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Gary :
You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the Doctrine of Salvation, please stay tuned.
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to question from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here is this week’s question: Dear Dave and Tom: What amazes you guys the most about God?
Tom:
And Dave, I think about this a lot, God is amazing. But I think in one sense the most amazing thing to me is why God puts up with any of us, why he puts up with me. And I think about my own life and just how I fall short of the mark and so on, and why does God care about me, why has he done so much? And what He has done is incredible! Can you help me with that? Why does God put up with us, Dave?
Dave:
Well, that may be a bit easier than some other things I could think of. It’s his grace, it’s his love, God is love. So love, there is all things. From our standpoint, why would He love us, of course. But the reason is, because this is his character. But more ponderous, I guess, is God, how did you get to be God? I ask him that all the time, not facetiously but He knows that I know that He is God, He must be God, He must have always been God, and you don’t get to be God. This is what Mormons think, you know, they are going to get to be a god.
Tom:
And He just forgot that they were god—-
Dave:
But I have said it many times, God, Lord, you expect a lot of me. Here I am, a peanut brain— and you expect me to believe that you have always existed, always, no beginning, and no end! You know everything, you know where every subatomic particle on every atom, everyone whoever will be. You know what every person who has ever lived or ever will live, every thought of theirs, for everything they are going to think in the future, you always knew it. That is beyond my comprehension! On the other hand, Tom, I know it must be—I know that there couldn’t have been a time when God did not exist and somehow He got to be God, or He came out of nothing. I know that He wouldn’t dare, I mean, if He is the Creator of the universe He has got to know where every subatomic particle ever was or ever will be. And you remember in Acts 15, where they have this discussion, this big discussion about well, what about the Gentiles? Are they supposed to be under the law, and so forth? One of the things that James says is Acts:15:18Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world., “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” Now you think about that. If God knows everything that He’s going to ever do, He must know everything that other people are going to do, because much that He does is in correction, reproof or stop the destruction, or whatever, to whatever extent He wants to, He has to intervene in the affairs of men. Now, He doesn’t do that often, as far as we recognize. But to be the Creator of the universe, you mean start this thing rolling! Didn’t He know Adam and Eve would sin? Of course he did, he already had Christ as the Lamb slain as it were from the foundation of the world. That is what amazes me about God!
Tom:
Dave, in the earlier segments we went over so many things that are going on, this Ancient Future thing, going back to a time period, whether it be the 1 st century or the Middle Ages or the Reformation, or whatever it might be, studying the church to see how we’re to go about it—we’re talking about things that amaze us about the character of God. What about getting to know him and understanding him better? Why not put our energies that way? I do a lot of counseling, even though that’s not what I’m really supposed to be doing, but everybody should be a counselor, everybody should minister to, you know, brothers and sisters in the Lord, and so on. But over the years as I’ve been doing that, more often than not I have to spend most of my time correcting errors that people have about the character of God. They think God is this way or that way, I say, wait a minute, let’s go to the Scriptures. If we truly put our time and energy in on getting to know Him, understanding Him better and how we’re going to do it, the Word, the Word, the Word.
Dave:
And seeing how He guides in our lives, what He does, His mercy and His grace, and Tom, we shouldn’t let a day, we shouldn’t let many minutes go by without telling the Lord, I love you with all my heart.
Tom:
Well Dave, now wait a minute, I have to stop you right there. When did you start loving God, and did you immediately love Him with all your heart, or was it as you got to know Him?
Dave:
Well, I can’t remember because I became a—well, look, I was raised on the Bible, and that didn’t make me a Christian, but I knew the Bible, I knew the gospel, I wanted to be a Christian. And I think I mentioned it before, the thing that bugged me was, well, he says, Whosoever believeth shall have everlasting life, and supposing—I do believe, but suppose there’s a secret doubt somewhere deep inside of me. That really bothered me, and the man who led me to the Lord took me to Revelation:3:20Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me., which I knew very well already: Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and when he hears my voice and opens the door I’ll come in. He said, Well, just leave it up to Jesus, you’re trying to tap faith in your faith, just invite him in, which I did and He came in and transformed me. Now, how much did I love Him then? I had very little understanding, but exactly as you said, Tom, as we grow in our understanding of God through His Word, and we see Him work in our lives, and we think of the times He should have just wiped us out, you know, because we have failed so badly, and yet He still loves us. Well, we love Him because He first loved us.
