Bible Study

"You shall make an altar of earth for Me,

and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings

and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen;

in every place where I cause My name to be

remembered, I will come to you and bless you."

Exodus 20:24

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God with you. God with me. That is the miracle of life. Could there be a more glorious reality in life than that? The Eternal God of all ages...the very God who created you and me...and then saved our souls...it is this loving and benevolent God who voluntarily shares Himself with us and chooses to walk through life with us as our Constant Companion and Dearest Friend.

Surely when we look and see the Holy One of Israel...the Great Divine living in us and with us...we are able to recognize what an undeserved gift His presence is. But the awesome thing is...our God is doing signs-and-wonders and performing miracles all the time. Right? Of course He is! He delights in doing the amazing and unexpected. He glories in the fact that He can take our breath away by being Himself. He takes great pleasure in filling our minds with wonder and our hearts with awe. All we have to do is open our eyes and we can see Him doing the things that only He can do. And that is the truly incredible thing about our Lord, not only does He give His unconditional love but He is trying, at least, to actively participate in our lives too. As a matter of fact, He wants to be involved in every thought we think, every word we speak, and every deed we perform. Now if that doesn't take your breath away, nothing will.

And I wonder sometimes, how many of God's children in this day and age, within the perimeters of the contemporary Christian Church as a whole, allow God this sort-of access into their lives? Okay, taking it a step further, how many Christians today desire God to participate in their lives to this degree today? Is there really anyone on the face of the earth today, who seeks God and wants God only and absolutely? I Wonder...

A.W. Tozer in this book entitled The Pursuit of God, refers to a rather unhealthy condition within the cloistered walls of the Christian church. He writes, "We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic that insists that if we have found Him (Christ) we need no more seek Him."

Many of us are satisfied to know Jesus just a little, to know Him as Savior alone. We are relieved to escape hell of course but, that's all there is. There is nothing more. We don't desire Jesus. We don't want to seek after Him. We don't want to spend a whole lot of time or invest too much of our energy growing in the knowledge of Him. Pity. There is so much more...and we must seek to find it. To seek God's loving presence. That is what life is for.

I will leave you with this quote take from the cover of Brother Lawrence's book entitled "The Practice of the Presence of God". "Brother Lawrence was a man of humble beginnings who discovered the greatest secret of living in the Kingdom of God here on earth. It is the art of practicing the presence of God in one single act that does not end. He often stated that it is God who paints Himself in the depths of our soul. We must merely open our hearts to receive Him and His loving presence."

Reflection

Think about Brother Lawrence's quote. Consider the possibilities and prayerfully figure out what these profound and challenges words mean to you. Could they possibly lead you into a deeper and more satisfying relationship with your Lord? Could they deliver you from spiritual apathy and indifference that may have overtaken you? Propel you into a deeper faith? It's worth considering.

Love in Christ, Patty Clark...see you next month

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Lesson Four

"The Lord kills and makes alive;

He brings down to Sheol and raises up.

The Lord makes poor and rich;

He brings low, He also exalts."

I Samuel 2:6-7

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Everything belongs to God. Everything! Not only is He self-governing but He has the right to govern everyone and all things. Think about the rightness of that for a moment. A position such as His...a position of such magnitude, is hard for us to understand I know. It is above us and beyond us. There is no like earthly position or power or authority anywhere on earth. There is none that is equal. But in spite of our inability to comprehend the sovereignty of God, it is an important issue just the same. One that we should expose ourselves to and consider.

Unfortunately the Lord's sovereignty is a subject that often gets lost in the shuffle when it comes to our personal quest to know and understand Him. We're human. We tend to explore and focus-in-on those aspects of God's nature that appeal to us, and, to be brutally honest, minister to our O-so self-centered human nature. For example: God is love. We like to think about that one. Or there is the fact of His ever-presence. That's another one we focus on and derive much comfort and benefit from. Then there is His energy and supernatural power that He is willing to share with us. Being the weak and needy people that we are we gravitate towards those characteristics that promise to benefit us the most. It's only natural, unfortunately. But the fact is, ultimately, when we examine God's sovereignty, embrace, and submit to the fact He has the right to rule over us, in the end, that is what sets us free from self and this fallen world and Satan's power over us. You see it is when we examine and explore and submit to God's sovereign rule over our lives...that is when we grow and excel and serve God the most effectively.

I suppose the bottom-line in all of this is, who can stand in the presence of God and not be humbled? Who can stand in the light of His infinite power and remain arrogant and apathetic to the awe-inspiring fact of who He is? And who can grapple with the fact of His sovereignty and the right He has to govern our lives and not be changed, from within? Listen to what Isaiah wrote, "In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple" and then he exclaimed, "Woe is me, for I am ruined." (See Isaiah 6:1-5)

Isaiah saw God. In an instant he knew that God was the Master of All, including him. And until you and I see that we were created by God and saved by God and that He does have the right to live in and through us and rule over us....we will never be the first class saints and servants God intended us to be.

