The Huge-ness of God – Part 4

            Last week I wrote about how God gives us His love. Quick review: God loves you because He wants to and that is who He is. And because He is who He is, He lavishes His love on us. I am still amazed that God loves me at all considering that He knows everything about me. Incredible!

            As we end the list on what God wants to do for us, I want to remind you that this is just a partial list. I kept the list short to save space. The list can go on and on, especially when you and I start adding in our specific needs. I love the verse that says, “So, let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” (Hebrews 4:16).  Did you see that? God is described here as having grace, giving us mercy, and helping us when we need it most. Our great, huge God is concerned for us.

            The last item on our list is “connection”. I think one of the most important things God does for us is to connect us to Himself and to others who also believe and follow Jesus. I think this is important for two reasons; One - being connected to God brings us salvation along with hope and love. Two - when we are connected to others, we are no longer alone in life. Whether we are experiencing a dark time or not, being connected to people brings a level of happiness and fulfillment that cannot be achieved anywhere else. Psychologist Martin Seligman, in his book “Authentic Happiness” explains that all his research (about 40 years of it) shows that the happiest people are not those with the most money or things but those who have quality connections to others. Becoming a follower of Christ immediately brings us into relationship with other followers of Christ.

            Let me explain this a little differently. In 1967, I was born into a family that already had three boys. I was the fourth boy (eight years later a sister would be added). I didn’t get to choose my family nor did they choose me. In March of 1967, whether anybody liked it or not, the Stuhlreyer family had an addition. Growing up, my brothers and I fought a lot. At times we even declared that we hated each other. But that was inside the family. When someone from the “outside” tried to stir up trouble with one of the Stuhlreyer boys all four boys got involved. We defended each other and protected each other. Now that we are older, mature adults (sometimes), we get along great and care for each other. I wouldn’t trade my relationships with my brothers, sister and parents for anything. We now live all over the state of Ohio and in other parts of the country, and we all look forward to getting together whenever we can.  My family is extremely important to me.

            Why this illustration? When we become a follower of Christ, we enter into a new, larger family (several billion strong!). God is called our Father and we are called His children. We are all part of the family. There may be times when we don’t get along. But we’re family. There may be times when we argue and fight. But we’re family. There are many times we do get along and we do look out for each other. This is because we are family. And because we are family we are connected to others and we do not ever have to be alone again!

            Do you remember the Sister Sledge song from the 70’s “We Are Family”? Well, that is what we are - we are family. (Sounds like a good theme song for us….right?) If God is your Father then I am your brother. We are eternally connected! What I think is even more amazing is that the head of our family is God Himself!

            Incredible!

I want to thank everyone who responded to the first blog entry. I am greatly encouraged that God will strengthen and encourage people through this blog. Thanks for the comments and the value that you all added to the teaching. Keep them coming!

            This week, I want to continue with this idea of the “huge-ness” of God. To consider the vastness of God makes me shake my head and realize how finite I really am and how infinite God really is. I am small and God is infinitely huge. I am of average intelligence (by humans standards) and God is infinitely intelligent. I am able to influence (or at least believe that I am able to influence) my immediate surroundings and God continually influences all of creation every instant all the time. Knowing this makes me feel more and more dependent on God for His wisdom, counsel, mercy, and grace. I need Him. He doesn’t need me. I want Him for what He does for me. He wants me for what He can do for me.

            What can God do for me (and you)? This can be pretty much an unending list, let me just hit a few. This teaching and the next two will deal with this list.

            God can give me hope. Knowing God, and being known by God, gives me hope not only for the future but also for the present. I know that I have eternal life because I have trusted that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is enough to grant me salvation and eternal life. The Apostle Paul writes, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we traded our sin for His “right-ness” with God. Meditate on this for a few minutes, but be careful, it could lead to a mental meltdown or an intense time of thanking God for His hope and goodness to us.                What we have talked about really is hope for the future. What about hope for now? Can we have it? I believe so. Psalm 73:23-24 says, “Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.” Psalm 23:4 says, “Even when I walk in the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me…” God does not desert us when we are in the lowest of valleys and the darkest of paths even when we are responsible for putting ourselves there! Isn’t that amazing and comforting. Think about it, the greatest being in the whole universe is with us when we are at our lowest point! When everyone else has deserted us, God hasn’t!!!

