God is Infinite, and He wants to Have a Relationship with You
Click below to read an insightful commentary on both the infinite nature of God and His unbelievable desire to have relationship with us. How is this accomplished? Read to find out.
Letter to the Editor of The Atlantic
Rachel Dickinson’s article (“At Land’s End,” July/August Atlantic) caught my eye because of the author’s obvious appreciation for the beauty – and mystery – of nature. I wonder if Dickinson realizes what a grand, theological truth to which she has alluded in the last portion of her writing. As a person with a Biblical Christian worldview, I was genuinely excited by Dickinson’s indirect and – most possibly – completely unintended observation of a timeless metanarrative.
Dickinson details her thoughts on a foggy morning in the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula, “I thought about the cranes in their balletic flight, and the ravens pecking away at the whale carcass, and how the beauty and desolation of the Russian Far East converges in this spot on the tundra, at the edge of the frigid Bering Sea.” Amazing! The beauty of cranes meeting in air and flying in tandem juxtaposed against the eerie reminder of death and destruction as ravens devour a whale’s remains. The magnificence of just one aspect of this profound creation – those amazing creatures of flight – converges, as Dickinson says, with the dismal result of humankind’s rebellion against the Creator – disintegration and death.
In this world we do observe quite simultaneously two Biblical truths: God made everything good (Genesis 1:31), and human sin against His plan brought ruination (Romans 6:23). The majesty, intricacy, and unfathomable beauty of the created world hints at the perfection God intended and will – one day – dramatically restore (II Peter 3:10-13). At the very same time, the imperfection, dissatisfaction, and disaster we so often witness hints at the severity of broken relationship with the Creator and a need to regain what is right and good.
As Dickinson amazingly reminded us of this convergence of beauty and destruction in any given moment, may we recall the answer to the dilemma lies in the convergence of two other seemingly diametrically opposed concepts: God and Man in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:9). This divine convergence in the Person of Jesus is our salvation – our hope for life and beauty to win out in the end.
Rethinking Harps, Halos, and Inadequate Views of Heaven
Angels are angels. People are people. Some like to play harps, but not everyone does.
“In the beginning [of time] God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) In the end of time, God will recreate the heavens and the earth. (II Peter 3:13) At this pivotal recreation of reality as we know it, all will be restored to a righteous state of being. Righteousness is an elaborate word that means something or someone is as it/he/she ought to be. Oh, the wonderful thought of things being as they ought to be! We dream of bodies functioning as they ought to function, of minds thinking as they ought to think, and of relationships working as they ought to work. This spectacular condition of righteousness is the essence of Heaven.
God obviously knew what He was doing when He created all that is. Note from a thorough reading of Genesis chapters 1-3 that is human rebellion against God and His perfect plan which set into motion the disintegration of the universe, relationships, and people. When the same Jesus who entered the world to pay the price for human sunfulness returns again to the world, He will vanquish the curse of sin and reintegrate degree as we enjoy the heavens and the earth unhampered by human sinfulness and its dreadful consequences.
Redeemed people-redeemed by the blood of the God-Man, Jesus Christ-will always be people. We will not suddenly grow wings and don halos at the end of time. Our bodies will no longer be limited by space and time, and so traveling through the universe will no doubt come with ease! However, we will remain the humans we were always created to be. You know the saying, “God does not make junk.” We may be marred by our sin, but we are infinitely valuable as God’s creation. if we make the choice to allow Jesus to redeem us, we will function in the new heavens and the new earth with all the energy we always wanted, doing all the things we love to do. If Jesus made you to love walking and laughing, so you will! If-like me-He made you to love studying, speaking, and leading, so you will!
Heaven is an exciting place; it is more exciting than the best this sin-cursed earth has to offer. This old earth will be remade by Jesus, the same Jesus who remade our hearts when we asked Him to.
Our Help
The only help on which we can completely rely is that of God’s own Spirit. Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever…”(John 14:16, NASB). Since God designed and created both this world and us, He alone understands what is necessary for us to function properly as we live each day. Right functioning- or righteousness- is God’s original intent. Jesus walked this earth and gave Himself as a sacrifice for our sinfulness. When He arose from death and left this space-time continuum, He sent the Holy Spirit to be the One who leads us in right functioning.
