The Reality of Control
My wife and I grew up and lived most of our adult lives in the great state of Maine. Maine; where winter ice coverage on lakes, as well as single storm snowfall amounts are often measured in multiple feet at a time instead of merely in inches, or worse yet, in incremental fractions thereof. Hence, it should come as no surprise – nor does it to us anymore – when the temperatures in Oklahoma where God has now placed us to serve His people get really “cold” (?) and drop into, let’s say, the 30’s or 40’s mid-“winter” J, should we occasionally hear someone jokingly blame us for “bringing the cold weather with us.” And my typical response to such is usually something like: “You’re giving us way too much credit! If you think we have that kind of power – enough to control the weather – then you have far too much faith in our abilities!”
Whether in Maine or Oklahoma, God is in control.
In like manner – only even more preposterously if possible – perhaps you are one of those faithful Christians who has patiently sought to reach out to a lost loved one with the grace-laden gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, only to hear them not-so-jokingly, but in fact, at times, quite antagonistically retort, “Yeah, but you can make the bible say anything you want it to say.” WOW! Talk about someone having WAY too much faith in the power of another! That would take infinitely and immeasurably more power than to even be able to control the weather world-wide would! And here’s why: Psalm 119:89(ESV) says: ‘Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.’
You see, God’s word is eternal. It is more than ‘written in stone’ as we say. It is forever firmly fixed and eternally inscribed in heaven; once and forever completely and flawlessly bound, settled, and protected, far out of the reach of any flawed, sinful, messed up mortal human being to ever even begin to control or make do anything. Kings cannot corrupt it, Sheiks cannot subvert it, and Presidents cannot pervert it. Atheists cannot alleviate it, Hollywood cannot harpoon it, and so-called ‘supreme courts’ cannot rescind, rewrite, or reinvent it. It says what it says; it means what it says, and it says what it means.
So for anyone, anyone at all, to even begin to imagine in their wildest dreams, such an incredibly impossible assessment of your abilities is simply nothing short of absolutely absurd when it comes to almighty God’s eternal word, which is, once and for all time (Just like the one true and biblical faith we find in the bible – Jude 3), forever firmly fixed, established, and bound in heaven, far beyond the reach of any and all humans’ ability to change, challenge, twist, distort or influence in any way.
You see, everyone has only one of two options to choose from when it comes to the unchangeable truths inherent in, the all-authoritative, eternal, and inerrant word of almighty God:
Learn, believe, and obey what is written therein and live forever in the presence of its Author; or, reject what is written therein and be forever rejected by its Author. It’s that simple.
Now, let’s look again at what it says, shall we?