You, God, and Aging – Part One

God speaks through the prophet Isaiah about aging Israel in Isaiah 46. His address was directly applicable to the people of Israel as they aged. It is relevant to believers in every era regarding aging personally.

In a TV commercial Kathy Lee Gifford speaks of aging: “I’m not saying growing old is easy. I am saying it can be easier.” God never hinted life would be easy. He, too, has said it can be easier.

Through Isaiah God speaks, “I will be your God throughout your lifetime – until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you: (Isaiah 46: 4).

This promise to aged Israel is applicable to every aged believer. God has graciously engaged to support and comfort His faithful servants, even in their old age. Expanded application is as though God is saying, “Even to your old age, when you grow unfit for business, when you are compassed with infirmities, and perhaps your relations begin to grow weary of you, yet I am he-he that I am, he that I have been – the very same by whom you have been borne from the belly and carried from the womb. You change, but I am the same.”

From the womb to the tomb He is God and as such is worth our devotion.

Graphic, isn’t it? Also gratifying isn’t it?

My wife and I have passed through the nonagenarian portal and not without continuing problems and pain like people of such age. We need a passageway through our perplexities and we are finding God, true to His word, is providing it. There is no exemption from difficulty and no immunity from ailing as we age. Every aging individual knows what I speak.

Every person knows they will get old, but some people live as though an exception will be made in their case. There are no exceptions. It helps if you eat right, exercise properly, rest well and avoid certain aging properties. That is our part. Do them and you will find God does His part. Even if you fail to do your part He still does His, but with the limits you put on yourself. 

Actress Sophia Loren noted, “There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” Truly those are assets when the Lord is added to the equation. Even as those attributes fade as a vapor there stands the Lord with a smile on His face saying, “I am here and I love you.”

We should so live that it might be said of us as it was Abraham: “Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was gathered to his people” (Genesis 25: 8).

Trinity: How Could There Be Three in One?

This is offered to enable my esteemed Jewish friends to understand why Christians believe in the Trinity.  Often when asked to name the members of the Holy Trinity the answer is: God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Wrong. The three are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three constitute one God comprising the Tri-Unity, three in one. Some people refer to them as the Godhead.

The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Phil. 1:2), Jesus as God (Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:3-4).

The concept of three in one is found throughout nature.

H20 as a liquid is water, as ice a solid, as a vapor steam.

One egg has three different parts – the shell, the white, the yoke. Similarly, one apple has three different parts – the skin, the flesh, and the seed.

In math 1+1+1 = 3.  However, 1x1x1 = 1. Each is multiplied by self to make one. The latter represents the Tri-Unity.

Sigmund Freud, by no means a friend of theology, nevertheless theorized that human personalities are made up of three parts: Id, Ego, Super-ego. As people, we are balanced out by the impulsive Id, the logical Ego, and the moralizing Super-ego. Likewise, God is balanced out to us in a way we can understand by the all-seeing Father, the teacher Jesus, and the guiding Holy Spirit. They are the different natures of God, who is one being.

John 1: 1, 2 states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

The word, Word is a reference to Jesus Christ who was with God and He was God. Logically, the question is often asked how could He be God and be with God.

His very essence, His intrinsic nature or indispensable quality that determined His character was God. His essence was God as much as the Father and Holy Spirit are God. Summarily He was God the Son.

Physically He was with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

During an era when nations worship multiple gods the Hebrew Shema was penned: “Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6: 4). Historically Jews have repeated it together in the synagogues. The Hebrew word “echad” translated “one” refers to a compound unit. It reveals a plurality, more than one. It is used instead of another Hebrew word, “yacheed” which speaks of a single unit.

Echad, meaning one compound unit, is used rather than “yacheed,” A compound unit, (echad) for example, might speak of one compound unit of gum (stick) in one yacheed pack. One pack having five units, five in one.

The first name for God in the Bible is the one used here, “Elohim.” Though grammatically plural it is used as though singular. This is the case in Genesis 1: 26 also, “Then God (Elohim) said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness….:’” Elohim, translated here “us” and “Our” is plural. This reveals the Tri-Unity, God as one.

(This is a complex subject, one of the most complex. Don’t be concerned that it might have to be read more than once and studied to be better understood.)

God – Part Eight

Sometimes a child will ask: “Where did God come from?” No simple question.     

We think in straight lines. A day begins and ends. A child is born and an adult dies. We think in beginnings and ends.

Hold up a ring and ask, “Where is the end of this ring?” It has no beginning or ending. So it is with God. He always has been.

Before creation there was no time and at the end of the world time will cease to be. From God’s vantage point in eternity His perspective of everything is always in the present.

The Psalmists framed this for us in these words: “From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalm 90:2). Meaning “from vanishing point in times past to vanishing point in the future God always has been and always will be.” Our capacity to think of the beginning and end of time reaches a limit and our capacity to conceive of eternity ends.

Astronomers and physicists are giving us a hint of this by showing there is no time on the cusps of black holes in deep outer space. Near a black hole, the slowing of time is extreme. From the viewpoint of an observer outside the black hole, time stops. For example, an object falling into the hole would appear frozen in time at the edge of the hole.