God’s Spirit, our Helper, is with us forever. Unlike the help of friends and family, finances, health, or success; the help of God Himself never weakens or disappears. The Holy Spirit is with us now, and He will stay with us until the return of Jesus to Earth and beyond!
As John 14:17 reminds us, the world will not be able to wrap its mind around the concept of God’s Spirit living in us to comfort and help. We, however, must determine to talk daily with God and embrace His desires for our lives. No one and no thing can ever take from us His eternal, unfailing help.
The Mysterious Tension of Life…and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
The world we live in is a strange mix of good and bad. At once – and on any given day – we can experience the joy of living and the pain of dying. Each one of us is made in the image of our perfect God (Genesis 1:27), and each one of us is tainted by the awful consequences of our sin. Even though we live by the sustaining power of Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:17), we live under the shadow of death; for the wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23).
It is no wonder that we can truly say, “Life is very good” and “Life is very bad.” This creation reflects the wonder, majesty, and care of our God. At the same time, this creation reflects the curse of sin against our God. We live in the mysterious tension between righteousness and sinfulness, between God’s intended perfection and our human failure, between the suffering of now and the hope of the future.
Thank Jesus there is a hope for the future! The celebration of Easter – Resurrection Day – recognizes the most significant event in all of history. Jesus crashed into this world of ours. Though He exists outside of space and time, though He is not bound by days or locations as we are, He chose to invade this space/time realm in order to do what needed done. He took on human flesh – came incarnate (John 1:14) – to the universe in order to pay the price for the sin of human beings. He died and shed His own blood to cover our sin (Ephesians 1:7), and then He rose from the dead as the ultimate proof of His sacrifice.
Ponder this: the omnipresent and omnipotent God of creation who is not bound by space or time willingly chose to come to Earth in order to make a way that we might someday be free from the restraint of time and space and live forever with Him. When Jesus told his disciples, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6), His words were so deep. We take for granted the sacrifice God has made. We depend on Him for everything – including our breath – and yet He lowered Himself to enter our sin-cursed world so that we might someday escape the sin curse.
One day Jesus will re-make the heavens and the earth by the same power that raised Him from the dead! This world will no longer be a mix of good and bad, righteousness and unrighteousness. This new world will be a “home of righteousness” (II Peter 3:13). Everything will then be as it ought to be; no more death, no more tension between sinfulness and what should be. Everything will be right because Jesus will have made it right.
Easter is a time to look inside and be sure we stand securely in relationship with the God of the universe by way of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Only Way. Every person must believe the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and choose to trust Jesus in every way for all of life. A relationship with Him is the only way we have real life now and perfect life then.
The tension of this life is great. Let the hints of goodness we see in this world direct us to our good God, despite the current reality of the sin curse. Jesus came to destroy the work of sin and Satan (I John 3:8), and this reality will most certainly come to pass in all fullness one day soon.
Biblical Worldview and Integration Video
Click on the link below to view Part I of my Biblical Worldview and Integration seminar. This message was presented at Christian Fellowship Academy and High School on January 12, 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shelli+prindle&search_type=
True Greatness
True greatness is always defined from God’s perspective. The value of a life can only be determined as that life – including all its efforts, joys, and tragedies – is aligned with the glory of God. One reason so many people never realize fulfillment and peace is because they refuse to embrace the fact that the purpose of human life is to glorify Jesus Christ. We are to exalt Jesus with all He has given us, for He is our Designer.
As I read Luke 1:15, I hear the angel Gabriel tell Zacharias that John the Baptist will be “great in the sight of the Lord.” Amazingly, my mind races to Matthew 14:10, where I read, “[Herod] sent and had John beheaded in prison . . .” The same John the Baptist who is great in God’s sight ended up imprisoned and beheaded. Despite the tragedy from our vantage point, John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, and steered souls into God’s everlasting, perfect, never-disappointing Kingdom. John saw Jesus as his goal, as his Savior, and the reason for living – and dying.
We, too, are great when we drive all the passion and efforts of our lives to the magnification of Jesus no matter what the world does with us or thinks of us.
Note to Jesus as I Reflect on My Work for Him
Dear Jesus,
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I cannot say enough about how grateful I am for all You are doing.
