Friday, January 12, 2007

Thy Name (part 3) - God

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1)

This is taken from the root “El” meaning ‘strong’ or ‘mighty.’ Matthew Henry describes “El” as the “strong God” he further asks what else could bring all things out of nothing other than almighty strength. Elohim denotes two main concepts about God, first is the majesty of His name. God is majestic in His being. Before the you and I or anything else was even thought about, God had existed in eternity past, full of glory and perfect in all His attributes, lacking nothing. God is supreme. God rules and reigns and does whatsoever He pleases. The Bible declares to all that God is the Creator. Therefore He has the right and power to rule His creation.

Ponder for a moment the Sun, the center of our solar system, that ball of gaseous flames. Scientifically we know that it is 870,000 miles in diameter, which is 190 times larger than the Earth’s. And yet, we know that the Sun is only a medium star. And what is one star in relation to millions of other stars, some of which are vastly larger. Its surface temperature, we are told, is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and the center 27,000,000 F. The distance from the Earth is 93,000,000 miles away. God designed our planet to be at just the right distance in order to sustain life, it also generates heat, light, and powers the atmosphere for wind and rain, etc. It is God who created the Sun. In fact the whole universe is the handiwork of God. Psalm 19:1 says “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork.” However astonishing this Bible truth is, man, still in his foolish rebellion, dares to shake his fist at God. Many people still choose to reject the clear message of the Gospel.

Secondly, the name “Elohim” also points to the Triune God. God is a Trinity. Christians do not believe in what pagans would teach as Tritheism (three gods), nor do Christians believe in modalism (God the Father is the Son, and is the Spirit- without distinction of persons). The concept of the Trinity is derived from the Scriptures. It is not an invention of human wisdom, indeed it is beyond human comprehension, and yet it must be received by faith. Many people today serve a God of their imagination. But God is not impressed. There are folks who are entertaining false thoughts about God concerning His most basic attributes (such as open theism). There are so-called evangelists who are calling to question the severity of God’s judgment of unrepentant sinners (or Hell and the Lake of Fire). Others have reduced God into a warm fuzzy old grandfather on a rocking chair. They have altogether created a God out of their imaginations. I think of it as a God created by the creature. Then there are those who willfully choose to believe that there is no such being as God. The point is, God is who He says He is. Despite our best or worst imaginations about God, one day, everyone will come face to face with their Creator. Once more, the only ones that will be rejoicing on that day are those who have understood the majesty of God’s name and have placed their faith and trust in Him alone.

Dear Christian, do you esteem God, to be supreme in your life? If so, are your daily decisions in step with such a Creator. It seems as though many of God’s children disregard God in their everyday lives, and this is manifested in the poor choice of not praying, not reading their Bible, not being serious about serving the Lord. I think that these sinful practices are certainly the exemption. Because we believe God to be majestic and supreme, He deserves our best, and that He is worthy to be praised. Perhaps, maybe perhaps, many professing Christians are so willfully disobedient to God and disregard Him because their faith is superficial. They may have tip their hats to Him, or whispered a prayer void of saving faith, that they end up being nothing more than an unconverted religious professing Christian.

If God indeed is supreme in your life, do you rearrange your schedule to maximize your service to such a God? Or do you serve the Lord when it is most convenient for you. The world is not going to make it easy on Christians to serve the Lord, they never have, and they never will. The point is, if God is “Elohim” in your life, then a difference will soon be manifested, even in something like your work or vacation schedule, and that without much effort, I don’t think.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post, Bro. Billy!

Unknown said...

Thanks Nic. I look forward to reading your series on the Holy Spirit's work in the believer's life. Blog on!

Christopher Cline said...

Great Post,
I to am going to start a devotional on thirty primary names of God.
Lord Bless

Unknown said...

That will be a worth while topic no doubt. Thanks.

Jeff Voegtlin said...

Billy,

I really enjoyed this post.

Thanks,