Carrie Underwood sings: “Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds your hands have made.”
Pundits and atheists, often take pot shots at Christians who vocalize their passion for such a God as ours. Multitudes, just the same, agree in worship: “Then sings my soul, my Savior – God, to Thee: How great Thou art, how great Thou art.”
I chose this song to be sung by my dear friend, Michael Adler, at my dad’s funeral. Dad, like millions of us, saw the splendor of God in nature.
How a person could study the universe or the human body; the anatomy and physiology of this life we experience, the intricate need of chemicals, blood and cell behavior all woven together without which we could not continue to exist. I also look in amazement to the heavens
“When I consider, the song goes, “that God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in.” Jesus lived such in history that we cannot erase the amazement of all He said and did. The Gospels are a record of only some of what He did.
When, from the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished” He had only done the dirty work; that is, He had given Himself a ransom for my sin. It was my dirt upon His shoulders.
A ransom is not an unusual concept. Our government and others employ the idea every so often in order to spare some poor victim. We give one for the other.
He gave Himself as “the great exchange.” But I have sinned against God. The exchange was; His righteousness given; my sin taken––mercy that has proven itself to the ultimate.
Oh my Father, How truly great Thou art.
The trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; is not a concept easy to explain. The Father has declared in His word, the existence of them and wise people learn to revere what He has spoken. Experience proves the truth of scripture.
Jesus said that God is Spirit. Jesus is God come to us for salvation and so that we might see the face of God: who He is and what He is like.
The Holy Spirit is God, and how God comes to us in our experience of life. As with the Son, so it is with the Holy Spirit: we must receive them in order to experience “life abundantly.” (John 10:10)
If we cannot honestly sing along with Carrie, “How truly great Thou art,” we need only to open our hearts to God and tell Him we want Him in our lives.
Oh, reader, and I am not exempt from needing to come to the Fountain daily myself.
Let us not elevate the mundane and ignore “How truly great (our God) is.” The rest of the world is dying to hear of Him.
Buddy