Total proof

I have to say that experiencing the birth of a child has to go down as total proof that God exists. At the beginning of this year Beth, my daughter, didn't exist in anyway. She had no soul, she had no body, no mind, no personality, no character. But one little act of love and BOOM!... she starts growing, rapidly, with unbelievable design and complexity. Nothing that man has ever created could be as awesome and as intricate as a baby. She's alive. Living, breathing, fully conscious and self-aware. She's beautiful.

If ever there needed to be total proof that this universe was created by a Great Designer, this is it. Billions of years and random chance could never create a baby. Especially not Beth.

The Greatest Gift

I recently watched a documentary on Ayrton Senna. The day he died, he was praying, and said God spoke to him. God told him that 'today, he would receive the greatest gift, God himself'.

Apart from being fairly amazing that God spoke to him in that way, it throws things into perspective. Whatever you think would be really great gifts (experiences, possessions, security, relationships, family), by far the greatest of them all is knowing God himself. It's the one gift we should treasure and pursue more than any other.

Forever Deepening

"Theologian Sam Storms writes, "We will constantly be more amazed with God, more in love with God, and thus ever more relishing his presence and our relationship with him. Our experience of God will never reach its consummation. We will never finally arrive, as if upon reaching a peak we discover there is nothing beyond. Our experience of God will never become stale. It will deepen and develop, intensify and amplify, unfold and increase, broaden and balloon.""

Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 179
Original quote: Sam Storms, "Joys Eternal Increase".

The Hiddenness of God (Part 5)

"Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.""
Exodus 20:18-19

People sometimes flippantly remark that if God was real, he should just show himself. Truth is, most of us get nervous just with human authority. Like the police stopping your car, your headmaster rebuking you as a child, or an assessment with your employer. What if God did just appear... the Commander-In-Chief of the Universe. What if his appearing was immediately followed by a confrontation?...

"Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?""
Revelation 6:15-17

Perhaps his apparent hiddenness is, for the time being, a form of his grace.

The Hiddenness of God (Part 4)

In some ways when we struggle with the hiddenness of God we are, at those moments, questioning whether Creation, Jesus and the Bible is enough. If we conclude that they aren't enough proof, they're not enough to cement our belief, that's a very big statement. We're passing judgment not only over God's work in history, but Jesus Christ himself. It's personal.

The Hiddenness of God (Part 3)

I watched 'The Finger of God' DVD by Darren Wilson yesterday and showed it at Life Group. Absolutely amazing. It's a film documenting the physical works of God around the world. From people mysteriously receiving gold teeth in church services, to street evangelism and healings, to the dead being raised (some dead as long as four days).

It seems God is prepared to revealed himself in quite remarkable ways. In many of these places – Mozambique, California, China – healing miracles are performed to show people God is real, and then the gospel is preached. Often it seems the whole purpose of the healings is to open people up to the gospel message and pave the way for salvation.

What really strikes you when you watch this is that God doesn't seem hidden at all. He provides real, tangible proof of his existence when asked, and is more than happy to demonstrate his power to a people that have no knowledge of him.

It makes you think – perhaps healings and miracles are inextricably linked to evangelism and the gospel message. Maybe they're not just meant for church on a Sunday, but out on the streets, in everyday life.

Another interesting point was that these healings, miracles, signs and wonders seem just as available to the church in the West as to the poorer, persecuted Christians around the world.

As an old 'No Fear' poster once read, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take". Maybe we just need to actually pray for some people.

The Existence Of God (Part 2)

Sometimes I think that the presence of evil in the world is absolute and undeniable evidence that Satan and demons exist, and therefore God exists. The fact that we even have a concept of evil shows there is a moral law, and a God who wrote that law. We know the world is broken and we demand that it should be better.

As Matt Chandler humorously states, no one gets angry at unicorns, elves or the Tooth Fairy. No one really believes God is fictitious.

The Hiddenness of God (Part 2)

It seems many Christians struggle with doubts, even doubting God's existence at times. Many will confess to thoughts such as "Am I making this up? Am I crazy?". We all want God to be really visibly obvious so that there's no room for doubt whatsoever.

It occurred to me today that, even when you can't see someone, if you can hear their voice you would never doubt their existence. A voice on the phone – you know there's a real person on the other end.

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
John 10:27

Surely the same is true with God. When you regularly hear His voice you don't find yourself doubting His existence. When we apply ourselves to reading His Word, it speaks to us. It penetrates our soul and spirit the way no human words can.

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."
James 4:8

There doesn't need to be a haze, a fog, or a great distance between us and God. You simply are as close to God as you want to be.

The Hiddenness of God

"Moses said, "Please show me your glory." ... "But," he said [the LORD], "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live¹."
Exodus 33:18-20

"Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him², because we shall see him as he is."
1 John 3:2

¹ There seems to be a real need for God to speak to us indirectly. Occasionally people hear the audible voice of God, yet it's very rare. But no-one's ever seen God the Father and lived to tell the tale. If he was to just turn up and show himself, like many people wish he would do, we would all die instantly.

² We would also be transformed into perfection with utter purity and holiness, just as Jesus Christ. So in short, we would cease to be of any earthly use.

It seems that God filters down His voice to a level that we can cope with. We have the Bible, and the whisper of the Holy Spirit to our soul. We are ministered to by angles, often without realising it. All very quiet, subtle ways. Some had even entertained angels and had no clue (Hebrews 13:2). But when people do see angels in the bible, they are usually terrified. And these are just created beings like us.

