I've been sick the last couple of days so I am just now getting back to my journey. The Lord is a great God. I've been reading an apologetics book and it reminds me once again of how remarkable God and his word really are. To think that the God of the entire universe would care to know who I am, would take the time to hear my prayers, and would actually shed his blood so that I may know him in return.
Genesis 8:1
The Bible says “But God remembered Noah (ESV).” How comforting it is to be reminded that in our most difficult times, God remembers us. When our world seems flooded with adversity, the one who is our strength knows exactly where we are. He made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. Likewise, if we endure, he will inevitably make his spirit blow across us and renew our strength. For those who wait upon the Lord truly will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not get weary. Sometimes life seems so overbearing. We are drowned by the floodwaters of difficulty. But even in the midst of turmoil, when we feel alone and in a desolate land, we can rest assured, and take comfort in the knowledge, that God remembers us.
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Genesis 9:9-17
God is a covenant making God. I’m not sure that many Christians today understand the importance of this simple fact. No other God of any religion can claim to be a covenant making God. The Hindu gods do not make covenants. Shiva lives only to destroy. The god of the Muslims does not make covenants. Allah fears that such behavior would diminish his absolute authority and make him subject to the very humans he created.
The God of the Jews & Christians has no such fear. Why? Because HE is the one true God. His love compels him to covenant with man like a bridegroom to his bride. He doesn’t fear losing power, because he cannot lose power. He doesn’t fear losing authority, because he cannot lose authority. He doesn’t fear becoming subject to mankind, because he will never face that possibility.
This simple, yet profound, attribute of God reveals his monopleuric character in that he is willing to descend and make a covenant with mankind, a race of beings so much lower than himself. Not only is he willing to stoop to our level, but his covenants are dipleuric in that we have free choice of whether or not to enter in. No other religion gives such a choice.
God never wanted a robot bride. He values freedom of choice. He wants us to love him by our own will. He has made with us a covenant that we can freely enter into, in order to declare his love for us. He does not fear becoming subject to us, rather he willing put on flesh and became a servant to mankind.
Allah refuses to make a covenant because he is unwilling to lower himself to our level. Jesus Christ, Lord of ALL, willingly came in the image of like sinful flesh, so that he could model servitude. Imagine, the God of the entire universe, being so humble in his majesty that he would become servant to the very beings he created. Allah & Shiva loath such thoughts, it is beneath them. Yet God made it reality. He formed a covenant with man so that we may be saved. He condescended so that we may ascend. How beautiful the idea of God’s covenant really is. He is the only God willing to have a real relationship with us.
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