|
|
Saturday, February 05, 2005
When we think of heaven, it mostly gets silly doesn't it?
Angels.
Clouds.
Harps.
Wings.
Blue sky.
Serenity.
Peaceful.
Basically, we see it as a bunch of angels, of which we've suddenly grown a pair of wings also, floating peacefully on clouds with a blue sky in the background playing harps which adds to the serenity.
And we couldn't be more wrong...although I can tell you where you get the idea of wings. Check out Isaiah 6 (from The Message):
"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on the throne--high, exalted!--and the train of his robes filled the Temple. Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew. And they called back and forth to one another,
Holy, Holy, Holy is the God of the Angel-Armies.
His bright glory fills the while earth.
The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke. I said,
'Doom! It's Doomsday!
I'm as good as dead!
Every word I've ever spoken is tainted--blasphemous even!
And the people I live with talk the same way,
using words that corrupt and desecrate.
And here I've looked God in the face!
The King! God of the Angel-Armies!
Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with the coal and said,
'Look. This coal has touched your lips.
Gone your guilt,
Your sins wiped out.'
And then I heard the voice of the Master:
'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?'
I spoke up: 'I'll go. Send me!'"
When we address "our Father" (see yesterday's entry), and follow it with "who art in heaven" this is a good example of what our understanding should be.
God is in heaven. As you can tell, heaven is nothing like earth. In heaven, there are angels that cannot even look at God. God is so perfect they can't bear to look at Him. They worship Him, and sing of His attributes. They sing so loud that the foundations tremble. Isaiah the prophet was so overwhelmed he assumed that doomsday was coming. God is perfectly holy. God's glory fills the earth.
And, currently, the earth is nothing like heaven. On the earth, people see the blue sky or the mountains or lakes or stars or whatever and don't think about God much. They go to work or school and focus on themselves. They worship themselves and ignore His attributes. The stay so quiet on the subject of God that relative stillness occurs...any noise is man-centered, like a rock concert or interstate highway. We don't see doomsday when we look around. At best, we see an agonizingly slow entropy.
God is on His throne. He is, quite literally, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The train of His kingly robe fills up the Temple (and, how big do you think the heavenly Temple might be?). He is all-powerful. He is completely and perfectly Holy. He has the authority to forgive sin and alleviate guilt. He has the authority to send His subjects to do His bidding.
We, are not ever on a throne, not even our own. I mean, we are subject to all kinds of authorities during our day, whether it be a boss, or a board of directors or a teacher or coach or the police or the city or a customer or parent or whatever. We associate with people that are subject themselves, and imperfect ones at that. We sin. We are guilty. We tend to live our own lives and do our own thing in a feeble attempt to rule ourselves, but we're only kidding ourselves.
So, when we pray to our father, who is in heaven, we are admitting that He is Holy and powerful and unlike us. We are admitting that He is our King and we are in subjection to Him.
This means that even though He is our Father (Dad), we are not God. We are approaching the Holy Father, all-powerful Creator of the entire universe (which we do kind of handle a bit non-chalantly sometimes, eh?), who exposes our iniquity just by us being near Him. He is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and a bunch of other "omni" words...which only exposes us for who we are.
Which are subjects of the King. And, like the subjects of earthly Kings, we have the reality and the honor of serving Him. He lovingly rules us...allowing and inviting us to be a part of the work of the universe and His plan for it. He has the moral right and authority to forgive our sin that His very existence exposes and alleviate the true guilt that comes with it. This frees us up for a life of being a new creature (2 Cor. 5: 17) as well as giving us dual citizenship (whatever country you were born in + a citizen of heaven)...with the heavenly citizenship being primary.
And when we tell God we acknowledge these realities, we are setting up for communion with Him and true worship, which we'll see a bit more of tomorrow.
But for today, how does the reality that God is powerful and Holy affect your understanding of Him? Compare and contrast that with yesterday's view that God is "daddy." How does the understanding that He is King affect you right now? Compare and contrast it with how you would act if the president of the United States was near you and appointed you to something special. How does that affect your view of God and your relationship with Him?
Brent 4:44 AM
|