There is an old book that has some stories in it about people who encounter God. No, it’s not the National Enquirer.

We read in this ancient text that the first man born on Earth was named Cain. He finds himself compared unfavorably to his younger brother, Abel.

Cain finds his younger brother, Abel, to be the favorite of their parents. But something takes place that makes Cain think God is also playing favorites. Cain is mad. The Lord actually warns him to reconsider. He asks Cain why he is so mad. God tells him that it doesn’t have to be this way. But Cain shrugs off this advice from God and decides his brother is the source of all his problems. He decides to get rid of him. He invents murder. Can you believe it? The first two men, brothers, and one decides to kill the other!

He does kill him. But what did he have to do first? He had to harden his heart. Cain has squeezed out any natural love he had for his brother or his parents. After the murder, he begins to think that someone might invent revenge! He takes his wife and begins to wander the earth. He keeps moving from place to place. Eventually, he establishes a home where he keeps his large family close around him, to protect and support him.

Our second story finds Moses leading his people through the desert, away from their lives of slavery under the Egyptians, toward another place where they can live as free people. But the people still think like slaves even though they are under the protection of God himself. They say God will let them die in the desert even though they have experienced his daily care for quite a while.

God tells Moses to speak to a big rock in the desert and water would come forth. Lots of water. Moses is mad at his people for always complaining. He slams his staff on the rock and yells, “Do we have to bring water from this rock?” Water flows and the thirsty people have plenty to drink.

I think God wanted this moment to be forever in their memories. Moses speaking to a rock, God causing water to flow. This ancient rock standing in the desert bursting forth with delicious water showing God using his power over nature to care for his chosen people.

But Moses goofed it up. What Moses said made out like he was standing next to God as an equal. He was no longer the humble servant of God. Oh, no. Moses forgot, in his frustration, that he didn’t have any power over nature. His staff gave him power over sheep. Did water come from the rock? Yes, it did. But God was not pleased with Moses’s conduct.

Moses had a close relationship with God. God had made Moses a man who would stand all through history. But Moses was a servant of God. God was carefully impressing on his chosen people who He was. Moses was not allowed to change the script. If we stand above God, he can’t shower down blessings on us. If we place ourselves next to God, he cannot recognize us as his equal, because we are not.

Let’s look at one more story. The man is called Job. At the beginning of this account, Job is rich; he is blessed by God; he has standing in his community. Job is well aware all his blessings come from God.

But Job loses everything all of a sudden. Soon his health is affected. His friends advise him that he must have done something wrong to get this punishment from God. Job says that he has searched his soul to find this very thing and cannot find anything that would explain his new condition.

Job wants to make his case before God. He says that God has the right to take away what he gave him, but Job would like to know why. He doesn’t like that everyone thinks he has wronged God when Job knows he has not .

The Lord appears to Job and gives him the chance to make his case.

God asks Job a series of questions. He asks where Job was when he created the earth. He inquires if Job knows how things work and who keeps it all working.

He probes Job’s understanding of nature with its power as well as its limitations. He asks if Job understands how nature and God work together.

He wants to know where Job stands to begin to make his case. He says that if Job can show his equality, he will be glad to be cross-examined by Job. But Job withdraws his case. He wisely understands that he has no place to stand to make God explain his actions. He chooses silence before the Lord.

We feel we have the right to judge the actions of God. Imagine yourself a judge in your courtroom. You sit in your robe. Your job is to judge God. Are you ready to do that?

People judge God all the time. “If God is so powerful, why does he allow injustice?” But God knows exactly what he is doing. He shows Job that Job does not have the knowledge it would take to make any judgement against God. Job agrees that he is in way over his head.

Is God against Job? No. He considers Job an great example. Did he ever want to do anything but bless Job? No. But the story shows us a bigger picture than Job sees.

God treated Job to an experience where Job learns how great his God is. He values Job and knows that Job refused to disavow God in his difficult circumstance. He also saw that Job did not accept the evaluation of men. Job had seen himself in a dark place. But God saw him as a shining light among men.