The Christian instincts of trust and worship

are stimulated very powerfully by

the knowledge of the greatness of God.

J.I. Packer

Lesson Three-

The character of God is today, and always will be,

exactly what it was in Bible times."

J.I. Packer

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The Bible says that God is creative. He was. He is. He always will be. He still creates new life in an expectant mother's womb. He still creates breathtaking sunrises and sunsets everyday. We plant a bulb and in the spring He creates the most brilliantly colored yellow daffodil.

Think of this...the Bible says that God delivered the chosen people, the Israelites, from captivity. Through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, He still delivers thousands of people from death into eternal life everyday. The Bible says that God parted the Red Sea and made a way for His people to escape Pharaoh's army. God can and still does part "the Red Sea" of the oppressive circumstances that satan puts in our lives and leads us into a life of safety, peace, and rest. So what's my point? God is still God! He hasn't changed. He never will change. Never! And what's more, He has not compromised or altered His plan for our lives, in the least, and He never will. He hasn't run out of love. He hasn't grown feeble and weak and turned into a lesser God with the passing of time. The God we read about in the Bible...the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob...Peter, Paul, and John...He is our God and...Hebrew 13: 8 states that, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.

I suppose the question I should ask you right now is, Should the fact that God is immutable, unchanging, make a difference in the way we think and live our lives? Well, to my way of thinking anyway, it definitely should. If God is still God, which He is, if He is the same holy and awe-inspiring Great Divine that we read about in the Bible...then that means that He can still do the things He did. That means we can depend on Him. He can be trusted. We can have faith in Him. If we know and believe in the immutability of God...the God of the Bible, then that means we shouldn't have any trouble putting the whole of our lives into His hands, complete with all our personal problems, fears, worries, and concerns. Because? Because He's God and He can be trusted.

I appreciate what the apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6-7, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Why does Paul speak so confidently about God? Because Paul knew God. He had faith in God. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus his Savior, was God...the eternal and immutable Jehovah and the Great I Am.

Our Lord wants us to accept the fact of His immutability, right now, today. He wants us to hold on to the reality that He does not change with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our might. And when uncertainties and conflicts enter into the sanctuary of our hearts...He wants us to turn to Him, focus on Him, bask in His love and rest. You and I might change. Our circumstances might change. The world around us change, all the time. But God? Never!

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Going the Extra Mile

Read. Reflect. Record what you learn from each of the following references:

Job 23:13

Psalm 33:11

Isaiah 40:28

Malachi 3:6-10

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May God bless you and keep you this month...

fill you with a divine dissatisfaction for more of Him...

and make the reality of His sweet presence known

to you.

Love in Christ, Patty Clark

Lesson Two-

In keeping with our theme this year of studying the nature and character God...this month we will explore the "Self-sufficiency of God."

Scriptural Bases: "God is seeking to speak Himself out to His Creations. The whole Bible supports the idea. God is speaking. Not God spoke, but God is speaking." (Taken from: The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)

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And God is speaking to you and to me, right now, today. The question of course is...Are we listening? He has so many wonderful things that He wants to tell us. There are so many lessons we need to learn, truths about Himself that He wants to teach us. The desire of His heart is that we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that He is Yaweh, Jehovah, the Great and Awesome I am, the God of the Bible...the Lord. He wants us to understand that He is not only eternal and self-existent but self-sufficient as well. Self-existent in that He had no origin or beginning and He will have no end. Self-sufficient in that He possesses all things and is able to support and maintain His life without the help or assistance of anyone or anything, including you and me. When we grapple with these formidable facts we begin to understand, in part a least, who God is.

So why is the fact that God is self-sufficient so important? Well, to be honest until a couple of years ago I didn't have a clue. I had never explored the self-sufficient side of God's nature. Then I started attending an in-depth Bible study on the Book of Genesis. It took us about a month to work our way through chapters one and two alone. The information and truths that were presented opened my eyes not only to the miacle of creation but also to the Creator, God Himself. I started thnking about how God existed before there was anyone or anything, and it humbled me. Genesis 1:2 states, "And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of god was moving over the surface of the waters." Think about that for a minute. God was...hovering. Hovering meaning contemplating, preparing, looking forward to some special and awesome event. But what "event"?

Well, look at Genesis 1:26. What does it say? God says to...God, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let him rule over the fist of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Here you and I are, living in the twenty first century, and we get to witness through God's written Word one of the most incredible and powerful events in history.

