July 2020
The Wonder of our God
This month we will continue with some more insights as to who God is and what He has allowed us to know about Him. As I shared in last month’s bulletin – no one can fully know God. Augustine said, “this God is ever ancient and ever new.” In truth He can never be fully known – only loved. However, He has given us a wealth of information in the Scriptures, which contain all the things about Him that He wants us to know in this age.
One of the key things is that He is a Trinitarian God – meaning He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As such He is able to enter the earthly realm and our place of reality, while remaining in the highest heavenly realm at the same time. Because of what Jesus achieved on the cross He is also able to come out from His throne room and be amongst us completely – in fact more than that – dwell within us in the person of the Holy Spirit. That is just incredible – the Eternal, all Holy, all Mighty, all Powerful, all Knowing God, lives within each of His people. His goal here is to replicate Himself in us, without making us Him. Amazing!
This means He is the Ultimate Participant in everything – both the good and the painful – actually in the whole array of creation. He identifies with it all. Despite living in a fallen world (by His decree – see John 17), as we participate in Hi life in Christ, we are able to make everything we do holy (Titus 1:15). This is not only prayer, Bible study and worship, but also playing sport, having fun, politics, eating, drinking, gardening, fellowshipping with one another, just to name a few – you can add your own list to these activities.
However, we are mistaken if we believe, as many of us in the Western world do, that this is primarily individualistic. That is not true. By His very own nature, God has designed all of life to function in community. If we don’t build our relationship with Him in the context of a community of other believers, our ability to become more like Him is severely limited. When or if, we don’t give others power in our lives, or block them out, or try and go it alone, we will inevitably become deceived and lose the life He intended us to have. I enjoy my own company and spending time alone, but I always seek to work with others, because I don’t trust myself enough to stay on track without others watching over me. This can be hard as we have to exercise grace, forgiveness, charity and forbearance – but of course, so do others in order to work with us. All these things are a vital part of the Kingdom of God and good practices to learn. As Richard Rohr says, “this completes the circle of love.” I like that.
A much-researched fact that has been discovered today is that humans mostly only get excited about something if it includes them in some way. We not only want to be together, we want, or even need to participate in corporate projects. Of course, God always knew this – it was His idea. As many of you are aware, the universe is designed to be entirely relational. Each system or aspect of life is dependent on the others to thrive. If all the bees in the world died out, we would be doomed, it would eventually mean the end for all life. Starting with the death of plants it goes all the way up the food chain ultimately to us. Incredible really. Look after the bees.
I want to finish, at least for this month’s bulletin by quoting something from Richard Rohr which I feel sums all of this up so well. It comes at the end of comments he was making about God and community.
This then, seems to be the work of the Spirit: to keep you growing is to keep you vulnerable to life and love itself. Notice that the major metaphors for the Spirit are always dynamic, energetic, and moving: elusive wind, descending dove, falling fire, and flowing water. Spirit-led people never stop growing and changing and recognizing the new moment of opportunity.
Wow – what a God we serve! All of this has been put in our DNA. How wonderful that because we could never reach Him, He came to us, bringing wisdom, revelation and the power to overcome. May we never take that for granted.
God bless you,
Bruce Billington