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We will begin in our journey toward discipleship by
first asking the question: What do we know about the nature of God?
This is the foundational question for our
ability to experience, and revel in, the fullness of a life in Christ.
For, if we do not understand the fundamental attributes of God’s
nature, we cannot possibly understand the enormity of Christ’s
work on our behalf.
As an example, most of us have traveled to a
distant destination by air. Some of us have experienced air travel so
often that we take it for granted, we may get anxious at take-off or
landing, when we hear something unusual or fly through turbulent air.
How often do you consider the very nature of the forces that make
heavier-than-air flight the absolute miracle of technology that it is?
A Boeing 767-300ER is a metal and plastic
structure that is over 180 feet long from end to end, over 156 feet wide
from wingtip to wingtip, and 52 feet tall; it’s
maximum takeoff load is 395,000 pounds; it can carry up to 255 people;
travel 6,590 nautical miles at an average cruising speed, at a 35,000
foot altitude, of 530 mile per hour.
To put that into further perspective imagine
something as wide, and half as long, as a football field, as tall as a 3
story building, weighing more than 30 adult male African Elephants
traveling at 775 feet per second, a mile higher than the 29002 foot peak
of Mount Everest from New York City to Los Angeles to New York City and
back to Los Angeles without stopping.
Even just a century ago the idea would have
been considered fantastic, if not delusional, and yet today around the
world this mode of transportation is happening hundreds, if not
thousands, of times every day!
And this, as with all of our technology, is
not supernatural. Modern air travel was not developed in defiance of
the physical laws which God created to order the functionality of the
universe, it is dependent on them. Our contemporary jumbo jets do not
manipulate the laws of physics, instead they use those divinely created
forces within the framework of the set parameters. They do not change
the wind direction, gravity or air pressure; instead aeronautic
engineers accumulate the knowledge necessary to conform their structures
to those elements which have existed from the beginning.
In the same way, we as followers of Christ,
must pursue knowledge of God so that we may better understand His
creation and will, and in doing so conform ourselves to God’s
purpose. For just as God set the winds in motion and installed the
gravitational and kinetic order of the universe which makes air travel
possible on this scale; He also is the Holy, Sovereign, Just, and Active
God that provided the inspiration for the builders and the hope of the
passengers that, regardless of the success or failure of man’s
technology, they can be secure in the one immutable law of creation God
never fails.
The first foundational attribute of God that
we will explore is: God is Holy
As Christians, it is a
fairly common occurrence (or it should be) for us to sing praises and
worship to our Holy God. We even capitalize the "H" for greater
emphasis. But what does "Holy" really mean? And how can we
authentically worship His Holy nature without first defining the
attribute?
It would be like me
telling you that is honor of God, I painted my whole house in different
shades of mogg. When you ask why, I say it is because God is Mogg.
Then, in order to avert the possibility of being considered
less-than-knowledgeable about God's "Mogg"-ness, you invite me to join
in a spontaneous outpouring of love and praise to the "Mogg"-ness of
God.
Yes, it is a silly
example, but as we continue you may find that it is not to far off the
mark.
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