2016: a Stafford review

2016 was a good year.  A challenging year, but good, nevertheless.

In January we took a trip to Van Buren, Arkansas, with April's parents.  We also got pregnant.

In February, we found out we were pregnant, entertained at a local Seniors' Valentines Banquet, and our church celebrated its 25th Anniversary and had its first float in the LoveFest Parade in many years.  April judged the baking competition at the LoveFest, and one of our members won the grand prize for her cheesecakes (April was one of many judges, so no bias there).  I also started the big adventure of substitute teaching at the elementary school

In March, we took a spring break trip to Ardmore, Oklahoma, to visit April's parents, and started seeing our midwife--because we were pregnant.

In April, we celebrated April's birthday with a small party attended by special friends, attended a painting party for another special friend where we painted for the first time, and held a revival at our church with our friend Evangelist Rod Vincent.

In May, we hosted the community 5th Sunday Sing and honored three graduating High School Seniors at church.

In June, Papa and Nanna came for a visit.  Conlan was baptized in a blow-up pool at church, which then moved to our front yard where we soaked on many wonderful evenings.  We celebrated Joe's second birthday, my mother's sixty-fifty birthday, three years of marriage, and were gifted with a little getaway trip to a nearby resort where we spent a lot of time in the pool and got sunburned.

In July, we celebrated Independence Day with steaks and fireworks at my mother's house, built a privacy fence around the back of our house (also known as the Joe Containment Area) with the help of good friends, and generally tried to stay in out of the heat.

In August, Papa and Nanna came back for Conlan's birthday celebration, Conlan started kindergarten, and the church celebrated our (nearly) four years of ministry here with a huge service led by Pastor Jackson and friends from St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church of Houston.

In September, we went to the beach for Labor Day and came back with some pretty severe sun burns and a lot of good memories.  We also celebrated my birthday with steaks and my favorite movie.

In October, after nine months of anticipation and eighteen hours of labor, Stephen Andrew Stafford made his landing in Palestine, Texas.  10 pounds, 22 inches long.  I cooked for an area missions banquet, and poisoned no one.  We also traveled down to St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church of Houston for a joint celebration of the Lord, and I got to preach!

In November, we held our annual missions convention.  There was an election, and I was elected president...of the local PTO.  In other news, Donald Trump became 45th President of the United States and I became a published author with the release of a book 15 years in the making--Visions of the End:  Daniel's Perfect Picture of God's Master Plan (available from me for $11+$2 S&H, or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers for a little more).  After a busy year, we took two Sundays off and went to Oklahoma, spending Thanksgiving with April's parents and the latter part of the week with April's best friend Courtney and family.

And finally, in December, we entertained at an area ministers' meeting, I expanded my substitute teaching career to the High School, we went to a Christmas parade and fair in Conroe, got a new-to-us Honda Odyssey, saw the new Star Wars movie Rogue One, and celebrated Christmas with our families here at home.

We ate a lot of good food, watched a lot of good movies and assorted TV series' on DVD, met a lot of new friends, reunited with some old ones, found a lot of long-lost relatives, aggravated a lot of people on FB, sweated out an exciting Presidential election, stirred up a little trouble, comforted some of the afflicted, afflicted some of the comfortable, and in most ways enjoyed life!  We were busy, but we are happy.  Most of all--we survived!

Looking forward to 2017, we realize nothing is going to slow down for us.  The world is spinning at an incredible speed, but gravity keeps us grounded.  We have a roof over our head, clothes on our back, food in our bellies and the pantry, a car to drive and gas to power it, three handsome boys, a cool little dog, great friends, wonderful family, a God who loves us, a Jesus who died and rose again to save us, a Holy Spirit who comforts us.  And we have each other--me and my number one and only gal!  April, I wouldn't want to be doing this with anyone but you, and I'm thrilled to do it!

Thank you Jesus, for another trip around the sun.

Illumination

Then God said, "Let there be light";

and there was light.  And God saw the light, that it was good,

and God divided the light from the darkness.

God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.

So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1:3-5, NKJV

 

There are no degrees of darkness, for darkness is merely the absence of light.  But strike a spark, and suddenly darkness is diminished by light.  Sight may be dimmed, vision impaired, but a little bit of light begins to bring everything into visibility.  Light pushes back against darkness, decreasing it into shades and shadows.  Increased to full luminosity, light banishes darkness altogether.

 

God had plans for the earth.  Though corrupted by the fall of Lucifer, cleansed and covered in water, and concealed in darkness, this third rock from the sun had a most important part to play in the universal plan of God.  Here God would create a race of beings in His own image and after His own likeness--made to reflect His image and person, to look like Him and to be like Him.  Here God would watch His creation fall, tempted and led astray by the lies of the devil.  Here God would unfold the matchless mystery of grace.  Here God would come Himself in the form of His own creation to purchase salvation for those who fell.  Here God would center and seat His eternal will, plan, and purpose.

 

But first, illumination.

 

The earth was in chaos, empty and ruined, shrouded in darkness, a heap of rock enveloped in a mass of water hurtling through the vastness of timeless space within the confines of God.  The deluge was complete, the corruption of an angelic rebellion washed away, the vestiges of whatever had been buried in the depths.  And the Spirit of God was moving.

 

Then God said...

 

I love the power of God expressed repeatedly in the creation account by those simple words, Then God Said.  All God had to do was speak.  The Gospel of John reveals that the Word of God was the active agent of creation, not just the words that proceeded from the mouth of God, but the second person in the trinity who was the Word.

 

Then God said, "Let there be light."  And there was light.  With no sun to shine by day, nor moon and stars to shine by night, God filled the inky blackness with His radiant glory.  The Word of God, who was with God and was God, became the Light of the World, and darkness fled.  Darkness did not comprehend it, and could not overcome it.

 

The beginning of all things--at least from the perspective of earth and the creation of man--was the illumination of God upon His creation.  It was vision; it was revelation.  The Spirit moved, the Word spoke, the Light broke forth over the waves, and the work began.

Earth Interrupted

The earth was without form, and void,

and darkness was on the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God was hovering

over the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:2, NKJV

 



The earth was empty.  Whatever had been was no more, corrupted beyond use and covered in a primordial deluge.  Where there had been perfection and beauty, now there was only chaos.  A formless globule of water within the wide expanse of the God, shrouded in  the absolute absence of light, it waited.