            When I think about this, I consider groups in our culture that we stigmatize and ostracize - groups like the mentally ill. This group is ignored and pushed to the side by both the community and the church. We all have been socialized by our culture to look up to the “best and the brightest” and to strive to be like people who, from an outsider’s perspective, have it all together and don’t have any problems. We look up to the people who make the most money and we think that if we just can have more our lives will be fulfilled. When we see individuals who don’t seem to have it all together, or have problems (especially the problems that we can’t relate to because we have never experienced them ourselves), we look away from them or we “advise” them to go and get their problems fixed. When they get worse, we “send them away” to a hospital or a group home so the community doesn’t have to deal with them and can just sweep the “problem” under the rug. It occurs to me that God isn’t like this. God walks beside those who are in the lowest of valleys or on the darkest paths - like the mentally ill. When the community and the church have turned a deaf ear to the plight of this group, God hasn’t! When a severely mentally ill person is being kicked out onto the street and will have to spend the night, or many nights, on the street and they are crying out for help, and the community and the church has turned a deaf ear to them, God hasn’t! When family and friends have completely disowned them because they are mentally ill, God hasn’t! He is right there beside them, caring for them and loving them in the ways that only He can and followers of Jesus should.

            The Apostle John, in his gospel, writes, “So the Word (God) became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.” God, with all His huge-ness, came to live with us and showed us His love.

            What “problems” do you have? Whatever they are, God is walking closely beside you and is guiding you through the “problem”. You can trust Him to do what is best. If everyone else has left you behind because of your “problem”, God hasn’t. He loves you infinitely and will always be with you!

            Praise God!

Ephesians 3:20 says, “And to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.” Wow! What a verse. No matter how big our biggest dream, God can do more! That is exciting!

When my wife and I started Hands of Hope Ministries in January of 2007 we knew that God had big plans for this ministry, we just didn’t know how big! Hands of Hope has grown faster and has touched more people than we could have ever expected in just the 14 months we have existed. Among the accomplishments is the establishment of two food pantries within a local community mental health agency, which serves low- income mentally ill individuals. Hands of Hope spent nearly $10,000 in providing non-perishable food items and personal hygiene products in 2007. In the fall we also had the privilege, in partnership with another local non-profit company, of donating 150 hats, pairs of gloves, and over 50 coats to the mentally ill for the winter. Since January of 2008, we have donated approximately 750 pounds of bread, bagels, and vegetables to the low income mentally ill. It has been absolutely mind blowing what God has done through us for the mentally ill in providing these items.

This blog, which you are reading, is the first step in developing Hands of Hope’s Cyberministry. Our aim with our Cyberministry is fourfold: first, we want this blog to be a safe place which anyone can visit and be encouraged and strengthened in their faith with Christ; second, we want this to be a safe place in which anyone can ask questions or vent honestly without fear of retribution from others; third, we want this blog to be a safe place in which people who are seeking faith in Christ can ask good honest questions and get good honest answers; lastly, we want this blog to be a place which we can begin to encourage and coach each other in developing ministries in the cities in which we live for marginalized people. I know that this may sound like too big a dream to have but as I stated above “…He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”

Let me give you some nuts and bolts of the blog. Once a week a teaching will be posted by 10:00pm on Thursday. The teachings will center around certain themes that are found in the Bible and we will spend several weeks on each theme depending on what it is. I have asked 4 friends of mine to help me with the teachings. I’ll introduce them as we go. You will see teachings from them periodically, usually about every 4-6 weeks. When you read the teaching please feel free to respond to them with comments, prayer requests, praise reports and questions. We will respond to you so that we can have a dialogue around the issues that are brought up.

Now, you may have a dream or a desire. That may be establishing faith in Christ and having hope in this world and for the next.

God can do that!

You may have family members who do not know Christ and you want them saved.

God can do that!

You may be living with a mental illness or have a family member who lives with a mental illness and you want them healed.

God can do that too!

It may be just getting along with other members of your family.

God can do that too!

You may have a dream to begin meeting the needs of a marginalized group in your city but you don’t know where to start.

God can work through you and show you what you need to do!

Whatever your dream is, God is “able to do immeasurably more than all you ask or imagine”!

Life can be difficult and it can throw some major curveballs at you. Just know that God loves you and is on your side!

We at Hands of Hope love you too. We pray that this Cyberministry is a blessing to you and that it will give you strength. May God bless you with more of Himself!

Steve Stuhlreyer