God's Way is NOT Man's way--And God's way is so Cool!!
This weekend we spent time discussing the odd touchpoints in the Bible of Genesis 11 and Acts 2.
The history was simply that when God created us, He gave us the freedom to be over everything that He has made. Simply, go play, and see what we can do together. In thinking through the ramifications of this invitation, God of the universe invites us to come and steward, to oversee, to rule over the creation...it's very difficult for my mind and heart to process that this side of the fall.
To be made in God's image is more amazing than we understand--and I think that this is simply because we don't understand how awesome our God really is.
Take a moment, how cool is God?
-pause-
All humanity fell. The deep-six of our sin brought such an ugliness that God was sorry that He made us, and in the flood he effectively did a re-boot. One family, by grace through faith, was saved, and the command given again--"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth" Gen 9:1
Yet, after all that, we find humanity disobeying God by settling in one spot, building a tall tower and waterproofing it to survive, and the Bible says, "But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. 'Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.'"
Gen 11: 5-7
It's mindblowing to see how our sin, and our fear separate and distort our interaction with God. Our perception is morphed by this evil. Theologians call this the 'Noetic' effects of sin. Our 'knowing' is marred by sin--we can't even trust our own minds, and outside of God's truth and gracious intervention, even our reason is broken.
Think about it, in our sin it makes sense: God punished us. We are stronger in numbers. We should settle in this nice place, be safe, comfortable, and have stuff. Let's build a tower just in case God tries to wash us out again.
Makes sense outside of the context of God. As long as we disregard God and what He has spoken, we're all good. That's the noetic effects of sin.
Look at God's respect for His creation. Nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them...This is one of those spots that boggles my mind when I read it. I'm not sure how to process this. Frankly, this is something I am wrestling with God through and all I can come up with is how cool God is.
So, God disperses people by giving them new languages; and they do what God had originally asked them to do. I want to ask all kinds of wonderful "what-of" questions here--like, what if we all had obeyed God, and had the same language, and our culture was marked by God primarily, and then all the other wonderful aspects like food, music, styles, mores and norms...Wow.
What captured my heart this weekend was Acts 2.
This is where God empowers the believers with the Holy Spirit to go and live out the disciplemaking mission that was given to them by Jesus, and the first miracle we see is God allowing them to speak in all the languages, and the first thing they hear, the unifying message, is God's rescue plan and how He loves them.
This has just captured my imagination. This is how God is going to bring us back to what He intended in the first place. Many different peoples, and cultures, all underpinned and built on the foundation of our relationship with God. Wow, what a cool God.
Where does this lead your heart and imagination?
My heart and imagination are led to pray for this:
By the time my grandkids are old enough to live as disciplemakers, that everyone in the world will have a friend in their life who is prayerfully and intentionally helping them to take next steps with Jesus.
God, please let your Kingdom come and Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. In Jesus name, Amen!
The history was simply that when God created us, He gave us the freedom to be over everything that He has made. Simply, go play, and see what we can do together. In thinking through the ramifications of this invitation, God of the universe invites us to come and steward, to oversee, to rule over the creation...it's very difficult for my mind and heart to process that this side of the fall.
To be made in God's image is more amazing than we understand--and I think that this is simply because we don't understand how awesome our God really is.
Take a moment, how cool is God?
-pause-
All humanity fell. The deep-six of our sin brought such an ugliness that God was sorry that He made us, and in the flood he effectively did a re-boot. One family, by grace through faith, was saved, and the command given again--"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth" Gen 9:1
Yet, after all that, we find humanity disobeying God by settling in one spot, building a tall tower and waterproofing it to survive, and the Bible says, "But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. 'Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.'"
Gen 11: 5-7
It's mindblowing to see how our sin, and our fear separate and distort our interaction with God. Our perception is morphed by this evil. Theologians call this the 'Noetic' effects of sin. Our 'knowing' is marred by sin--we can't even trust our own minds, and outside of God's truth and gracious intervention, even our reason is broken.
Think about it, in our sin it makes sense: God punished us. We are stronger in numbers. We should settle in this nice place, be safe, comfortable, and have stuff. Let's build a tower just in case God tries to wash us out again.
Makes sense outside of the context of God. As long as we disregard God and what He has spoken, we're all good. That's the noetic effects of sin.
Look at God's respect for His creation. Nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them...This is one of those spots that boggles my mind when I read it. I'm not sure how to process this. Frankly, this is something I am wrestling with God through and all I can come up with is how cool God is.
So, God disperses people by giving them new languages; and they do what God had originally asked them to do. I want to ask all kinds of wonderful "what-of" questions here--like, what if we all had obeyed God, and had the same language, and our culture was marked by God primarily, and then all the other wonderful aspects like food, music, styles, mores and norms...Wow.
What captured my heart this weekend was Acts 2.
This is where God empowers the believers with the Holy Spirit to go and live out the disciplemaking mission that was given to them by Jesus, and the first miracle we see is God allowing them to speak in all the languages, and the first thing they hear, the unifying message, is God's rescue plan and how He loves them.
This has just captured my imagination. This is how God is going to bring us back to what He intended in the first place. Many different peoples, and cultures, all underpinned and built on the foundation of our relationship with God. Wow, what a cool God.
Where does this lead your heart and imagination?
My heart and imagination are led to pray for this:
By the time my grandkids are old enough to live as disciplemakers, that everyone in the world will have a friend in their life who is prayerfully and intentionally helping them to take next steps with Jesus.
God, please let your Kingdom come and Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. In Jesus name, Amen!
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