June 29, 2010
Romans 11
Pastor Luke Lang
Okay, in order to fully grasp the raw power of the following Bible passage, I don’t want you to JUST read it. I want you to read out loud. BUT WAIT…I don’t want you to JUST read it out loud. I want you to scream it ….at the top of your lungs. Come on, do it! Don’t worry about what people think.
Take a deep breath and shout with me…
“Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.” Romans 11:33-36 (New Living Translation)
Did you sense the power in the passage? Did you catch a glimpse of the majesty?
A while back, our family drove through the Great Smoky Mountains. The trees and mountains were incredible, and everything smelled a little like funnel cakes. We were overcome by the beauty! It was amazing! Several times we had to stop. We just stood there speechless, in awe of the raw, natural wonder. We just took it in…we didn’t try to explain it or figure out how a sunset could paint such a deep shade of purple. We just enjoyed it.
Most of us are somehow able to accept the breathtaking majesty of a mountain or a sunset without having to understand it fully. We just take a deep breath and enjoy the view! I wonder why we can’t savor the majesty of the Creator of the sunset in the same way?
We feel that we need to be able to explain God and figure out a formula for how He works in our lives. We spend time trying to define God by lines and limits. We try to fully understand Him. We try to contain and tame Him. We try to make Him safe, sanitized and somehow more acceptable. It ain’t gonna happen!
This passage makes it clear that we aren’t ever going to be able to put a fence around God. In “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” Lucy asks Mr. Beaver if Aslan is safe. Mr. Beaver replies “Safe?...who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you.”
We need to stop trying to contain and control the riches, wisdom and knowledge of our untamable God. Just take a deep breath and enjoy the view.
Did you know? For Pastor Luke, the ideal vacation is simply to take a trip to the beach with his family.
