Beverly and I were quietly having breakfast
near this table of six who were friendly but carrying on conversations like
someone talking on a cell phone; they were going to invade your airspace with
or without your permission. The ambiance turned into a magpie convention to our
left. One woman talking a mile a minute got my attention when she braked for a breath and concluded her remarks about one of her grown
children,
“Well, if you are going to do
something stupid,” ‘I told him;’ “you can at least be smart about it!”
The magpies all bobbed their heads in
agreement and quickly flew off to another conversation.
Sitting at the table in front of us
was an interesting couple who looked to be in their fifties. He was a very tanned and muscular man who wore
a tight t-shirt. Trust me, if standing next to him, I would look like the “before”
picture! His wife was pale and skinny in contrast to her husband who looked as
if he handled all the pumping of the iron for both of them. The funny thing
about this non-talkative couple was this. He was eating fruit and drinking
fruit juices, and she was pigging out on the greasy bacon! I could only imagine
the countless conversations and arguments taking place in their marriage over
nutrition, diet, and exercise! He was ripped; she was real.
He was sitting with his back to me,
and I was reading the long list of nutritional advertisers on the back of his
Navy blue t-shirt ready to rip from his Hulk-like body while Beverly was briefly
away from the table. Down about midway through the list of advertisers was a
disturbing thing. It read, “Bigger than God.” The man obviously had an ego
problem by the way he carried himself, but what I found to be offensive was the
“Bigger than God” logo. I could deal with the senseless chatter of the magpies
or the superiority complex of beefcakes, but those words on the back of that
shirt were shouting at me, figuratively speaking. All I could think about was here was a puny
human wearing “Bigger than God” printed on his t-shirt.
The sounds from the magpies were being
drowned out by those words resonating in my brain, “Bigger than God.” My
perception of the man’s persona changed. I thought to myself, “You may be
bigger than me, but you are not bigger than God!” If perchance those words were
only a catchy marketing strategy, some things are better left uncaught or
unsaid though he had every right to wear whatever advertisement he wanted.
I simply wanted to eat breakfast and
enjoy my time with Beverly, and I felt sandwiched in by an earthy philosophy
emanating on one side and the parading of arrogance and stupidity directly in
front of me. What seemed like an eternity was only a brief moment. It was
just a spiritual snapshot of the world that the Lord was giving to me. I was
not having a jihadist moment of a self-righteous surge to purge the infidels! I
was reminded that we are in the world but not
of it, and the only thing separating us from them was the grace of God which
helps to keep compassion close by and handy. There is nowhere on earth, no
matter how pleasant and desirable, we can travel to escape the vanities of this
world. It is soaked to the core with it. Our enemies, Satan, the world system,
and the flesh would like nothing more than for us to invest and indulge in Vanity
Fair.
Speaking of vanities, I come to the
point in all of this. As believers, if we are not diligent, we can begin to
blend in with the vanities of the world, the things that are passing away. How
often do we think of God and His ways throughout the day, the week, the month, and the year? We as believers can do things in our life on a daily basis that do
not take into account the reality of God like the two groups at breakfast.
As odd as this may sound, our thoughts
and behavior can deteriorate to having the mind of an atheist and/or doing that
which is right in our own eyes (apart from the teaching of Scripture). It is
scary to think that we can go about our business without any thought of God
throughout the week; Christlikeness is a 24/7 aggressive ambition to do the
will of God. It can never stop nor can we afford to stop growing in the grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ. It’s not automatic; it’s a choice that cuts
against the grain of our fleshly nature.
Whenever Sunday rolls around does God
show up as a blip on our radar screen in our mind. We have a tendency to
forget by our thoughts and actions that God is mindful of what is going on in
our thinking and in our life every day including Sunday! We can dismiss all of
that by thinking God is not interested in the minutia in our lives, only the massive. If
that was true Paul through the Holy Spirit would not have said what he did to
the Corinthians (1 Cor 10:31) or to the Colossians (Col 3:17). We rationalize
or justify what we are doing as pure in our own eyes, and therefore we are
right before God in our way of thinking, but purity is measured by the LORD
(cf. 1 Sam 2:3; Prov 16:2; 21:2). He sets the tone and the standard of living,
not us.
Let me briefly mention some attributes
of God in regard to our discussion: God’s all-knowing (omniscience), all-presence
(omnipresence), and all-ability (omnipotent). Since God is eternal in nature,
all of His attributes are eternal, without alpha or omega (beginning or end).
God is not growing in knowledge; God is not having a problem “getting” around
that we have to wait until He “physically” shows up; and God is not getting
stronger day by day; God has the ability to do what He says He will do because
He is omnipotent or all-powerful.
Since God is infinite, all of His attributes are without
limitation. Simply, God is not developing in any capacity of His nature. He is
profoundly the “I AM.” He is a God of simplicity, not a composition of His
attributes. Another way of saying it is that He is uncompounded and not the sum
total of His attributes; God is. This is why we can say without contradiction
that God is love and that God is a God of wrath in the same breath. His
attributes are not varying slices of a pie. He is not an 80% slice of love and a 20% slice of holy. He is love (100%); He is holy (100%). The doctrine of
simplicity may give the impression it is simple, straightforward, and easy to assimilate; it's not, at least for me.
