Surest Knowledge

I recently read this comment about Scripture from Wayne Grudem:

… this God who is omniscient (all-knowing) has absolutely certain knowledge: there can never be any fact that does not already know; there can never be any fact that would prove that something God thinks is actually false. Now it is from this infinite storehouse of certain knowledge that God, Who never lies, has spoken to us in Scripture, in which he has told us many true things about himself, about ourselves, and about the universe that he has made. No fact can ever turn up to contradict the truth spoken by this one who is omniscient.

Thus it is appropriate for us to be more certain about the truths we read in Scripture than about any other knowledge we have. If we are to talk about degrees of certainty of knowledge we have, then the knowledge we attain from Scripture would have the highest degree of certainty: if the word “certain” can be applied to any human knowledge, it can be applied to this knowledge. (Systematic Theology, by Wayne Grudem, 1994 and 2000, Chapter 7, Page 120)

This challenges me! Not because I disagree with what Grudem said, but because I hadn't thought about knowledge and Scripture in those terms. It's one thing to acknowledge: my knowledge is limited; God's knowledge is not limited; my abilities to perceive reality and gain knowledge are limited and imperfect; God already knows all there is to know. It's another, challenging, thing to commit oneself to accepting Scripture as true even if Scripture contradicts what I think I know or believe to be true/right. Do I really believe God knows all there is to know? Do I really believe God is good and a truth-teller? Do I really believe that Scripture is truth God chose to reveal to mankind? Dare I believe that God might actually know some matter (or me!) better – more correctly, more completely – than I?

The Value of a Person

A person is not what they do. The value of a person is not the things they do to put food on their table, clothes on their back and a roof over their head. What one does, one's career/job is "valued" by supply and demand, and is changeable by fashion, need for the skill, the number of people who can do it and technology. Also, one can change one's career. Who would think a career change changed a person's value?! None of those affect the value of a person. Indeed, no man or woman can determine or change the value of any person. Only God can do that, did that. The value of a person - famous or obscure, powerful or master of none, genius or mentally handicapped - is, as trite as it sounds, Jesus. God set the value of each person at His Own Son. Maybe we should remember that when we look on another of less prestigious calling or glamorous appearance! Or when we reflect on our own value.

Fences and Walls

I was thinking yesterday, recalling a Christian song from the 1970s:

Good fences make good neighbors,

But a fence the church don't need.

And the Spirit's moving in the world

To bring His Body back in unity.

Fences and walls have their place and use, but the church, the Body of Christ, is not such a place. The fences the song spoke of are the excuses and pretexts Christians too often use to avoid acknowledging their brothers and sisters in Christ, to avoid fellowshipping with them, and to avoid serving God together. The song does not envision a Scripture-ignoring-and-denying Kumbaya-fest, just the kind of love, fellowship and shared service Jesus envisioned and commanded for His people.

The kind of walls I spoke of are deeper, walls we've each built within us, to isolate and "protect" us. Too often we put up prettified walls, facades we imagine make us look nice, cool, spiritual, together and so forth. By keeping people from knowing us, the real us, we evade real spiritual growth and real fellowship relationships. Growth comes in acknowledging what we are - imperfect and unique - and letting others be God's helpers and our partners in changing us, making us more like what God wants us to be. Growth comes in providing that very same loving service to our brothers and sisters - rather difficult if we are busy hiding.

Can we work a bit at tearing down some of our fences and walls, OK?

A Couple of Stray Thoughts

Those who don't take themselves too seriously are disappointed less often.

Utopian schemes – e.g. socialism, anarchism, anarcho-capitalism - ignore or deny that man is deeply flawed (or as Christians say it, sinful). This lesson was writ large in the blood of 10s of millions throughout the 20th century. Will we read, learn and take it to heart?

"Fearfully and Wonderfully Made ..."

An incredible universe - immense

The tiniest cell - a universe of intricacy

Knowledge and discoveries that could enthrall for life

Knowledge and discoveries that should ...

... lead me to the Designer

... cause me to worship the Designer

... birth in me a desire to seek and know ...

... the One Who designed ...

... the One Who made ...

... the One Who loves ...

... me

Through, Not Out Of

God has promised to be with, to provide for, to bless us. He has not promised to shield us from all suffering and difficulty. But He will bring us through all, sometimes by His "simple" love and grace, sometimes by expressions of His awesome power.

Miracles - Breaks in the Natural Order or Glimpses of What was Intended to Be

People, including Christians, are so accustomed to the way things are that we understand what we see to be the natural order of things. Not just in the present tense, but for all time past, back to the beginning of this universe, this space-time continuum. We think the way things are is the way God created and intended things to be. Christians, at least, should know better. God did not intend mankind to be sinful, yet here we are. And when Adam sinned, he not only brought sin to his descendants, but the nature of the very universe was changed.

Because of our incorrect view of things, we struggle with miracles, with what they are. Is God "violating" natural laws? Is God rending and patching the fabric of the space-time continuum? How do miracles not make a mockery of an orderly universe?

Could it be that the problem is not with God interfering with or violating the natural order, but of us not understanding What/Who God is? And what God intended to be the natural order of things without sin? The very nature of the universe and its relationship with God changed by sin. The universe was no longer entirely "good". While not rendered alien or an outsider, God no longer maintains the universe in the same way as before man's sin. Death entered. Pain entered. Disasters became part of the "natural" order.

Miracles are displays of God's might. Miracles demonstrate God's sovereignty. Miracles are exertions of God's creative power. Maybe, just maybe, could miracles be glimpses of what God intended to be the natural order?