God told Cain that he could find his place before God. All he had to do was choose a different path than what he was thinking of doing. He told Moses to speak to a rock and it would give out many gallons of fresh water. But Moses stepped over the line. He acted like it was him that told rocks to give water, not God. God asked Job how he could demand answers from him. But all the time he was using Job as an example of a godly man who would stand for all time.

Maybe you think God wants you to kneel before him. Men want other men to kneel before them. The ancient ruler of China demanded this sort of thing. Sure, we start out kneeling But God wants you to get up off your knees and to stand before him. He wants each of us to stand in a place where he can bless us.

He wants us to grow up into the great purpose he has for each of us. The place he has given us is the same as Jesus. Can you believe it? He wants us to have this same loving relationship that he has with his son. He wants us to stand before him in right relationship so he can bless us now and forever. It is a place where we can stand securely in the love and mercy he wants to shower on us.

With Cain, Moses and Job, God treats them like adults. He expects them to look around and understand things about God. He expects them to act sensibly.

But when Jesus comes, he calls God “Father”. He does not say, God will judge all you evildoers! Get ready for the Judge to judge you sinners. No, he told us to call God: Our Father. He does not say ‘God is my Father, but he is your Judge!’.

He makes this very clear as he gets ready to leave earth, he says, “I am going to my Father. He is also your Father.”

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A man falls out of a ship at sea.

He will be soon be far behind the ship.

The ship is very big and would take a long time to turn around.

By the time the ship returned, the man would die in the icy waters.

Someone throws a ring with a rope attached.

It could be a lifesaver to him.

Then he calls out to the drowning man,

“Just grab anything. It is not important what it is. Just as long as you believe it will help you.”

Of course, he would not say that. He would more likely say, “Grab the ring!” The reason would be that the man could be pulled to safety with that ring. If the man grabbed a piece of wood floating by, it probably wouldn’t help him much. If the man waited for a friendly dolphin, he might freeze before it came.

The man has to grab the ring and hold on with all his strength. He would depend on the strength of the man who was pulling up the rope. And he only has a short time to make that decision.

Believe it or not, this is our condition. We have time to make a decision about what we will hold on to during our lifetime. But in the turmoil of the sea, it is hard to hear the voice that calls us to take hold of the only thing that will save us. We must make our decision like the man and hold on with all our strength. Our rescue depends on the strength of someone else to save us.

The ‘holding on’ is called ‘faith’. The rescuer is God Himself. He calls out to us to take hold of the only thing that can and will save us. But that Lifesaver is a person not a thing. And that person is much different from others. He is the same person that was in the beginning starting the human race. He has intervened many times and influenced many people all through history. But it is written that finally, he came here himself and told people how the rescue of each person could be worked out.

After being killed by his enemies, he returned to his friends. He told them to continue to tell people about him. The part that really made him different than others was that rising from the dead part.

Many would give us advice. Others would give us rules to live by. But one person offered a new relationship with God as our Father. Only one person showed all the attributes that we admire in someone. He was unselfish. He was kind. He was forgiving.

When he was asked this question.

“What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?”

He answered them, “This is the work of God,

that you believe on him whom he has sent.”

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In the East, the dragon is much different than in the West. But more than the differences in dragons, is the difference in where people stand. In the West, the knight faces the evil dragon, an enemy of mankind. But in the East, the dragon is a strong protector of the people. So people are behind the dragon who faces their enemies.

Where you stand is very important. Whether the dragon is good or evil is not our subject. But where we stand in relation to the powerful may be important. People who believe in God usually think he is powerful. They are always saying how he should do powerful stuff. Like he’s not doing his job correctly. They say things to help him do better at his job of being God. So, if God exists and is powerful, we should try to get on his good side.

