Need-less

We tend to get things backwards. In Christian and church circles, we begin to think that we are the hands and feet, the mouthpieces of God. It is an easy step, then, to believe that God needs us. Without our hands and feet, God cannot reach the lost. Without our words of witness, the world cannot understand the truth about God.

In addition, we get the other side backwards as well. We regard large swaths of our lives as manageable. We begin to think that we can handle this, and this, and this also, so much so that, in some areas, we don’t need God. 

Actually, the opposite, in both cases, is true. God is not dependent upon us. He is absolutely self-sufficient. If at times He chooses to use our hands and feet, or our mouths, He is free to do so. But He is not compelled to do so by any helplessness or need in Himself.

Further, it is we who are helpless. So much so, that every aspect of our lives should be brought to Him for advice and correction. Yes, we can easily follow the world ways and methods, following the teachings of psychology and marketing and business. But the result will be (surprise!) that we look and live like worldlings, and find ourselves lacking the influence and power of the Spirit of God in our lives. The truth is, we can only be useful as instruments of God when we submit to and are empowered by God’s Spirit. We need Him, always.

What I suggest as we approach a new year is that we purpose to slow down, to live more carefully, more prayerfully, and consider how it is that we should be dependent upon God, even as we worship Him in His expansive and absolute self-sufficiency. A popular term of late is “mindfulness.” But we must not resort to exploring our own thoughts. We need God's thoughts, also referred to as spiritual-mindedness (Romans 8:5-6).

Why is the Earth Tilted?

“Scientists are not entirely sure how this occurred, but they think that billions of years ago, as the solar system was taking shape, the Earth was subject to violent collisions that caused the axis to tilt.” https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/winter-solstice-wxc/index.html

I didn’t really expect CNN to adopt a Biblical point of view, but it should have. This statement is pretty amazing. The fact that “scientists” are not “entirely sure” indicates that they are now not acting as scientists at all, but rather, speculators. Their speculations are founded in a system that will not, must not consider God at all, and so they are left to reach for other possible answers, which, it seems, are tilted.

It is not difficult, from a theistic (or, God-centered) point of view, to think that the earth is tilted because of God’s wisdom and goodness. We know that we cannot plumb the depths of God’s understanding, and that the wise and good reasons for the earth being tilted go way beyond what we observe. But, at a surface level, perhaps God “tilted” the earth so that much of the earth’s population could experience seasons; so that the varieties of nature could abound; and so that the cold regions might provide a balance to the hot regions; and maybe, very superficially, so that a person living in Michigan or New York could both ski on water and also ski on snow. The earth’s tilt is better than genius. It is divine.

More difficult is coming to terms with men and women, who, adopting an un-god-ly view, can present their “tilt’s” to the world in such a way that you fail the class if you do not agree with them. For them, according to the statement above, the tilt of the earth was just a really lucky break for us all. It seems reasonable to think that without this speculated, accidental collision, life would not be even possible on earth. This “accident” can be neither wise, nor good. This kind of tilt, concocting notions because you cannot bear the thought of God, is not genius, nor divine, but rather, demonic.

What ‘They’ Say: “There is no God

Psalm 14 begins with the words: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” This company of people, whoever ‘they’ are, lives to themselves, considers themselves accountable only to themselves, and exalts themselves as cosmic experts. ‘They’ were evidently present and active in Bible times, and ‘they’ certainly are still present and active today.

Let’s consider this statement, “There is no God,” from two different angles. On the one side, what does this mean for the believer in “no god”? Then we will consider those who believe there is a God (but, who, according to this statement, are staking their lives on a fairy tale).

If there is no God, then the naturalists are correct. Everything that exists inexplicably arose from a cosmic event that occurred in the far distant past, with no clear cause. This ‘accident’ gave rise to a great many more ‘accidents,’ a very few of which allowed other accidents to take place. As we proceed in our imaginations from the cosmos to the earth, we find that this planet was formed ‘accidentally,’ and that it ‘accidentally’ is suited to support life. Further through time, the erupting of life on earth is one of the greatest ‘accidents’ of all.

We are all then, ‘accidents,’ you and I, and the significance of our being here is, well, meaningless. What you think, or believe, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t really matter that you showed up, and it won’t matter when you are gone. Of course, no one actually thinks or lives this way, because we simply cannot live with the statement, “There is no God.”

For believers in God, if this statement is true, we are wasting our time and energies and resources on things that do not matter. Our prayers are a fiction, as is our Bible, and our hopes, and our message. Now if there is any consolation (and, there is little), since everything in this universe is a waste anyway, …

But then we must come back to the verse that begins Psalm 14 and remember who ‘they’ is: “The fool has said in his heart …”