God Is... Eternal

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

We Were Made for an Eternal God

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." - Augustine

Do you think fish ever wonder why water is so wet?  Probably not.  As an old Chinese proverb says, "If you want to know what water like, don't ask the fish."  Why not?  Because the fish has no basis for making a comparison!  All the fish knows is water.  Water is not unusual to a fish; it probably doesn't even notice it, unless it gets removed from it.

So what do fish have to do with eternity?  Simply this: Our experience of time should be like the fish's experience of water.  Time should be rather unremarkable and uninteresting to us because we are born in and live all of our days in time.  Yet we remark about time in ways that show that we have a strange relationship with it.  We say things like "How time flies!" and "Where has the time gone?" We celebrate birthdays and milestones with a mixture of celebration and bewilderment.  As we grow older, we wonder why we're getting so old so quickly.  Clearly, we are not really comfortable with time, are we?

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God Is... Our Protector

By Dusty (Reflections on the Life of a Christian)

^{Photo by Colin Brough. Used by permission.}

Throughout scripture, God is described as a fortress and a provider of security and salvation. One of my favorite go to passages in times of trouble references this aspect of who God is:

"Whoever fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge." (Proverbs 14:26 NIV, ©2010)

God loves and protects those who are His children. The word 'fears' above actually means to have a sense of wonder and awe that leads us to follow Him. When we follow God, we are taken into His care, and He will be our shelter and protection from the troubles of this world. That does not mean we will not receive scrapes and bruises. Nor does it mean we will never be harmed.  It does mean that even during the worst battles of our life, we are granted security in God. When everything seems to be falling a part and despair tries to overwhelm us, we are able to experience joy and hope because we know we rest secure in the arms of God.

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God Is... Unchangeable

By Jason S (Connecting to Impact)

Many profess to like the God of the New Testament while not liking or not understanding the God of the Old Testament.

• The New Testament shows a loving, gracious, compassionate God and Father who gave His own Son as a sacrifice and ransom for many
• The Old Testament shows an angry, vengeful, God of judgment who destroys His enemies and those who oppose Him (or so it's thought)

I'm in no way mentally or theologically equipped to argue this in its fullness, but I do hope to bring out a few points that will show that God is not schizophrenic and He didn't 'mellow out' in the 400 years between the writing of Malachi and the birth of Jesus. He doesn't and hasn't changed.

That's right–God is unchangeable.

This is good news. I can't make Him love me any more by doing good things and I can't make Him love me any less by doing bad things. I can't make Him mad so that He leaves me. He disciplines–meaning I face hardships–but it's not punishment for sin because all that is wiped away through the blood of Jesus.

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