Grace Blog

Hey Ladies! Are you looking for an opportunity to serve AND get involved with the women at Grace Bible Church? Our retreat team is excited to take on some new volunteers to help plan this year's Fall Retreat (October 18th-20th, 2013)! We need help in ALL areas: Decoration, Hospitality, Food/Snack and Beverages, Publicity, Activities Coordinator, Photography, and A/V! If you have an idea or gift that has not been listed, do not hesitate to share your ideas with us! Pray about it and see how God leads you! If you are interested, please contact me, Sarah Smith, at mrsmith12128(at)gmail.com. When you respond, please let me know what area you feel led to serve in. I look forward to hearing from you!!!

~ Sarah Smith

I hope that you all had a merry Christmas, and enjoyed celebrating our Savior's birth! As you may have noticed, the Women of Grace Blog has been silent for almost two months now. Thank you for your patience as I adjust to caring for two little ones at home. I just wanted to pop in and let you know that the blog will be coming back sometime in January, and it will be expanded in its purpose. Look for more updates in the new year!

As a child I had a distinct impression of God as a friendly, yet sometimes cross-looking elderly gentleman sitting on his throne in heaven. He, of course, had a long white beard and a golden staff. By God's grace, as I grew up and began to study the Word of God, and to read books like A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy that forced me to seriously consider who God is, I gradually came to the exciting and unsettling realization that my thoughts about God were far too small. Since he began lifting the veil to provide a glimpse of who he is, the view has been breathtaking.

What does it mean that God is transcendent?

Little confronts our small ideas of God quite like pondering his transcendence. Ligonier Ministries, the teaching fellowship of R.C. Sproul, has an article that gives us a great explanation of what God's transcendence means:

When we say God is transcendent, we mean that He is separate from His creation and not dependent on the created order in any way. The Almighty made the universe and He is therefore its sovereign ruler (Gen. 1:1). A biblical view of transcendence does not mean that God is unable to enter into His creation or communicate with it. He is also immanent, present within the universe that He has made (Ps. 139:7). Nevertheless, creation is not God (pantheism), nor does God depend upon it. Creation, instead, depends upon our Creator for its continual existence (Eph. 4:4–6).¹

One of the ways Scripture speaks of God's transcendence is in testifying that God is far above his creation (See 1 Chronicles 29:11, Psalm 8:1, and Psalm 113). In doing so, it isn't saying that God is distant, since we know that God's presence is everywhere (more on that next week!) but is stating the fact that his "quality of being"² is infinitely greater than anything in the created order. It also means that the universe cannot contain him. He is above and beyond it because he created it, and he is not limited by it in any way.

Our transcendent Savior

The fact that God is transcendent is good news for us! Only a transcendent God can save. A drowning man cannot save another drowning man. When Adam and Eve sinned, the devastating consequence was that all of creation became corrupted (Romans 8:20-22). If God was one with creation, and not above it, then he too would have been subject to the corrupting effects of sin, in which case he would have also needed saving. Praise God that our great God and Savior Jesus Christ is transcendent! It is one of the reasons why he was uniquely able to rescue us from our sins. Hebrews 7:26–27 gives us great insight into this truth:

26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Holy. Innocent. Unstained. Separated from sinners. Exalted above the heavens! Through his life, death on the cross, and resurrection, he defeated Satan, sin and death, and we who trust in him can look forward with expectant hope to the day that victory will be fully realized with his return. 

______________________________

The Marketplace: Fundraiser to Support Assist Pregnancy Center

You are invited to a shopping fundraiser to benefit unborn children. Crafts, gourmet food, services, and more! Everything you purchase at the Marketplace will provide funds for Assist Pregnancy Center.

Interested in selling your goods/services? There is still room. Sign up in the foyer this Sunday (10/28).

THE DETAILS
What: A fundraiser to support Assist Pregnancy Center and unborn children
Who: All who want to support APC
When: Saturday, November 10, 9:00am - 12:00pm
Where: Grace Bible Church

A.W. Tozer begins the "Wisdom of God" chapter of his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, by pointing out that the goal of our reflection on God's wisdom is not to seek proof that it exists, but rather to believe first in order that we might understand it. If that sounds confusing, that's because it is! In the realm of human logic, this makes no sense. However, think of it this way: the hardened heart will never accept any proof that is presented to it. Therefore, we must begin from a place of belief.

How can we explain God's wisdom? In its simplest definition, it encompasses God's infinite knowledge of the past, present, and future, with a positive moral connotation. Here is how Tozer describes God's wisdom: 

"Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means...Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision."

One of Tozer's points that struck home with me - as it would for anyone facing difficult struggles in life - is when he states, "Not only could His (God's) acts not be better done: a better way to do them could not be imagined". This means that despite the challenging, even heart-wrenching, circumstances in which we find ourselves - addictions, divorce, abandonment, to name a few - God's wisdom is still present and His purpose is being accomplished.

We may not know or understand God's purpose, but we do know that while we live as followers of Christ in a fallen world, our lives will contain trials and suffering. Believe in God's infinite wisdom will not help us to avoid suffering, but it will help us to respond in ways that bring glory to Him.

Jesus said:

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Solomon wrote: