Hand in Hand with God Almighty
Sometime in the past month, I read a quote that said something like, “God is more interested in what you do with Him than in what you do for Him.” I can’t find it again now to correctly attribute it, but those words say so much to my heart. I did find a similar quote by Malcom Smith that says, “While we are in a frenzy of doing for Him, we are in grave danger of missing the whole point of the Gospel – which is being with Him… He has many servants but few friends!”
In the short video I’ve shared above from The Bible Project (I love their videos and highly recommend them), the guys animate a lesson about partnering with God in this life. When I watched it as part of one of my studies, it made me think of that quote, and the whole message has been working in my spirit.
So many religions, and even non-religious ideologies that require good deeds, have leadership (or gods) that demand allegiance in word and deed but not in any sort of relationship. People do good (and even sometimes evil in the names of their gods) to get to their future reward. And they will pay any price because they think that reward must be earned. And it works for keeping people in line with the rules, but it’s too shallow for a life with a Creator who loves His creation so deeply that He actually left His glory to suffer in the flesh to make sure we can spend eternity with Him. He absolutely wants a partnership with each of us.
Another quote states it well by saying, “When you finally realize it isn’t about cutting off sin, it’s about loving God so much that your desires for sin no longer exist.” That kind of love will bring you all the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit and His Wonderful Presence. In Deuteronomy 4;7, Moses says, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to Him?” (WEBUS) And if having that kind of close friendship and love with your Creator sounds good to you, memorize this promise from Jeremiah 29:13 (World English Bible/WEB)…
13 You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.
And here’s an older beautiful hymn with lyrics to sing along; What A Friend We Have in Jesus…
God Knows Our Form
I think the Apostle Paul said it best in Romans 7:15… “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.” (NLT) But, at the same time, Psalm 103:14 reminds us, “For He knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust.”(NLT)
So God made us to be like Him, but He also knows that sin is a very real part of us that will keep trying to lead us away from the paths of righteousness. He made a way for us to have our sinful behaviors go to judgment without us, and He had a plan for it years before Calvary. We find that plan in Genesis 15 where God and Abraham carry out the ritual of the blood covenant.
In verse 17, Abraham is still kinda knocked out, and he sees two flames in front of him that walk through the pieces. They are a smoking furnace (or fire pot) and a flaming torch. I don’t know which one represented God, and which one represented mankind, but since the flames walked both directions through the sacrifices, and since God kept Abraham in a temporary sleep, the covenant was completed solely by God. I added the doves, white hearts, and crosses to the images to represent God’s Spirit in both lamps.
God walked through the pieces to represent His promise, and then He walked through the pieces to represent Abraham’s promise. Because He knew man would fail, He prepared to pay for that failure with His own blood. (In Acts 20:28, Paul exhorts the teachers to feed the church of The Lord, which He purchased with His own blood.)
In the covenant (see Jeremiah 34:18), people make promises to each other and walk through the sacrificial pieces to confirm their promises. Whoever breaks that promise must pay with their own blood. You can read the steps Abraham took to prepare the sacrifices for the ritual in verses 9-11. In verse 12, a deep sleep falls on Abraham as God recites His promises to Abraham about His blessings on future generations that would come from him. Abraham’s part is to remain faithful and upright before The Lord and to teach his family to do the same.
There are other teachings suggesting what the events between Abraham and God could have meant, but when I was taught what the blood covenant was, it made perfect sense to see the future act of Christ at Calvary as being planned by a loving and merciful God who knows our form. He has been so good to me (and to many others I know), and I’ve seen His mercy deliver me from failures more times than I can count. To think He was planning it so far in advance just deepens my awe for His grace and mercy. What does it say to you?
A Flood of Emotion
If you know any artists or writers or creators of any type, you know they can be temperamental about your reactions to their creations. I don’t watch any of those chef programs, but the previews seem to show some real volatility in recipe creators/cooks who don’t get things their way or get the reactions they hoped for. But I think we come by it honestly from being made in the image of a Creator who puts His whole heart into everything He creates.
I’m up to Day 3 in my Bible study, so the last 2 days included Genesis 4 through Genesis 11. Mankind rejected the Light and Love God gifted him in exchange for what sounded to them like a good idea. Back in Genesis 3, Eve is shown looking at the tree while thinking how it… A: Looked good for food (lust of the flesh), B: Was delightful to look at (lust of the eyes), and C: Was desirable for obtaining wisdom (pride of life). Those three sin-inducing thoughts are at the root of every temptation or sin we face.
So, they did things the human way and rejected God’s way which led to a rejection of the gifts He wanted to shower on them, such as the ability to eat from the ”Tree of Life” and live forever. It was only God’s mercy that sent them away from the tree rather than leaving them in eternal bondage to their sin.
Then came Noah, the grandson of Methuselah, who found grace in the eyes of The Lord and was rescued with his family from a flood meant to wash away all that had destroyed God’s beautiful creations. As I wrote my study comments, I used a crying emoji, and it suddenly made me think of all the flood waters as God’s tears. Can you imagine that much heartache?
But, after it was all said and done, God ached for the many lost people (and critters) washed away and buried with no chance of salvation. He placed the scientific phenomena of a colorful spectrum in the Creation sequence, so water now reflects His desire to rescue mankind with a hope of redemption and restoration.
And now, for a little fun, here’s a video by my favorite Christian parody band, ApologetiX, with their song Noah Man to the tune of Nowhere Man by ”The Beatles”.
Into A Dark World… A Creator and A Savior
In the YouVersion app, I’m doing one of the year long studies from The Bible Project. This one is called, “One Story that Leads to Jesus.” You can find it at… http://bible.com/r/GP4
The day 1 study included an animated video and then Genesis 1, 2, & 3 + Psalm 1. It had inspiring images of chaos and such that God turned into a world of life and peace. And it made me think of a song I wrote many years ago. The first line said, ”Into a dark world, a Savior came.” Since the study is going on with a group of people, it includes discussion. Here’s what I wrote…
Because of the mystery of God’s creation, the exact nothingness that preceded creation isn’t truly known. My writer’s brain took elements, like the enemy being cast down, and put that together in a story where the darkness that covered the earth was a result of that battle and belonged to the cast out devil.
And then…
Because there is nothing that is more powerful than The Almighty Creator, I imagine God driving His hand straight through that icky darkness and proving that Light is the most powerful.
Just like Jesus brought Light and Salvation into a cold and dark world, I believe the type and shadow before it was God bringing a garden of salvation into a place the enemy only thought he had control. God’s wonderful creations are all part of the story with the happiest ending of all, life forever with our Creator Abba Father.
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Tell me what my commentary means to you, and if you like the study idea, I’d like to hear if you joined YouVersion and signed up for this or any other study. Blessings on your week and all of January!
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