To Love God, We Must Know God Psalm 46 Love is our Focus Forty Theme for this week. Here in the middle of our journey through life we are struggling and striving to make a good show of our time here. We each have our own idea of what a good show is. Some of us equate success in life with having things. For others it is having good family relations. A good reputation with other people is what is most important to many. For some, having power over other people is the goal of their life. None of these are bad in themselves. Any of them could be part of the blessing that God gives to us. Jesus, who I believe to be the Son of God, my Lord, my Savior, told His followers that the greatest thing in life was to love God with our whole being. The second greatest thing is to love others as we love ourselves. If you believe, as I do, that the God Jesus is speaking of is His Father and Creator of all that exists, then we have a dilemma. How can we, created beings who live inside creation, love an infinite being who stands outside of that which He created? One of the reasons I believe in Jesus Christ, and accept the Bible as the Word of God, is that the Bible gives an answer to that question. I know of no other writing that tells the story of a God so big that He created all that exists outside of Himself, and yet loves His creation and desires to have a relationship with His created beings. From the beginning, in the book of Genesis, the story starts with creation. The Creator spoke and things were made out of nothing. He gave one of the created beings the responsibility of taking care of part of that creation. The story says that He, in some way, had a relationship with that created being. The Bible does not go into detail about how that worked. Being the creator, He expected the created being to respect Him and to live according to His plan. The being, who I will refer to as man, although that is a simplification of facts. Anyway, man lived that way for awhile, but then another created being who had already rebelled against the Creator, influenced the man to question his trust and love for the Creator. We are not told a great deal about this other created being. He, or it, is called a serpent. The Bible is not the serpents story, so we are not told a great deal about him. Man, foolishly, decided not to trust the Creator and disobeyed a rule that the Creator had given him. Upon breaking that rule, suddenly man knew he had made a mistake. He knew what he had done was wrong. He was ashamed. He tried to hide from the Creator, but the Creator came and found man and offered to continue to have a relationship with man. The Creator took upon Himself the penalty for mans refusal to trust Him. Part of the cost was the entrance of death into the world. Animals were slain to cover the shame and feeling of nakedness man now felt. One day, The Creator would send His Only Begotten Son, to demonstrate how far He would go to pay the price for our refusal to trust and obey the Creator. The Bible is the story of Gods continued efforts to have relationships with these beings. He would continue to bear the cost of the rebellion Himself. He had every right to simply write man off, that is, to condemn man to eternal separation from Himself, but He refused to do so. He continues to offer man the opportunity to know Him. One of the names for His Only Begotten Son is Jesus, which means, The Creator Saves. Another is Emmnauel which means The Creator is With us. This is the continuing message of The Bible and the Creator Gods followers. God loves us and wants to have a relationship with each one of us. He is Creator and will continue to be Lord and He expects us to accept Him. He will not change in that respect. To do so would be to deny who He is. As Creator, He must be Lord. If we are to have a relationship with Him, it must be with Him AS LORD. One of Creator Gods followers, named David, who was king of Israel wrote many songs and poems. One of them is Psalm 46. 1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. 6 The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted. 7 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. 8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. 9 He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. 10 Cease striving and know that I am God I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. (New American Standard Bible) David mentions several times in this song that the Lord is with us. He is our stronghold. This is perhaps, at least as I understand it, one of the most common themes in the Bible. God is with us. He is a “very present help in trouble.” God is not some distant Creator who does not care about us. He is a very present help in time of difficulty and trouble. Many think the God of the Bible is a ruthless, uncaring God of wrath and judgment. This is not the God I see there. Yes, He insists on being our Lord. If we accept Him thinking otherwise, it is not Him we have accepted, but something less than the full truth about Him. He will be treated with respect. We can refuse to accept Him as such and it will be our loss because He loves us more than we can ever hope to understand. I expect to spend eternity exploring the depths of His love for us, or should I say, exploring the depths of His love for me. If He stands in judgment of us because we insist on refusing to accept Him as Creator and Lord, it will break His heart. I believe this to be true for us on a personal basis. God will be hurt. He chooses to allow us to hurt Him. This is the message of the cross. The Creator God loves each one of us so much He allows our refusal of His love and grace to injure Him. He who is so big that He created all things, loves you. He invites you to repent of your refusal to live in a relationship with Him. He invites you to “Cease striving and know that HE is God.” That is how David put it. The King James Version says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Perhaps you have accepted Him as your Savior, but you have not understood that, as Creator, He must also be Lord. The relationship we can have with Him will not be all it can be unless you accept that you live to serve Him. I believe this is the reason we exist. That brings me back to where I started. We are each striving to make a good show of our lives here. If my, or should I say, Christianitys understanding of what that means is correct, we are here to return to God. We are here to live in a relationship with Him and that will bring honor and glory to Him. He makes that possible, even though we have done so poorly at it up to now. Jesus taught us about the Helper He would send to us. He called this helper Another Comforter. This explains, in part, how we can have a relationship with the Creator of all things. He enters this world and shows himself to us. One of the ways He does so is by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, through John in Revelation 3:20, that He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks, asking to come in and have a relationship with us. The Holy Spirit is one way that God is present with us. As David said, He is a very present help in time of trouble. Cease striving and know that He is God. If you have not accepted Him, I invite you to speak to Him and tell Him that you want Him to come in and have an ongoing relationship with Him. If you have accepted Him, but have come to understand more fully what that relationship needs to be, thank Him for that new understanding. Bow before Him as Lord of all and give Him the praise and honor that is due to our Creator God. The second greatest command that Jesus told us about was to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. I think there is a connection between these two commandments we may not always recognize. I have come to believe that we cannot love other people until we know and love God. We have to know that God loves us, personally, before we are free to love anyone else. Until we believe that God loves us we are always seeking to love others in order to get love back from them. Once we know that God loves us and have that love need fulfilled by Him, then we can begin to love other people without demanding that they love us in return. So, the fulfillment of the second command, begins when we come to love God. We can only love God when we know Him. God said, through His servant David, “Cease striving and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” This was Gods invitation to all of us, kind of like what Jesus said to Mary: “you are concerned about many things”. We are so concerned about many things, we strive and struggle to make sense of life and to be successful at whatever we think we should be successful doing. God says to us, “Sit at my feet and learn of me. I love you more than you can ever understand. Relax, come away by yourself for a time. Get to know Me. You will like Me, no, you will Love Me” Cease striving and know that I am God. Two things to remember about God: First, God Loves me. Say that with me. God Loves Me. Second, He is Lord of All, He is my Lord. Say that with me. He is my Lord. God, through His Holy Spirit may be speaking to you right now. He wants you to know Him, so that you can Love Him. He wants you to accept the truth about Him. If you want to accept the truth about Him now you can pray. He will hear you. Tell Him you want to know Him. Tell Him you accept His love, His saving grace that was provided by the the death of Jesus Christ. Tell Him you want to accept that He is Lord of all, and that He is your Lord and that you will begin doing your best to live like He really is the Lord of your life. Seek Him and He will be found. Trust Him and Love Him. He loves you more than you will ever understand. Give up your struggles and rest in the knowledge that God loves you and that He wants to have a relationship with you. If you know Him, you will love. To Love God We Must Know God.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 19:14:00 +0000
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