attributes of God - mercy

Yesterday I was feeling really homesick and lonely.  Rachel goes to training at 9, but I don't go till 1 so I'm alone for quite awhile.  I was really missing my family and doubting my reasons for being here at Glorieta.  But then I decided to read the chapter assigned for the ladies' Bible study of "The Attributes of God" back home.

The topic for this month is mercy, and it honestly couldn't have come at a better time for me.  I was really wondering what my purpose for being here was, but throughout the chapter I was reminded of God's goodness and how His mercy is extravagant and never ending.  I liked this one section of Tozer's:

One fact about the mercy of God is that it never began to be.  I've heard of men who were hardhearted or careless, but they began to get stirred up and mercy blossomed forth.  It never was so of God.  God never lay in lethargy without His compassion. God's mercy is simply what God is--uncreated and eternal.  It never began to be; it always was.  Heaven and earth were yet unmade and the stars were yet unformed and all that space men are talking about now was only a thought in the mind of God.  God was as merciful as He is now.  And not only did it never begin to be, but the mercy of God also has never been any more than it is now.

After I took the time to read this chapter yesterday, my day was just so much better.  I was reminded that I need to trust God in this time, and He will reveal His purpose to me.

attributes of God - goodness

This month in "The Attributes of God" we were talking about the goodness of God.  I really enjoyed it.  God's goodness is one of those attributes I love thinking about, but just don't think about enough.

One of the quotes I like by Tozer is one where he defines the word "magnify".

   The psalmist said, "O magnify the LORD with me" (34:3).  "Magnify" may mean one of two things: "make it look bigger than it is," or "see it as big as it is."  The latter is what "magnify" means as the psalmist used it.
   If you want to examine a very small amount of matter, you put if under a microscope and magnify it to make it look bigger than it is.  But it is impossible to make God look bigger than He is.  When we say "magnify the Lord," we mean try to see God somewhere near as big as He is.  This is what I want to do.  This is what, by His help, I have dedicated myself to do.

Tozer also pointed out that God isn't ever "partway" anything.  He's always wholly good, wholly awesome, wholly loving, etc.  What an amazing thought!

In the chapter there was another quote I liked:

   The goodness of God is the only valid reason for existence, the only reason underlying all things.  Do you imagine that you deserve to be born, that you deserve to be alive?  The unbelieving poet Omar Khayyam said,

Into this universe and why
not knowing nor whence
like water willy-nilly flowing
and out of it like wind along the waste,
whither I know not,
willy-nilly blowing.

Tonight we were watching a bit of the old Moses movie, "The Ten Commandments".  As we were watching I got to thinking about God's goodness in the lives of Moses and his parents.  I can't imagine how Moses' mother must have felt as she set her baby boy adrift in the Nile in a basket, knowing the water was full of snakes and crocodiles and all other kinds of dangers, as well as boats and any number of other things that could have brought his young life to an end.  But she trusted in God, and how He showed His goodness through Moses' life!  I just thought it was really neat to think about.

...He made amends for us, "full, fair, and many," turning all our sin into endless worship.

attributes of God - immensity

Hey everyone!  I think I'm going to start a new kind of series that talks about certain attributes of God.  I thought it would be good for this season of my life because in the women's Bible study at my church, we're now going through The Attributes of God by A. W. Tozer.  Tozer is such an incredible author.  He's like Elisabeth Elliot (who, as I constantly rave about, is my favorite author) in his eye for the beauty in God's world, and joy in God and bluntness in bringing it forth.  I hope you enjoy this series!

Last Friday we had our second study going through The Attributes of God and were talking about God's immensity.  I love studies like that, where we're basically just talking about how amazing God truly is.  I especially love when creation is brought up and all that He has made.  To me, those are the things that most clearly tell of how immense God is.  As Tozer says in talking about this:

We think that the sun is very large with its planets circling around it. But if you study astronomy--even elementary astronomy--you will learn that there are suns so large that each one could absorb our sun, all of its planets, and all of the satellites that revolve around those planets into itself.  They say that there are suns that are so large you could put millions of our suns into them.  I give up.  I don't even try to understand it.
   Then there is space.  I don't think space is a thing; I think it is just a way we have of accounting for different positions in the vast universe.  We call it distance.  We know they don't measure it.  If it's the moon they say 250,000 miles or if it's the sun they say 93 million miles.  But after that they start talking in light years.  They say that there are bodies millions of light years away--say 10 million just to get a start.  So if you want to know how far it is from earth to that body I'm talking about, you multiply 5 trillion, 862 billion, 484 million by 10 million.  Doesn't that stun you?  It makes my head ache!  Seen over against this, you and I are terribly small.

I just loved learning about God's immensity this past week.  He is so incredible (Job 26:5-14).

Lastly, I want to include a poem that was in the chapter that really helps remind me how big God is.

O Fast and Gone,

How great is God,

How small am I,

A mote in the illimitable sky,

And lets the glory deep and wide and high

Of heaven's unclouded sun,

Ne'er to forget myself forevermore,

Lost, swallowed up in love's immensity.

The sea that knows no sounding and no shore,

God only there, not I,

Nor nearer than I am to myself can be

Art Thou to me.

So have I lost myself in finding Thee.

The boundless heaven of Thine eternal love

Around me and beneath me and above

In glory of that golden day,

The former things are passed away,

Aye, passed away.

-- Gerhard Tersteegen