August 27 - What is God?

 Read today’s texts first: Jeremiah 52; Revelation 1; Psalms 143,144

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY 

The correct position when seeing God in His glory
is not standing, sitting or kneeling - it’s flat on your face! 

The verse that struck me this morning posed the question: “what is man?” The comparison between man and God might prompt that question - we seem so insignificant to warrant His attention, let alone His love. But the more I thought about that, another question came to my mind: “what is God?” (and no, we are not playing Jeopardy)!

Here’s the verse, with some context: O Lord, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow. Part your heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter [the enemies]; shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters (144:3-7).

Combine that fearsome image of God with John’s vision of the glorified Christ and we shrink some more: Among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead (1:13-17).

John had the right response to such a revelation of God’s glory - he fell flat on his face!  This did not look like the uncomely humble man he walked beside down the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea. This new dimension of glory was mind-blowing to a mere human. It should amaze us that this blazing, glowing, star-holding God loves us so personally and so intimately.

“Lord, when I read these descriptions of Your glory and power I can’t help but agree with David’s conclusion: Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the Lord” (144:15).