God

God Moves in a Mysterious Way
by William Cowper

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

Once or twice--well, no, not a god, actually, but a responsive spider. 1. sitting on the ground with her (then)lover, Ted, in some afternoon-filtered sunshine. Late late autumn in a part of the world where winter barely arrives --the sun is still strong on on skin and clothes are still light weight. Ted is leaving soon and they are uncertain of when they will see each other again. Ted sees a tiny spider walking on the leg of his jeans. He says to the spider, »Tie me to Belle--c'mon, I'll give you a quarter.«
Immediately, like a close up slo-motion sequence from a PBS science special: the spider launches a gossamer web thread into the air, with a kind of shower of crystal almost-sparks, the thread sails across the gap between the lovers and connects at Belle's knee. The spider walks across.

'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'

'But,' says Man, 'The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'

'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.

'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

God, the center and focus of religious faith, a holy being or ultimate reality to whom worship and prayer are addressed. Especially in monotheistic religions, God is considered the creator or source of everything that exists and is spoken of in terms of perfect attributes—for instance, infinitude, immutability, eternity, goodness, knowledge (omniscience), and power (omnipotence). Most religions traditionally ascribe to God certain human characteristics that can be understood either literally or metaphorically, such as will, love, anger, and forgiveness.

Please tell me why God allowed over 6000 innocent people to be murdered on September 11, 2001?

Answer?

I don’t know.

Where was God?

I don’t know.

When Leslie Weatherhead, a minister in London during the Second World War, was asked by a member in his congregation where God was when his son was killed in a bombing raid, Weatherhead replied, »I guess he was where he was when his son was killed.«

And where was that?

I don’t know.

Isn’t »I don’t know« too ambiguous? Isn’t »I don’t know« an unconvincing way to convince young people Christianity is true?

Actually, »I don’t know« confirms one critical truth about Christianity…it’s a mystery!

Jesus loves us, right?

Of course.

So if he loves us, he protects us, right?

If he loves us…he is with us.

Jesus can heal, can’t he? And perform miracles?

Of course. Just not very often.

Why?

I don’t know.

What about God’s will?

My youth director says we’re supposed to seek God’s will. There are lots of verses in the Bible that tell us to do God’s will, aren’t there? God does have a will, right?

Absolutely.

Trouble is God’s will is not like a to-do list. It’s more like an undecipherable code. The Bible definitely gives us some clues about the code of God’s will, which means we can figure out part of it; but, because it’s God, we will never crack the code.

Clues?

Yeah, like, follow me, serve me, love me, live by my commandments, point people to me.

That’s it? Just follow me, serve me, love me and trust me?

That’s about it.

What do you mean »that’s about it?«

You don’t want to know.

Yes I do.

We get a cross.

Cross????? What does that mean?

I don’t know.

But God does heal people, doesn’t he?

Certainly.

And miracles do happen, don’t they.

Right.

So we can count on God helping us, can’t we?

We can count on God being God.

Which means…??

I don’t know.

And what does that mean?

It means we can trust God if we lost someone in the WTC or if they survived.

It means we can trust God when we have cancer and when we’re healed.

We can trust God if we survive a natural disaster or if we don’t.

We can trust God when we get a glimpse of Divine will and when we don’t.

We can trust God in the answers and the questions, in the good and the bad, in the light and the dark, when we’re winning and when we’re losing.

We can trust God even when the Truth doesn’t answer all our questions or leaves us with even more questions.

And, most importantly, just beyond our »I don’t know’s,« Jesus is waiting with open arms to snuggle us in the mystery of his love.

An agnostic dyslexic insomniac is someone who stays awake all night wondering if there really is a dog.

What was this thing, the »Trinity?« Does this mean you believe in three Gods?


No. The Bible tells us in many places that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 Corinthians 8:6). But it also tells us that three Persons are this same God‑the Father (John 17:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 Peter 1:2), the Son Jesus Christ ( John 1:20:28; Philippians 2:6,7, compared with John 5:18, Titus 2: 13; 2 Peter 1:1), and the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3,4, Hebrews 9:14).


But that sounds crazy! How can three Persons be one God?

I'll admit it sounds unusual. We aren't used to seeing any humans who are more than one person, but that doesn't make it impossible. The key is for us to remember that being and personhood are different kinds of things.

What do you mean?

Look around you. You see lots of different beings‑a rock here, a tree there, a building over there, a cow out in the field. All of these are beings, but they aren't persons at all‑they don't have the three attributes of personhood, intellect, emotions, and moral free will. On the other hand, you see some beings that are persons‑every man, woman, and child you see is both a being and a person.

So we know that some beings are not persons at all. and some are one person. But there's nothing that tells us no being could be more than one person.


So long as you remember the difference between being and person, while it may be strange to think of a single being being three persons, it isn't illogical and should not be impossible to believe.


This is why Jesus instructed His followers about initiating people into Christianity and told them to baptize »in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit« (Matthew 28:19).

Maybe it's not illogical, but it's pretty hard to understand.

Shouldn't we expect many things about God to be hard to understand? After all, God has more power and more intelligence than all the universe, and we are only beginning to understand our tiny corner of the universe.

God sends Death

On your back look on to me
You'll see genocide
Face from death more than insane
Profane pleading cries
Watch you die inside watch you die

God send death end misery
Preach no love of ministry
Pray for sin a shattered faith
Down on your knees
Your screaming out to die

Death is over due
Nothing can save you
A morbid symphony
Hearing you lie there screaming
Taking life from you
Is all I wanna do
Desire so deranged
This is what lives inside me

Putrid blood flows through my veins
To thrive on demise
Voyeurs' lust watching the pain
Touching you inside
Bleed you fucking dry
Bleed on me

Death's design blood splattered wall
Face melting one vicious whore
Twisted figures flesh from bone
Down on your knees
Your screaming out
To die

Death is overdue
Nothing can save you
A morbid symphony
Hearing you lie there screaming
Taking life from you
Is all I wanna do
Desire so deranged
This is what lives inside me

Clawing at the eyes of god
You taste your death in hand
Your fingers bleed in vain
Your scream-in your grave
Clawing at the eyes of god
You pierce your throat and hands
You've gone insane with pain
Your blind screaming for your god
Pathetic god

Death's design blood splattered wall
Face melting one vicious whore
Twisted figures
Drown your mind in pain

It does no good to try to reason with someone whose first line of argument is that reason doesn't count.

Aged three, I was spotted with my mouth open as my revered five-year old cousin (just back from Scripture class in kindergarten) told me in lordly fashion »God is everywhere, you know, he is even in that wheelbarrow...«. No doubt the reason why one is nearer God's heart (and backside, sitting in that wheelbarrow) in a garden than anywhere else on earth.