 

In darkness, nothing would be seen.  But perhaps there was the lolling, lapping sound of wave upon endless wave, calm now after the storm that filled the whole sphere.  But nothing else.  Except for the wind, the gentle inspiration and exhalation of the breath of God as the Spirit moved across the face of the deep.

 

Creation was about to commence.

 

I am reminded this morning that even in the vast darkness where nothing yet exists, the Spirit hovers still.

 

In chaos, the Spirit is preparing to bring order.

 

From formlessness, the Spirit is planning to summon structure.

 

Out of the depths, the Spirit will oversee the rise of land and life and love.

 

Let us never despair.  Even in our darkest hours, even in the depths of destruction and pain, in the lowest valley, in the fiercest fight, in the hour of isolation and abandonment, even when all seems lost and we fear we are sinking beyond hope, the Spirit of God is there.  Moving.  Working.  Hovering.  Waiting.

 

Waiting for the Word to bring illumination and give understanding to our wondering.

 

Let us not give up.  Something is happening, though we see it not.  This is the time for our belief.  Now is the time for hope.



A Hidden History: Formless and Void

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form, and void;

and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:1-2, NKJV

 



 

First there was God--Father, Word, and Spirit.

 

Then there was Wisdom, with which He made plans.

 

Then there were Angels, stars of light in the expanse of God.

 

Then there was Heaven, the abode of angels and the pattern for creation--not the physical heavens of creation, but the trans-physical, trans-dimensional Spiritual plane from which God's omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence emanates.

 

And then there was Creation.

 

Out of nothing, God created everything.  He called into existence the things that were not and they were, from invisibility brought into being the things which are seen.  By His word He framed the ages and the worlds, laid the beams of the heavens and the foundations of the earth.  He spoke, and it was, and because He speaks, it remains.

 

It wasn't the world that we know now.  It was the original earth, the one before Adam, and what it was like we can only surmise.  Perhaps this was when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  Perhaps there were orders and races of creatures of which we have no remains whatsoever.  Perhaps there were civilizations long before ours that are now buried and unfound in the earth or the depths of the sea.  Imagination could fill this untold tale with all sorts of details.  Suffice it to say, when God creates something, He creates it complete and good, just like He intends.

 

But something happened.  Genesis doesn't tell us what happened or when, only that it did. 

 

The earth that God created in perfection was thrown into chaos and confusion, emptied of its fullness, and shrouded in darkness. Jeremiah's vision says that the mountains trembled and the hills moved back and forth, that men disappeared and the birds fled, that the fruitful land became a wilderness and all its cities were broken down.  The cataclysm that left earth formless and void and dark was brought about by the presence of the Lord and His fierce anger.

 

Isaiah and Ezekiel give us glimpses of what precipitated the destruction.  The anointed cherub Lucifer, the most beautiful and highly placed of all angels, rebelled in pride against the glory and power of God.  Seeking a place above and beyond the exalted position in which God had placed him, he defiled the sanctuaries of his ministry.  He led others to join him in his iniquity.  He refused to repent, instead corrupting the earth and all that was in it with the extent of his sins.  At last, God acted.  Lucifer was cast from the mountain of God to the earth and there denuded of his heavenly glory.  The fire of God consumed him, devoured him, reduced him to a blackened, ashen specter of what he once had been.  In the sight of all who knew him, Lucifer's beauty and majesty were stripped away and he was consigned to an ugly, pitiful, desperate existence on its way to a single destination--the everlasting fire that God prepared for him at the end of all things.

 

Looking over the ruins of the earth and the corruption and devastation therein, God acted again.  The earth and all that was in it must be washed away, the filth of Lucifer's rebellion eradicated completely.  God flooded creation for the first time, filling the earth with water until it was formless and void and silent and dark.

 

I cannot help but remember the verse from Isaiah that tells us, "When the enemy comes in, like a flood the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him."  That's exactly what happened.  God used his Spirit to fill the earth with water and cleanse it from the destruction of Lucifer's fall.  And once the destruction had been destroyed, the Spirit rested.  The breath of God moved like wind over the waters, hovering, brooding, waiting.

 

For the light was coming.

A Hidden History: Eternal Stage

 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...

Genesis 1:1, NKJV

 

God's creation is tripartite in nature, heaven above, hell below, and earth in the middle.  This is the setting for all that happens from the beginning of creation to the end of time.  It is a grand stage of universal proportions, set within the confines of an infinite God, and managed exclusively by Him.  It was designed by His will, and made for His purpose.  And here we watch the eternal plan of the ages unfold in a drama unparalleled.

 

The heavens consist of three levels--first, middle, and third.  The first heaven is all that we can see, the expanse of the universe that extends from our terrestrial sphere outward, including all the galaxies and stars and planets that are all integral parts of God's glorious creation.  The middle heaven is that which exists on a spiritual plane between the habitation of man and the dwelling place of God.  Here the war is waged between the forces of good and evil.  And then there is the third heaven, the eternal abode of the triune Godhead.

 

We catch glimpses of Heaven--the third or highest heaven--throughout the Scriptures, but the writers are often reticent in their tellings.  There is the original Eden, that garden of pleasantness and delight that is filled with  all manner of glory and beauty.  In the midst of the garden is the holy mountain, the heavenly Zion, and on its bejeweled heights is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.  At the center of the citadel stands the temple of tabernacle of the testimony of God, in the courts of which sits the throne encompassed in rainbows of brilliance and filled with lightnings and thunderings and voices.  In that heavenly temple, there is a sea of glass, an altar of incense, a seven-fold lamp, and behind its doors rests the ark of the covenant--all of them patterns for what will be on earth.  Though God cannot be contained by any created structure, here He sits enthroned in power and majesty, the almighty overseer of all that is, and with him the Lamb slain from before the foundation world and the Spirit burning as an eternal flame.  Here the angels come to worship, and here the future awaits God's creation.

 

The earth is home to humanity, perhaps of all life in the universe, and consists of three parts as well--sky, land and sea.  This place we know personally and very well.  Here God placed those created in His own image.  Here He watched them wrestle with temptation and fall victim to its sway.  Here He initiated redemption, fulfilling through the fallen the force of His salvific plan.  Here the seed of the woman and the Son of man became the pinnacle of God's purposes, giving His own life and spilling His own blood as the price to ransom all of creation from the devil's grasp.

