1. GOD'S GREATNESS
go to Part 2
Sometimes one starts with little things to work up to
the big things, the easy things to get to the hard ones.
First, take this easy series: 2, 4, 6, 8. What is
the next item in the series? If you said ten,
you’re right, and you know what I’m doing. Here
goes.
In the series a point, a line, a plane. What’s next?
If you said "a solid", great. The point is a
single but invisible dot and it has no dimensions.
A line is a collection of multiple points, one after
another, and has one dimension, length. A plane is
a collection of multiple of lines, one next to another,
and has two dimensions, length and width. A solid
can be thought of as a collection of multiple of planes,
one on top of another, has three dimensions, length,
width and height. Stretch your mind, what’s next?
This is not so obvious, if you make a collection of multiple
of solids, one on top of another, you just get a bigger
solid, it takes a different dimension besides direction
to move on. Scientists suggest that the next, the
fourth, dimension is time. A solid in time would
work. If, for example, the original solid is an
ice cube, in time it changes shape as it melts.
Pretty soon it’s not as tall, it’s edges become rounded,
it puddles out, and eventually evaporates. A solid
takes space, and a solid described in time becomes what
scientists call the space-time continuum, which is also
a description of our universe. Our Universe is a
collection of multiple spaces (solids) through time.
Sometimes even our universe becomes distorted, stretched
or compressed, as near a black hole for example
Now stretch, what’s next?
This is even less obvious, but one solution is a solid/space
in time in other universe, or a collection of multiple
universes, or parallel universes. Which universe
is the solid in, ours or a different one? It’s ice
in our universe, but maybe it’s wood or iron in the
next. It’s transparent in ours, but maybe it’s red
or blue in the next. It could be thought of as being in
another dimension.
According to the Bible, God lives in another dimension, not a
parallel dimension, but a higher one yet. The
Bible starts out in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth." The very fact
that God existed before our Universe was created shows
that He is in another dimension beyond ours.
Solomon recognized this in 1 Kings 8:27 when he said of
God ‘the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain
thee." If God was only a part of our Universe, he
couldn’t have made it. He is omnipotent because He is
beyond it. Because he is outside of our Universe
"looking in" that he is omniscient, He knows everything
that has happened and will happen. Because God is
of another dimension, He is also omnipresent. Yet
God is also part of our Universe, part of it and much
more.
Although we sometimes lovingly think of God as "The Man
Upstairs", he is so much beyond that description, it is
not really possible for us humans to understand Him
except in these abstract thoughts and lowly word
pictures. He is an awesome God.
Read Psalm 19 and 139.