Week 1. The Character and Nature of God.

Journal Entry no. 1

8/2/13

Monday morning at 9-something AM, I'm standing near the front of a room among 30-40 other people, all of whom I've just met for the first time only a few days earlier.

Just the previous day I'd stood in front of these people and told them the condensed version of my life story.

(Not exactly what I'd expected to be doing right off the bat)

Everyone else has told their stories as well. Now we all stand in the 'lecture room' singing our lungs out to the Lord, knowing things about each other that for some, even the closest people in their lives have never heard about.

It's an intense moment of worship; nobody's actually paying attention to the happenings in the room.

Some are standing up, some are on the floor; some may be curled up in a corner, talking with Jesus about big subjects.

I'm among those who are standing up.

My eyes are closed as I contemplate big subjects.

Suddenly I feel incredibly small and helpless as the realization of God's greatness pounds on my mind like some people around here pound on the djembe drum.

...with a lot of force.

For the first time ever while worshipping, I sit down; awestruck.

After the song comes to an end, the worship leader prays,

then we all open our eyes.

I only remember thinking, "I do believe God just put me on the floor".

This is just one of the super-cool moments that I've experienced this week.

Soon after this, we welcome our speaker for the week, Pablo Nunez.

He opens up the book of Genesis and immediately makes an interesting point.

We all know that after each day of creation, God looked at what He had made and called it good.

And after creating man, He even said that it was very good.

What a compliment!

However,

Even though the world was without sin at that time, God did not say that anything was "perfect".

Pablo noted that perfection cannot get any better.

Therefore, when God said that man was very good, He implied that we would always have the potential to get better.

Pablo made the statement that life is beautiful when you walk into God's plan for your life and know that there is purpose for it, and potential for you to become better.

It's a simple truth, but so very important.

What this says to me about God's character, is that he believes in us.
Yes, He's the one who gave us such potential and He's the one who makes us into the better version of ourselves, but just think; he believes in us that we will believe enough in Him for our transformation.
And He encourages us daily when we take that step and put in that effort to become new people.
He's a personal God.
Not like "my God, not yours", but he takes interest in each and every one of our lives. And He isn't just interested in having a part in the 'big events' of our lives, but desires to be in the little details, too.
That's something that really blew me away this week.

You know what else I learned?
God's characteristics cannot contradict His nature.
'Duh', right?
Well listen to how I came to this realization.

Pablo asks us if we believe that God the Father turned away (or was separated) from Jesus in the moment that Jesus took all the world's sin on himself. Because God can't tolerate sin, right?
So at that moment God and Jesus were separated, right?
We're all familiar with Jesus' cry on the cross:
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" Or rather, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Sounds like separation to me.

Pablo looks at us for a moment.
I can imagine we all have question marks floating above our heads.
He asks us, "what do you think churches did before there were hymn books or fancy projector screens?"
My mind at this moment reads: "......?....."
Pablo informs us that when one has nothing to read lyrics off of, one must memorize the lyrics of a song.
"So how do you think Jesus knew the songs he sang?" Asks Pablo.
"By memorizing them" we respond.
"What book in the Bible holds the lyrics to so many songs?" Asks Pablo

             " the Psa-alms" we answer, as if in Sunday school.

Pablo starts snapping his fingers like I've noticed he does when he wants something done quickly.

"Quick, everyone, open your Bibles to Psalm 22 and read", he says.

The sound of flipping pages fills the room along with the snapping of Pablo's fingers, this shortly thereafter interrupted by a perfectly unified class gasp.

Psalm 22:1 reads: "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?"

Pablo instructs us to continue reading and take note of other verses in the psalm that remind us of Jesus death on the cross.

Verse 7- "all who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads"

Verse 8- "He trusts in The Lord," they say, "let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him"

Verse 14- "I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax, it has melted within me"

Verse 15- "my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death"

Verse 16- "...they pierce my hands and my feet"

Verse 17- "all my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me"

Verse 18- "they divide my clothes among them and casts lots for my garment"

Huh.

Finally, we reach the end of the psalm.

Verse 31- "they will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn— for He has done it"

Silence overtakes the room for a moment.
How about that? Jesus wasn't declaring separation from God... He was declaring victory over death once and for all.
Because it is in God's nature to be Triune. Father, Son, and Spirit are one.
God's nature is something that just is, it can't be any other way.
So if Jesus had been crying out because of separation from the Father, God's Triune nature would be contradicted.
But it makes sense that Jesus would be singing. Rejoicing over the great victory.
That doesn't contradict anything.
Especially not God's nature of love, nor His merciful character.

This was such an amazing thing to learn.
Absolutely blew my mind.

Along with these revelations this week were many other moments which found me in complete awe as I learned more about the fullness of God's character.
Seriously, I feel like for a very long time when I've thought about 'knowing God', there was a wee bit of knowledge, but also a huge blank spot.
My understanding of His character just feels a bit more rounded out after this week, if that makes sense.
And what's exciting is that I have all of eternity to know Him more and more.
He is Infinite, after all. That's in His nature.

Good stuff. I'm so excited for next week, as we start to learn about "Hearing the Voice of God"

That's all for now,
Chelsea