The power of God is accessible to everyone. It is able to save, heal and transform ordinary lives.
Peter spoke of the divine power of God, in 2 Peter 1: 3. He said that it has given us all that we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.
All power has utility value else it is of no relevance. The heat of a fire is useful and harnessed to heat food, water or cold bodies. The glow of the sun is useful for photosynthesis and maintenance of a viable biosphere. Electrical energy is not totally efficient, because what is not used cannot be stored, but what is used has changed our world. Whilst sophisticated first world societies are very well developed, crisis would even the scales and potentially kick lesser cultures back to prominence, because their systems are less vulnerable, more able to bounce back from disaster. Such is our dependence on electrical energy in every aspect of modern life.
God’s power also has utility value. There is raw power, just as the heart of a power station consists of the raw, unbridled power of the furnace. God possesses awesome power and if the universe expanded from an infinitely massive singularity of infinite density, I can imagine Him picking that grain up to blow it out of His hand. The idea that God spans the heavens with His right hand (Isaiah 40) comes to mind here, for at some stage a very small universe was blown out of His hand to become the vast expanse that now stretches across the heavens.
The power of God cast stars into space and introduced the four fundamental forces of nature within one second of the big bang. But, God has harnessed and distilled His awesome power to us to enable life and godliness. Sometime His power is so subtle, so deft that we often miss the point and thereby miss God. He is able to rule the heavens and overthrow His enemies, yet is equally capable of such finesse. His creativity crafted delicate beauty in flowers, insects, microcosmic matter and the wonder of sunsets, soaring mountain vistas, pounding oceans and exploding galaxies.
But He has also made it accessible to everyday human reality. His love and power relates to our daily struggles and persists with us even when we reject Him. It transforms wretched lives and lifts others from the gutters, to carry us on the wind of His Spirit until we reach the distant shore. Out of such transactions will emerge everyday heroes, people who will overcome all kinds of odds to reach glory and be crowned with His everlasting blessing.
Glory describes the ecstasy of the winning runner in a marathon or the afterglow of a mother who has just given birth: that is partly what is meant by divine glory. But it is also a share in His glory, the ecstasy He feels in His finished work and the realization of His power to save us from the uttermost to the uttermost. It suggests an embrace of lover and beloved or the arm-in-arm celebration of fellow combatants in the glory of victory.
Everyone who truly walks with God will emerge with a living testimony of His faithfulness.
All power has utility value else it is of no relevance. The heat of a fire is useful and harnessed to heat food, water or cold bodies. The glow of the sun is useful for photosynthesis and maintenance of a viable biosphere. Electrical energy is not totally efficient, because what is not used cannot be stored, but what is used has changed our world. Whilst sophisticated first world societies are very well developed, crisis would even the scales and potentially kick lesser cultures back to prominence, because their systems are less vulnerable, more able to bounce back from disaster. Such is our dependence on electrical energy in every aspect of modern life.
God’s power also has utility value. There is raw power, just as the heart of a power station consists of the raw, unbridled power of the furnace. God possesses awesome power and if the universe expanded from an infinitely massive singularity of infinite density, I can imagine Him picking that grain up to blow it out of His hand. The idea that God spans the heavens with His right hand (Isaiah 40) comes to mind here, for at some stage a very small universe was blown out of His hand to become the vast expanse that now stretches across the heavens.
The power of God cast stars into space and introduced the four fundamental forces of nature within one second of the big bang. But, God has harnessed and distilled His awesome power to us to enable life and godliness. Sometime His power is so subtle, so deft that we often miss the point and thereby miss God. He is able to rule the heavens and overthrow His enemies, yet is equally capable of such finesse. His creativity crafted delicate beauty in flowers, insects, microcosmic matter and the wonder of sunsets, soaring mountain vistas, pounding oceans and exploding galaxies.
But He has also made it accessible to everyday human reality. His love and power relates to our daily struggles and persists with us even when we reject Him. It transforms wretched lives and lifts others from the gutters, to carry us on the wind of His Spirit until we reach the distant shore. Out of such transactions will emerge everyday heroes, people who will overcome all kinds of odds to reach glory and be crowned with His everlasting blessing.
Glory describes the ecstasy of the winning runner in a marathon or the afterglow of a mother who has just given birth: that is partly what is meant by divine glory. But it is also a share in His glory, the ecstasy He feels in His finished work and the realization of His power to save us from the uttermost to the uttermost. It suggests an embrace of lover and beloved or the arm-in-arm celebration of fellow combatants in the glory of victory.
Everyone who truly walks with God will emerge with a living testimony of His faithfulness.
(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com
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