I AM GOD

     For may years I have enjoyed writing puppet skits and puppet stories. Sometimes it is a lot of work and I wonder how or why I should keep going and then I start letting my imagination and go and, well, sometimes it is as if the characters themselves, the ones that I created come to life and start telling me what to do like happened recently.

      While I was working on series of lessons for Genesis and writing a puppet story for the first one, I was thinking about which of my puppet characters was the most bossy when low and behold, Stella turned up. “STOP!!! Stop everything.” She yelled at me, “This puppet story is over, done,finished, kaput.”

      “What?” I asked looking around for her, “What are you talking about?” “Your position here has been terminated.” She responded as she peered over the computer monitor at me. “It is ended, finished, YOU are fired.” she continued. “You can't do that!” I said staring back at her. “I can and I am.” She said back to me. “From now on I am in charge here. Now get out of here.”

      “Alright Stella Peterson!” I said, “Just who gave you the right to come in here and take over my lesson writing?” “I did!” she snapped back at me “And from now on everyone will obey me and only me.” “Just who do you think you are?” I asked and of course she answered in a typical Stella way, “You can call me god.” she said.

      “I don’t think so.” I told her, “There is but one God and you are not Him.” “Not anymore.” She quipped back, “And if God wants to argue about it I’ll make Him miserable.” “So, you really think your god.” I said. “No!” she responded, “I know I am god and from now on what ever I say goes, and you go. Now get out of here.”

      I couldn't let her get away with being so bossy so I told her “No, and you can't make me.” “Yes I can.” She snapped back. “How?” I asked “Well, well,” she stammered, “For starters I'll, I'll erase all your puppet stories from your computer. And then I'll get my dog Ralph to chase you away.” “You don't have a dog named Ralph.” I reminded her but that didn't stop her. “Then I’ll get one. A big, ugly, ferocious one.” she said.

      “Why don’t you make one?” I asked her “After all,” I said, “If you are god than you should be able to make one right here and now out of nothing.” “Yeah right.” she snorted when I said that. “I tell you what, Stella.” I said as I stared into her eyes, “You just go home and forget about trying to be God.” “And what if I don’t?” she asked. “If you don't,” I told her, “I'll send my son Aaron after you.”

      “Do you mean that Aaron, that over six foot tall Arron standing behind you?” she asked. And then she looked at me and said “I'll let you win this time but I'll be back.” and then she left with a sinister laugh, and I woke up.

      Romans 1:20 states For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (NASB) There are those who claim there is no God, or if there is a God we can't know Him and yet He does exist and we can know He exists and who He is but, even then we may choose not to believe as many have. Some may say that if they only had more evidence they would believe but would they?

      The Israelites had just received a miraculous delivery from Egypt, the ten commandments in person and yet.... When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, "Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." So Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!' "

Exodus 32:1-8 (ESV)

      They witnessed God and His power first hand and still they chose to gather their gold and make a calf and worship it, claiming it to be God.

      Genesis 1:1 starts “In the beginning God.” It doesn't try to prove His existence, it just says He is. The Bible goes on to tells us about God and who He is … It tells us in:

• Isaiah 43:10-12 "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and I am God. (ESV)
• John 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (ESV)
• 1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. (ESV)
• Psalm 119:68 You are good, and You do what is good; teach me Your statutes. (HCSB)
• 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (ESV)
• Joshua 24:19 Then Joshua said to the people, "You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. (NASB)
• Hebrews 12:29 for our God is a consuming fire. (ESV)

     The list goes on and one day we will see Him if we want to believe it or not. In the mean time...

      Here's Something To Ponder

• What are the real reasons for choosing not to believe in God?
• In what ways have you ever tried to lift yourself up as God?

STARTING IN THE MIDDLE

      Not every day is a sunny day in Pupperville. Some days it rains and rains and rains. Thursday was one of those days and the Greys found themselves sitting in their easy chairs relaxing, well at least Helen was relaxing. Robert was having trouble relaxing and kept fidgeting around and wondering back and forth looking out the window at the rain.

      “Why can't you just sit still?” Helen finally said, “You're starting to drive me crazy.” “I can't!” Robert said, “I'm bored.” “Well,” Helen said, “What happened to that good book you told me you were reading? You could sit and read that book.” “Uhm,” Robert said, “ I think I spoke to soon about that book being a good book.”

      “What do you mean?” Helen asked. “Well,” Robert went on to explain, “I thought the book was going to be a good one, but I guess titles can be misleading. As it turned out I couldn’t understand anything that was happening in the book so I sort of threw it on the burn pile.”

      “What was the book about?” Helen asked, “Didn't you say it was an old western?” “I thought it was an old western.” Robert replied, “It was called “Trouble on Cactus Hill”, another adventure with the smokin’ gun slinger.” “That sure sound like a western to me.” Helen said in agreement, “So why didn't you understand it?”

      “ When I started reading it,” Robert answered, “I thought there would be some old fashion gun battles between the good guys and bad guys but the chapter I was reading was on building some kind of radio to call for help or something like that.” What chapter was that?” Helen asked. “Oh, I don't know.” Robert said, “It was somewhere toward the middle of the book.”

      “Do you mean to tell me you didn't start at the beginning?” Helen said almost scolding as she said it. “Beginnings are sooooooo boring.” Robert protested, “I always start in the middle.” “So, that's your problem.” Helen said. “You mean the books problem.” Robert said back, “They never make the middle of the books so you can understand them.”

      “Robert!” Helen said in a stern voice, “If you want a book to make sense you need to start at the beginning. If you don’t you’ll miss out on a valuable part of the story.” “I suppose I could try that.” Robert said with a sigh, “ Last week I was reading a book that made no sense and when I looked at the start of the book I found out I was reading the phone book.” “The Phone book!” Helen said in surprise but before she could say more Robert interrupted her. “Don't ask!” He said I suppose I should go dig those books out of the burn pile and try reading that western again. This time I'll start at the beginning.”

      Outside of God, everything has a beginning but if we don't know the beginning we can get things messed up like those who should have know the beginning...

      Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?" And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'? "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." They said* to Him, "Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?" He said* to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.

Matthew 19:3-8 (NASB)

      The Pharisees, the ones who should have known what the Bible said, test Jesus on divorce. When Jesus answers he goes to the source they should have know and he takes them back to the beginning, back to Genesis, what we know as the first book of the Bible.

      In Hebrews 5:12 we read You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. (NLT) We need to know the basics, we need to know the beginnings and what better place to begin than in Genesis for there are many things we find beginning in Genesis such as: creation, sin, clothes, marriage, prophesy, judgment, redemption, life and death, people groups, various languages....

      Genesis is often used in the New Testament. Let's look at some of these uses...

• John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (ESV)
• 2 Corinthians 11:3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (ESV)
• Jude 1:11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. (ESV)
• 1 Peter 3:20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. (ESV)
• Matthew 24:37-39 As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (ESV)
• Luke 17:28-32 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. (ESV)

      And there are many more. From this we can see that the beginning book of the Bible is important and it helps us to explain many things and warn us as well. Over the months to come, Pupperville Ponderings will be focused on the book of beginning to see what we can see, to find things on which to ponder. In the mean time...

      Here's Something To Ponder

• What are somethings that have failed to make sense to you because you missed the beginning?
• Are you able to see how understanding the beginning can affect how we see the ending?