I LOVE to teach and preach Your Word. I LOVE it! You are giving me wonderful opportunities to do what I love to do. I suppose this is what You truly mean by Psalm 37:4 (“Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.”)
What is becoming increasingly important to me is that I focus on You, Jesus, and not simply what I do for you. Please let my love for you be the all-encompassing motivation of my heart in this work.
A Jesus-view of reality is what I desire for every person who crosses my path. A relationship with You that keeps me in perfect peace is what I desire for myself. I need to REST in Your love for me. I need to REST in You. I need to think of You more. I need trust in You always.
Please make my full trust in You a reality. Please make my eternal life one seamless walk from this life to the next. I want to be so close to You that transitioning from this broken world to Your home of righteousness is no big deal.
Integrity, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and Jesus
Integrity is not a boring word. In fact, integrity encapsulates much of that for which we humans long. Integrity is not a fluffy concept; it is a very real and rich component of God’s world. Integrity and the second law of thermodynamics have an all-important, inverse relationship. The importance of integrity is observed in mathematics as well as science, in relationships as well as language. Integrity hints of Heaven, a very real place where all will be as it ought to be.
Consider the phrase, “My world is falling apart.” When spoken, we realize these words imply something ominous. A common response to the phrase might be, “Pull yourself together.” Note that “falling apart” is associated with something bad and “pulling together” is associated with something good. Why? Even our language reflects the inner desire for integrity – wholeness or the state of being unbroken.
Consider simple arithmetic. Would you rather add five whole numbers or five fractions? We like to deal with whole numbers or integers because we can easily wrap our minds around these. Fractions are messy and confusing; they take time to digest.
In much the same way, a human being without integrity is hard to figure. His life is confusing because he is broken. The essence of him is one way in one situation and another way in a different situation. Your mind cannot wrap itself around who the person truly is. This is precisely because we desire integrity; we desire to know people for who they truly are. A person without integrity becomes untrustworthy and easily shaken.
Lack of integrity – or disintegration – pops up not only in people and mathematics, it is embedded in the fallen universe. Scientific laws reflect disintegration’s reality and, therefore, reflect the very real necessity of integrity.
The first law of thermodynamics pronounces that our universe is a closed system; the amount of matter and energy in our world is constant. The second law of thermodynamics proclaims that, although the amount of energy in the universe is constant, the amount of useful energy is running down. As energy is converted, waste is produced. The world is – for all practical purposes – falling apart and disintegrating.
We note the effects of the second law of thermodynamics all around us. Our bodies are wearing out and winding down. Atrophy sets into the muscles unless we act upon them with force and energy. A room left to itself for very long will no doubt become disorganized unless energy is applied to its cleaning. Metal objects begin to rust. Erosion takes place. Everything is winding down and wearing out in its natural state.
The second law of thermodynamics was set into motion by the sin curse. When mankind gave into sin and rebelled against God’s way, God cursed man and woman, the serpent who deceived them, and the earth. To this very day, we suffer the effects of that curse in our hearts, our minds, our bodies, and in our universe.
Directly related to the physical effects of sin in this world is the very real effect of brokenness of heart. The curse of sin on us as people who have rebelled against God has produced a state of disintegration in our spiritual lives. For this reason, we tend not to keep our word, we tend to think one way and act another, we tend to portray ourselves one way to others and find ourselves quite another in the quietness of solitude. We are broken people in a broken world. Disintegration and the second law of thermodynamics are related – they both reflect a rebellious state of things. We have failed God. Only God maintains a standard which produces perfection.
Is there hope? Hope is found only in Jesus Christ, the God-Man. As fully God, Jesus is holy. As fully man, Jesus is able to pay the price for human sin. When a man or woman comes to Jesus and trusts Him as the sacrifice for his or her sinfulness, that man or woman is made right with holy God. At that moment, a person becomes a new creation, fully re-made in his spirit (II Corinthians 5:17). This person is now in right-standing with God because Jesus has settled the sin factor between man and God.
As relationship with Jesus Christ is maintained, a person continues to grow in righteousness. Righteousness is simply the state of “being as we ought to be” or being as God originally intended. While on this sin-cursed earth, perfection will never be complete. However, the spirit in the new man or woman desires righteousness and knows that Heaven holds the answer to disintegration of the mind, body, emotions, and universe.
