“Our God is an awesome God” Those are the lyrics to a popular hymn-song by Rich Mullins. But the promise of the words comes from the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 7:21) which reads, “Have no dread…, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.” Have you ever wondered what that means?
I looked up the word “awesome” in the dictionary and it gave me this list: breathtaking, awe-inspiring, magnificent, wonderful, amazing, stunning, staggering, imposing, stirring, impressive, formidable, fearsome, dreaded, and informal meanings: mind-boggling, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, excellent, marvelous. These words give a hint at how impossible it is for us to come up with the right words to contain the meaning and scope of God’s identity and work. We are struggling to understand even the basics of the cosmos, how can we grasp the one who created it?
It is Easter! It is time to sing alleluias and declare the glory of God. For God so loved the world that God gave the beloved son, Jesus Christ whose life and death won our freedom from sin and death.
This is the God the God of whom we sing. This is the power of God, to defeat sin, death, and all evil. This is the love of God, that that Jesus came while we were yet sinners. Even in our brokenness, Jesus came for us. God is an awesome God!
But do we truly believe in God and trust in God’s love and power? Do we credit God with being present, relevant, and active in our lives?
I’m afraid all too often we live as one author puts it, as Christian atheists; saying we have faith but living our lives as if God doesn’t exist. Faith gets treated as a nice philosophy or set of moral platitudes that help people to be nice but without the real power to really change anything. In fact, we’d rather not have faith and God messing about in our lives challenging our priorities and our choices. That would just be too uncomfortable.
Jesus met such a young man once, who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus talks about the commandments, and the young man says confidently that he follows those. He is a good person. Jesus tells him he lacks one thing and says to go and sell all that he has, give the money to the poor and follow him. The young man goes away grieving. (Mark 10:17-22). Faith is okay until Jesus starts messing with our stuff.
So sometimes we don’t want God to have power in our lives but then there are those who live as if God doesn’t have any real power to change things. That’s what happens when we live as if getting things done is all up to us and we leave God out of the equation. We live as if God has no power.
Bono of the band U2 challenges us to: “Stand up for hope, faith, love,… Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady”. (from the song “Stand Up Comedy” from the album “No Line on the Horizon”)
The God of Easter is truly an awesome God. The God of Easter changed everything for eternity. If we truly believe that our God is an awesome God, full of power, love, and grace, it should matter in our lives. As people of faith, the truth of Easter changes everything not only what we believe and feel but also what we do and say in our daily lives. Read John 20:24-29
this one ment that god is how we see him a believe in him
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