God the Father...God the Son...and the Holy Spirit got together. They had a meeting you might say and came to a corporate and unanimous decision. A decision to...create man. And that's key. He did not have some lacking or void within Himself that forced Him to create. The Godhead existed very nicely and happily before man. What that means is: God made man because He wanted man. "Wanted." And when you consider that fact soberly...and reflect on how extraordinary that is...it changes everything. Why? Because it means that God was not forced to create us. He wanted you and me.

A.W. Tozer wrote this profound statement, "We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is." And for you and I to grapple with the fact that God is self-sufficient is a good place to start. Why? Because...well, when we witness God forming man from the dust of the earth...and He breathes the breath of life into his nostrils...when we reflect on the reality that the very same God who created Adam personally formed you and me in our mother's womb...and He did so because He wanted us...well, we are better able to see what an awesome and undeserved gift life is.

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Challenge

Read Genesis 1 and 2

Look for God

Takes notes about what you learn about Him

Rejoice...and again I say rejoice.

Philippians 4:4

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Memorize Psalm 8:4

"What is man that Thou art mindful of him?

And the son of man, that Thou

visited him?"

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God,

a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the

word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15

Introduction: God has created millions of people down through the ages. He has saved thousands-upon-thousands of souls...He has welcomed them into His family...and has called them all by name because they are His own. The fondest desire of His heart is that they come to know the truth about Him and love Him with all their hearts and with all their souls. In fact this "knowing' is the true purpose of life. Jesus says,

And this is eternal life, that they may know You,

the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

John 17:3

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So you see, the true purpose of life...and salvation, according to God, is that we might spend the whole of our lives seeking after God and come to know the truth about God, personally and experientially. For it is in the seek that the true purpose of life is fulfilled. It is in the knowing that the instinctive longing of our souls is satisfied and we, as individeual people, are made whole and complete. The bottom-line in all of this is that in the knowledge of God we find life's greatest joy...we find EVERYTHING!

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Lesson One

Read Isaiah 57:15

We are an in-the-moment kind of people. In fact our culture emphasizes how important it is to take advantage of every minute of every day, so that we will fully enjoy each experience that comes our way. And that's a good thing! We are taught to live life to its fullest. That is also a good thing, because we don't get a second chance to do it right. But the philosophy of being-in-the-moment is nothing new. In fact the apostle Paul talked about it in Ephesians 5:16 when he said, "Make the most of your time, because the days are evil." And James wrote this about the fragility and brevity of life, "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away (James 4:14)." LIfe is a precious gift and in honor of God we should use it wisely and handle it with great sobriety and care.

But there is the eternal side of life, things that we need to consider too. A bigger picture as they say, that we need to think about. Why? Because you and I are eternal beings, in a sense, after all. Depending on what we believe...what we decide to do about Jesus...our faith in Him, or lack thereof, that all-important decision will determine where we spend eternity. If we reject the fact that Jesus died for our sins and don't accept Him as our personal Savior, when we die we will go to hell. On the other hand, if we do believe in Jesus and accept His offer of salvation...believe that He died for our sin and was crucified, buried, and rose from the grave on the third day...we will be spiritually born again and spend eternity with Him in heaven. You see the point is: God is eternal and, depending on the decision we make about Jesus, we will either spend eternity in hell, or in heaven.

It is important that you and I understand that God has existed throughout all time. He had no beginning. He will have no end. And as human beings, that should give us hope. There is Someone bigger, better, more powerful, and infinitely wiser than we are. He has been around forever and He is a someone who sees all and knows everything. He can be our personal Savior if we let Him be. And even though this world seems to be spinning out of control there is an eternal God who is sovereign and is in control. We can trust Him. We should and must trust Him. Plus, miracle-of-miracles, we don't have to wait until we get to heaven to know Him and enjoy His presence and experience His grace, everyday, at work in our lives. The eternal God of all ages loves us...therein, my friend, lies our greatest hope.

You know the interesting thing is- the eternal God who created us...He knows all about who and what we are, and what we are doing. What's more, He wants to help us succeed and do our best. He is our God and, with His help, He wants us to enjoy life and live it to the fullest. There is a God who has existed forever and He wants to touch our lives and bless us...in the here-and-now. Now that is amazing, indeed!

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Taking It Personal

Questions to Ponder:

»The fact that God is eternal and has always been...should have a positive effect on the way we think, believe, act, and live. Why?

»God is eternal...the same yesterday, today and forever. How does that make you feel?

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Going the Extra Mile

Here are some references that address the issue of God's eternality. Write down what you learn from each.

-Genesis 21:33

-Exodus 15:18

-Psalm 33:11

-Isaiah 26: 4

-Romans 1:20

-I Timothy 1:17

-Revelation 11:17

 

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