They say you put God in a box (making Him one-dimensional) whenever you limit Him or define Him in any way--He defies description! We cannot describe Him, only know Him The Bible never attempts to give a full description of Him, only enough truth to help us get to know Him. Enough light to but see, there's enough darkness to keep us in suspense of the mystery of knowing God. However, to know Him is to love Him, the ultimate goal of relationships. Someone may ask, "How big is your God?" and not realize that to limit Him in any way is to commit idolatry--thinking less of Him than warranted. In the final analysis, it's not how big your faith is, but how big your God is. (NB: J. B. Phillips also wrote, Your God Is Too Small.)
God is by definition infinite or without limit, not finite! Some like to think of Him as the Great Spirit, the Doting Grandpa, the Man Upstairs, or the Celestial Killjoy or Policeman, or even as the Great Mathematician behind all the wonders of heaven's equation. Even if we think of Him as just our Father, that would be limiting Him; for He is also Judge, Lord, and Creator, et alia. We need the full revelation. We can know a lot about God without any real appreciation of it or knowledge of God verified through life's experiences. We must turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God. The more we know, the more we will want to know, for God satisfies our thirst and hunger and then gives us more of it--we can never get too much!
To live in reality, according to Plato, one must know what God is really like! And likewise, A. W. Tozer said that what we think of God is the most important thing about us! Martin Luther told Erasmus of Rotterdam that his thoughts of God were too human--we need the Spirit's illumination! We must access our knowledge of God gleaned from the Word and not speculation or conjecture. We have truth and we are blessed if we reckon upon it and put it to use.
When we say that God is limitless, or unlimited, it means God never runs out of His attributes, His mercies are new every morning, and His love is eternal! God is good all the time and all the time God is good--find out for yourself, I challenge the reader--don't just take my word for it! However, one caveat is that someday His patience with man will cease and the Day of Judgment will commence. The Bible is not some teaser to just give us an appetite for Him, but to enlighten us and open our spiritual eyes to be wise and walk with Him in fellowship. It doesn't satisfy just to hear about God or to hear a description--we want to know Him intimately and be known by Him.
One must reckon that God is perfect and what this entails according to Arthur W. Pink: "He cannot improve for the better for He is already perfect; He cannot change for the worse [or need improvement] since He's perfect." God's icon is Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever! God cannot change nor relent for He is not a mere mortal! God is wholly trustworthy and is Mr. Dependable--always Himself and in character! He never acts arbitrarily, whimsically, nor capriciously! In short, He's a law unto Himself and is without the contradiction of change and vicissitude or the ebb and flow of human emotion, passions, or feelings. He cannot be frustrated or challenged, with no learning curve, never being surprised, but always on top of things!
The words "I cannot" are not in His vocabulary, except to contradict Himself or His work! With God, nothing shall be impossible (cf. Gen. 18:14; Job 42:2). He can make the biggest possible rock and move the biggest possible rock. As Einstein said, "God doesn't play dice with the universe." So we do not limit Him or His presence, for He's fully present everywhere and even extra-dimensional. He is here and He is not silent! And Christianity is about this God who is here. God is fully sovereign and powerful over everything in creation and leaves nothing to chance! In fact, "He is not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27).
One final lesson Job learned is that we do not frustrate God nor His purposes and will. He acts with or without our cooperation and involvement. It is said that there are no maverick molecules in creation. However, God just chooses not to do certain things, though He could--for instance, He didn't have to save us! It is said that His power is necessary for His wisdom or it would be pathetic, and His wisdom is needed for His power or it would be scary!
God knows us and all possibilities about us--what we want and don't want, need and don't need, even if we don't! He sees through our veneer and we don't fool Him for who we are. In fact, He knows us better than we do! All this is comforting to know since God knew everything about us before our salvation and accepted us anyway! His perfect knowledge extends to knowing all that possibly could be! We're people of the Book, but we know the Author! "The world by wisdom knew not God," (cf. 1 Cor. 1:21). In sum, we all must learn to "think outside the box" so to speak! (NB: Your faith can be no bigger than your God and you can never find a God in a box!) Soli Deo Gloria!
God is by definition infinite or without limit, not finite! Some like to think of Him as the Great Spirit, the Doting Grandpa, the Man Upstairs, or the Celestial Killjoy or Policeman, or even as the Great Mathematician behind all the wonders of heaven's equation. Even if we think of Him as just our Father, that would be limiting Him; for He is also Judge, Lord, and Creator, et alia. We need the full revelation. We can know a lot about God without any real appreciation of it or knowledge of God verified through life's experiences. We must turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God. The more we know, the more we will want to know, for God satisfies our thirst and hunger and then gives us more of it--we can never get too much!
To live in reality, according to Plato, one must know what God is really like! And likewise, A. W. Tozer said that what we think of God is the most important thing about us! Martin Luther told Erasmus of Rotterdam that his thoughts of God were too human--we need the Spirit's illumination! We must access our knowledge of God gleaned from the Word and not speculation or conjecture. We have truth and we are blessed if we reckon upon it and put it to use.
When we say that God is limitless, or unlimited, it means God never runs out of His attributes, His mercies are new every morning, and His love is eternal! God is good all the time and all the time God is good--find out for yourself, I challenge the reader--don't just take my word for it! However, one caveat is that someday His patience with man will cease and the Day of Judgment will commence. The Bible is not some teaser to just give us an appetite for Him, but to enlighten us and open our spiritual eyes to be wise and walk with Him in fellowship. It doesn't satisfy just to hear about God or to hear a description--we want to know Him intimately and be known by Him.
One must reckon that God is perfect and what this entails according to Arthur W. Pink: "He cannot improve for the better for He is already perfect; He cannot change for the worse [or need improvement] since He's perfect." God's icon is Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever! God cannot change nor relent for He is not a mere mortal! God is wholly trustworthy and is Mr. Dependable--always Himself and in character! He never acts arbitrarily, whimsically, nor capriciously! In short, He's a law unto Himself and is without the contradiction of change and vicissitude or the ebb and flow of human emotion, passions, or feelings. He cannot be frustrated or challenged, with no learning curve, never being surprised, but always on top of things!
The words "I cannot" are not in His vocabulary, except to contradict Himself or His work! With God, nothing shall be impossible (cf. Gen. 18:14; Job 42:2). He can make the biggest possible rock and move the biggest possible rock. As Einstein said, "God doesn't play dice with the universe." So we do not limit Him or His presence, for He's fully present everywhere and even extra-dimensional. He is here and He is not silent! And Christianity is about this God who is here. God is fully sovereign and powerful over everything in creation and leaves nothing to chance! In fact, "He is not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27).
One final lesson Job learned is that we do not frustrate God nor His purposes and will. He acts with or without our cooperation and involvement. It is said that there are no maverick molecules in creation. However, God just chooses not to do certain things, though He could--for instance, He didn't have to save us! It is said that His power is necessary for His wisdom or it would be pathetic, and His wisdom is needed for His power or it would be scary!
God knows us and all possibilities about us--what we want and don't want, need and don't need, even if we don't! He sees through our veneer and we don't fool Him for who we are. In fact, He knows us better than we do! All this is comforting to know since God knew everything about us before our salvation and accepted us anyway! His perfect knowledge extends to knowing all that possibly could be! We're people of the Book, but we know the Author! "The world by wisdom knew not God," (cf. 1 Cor. 1:21). In sum, we all must learn to "think outside the box" so to speak! (NB: Your faith can be no bigger than your God and you can never find a God in a box!) Soli Deo Gloria!
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