The Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent God

The Omnipresence, Omnipotence, and Omniscience of God:

In the midst of the physical pain, remember the whip, the crown of thorns, the agony of the cross. He knows--and is there by your side.
In the sorrow of the loved one lost, remember Him standing with Mary sobbing at His feet as the tears flowed from His eternal eyes. He knows--and is there by your side.
In the broken-heartedness of the betrayal and desertion by those we love, remember Him standing in the garden alone, the sheep scattering into the darkness, His plea for their safety. He knows--and is there by your side.
In the deep concern for the one who has gone astray and denied His Name, remember His prayers for Peter, His look of concern when the rooster crowed, and His seeking, finding, and restoring of Peter on the sands by the sea. He knows--and is there by your side.
When overwhelmed by the hunger of the poor, remember His compassion as He looked on the multitude--a flock without a Shepherd--until a small boy gave Him his loaves and fish and He satisfied them. He knows--and is there by your side.
When confused by your lack of understanding of His will, remember the multitude of times He sat with His disciples and kept patiently answering their questions knowing that the time would come when the Spirit would call to remembrance His teaching, and they would understand. He knows--and is there by your side.

Rejoice that He has chosen you to fellowship with Him in His suffering.
Weep with those who weep.
Focus on the heart needs of the sheep hiding in the darkness.
Pray with Him as you walk the sands of your beach eager to seek, eager to rejoice at the restoration.
Give Him your loaves and fish.
Keep knocking, keep seeking, keep asking.

"Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed. For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
"When through the deep waters I call thee to go, the rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow, For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, and sanctify to thee, thy deepest distress."

The Work

When God is working in our lives through difficult times, remember He is also working in the lives of those who are in the struggle "with" us. Did you ever stop to think that the reason for the pain and sorrow in your life is so that He can do a wondrous work in their lives? If you truly love those other people, isn't your brokenness a blessing to embrace? Spend time on your knees praying that they might find His love in their brokenness.

The Question and the Answer

We put those we love in great danger when we lead them to believe that their relationship with us is more important than their relationship with Him. And that, I think, is especially dangerous when those we love are in rebellion against Him. And, perhaps, dangerous for our relationship with Him as well. Remember the question He asked? "Who is my mother and my father, my sister and my brother?" And remember the answer? "Those that do the will of my Father in Heaven." When He gives us the question and the answer, we had best take Him seriously. He never wastes words.

How Can It Be?

The older I get the more I am awed by the old, old, story that Jesus died for me. Maybe it's because I've lived so long with me, that I find it beyond my finite comprehension that God's sovereign grace and mercy sought out me. The question in that song title always resonates as I hear of His love for this old man: Who can answer that question--How can it be? I can never hear the story enough. I can never meditate enough on His wonderful redemption for sinners--especially this one. The eternal, holy, righteous, just God provided the way for me to become His child for all eternity. And His motivation was He looked at me and loved me. Amazing love!!! Show me the believer of any age that gets tired of hearing about Jesus, and I'll show you a believer whose pride has suppressed His humility, and whose commitment to discipleship is spiritually waning. For me He died--willingly; for the joy that was set before Him--my salvation from self and sin--He endured the cross. For me!

How can it be?

The Battle

One of the ways God describes our Christian walk is that it is a battle. It is not a battle against humans, and so our weapons are not human but spiritual. We are to pray for those we consider our enemy. We are to share with them God's desire to transfer them from the camp of His enemies and into the camp of His friends--to even become His children forever through faith in Christ. And no matter what they've done, repentance brings full forgiveness. It is the condition of their souls that should grief us more deeply than their behavior. And remember Jesus didn't come to save the righteous but to seek out sinners that He might save them. So we who are His know who we are--undeserving recipients of His grace and loving mercy. In tenderness He sought us. We must be those who wield the weapon of tenderness as well.
And though we know with Paul that God has given us the victory that does not mean that the battle is not difficult. We can grow weary. And when we do, we know it is time to cast our cares on Him. We can be wounded. And then we know that it is time to surrender to the sorrows that will make us more like our Captain--a man of sorrows. And we can now embrace the call to the service of comforters. We can lack an understanding of the purpose of the circumstances His love and wisdom have taken us through. And then we must trust in who we know Him to be--Our Father, the eternal Lover of our souls, the One who is touched in His heart by the sorrows in ours; yet, lovingly committed to molding us into His image that we might be Christ-in-the-room wherever He sends us--full of graciousness, mercy, truth, compassion, forgiveness, humility. We must ask for wisdom to understand while living a life of faithful love in His lovingkindness toward us. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him."
We are the battlefield. We must wield the Sword of the Spirit with love and tenderness and compassion. We must rely on the strength He promises if we will be content in all circumstances. We must cast our weaknesses on Him who has promised to bear them for us. We must pray for those in the flesh that we think are the enemy. They should know how much we love them--as much as He loved them when He sent His Son into the world to die for them. And yet, as a good soldier we must not become entangled in the things of this world. And in those times when we think that we are not holding up our end of the spiritual warfare, we must rest in the promise that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. The battle is not won by our strength, but by His love being seen in us more and more each day.

