Reformatting the Hard Drive

Last night when I was praying before bed I had this image of my brain as a hard drive and over the course of my less than holy life a great many things are stored there that I wish weren't there. I was thinking how nice it would be for God to be able to delete those files and eradicate the pathways to find even a trace of them ever again. The other option is to do a complete re-format of the drive and erase everything that is there.

I think what I am up against is the understanding of the participation required in sanctification, what CS Lewis referred to as the two blades of a scissors. The scissors won't operate properly without both blades working together. We aren't to be passive in sanctification, becoming more like Jesus. In our epistle reading yesterday we read this from Philippians 4.8: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

God could reformat the hard drive of my brain and wipe out everything there and start all over again, but He wants me to do something about the problem, fill my brain with the things Paul is talking about and push that other stuff aside, make it more distant, less accessible and in the process, expose it in comparison with the true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise things, for what it is, not worth thinking about.

The glory of God

What is Moses asking for in Exodus 33 when he asks to see God's glory? When the Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek for Ptolemy II they chose not to use the Greek word for glory in this instance, they chose instead a word for "yourself." Moses is then asking to see God as He is. Given that Moses only gets a glimpse of God's glory but gets a fuller understanding of God via a sermon God gives him in Exodus 34, it seems that the translators got it right.

God's "self" was disclosed not in a visual way but in words. We need words for understanding and expression, we can't adequately communicate visions, what is seen. God is inexpressible in the way that joy is inexpressible, we can't truly describe joy to another, it is experienced not described. The limitation of words is significant and real and yet this is how God chose to reveal Himself to Moses and through the prophets. Because words have limits does that mean we can't use them or truly understand their meaning?

What Jesus shows us in his interaction with people, especially religious people, is that words can indeed be misunderstood or misinterpreted, but that they have value for communicating God's truth. What John picks up on in his description of Jesus as logos or the Word, is the embodiment of that truth. Jesus' life doesn't change the words God has spoken in any way, it interpreted them and shows us the way to live out the Word of God. What John said happened in the incarnation of Jesus was plain, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John saw in Jesus what Moses asked to see.

God's idea of our retirement

One of my least favorite passages in the Bible is Genesis 22.1-2: After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

The reason that this passage bugs me isn't what God tells Abraham to do, it is because of the first part of the verse, that God continues to test Abraham. I want to scream, "leave that old man alone!" He has given up his old life entirely because he believed he heard God's voice telling him to move away from everything he knew to a place God would show him. He waited 25 years, sometimes patiently, sometimes taking matters into his own hands because his wife had an idea (thanks very much for Ishmael - so much for the Bible not being relevant to today). Now, in his retirement from public service, God tests him?

The test is to destroy the fulfillment of the promise. During this topsy-turvy time, many people who have served faithfully and who have retired are finding that what they worked so hard to put together is either at risk or lost, they have been thankful for God allowing them to be secure and now it is gone. He is never done with us, He never allows us to rest as long as we draw breath, but it is because He wants us to have more of Himself, find our true security in Him. I don't believe this financial crisis is sent from God to test the saints or to punish them, but it can be used for His glory.