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity proves time can be made to stop. If a person could travel at the speed of light, time would stop.

An understanding of the omniscience (full knowledge of God) would be aided if we had a better understanding of time. John 1:1 opens with the words “In the beginning…” In the Greek text there is no article before “time.” It is simply “In beginning,” meaning there was an occasion when time began. The text literally means “before time began to begin…” Time itself was a part of creation. Christ spoke of a time when the world would and “time” should be no more (Matthew 13:39,40,49; 24:3,31).

In death we move from a sphere where there is time to one where there is no time. There are two regions in this sphere: heaven and hell. God’s grace is at its zenith in that He allows us to decide in which we will spend eternity.

Christ came from the sphere where there was no time, heaven, into our sphere where there is time. He came to give His life that if we will submit and commit to Him as Savior at death we might step into the sphere where there is no time, heaven.

On the cross, by His bountiful grace, He provided for you all that He asks from you. I appeal to you to commit your life to Jesus Christ and receive His wonderful gift of salvation.

It is grace that has given you not only the ability but the responsibility to make a choice that determines your destiny.

God – Part Seven

Don’t be surprised if you don’t understand all about God. No one ever has. If we could we would be as great as He and that would dramatically diminish Him.

Though we do not fully understand Him we can know Him. Some of His attributes help us to know Him.

One of the most mystifying aspects about God is where He is. 

His center is everywhere, His circumference is nowhere.

He is present in each event, though His presence is not quite the same as the presence of physical beings. God does not have a body; He is immaterial. He is the ultimate spirit being.

His omnipresence means He is all present. It enables Him to be present with all of us at all times. That defies our imagination.

There is no science that enables us to be in more than one space at the time.

The fact we can be at only one place at a time makes it all the more challenging to conceive of God as being at all places at one time.

God being all present at all times means nothing escapes His notice. The Psalmist confirms this, “Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I escape from your presence?” (Psalm 139: 7 – 18) Though we cannot look on the face of God He continually looks upon each of us. It means you are never alone.

Some people can amazingly multitask, that is do several things at one time. God is the ultimate multitasker. He can give personal attention to every person at once.

God is not spatially limited. We categorize everything along a timeline: past present and future. God is eternal. He always has been and always will be. With Him there is no time He is the creator of all things and will be the consummation of all things. He is the beginning and will be the ultimate end.

God’s omnipresence is not just a theory. It is a foundational truth of redemption. Although we have sinned and deserve God’s judgment, God comes to his faithful people and declares to them “I will be with you.” This means that God is here, wherever we are, but also that God is on our side. He is with us, not to destroy us, but to forgive and to save us from sin.

Historically God came to us physically in the person of Jesus to declare and demonstrate His presence, power. And love.

If you can’t fully comprehend His omnipresence, rejoice. If you could, you would be as great as He and that would not be good. Conversely, He would be equal to you and that would not be good.

Because God is omnipresent, you and I are never alone. Jesus Christ promises to be with us always and everywhere (Matthew 28:18-20).

“The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.” (Proverbs 15: 3)

God – Part Six

The number of atheists  (a = without; theos = god) and agnostics (a = without; gnosis = knowledge) has dramatically increased in recent years. The errors of such doctrine needs to be refuted.

During the old USSR I shared with a hardened member of the KGB proof of God’s existence. As the conversation progressed I noticed a tear on his cheek and asked if I could help. He said no it was just that he had been reared in an atheistic country, and it saddened him to know God had been there all the time and no one ever told him, and not only was He there but that He loved him. He is representative of many in America.

Romans 1: 20 shouts of evidence of God: “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities… have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” Imagine a car existing without a designer and maker. Could a C-5 airplane rolling off the assembly line at Lockheed Georgia and it being argued it came into being as a result of an explosion in the storage building. If there is a C-5 there must be a designer and builder.

The very existence of our beautifully designed universe shouts there is a God, and Calvary shared His love.

In our court a criminal is found guilty under the law and sentenced to prison. For there to be a law there had to be a lawmaker. The laws of nature evidence a lawmaker.

When challenged to prove God’s existence, ask the enquirer to prove He does not exist. In doing so, keep in mind the law of logic which says you can’t prove a negative. You can’t prove words don’t exist without using words. You can’t prove God does not exist without using examples He does.

Objective truth would not exist were there no universal source of objectivity, no universal laws against evil such as murder and lying, no power of reason, and no laws of science.

It is impossible for God not to exist. Without Him these things would not exist. The fact they do proves He does exist. This line of logic is known as “Transcendental Proof for the Existence of God.”

Truth proves God exists. Some claim there is no absolute truth, all is relative. This claim itself is an absolute truth proving absolute truth does exist. If absolute universal truth, such as the laws of math, science, and morality exist, there must be a universal source of truth. That source is God. There can be no truth without God. The fact that the truth does exist is proof God does.

If morality is based on consensus, the atrocities of ISIS must be considered acceptable because a consensus of a sect of Islam approves it. For truth and morality to exist it cannot be merely based on opinion, for opinions vary and are not absolute. Absolutes acclaim the existence of God.

Back to the KGB agent. Not only does God exist, He loves you. Why not love Him back?