 

And then there is hell, which came lastly and more recently into existence, and it consists of three parts as well, each with its own place in the plan of God.  When Lucifer fell prey to his own pride, he led a third of the angelic hosts in a failed revolt against God.  Their rebellion resulted in the formation of the lake of fire, a prison of eternal punishment for evil and all those who choose its ways over the will of God.  When Lucifer tempted Adam and Even in the earthly Eden with promises of godhood, death was introduced to what should have been an immortal humanity.  Their bodies would return to the dust from whence it came, their life breath would return to God from whence it came, and their souls--that eternal part of them--would await judgment in a holding place called the grave.  And finally there is the abyss, where fallen angels are held in chains and darkness awaiting their judgment.

 

The earth and its heavens as we know them are temporary.  When their part in the plan of God is done, they will be folded up like a garment, consumed with fire Divine, and recreated as the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells.  But Heaven and Hell are eternal.  One will forever be the paradise of God, the other everlasting fire and torment for the lost.  Our final destination is dependent upon our choices, just as Lucifer had his choice, and Adam had his.  So will we choose death and eternal separation from God, or will we choose life forever in the presence of the One who made us?

 

Let us choose life!

The Big Adventure

Life with my Dad was many things, but one thing it wasn't ever was dull.  The man lived for excitement and adventure.  To hear him tell it, he grew up wrestling alligators and handling water moccasins in the Bayou Teche.  He played championship-winning basketball as a teenager, jumped out of airplanes in the 82nd Airborne Infantry, fought Germans like mad during his time in Europe (when the War was a 20-year-old memory), and joined the police force to work undercover narcotics in the roughest parts of town.  He ate monkey fingers and fermented fish dip with Laotians, drank homemade ale with Russians while they sat in homemade saunas and beat each other with handfuls of twigs, loved hot peppers, and sucked the fat out of crawdad heads.  He rode motorcycles and shot guns and played yard football and walked the rivers of Texas and the deserts of New Mexico looking for arrowheads, stone tools, and pottery left behind by ancient Americans.  He went to Mexico often when we lived on the border, traveled to Russia three times to preach the gospel to those who had never heard, substitute taught in the Reservation schools around Albuquerque, worked as a bank security guard, and took on four troubled churches as a pastor and set them on a good course.  There weren't very many things he wouldn't try...at least once.

 

But as long as I live, there is one tale I will never tire of telling, Dad's last big adventure on this terrestrial sphere.

 

When he was forty-nine years old, having two bad knees and a history of strokes, Dad came to my place for a weekend visit and early on Saturday morning determined to conquer the Florida Mountains.  Taking a canteen of water, a .22 revolver, and his trusty Spaniel Sugar as a companion, Dad drove out to the acreage he owned south of Deming, New Mexico, navigating a rocky county road to the base of the mountains below Spring Canyon, and there embarked on a climb that took him up the east side of the Big Floridas to a place they call the Eye of the Needle, a rock-arch formation on the heights.  Sitting in the middle of an old eagle's nest, from which he could see for sixty miles in any direction, he called us on the cell phone, exulting in the glory of God's creation and his own conquest of the mountain peaks.

 

The rest of the afternoon passed with us sitting at home waiting for his return.  He kept calling us with progress reports of his return trip, but we could tell he wasn't making much.  Daylight turned to dusk, and still he wasn't home.  And then nighttime fell and finally he called again with these words, "Well, I'm all wore out, and Sugar is all wore out.  I guess we're gonna spend the night on the mountain." 

 

An unsheltered October night in the desert?  I don't think so!  "Where are you?" I demanded, and he told me where to find the car.  "I'm about a hundred yards from the car," he said, and I told him, "We're coming for you."  I called my right-hand man and closest friend, a former sheriff's deputy from Arizona who had done search and rescue before.  We loaded into his Blazer and drove to the mountain.  We found the car quick enough, and Dad was no where in sight.  We started hollering, and way off in the dark distance, we heard him shouting back.  I thought it might help if he fired off his gun, but my friend took off in the dark, walking a straight line to my father.

 

A hundred yards my foot!  That man was a quarter-of-a-mile up the side of the mountain...completely exhausted and looking a little worse for wear.  And then we heard the story.  On his way down the mountain, the trail had collapsed under him, sending him in a downward tumble midst rocks and dirt that left him slightly bruised and did no favors for his bad knees.  He coaxed the dog into jumping off the ledge to him, found an eight-foot yucca stick to use as a staff, and set off in the direction of his car.  Then his dog AND his legs gave out completely.

 

Determined not to let a little thing like the inability to walk stop him, Dad got Sugar on his lap and started scooting down the trail.  That would explain how he tore the seat out of his britches and got cactus thorns in his butt.  He did his very best to get off that mountain before dark, but he didn't make it.

 

So there he sat, waiting for us.  Sugar came down the trail to meet us, her little fat body quivering and shaking with both exhaustion and excitement to see us.  She led us back to him, and when he saw us, up from the ground he arose, maneuvering that long stick around in such a way as to nearly take our heads off.  He was going to walk the rest of the way by himself!  But after falling twice, we got on either side, wrapped his arms around our shoulders, and together we got my Dad off the mountain.

 

Back home, Mom got him bathed and in bed, and the man slept for about fifteen hours.  But what a story he told!  He had even brought feathers back from the eagle's nest, and that stick remained on my porch till the day I moved.

 

That was Dad's last big adventure.  He died three months later following a simple procedure on his knee, passing from this earthly existence into the adventure of eternity...which is where he'd been headed all along.  From the day he met Jesus Christ as savior and Lord, Dad had been on his way to heaven.  For twenty-two years he served the Lord with every ounce of strength and ability that he had.  He brought in my Mom, and me, and countless others, to the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  And for the last eighteen years he has been with the Lord.

 

My wife and sons know him only by the pictures I have and the stories we share.  With Son Number Three on the way, I wish more and more that he was around to love them and show them the way.  But I'm thankful that he showed it to me, and I pray that I'm as good a guide as he was.  I may never climb the Florida Mountains to the Eye of the Needle to sit in an eagle's nest, but I know one day I will sit beneath the shade of the Tree of Life on the banks of the eternal river that flows from the throne of God.  And there I will join him with my boys in the reunion that will never end.

 

Happy Father's Day, Dad.  We'll see you soon!

Hidden History: Son of the Morning

"You were the seal of perfection,

full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden, the garden of God...

