“Can you solve the mysteries of God?
Can you discover everything about the Almighty?
8 Such knowledge is higher than the heavens—
and who are you?
It is deeper than the underworld—
what do you know?
9 It is broader than the earth
and wider than the seas” Job 11:7-9 NLT

The answer to these questions is…

I cannot solve the mysteries of God. I know Him and I have received Him as Lord, Savior and Redeemer but so much of who and what He is, is simply beyond my ken! His plan is so big I have to admit I can only see my little edges of it. How my little part connects to the rest of His plan is deeper and wider than my eyes will ever be able to see.

What do I know?  I know God is big. I know God is good.  I know He also works things together for my good; Even the bad is going to work out for my blessing. I know that this world is at war with itself because of sin. I know that Jesus has overcome the world through the cross.  I know that His overcoming of my world is sometimes messy and that leaves loose ends that can make life a little confusing. I know all the loose ends will be tied up in the end. I know that I have not one sweet clue when the end is.

He’s a big God. He understands what I do not. I will trust Him.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Job 1:16

“If God is all-powerful why didn’t He…?” I am sure you can fill in the blank with any number of items God did not stop or start. The question of why God “does” certain things and “refuses to do” certain other things goes to the heart of many a man’s bitterness against the Almighty.

Job certainly asked (albeit without a sinful heart), “Why are you doing this God?”

The truth is God is all-powerful and He can do or not do anything He desires but not without consequences. God set the universe in motion but mankind designed its boundaries. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Rom. 8:20, 21

Mankind created the futility by choosing to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Our race subjected the creation to its destructive course. We welcomed death into our lives. We who could have known only good sought to understand evil and the rest as they say is history. From the moment of Adam and Eve’s banquet of destruction to now God has been working …”in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Rom. 8:21   His every purpose was and is  part of a complex redemptive strategy with so many twists and turns that even angels failed to understand it.Yet we humans with our admittedly weak vision still lay blame at the feet of God whenever tragedy strikes.

We cry, “Where is God?”

To that cry the apostle Peter lays out the explanation, “

3Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming  That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. 2 Pet. 3:3-13

Who’s to blame? We are.

Who’s gonna fix it? God is.

When’s He gonna do that? When the last person who can be redeemed receives redemption.

What’re we to do until then? Wait and deal as best we can with the mess we made.

“But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies. “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.” Neh. 9:26-28 NIV

Today’s “Heaven” verses speak to the mercy of God and the sinfulness of man. God brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, the place of blessing,  but the blessing didn’t change their willful hearts; So they entered into a cycle of sin that went something like this: The people sinned; God sent judgment; The people repented and cried for help; God heard from Heaven and sent a savior; As soon as they felt safe the people sinned again; The cycle repeated.

I think all of us can relate. If not current, this cycle has been common to all of us at some point in our lives. Some of us made excuses for the cycle blaming circumstances or other people for our cyclical sin;

“If only I had less stress I would…” 

“If only I made more money I could stop…”

“If only my spouse weren’t such a jerk I could…”

Our verses today teach us that the problem is not with the world. It really has nothing to do with externals. Neither external stressors, money issues, nor your spouse have the power to make you sin. Sin comes from an inner proclivity towards disobedience and rebellion which we all carry. Until we cop to that and stop making excuses we can never be free. Until we stop trying to fix the outer world and address the real problem, which is with our hearts, we will keep going around the same mountain of bondage.

But as soon as we admit we are the problem and that only Jesus is the solution…as soon as we ask Him to change us rather than the world, we can  leave the mountain and enter our own Promised Land!

What is your mountain today?

Hey!  check out the rest of the Heaven posts at     https://josephelonlillie.com/pastor-wrinkles/the-heaven-posts/

13 “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. 14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. 15 In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them. Neh. 9:13-15 NIV

As I read the “Heaven” verses today I am reminded that we are just 63 short days away from Christmas! The retailers are about to go mad as men and women, boys and girls begin searching for those perfect gifts for those special someones. Some will find the perfect gifts others will not. They will settle on items sure to be regifted at 2014’s white elephant swap.