Purity and Restoration

There is a "practice" that God has instituted in the church that serves two purposes: purification and restoration. Those are two marvelous things. Yet, the church doesn't do this very often. The practice: church discipline.
When a church member, a professing Christian, is living a life of openly practicing a sin in defiance of God's Word and has refused to give up that sin when lovingly encouraged to do so, that person should be removed from the church. Why? Paul is quite clear about the consequences of not doing so--the "disease" of willful spiritual defiance is highly contagious. When others see Christians living such a life in defiance of God and without experiencing consequences, the response is "well, I may as well live that way too. If there are no consequences for such a life style of rebellion, why not?" The Holy Spirit through the pen of Paul says that that is what will happen. Will. The "leaven" will saturate the entire body of believers. To maintain a pure church that reflects the holiness of God, discipline is essential.
The second reason for such discipline is a deep desire to restore the rebellious saint to the fellowship--with Christ first, and then with His body. Yes, a deep desire for spiritual restoration is vital. Love demands it. Restoration will not occur without it. Paul tells us what the process will look like--the response of the one disciplined will begin with self-vindication, followed by indignation, followed by sorrow, followed by a longing for the love flowing in the church, followed by repentance and restoration. A soul returned to walking in the light with Him. A soul that knows again the love of Christ in their daily life--the comfort of His presence and His eagerness to lovingly forgive. As the angels rejoice in Heaven, the church can rejoice in the restoration of the one they love. The feast of the fatted calf can begin.
A pure church that reflects His holiness and a rebellious saint restored to fellowship with Him and His body, the church, are the goals of compassionate discipline. And are they not lovely goals? And will it not glorify Him? And will it not do good for the church and the one in rebellion? And if it was you, wouldn't you want to be loved that deeply--to be brought back to a life filled with a sense of His presence? Then . . . ?

Swings

Sometimes I think the swing is a perfect analogy for our parenting. The time comes when we need to give them a push away from us so that they can soar to new heights. They respond with shouts of joyous laughter at the new sense of freedom. And, yes, there is a little bit of trepidation in that joy. And then we just wait patiently and expectantly for their return to our arms. Ready for the next push.

Complainingitis

Perhaps the most difficult disease to cure is "complainingitis." Why do so many of us--why do I--who believe in the sovereignty, love, wisdom, protection, and providence of God spend so much time telling Him that everything is messed up?
I complain about where I am when I know that where I am is exactly where He wants me to be--needs me to be. Yet, I struggle with wondering if things wouldn't be different--better--if I were someplace else. Now, if I am where my Lord and Master needs me to be, who do you think is behind my spirit of complaining, my wish to be somewhere else. As if the one thing I wouldn't take with me to "somewhere else" would be my complaining heart? And the more I complain about where I am, the more I miss the opportunities He has placed before me to be His witness where I am.
Sometimes I complain about my life circumstances. I murmur about my past circumstances, my present circumstance, and my imagined future circumstances. And I have no trouble bringing up all three. Frequently. And yet, what are we told? "He knows the way that I take, and when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." I so deeply desire to be His gold, but then I complain about His purifying of my soul so He can spend me to do His will in the dusty road of everyday life. I tarnish the process by my complaining, and wonder why He isn't using me to display His beautiful character to those around me. It's because His gold--His beauty--is hidden behind the mud of self-pity that I'm always wallowing in.
And too often, I complain about who I am. And who am I? His beloved child, unequivocally beautiful in His heart--the son or daughter of His love, the apple of His eye. He has molded me into the vessel He needs to do His work. He has filled me with the eternal treasure of the Spirit that I might radiate His glorious presence step-by-step each and every day. Who I am--all my gifts and talents--is exactly who He made me to be. Oh, He isn't finished yet; but, He is only going to make me more beautiful--the clay in the Master's hand. If I'll just stop trying to get off the Potter's wheel.
The cause of complainingitis? A lack of faith. I don't believe who He says He is. I don't believe what He tells me He's doing in my life and the eternal purpose behind His loving work in me. I don't believe His promises. I don't believe Him when He tells me that I am His beautiful work of art designed to glorify Him in the place that He has put--assigned--me. And without faith, what is it that God says is impossible? And with faith what is it that He says is undeniably possible?
When the enemy begins to fill your heart and mind with a complaining spirit, stop--and remember--mediate--on what you know is true. He is the Shepherd--my Shepherd--who provides for, loves, protects, guides, sustains. I am in His green pastures, lying by the still waters now, this day. That's where He leads His own.
He has, is, and will take me down the path--the only path--that will transform me into His gold--the reflection of His likeness. The beauty of Jesus can be seen in me.
I am His child--beautiful, deeply loved, exactly who He needs me to be, I am His workmanship--His poem to the world; His beautiful "vase" filled with His presence each moment of this day.
May God grant us the faith to believe in our hearts; and thus, in our lives, that all things are working together for the good of God, His people, and me. Cure me Lord of the walk of sight. Fill me Lord with the walk of faith. I would be one who pleases you by living in the confidence that by faith all things are possible. Even the "cure" of my complaining spirit.