Ezekiel 28:12-13, NKJV

 

He was Lucifer, son of the morning.  He was the anointed cherub, unique among a special order of angelic beings who are always associated with the presence of God.  Of all the angels created at the very beginning of all things, he has been called the highest of all.  In him was the sum of all of God's wisdom and beauty.  He was the seal of perfection on the first order of creation.

His garments were bejeweled with every precious stone in settings of gold.  His instruments were the timbrels and pipes of high praise and worship, given to him in his origin.  His dwelling place was the garden of God, the original heavenly paradise upon which the earthly Eden was based.  He walked upon the holy mountain of God, surrounded by the fiery stones of a glorious environment.  In him was no imperfection found on the day he was brought forth.

But something happened.

Within this perfect creature, indeed within the spirits of all of God's creatures, was placed the power of choice, the exercise of free will.  Though created to worship the Almighty and service His will, he had the ability to choose otherwise.  He had the purpose of leading all heaven in perfect praise of the Most High, but he also had the potential for pride.

Rather than acquiesce to the intended will of God, he began to think for himself.  Exalted in his own beauty and splendor, he began to consider how he might rise to even greater beauty and splendor.  Regardless of how glorious he already was, he corrupted his own wisdom with the desire to be more than what God had created him to be.

He said within himself, I am not content with the high position in which God has placed me, nor with the perfection which God has given me.  I want more.

Though I abide in the presence of God, I want to ascend into the highest heights of the heavens.

Though I have a position of  highest power and greatest glory among the angels, I want more.

Though I walk on the mountain of God, I want more.

Though I dwell in the garden paradise of God, I want more.

Though I am already magnificent and glorious and foremost in all creation, I want more.

I will ascend into heaven to be higher than I am..

I will exalt my seat of power to be higher than the angels.

I will sit in the mountain of the congregation in authority to be higher than all of God's creation.

I will ascend into the heights above the clouds to be higher than heaven.

I will become like God--no, I will be higher than the Most High.

Pride led to desire, and desire gave place to sin.  He politicked the heavenly hosts, exercising his own influence with the angels and gaining what he thought were the riches of heaven.  He amassed great wealth and power.  He assembled a following--a third of the stars of God--and defiled the sanctuaries in which he had served with the multitude of his iniquities.

The Bible doesn't explicitly tell us so, but I believe God fought for the heart of Lucifer.  The all-knowing, all-seeing Sovereign certainly saw what His anointed cherub was doing.  The Almighty certainly knew what was happening in the angelic ranks.  Surely His Spirit strove to preserve their integrity, their humility, their submission to the wonderful will of God.  Surely He was longsuffering with them, willing not that any should be lost.  Surely He desired that they all stay safe within His loving presence.  Surely He offered them a chance to change, to choose differently.  Surely...

But in the end, selfishness and sin stole the heart of Lucifer, and he rebelled to his own demise.

God cast him out of the mountain, out of paradise, out of heaven.  Vain and profane, he was expelled from the presence of God, driven from his own glorious abode, and exiled to the lowest parts of the earth.  The fire of God consumed him from within, destroying his beauty and glory, reducing him to ashen cremains of his former self.  And a new habitation was prepared for him.

Now was the darkness of death and hell created to cover the one who once was a being of light.  Now were the recesses of the deepest pit dug to hold him who once dwelt in the highest of heights.  Now were the flames of eternal torment fired in the furnace of everlasting destruction to punish him who once walked among the fiery stones of the holy mountain in the glory of God.  Now began the delusion of the devil, that flight of fancy that clings desperately still to the dream of defeating the Divine, and still he exists in vain.  For his end is sure.

And thus is the end all of those whose pride and iniquity keep them from accepting the will, plan, and purpose of God.  But it doesn't have to be, for God has offered a way of escape.  God has offered salvation through Jesus Christ, and through salvation He is the giver of eternal life to all who believe.

A Hidden History: Sons of God

"Who laid its cornerstone,

when the morning stars sang together,

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

God to Job, Job 38:6-7, NKJV

 

In the beginning was God.  He Who has no beginning was there at the beginning.  Indeed, He was the beginning of all things.  He is and was and always will be, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existing in perfect unity throughout all eternity.

 

He brought forth wisdom as His perfect will, knowing all things that would ever be before He created anything at all.  His creation would have form and function and authority and beauty, created to reflect His image and nature in every conceivable way.  He wove Himself into the very fabric of existence, so that everything that came afterward would know Him and worship.

 

He designed the vast expanse of the heavens and planned the layers of the earth, but before He set them in place He wanted a witness.  At the dawn of time, before the foundation of the earth was laid, God brought forth the host of heaven, beings of light and majesty.  Stars of God before there were stars in the heavens, sons of God before there were sons on the earth, servants of the Most High before there was anything to do except to worship the Creator and carry out His will.

 

Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands brilliant points of light shone upon the beginning of all things, witnessing the work of God as He made the heavens and the earth, and every one of them sang together and shouted for joy!  Warriors, messengers, and worshipers filled the beginning with anthems of adoration, a single, unified, universal ovation of praise.  It was perfection, glorious and awesome, but even in perfection, there was peril.

 

As long as there was only God, all was well.  But once God brought into being creatures with free will, with minds and emotions and the ability to choose for themselves to do His will, there was always the possibility that one would choose differently.  Without the power of choice, freedom is an illusion, a phantom, a fantasy.  But God did not want mindless automatons who merely did what He said.  He wanted a creation that would love Him and worship Him and serve Him, not because it had to, but because it wanted to.

 

But what if? one might ask.  What if one perfect being chooses imperfection in pride?  What if one creature defies the Creator and denies His authority?  What if somebody messes it all up?  But remember, there are no what ifs with God.  God already knew.  And because God already knew, God had already acted.  His creation might fall, but God had already formulated forgiveness.  His creation might rebel, but God had already prepared redemption.  His creation might sin, but God had already become the all sufficient sacrifice and sovereign Savior.

 

The work of salvation was finished from the foundation of the world, but history had to unfold first to see it fulfilled.

Forever the Same

"Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

They will perish, but You will endure;

Yes, all of them will grow old like a garment;

like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed.

But You are the same, and Your years will have no end."

Psalm 102:25-27, NKJV

 

Of old, the Psalmist writes.  Way, way back there.  A long, long time ago.  I really don't understand why people get so bent out of shape over the age of the earth and the universe in which it sits.  I've studied both sides of the old earth-young earth debate.  Both sides have valid points, both sides have inexplicable problems.  I have no problem believing that God made all that is in six days six thousand years ago, and that when He made it, He intentionally made it to appear infinitely old, with all the mysteries of age built into it.  I also have no problem believing that God made all that we now know in six days six thousand years ago, but that the earth and it surroundings may have been here for eons before that, with lots of stuff happening before God made man.  After all, we're talking about an eternal God who doesn't tell us what happened before He begins His account of his dealings with humanity. 

