"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." - Deuteronomy 6:4-5 ESV
This passage is an amazing piece of scripture. It is pointed to almost universally as the basis for monotheism (the belief in a singular deity). God uses different names to describe Himself to spectacular effect. The word LORD is Yahweh (Strong's H3068) and it is God's most personal name. Then there is God (Elohim H430) which is plural ('im' is a plural ending that means three or more). This singular God that you (Israel) has Is plural in nature but this LORD is also one (Echad H259) which is the same word used in Genesis 1:5 when the scripture speaks of the first day of creation.
This infinite God is one God who wants all of your heart, soul and might to overlap with who he Is.
That can't happen by our finite effort.
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." - 2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV
The good in 'good work' is agathos (G18) and it means useful or pleasant. Grace bridges God's infinite but singular nature with man's endlessness to produce sufficiency and usefulness.
Grace can fill our moments with sufficiency.
"The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms." - Deuteronomy 33:27a ESV
He is upholding all who have found Him to be a dwelling place. Jesus is the entrance to that shelter. One narrow door into the place where grace in all sufficient.
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Showing posts with label Infinity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Infinity. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Infinity And Humanity - Part 1
From a biological viewpoint we are finite creatures. There is a specific number of cells in our body. We don't know what it is but there is a set number. From the moment sperm and egg interacted to form a new set of cells to the second that the last cell in our body dies also has a number. You could say that the human race itself could conceivably have a similar number... a first person and a last person.
The Bible proposes a notion however that the soul is not finite. It has a beginning but no end. It is infinite but infinite in a particular way. It starts but does not stop. It has a progression.
Infinity is one of the concepts that opened mathematics up from being straight addition and multiplication into something else. Infinity was hidden in the math of a circle. It was waiting there right there between zero and one. How many numbers are there between zero and one... .1, .11, .111, .1111
Where do we even start to count? How small is smallest? It is conceptually infinite.
Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and a symbol must be assigned to it because the decimal places seem to go on forever 3.1415926...
God did make man in His image and we are clever creatures. We took an infinite number like Pi and just assigned it a Greek letter so we could use it in our math and math opened up like a flower. It was no longer something to be used in the market place to buy fruits and vegetables. Math could be used in engineering and architecture to spectacular effect.
There are many directions we could take these ideas in but I want to focus on just a couple of them.
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." - 1 John 1:7 ESV
What does all mean in the light of eternity? All is every one possible. If the Bible deals in infinite things as easily as it deals in finite ones then what does all really mean?
It covers every fraction and every multiplication. It covers every real number and every irrational number that needs a Greek letter to represent it. All stretches out into the vast expanse of the human experience and into the smallness of the tiniest moment.
"And he said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son' ." - Revelation 21:6-7 ESV
Payment would require addition and subtraction. Payment needs no knowledge of the infinite to function. God wants us to enter into His higher math and function in the place where engineering and architecture blossom. He has a love that is without a beginning and without an end.
When Jesus said, 'It is finished.' on the cross He meant it. All of it is finished. Redemption is finished. Time is still ticking away and God is using time in humanity and in the angelic contest but infinity entered time and space in a unique way when Jesus was born and His death also accomplished something very unique and infinitely far reaching.
"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?' " - John 11:25-26 ESV
Do we believe it? When our biology comes to an end what will happen to our soul?
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The Bible proposes a notion however that the soul is not finite. It has a beginning but no end. It is infinite but infinite in a particular way. It starts but does not stop. It has a progression.
Infinity is one of the concepts that opened mathematics up from being straight addition and multiplication into something else. Infinity was hidden in the math of a circle. It was waiting there right there between zero and one. How many numbers are there between zero and one... .1, .11, .111, .1111
Where do we even start to count? How small is smallest? It is conceptually infinite.
Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and a symbol must be assigned to it because the decimal places seem to go on forever 3.1415926...
God did make man in His image and we are clever creatures. We took an infinite number like Pi and just assigned it a Greek letter so we could use it in our math and math opened up like a flower. It was no longer something to be used in the market place to buy fruits and vegetables. Math could be used in engineering and architecture to spectacular effect.
There are many directions we could take these ideas in but I want to focus on just a couple of them.
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." - 1 John 1:7 ESV
What does all mean in the light of eternity? All is every one possible. If the Bible deals in infinite things as easily as it deals in finite ones then what does all really mean?
It covers every fraction and every multiplication. It covers every real number and every irrational number that needs a Greek letter to represent it. All stretches out into the vast expanse of the human experience and into the smallness of the tiniest moment.
"And he said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son' ." - Revelation 21:6-7 ESV
Payment would require addition and subtraction. Payment needs no knowledge of the infinite to function. God wants us to enter into His higher math and function in the place where engineering and architecture blossom. He has a love that is without a beginning and without an end.
When Jesus said, 'It is finished.' on the cross He meant it. All of it is finished. Redemption is finished. Time is still ticking away and God is using time in humanity and in the angelic contest but infinity entered time and space in a unique way when Jesus was born and His death also accomplished something very unique and infinitely far reaching.
"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?' " - John 11:25-26 ESV
Do we believe it? When our biology comes to an end what will happen to our soul?
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