Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

• Deuteronomy 6:4

But the Lord is the true God;
    he is the living God, the eternal King.
When he is angry, the earth trembles;
    the nations cannot endure his wrath.

• Jeremiah 10:10

But the Lord is the true God;
    he is the living God, the eternal King.
When he is angry, the earth trembles;
    the nations cannot endure his wrath.

• 1 Corinthians 8:4

“Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only (Deut. 6:4), the living and true God (Jer. 10:10).”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Catechism

“Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only, the living and true God.”

• The Shorter Catechism (Westminster Assembly)

“Q. 8. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only, the living and true God.”

• The Larger Catechism (Westminster Assembly)

This is a fairly simple question, but the companion question to it is not understood by the world’s other religions.  I will save that controversy for next week.  All three Catechisms have the same question and answer, although the Larger Catechism adds the Scripture reference in 1 Corinthians (it must be “larger.”) and it is question 8.

There is only one God, and He is all the things that were mentioned in the previous question: holy, just, omnipotent, omniscient, etc.  The Larger Catechism has a heading for the questions that started last week, and this heading continues through question 90 in the Larger Catechism – What Man ought to believe concerning God.  Then it follows, starting in question 91, with – in understanding thus far, what is man’s duty to God?  Although the other catechisms do not have these headings, they are organized the same way.

The concept that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life falls in line with God being one God and that He is the only God who can ensure our salvation in the future, but also the only God that can provide us with the power to persevere while still here on earth.  And the wonderful thing is that God gives us that extra, that even while merely persevering, we can be Joyful, and we have Hope.

“Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power, and love
Our God is an awesome God” (roughly 10 times)

• Rich Mullins, Awesome God

NOTE: I chose that performance, not because it is wonderful musically.  The words are a bit hard to hear clearly, but the atmosphere and the drum corps make it … awesome.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
You are an awesome God.  It boggles my mind regarding Your infinity.  No matter how much there is, there is always more of You.  And yet, we feel compelled at times to do little indiscretions that no one might notice, but You do.  Yet, You love us.  Your being one God, a powerful God, we might think You are off in Heaven, dealing with big things, but You love us so much as to count the hairs on our heads.  It always comes back to your infinity.  No beginning, no end, no spot in the universe where You are absent, and no time in our lives that You are not there, loving us.  Thank You God for loving us, and thank You for forgiving our sins, and thank You for working in us to make us more like Jesus so that we shall one day sin no more.
In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.