 

Bottom line--regardless of when God created it all, I absolutely believe that God did indeed create it all.

 

Of old, God laid the foundations of the earth.  From nothing He formed everything and laid it out according to His divine design, founding the earth by His power and setting it in the perfect place for life to thrive.  Of old, God stretched out the heavens like a cloak upon the earth, a garment that will serve the purpose of its appointed time before He folds it up and puts it away.

 

These are the works of God's hands.  It wasn't just a matter of uttering a word in the silence and waving an omnipotent hand across the void, casting all of creation into existence.  It was all done deliberately, specifically, intentionally.  God was personally involved in the creation of the heavens and the earth.  God rolled His sleeves up, so to speak, and got His hand dirty in the making.  It was not distant oversight, and neither did He just throw it all up an walk away.  He made it all, He sustains it all, and He continues to work with it all, according to His eternal plan and purpose.

 

Like all things with a beginning, the heavens and the earth also have an appointed end, directed by the sovereignty of God.  They will perish and vanish away.  Like a garment that is worn out with age and use, the earth and heavens that we now know will one day be no more.  God will fold them up and put them away, exchanging them for something even more glorious.

 

But through it all, God will remain, and He will never change.  As He was before it all began, He will be after it all ends.  He who had no beginning will have no end, and He will always be the same.  Which means I can always depend upon Him.  I may change, but He never will.

 

 

 

 

 



Wait

Why do you say..."My way is hidden from the LORD,

and my just claim is passed over by my God"?

Have you not known?  Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth,

neither faints nor is weary.

There is no searching of His understanding.

Isaiah 40:27-28, NKJV

 

Ever wonder if God really knows where you are, if He even cares about your need?  Even those of greatest faith reach places of despair and doubt sometimes.  Job at the height of his troubles.  Moses in the wilderness with wayward rebels.  Elijah on the run from Jezebel.  Jonah in the whale.  John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul in prison.  They all questioned, "God, are you even there?!?  Can't you do something about my situation?"

 

I'm no giant of the faith, but I've served God faithfully for forty years, and there have been a few times, some even recently, where I have turned a heavy heart toward heaven and wondered, "Does God really care about me?"

 

During a heartbreaking season in my life, I sat in the dark, surrounded by a crowd and feeling absolutely alone.  My world was being turned upside down, my life was never going to be the same, and I believed there was no one to stand by my side.  That very night, God brought a brother into my life and has never left me alone.

 

During a time of desperate need, I cried out to God and asked, "Will you really provide my daily bread?"  Prompted by the Lord down the sidewalk to my mailbox and expecting a check that would solve all of my financial problems, I found a ham and cheese sandwich made just the way I like it, wrapped in a sandwich bag and flattened like it had been in the bottom of an angel's backpack.  But that day God showed me that He really would provide, and every time I start to worry about money, I simply remember the sandwich, and all the other things God has blessed me with.

 

During a period of change, I made a life-altering decision that resulted in a major reversal of what I thought was the plan of God.  Turns out THAT decision and THAT reversal were the keys to receiving everything I had been praying for, and I could almost hear God laughing in pleasure at my surprise.  I wish I had trusted Him enough to make that same decision twelve months earlier the first time He put it in front of me.

 

And now here we are.  A life with many needs and few resources.  Unprecedented (for us) challenges in child-rearing.  The daily burden of arduous labor in the fields of the Lord.  Sheep who aren't always easy to lead.  A world that is spinning increasingly toward catastrophe.  Threats of war, economic disaster, political upheaval, cultural chaos.  And some days I find myself on the edge of fear, wondering, "Am I hidden from God's sight?  Is He even hearing my prayers?"

 

But I am reassured by His Word and the presence of His Spirit in my life.  The everlasting almighty Creator of the ends of the earth neither faints nor grows weary, and I don't have to question His understanding.  He has brought me this far and never let me down; He will not start today.  I just need to wait and keep on walking.

 

He gives power to the weak,

and to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

and the young men shall utterly fall,

but those who wait on the LORD

shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,

they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:29-31, NKJV

 

Wisdom

"The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,

before His works of old.

I have been established from everlasting,

from the beginning, before there was ever an earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no fountains abounding with water,

before the mountains were settled,

before the hills, I was brought forth;

While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields,

or the primeval dust of the world.

When He prepared the heavens, I was there,

when He drew a circle on the face of the deep,

When He established the clouds above,

When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,

When He assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters would not transgress His command,

When He marked out the foundations of the earth,

Then I was beside Him, as a master craftsman;

And I was daily His delight,

Rejoicing always before Him,

Rejoicing in His inhabited world,

and my delight was with the sons of men."

The words of Wisdom, from Proverbs 8:22-31, NKJV

 

Wisdom is skill, especially in regards to warfare.  It is administrative knowledge.  It is shrewdness.  It is religious prudence, ethics, and understanding.  Wisdom is a way of thinking, of deciding, of doing.  Wisdom is something that is pursued, possessed, and practiced as a way of life.  We mostly think of it in the abstract, as something gained by experience and education, a tool designed to assist us to success.  But the Bible tells us that wisdom is so much more than that.

 

Wisdom--the true wisdom that gives birth to knowledge, understanding, and skill--is the very mind and will and heart of God. It was possessed by God at the origin of everything, when He stepped out to start all that is.  It was His before the works of old, before there was an earth, before there were mountains and hills, before there was earth and sky and sea.  When there was yet nothing, Wisdom was brought forth, delivered as a writhing, vigorous babe from the womb of its mother, and given life as the processes of God.  From everlasting, from before, from the eternally existent source came their sovereign force and choice and ability and desire.  From the beginning, God established Wisdom as His rule over all creation.

 

Wisdom was the master craftsman to God's designer, architect, and engineer.  What God wanted, wisdom did.  When God prepared the heavens, Wisdom was there.  When He established the clouds above and the seas beneath, when He laid the foundations of the earth, when He assigned limits to the waters and marked the borders of the earth, Wisdom was at His side.