The Question

One question that my students ask that I always try to re-direct is: "Mr. Iten, what do you think about . . . ?" The re-direction? The question should be: "What does God say about . . . ?" Without even thinking about it, I believe we have reached a point in the church where we are elevating our opinion to the point where it has become more authoritative than God's truth. (And as I've said before, God doesn't have opinions.) And like leaven in the loaf of bread, such an attitude of self-deification will soon permeate the whole loaf. Some of it comes from the pressures we face from our culture--the names they call us when we side with God's Word and not their whims. And don't believe for a moment that any one out there believes that "the majority is always right." What he or she believes is that if the majority agrees with me, it's always right. God who knows the heart of mankind--desperately wicked--has established a morality for the good of man and culture. God who knows humanity's desire to please itself at any cost has established a morality that is designed to keep man from self-destruction and the abuse and harm done to others by selfish decision-making. And when the church--Christians--begin to place their opinion above God's declaration, they contribute to the harm and decline of the culture--not to mention the harm they do to their walk with Him. If you are struggling with a moral issue, immerse yourself in the Word. Seek the thoughts of those you respect? Sure. But remember they are human--so test their conclusions against the Word itself. That is not a sign of disrespect--all godly men and women would pray that you do so. It is a sign of loyal love for God--a deep desire to please Him through loving obedience. You cannot walk hand-in-hand with God while walking on a path of your own design and construction. "Can two walk together unless they be in agreement?" And God doesn't need to agree with you; you need to be in agreement with Him. Walk in the light as He is in the light.

Remember the question is: "What does God say about . . .?"

Reflections for June 2019

Immerse your world is grace and kindness.
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A prayer to begin each day:  "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me."
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We sing, "If Jesus goes with us will go, anywhere."  Does that include going to our neighbor, taking Him with us to the restaurant, grocery store, work, school . . .?
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"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

"I will never ever leave you or forsake you."

"Oh, how wonderful!  Oh, how marvelous, is my Savior's love for me."
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I need to follow my Lord's example when I find myself on the stormy sea.  Rest.  When the time is right, He will command the winds and the waves:  "Peace, be still."
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His mercy endures forever.  Phew.
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"It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me."
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When you can't stuff God into your theological box, let Him out--you'll discover how awesome He really is.
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Counting your blessings one by one is not a tedious task.  It's the prelude to the dance of joy.
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Perseverance.  Endurance.  Steadfastness.  Triumph.  Joy.  Patience.  Peace.  Praise.  Exultation.

There is only one way to acquire all these synonyms for loyal love.

Affliction.
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The more I search for what I think I need, the more I wander empty-handed.  The more I seek first the kingdom of God and submit to His leading, the more my cup overflows with the things I really needed.
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No one knows you more completely than He does.

No one loves you as deeply as He does.

And His love is eternal.
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He will never let you go.
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God has never--and will never--throw up His hands in despair.
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Gentleness can break the hardest rock.

I Will Praise Him

God does not struggle with self-esteem. He does not have a self-image problem. The wisdom of man is foolishness to Him. The greatest nations of the world are but a drop in a very large bucket. He laughs at their plans to thwart His purposes. He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. For those that are trusting in Him, His lovingkindess endures forever. I will praise Him.