Death is naked before God…
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing…
The pillars of the heavens quake,
aghast at his rebuke.
By his power he churned up the sea. 

And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand
the thunder of his power?
(Job 26:6-7, 11-12, 14, NIV) 

Many insist on a god as small as they are,
a human deity comfortably within their puny understanding.
They want a god without
power,
holiness, or
transcendence,
a god without
fire,
anger,
zeal, or
sovereignty.
Many prefer a god who is no god at all.

But for the true and living Creator, even our grandest images –
the thunder of His power,
the oceans of His love –
are childish understatements.
His love boils over into
universes,
races, and
epochs,
bounded only by His own wisdom.
His self-giving cannot be stopped any more than
a sandcastle can hold back the ocean.

I find comfort in the immanence of God, in His
personal nearness and
constant presence with me.
He is closer and more intimate than any of us can imagine.
Knowing Him and
realizing His presence
have transformed my life.

But in the rushing stream of our daily struggle and
in the crises that inevitably come,
I desperately need to see the transcendent God.
I need to be reminded of
the God who is God indeed,
the One who is bigger than my shriveled perspective;
the God who overflows all names and all descriptions;
the God whose self-given name, “I AM,” suggests that
He is being itself,
beyond all time and all categories.

Once we grasp that Almighty God is
fully real and
is all He says He is,
everything changes.
Much of our religious talk becomes
pale, humanistic, and irrelevant.
Focusing on anyone or anything other than Him
seems senseless.
Once we know Him,
He commands the stage. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Our Lord I AM
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics