The otherness of God ( Romans 11 v 33 - 36)

'The otherness of God',what does that mean? I will share with you what I  have read,'God is so pure, matchless and unique that no one else and nothing else even come close.He is all together glorious ,unequallied in splendor and unrivallied in power. He is beyond the grasp of human reason,far above the reach of men,far above the reach of even the loftliest scentific mind'. He is infinite,His being and greatness have no limitations.Three qualities of God,He is 'All knowing/All powerful/ Supremely good' hopefully that gives you a degree of understanding of the,'Otherness of God'.Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron ,'Who is the Lord,that I should obey Him',so spoke a man considered a god,in his blindness and arrogance . In Isaiah 55 v 8-9, reads,'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord.As the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts'.People don't accept what the Bible says about God,they stand as judge and jury when they talk about God,but Job wisely and humbly said,'Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,things to wonderful for me to know'(Job 42 v3)

                                                          'Before the mountains were born

                                                          or you brought forth the whole 

                                                          world, from everlasting to

                                                           everlasting You are God.'

                                                                     Psalm 90 v2

Not a practicing Christian, Luke 8 v1ff)

 I asked a man was he a Christian,he said he was,but he wasn't a practicing Christian,I asked him what he  meanth by that?,he replied he didn't go to church.  This all happened as I was having my covet jab,so I couldn't say to much.It is obivious by saying that he was not a practicing Christian, raised the question,is he a Christian? Can one be a Christian and not be a practicing Christian,?I don't think so, I know there are people who follow Christ a far off, for one reason or other, being hurt by other Christians,a tragedy,or unbelief .In Luke 8 our Lord told the parable of the sower', He tells how the seed fell on different ground ,some fell on the path,some fell on rocky ground.some fell among the thorns,and some fell on good ground. The seed that fell on the pathway didn't last long,they are like people who heard the good news,but that's about all they did,there is hearing and then there is listening,and  Satan takes advantage,and that's it.The next one,the seed that fell on rocky ground,yes they were tempory believers no depth.Next we have the seed that that fell among the thorns,the thorns represent many things. worries, riches and pleasure,and sadly they fell away.Last but not least,the seed that fell on the good ground are like people who responed in a positive way, Hendriksen describes them as those,'who kept clinging as to what they had heard.and produced a crop; for example,love,joy,peace,longsuffering,kindness,faithfulness, meekness,self control. (Gal 5 v22-23),unto their own inner joy,the conversion of souls. and God's glory'

Not the genuine article.( Luke 8 v17)

There was a song that was very popular years ago,written and sung and by Conway Twitty 'Here is part of it, 'People  see us everywhere,they think you really care.But myself I can't deceive,I know it's only make  believe'.We can easily fool people by the appearance we put on ,that doesn't tell the real story.An  extreme  example of that was Judas Iscariot nearly everyone thought he was a true follower of Jesus,even His friend  but he wasn't,but we have to add he didn't fool Jesus (John  13 v 21) Many thought Hitler was the answer to their countries problems ,he pretended to be,in the end he was'nt. King David lamented over a supposed friend he trusted who turned against him (Psalm 42v 9)There are many who put on a religious front, but  that's all it is,in some ways they are only pretending.they are not genuine. There are  many people who  tell their wives or their husbands how much they love them,yet are involved in adulterous affairs.Their are fathers who appear to outsiders to be a wonderful parent,yet he is abusing one of his children.Likewise there are husbands who appear to everyone as being a wonderful husband ,yet he is extremly abusive to his wife.Judas paid dearly for what he did,the word of God says be sure your sin will find you out,nothing is hidden from an all knowing an all seeing God,one day that veil of pretense will be torn away by God who is holy, on that day there will be no escape,from His judgement,Hell beckons,make no mistake about it,repent before it's to late,its your only hope,call upon Christ to save you.