 

Wisdom delighted the Lord, rejoicing in His presence and over His creation.  Wisdom is the way of God, the will of God, the want of God for humanity--made in His image and after His likeness--to  enjoy God and all of His creation.  Wisdom is the great gift of God to mankind, given ultimate expression and personification in the person of Jesus Christ.  And it is through Jesus Christ, through knowing Him and finding understanding in Him, through experiencing Him and learning from Him, that we fulfill the plan, purpose, and pleasure of God.

 

I Need a Hero

 

My candidate for president, mine only because I felt like I could not in good conscience vote for anyone else running in the Primary, dropped out last night.  I can't really say I disliked Ted Cruz;  I don't know him.  But I wasn't inspired by his run for the presidency.  I was voting for him as my only option in a far-from-perfect race.  So now faced with what some have called a choice between Herod and Jezebel, I am in a quandary.  I can't tell you what I'm going to do yet, except that I'm going to be in serious prayer before the convention this summer, and the election in November, and whatever I do will be a result of trying to follow the leading of the Lord, whom I believe is in control anyway, no matter what.

 

I am also taking a few moments to reflect on what I've learned in the nine election cycles leading up to this one.

   

As Christian believers, my parents voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Ronald Reagan in 1984, believing at the time that those two each represented the values my parents held and lived by.  Three and a half decades after the fact, we know that while Jimmy claimed to be a conservative Christian believer, he never really held conservative Christian beliefs, and while Regaan's credentials as Christian appeared questionable at best, his legacy as a Conservative president is still the standard for conservative Republicans. 

 

I became very interested in politics in 1988, championing first Pat Robertson because of his Christianity, then Bob Dole for his conservatism and war-hero status, and finally George HW Bush for the simple reason that he was the only candidate left.  I knew nothing about him personally, nothing about his faith or his policies, but he was running against Dukakis and Jesse Jackson.  If I had been old enough to vote, my choice would have been clear.

 

I will admit that I was briefly attracted to Bill Clinton's campaign in 1992, but when his character was exposed on the national stage, I voted for Bush instead. Thanks to a third-party bid by the ridiculous Ross Perot, Bush lost and we got eight years of wishy-washy, poll-driven, immoral leadership that did little more than weaken America in the world's eyes, and weaken the moral standards of what until that point had been a Christian-leaning nation.  

 

I voted for Dole in 1996 (I was always a fan, and wish his wife had run at some point). My Dad, a Pastor and Christian conservative, voted for Bill Clinton that year.  His reasoning? He prayed, believed God had shown him Clinton would be the president, so he voted that way. I didn't necessarily agree with his decision, but it was his to make. 

 

By the time 2000 came around, I knew I could never vote for a Democrat on a national level; I will not cast my vote for the party that supports abortion and perversion, that is anti-God, anti-church, anti-righteousness, and anti-Christ. Frankly, I think the Democratic Party is anti-America, too, but that's a different issue altogether; I'm not convinced the Republican party is pro-America any more either. They are all out for their party and themselves. From the day he announced his candidacy, George W. Bush was my candidate in 2000, and I voted for him again in 2004. I didn't agree with everything that he did, but I believe he was a man of integrity who saw our nation through a very dark and difficult time. 

 

John McCain was not my choice in 2008; in fact, I didn't really like any of the candidates who ran that year. My guy didn't run. As I keep saying, I don't know who my guy is, but he didn't run. Faced with a choice between a weak republican and his charismatic Veep pick, and B. Hussein Obama and Big Mouth Joe, I voted for Sarah Palin. 2012 was 2008, second verse same as the first, but my personal opinion is that Mitt Romney was closer to me in both faith and practice than the undercover Islamist in the White House. 

 

Now here we are, looking at another election cycle, and for the first time in my life, I simply don't have a candidate that I can either endorse or vote for. We KNOW who and what Hillary Clinton is, and I cannot vote for her. But we also KNOW who and what Donald Trump is, and I cannot vote for him either. These two are both unGodly and unChristian in their beliefs and lifestyles. Neither of them stand for my values and the things I hold most dear.  Neither of them is someone I want running this country.

 

What's even stranger for me is the thought that at least Hillary Clinton is who she says she is, and will do what she says she will do.  Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a political chameleon who changes color with the crowd he's with.  He says what he believes the people want to hear, promises whatever he thinks will garner him the most votes, and if he wins, I think it could be a horror show such as we have never seen in the 230 years of our Republic.  So who do I vote for--the devil I know, or the devil I don't know?

 

This is the time for the believers in Babylon to pray for a deliverer.  And if God sees fit to do something different, this is really the time for believers to double down on their faith and hold on to the unchanging hand of God.  Because no matter who gets elected, change is gonna come.

Possible

"'Ah, Lord God!

Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth

by Your great power and outstretched arm.

There is nothing too hard for You.'"

Jeremiah 32:17, NKJV

 

The Almighty made it all.  He created everything out of nothing in the tick that started time, a moment before which was nothing except Himself, and after which was everything that came from Him.  In one single omnipotent act, generated by His sovereign will and carried out by His omnipotent power, the Lord God swept through eternity past with an outstretched arm and brought all creation into existence.

 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

 

David says He set the stars in place, numbered them, and called them all by name.  Isaiah says He did it by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, and not one is missing.  Amos says He layered the heavens and the earth, from outer space to atmosphere to terrestrial sphere, from surface to geological strata to core.  David says that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork, that the sun and moon and stars do what He has told them to do.

 

If God did all that, don't think for one moment that He doesn't also know who you are, where you are, or what you need.  You, whom He made in His own image and after His own likeness, are the pinnacle of all creation, and God cares about you.  He is more than able and certainly willing to be your help and your hope.  There is nothing that is too hard for God.  With man, things are impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

 

He simply asks that we put our faith and our trust in Him.

 

If I can believe that the Almighty made it all, then I know I can believe He will take care of me.

 

 

The Answers are There

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1, NKJV

 

When I studied journalism, Darlene Birkes impressed upon me the importance of asking the most vital questions first.  For any news story, no matter what the subject, six questions needed to be asked:  Who?  What?  Where?  When?  Why?  and How?  These are tools that continue to serve me to this day whenever I want to report something accurately, and I love the fact that God's truth reveals the answers to those questions in the greatest account ever right up front.

 

Something happened, and the Bible explains it all.

 

Who did it?  God, the Almighty, first among equals in the Godhead.

 

What did He do?  God created everything that is, the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.

 

Where did He do it?  God brought the universe into existence and set in place its confines and limitations within His own limitless infinity.  In other words, here.

