Brace yourself, this one’s gonna be long.
Being unable to understand Teleugu I sit through about five sermons a week where, apart from the occasional English word, I am lost on what’s being said. I still love my time in the Indian churches that are filled with colorful saris, genuine prayers, beautiful worship, and tons of precious kids scurrying about. Apart from contemplating about which language we will speak when we go home to Heaven, I try to process the things I have seen in India during this time.
The word “idol” is frequently used in the church gatherings because many people are Hindu converts. Hinduism dominates the country—colorful temples streak the city, alters for sacrifices line the street stores, and houses are covered with adornments displaying their faith in superstitions. These beliefs and customs are completely new to me and I relish any opportunity to hear more about the complex religion of idolatry. Of course idols are just as prevalent in America as they are in India. Although we might not bow down to physical statues, selfishness, money, status, and much more rule our lives. For the believer and non-believer alike, idols are dangerous and deadly. In its essence idolatry is entertaining thoughts that are unworthy of God. When we insist on imagining God, we end up with an idol not made from hands, but one made from thoughts. This is of equal offense.
Along with thinking during church services I read A LOT. I’ve read and reread one of my favorite books called The Knowledge of the Holy. This book dives into wrecking false perceptions of God and replacing it with thoughts that are true of Him. Here is a brief description and quotes from HALF of Tozer’s book (hopefully I’ll write the other half in another post soon):
Incomprehensible: To think of creature and Creator equally would be to reduce God to creature, so foremost we must rid this thinking. We like to try and comprehend God because then have Him where we can use Him—it gives us a sense of control and security. We also have this desire because we were made in God’s image. Our soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source. But because sin entered the world, man cannot reach God. Though God is still incomprehensible, the sacrifice of Jesus enables us to understand certain things that are true of God.
Self-existence: For the most part, science and philosophy have not been friendly toward the idea of God. They will admit that there is much they do not know, but it is entirely different to admit there’s something they can never know and will never have the techniques to know. To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who lies outside of reason, and who will not submit to our curious desire requires much humility and surrender. To begin, God is nowhere while He is everywhere. “Where” is confined by space and matter and God is independent of both. Man however is created, and although we have the ability to choose holiness or sin because we can exercise moral choice, our entire existence is dependent on the breath of God.
Self-sufficiency: God has no needs. To say that He has even a single one would be to say there is incompleteness in His nature. God has a voluntary relationship to everything He has made, none of it is necessary. He is what He is in regard to Himself without any regard to any other. To believe in God adds nothing to His perfections and to doubt Him takes nothing away—this is good news!
Eternal: Time marks the beginning of created existence, but because God never began to exist, time has zero application to Him. God dwells in eternity whereas time dwells inside of God. God has already lived all of our todays, yesterdays, and tomorrows. He appears in the beginning and end of time simultaneously. CS Lewis provides a simple illustration to grasp the difficult concept. God is like an infinitely long scroll of white paper and all of time is small black line that is irrelevant to the scroll.
Infiniteness: God is infinite because he knows no bounds. He is above, beyond, and outside of all. Because His nature is infinite, so is everything that flows from Him. His grace, mercy, love, etc. are limitless.
Immutability: God never differs from Himself. He does not grow or develop. He is perfect and has never been any less perfect than He is now and can never be any more perfect than He is and has always been. In God, no change is possible, but in men change is impossible to escape. This change, or lack of it, is a beautiful gift. Man has the possibility for redemption while knowing that God’s promises will always remain certain. In our efforts to please and find Him, the change must occur within us. God cannot compromise and will not be coaxed.
Trinity: We cannot grasp the mystery of the Divine Trinity. Looking at Hebrews 9:14, we see a beautiful description. Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offers Himself without spot to the Father. The three persons harmoniously act together in all of the mighty works throughout the universe. God cannot divide Himself while one person works and the others are inactive. Our only response to the mystery of the Godhead is to kneel in reverence.
Omniscience: God possesses perfect knowledge and he has no need to learn. There is more--He has never learned and will not learn!
Wisdom: All of God’s acts are done in perfect wisdom, first for His own glory and then for the highest good for the greatest number of people. His wise acts could not be better done and there is no way to imagine them being done better.
Omnipotence: To rule the earth, God must have to power. To rule sovereignty, He must have all the power. Science observes God’s power by identifying His regular patterns in nature and calling it “law.” The trustworthiness of God’s behavior and power allows scientists to predict the course of natural phenomena. This omnipotence is not a name given to the sum of all power, but an attribute of a personal God who is the Father of Jesus.
The listed attributes of God do not even scratch the surface. Hopefully I will summarazie the other half of the book soon. But even so, we will still spend our whole lives on earth and for eternity learning about God’s nature. And even then, we will still not know all of who God is! Crazy stuff.