But does God have a good side? Many people think he does not. Think of the sun. Does it have a good side? Does it have a bad side? Does it have any sides? God, like the sun, has no sides. One side is the same as the other. But, as with the sun, exposure may cause problems. It was said long ago that no one could see God and live.

If we got too close to the sun, we would die. Does that make the sun bad? I don’t think so. Do you?

Now, what if? What if a good God made a place for humans to be that was safe for them to live? Safe from being too close to God and too close to the sun.

Why would he do this? Since we are reasonable beings, we would think God reasonable, as well. What was his purpose?

Imagine a creative, reasonable God who creates people to live on this place near a forever blazing star, but not too near. He wants them to grow into something great. He loves freedom. He loves choice. If beings don’t have a choice, they are not free. He uses himself as the pattern for making these humans. Too much to believe? Maybe it is. But we are just imagining, right?

He makes himself available to them. But he is not overbearing. He hopes they will try and discover their benefactor.

He gives people a whole planet to live on with food to eat and air to breathe. They can live on this earth without much regard for him. But he has this idea about them. They have incredible potential. He interacts with some of them.

Three Men Connect with God

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Jesus said, “What I see the Father doing, that is what I do.”

The word “see” seems so simple yet it is profound. We are surprised and  even mystified when we have to admit, “You see things so much differently than I do.”

“Do you see it?”
“I see a house.”
“Yes, you see a house but I see my house.”

So, what does Jesus mean in the phrase “What I see…” He must mean an activity of the Father for the Father is “doing.” Does he mean here on earth or in heaven? Let us say it is here in this world because he speaks to those around him. And let us assume that Jesus speaks to be understood. This is not a prayer where Jesus might say, “No one sees you like I do, Father.”

So, if the “doing” of the Father is happening before our eyes, how do we not see it? There are things to big to see. We cannot see the turning of our world in space. It is too large for us. We move with the earth at an incredible speed, yet we don’t see or feel it happening. We know that actions are taking place in the microscopic universe that are too small for us to see. We also cannot see actions that take place slowly like the eroding of a mountain. So, there are activities too wonderful for us to see. Too big, too small, too slowly.

When we injure our bodies, a process of healing begins very quickly. But that process may take quite a while to complete. But when Jesus heals a man in a moment, we call it “a miracle.” How much healing is going on over the globe? We pay little attention to it. We expect it to happen. Water is turned into wine everyday but we don’t see it happening. It goes too slow for our eyes. When Jesus changes water to wine, we say “miracle.” A man born blind gets new eyes from Jesus. Each one of us gets new eyes at birth. But the process takes months.

So maybe what Jesus means is this: what God is doing over time, he does in a short time. Certainly, Jesus is exhibiting the same care as the Father. The activity is more intensified by being done in a short time but God is always doing these same activities. In the situation of the man born blind, Jesus refuses the argument of this being a punishment for sin. He says this is a way to show the glory of God. Each one of us received new eyes from God that give us the glorious ability to see the beauty of creation and the faces of those around us. We forget this because it happened to us long ago. But when this man “comes back seeing”, we can rejoice with him in this wonderful gift that God has given each one of us.

Now, these miracles show us the power of God. We are always impressed with power and want more of it. But it shows us something more about God. Something more important than his power.

Let us look at a man with leprosy who kneels before Jesus and says, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He believes in the power of God. But, he wonders at the will of God. Maybe he has wondered, ‘Why has God allowed me to suffer?’

What wonder does Jesus do? He says, “I am willing,” as he reaches out his hand and touches the man. This takes place before Jesus says, “Be clean!” and the man is healed. Jesus show his willingness to heal him and much more.

He touches the man with his hand. Do you think this was a tentative touch? Do you think he touched him carefully with one finger? No, he reached out and took hold of a man whom no one else would touch. He connects himself with the man in his present state.

