Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old

Rev 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God,

In a world where references to God are commonly used as profanity or empty expressions of surprise, I guess it follows that the impact of God’s name and, by extension, the very concept of God has been diluted to a triviality in the everyday world. This is I suppose to be expected in the unbelieving world, but the Christian world should really know better. However, Christians are not immune to the influence of these profane and trivializing references to God. The effects of this environment can often be seen in our language and heard in our conversations about God.

God Almighty - the creator and sustainer of all things

Whether we are looking at the first page of Genesis or the prologue of John’s Gospel, the message is clear and consistent. God is the creator and sustainer of all things, which of course includes us. Every breath I take is another gift from God Almighty, it is another opportunity to walk before Him and be blameless. (like Abram)

Yet we often talk about God like He is little more than a philosophical idea or maybe some kind of cosmic genie that will help us, if we go about it the right way. A genie we can call, but not the Lord God Almighty that can call us. We often treat Him as a god we can use, not the God that can use us, as he wills for His purposes. We have replaced the very sensible realization that life is a rare, fragile, and fleeting gift, with the false hopes the unbelieving world clings to. While we would rarely be silly enough to say it out loud, our actions often betray a deep inner belief that we are autonomous. We all too often act as if we are self-existent and completely self-determining. As if God’s role, if He has one at all, is to serve us(when and if we need it). Think about it, why do we really read books on prayer? To become more obedient or to figure out how to get the results we want?

I have lived far too much of my life absorbed in this kind of delusional view of God, thinking of God as a helper rather than God Almighty. As someone I will see someday when I die, rather than the source of my life every moment of every day. It is God who defines me, I do not define God, I could not define Him if I tried, after all He is God Almighty and I am just a man. I’m a man that He, through his grace has allowed to live for the last 63 years, in spite of my ignorance and self-serving rebellion.

I sometimes think it would be nice if we could physically see his sustaining presence in our lives, like if we were connected to Him by a long extension cord. Then I would remember not to unplug from Him. But then I think, wait a minute, His sustaining power is physically visible, we just misinterpret it or disregard it altogether because we prefer to imagine ourselves as our own sustainer and ultimately our own God. We prefer to think of ourselves as our own final authority.

Sin is and has always been, choosing our will over the will of God Almighty, and he allows this because He does not seem to be interested in forcing anyone to love or obey Him. But our freedom does not make our use of this freedom any less consequential to our lives or the lives of those we influence. The choices are very real and so are the consequences.

God Almighty is above all, He is unchanging, all powerful, and loving and gracious and patient, but he will not be mocked or ignored forever. We must all ultimately give an account to God who is The All-Mighty.

Jesus Almighty - creator and master of life and death

John 1:1 - 5

John 20:28 Thomas answered him[Jesus],

Matt 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them,

Rev 1:17 - 18 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

So God is the Almighty but also Jesus is God The Almighty. He was with God, creation was made through Him and He was(and is) God. We now have more things to consider, when Jesus speaks He speaks the words of God, he is The Word of God. So how are we to respond to His word, to The Word? Does having a proper “fear of the Lord” mean living in terror of God’s judgment? Or, do we like so many simply redefine fear to mean something we don’t have to really worry about? How do fear, love, joy, peace, obedience, and confidence play together?

If you were to search the bible for the words fear and Lord you will find a tremendous number of references. In Isaiah 11:1-3 even the coming Messiah is said to have a special anointing of the fear of the Lord. So fear of the Lord is important even for Jesus. From our perspective, grace and forgiveness can’t be properly appreciated or enjoyed without a knowledge of our true guilt, our true need, our true dependence and inescapable mortality.

I have often warned my students that we can only appreciate our salvation to the degree we appreciate our guilt before a righteous and Almighty God. Only when we see God as truly almighty can we begin to understand what a miracle of love and grace our forgiveness really is. The clearer we see our actual situation before God Almighty the clearer we will see His love and grace and the more secure we will feel in His love, because He truly is a loving God who is also - Almighty.

This week let’s help each other remember that God is not an idea or a set of ideas. God is a person who is The Almighty God our creator and sustainer, our judge and our savior. He loves us beyond our comprehension but that is because He is powerful beyond our comprehension. Let’s remind ourselves who it is we are talking to when we pray this week. Let’s remember that His answer may not be the answer we desire but the answer we need. His words may be comfort but they may also just as easily be instruction or even command. Today and every day we live in the presence of God Almighty. He has given His only Son to save us, now we need to ask about the appropriate response to such love and grace and sacrifice. It is by His grace alone that I write this and that you read this. Each breath is another gift and another opportunity to give the love He has given us to the world that so desperately needs it.

Have a great week!