August 12, 2017 Devotions
Your G-d is Too Small – Managing Director 

“Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.” Exodus 3:7-9

The CEO’s and managing directors of large corporations often are seen as people who only care about their own wealth, egos and status. They have achieved their success on the backs of many, many small and insignificant people – but they are too important to care about them. So, thinking in terms of these large, mega-corporations, when we think of the G-d who created such a vast universe, it is easy for us to understand how some people would conceive of G-d as such a managing director. G-d is the grand CEO and we are just the insignificant “workers” who are to do G-d’s bidding. It is an easy jump to descend to the conception that our G-d who created both the heavens and the earth down to the most minute quark would have no interest in a single human life. Of course, this may be of enormous comfort for some thinking this lets them off the hook for personal responsibility – after all, there are enough others who are doing much worse things and most likely they will be the ones this distracted G-d might pay some attention. Now, this may be possible if you work for Amazon, or Apple, but we cannot simply assign these limited and inadequate human understanding and limitations to our “Big” G-d. For if you do, then your G-d is much Too Small.

G-d is not just a divine CEO who cannot spare even the smallest fraction of time to attend to the last, lost, least and little of all societies. Instead our G-d is an awesome G-d who has limitless capacities for holding all things, all creatures great and small in G-d’s care and concern. Think again of the people laboring in Egypt for four hundred years – they must have considered that G-d had just forgotten about them – that G-d had many more concerns than to hear their pleas and their cries for mercy. But G-d tells Moses “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry…” We may not be able to hold more than two concepts or ideas in our minds at one time – but the mind of G-d is nothing we can possibly find a comparison. Yes the mighty computers we create today may give us a concept to compare, but they are, truly a weak comparison at best for the immensity of G-d’s capacity for thought. But what has been revealed to us of the capacity for G-d’s love and mercy and Grace seen through Jesus Christ is but a limited view of G-d’s awesomeness.

Pastor Dave

August 11, 2017 Devotions
Your G-d is Too Small – G-d in a Box 

“After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17:1-6, 17-21

People who do not go to church, the unchurched and the de-churched must see the different denominations around them and view this reality with some level of cynicism. They can drive by a Methodist or Presbyterian or Lutheran church and think “I guess they all think G-d is only in their church and not in the others. After all, if G-d is all knowing, all present, shouldn’t there be one church?” And we can understand their point. If there are all of these different churches, then they must think they have the “one true G-d” in their box, and the others just have a false one. The unchurched and the de-churched, even the “half-churched” often think they can worship and praise G-d just as easily in their home or on the golf course as they can in church. And yes, we do believe that G-d is in all things and everywhere.

But Jesus established the church – and prayed for the same church and the unity of the followers throughout all time and space. All we have done is divide the church of Jesus into many, many boxes, beginning with the early church and continuing through to today. And the non-believers see us as portraying G-d as either schizophrenic or so divided there cannot possibly be just one. No wonder they think G-d is small. But, G-d is not small – G-d is “huge”. We have such a big G-d who allows humanity to express our prayer, praise and thanksgivings in the small expressions we call denominations and churches. In fact, in 21st century America, the worshipers of G-d meet in homes, in country churches, in urban churches, in mega-churches, and now even churches that only exist on the internet. That may seem small to some – but to me, it helps me to appreciate how transcendent our G-d really is.

Pastor Dave