This is what the Lord longs to do with each of us. He wants to connect with us. That he forgives our sin is only part of it. This terrible disease brought this man to Jesus. But what brings us to Jesus is not what brings Jesus to us. He wants to reconnect us with himself. This man was also reconnected to society. Jesus tells him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” This is the way to formally rejoin society. But what else did he say? Don’t tell anyone. Maybe Jesus wanted him to reflect on what God had done for him. To remember who first put a hand on him. He wanted him to understand that God restored his relationship with him first, then he healed him and wanted him to rejoin society.

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It says ‘we are partakers in the Divine nature’, yet, in practical terms, how is this so? Adam did not participate in the Divine nature. He became a living soul in his newly created body. His nature was human. At that time, human nature was not corrupted.

Adam was peacefully connected in all of his human relationships. He was in good relations with God and could work with him in tasks such as naming the animals. He was in good relationship with his wife, Eve, whom he called ‘flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone’. He was at peace with nature in a beautiful garden where no fear separated him from the animals. But, he was all human and exhibited all the characteristics of human nature. In no way divine, he and his wife were to choose what human nature would become.

This was a choice of Life or Death. Life is shown as the Tree of Life. Death is not quite so clear so God warned them that Death would be a result from choosing the other named tree. This tree had the awkward name of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Choosing it would allow them the ability to make choices independent of God.

This would also disconnect them from the harmonious relationships they enjoyed. This would be a death that would end in physical death or ‘dying, you will die’. The warning is clear but they are tempted with lies and make a choice that begins the corruption of human nature.

So, people are not involved in participation in the Divine Nature at the beginning. But as we come to the New Testament, things are different. We have the opportunity to receive the Spirit of God. How, then, do we partake of the Divine nature in a practical way? By leaving off our method of decision making based on our own judgment. And who is our model? Enter Jesus! To partake of the Divine nature , we follow The Method. Jesus said, “I AM The Method (or The Way).

We become like the Son of God. We conform joyfully to his role as the Son of The Father. We say, we have free will. This is the use of it. To freely choose the same position of Jesus toward The Father: Sonship. We must look closer at Jesus and his relationship with His Father. He always freely chooses the will of The Father over his own. Always. And he always has because this is his nature which is so much different than our own self-interest based choosing.

Do you think Jesus only did this on earth, in the flesh? Then it was a sham, a temporary role, an acting done in the worst sense as one acting out of character. He would have been pretending. But, no, he was no fake. He was just doing it all in the context of a life like ours, in the flesh. He accepted the limitations of humanity. Yet, nothing changed in his essential being. The Word became flesh but did not change into something different. He did not change his Divine nature. And this is the Divine nature we can take part in: the Divine nature of the Son of God.

He is the Only Begotten Son but he wants to ‘bring many sons to glory’. Now, we may have missed something important. The relation between Father and Son is Love. Their actions are all In Love. Their motivation to act is Love. In fact, it is the only relationship. No wonder the first commandment was, “Love the Lord, your God, with all…” To love God is enter into the relationship of God. There is no other relationship to God, only Love.

This is what John, the apostle, means by ‘God is Love’. But our human nature has been corrupted.  It is selfish. It is full of self-love. It is not even fixable since we have made it worse with our own choices. But it is replaceable. It can be put aside and a new nature brought in to be our life energy. It comes with the instruction of Jesus and the possibility of real change within us.

Let us take one practical example: Jesus said, “Judge not, lest you be judged”. Not only a command,  but with an explanation, too. You are probably going to be judged if you judge others. You like being judged? Keep judging. Judge everyone by your standards. You know good and evil. This is good. That is evil.

Or do we rather choose to be like him who did not judge. He refused to judge many times. “Who made me judge over your family affairs?” Did he judge Zacchaeus the tax collector? No, he went to his house. Did he judge the woman caught in adultery? He did not.

So, to practically participate in the Divine nature, we do as the Son says and does. We chose not to judge. Do it! If you have difficulty, God will help you. His Spirit will help you. The Spirit of Christ. You act like Jesus. Jesus acts like the Father. By this means, you actually become a son of God. You’re not a child anymore, but growing up to a son or daughter of God.

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