2-15-13<\/p>\n
Can God make a rock so big that even He cannot lift it? That age-old wise-guy challenge from skeptics is supposed to stop believers in our spiritual tracks. But it is a syllogism, more correctly a syllogistic fallacy. It does not confront the Creator of the Universe in an existential contradiction, but rather exposes puny human minds, especially the smug skeptics (and more than a few of us believers, too) unable fully to comprehend the vast, all-encompassing, limitless powers of God.<\/p>\n
It is, besides, a fallacy built on the inherent strictures of language and linguistics. And a philosophical \u201cgotcha\u201d whose purpose is not seeking truth but annoying the faithful. Christians, if they engage in certain debates, should rely more on the \u201cGod is God\u201d response: if we could explain EVERYTHING (especially to hostile people), well, God would not be God, because we would be obviating the necessity of His being. No, I am grateful for mysteries.<\/p>\n
Skeptics are not at all concerned with God, anyway; nor rocks; nor our souls, except to introduce viral doubts. The character Matthew Harrison Brady in the play \u201cInherit the Wind\u201d delivered a great line that is constructive: \u201cFor my part, I am more concerned with the Rock of Ages than the age of rocks.\u201d Or their size or weight. <\/p>\n
Oh, rocks count. So do mountains. I heard someone say this week that if mountains were nice and smooth, they would be impossible to climb over. It\u2019s hard enough! \u2013 but those crags and rough peaks and jagged crevices, when all is said and done, make it easier to climb over than a vertical, smooth monolith. Yes, we are talking metaphors here.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s metaphors and similes, Jesus\u2019 parables and analogies, fill the Bible, for the benefit of our emotional comfort as well as our spiritual understanding. Many of them are related to rocks and mountains. And many of them address the old conundrum I quoted above \u2013 the powers of God, and our thoughts about His imputed limitations.<\/p>\n
I was frustrated recently by the inability to sublimate certain troubling thoughts in my consciousness. Did you ever have trouble falling asleep because you can\u2019t get something off your mind? I realized: I can do funny things with my eyebrows and tongue, even make my nostrils flare, and make children laugh. I can cross my eyes and, somehow, make the pinkie of my foot shift atop the toe next to it, without using my hands. These all involve muscles. The brain is a muscle. Why can\u2019t I make IT stop doing something when I want?<\/p>\n
We remember things, even when we don\u2019t want to; and sometimes we are annoyed that we forget things, also when we don\u2019t want to. In these things we are reflections of God \u2013 imperfect reflections, that is. Which confirms our humble status before the awesome magnificence of God. You see, I am remembering the metaphors.<\/p>\n
We must climb mountains. But God talks to us of His faithful people moving mountains. We surely are impeded by \u201crocks\u201d in our path. But we all know of one stone that was miraculously rolled away in the Bible. We talk about \u201cfiery trials.\u201d But we are assured that God has been there for His children to endure the fiery furnace, and be delivered. He created mountains, rocks, and fire. I am quite happy to know that God saves us from such physical and metaphorical challenges; I don\u2019t have to know HOW, except by the lights of my limited understanding, my faith, and the Holy Spirit\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n
Speaking of our limited understanding, here is syllogism that skeptics seldom point to\u2026 because it reveals a loving God, not a confused self-contradiction. Can an all-knowing God be aware of your sins, and yet forget them?<\/p>\n
How can that be? It can\u2019t\u2026 unless you are God. As rocks thrown into the sea of forgetfulness, He promises to forgive \u2013 and forget \u2013 our sins when we repent. A God who knows all, can \u201cforget\u201d something? Yes. Is there much better news laying around? <\/p>\n
It is useful for us to remember: Sometimes when we pray, and pray, and pray again, about some matter of guilt or sin, we can be reminding God about something He forget and promised not to hold to your account.<\/p>\n
Finally, countless sermons and prayers and hymns have dealt with the other spectrum of a worry we have about God in our imperfect minds: not that He will forget sins, but the chance He might forget US! \u201cPass Me Not, O Gentle Savior\u201d; the Bible account of Blind Man Bartimaeus, worried that the Lord will not notice him; the doctrine of public confession, so when the roll is called up yonder\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n
As believers we know that God cannot forget us. It is a mystery that He can cancel His memory for the sake of His children\u2019s salvation; and it is joy unspeakable that His memory reaches down to the humblest among us. And remembers. Not only on Judgment Day, but every day, every moment in fact, he remembers our needs, and cares for us. <\/p>\n
Remember the rock in that skeptic\u2019s riddle? How thankful we should be that there is NO rock that represents our burdens that He cannot lift and roll it away.<\/p>\n
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A great song about God\u2019s forgetting, and remembering, is \u201cHe Will Remember Me.\u201d A standard gospel song of Black and White churches alike, it was associated with Albertina Walker, the Sensational Nightingales, and the Staples Singers, as well as the Statesmen and the Blackwood Brothers. It was written by E J Bartlett, mentor of Albert E Brumley. Bartlett also wrote \u201cEverybody Will Be Happy Over There,\u201d \u201cJust a Little While,\u201d and the greatest camp-meeting song, \u201cVictory in Jesus.\u201d This link to a video is priceless session of \u201cGospel Legends\u201d letting loose over the profound message of the lyrics, \u201cO yes, He heard my feeble cries, from bondage set me free; And when I reach the pearly gates He will remember me.\u201d Featured are the great Rev Donald Vails, Jessy Dixon, and the Barrett Sisters\u2026 and a hundred other joyful souls.<\/p>\n