Hello ,
Christmas is the season of choice. If you want to buy a food processor, Amazon offers you 2,000 types. Or how about a drill—there are more than 40,000 options. No, I'm not making those numbers up.
Choices can be glorious, and confusing, and empowering, and overwhelming, all at the same time. And in the West today, it looks as though it is the same with God. There is a huge array of deities to choose from, including the "no to all" option.
Walk through an airport or shopping mall anywhere and you will be walking past countless people who believe in no God, plenty of people who (believe) that there are many gods, and another great multitude who believe in one God but who have very different thoughts on what that one God is like and what he (or she, or it) thinks.
For some, God is kind of a distant grandfather guy, looking down benevolently and wanting us to be happy. To others, God is a harsh taskmaster, counting up your good and bad actions and weighing up whether he's going to have mercy on you in the end.
To others, God is an impersonal force that wound the universe up and is now off doing other stuff while we get on with it down here.
To others, God is the universe.
There are so many options to choose from—it's empowering and overwhelming at the same time.
How do you know?
How can you choose?
And what does it matter?
Isaiah's claim was that the baby who would be born so long ago would be "Mighty God." …. For all that Israel needed, for all that they lacked, for all that they could never be in themselves, they had God: The great I AM. The Mighty God … a purifying, ever present, shepherding, providing, healing, defending God.
How does this make a difference in your life, and (ultimately), how does it make a difference to those who spend time with you? It's something to spend a few moments pondering.
Have a great day and God bless!
Pastor Mike / The Open Word
