I was at a men’s bible study just a few days ago, and one of my brothers that was there made a comment that made me think deeply about the power of God. It really is quite amazing when you think about it. Jesus is this figure that came and changed the world. This God. This… man. Meekness, power under control.
The Creator Behind the Cosmos
Just picture this being for a moment. Really, read these words and close your eyes and think about all the stories you know about him. All the miracles you’ve read about. The all-powerful creator. The cloud rider. The one who makes the blind see, the lame walk, and the dead live again. The number of stars and planets out there is a number we can’t even comprehend. And while the materialist people of this world struggle to grasp what happened before the big bang that brought all this to be—a time before no-thing existed—the followers of the one true God know that what preceded the big bang and all of creation as we know it was four words:
Let. There. Be. Light.
He is not only the foundation of our hearts and the rock on which we can stand when this world shakes. He is the foundation of existence itself. He, on which everything must stand, and he upholds it all with his power. I’m not someone who believes that it rains and thunders because God is mad. I’m one who knows that the laws of nature and physics are so because they were instituted by God and have followed his command from the beginning of time.
The Vastness of Space and the God Beyond It
Think about the endless blackness of space. We are on a rock floating through darkness, entrapped within the gravitational pull of our star, hurtling us through space at an unimaginable speed. The blackness seems to have no end and trillions upon trillions of stars and planets all spread out within this blackness at distances that we don’t even understand—distances that physicists say are impossible for us to travel, even with the type of technology you see in movies.
God is still beyond that, not in a physical sense, yet he still exists somewhere physically. In a realm or dimension entirely different from ours. He is the one thing that is truly eternal, which all else must be built and exist upon.
How powerful a being he must be.
Face to Face with Power
Now picture yourself in 1st-century Israel, walking down the street, hearing of someone who heals any affliction for anyone who seeks him. Crowds follow him from city to city. You round a corner, following the noise and commotion, and come face to face with a man. You look into the eyes of the Ancient of Days. All that power wrapped into a human body, who has eyes that see through you, into the core of your being. You feel that everything has changed. He demonstrated his command over nature, he made limbs grow back, paralyzed men walked. He healed people simply by saying it was so, even though he was miles away.
The Human Disposition
It is in our human arrogance that we deny God as he has revealed himself in the one we know as Jesus. The one who came and changed the world and whom the world still debates to this day, as they did in his. Do we believe or not? Will we follow?
We tell ourselves we don’t need to follow because the scriptures have been corrupted. Even though we have archaeologically found ancient scrolls that, when translated, are the same words in the book that collects dust on our shelves.
We tell ourselves “we’re spiritual” because we’ve been deceived to believe that we can be good without God and have found an alternate path to heaven, whatever that means to you today.
We tell ourselves that we’re good people and that should be enough. Yet we’re selfish, think and say hurtful things about others, don’t offer help to those who need it even when we have the ability to. Not just the people we know but strangers and enemies too. We give ourselves convenient reasons to not do what we know is right. We follow influencers and are consumed by things that are detrimental to us, our loved ones and society. We’re not innocent, we know what we do.
We do anything, believe anything, invent every construct in our minds that allows us to avoid all accountability for our actions.
Yet His Promises Don’t Change
He still chooses to forgive us, to welcome us with open arms and to transform us into a people ready for the challenges of this life and made clean through Jesus. So that we can be sons and daughters of the living God, prepared through a life of trials and faith to live in eternity, with free will, in a perfect place as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.
“The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” — Psalm 145:8
Will you keep making excuses, or will you finally look him in the eyes and be changed?
Leave a Reply