Month: December 2019

All Power

by leekierdorf

All power has been given to me, in heaven and in earth…

Jesus speaks these words before he leaves. He has done all he came to do. Why does he say this? He has done what no man has ever done. He has lived his whole life pleasing his Father, God. He was never far from men. He was waiting in the wings for his coming in the flesh. Now all power is given to a man: The Son of Man.

And what does he do at this moment? He gives his work to men. He sends them into the world to do his work: teach men, baptize those who believe and preach the kingdom of God. This is what he does with his power. He does not use it to revenge himself on his enemies. He does not ask for monuments to be built in his honor. He gives power to men to make disciples.

This is the work of God: to arrest minds in their thought, to convert, yes, to change men with words, his words. Tell them what I told you. I will be with you. How? By the Spirit, I will be with each one of you. And now we have the Spirit of God, the promise of the Father. To them he gave power to become the sons of God even to them who believe on his name.

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Measure

by leekierdorf

​He measures us and makes his divinity fit our souls, and our souls are able to take the measure of him because he created us in his image and made us worthy. He alone is complete and can fulfill our every longing. God’s grace restores our souls and teaches us how to comprehend him through love. He is incomprehensible to the intellect. Nobody’s mind is powerful enough to grasp who God is. We can only know him by experiencing his love. 

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Enoch – God Finds a Friend

by leekierdorf

Adam was the first man. Enoch came a few generations later. Enoch has a very short biography. He seems rather ordinary until he has a son. We can put his whole story right here:

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 

After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 

Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

This is a short biography. And each line is important.

 His son is Methuselah. Maybe you heard of him. “As old as Methuselah.” But when Methuselah is born, things change for Enoch. This event was when Enoch became God’s first friend. Enoch walked with God. He continued to do this for 300 years. It becomes the characteristic of his life. 

Enoch is the first man who had a good, continuous relationship with God. After 300 years, Enoch disappears. He’s gone. He didn’t die. God took him. God liked this guy.

Why are we given no details? This is a personal relationship between God and Enoch. And God is interested in the individual. There are no groups with God. He is well able to focus on each person. 

Enoch has no good example to follow. He cannot say, “I will be like …” Enoch is not given a great decision like Adam. He is not given a great task like Noah, his grandson. He lives an ordinary life but does so in an extraordinary way. He walks with God. No one instructs him. No one shows him how to do this. He blazes a new path in the world very quietly. His story is often overlooked because it contains no dramatic events until the end.

No one has made a movie about Enoch. He does not leave a method behind. His example tells us that we must find our own relationship with God. What is remarkable is that Enoch walks with God for 300 years. And what began with an ordinary event, the birth of a son, ends with this dramatic event: he disappears. He has no grave. No one witnesses his final moment on earth. No one sees him go. But God takes him none the less.

Enoch is not an old man by contemporary standards. God decides to end his earthly time early. He wants his friend closer to him. In this, God shows his approval of Enoch’s life. Enoch walked with God and ‘he was not’ for God took him.

    Enoch is an example of faith. It says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” 

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