[Note: Please bear with me as I struggle through difficult ideas–it is not easy to wrap our little minds around God!]
Last week I tried to introduce the God of Genesis. Point #1–God is personal/relational. God creates human beings in his image. That concept includes capable of relationship–with God and with one another. God is powerfully transcendent yet present. God calls his human creation back to him and he will provide the means for re-creation and reestablishment of broken relationship. It is not easy to sift out the many aspects of God that are revealed in the several “sin stories” that introduce the biblical story–Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, humanity in general, Noah, the Tower of Babel.
Even more difficult is discerning what the applications are. If the powerful, creating God is such, what are the implications for how I live life? How do I live with such a God? What does God’s nature demand? How do I give honor to such realities? I must rethink priorities, commitments, the things I do in the name of promoting spiritual presence and God-response.
A few “lessons” from Gen 1-11: How obedient and committed am I? Do I ever seek to define right and wrong on my own terms? Might God reject my offerings and worship? Am I vengeful? Is my life a glory or a shame to God (a different question than mere sin-avoidance)? Am I building monuments to myself, even without knowing it? Am I an instrument to the re-creation of vertical relationship or do I mostly dabble in the mundane cares of living in this fallen world?
God defines spirituality and worship (and eventually Christianity) based on his nature. I seek continual relationship with the God who is ever beyond me, thus is potentially present only because of who he is, not because of who I am or what I do. May I never think otherwise. We must never succumb to the temptation (of Satan) to define what God wants according to our own preferences or opportunities. Choosing the good can keep us from choosing the best (Phil 1). Growth in knowledge and grace is the ultimate admonition in a book that begins with a challenge to share the divine nature (2 Peter). May I learn both and reflect them ever more clearly in my life!!