From Pastor's Desk for May 2025

Lighthouse Church:

My purpose in these letters is to inform and to encourage you to seek more knowledge about God in Scripture and other valid Christian books. This month I write about our view of God.

He is our creator as told in Genesis 1: 26-27 (NIV):   

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,  in the image of God he created them;    male and female he created them.

The question is how we should view God. As his creatures we belong to him and he is our sole master. When Genesis says that we are to rule over all the other creatures, he is still the owner of all creation. We are his children and heirs to his love and protection. He is our guardian and our teacher; we cannot protect ourselves or have knowledge except by his grace.

A. W. Tozer in his book The Pursuit of God penned:

Every soul belongs to God and exists by his pleasure. God being who and what He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full Lordship on His part and complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that is our power to give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less.[1]

There is no other way to view God except as the ultimate authority over us. When we approach him in prayer we need to do so with reverence and awe.

Psalm 24:13 (KJV) says “Be Thou exalted.” Exalting God is to place him on his throne and kneel before him. He is the Lord of heaven so one of our concepts is that he is physically above us, but more importantly he is spiritually above us. We know that he is an all-powerful God and can grant our prayers. He controls the universe and everything in it, but he has given us free will to accept him or not. He will tempt us not beyond our ability to resist so long as we stay obedient to him. It is correct to view God as our judge as well as our Redeemer. It is by faith alone that we are saved. We submit ourselves to his will and trust in him.

Accepting Jesus as our Savior and surrendering ourselves to him affects an immediate impact on our devotion and prayer life. Bowing our heads in prayer is an outward sign of our submission to his authority. We are moved to thank him for the many blessings that he has bestowed upon us. We are inclined to ask forgiveness when we realize that we have been sinful. We devote ourselves to him by studying Scripture and gathering with other Christians as a community.

God Bless, Pastor Eric

[1] Tozer, A.W. (1961). The Pursuit of God. Chicago, Moody, 308.