CHAPTER 1
GOD
Many years ago an old man lay ill in bed. He was a wicked old man who did not believe in God. Over his bed he had written 'god is nowhere'.
One day his little granddaughter came into the bedroom to see him. She was just learning to read so he asked her to try to read what was written over the bed. Slowly she began, and what she read was this: 'god ... is ... now . . . here.' God is now here!
The old man trembled. For the first time he realized that there is a God.
The first thing in religion is 'I believe in God'.
How do we know about God?
The Bible tells us (Romans 1: 20) that even by looking at the beautiful things that God has made we may know there is a God. The running streams, the beautiful sunset, the sea, the sky, the stars, the mighty mountains and hills—in all we can see that there is a God. All cry out, 'There is a God, and He made us!'
But it is in the Bible that we really learn about God. Who is God? What is He like? Are there more Gods than one? The Bible gives us all these answers.
One God
You will have heard at school of how the Greeks and Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Vikings believed in all sorts of gods—Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Diana, Thor, Woden: men gods and women gods, gods of war, gods of love, gods of all kinds of things. The Bible tells us there is only one true and living God. All the others are false gods, dead gods. Our God sees. He hears. He speaks. He knows. He is the living God.
What is God like?
I asked a group of children to find out as many words as they could to describe God—so that, from the Bible, we could find out what He is like. Very quickly we found the following:
God is holy, pure, and righteous. He hates sin.
God is almighty. He can do anything. He can do everything. (Of course, the old Puritans used to say, 'God can't die or lie‘.)
God is eternal. You know the story of Moses and the burning bush. There God told Moses His name is 'I am'. Only God can always say that. A hundred years ago you and I could not say, 'I am'. In another hundred years, you and I will not be able to say, 'I am'.
God is immutable. This may seem a hard word. Why not just say that God does not change, He is unchanging? Because immutable means more than that. It means that God cannot change.
God is invisible. We cannot see Him, but He can always see us. Think of the little children's hymn:
God is in heaven. Can He see
When I am doing wrong?
Yes, that He can: He looks at me
All day and all night long.
God is love. God is merciful. God is wise. God is gracious.
Where is God?
Once I asked a group of children this question: Where is God? Three, hands went up, and there were three different answers. But all were right.
'God is in heaven.'
'God is everywhere.'
'God is here.'
The Trinity
You girls and boys will have heard people speak of 'the Trinity'. What does it mean?
The Bible teaches us that there is only one God, but there are three Persons in that one God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
God the Father is God.
God the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) is God.
God the Holy Spirit is God.
People have tried to explain the Trinity, but no one can ever explain it. There is a story that years ago a minister said to his morning congregation that in the evening he would 'explain the Trinity'. That afternoon he saw one of his old deacons kneeling by the river with a spoon in his hand. 'Whatever are you doing?' he asked.
'Emptying the river with the spoon,' was the reply.
'You can never do it.'
'I shall do it as well as you can explain the Trinity this evening!' said the wise old man.
But though we cannot explain it or understand it, we must believe it. People have tried to explain it. The reason the Irish have the little three-leaved shamrock for their emblem is because Patrick (usually known as St Patrick) when asked about the Trinity plucked a shamrock and said, 'Three in one'. Three leaves; one shamrock. Some have said our finger is bone, blood, and skin. The Puritans spoke of the sun, its beams, and its heat. But none really can explain the Trinity. It is a mystery—yet a mystery told to us in the Bible.
There are many things I cannot understand and yet I most firmly believe. I firmly believe that when I press the light switch, a light will come on in the bulb in the ceiling. I know it. I am sure of it. But I am no electrician; I cannot explain it.
How then can we think of the Trinity? Well, whenever Father, Son, or Holy Ghost are mentioned, each one is described as God—yet still the Bible says, 'Only one God'.
Then the three are joined together as being equal. Perhaps the text repeated more than anything else is 'the benediction'. You hear it at the end of every service. Here all three Persons are joined together as one God: 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God [that is, the Father], and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all' (2 Corinthians 13: 14).
Also when a person is baptized he is baptized 'in the name (one name) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost' (Matthew 28: 19).
But perhaps the most helpful for children is the account of when Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan. There was God the Son in the water. God the Holy Ghost could be seen coming down like a dove from heaven. God the Father's voice could be heard speaking: 'This is My beloved Son.' Three Persons, one God. In the early days of the Christian church there was a saying: 'Would you know the Trinity? Then go to the river Jordan.'
The wonderful thing is that the great, holy God makes Himself known to men and women, boys and girls. He makes Himself known in the Lord Jesus. Until He makes Himself known all is a mystery. A mystery is something that cannot be known until it is shown to us.
If a golden cup were hidden in your house, what it was and where it was would be a mystery. But if the person who hid it should pull up the loose boards in your bedroom floor and take that cup, and show it to you, even give it to you, then the mystery would be revealed.
We need to pray: 'Lord, reveal Thyself to me.'
The wisest cannot know it without it being revealed. The simplest can if it is revealed. Was it not a complete idiot boy, who hardly spoke all his life, who before he died said, 'What can I see? What can I see? I can see One, and the One is Three. Three-in-one and One-in-three! And all the Three are all for me'?
Suggested Bible readings
Psalm 104 (especially the first few verses). There are other similar Psalms.
Isaiah 6.
Isaiah 40 (especially verses 12 to 26).
Matthew 3: 13-17.