August 26, 2002
CYBERCOLUMN:
Who is God?
___By Berry D. Simpson
___According to I John 4, God is the author and source of the true spirits in the world. It is interesting that John used the word "spirit" instead of "speaker." He doesn't say we should test every preacher to see if he speaks from God, or every sermon or every speech. John says we should test every spirit. We are to listen beyond what someone says and listen to his or her heart.
___Oftentimes, the words people use sound as if they come from God, but the spirit of their message says something quite different. We must be sufficiently in tune with God's Spirit (because we have studied his words and have developed a growing relationship with him and have his Holy Spirit living inside us) to listen beyond the words and hear the spirit of the message.
Berry D. Simpson
___John even told us how to spot the spirits who are from God: They are the ones who confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Any spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
___This requirement to confess Jesus demands exclusivity. Jesus himself said that he was the only way to God, so confessing Jesus demands embracing the exclusivity of Jesus. For example, if someone claims Jesus is one among many who are from God, or that Jesus is God in the same way we all can become God, their confession fails to meet John's criteria.
___To confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is to recognize and accept his unique positions in the spiritual world, his position with God and as God. It requires acceptance that his death was not that of just another religious martyr, but the sacrificial death of the only Son of God, a death that set us free indeed from the pain of sin and of guilt.
___I have a friend who recently read a book that characterized the Father as our responsible adult natures, the Son as our playful childlike natures,and the Holy Spirit as our spiritual natures. (I may not have that exactly correct, but it's close.) It was a clever use of pop spirituality to explain the mystery of the Trinity, but a complete denial of Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh. According to I John 4, this doctrine is not from God, but it is the spirit of the antichrist.
___As believers, we don't have to fear such spirits. God is the overcomer, and because we are from God, we have overcome the spirits of the antichrist. God, who abides within us, is greater than all who are in the world.
___John wrote that anyone who knows God will listen to the word, and anyone not from God will not listen to the word. Again, I believe that demands exclusivity. If we say we listen to the Bible in the same way that we listen to other spiritual books, we are missing God's criteria. If we pick and choose the words we want to believe and discard the rest, we are missing God's criteria. To do either indicates a spirit of error rather than a sprit of truth.
___Love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. In fact, God is love, and to be without love means to be without God. If God loved us sacrificially, we also ought to love one another in the same way.
___Unfortunately, God is invisible and sometimes hard to find. He is always present in his word and always present in his love, but sometimes hard to find when we seek him for guidance. I don't know why that is except that for God to be constantly present would mean constantly dominant, and part of God's love for us is to leave us freedom to make choices. For us to have freedom of choice means God backs away and gives us room.
___ Maybe I wish God was more direct, more specific, more obvious, but maybe I don't know what I am talking about. Sometimes, like Chris Rice sings, I catch a glimpse of Aslan's mane, I get a glimpse of God in his love and glory and I am overwhelmed. Those glimpses don't make me angry at their infrequency, but blessed to get a turn.
___The flip side of God's hiddenness is his constant presence. Even though God is sometimes hard to find, it's also true that, as Rich Mullins sang, everywhere we go we see him. How is that? How can God be hard to find yet present everywhere we go? Because even though no one has ever seen God, God abides in us if we love another. His love is perfected in us, and everywhere we go, he is. He opens our eyes to see him always, everywhere.
___Berry Simpson, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland.
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