While our gifts might not be perfect, God’s gifts never fall short of the mark. He always gives us exactly what we need even if sometimes it is not exactly what we want.

God gave his children laws and decrees that would set them up with the perfect society, a society that would have the moral integrity to rightly rule the nations. Israel proved not only that they couldn’t live up to the law but that most of the time they didn’t even want to try.

God gave them manna and water from the rock and yet while the manna gave them strength and the water slaked their thirst the Israelites could never stop complaining about the fact that it was not meat and milk.

I postulate that the gifts were what the Israelites needed and they were given for a purpose. The laws and commands were given to build morality into a culture that had been bathed in the worldliness of Egypt and therefore the weakness of Egypt. They were given so that Israel would have the fortitude to go in and take possession of their rightful homeland.  Even the severely monochromatic diet God gave the Israelites was given to drive them into the Promised Land; It was given so that they would not choose 40 years in the desert over conquest of a land flowing with milk and honey. Instead of recognizing these gifts as provisions and incentives though  the Israelites chose to look at them as God leaving them with the short stick.

Today God HAS given you WHAT YOU NEED. Most likely it is not all that you want. How does this perceived lack  actually drive you toward God’s ultimate plan for your life? How does the gift you never wanted strengthen you for the battle that cannot be avoided?

The Heaven Posts are a word study through the Bible using every mention of the word “Heaven”. If you would like to read other Heaven posts go to       https://josephelonlillie.com/pastor-wrinkles/the-heaven-posts/

The Word of God is a bridge that connects Earth with Heaven and Heaven with Earth.- Joseph Elon Lillie

“You came down at Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and instructions that were just, and decrees and commands that were good.” Neh. 9:13

One of the complaints, about the Bible, that I hear frequently is that it is only a book of  do’s and dont’s…rules and regulations for people to follow.  While that is a massive oversimplification of the Scripture, even if it were a complete truth, I would say to it “So what? What is your point?”

If the only thing God gave us was a rule book to follow so that we could make our way to Him, wouldn’t it make sense to follow it to the tee? If the Bible is only a regulation book designed to successfully get us closer to God, why do the people who think of it in this way not pay more attention to the rules?

Well the Bible is partially a rule book, but the rules were only given to us in order to show us that we cannot even meet God’s minimum standard. The point of the rules is not to do them but to understand that we can’t do them and therefore will never succeed in life or in getting close to God without some divine help. That leads us to the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus (which is really the point of the Bible).

The instructions in the Bible are good. They are how we are meant to live. But the point of the Bible is that we humans are broken beyond our own ability to repair. We can’t live like we are supposed to until we let Jesus, Heaven’s Repair Man, into our lives to fix what’s broke!

God came down on Mt. Sinai and released the law to the people of Earth…a law we could not obey because we were slaves to sin. He was raised up thousands of years later on a Hill called Calvary to break the power of sin and release grace into our lives so that we could live after His pattern.

Believe on Jesus and receive the power to live!

“You alone are the LORD. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you. Neh. 9:6 NLT

     In my worship leading I often exhort the people of my congregation to worship God because “He is worthy to be praised!” He is by virtue of who He is worthy of our praise. He deserves to be praised because He is God first last and always. Aside from that though He is worthy to be praised because of what He has done, what He is doing and what He will do.

He is worthy to be praised because He is the Creator of everything. He is the Divine Artist who imagined the Crab Nebula and the Rings of Saturn. He is the Engineer who planned the Himalayas and the Grand Canyon. He is the Genius who engineered DNA and free will cramming both into a fistful of earth dust to make the first man. He is the Prophet who foresaw the fall of man into sin and chose to become the Architect of Salvation by hanging Himself on a cross rather than scrapping the whole plan for something else.He has become man’s life preserver!  If that doesn’t make Him worthy I don’t know what will! The angels of Heaven stand amazed at this God of mercy and compassion. How can we do any less? He is worthy to be praised!