Tag Archives: God

About God

Posted on by
Reply

Continuing my posts on a Statement of Faith, I now turn to a brief statement on what I believe about God:

I believe in the one true God, who is the author, creator, and source of all life, goodness and blessing. 

God is one, yet exists and has revealed Himself as three distinct persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  There are numerous ways to describe this Triune nature of God (a three-leaf clover, a triple-helix, a triangle, etc), but no one example is complete.  The fact is, the One and Three nature of God is a mystery, but it is Biblical (see Matt. 3:13-17, 2 Cor. 13:14, 1 Cor 12:4-6; Matt. 28:19-20, Eph 4:4-6; John 14:26, and more).

God, who exists outside of space and time, stepped into space and time, cre­ating everything that is for His own purposes, to demonstrate His own glory, power, wisdom and goodness.  God continues to provide for and sustain His creation.  As the sovereign over all of creation, there is nothing that is beyond God’s control, nothing that is beyond His power to redeem, and no one that is beyond God’s saving reach.  God has a plan for all things (Eph 1:10), and His sovereign will cannot be thwarted.

God is a God of love. In grace God chooses to show love and mercy. When we were dead in trespasses and sin, God made us alive with Christ, saving us by grace through faith, as a sheer gift of sovereign love.  However, God’s gracious loving kindness did not compromise His justice.  God remains perfectly just and holy in the salvation of sinners by placing the judgment and wrath for our sins upon His sinless Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Proving His love for us, He sent Christ to die for us, so that by His grace, we may live righteous and holy lives in the power of His Holy Spirit.

God, and God alone, is worthy of worship.  Worship is what God deserves, simply because of who God is.  Worship is our rightful and joyful response to God’s love.  Indeed, our purpose in life is to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever” (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 1).  Worship is not merely something that we do when we gather as a congregation on a Sunday morning, it is a way of life that proclaims the gospel, celebrates the goodness and majesty of God, and submits to His righteous and gracious lordship over all of creation, and over every aspect of our individual and corporate lives. 

Earth Day and Good Friday

Posted on by
Reply

I’m not one to really get into all the hubub about “Earth Day.”  I try to be a good steward of God’s creation, I learned that in scouting.  My family recycles, we try not to waste too much water (but with a pre-teen girl, that’s near impossible), and both our cars average about 25 miles per gallon, even though they are 10 years old.

I just can’t throw myself into the “Earth Day” excitement.  As my heart is an “idol factory,” always taking the good gifts of God and making them gods themselves, I have seen how “Earth Day” and “Environmentalism” are no different.  We worship “Mother Earth,” but it’s always the “hand of God” that brings disaster, as if “Gaia” and “God” were two equal gods, opposing one another, one loving, one not.  “The Lord our God is one, and we shall have no other gods before Him” (Deut 6:4).  “There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides Thee, Nor is there any rock like our God” (1 Sam 2:2).  “Earth Day” service project, while good and beneficial, become a religious service, “do this and you will recieve absolution for your environmental sins.”  Yeah, so I’m a little skeptical of “Earth Day.”

But this week I read an article by Janie Cheaney of World Magazine that, while not changing my attitude about “Earth Day,” did help me to see Earth’s role in our salvation story anew.  I encourage you to click here to read it.  As Ms. Cheaney noted in her email to me about this article, “I can’t help thinking, especially in reference to Rom. 8:19, that Earth would somehow recognize her King.”

“This Earth Day, thousands of Earth’s devotees will be handing out recycling containers, picking up trash, and urging us to remember our mother. If she had a soul, she might be smiling indulgently at pleas to “make a difference,” even while pointing upward with every fresh-planted seeding. Only one Person really has made a difference.”