![]() ![]() Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance - as an echo to a thunderclap, as a bubble to the ocean. God is who he is means all the universe is, by comparison to God, as nothing. It came into being by God and stays in being, moment by moment, on God’s decision to keep it in being.Ħ. The entire universe is utterly secondary. All that is not God is secondary and dependent. God is who he is means rather that everything that is not God depends totally on God. He depends on nothing to bring him into being or support him or counsel him or make him what he is.ĥ. God is who he is means that God is utterly independent. He is not one of many realities before he creates. There is no reality outside of him unless he wills it and creates it. God is who he is means God is absolute reality. Before he creates, that’s all that is: God.ģ. There is no place to go outside of being. If he did not come into being, he cannot go out of being, because he is being. God is who he is means God will never end. Every child asks, “Who made God?” And every wise parent says, “Nobody made God. God is who he is means he never had a beginning. So what does it mean when God said, “I am who I am”?ġ. I linger here because until God becomes dominant in our thinking and in our feeling - until he becomes the blazing sun at the center of the solar system of our daily lives, until he becomes the Mount Everest among the foothills of little concerns with this world, until he rests upon our souls and our churches with ten thousand times more weight than politics and church growth - until then, all our talk about his glory, or worship, or singing will just be more human engineering of religion, of which the world needs no more. What does that mean? It means at least ten things. What does that mean? Why did God identify himself this way: “I am who I am”? “I absolutely am.” If we can remove our clouded spectacles of mere religious tradition, this may come to us like a bolt of lightning. ![]() Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I Am has sent me to you.’” Moses argues in verse 13, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God answers in verse 14, “I Am Who I Am. Moses shrinks back and says in verse 11, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” And God responds in verse 12, “I will be with you.” The Great ‘I Am’ God had appeared to Moses to make him the leader of Israel and to bring them out of slavery in Egypt. Who is God? The most foundational statement about what it means to be God is found in Exodus 3:14. And hold fast to what he says, and what you see. And if you don’t, you owe me nothing, except perhaps polite pity that an old man from American couldn’t make anything plain. If you see it in the word, you should grab it like a man caught in a riptide clutching a rope. What matters is not my opinion on these things, but God’s revelation. And it is a glorious work to listen and understand and be changed and joyfully obey. God himself has spoken about these things in his word. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)Īnd that includes the good work of knowing who God is, and what “the glory of God” refers to, and what it means to “glorify God,” and why there is such a thing as singing, and whether we are to gather for corporate worship or only for instruction and edification. And he has told us,Īll Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Wonder of wonders, God has given us a book, the Christian Scriptures, the Bible. We are not basing our answers to these questions on imagination or preference or culture or tradition. And it is a glorious work! Because we are not making things up. ![]() We gather for edification.” Is that a right way to think? Hold Fast to What God Says Who is God? What do I mean by “the glory of God”? What does it mean to “glorify God”? What is Christian singing - for that matter, what is singing? What is corporate worship? Should we even think of our weekly gatherings as “worship services”? You may have heard people say, “That’s not even a New Testament idea. So we have lots of words to explain here. We are going to talk about the relationship between the glory of God and Christian singing in corporate worship. ![]()
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