 

When did He do it?  God made it in the beginning, at the start of all things.

 

Why did He do it?  God did all this because He wanted to, because it pleased Him to do so, which is why He looks at it and approves.

 

How did He do it?  God created everything that is out of nothing that was, by His own power and authority, through the Word, which is Christ.

 

Everything else is just details.

When God

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding.

Who determined the measurements?  Surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

To what were its foundations fastened?  Or who laid its cornerstone,

when all the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb;

When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band;

When I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors;

When I said, 'This far you may come, but no farther,

and here your proud waves must stop!'"

God to Job, Job 38:4-11, NKJV

 

 

Have a cookie, I might say if you ever came to my house for a visit.  And as you taste the most wonderful chocolate chip cookies in the world, you mumble around a mouthful, "These are the best cookies I've ever had!  Did you make these?"

 

No, I say.  A bomb went off in my kitchen the other day, bursting bags of flour and sugar, both white and brown.  It exploded a carton of eggs, broke a bottle of vanilla, laid down a layer of lard, scattered the salt and baking soda, blew a bag of pecans out of their shells, and tossed chocolate chips everywhere.  Two eggs, half a cup of Crisco, two-thirds of a cup of white sugar, two-thirds of a cup of brown, one teaspoon of vanilla, a teaspoon each of baking soda and salt, a handful of chopped pecans, and half a bag of chocolate morsels landed in a mixing bowl.  In the chaos, all of it was stirred up and spooned out in just the right portions on a cookie sheet that got hit with a splash of non-stick cooking spray.  The force of the blast threw open the oven, tossed the cookie sheet in, and a piece of debris initiated the baking sequence in the oven.  And as everything else settled neatly back into place in my kitchen, a batch of cookies was expelled from the oven after fifteen minutes at 340 degrees, thrown onto a baking rack, and left for us to find when we arrived home, cooled and ready to eat, a cold mug of milk that had poured itself sitting right beside them.

 

Really?! you might exclaim, awed but accepting, because it makes absolutely perfect sense that a cataclysmic explosion in my kitchen would result in the best batch of cookies ever.  And did I mention that I had none of those things in my kitchen to begin with.  In fact, I didn't even have a kitchen.  This house wasn't even here when the bomb went off.  This was all just a grove of trees...

 

Nope, I would reply.  Here's your sign.

 

When there was nothing, nothing at all, nothing except God, eternally existent as FatherSonSpirit, God decided to make everything.  When One is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present all the time, One can do pretty much anything One wants, and He wanted to do this.  Way, way back there in the very beginning, when God started start, He intentionally brought into being all things that are now, have ever been, and ever will be, placing them perfectly within the time and space of Himself.  He didn't just fling stuff out there and hope it turned out okay.  Like an artist or an engineer or a pastry chef making cookies, He made it all, just so.

 

Imagine for a moment that you could witness the miracle of creation...

 

When God thought up then founded the universe.

 

When God determined its measurements and established its boundaries.

 

When God fixed every galaxy, every star, every planet, moon, asteroid, comet and speck of cosmic dust in place.

 

When God filled the empty seas with water and told the tide how far to wash up on the shore.

 

When God swaddled the earth in an atmospheric garment.

 

I wasn't there to see it myself, but just reading about it makes me want to rejoice over the great goodness of our Creator.  What a Mighty God we serve!

 

Conceived

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

God to Job, Job 38:4, NKJV

 

Before anyone objects and cries, "The earth doesn't HAVE a foundation!  It doesn't sit on anything!" let me just say--It doesn't mean what you think it means.  I know the imagery that the vocabulary brings to mind, sometimes inspiring incredulity at the very idea.  After all, we know, we KNOW that this ball of rock and dirt and water and magma is spinning swiftly on its axis as it hurtles through space in an orbit around the sun.  It doesn't sit still, much less on a foundation.  I understand.

 

But compared to the ancient languages, English can be so limited at times.

 

To say that God laid the foundations of the earth is to say that God began it; it originated with Him.  God founded the earth and fixed it in place, set it in motion, and determined both its rotation and its revolution.  God established the earth in its solidity, appointed it in its form and function, and ordained it with a purpose.  God laid it out from idea to fulfillment.

 

That's in the Hebrew of the Old Testament.  The Greek is even richer in meaning.  It speaks of throwing or laying down.  Literally, it means to conceive, in the sense of insemination, or to plant a seed.

 

Our Great God is the Founder of the universe, and the Father of all that is.  He is the initiation of life, and the source that sustains it.  Everything in existence is the fruit of His will and action, the work of He entire being.  God didn't just make it in a distant and absentee sort of way.  He personally imbued it with His very essence.  That is why the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.  Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.  All creation speaks His majesty, revealing His invisible attributes, culminating in us who were created in His image and after His likeness--to look like Him and to be like Him.

 

Therefore, let us worship Him who made us, and give Him all the glory and all the praise and all the honor for Who He is and all that He has done!

 

 





Foundation

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

God to Job, Job 38:4, NKJV

 

When construction begins on a building, many preparations must be made before the building is ever built.  One doesn't just go out with sticks and stone and throw up a structure with no planning or preparing and expect it to stand, at least not for very long.  A building is not built randomly or by accident.  There is a process.

 

First, the plan.  An idea is conceived in the mind of a visionary, who expresses the concept to an architect, perhaps, or an engineer who uses their knowledge and skill to begin drawing up a plan that will bring the dream into reality.  A site is chosen for the project.  Land must be surveyed, plotted, measured, and tested.  Grades must be shot.  The ground must be evaluated.  The plan for the building is matched to the place, and more plans are drawn, situating the construction on the site and detailing all the preparations that must be made before one piece of equipment is activated, before one inch of ground is disturbed.

 

The plans must be submitted for examination, for evaluation, for multiple approvals.  Adjustments are made.  Permits are purchased.  A project manager is appointed.  Bids for the work are solicited, submitted, considered, and contracted.  Workers are hired.

 

Dirt work begins.  Some must be taken out, more brought in.  It must be leveled, tamped down, made firm to properly bear the weight of the construction.  Footings are dug.  The size of the building determines the type of foundation that must be laid, the depth and breadth  of the footings, a support structure that will be mostly underground and likely unnoticed by those who will later marvel over the final construct.  Forms must be built, rebar fixed in place, concrete poured.

