the arrow pointing to the new way. The law was a way for us to see that we cannot provide a good enough sacrifice for our sin, but God had to provide the perfect sacrifice, Himself, in order to have the relationship He always desired with His creation, which is you and me. What an amazing story of Love. So I can now understand why another description for Him is, God is Love.

And so at another time of His choosing, He will return as the conquering King, as it is written in the Old and New Testament. Sin, sorrow, and death will be no more for those who have accepted His gift. And though many don’t want to believe it, those who have chosen to not accept His gift, who have chosen to not have a relationship with Him, will get the desires of their heart, which is eternal separation from Him. And the description and name of that place is not pleasant at all. It is described as a place of unquenchable fire and torment, a place created for the great deceiver and his followers. And since it is a place separated from God, who is Good, there will be no good there, forever and ever, which by the way, is a long time to be without anything good! The name of the place is Hell, and it is as real as Heaven. Christ speaks about it, and therefore it is real, whether we choose to believe it or not. But for those who have chosen to accept the gift, those written in the book I talked about above, the name of the book is the Lamb’s Book of Life, well, we are goin to a wedding party. You see, Jesus Christ is the bride’s groom, and we the believers are the bride. Now I don’t know much about the party, but I know it’s gonna be pretty cool. Can you imagine? You can’t! God says His thoughts are above our thoughts, so we can’t even imagine what it will be like, and that is just the beginning. We have eternity to get to be more familiar with Him, and I think that is way better than fire and torment. And remember, when I said God gave Abram, Abraham, a new name earlier in this thing I am writing, well actually its written in Genesis first, I just paraphrased it above, well, God apparently likes to do that, because He also says we will get a new name. We are a new creation, when we trust in Him! How cool is that. I like my name now, because it is the name of my earthly Dad, and I love Him, I love my Mom too, but I don’t have her name, so I wasn’t gonna write about her here…anyway…but I know my new one, name that is, will be way better than my current one!

So, the Bible is an awesome story about God, and yes there are many wonderful stories about people, and we can see great examples of how to live our lives, and how not to live them, but the Bible is the Gospel from cover to cover. It is as complete a story as God feels we need to have in order to be more like Him, and in order to give us an understanding of who He is and who we are in Him. What is even greater than the reading the Bible, is that we will someday behold His glory and words will not describe Him. We will have eternity to get to know who our one true Father is!

So, I recommend getting to know Him, and if you don’t know Him, let me know and I’ll talk to you about Him. I recommend the book of John in the New Testament if you just want to start reading. He is good and I thank Him for His grace!