I cannot believe it is FRIDAY again! Where do the days go? The pace at which time passes makes me long all the more for my next life in which clocks and calendars will not have the same impact as in this life ... if they even exist at all! But back to the present and since it is Friday, I invite you to pour a cup of your favorite java and join me for a couple of random thoughts. 


1. A few weeks ago as I was preparing to drink my coffee over breakfast with a friend, I reached for a creamer. "I didn't know you drank creamer in your coffee," he said, his words flavored with a bit of a sneer thrown in. So the next day, I decided to go "whitener free." And that one day turned into another and then another. I have grown increasingly fond of drinking my coffee just straight up ... or "black." I have discovered that in drinking my coffee without milk or cream (or sweetener), I can taste the different flavors present in the different roasts. And not only this, but when I googled "drinking coffee black" I discovered that there are twelve scientific reasons whey people should drink black coffee every day.  And after reading about these, I was even happier that I am now a black coffee drinker! 

As I reflected on this, it got me thinking about our relationship with God. All too often, just as we add cream, sugar, etc. to our coffee, we add our own thoughts about what (or who) we think God is to what the Bible reveals about what and who God really is. For example, over the years a number of people have said to me, "John, my God would never send anyone to hell. My God is too loving to do that." Now does this view of God align with the God of the Bible? One read through the book of Revelation would say "absolutely not!" And reading through the gospels would confirm this. Few people realize that Jesus himself spoke more about hell than he did about heaven (Matthew 13:41-43; Mark 9:44). 

So my question to you is this: When you think of God, what comes into your mind? A god of your own making ... your own imagination? Or the God who is revealed in creation, in Christ, and in the Scriptures? 

I love the definition of God as given in The New City Catechism: 

"God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through him and by his will."

Now this is a God worthy to receive all glory, power, majesty and honor! And out of his goodness he provides for all of us to find our way back to him. Check out Two Ways to Live: The Choice We All Face. 


2. Speaking of The New City Catechism, among the questions we are working through in our Sunday morning services, two that I have found especially meaningful have been questions four and six. 

Q. 4   How and why did God create us?
A. 4   God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory.

Q. 6  How can we glorify God?
A. 6  We glorify God by enjoying him, loving him, trusting him, and by obeying his will, commands, and law.


Here in these two questions and answers we find our ultimate purpose in life: to know God, to love him, live with him, and glorify him (and we are told how we do the latter: by enjoying him, loving him, trusting him, and obeying him). 

Now what I take away from this description of our ultimate purpose is this: God is not some cosmic tyrant telling us how to live - even if that means we don't have fun living! Rather, God is our loving creator who made us to live in relationship with him. And seeing that he is the most beautiful, wondrous, amazing, awesome being in all the vast universe ... having the opportunity to know and love him and live in relationship with him ... WOW! That is truly a gift of the greatest proportions! 

Thanks for stopping by . . . 
pj