Being God's; Being Worthy

"You are Worthy, O Lord our God, to receive Glory and Honor and Power. For You created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created......
He is Worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing." (The Revelation 4:11; 5:12 TNLB)

As I have written before, there is much of the Jewish faith which I admire and respect. After all, this was the religion which laid the foundation for so many other religions, including Christianity. I admire the fact that teachers and students of the Jewish religion spend literally hours in fervent study and discussion over all aspects of the Torah, the Talmud and other writings. They are hungry for learning and discussing all they can about their faith. We as Christians (in my humble opinion), have fallen short of that fervency in many cases. Oh, we have our Bible Study classes, small study groups, discipleship classes, home groups, etc., but we all tend to watch the clock for when that hour or so of study and discussion will be over so we can get away.

However I have a friend, a High School student at my church (I'll call him Mook), who likes to debate every single jot and tittle of theology. Mook probably thinks I am some heretic because I will often engage him in discussions in order to make sure he knows why he believes what he says; or if Mook is just spouting books, commentaries, other people or websites. I cannot easily accept people who give opinions without having spent the time or effort to back up that opinion with beliefs other than books or programs on the "Discovery Channel". Recently Mook and I engaged in a conversation about the Creation.....whether God created the world in seven actual twenty-four hour periods or whether that the account in Genesis was just showing us that the Creation was in seven progressive steps.

My point to Mook was that I believe God created the world as the Scriptures say, but I have no problem if it was done in seven seconds, seven minutes, seven hours, or seven years. I don't know what the period called a day was before anything was created. In fact, there wasn't a day period....God created the day period when the sun and moon were formed. My comment in reply to Mook was that the important thing is the belief that God created the world as He said; not necessarily that is was done in twenty four hour periods. Not that it could not have happened that way, but that just doesn't matter to me in the grand scheme.

As a believer in Jehovah God, the important thing to me is the lifestyle we live. Do we show His Love? Do we live the greatest commandment according to the Jewish religion AND according to Jesus' teachings? That we should believe that "The Lord our God is one God and we shall love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and all our strength." (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). And then as Jesus added, " and the second commandment is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'." (Mark 12:29). This is what matters to me. There is only one God who loves me and wants my love in return and to do my best to love others as God created Love. After that, then to live a life according to His plan and guidelines for me and to lead others to a knowledge of God and His plan for their salvation.

This is a very special weekend to those of us in the Christian faith; the time of year we recognize and celebrate the basic tenet of our faith - that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the Messiah, who was killed by man, lay dead for three days, then came back to life in order to prove for all time that God is more powerful than even death itself. That God is more powerful that Satan himself because it was the evilness and sinful nature of mankind which killed Him. This event, this miracle of resurrection, is what gives me Hope for tomorrow and for my eternity which will be spent in God's presence. On this point, I am sure that Mook and I agree.

Hallelujah! Christ is risen indeed!

Be God's,
Jimmy