I would guess it's not God's plan to terrify us to on a daily basis.

But if we accept that we can't see God, we might at least question why He doesn't provide undeniable proof of His existence? Apparently, He already has...

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
Romans 1:20

"He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"
Luke 16:31

If we can't see Him from creation, if we don't believe the very words of God, written, in the bible, we will never believe no matter what.

Suffering with the Saints

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea."
Psalm 46:1-2

At Life Group last week I downloaded and played the biography clips from The Rebel's Guide to Joy series taught by Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church, Seattle. We then discussed all the most interesting points that struck out at us from the subject's life, and discussed particular bible verses that related to pain and suffering. It was a surprisingly inspired evening.

This verse, above, really resonated with me for a number of reasons. Firstly it states that God is our help and is 'very present'. Two magnificent statements: that you could have the creator of the universe, the greatest and most holy being that ever existed, present and helping in your time of trouble. But what it doesn't state is that God is our solution to the problem at hand. We assume he could be, as he's sovereign, but he chooses not to. Interesting...

The second thing you notice is that even though he's present and helping, the earth is still removed and the mountains are still thrown into the sea. He may not stop massive devastation from happening in our lives, but he does help us through it.

One of the real interesting points that came up in this Life Group evening was that many of the people studied experienced suffering that didn't seem to be linked with the gospel in any way. They couldn't say they had the honour of suffering for Christ. It was just generalised pain, sickness and death that anyone might experience. That must have felt so purposeless at the time.

But yet it wasn't. They fought, didn't give in, and their lives comfort us and testify to God's grace.

"In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."
John 16:33

The Existence of God

"Think for a minute of a marble table in front of you. Do you think that, given a trillion years or infinite time, this table could suddenly or gradually become conscious, aware of it's surroundings, aware of its identity the way you are? It is simply inconceivable that this would or could happen. And the same goes for any kind of matter."
Antony Flew

Today one of my reoccurring brain-melting thoughts came back to me. I was on my lunch break staring at my empty coke bottle and realised that the fact that anything exists defies all logic. The glass bottle shouldn't exist. Neither should the table it's sitting on. Everything that exists must have been created by something preceeding it.

And therefore nothing should exist.

Not empty space, not time, not a vaccum, not even the colour black. They are all things that came from somewhere. The fact that existence exists is insane. But here we are, in an incredibly complex, finely tuned universe; and it defies all reason.

You cannot believe that the universe has always been there.

Whether you believe in a universe or a multiverse, or that the Big Bang / Big Crunch cycle has occurred millions of times; it all had to come from somewhere. Nothing comes from nothing. An eternally existing universe is inexplicable. An eternally existing God makes sense. It's not a 50-50 take your pick.

You can ask all the same questions about God which you ask about the universe. Where did God come from? What caused him to exist? How can he have no beginning? But God is spirit and he is completely separate from the universe. How can you reason through, study, understand or theorise about a being in which you have no scientific knowledge and can never observe? His existence is entirely different from ours in every way.

As Flew puts it, "God's existence is inexplicable to us, but not to God".

Is God outside of time? (Part 2)

I went to a seminar by Michael Ramsden (European director of RZIM Zacharias Trust) at Momentum and asked him if he thought God was outside of time. Interestingly, he was certain that He was, talking about the space-time continuum being part of creation, and that God was external to this.

Apparently Christians have been saying for centuries that time had a finite beginning (rather than something that always existed). And this idea had been ridiculed by secular thinking. Until, of course, the Big Bang theory. This initially scared a lot of scientists because it confirmed Christian thought on time. Many of them rallied against the theory because they didn't want anything that seemed to confirm the biblical account of creation.

Anyway – bible verses – always useful! Michael Ramsden mentioned that there are four verses in the New Testament that talk about God existing before the 'age of time', i.e. before time was actually created. I've done my best to find them:

1 Corinthians 2:7
No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

2 Timothy 1:9
This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.

Titus 1:2
a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.

Jude 1:25
through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.

Is God outside of Time? (Part 1)

This is one of my more random thoughts. Definitely not a major theological issue. More "sam-ology" than theology, but one which fascinates me.

"With the Lord a day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like a day."
2 Peter 3:8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End."
Revelation 22:13

"I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done"
Isaiah 46:9-12

"the One ... who inhabits eternity"
Isaiah 57:15

Could it be that God is completely separate from time? Is it possible that He isn't on a timeline; that he views future events with the exact same precision and clarity as He would view present and past events? Here's and illustration of what I mean...


view large

We're on the timeline in 2009. We can make vague predictions about what might happen in the future, but really, we haven't got a clue. We can also remember past events in our lifetime. We have records of history which give us some sort of a view of things that occurred further back.

But if God isn't bound by this timeline, like we are, then maybe He can see any future point in time exactly as He sees the present day. Over 25% of the Bible is prophecy, referring to future events. And the prophecies occur with stunning accuracy.

One view would be that God moulds and shapes events to fulfill His previous prophecies. The other would be that He knew from the beginning the exact unfolding of events. He knew before the creation of the Earth every thought in your head, every inclination of your heart, the movement of every atom in the universe.

This would make a lot of sense for a Sovereign God. He's totally in control, and views everything – past, present and future – with a perfect clarity.