What does all of this mean to us? Well,
that could take a host of words, but I will keep it somewhat short. The mother
giving her son advice to be discreet is only for others, not God. She is not taking
into account God’s omniscience, God having “total” knowledge though we don’t
know what that “total” is (Psa 147:5).
With being infinite, the word “total” suggests
limitation. I mention that to illustrate how any earthly language falls short
in giving the precise nature of God, but such challenges do not relieve us from the responsibility of presenting the truth of God to the best of our abilities and being
held accountable for the revelation of God (Deut 29:29). Apparently, God thinks
His revelation of Himself is sufficient for us (cf. 2 Tim 3:16, 17; 2 Pet 3:18). Below
are two verses on the omniscience of God for examples.
“For His eyes are
on the ways of man, And He sees all his steps” (Job 34:21).
“And there is no
creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the
eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Heb 4:13).
With this
all-knowing, consider His all-presence. Do we really think we are ever going to
get away with anything when even David questioned rhetorically,
“Where can I go
from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence” (Psa 139:7)?
The
same Spirit David talked about lives within our hearts, and this is an extremely important fact: Jn 14:17; Rom 5:5; 8:9, 11; 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19; Eph 2:22; 2 Tim 1:14! So we can think of it this way wherever we go; no matter how
much we try to keep it a secret; for better or worse, we take the Holy Spirit
with us in our covert or overt activities, and whenever we get there, He is
already there waiting on us as David related to in Psalm 139! Even that woman’s
son will not be able to hide his stupid by being “smart about it” from God (Job
34:22; Prov 15:3; Isa 29:15; Jer 23:24).
A”
bigger than God” mentality is where stupidity, arrogance, and rebellion all
intersect. Ask yourself, how can the creature say to the Creator who is
all-powerful,” I am bigger than You!” It is mindless and absurd, and that is
exactly what it is when we buck His authority for our own. This is the time when
we need a good dose of FOG (fear of God) to see clearly. Let’s read a couple of
verses on God’s power.
According
to Moses, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gn 1:1).
According to Job, “I
know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be
withheld from You” (Job 42:2).
According to
Nebuchadnezzar, “All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as
nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What
have You done’” (Dan 4:35)?
According to Paul, “And
what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according
to the working of His mighty power” (Eph 1:19).
If we are honest,
we have all struggled with God’s omnipotence or authority in our lives; it’s
called sinning (cf. 1 Jn 1:10; 2:4). I’ve never met a Christian who has never
disagreed with God about something, and I have never met a sinless Christian,
except for this little old lady who claimed she didn’t sin! This was years ago;
she is probably dead now. I wonder if she ever read Rom 5:12; if she didn’t,
she found out quickly at her passing that she died because she was a sinner! She
refused to share her salvation experience with me, but she wanted me to know that
she didn’t sin.
God never abuses
His power toward man as man does with man. He is holy, righteous, just,
merciful, kind, and gracious. He will always do the right thing for us. He
is a God of standards and will hold all men accountable to His standards of
holiness. Now, there is just one more attribute I would like to throw into the
mix here, and that is God's immutability or unchangeableness. God cannot change
(Mal 3:6).
Recall, one of God’s
attributes is eternality. All of God’s attributes are eternal in nature. God’s
immutability is eternal in essence; He is eternally consistent with Himself.
There are no contradictions or aberrations in His character which is why the
writer of Hebrews can emphatically declare, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever” (Heb13:8). From everlasting to everlasting He is God (Psa
90:2). He is the “who is and who was
and who is to come” (Rev 1:4). He is not progressing to a higher level
of Being as other false religions claim. He is the same for all time and eternity.
God knows
everything. We will not catch Him sleeping. He’s everywhere present, not in
part but in whole. He is eternal, immutable, and infinite. He has the ability
to make all things work together for good to those who are the called (that
would be us!) according to His
purpose. There is nothing or no one who is bigger than God, and we are not
going to get away with anything, anytime, anywhere, ever. That comes across with
a tinge of negative, I bet; but that is some great truth about God living in a
sin abounding, turning from the truth, torn by war, colder by the minute, meaner
than a snake, desensitized to death, crueler by the second, and a violent-filled world where everybody wants to rule the planet. It will only get worse as the
gap grows increasingly smaller between the rapture of the Church and the
appearance of the Anti-Christ on earth. Until then, blending in with the
vanities is an easy and natural thing to do when God is out of the equation of
our thoughts and actions in an upside-down world.
Practicing the
presence of Christ in every situation of life from cleaning toilets to being an
ambassador for Christ brings to mind who He is and what He expects – to be holy
as He is holy. The worse thing we could do is to go horizontal in our thinking,
living “under the sun” as Solomon would say, or living life apart from God.
This is what blending in with the vanities is all about – living life apart
from God. Solomon’s answer to all of this vanity that leads to vexation is
simple, sweet, and short – fear God and keep His commandments (Eccl 12:13). Rather
than blending with the vanities, God wants for us to separate ourselves from those
things and be Christlike.
The wayward son,
the “bigger than God” man, and we who believe should seriously consider Solomon’s
last verse in Ecclesiastes,
“For God will bring
every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil”
(12:14).
As believers, we will stand before Christ at the Bema judgment
(cf. 1 Cor 3:10-15; 2 Cor 5:9-10). Unbelievers, on the other hand, will stand at
the Great White Throne judgment (cf. Rev 20:11-15). Separating from the
vanities is where the eternal stuff is located! <><
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