Hope in? ( 2 Corinthians 1 v 8-10)

  It was Isaac Watts who wrote that lovely hymn,'O God our help in ages past',it is not wrong to look back and remember how our loving heavenly Father has helped us .It was David in his old age wrote,'I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread'.In Deuteronomy 32 v7 we read,'Remember the days of old',he is speaking to the people of God.A writer on the internet wrote the following '. Moses encourages the people to reflect on God's past works and actions as a way to find comfort and strength during a difficult time.God's past actions can be a source  of wisdom, guidance and encourgement ,and can teach us valuable lessons,and  strengthen our faith'.Part of the  last verse of that hymn reads ,'Our hope for years to come',people place their hope in many things, other than the word of God,in Psalm 43 v 5 the writer speaks to himself, I'm sure we all do that,so this is what he says'Why,my soul, are you downcast?Why so disturbed within me?Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,my Saviour and my God.He repeats that again in verse 11, and also in the following Psalm  .Sometimes we have to remind ourselves  again and again ,and again, to put our hope in God,and in Him alone..

Good works ( Matthew 25 v 31ff)

 Just recently my youngest son had an operation,to have a kidney removed,because it had cancer,after the operation ,he could not to do very much,he experienced a lot of pain.We live at a distance from him,so his mother was there to support him,his wife suffers from a serious condition ,they have two young children.Here is a very positive thing,people in his the church  brought meals everyday to them.That's Christianity in action, a Christianity without good works is not Christianity,let me stress this, we are not saved by our works,only what Christ did on the cross saves.  In Ephesians 2 v8 we read,'For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith and this not from yourselves,it is the gift of God.' Jesus paid the full price for our salvation,our works cannot deal with sin,His death on the cross was  a sacrifice for sin, So as regards salvation that's it,but let us consider  Eph 2 v10 which reads,'For we are God's handiwork,created in Christ Jesus to do good works,which God prepared in advance for us to do'.It is James who writes,' show me  your faith' (James 2 v18),the good works are an evidence,that we are Christians.

                                                   'What good works has God prepared

                                                    for us to do today?'

The needy ( Proverbs 19 v 17)

When Israel came into the promised land God gave commands as regards provision  for the poor Israelites and non-Israelites in Leviticus 23 v 22 they are told when they harvested their crops,they had to leave a certain amount  for  the poor  Israelites and the foreigners.In Deuteronomy15 God declared that every seven years they were to cancel any debts owed to them by a fellow Israelite.God knew that could be a problem if the person came to borrow on the sixth year ,they would think they would not get their money back.If they did that God would hear the prayers of the poor, and declared what they  had done as sinful.God loves a cheerful giver. Nothing has changed,for we are told, in Galatians 6 v 9-10,'Let us not become weary in doing good,for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.Therefore as we have opportunity,do good to all people,especially to those who belong to the family of believers.'

He humbled Himself. (Philippians 2 v5-11)

 I wonder do we really  take in, the humility of our Lord, Let us turn to Philippians 2 v 6-8. it is all about Jesus ,who He was,and who He became ,and what He did. Lets  consider the opening words,

                                                     'Who, being in very nature God'

Can we stand back and consider what we are reading,remember the person who wrote these words ,Paul was a strict Jew,as were the 12 disciples,excluding Judas,and they all readily agreed what Paul wrote. What did Thomas say,'My Lord and my God!'  (John 20 v 28)This is a great mystery,no one can grasp fully the meaning  of it.Thousands of early Christians  were prepared to die ,because they would not confess  that Caesar was Lord,god's there are in plenty but they are not god's.Isaiah 45 v22 declares 'For I  am God,and there is no other,'The God we worship is a triune God,existing as one being, three co-eternal ,consubstantial ,whom we know as 'Father ,Son,and the Holy Spirit'They are all equally God one being ,yet distinct.In Hebrews 1 v 6ff,we read the Father declaring ,'Let all God's angels worship Him,and v8 declares.,'But about the Son he says,'Your throne ,Oh God .will last for ever and ever'. From the glory of that we read ,'He  made Himself nothing,by taking the very nature of a servant,being made in human likeness, and being in appearance as a man  He humbled Himself,by becoming obedient to death  even death on a cross'  

                                                  'His whole life was a life of humiliation.

                                                   But the lowest step of His humiliation

                                                   was His dying  the death of the cross'

                                                                  Matthew Henry