God Of All Splendor

I've been feeling really disconnected as of late. Not that the disconnect feeling is new. If anything, it’s been growing the last year or so. It’s like the last ten years that I’ve known God are completely pointless and futile.

Now hear me out. When I say pointless and futile it’s not THAT kind of pointless and futile. It’s the kind of feeling that comes from pursuing the vastness of God and feeling like you never get anywhere.

OK, some of you are still scratching your head trying to figure out what I’m trying to say. It’s like this. For all that I know, or think I know about God, it’s still just an insignificant drop into nothingness compared to who He really is. How can a something like me know a something like Him? How can I fathom or even begin to fathom something like God.
I try to know Him, but there’s that inevitable feeling that comes from knowing that you’re going to mess it up sooner or later. The harder I try to screw up less, the more often I screw up. It’s the whole thing Paul talked about doing the things that he didn’t want to do, and not doing the things he wanted.

Sounds hopeless. Well, congratulations. It is. It’s completely hopeless and pointless. At least from our point of view. So where does that leave us? What does God see when He looks at you? No, no, I didn’t ask what you see. And I don’t want to know what you think, He sees when He looks at you. I want to know what He really sees when He sees you.

The answer is He sees us for what we are eternally, not what we are externally or internally. Oh sure, He sees the inside and the outside, but He’s not as concerned with that as we think. He sees our eternal completion of who we are in Him. He sees the value and worth of what He has given us to be, and the glorious rewards when we have done it.
I was listening to something today and it started a little chain of thoughts that have started to pull me out of the divine disconnect if you will(oh yes, there’s a reason for the disconnect and I’ll get there in a minute).

Here’s the thought. God the Father loved His Son Jesus so much He wanted to give Him an inheritance. So, He gave His Son the earth and everything in it. The real inheritance is not really the earth but the people on it. God created you as an inheritance for His Son. “Great” you say. “So I’ve been turned into the ultimate religious icon for a fickle God who wanted to give His Son a present”.

Just indulge me a bit longer please.

So then God had to redeem His inheritance because He temporarily allowed His authority to be usurped by the devil in the garden(Please save all questions until the end of the world and you can ask God directly at that time). The Father sends Jesus to redeem and ‘fix” His own inheritance. This makes Jesus’ love for His inheritance increase in the most incomprehensible way. It makes Him decide to ask His inheritance(remember us-the religious objects?) to partner with Him in bringing all righteousness, light, and peace to the earth, as well as rule and reign over it with Him. On top of that, He also shares the glory and the reward that comes from that.

So as a quick review:

God gives Jesus an inheritance, Jesus then has to redeem His inheritance, Jesus asks His inheritance to be partners with Him in all that the Father has given Him as an inheritance and share in its glory. That’s what the Bible means when it’s says “we have been brought out of darkness, into marvelous light”...”being made joint heirs with Jesus”.

When I think of things that way, I can totally see why God is right in His wrath and judgement, and answers the question “How can God send people to hell?” Besides a lot of other things, hell is really the separation from all the glorious things I mentioned just a few paragraphs ago. How can we, after all that He has done, reject what He is offering? It will cost us everything here on earth, but what’s 80 years of treasure compared to getting treasure for all eternity? After all He has done, He still offers HIs hand and waits patiently. If it was me, I would have been done with humanity about 2000 years ago. Just another attribute and proof that He is a kind and loving God.

That’s the other thing. We scoff and say “yeah, yeah we know, I’ve heard it all before, Jesus is coming, blah blah blah. He was coming again in the Bible and He’s still coming, yup, know all about it.” His mercy and loving kindness has been portrayed as incompetence and mistaken for lack of power. Woe to us who have said that with our mouths or thought it our hearts. He’s on the move my friend. He’s always been on the move. And it’s faster and bigger than we ever though. The train has picked up speed and with it momentum. Eternity is bearing down on us like a bullet train, and instead of being on the train, we’re drunk with the spirit of this age, playing on the railroad tracks not even seeing or hearing the train of holy righteousness and the inevitable collision.

But back to being heirs with Jesus! So what does the disconnect have to do with all this? In order to fully realize what is really going on, we have to feel it. I have to know with my heart and not my head or mouth that I am nothing and that I can’t, won’t, or ever will know anything about God. I need to have all of my self ambition, goals, ideas, and plans be totally disconnected from me to realize what a worthless thing I am-until I realize the eternal joy of the inheritance that has been set before me. The inheritance of Jesus. I can’t work it out, earn it, or re-do life and try it again. I don’t even get it by myself. It’s partner with Jesus or I get nothing. Better still Jesus says “take My yolk upon you, for My yolk is easy and My burden is light”. He’ll even carry what the Father gives us! If we do have to bear it, He’ll bear it all again(even though He did it once already) just to help us get what He is giving us. You just can’t ask for a better deal.

As it is in heaven, let it be on earth.

J