DAVID'S EMAIL BIBLE STUDY:
God IS...
A. BACKGROUND
...
the Psalms praise God, cry out to God, complain to God AND offer similes. Remember Junior High English class? Similes are when you say, “this is like that”. We use similes to explain things that are hard to define or describe. Like God. Bouncing around various Psalms, last week we saw that God is like a SHIELD, KING, FORTRESS, ROCK, TOWER, Lighter Upper, Cleaner Upper. In a phrase: always there for us.
B. TODAY
... more similes. God is like our SAVIOR and HOPE of all nations (65:5); FATHER/MOTHER to the ORPHAN and DEFENDER of WIDOWS (68:5); STRENGTH of our heart, and our PORTION (73:26); our DWELLING PLACE (90:1).
C. SUMMARY.
In a bustling, capitalist economy we can get most anything anywhere. God is for those things we can’t shop for. At any given time 100 people in our church are in various kinds of treatment, therapy: chemo, counselling, physical therapy, AA, etc. I thoroughly believe God is within all of that. But also, beyond. This very day I’m waiting for word on a death of a friend. She was the beneficiary of many blessing and treatments in her life. But there always came a point when she needed what God offers to carry her through. Even this week.
D. KEY POINTS
1.
PAGANS and Savages and worse. That’s what people used to call folks outside our religion, some still do. Here’s the challenge. In Psalm 65:5 God is called “the Hope of ALL nations”, a central belief from Old and New Testaments. That’s what makes Christianity an evangelistic and missionary religion – the idea that what we have is meant and good for everyone. But arrogance and ignorance have done much to undermine the sharing of Christian “good news”. Our 21
st
Century, Christians-in-America challenge is to learn bow to bring our “Hope of all nations” in ways that others will be open to it. Good news in a bad package is more likely to be tossed aside. And is. Build a relationship. Be respectful. Gain trust. Keep the faith. Be the hope you are sharing.
2.
The POOREST of the POOR is a cliché, but still the accurate description of our ultimate target for God’s love. Yes, we are to love one another, love God, love the stranger, even love our enemy. But repeatedly the Bible zeroes in on “the widow and orphan” (Psalm 68:5-6), as representatives of “the poorest of the poor”. Who that is varies from decade to decade, even nation to nation. AIDS victims in the 80s and 90s, often the elderly, sex-trafficked kids worldwide, famine or disaster victims. Always there is someone before us who, without us, has nothing. This powerful image of God as “Father to the fatherless, defender of widows, who sets the lonely in families” is a most telling and beautiful image of God. As “Christlike”, godly people that is our model. Greenfield Hill Church fulfills this every day, near and far. Be proud, and don’t tire.
3.
God as DWELLING PLEASE (90:1) is as good a summary as I can give. And let me use my own simile. God-as-dwelling place is like my/your own home. There is something about opening the door to your own place, walking in, settling down in a favorite chair. The intrusions of outside, the complications and frustrations of work or travel, they diminish in the “comfort zone” of your place. God offers to be like that – our dwelling place. A place of safety, of welcome, of comfort, of familiarity. No one is judging you, criticizing, backstabbing or competing. How can God be that? Allow God to be your safe space, your home base. You can go there in your mind, in your spirit, through prayer, through meditation. Yes, it takes practice. So practice.
