The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)
Daily Bible Reading: Leviticus 17:1 – 19:37
Relate: Are you familiar with spoken word? It is a form of poetry that has a style, a flair that almost creates its own music. There is a spoken word I recently heard from a Muslim poet that starts out with this…
You say Jesus was God and that God had descended.
We say Jesus was man for Jesus was dependent.
Our God is all great and He cannot be comprehended.
You say God was murdered but you believe that He pretended.
God gave us brains, and God gave us logic.
But I guess that God wanted us to use them in everything else but this topic.
From there it continues to go on talking about how illogical it is for God to become a man and then to die on the cross and then somehow this is what it takes for people to have their sins forgiven. To a Muslim it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t to an atheist either. Digging through some old comments from an earlier blog there I found this…
The resurrection makes the whole thing absurd. If Jesus really died, there is no resurrection. If there is a resurrection then there is no sacrificial death. There is only one or the other. You can’t have both. The Bible isn’t really saying that Jesus died for our sins but that He had a tough time for a couple days.
Let’s face it, in a way both are right. As far back as the fifties (as in 50AD), enough people were calling the gospel foolishness that Paul addressed it first thing in one of his first letters. We rebelled against God. He came down to earth, died, and was resurrected. Believing and accepting the sacrifice Jesus paid sets us free from our sins. Somehow.
React: Yes, there is confusion and controversy over how God could come to earth, die on the cross to forgive our sins, and somehow this allows us to be born again (or born of the Spirit). What I love about it is that Jesus as God preempted all the debates when He Himself said it can’t be explained. Yes it happens. It is the most beautiful of stories. It is the most pivotal event in the history of humanity. But it is inexplicable. There is nothing I love to read and learn more about than the fact of redemption. Nothing. But I still don’t get it. No matter how smart I think I am, no matter how intelligent Nicodemus was, no matter how great of a genius any of us might be, it is beyond us. We are not God. We can only submit, acknowledge what He has done, and be grateful that we are forgiven and can have a new life in Him.
Respond:
God, I thank You for Your incomprehensible grace. I don’t get it. I don’t understand why You would love a sinner such as I. I don’t understand how Your sacrifice nearly two thousand years ago covers my sin today. I don’t get how the God of the universe could (or even would) come and dwell in me. I know it is true. I don’t know how but You are God and I am not. I surrender my life to You. I submit my will to You. You, Jesus, are God and because of Your death I can live. There are no words to say. Thank You.
THE RIVER WALK 
We know not from whence it came or where it goes
I really liked this one today. I come from a family of unbelievers and 4 years ago I became a Christian. I still have family members who do not believe and its really hard to try to get them to understand. I do know where they are coming from but still can’t seem to explain it to them well enough to make them understand. I pray every day that God will give them what he gave to me to be able to see. Though I still don’t understand it either I am thankful for God’s grace and love and most of all that though I felt like I did not deserve it he thought I was worth saving. Thanks for your post today it inspired something inside of me to remember that nobody is to far gone to have a new life in him.
“God, I thank You for Your incomprehensible grace. I don’t get it. I don’t understand why You would love a sinner such as I.” Isn’t this the glory of it all? That He did for His own glory. It’s is beyond human comprehension, I agree. Thanks!
Reblogged this on BijiBytes and commented:
Wonderfully warm!
This reminds me of a sharing from a friend who attended a Billy Graham rally, where he likened this mystery of faith to watching TV. We don’t understand how TV works – how the transmission is sent and received and converted into sound and picture – but that is no reason to stop watching TV.
Similarly just because we don’t understand how salvation works does’t stop us from believing in it and accepting it.
We speak of the mystery of the faith for a reason (pun intended).
Great version of Once Again, even though I don’t speak Korean. The piano is awesome (I’m jealous).
I spent several years on Okinawa, and learning to sing praise songs in Japanese was one of the greatest blessings of that time for me. When our Okinawan and Japanese brothers and sisters joined us, they patiently endured the English songs… but their faces lit up so bright when we switched into their language and all sang together.
Sure, I didn’t know what I was saying exactly. It wasn’t logical to me.
But they understood it, and God moved in our midst.
Beautifully written. May the peace of god be with you!
Beautiful way to explain the unexplainable–AMAZING GRACE!
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I guess the ultimate comment, is to blast your post all over the internet! I just reshared this and your article, ‘The great substituion’ because they are excellent. Sounds like you have really done your homework, on the teachings of Islam! I have done my homework on the plight of First Nations, and have many articles on the topic. http://chrisaomministries.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/reading-the-bible-with-red-mans-eyes-2/
keep up the great work!
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I enjoyed reading this.
everything the Lord does is inexplicable….how he even made us, so low that we are, yet he loved us enough to die for us..he did not stop there, he transferred his authority to us, so that we could do even greater things that he did
Seems to me, every religion is a belief system that cannot justify itself but by negating all the others. We will be better of when they devote more of their time to incouraging our behaving according to church teachings and less time worrying about what others are doing …
No holding my breath, though.
Well, every religious belief system including atheism engages in the others. to some extent or another. I’m not sure what the point in what you are saying is. I’ve written over four hundred posts, if once or twice I discuss other viewpoints am I wrong? Or are you saying the Muslim and the atheist are wrong for trying to demonstrate Christianity as wrong? Or perhaps you think they’re all wrong and each should just ignore the others?
I was able to understand Yahweh’s nature by reading the Bible all the way through in prayer. Some of the things that we do not initially understand are written plain as day for us to find.
Seeking Yahweh’s face is truly searching the scriptures to learn all that we can about Him. It is through the OT that we learn about Him in the most revealing way. When He sent His son we are able to see this same character, and love through His words and actions as well. The message is consistent. The character of our Mighty One is true.
All the contradiction comes from altered doctrines done in greed. Please pray about it. Yahweh explains everything in His whole word in a nice orderly fashion. Yahweh bless…
Well, if You claim to understand what God Himself said is inexplicable then more power to ya. Sounds a bit close to blasphemy to me.
I have found that Yahweh wants us to seek to know Him, His ways, and His desires. That may be blasphemy by church doctrine, but not by biblical doctrine. That is the only doctrine that matters…at least to those who care to know it and live by it. Yahweh bless you.
Seeking to know Him more is vastly different than claiming to fully know.
We can know Him and He says so in the word we seek to know Him from. 🙂
God bless, keep up the great work, Greg
It was Tozer who said, “I believe that Christ died for me because it’s incredible; I believe He rose from the dead because it’s impossible.”
wow, another fan of Tozer, that is a rare breed, God bless you and your work
greg
LOVE your faith and mind! With GOD all things are possible!
http://www.anythingforhorseandrider.com