 

When the foundation is ready, the building can go up.  If at any point along the way the foundation is not laid correctly, it imperils the entirety of the process and the future of the structure.  The foundation must be sure.  It's true for a tool shed, a house, a parking garage, a tower, a palace.  Whatever is built must have a solid foundation.  And if that is true for something that man builds on the earth, the same must hold true for the earth upon which everything is built.

 

First the plan, conceived in the heart and mind of the eternal, immortal, invisible, and only wise God, carried out in the power of His will by the authority of the Word under the moving of the Spirit.  And for a foundation there could be only one starting place, a single cornerstone upon which all other construction must take place.  And that cornerstone is Christ.

 

All creation began upon that one original building block, and continues upon it today.

 

"Behold, I lay in Zion

a chief cornerstone, elect, precious,

and he who believes on Him

will by no means be put to shame."

1 Peter 2:6, quoting Isaiah 28:16

Where Was I?

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements?

Surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

To what were its foundations fastened?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

when the morning stars sang together,

and all the son of God shouted for joy?"

Job 38:4-7, NKJV

 

It's the oldest book in the Bible.  Written down even before Moses penned the Pentateuch, perhaps even recorded by Moses from the tellings he heard from Job's kinsmen in the desert during those forty years of exile from Egypt, it tells of a cosmic struggle over the soul of one righteous man.  God testified of Job that he was upright and blameless in all of his ways, that he feared God and shunned evil  The devil wagered he could make Job turn away and blaspheme God, if only God would lower the hedge of protection He had raised around Job.  And God took the bet.

 

It wasn't really a gamble, not for the One who already knows all because He sees all.  From God's perspective it was already a done deal.  But the devil had to try, and Job had to be tested, in order to prove that what God knew was true.  For two chapters we witness the many trials and afflictions of Job.  Arab terrorists strike his possessions, driving off his flocks and herds, slaughtering his servants, stealing the caravans of riches as they approached his coffers.  Winds of destruction struck the house where his children were feasting, killing them all.  Stricken with disease, cursed by his wife, sitting naked on an ash heap scraping his festering sores, Job spends the next thirty-five chapters cussing and discussing his tribulation, defending himself against the accusations of his three closest friends, one young upstart, and finally God Himself.

 

As Job questions the day of his conception and birth, his numerous good deeds and many years of devoted service to The Most High, and the unjust nature of his latest calamities, God shows up in the midst of a whirlwind and begins to ask a few questions of His owns.

 

I laid the foundations of the earth, Job.  Where were you?

 

I determined the earth's measurements, Job.  Where were you?

 

I stretched out the lines of its dimensions, Job.  Where were you?

 

I laid its cornerstone and fastened its structure to the foundations I laid for it, Job.  Where were you?

 

And when I did all that, the morning stars burst into song.  Myriads upon myriads of angels, sons of God every one, lifted up a shout that greeted the creation of the universe.  With joy they exulted over the work of My hands, one anthem, one thunderous ovation of adulation and praise.

 

But where were you, O man?  Where were you when I did all that in my own Name, with my own power, for my own pleasure?  Where were you?

 

In the resounding silence, God then asked this question:  Then who do you think you are to question me?

 

I am one finite man, created one wintry night forty-five years ago, who came into this world naked and screaming and completely ignorant of the world and its wonderings.  I have since received a decent education.  I am well studied and thoughtful.  I believe I am not unintelligent.  But how could I possibly seek to challenge the infinite One who has been around forever and brought into being everything that is?  The same God who created the universe created me, knew me and called me by name, had all my days written in a book, and knew all of my words before I had ever spoken them.  How can I try to tell Him something He does not already know, or explain to Him something He does not already understand?

 

I can't.  Which is why He has left nothing up to my own tiny brain to figure out on my own.  He gave me His word to read, to learn from, and to understand.  He gave me His own testimony, His personal report of everything I need to know about life and godliness, from beginning to end as far as I am concerned, and the rest He reserved for Himself and asked me for a little faith in the One whose hands formed and fashioned me in the first place.

 

If you don't believe, I guess it's yours to question and try to find other answers.  As for me, I believe.

Chosen

 

 

He chose us in Him

before the foundation of the world,

that we should be holy and without blame

before Him in love,

having predestined us

to adoption as sons

by Jesus Christ to Himself,

according to the good pleasure

of His will,

to the praise of the glory

of His grace,

by which He has made us

accepted in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:4-6, NKJV

 

 

 



If the universe is not a cosmic accident, if the world is not a fortunate happenstance, if life is not a random product of a chance meeting of two proteins floating in a primordial soup billions of years ago, but rather all was made according to the plan, purpose, pleasure, and will of God, how in the universe can I believe that me and my life are anything less?

 

I am fully aware that thoughts like the ones I am about to express go against the grain of human nature.  They contradict many of our human notions of choice and free will.  They are contradicted by centuries of church doctrine and dogma in certain circles of denominational establishment.  Nevertheless, when I read in His Word that He chose us before the foundation of the world, I have to go with that over any other interpretation.

 

Before time began.

 

Before creation came into existence.

 

Before there was air to breathe or life to breathe it.

 

Before the foundation of the world, God had a plan and I was part of it.

 

Not I alone, but all those who would ever believe do so according to the sovereign choice of Almighty God, a choice not based on arbitrary selection, but rather on His omniscient foreknowledge of all that is, all that has ever been, and all that will ever be.  God, in His absolute authority and in His eternal existence, knew all things before anything was, saw all things before anything was even there to happen.  And I say it that way because from our perspective that knowledge and sight is past, but from God's perspective everything is now.  All of time and space exist completely within the person of God, so our past, present, and future are all right now with God. 

 

He is ageless and timeless and measureless and limitless.  He has all power and authority, and works all things according the counsel of His own will.  He is both in possession and in control of everything without question.  He allows His creations to make choices, to exercise self-determination, to decide what they want for now and all eternity, but no move can be made that is outside the purview of the all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere-present all-the-time God.

 

Like the Psalmist I can say, Such thoughts are too wonderful for me.  They are higher than my human understanding can attain.  I don't fully comprehend the divine complexities of the conjoined inner workings of God's predestination and my human will.  But I accept in faith the truth of the Word of God that says even though I chose Him, I was already chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.  Before I reached my decision for Christ, and every decision for Him since, I was already predestined according to the foreknowledge of God to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be adopted as His son, and to bring praise and glory to Him in that acceptance.

 

Thank You, Jesus!