Being unable to understand Teleugu I sit through about five sermons a week where, apart from the occasional English word, I am lost on what’s being said. I still love my time in the Indian churches that are filled with colorful saris, genuine prayers, beautiful worship, and tons of precious kids scurrying about. Apart from contemplating about which language we will speak when we go home to Heaven, I try to process the things I have seen in India during this time.
The word “idol” is frequently used in the church gatherings because many people are Hindu converts. Hinduism dominates the country—colorful temples streak the city, alters for sacrifices line the street stores, and houses are covered with adornments displaying their faith in superstitions. These beliefs and customs are completely new to me and I relish any opportunity to hear more about the complex religion of idolatry. Of course idols are just as prevalent in America as they are in India. Although we might not bow down to physical statues, selfishness, money, status, and much more rule our lives. For the believer and non-believer alike, idols are dangerous and deadly. In its essence idolatry is entertaining thoughts that are unworthy of God. When we insist on imagining God, we end up with an idol not made from hands, but one made from thoughts. This is of equal offense.
Along with thinking during church services I read A LOT. I’ve read and reread one of my favorite books called The Knowledge of the Holy. This book dives into wrecking false perceptions of God and replacing it with thoughts that are true of Him. Here is a brief description and quotes from HALF of Tozer’s book (hopefully I’ll write the other half in another post soon):
Incomprehensible: To think of creature and Creator equally would be to reduce God to creature, so foremost we must rid this thinking. We like to try and comprehend God because then have Him where we can use Him—it gives us a sense of control and security. We also have this desire because we were made in God’s image. Our soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source. But because sin entered the world, man cannot reach God. Though God is still incomprehensible, the sacrifice of Jesus enables us to understand certain things that are true of God.
Self-existence: For the most part, science and philosophy have not been friendly toward the idea of God. They will admit that there is much they do not know, but it is entirely different to admit there’s something they can never know and will never have the techniques to know. To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who lies outside of reason, and who will not submit to our curious desire requires much humility and surrender. To begin, God is nowhere while He is everywhere. “Where” is confined by space and matter and God is independent of both. Man however is created, and although we have the ability to choose holiness or sin because we can exercise moral choice, our entire existence is dependent on the breath of God.
Self-sufficiency: God has no needs. To say that He has even a single one would be to say there is incompleteness in His nature. God has a voluntary relationship to everything He has made, none of it is necessary. He is what He is in regard to Himself without any regard to any other. To believe in God adds nothing to His perfections and to doubt Him takes nothing away—this is good news!
Eternal: Time marks the beginning of created existence, but because God never began to exist, time has zero application to Him. God dwells in eternity whereas time dwells inside of God. God has already lived all of our todays, yesterdays, and tomorrows. He appears in the beginning and end of time simultaneously. CS Lewis provides a simple illustration to grasp the difficult concept. God is like an infinitely long scroll of white paper and all of time is small black line that is irrelevant to the scroll.
Infiniteness: God is infinite because he knows no bounds. He is above, beyond, and outside of all. Because His nature is infinite, so is everything that flows from Him. His grace, mercy, love, etc. are limitless.
Immutability: God never differs from Himself. He does not grow or develop. He is perfect and has never been any less perfect than He is now and can never be any more perfect than He is and has always been. In God, no change is possible, but in men change is impossible to escape. This change, or lack of it, is a beautiful gift. Man has the possibility for redemption while knowing that God’s promises will always remain certain. In our efforts to please and find Him, the change must occur within us. God cannot compromise and will not be coaxed.
Trinity: We cannot grasp the mystery of the Divine Trinity. Looking at Hebrews 9:14, we see a beautiful description. Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offers Himself without spot to the Father. The three persons harmoniously act together in all of the mighty works throughout the universe. God cannot divide Himself while one person works and the others are inactive. Our only response to the mystery of the Godhead is to kneel in reverence.
Omniscience: God possesses perfect knowledge and he has no need to learn. There is more--He has never learned and will not learn!
Wisdom: All of God’s acts are done in perfect wisdom, first for His own glory and then for the highest good for the greatest number of people. His wise acts could not be better done and there is no way to imagine them being done better.
Omnipotence: To rule the earth, God must have to power. To rule sovereignty, He must have all the power. Science observes God’s power by identifying His regular patterns in nature and calling it “law.” The trustworthiness of God’s behavior and power allows scientists to predict the course of natural phenomena. This omnipotence is not a name given to the sum of all power, but an attribute of a personal God who is the Father of Jesus.
The listed attributes of God do not even scratch the surface. Hopefully I will summarazie the other half of the book soon. But even so, we will still spend our whole lives on earth and for eternity learning about God’s nature. And even then, we will still not know all of who God is! Crazy stuff.
