Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: REDUCE (11/05/15)
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TITLE: Eternity reduced to one on ONE | Previous Challenge Entry
By Douglas Eckert
11/10/15 -
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"Jesus died JUST for you...even if you were the only person on earth, He still would have died for you!" These kinds of statements used to give my small mortal mind intellectual fits. Not because I didn't believe them to be true, but because my mind could not wrap itself around such a great intimacy...an intimacy between such an all powerful awesome Creator, and a small ,simple ,powerless single man like... well....me (Oh sure, maybe if I WERE the only man on earth, but I'm not...so let's multiply that seemingly ridiculous thought of "one on one intimacy" by about 10 billion!.)
After all, how can the Lord have THAT kind of intimacy with THAT many souls all at the SAME TIME?
It is this idea of "at the same time, or in the same moment" that IS the rub against our mere human intellect.
When I finally became aware of the fact that God is NOT "in time" as man percieves time to be .... as one moment preceeding into another moment,into another ... on and on; But that God IS, in fact "outside of time", then this intimacy potential becomes MUCH more real!
Time IS a "man percieved thing". This idea can be confirmed in the Bible probably by the verse :
2 Peter 3:8 NASB
But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
To illustrate this idea, I'll quote C.S Lewis, from his brilliant and highly recommended book "Mere Christianity ". In this book he explains how GOD has "all of eternity to deal with a split second prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames" or, "If a million people are praying to Him at ten thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in this one little snippet we call ten thirty. Ten thirty,and every other little moment from the beginning of the world is always the present for Him."
Lewis then sums up this ability for intimacy with God saying it so well:
"He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us.He does not have to deal with us in the mass.
You are as much alone with HIM as if you are the only being he had ever created.When Christ died, He died for YOU individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world."
Wow!! There it is!
Now, I can start to see how every little detail of my walk with the Lord is important to Him!
This is why the Lord delights when we frustratingly yell at Him that we don't understand Him and His ways in the morning, and this is why He delights when we whisper softly to him before we go to sleep how much we love Him, and this is why every moment in between is SO infinitely precious to Him.
Praise to YOU, Oh awesome Lord!
Lewis also uses a brilliant analogy to show how " God is outside of time" with the idea of how the writer of a story (a creator) can pause at any point while writing his story , for ANY length of time without effecting his creation because the writer (creator) is outside of the timeline or "perceived reality" of his written (created) characters and the story. He also emphasizes that the writer can also give all kinds of contemplation to the character without any regards to the timeline in the story.(Analogous somewhat to an actual relationship with an actual Creator perhaps?)
Lewis prefaced this analogy by saying : "let me give something not the same but a bit like it", and "this is not a perfect illustration of course, but It may give just a glimpse of what I believe is true."
Although Lewis was right to qualify his analogy in such a way, I'm beginning to think maybe his analogy was even more right on than he probably even reallized.
(In interest of keeping THIS article short, I will have to explore some of my subsequent ,I think compelling ideas of "us, as freewilled creators, in HIS image" where , I think modern discoveries in physics /astrophysics can be integrated interestingly with old school "freewill" theology, in future writings).
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