04/29/2017
What will we become when Jesus returns? What awaits us in faith when we rise from slumber tomorrow, or for that matter, what does the next hour have in store for us? Our faith is not something that can be calculated and God awaits around every bend with a new treasure.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
1 John 3:2 KJV
We can only imagine what Jesus looks like. There are no paintings or photographs, and as much as we would like the shroud of Turin to be authentic, there is still much doubt. In fact, despite God's Written Word in the Bible, there remains much mystery in our faith. Does this disappoint you? Are you the type person who needs black and white reality... firm boundaries that can be predicted day to day? Well our faith isn’t cut and dried, no, it is full of question and discovery; as a matter of fact it is much like the physical world in that regard.
Recently I read an article published by the National Geographic describing a quest to determine what made certain individuals genius. What is it about the Einsteins, and the Bachs that makes them so different from the normal person? Is it a surprise to you that after spending incredible resources on this task that they are no closer to a discovery than they were when they began? All there is to show for this effort is an interesting article in a magazine.
The world is full of mystery... what causes disease? What lies at the bottom of the ocean, what is the composition of the earth's core, where is the confederate treasure that was hidden at the end of the Civil War, why can't we decipher the Voynich manuscript, where is the location of Atlantis, and what is the actual size of the universe... these are all examples and there are many more. So why do mysteries of faith unsettle us?
Mysteries of our faith are many too... what did Jesus look like? When will Jesus return? Where is Moses buried? What happened to Eden? Who were the giants mentioned in Genesis? Where are the 10 lost tribes of Israel? The list of mysteries is long and yet we still try to live our spiritual lives as if we should be able to define them to the tee... we separate faith from what we know is real and tend to call on it when it serves us, but actually it is the very core of our spiritual journey. Our God surprises us with previously unknown glimpses of himself and new meanings hidden in His Word every moment of every day. This isn't meant to frustrate us, but to spark wonder.
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
Romans 11:33 ESV
We think of faith and the acceptance of mystery as being childlike. Only children believe in Santa Clause, and the tooth fairy is the fantasy of a child. In many cases that presumption is true, but children also accept mysteries such as the ascension of Jesus, that three wise men followed a star to Bethlehem, and that the virgin birth happened just as told. Their faith doesn't depend on determining how a body could rise into the air, whether the star that the magi followed was a comet, or how Mary might have received the other half of the DNA needed to make a child without losing her virginity. Jesus valued this unconditional faith of children, and He does in us as well...
“And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:2-3 KJV
To believe in something unseen is faith, and our ability to do this is one of the greatest gifts we have been given. It is the starting point from which God begins to reveal to us the reality of Himself, and it allows us to dream and expand ourselves beyond what we can touch.. God and Jesus don't begin with fact, but in mystery. The Bible begins with a mystery too. From what did God create, and where did He come from in the first place? So many mysteries, and we can’t begin to address them without faith.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Genesis 1:1 KJV
So, mystery begins our journey to reality, and We excitedly accept each spoon full of it as it is offered to us, but before any of this can occur we must become like children; we must believe; we must have faith; we must know that God exists in the depths of our hearts.
“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
John 20:29 KJV
Pastor Oswald Chambers commented on this and I will close my devotional this morning with his thought...
"We are not uncertain about God, but uncertain of what He is going to do next. If we are only certain in our beliefs, we get dignified and severe and have the ban of finality about our views, but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy." - Oswald Chambers
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the faith and the mystery you surround me with. I thank you for the wonder of discovering you every day of my life, and I pray that the excitement of knowing you better never ends. Holy Father you are the one truth I hold as complete. You placed the knowledge of yourself in mankind at creation, and as a result of that truth I seek you without end. Lord, I don't understand, but bless me in my ignorance, and allow me to believe those things I can't see or touch... even as you begin to reveal them to me out of the mysterious mist before me. Thrill me each day with discovery as I search your Word and wonder at your creation and the world around me. Let me love you Father when we are together and extend that love into those places and times when I can't see you. You are Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end; and you exist in the furthest reaches of mystery as well as what you have already revealed to us in those things we call reality. Praised be your name Lord. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who is the essence of great mystery, wonder, and inspiration through the application of the faith you have placed in me. In this way Abba, you allow me to dream and to accept those parts of you, those mysterious and wonderful places and things, that I don’t yet understand. Hear me as I shout, whisper, and open my heart to you in prayer. Let every word, every thought, and all my emotion rise up to you like a vapor, like the smoke of incense, comforting me in my faith, as it becomes my belief in you. You are all that is real and are new every morning in each new revelation that flows forth from my faith and shows itself to me. You are my hand of faith before I extend it towards the side of Jesus, and you are my deepest belief as that same hand reaches into His side to touch you there. Glorious are you, and wonderful in all your ways. Thrill me today in my faith, and awe me as I see and touch those things that were once only known to me in faith. I give you all the glory and honor for every moment of faith and call out Hallelujah to you from this my secret place where the sweet aroma and mist of faith surrounds me as I pray and utter the word Amen to you.
Amen
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1
“But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.”
Job 32:8 ESV
“And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.”
Revelation 8:3-4 ESV
Rich Forbes