Recognizing the
existence of a benevolent God was the first step in our journey towards
individual meaning to our lives. It begins our quest to fulfill our
unique and invaluable purpose. But how do we go about it? How do we
come to know this creator God we have discussed? How do we communicate with
Him? It is logical that given our finite status, and since He is
infinite, it seems most, if not all of the work, will have to rest on His plate
instead of ours. Since we recognize His existence, and our separation
from Him, we begin to feel a need to reconcile with Him, and get close to Him
again. This need is born into every human who has ever lived. But
not everyone recognizes it, or understands it. It is like a hunger that
is never satisfied. It is a combination of ambition, the pursuit of excellence,
curiosity about what is possible, and an insatiable need to be loved and
accepted. A desire to return 'home' even though 'home' may not be fully
understood. The more one gets to know God, the more the intensity of this desire to reconcile can be felt.
The burden for communication has already been
addressed by God. It turns out having created us for a specific purpose,
God is able to read and understand our thoughts, desires, and deepest
motives. It is both scary, and exhilarating that God easily penetrates
the facade we present to others, and knows our deepest core. There is NO
hiding from God, not physically (remember He can transcend time, space, and
matter), and not mentally (having authored our ability to both think and feel,
He can easily see into our true selves). Every word we speak He
knows. Every intent, whether open or hidden, He is keenly aware of.
So to communicate with Him we need only speak to Him, or perhaps 'think' to him
silently and He will hear us.
A modicum of respect would be a good idea
on our part in this process. As much as God loves us, and relates to us,
and intends nothing but good towards us - He is still the Supreme Being in the
Universe. It doesn't hurt to remember that the courtesy of His friendship
does not negate His awesome power and position. In other words, for God
to come down to our level to speak with us, does in no way make us equal to
Him. He may be family, but He is still the 'dad' of this family, and His
word goes, period. But there is equally no reason to fear talking to
God. The analogy of young children speaking to 'daddy' is both welcomed
and accepted by God. Young children respect their parents while still
having fun with them. This is the nature of our communications to
God. He is patient with us, answers our questions, helps us in times of
need, and most importantly teaches and corrects us as we need it (what is in
our own best interest from an eternal perspective - i.e. sometimes beyond our
ability to understand in the here and now).
What about God's
communication to us? Obviously we have NO ability to read His thoughts or
intents from our finite minds. So how do we 'hear' him? Again, He
knows our limitations and has addressed this as well. There are lessons on
the nature and character of God that can be found in His creation - in the harmony and balance of unspoiled nature
- in the order and precision of mathematics - in the tender intimacy of a
relationship between parent and new born child. There are a great many
things we can learn about God, as we marvel at the beauty of His creation that
still shines through our 'evil' polluted world. The second way, in which
God reaches out to us, is through a carefully crafted and divinely preserved
set of written records of His love (i.e. the Bible).
Why the Bible, and
not the Quran, or the writings of Confucius, or the Torah (which
technically is a subset of the Bible), or the mysterious plates of Joseph
Smith, or this book, or any other written source of men. Again we look at
it logically, the Bible is the only written record which completely outlines
... 1.) The Existence and character of God, 2.) The origin and existence of
Evil and its goals, 3.) Our existence & the ONLY plan that could work to
reconcile man back with God, 4.) The ultimate destruction of evil, and 5.) The
definition of love. The Bible is full of prophesies which can be
historically proven, and predicts the Messiah where every single attribute that
is foretold is fulfilled in total in Christ.
I believe Biblical writers
were inspired by God to write what they
did. They were not perfect, but their writings were accurate enough to
enjoy the preservation of God. Many dismiss the 'numbers' in the Bible as
inflated, and the claims of miracles as nothing more than allegory. We
will discuss this further in specifics as needed, but this claim in its premise
states that a loving creator God - did not think it important enough to keep
the single most referred to method of communication to us - accurate. In
effect God doesn't seem to mind some sort of sliding scale of accuracy; then
in that case, why not a sliding scale of love, or of goodness. It is not
consistent with His character to be sloppy. Therefore His communication
should be able to be counted on as accurate.
I realize that many
do not want to accept the Bible because of the scope of some of its
claims. For instance, according to the Bible our world was created in
only seven days. In fact the Bible says that our Earth (the rocks and
dust, etc. was "without form and void" - i.e. an asteroid without
water, air, or the ability to support life). God selected this floating
rock in space and began to shape it. He gave it an atmosphere (air), He
gave it water, then land. He placed it in, or simply created the
surrounding solar system to give it a sense of time, and location in
space. Then He brought life into our planet, first with growing things,
then with animals, finally with us 'in His own image' (something to discuss in
a later section). Because the carbon dating of the rocks on our asteroid
date back farther than 6000 years, is not hard and fast evidence the world was
not created exactly like God said it was according to the Bible. They are
not mutually exclusive. This first claim of the Bible has been
historically hard to accept by the non-believer; the idea that God created
us. If you accept this premise, the rest of the Bible becomes God's
communication to us. We have explored the alternatives to this logically
and already came to this conclusion, so we will move on.
Lastly God can
communicate with man, those who choose to listen; through the 'still small voice' he hears when he is
quiet, undistracted, and well practiced at truly listening for God. I
believe sometimes that 'still small voice' is our conscience - nudging us to
choose right when faced with a choice. Sometimes it comes through the
counsel of others in our immediate circle of influence. Sometimes 'the voice'
is neither quiet or small, sometimes it is unavoidable, loud, and clear - even
miraculous in its manifestation - but these times and people tend to be rare
(very rare). The results of any of these communications should be able to
be measured against the written words in His book, and compared against the
consistency of His character.
So communications
then, have been established between us and God. There is a way to learn
what God wants for us, what His plan is. We can begin building a personal
relationship with God immediately. Think about this concept carefully -
we can begin to know God right now - we can begin to reconcile with God right away - we do
not have to wait. We will discuss later the concept of 'Hell' being the
torturous recognition of our separation from God and all that is good. For
now we are talking about the concept of 'Heaven' where all that is good can
begin to be understood right now - no waiting. Heaven then, is MORE than
just a place. It is NOT just a destination. It is a lifestyle of
reconciliation of us and our God. This is what 'Salvation' (or saving us
from our evil and forced separation) is all about. It’s not about
escaping doom it is about experiencing LIFE right now. It is about being
HAPPY right now. This is the gift we have been given - right now.
And like any other gift, it is free to us; ALL we have to do is simply accept
it.
How do we go about
that? ... will be discussed throughout this book. For now focus on
the concept that your reconciliation with God can begin immediately. Your
communication methods have been outlined, no need to wait...
No comments:
Post a Comment