Our Awesome God

God is not “mixed with” heaven and earth. He “fills,” as in wholly occupies and possesses, heaven and earth! This is not a statement of pantheism, where a bit of the divine is infused in created animals, plants, birds, and trees. Rather, He is distinct and separate from it. Just as the light of the sun fills the air but it is not mixed with the air, so God fills all the universe without mixture.

Have you ever considered the full impact of these words—“The LORD your God which goeth before you”? This statement asserts that you cannot go anywhere that God Himself has not already been! He fills the earth with His glorious presence, and although a pathway through a wilderness may be unknown to us, it is not unknown to God.

Do you lack wisdom? Are you facing a challenge that is beyond your experience or your own limited store of knowledge? You serve the God Who knows all things! Ask Him for wisdom, and He will graciously bestow it. Sometimes it may come in a form that you don’t like or appreciate, for wisdom often comes packaged as reproof (see Proverbs 1:23). But a man who is humble enough to discern the Lord’s answer to prayer and receive reproof with gratitude is one who has the potential to be a wise man in the days ahead.

One astonishing fact about God’s knowledge is its totality: He not only knows all things that are; He also knows all things that would be if something else happened! He knows the end of every choice and the result of every action. God knew that if Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, his action would bring death upon all mankind. Similarly, the Lord in His omniscience knows the consequences of our sin and gives us warnings by His Word and Holy Spirit.

The word “omnipotent” appears in our English Bible only one time. The reference is found in the Book of Revelation at the climactic, glorious proclamation of the universal reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is very fitting that this one time that the English word “omnipotent” appears is immediately before the glorious vision of our Lord Jesus crowned with many crowns and riding His white horse in victory and triumph.

One of the more surprising places to see the omnipotence of God is when it is displayed in the lives of His children. In and of ourselves, we are weak and helpless. But it is precisely when we recognize this inherent weakness of our own that we can experience the omnipotent power of God mightily displayed in our lives.

One of the greatest displays of God’s omnipotence in all of history was the incarnation of the Son of God. Colossians 2:9 makes a profound statement: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” This means that all attributes of the Godhead were manifested in the Son.

The Lord made a declaration of His own omnipotence to encourage a faithful prophet who lived in a very dark day. Jeremiah would be an eyewitness to the overthrow of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple.

The term "Almighty" is used 57 times in the Hebrew Bible. It denotes God’s omnipotence — that He and He alone is all-powerful. Animals may be strong; men may be mighty. Kings may have authority. But only God is almighty, possessing all authority in Heaven and on earth!

God’s spiritual nature is emphasized throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. This set the God of the Bible apart from the false gods of antiquity.

A proper response to many of God’s attributes involves joy, adoration, singing, and praise. But there’s another kind of response that the Bible commands, particularly connected to holiness: reverent silence.

God expressly defines Himself as holy. When God called Israel to make a distinction between clean and unclean and to set themselves apart from the world, He based this command upon the divine attribute of holiness.

Psalms 22–24 are all strongly Messianic in theme and show an exquisite, complete picture of the coming work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What was the greatest manifestation of God’s glory in human history? Some might assume that it was when the glory of the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai. Others might say that it was perhaps when the glory of God filled the Temple upon its dedication. Still others might say that it was revealed in some of the marvelous visions given to Isaiah, Daniel, or Ezekiel.

A proper view of the glory of the Lord adjusts our perspective on all of life. Easily, we can have faulty views of ourselves, of others, of current events, and of our circumstances. But when we see the glory of God, everything comes into proper focus. As we see ourselves and others in a truer, brighter light, we are humbled. Current events no longer alarm us, and we are not distracted by the shortcomings or great achievements of those around us. We begin to see every trial and every joy in the larger context of God’s glory and honor.

The word eclipse is not found in Scripture, nor is there any record of an eclipse occurring anywhere in the Bible, but a Biblical commentary on anything, or a theology of anything, starts at one place: Creation.

Psalm 138:5 proclaims that “great is the glory of the LORD.” The Hebrew word for “glory” is kavod. A fascinating term, it is used to describe this important attribute of God. The root meaning of the word is “weighty,” indicating that Jehovah has inherent value and worthiness. When God speaks, He speaks with authority. When He acts, He acts with dignity. When He is worshipped, He is to be given “the glory due unto his name” (Psalm 29:2).

Do you love your brother “unto the end”? Is your love to the “uttermost”? Has your love waned with the passage of time? Have you ever hesitated to love the stranger or the outcast? When a brother sins against you, do you forgive and love as Jesus loved? Perhaps today, right now, is the time to repent of a self-centered, prideful spirit and to learn again from the Master how to love as you ought to love.

Can we say with confidence that Christianity is true and that all other religions are false? Our society today professes that such a view is extremely bigoted and fanatically arrogant. The social elite assure us that there are “many ways to God” and that different religions across the world are all different cultural manifestations of the same inner quest of man for the divine—that all religions are merely different paths to the same goal.

We live in a day of many uncertainties. In fact, our modern culture denies the reality of certainty altogether. In the thinking of many people, there are no absolutes. Uncertainty exists as to whether anything can be considered right or wrong. Truth is relative to these people, and they consider that what is true to you may or may not be true for someone else. Our modern society cannot even define male and female. This confusion is a symptom of a relativistic culture where the foundation of absolute truth is removed. In our generation, evil is called good, and good is called evil.