Psalm 1:1-3a says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” The withering leaf is a part of the second law of thermodynamics. Death and destruction are built into a fallen, rebellious world. It is quite natural for leaves to wither. What God promises, however, is that the law of nature can be overridden in the human heart when we love His Word and apply it to our lives in the midst of this broken world! A person who makes the law of the Lord his focus in the everyday moments of life will defy the sin curse. The inner man – the essence of who we are – will stand strong. Although disintegration produces confusion and destruction, the person following the Lord will be a person of integrity. We will be clearly understood for who we are, we will bring life and healing as opposed to death and hurt, we will reflect the place to which we are ultimately called – Heaven.
Remember that Jesus will come back one day to this world in which we live, and after He has brought judgment to those who have rejected Him, He will re-make this world. He will forever destroy the second law of thermodynamics and every kind of disintegration. Wholeness and life will finally prevail.
The Essence of Noah’s Salvation
Here is a question, “Why did God destroy the earth by flood in Noah’s day?” Answer: “Mankind was very, very bad.” Here is a second question, “Why did God spare Noah and his family?” Typical answer, “Noah was a good man who obeyed God.” Let us get to the heart of both questions and both answers.
First, it is true that God destroyed the world by flood in Noah’s day because of evil. Genesis 6:5-8 says, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” The LORD was grieved that he had made man on earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air – for I am grieved that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
God chose to exhibit the reality of his divine justice because of wickedness. Evil always destroys; it is the absence of God’s goodness. We ought to be thankful that God demonstrates how serious the issue of sin and evil is, for it inevitably and ultimately brings death (Romans 6:23).
We are mistaken to believe that Noah was spared this judgment simply because he was obedient or “a good man.” No man or woman is good by nature; we are sinners. There is no amount of good we can do and no proper way in which we can perform that earns the favor of God. We are very selfish by nature and – without the power of Jesus – quite capable of horrible evil.
Let me demonstrate that it was not the inherent goodness of Noah that saved him. If we remember when the flood subsided and Noah and his family were finally able to exit the ark, there were eight people in existence: Noah, his wife, his three sons, and his sons’ wives. These eight people – Noah and his family – put their feet on the ground and then Noah built an altar. The Bible tells us, “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:20-21a).
Just look at that description of the only eight people in existence on earth at the time: “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” This description sounds very familiar to the one God gave of all of humanity before he sent the flood! Yes, even Noah was a sinner by nature; even Noah had evil inclination. We ask then, what was the difference? Why did God spare Noah if he was just as much a sinner by nature as all the other people who were destroyed by the flood?
The answer is found in Genesis 8:20-21. If you read those verses again above, you will notice that Noah built an altar and offered a burnt offering immediately after exiting the ark. It was the pleasing aroma of the sacrifice that prompted God to say that he would not destroy the earth in this way again despite man’s nature. Why would the burning flesh of an animal please God? These Old Testament offerings were pictures, or a foreshadowing, of the soon-to-come offering of Jesus Christ himself for the sin of mankind. Noah knew God, and He knew the promises of God. Noah believed that the Messiah would come, and he offered this burnt offering in faith. He was looking ahead to the coming of Jesus! Noah was demonstrating his belief in Jesus as the one who can appease God the Father and bring us into relationship with our Creator.
Jesus was Noah’s salvation! Self-righteousness, good character, or self-effort could not save Noah or us. Only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection, can save a man or woman from sin and death. Noah looked forward and believed that Jesus would come. We look backward and believe that Jesus did come. Thank God, both we and Noah look ahead to the Second Coming of that same God-Man, Jesus Christ, when, as Hebrews 9:28 proclaims, He will appear with full salvation. We will then enjoy the new heavens and new earth, a home of righteousness.
Make no mistake about it, though, Noah’s belief in Jesus Christ sent him into action! Because of his belief, Noah was willing to do God’s will. He, no doubt, paid a dear price for building that ark. He and his family worked day in and day out doing God’s will in a rebellious world. His belief prompted real action. In fact, real belief in Jesus Christ always prompts action; there is no other way to believe.
