Did creation exist before it came into being? We tend to think of things as being when they
are visible and tangible but they existed in the mind of God before they were
created and if they existed “in” Him then can we say that all things existed
when He thought of them? He spoke and
things happened, and they happened and came into being exactly as He intended,
exactly as they had been conceived. At
no point did God say, “Huh?” Each day as
things come into being He says they are “good.”
Good means nothing more or less than, exactly as I intended. At the end, “God saw everything that he had
made, and behold, it was very good.” God
rested at that point, in the sense that He did no work, and invited all
creation to rest and take it all in before we were given work to do. Appreciating all He has done is critical to
working with Him. We can’t be true
lovers of God unless we take the time to sit with Him and love what He has
created. I know something of who God is
by how He expressed Himself in creation.
John says, “After me comes a man who ranks before me,
because he was before me.” That sounds
like some kind of Zen Buddhist koan unless you know what John knows. How could one who comes after John be before
him? John recognized that the Messiah
was created in the sense that God had foretold the Messiah through David and
the prophets before He foretold the forerunner of Messiah. Messiah was a concept older than the herald
of Messiah so He pre-existed John.
Little did John know how right he was in the case of Jesus who always
existed because He is one and the same with the One who told Moses that He is
existence itself, I AM, the eternally existing.
Did John also understand the title, Lamb of God? Could he have known this lamb was to be
slain?
He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Did God know us before the foundation of the
world? What does that say about us? We have a great and high destiny and that we
are incredibly important to God. We have
been given a great gift in Jesus in salvation and in the reception of the Holy
Spirit we have been given the mind of Christ but we must cultivate that gift
and use it rather than simply receiving and laying aside. Paul says that in him we have wisdom and insight
and He has made known to us the mystery of his will. In order to know and celebrate this we are
required to lay aside that which we think we know already because our reason
and intellect are fallen, they are not reliable. The renewing of our minds is not an option if
we are to cooperate fully with God’s plan for our lives and for the redemption
of the world.
Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.
No comments:
Post a Comment