Brian C. Russell

Ever wonder about omnipotence? How it works? Have you ever questioned God’s omnipotence?  Is being all-powerful completely beyond comprehension for you?  Should it be?

Well, the discussion started when my wife was taking a class in theology. In her homework, she had to answer the following question about God:

“God is affirmed as “almighty” in all the major creeds of the Church. Explain how God’s divine attributes—omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience—are necessarily “limited” by God’s nature and purposes.”

Omnipotence. Limited.

Those two words do not swim in a unified fashion in my pool. They are drastically opposite, but yet… this is a contention of many people.

Can God make 2+2=5? Can He make a circle a square? Can God, who is formless, sit?

“Unfortunately, the most absolute sense of omnipotent has been found to be incoherent. If God were truly omnipotent in an absolute and unlimited sense, then God could be capable of both existing and not existing at the same time, meaning that every form of theism and every form of atheism would be equally justified at all times simultaneously.” – atheism.about.com

The basic assertion in these “limits” is that “God’s omnipotence means that God can do anything that is logically possible to do” (atheism.about.com).  I still don’t think that limits fit within the scope of omnipotence.  I don’t think that we can even comprehend omnipotence, but the fact that we try to define it is immediately limiting.

If in truth, God is omnipotent, then He is omnipotent.  I believe that.  I believe that, if He truly wanted to, God could make 2+2=5.  I don’t think He will because I think our brain would ’splode, but I think he definitely has the power to change our reality as He deems necessary.

But… I’m one man, and clearly the discussion exists beyond me… So, what do you think?  Is God limited by his omnipotence?  Why or why not?

Discussions ahoy!

Recently I heard someone say something along the lines of “I can’t believe in a God who…” and then added something at the end that is subjective, at best.

A few months ago, in the discussion that started me on this idea of holding discussions, the idea of predestination vs. free will came up (or Calvinism and Wesleyan if that makes you happier) and the same sort of idea came up.

“I just can’t believe in a God who…”

Add whatever condition on the end of that you want.  It’s still the same idea.  Conditional devotion.  ”I can’t believe in a God who… doesn’t allow me the right to choose my destiny.  Who allows bad things to happen to good people.  Who doesn’t reward good deeds every time.  Who doesn’t reward long-time service over someone who gets saved on their deathbed.”

“I can’t believe in a God that I can’t understand with my own ideas of morality and logic.”

I don’t think I’m the first person to say that you can’t put God in a box, so I’ll avoid that.  What I do want to discuss though, is how Christians can let this phrase pass their lips.  This isn’t the only time I’ve heard it either.

Personally, I have stayed on the fence for the whole predestination debate.  I can’t decide which one it is, or if it’s either.  I have a feeling that since you can prove both, it probably is both, and we’ll just never really understand.  But, how can people say that “this is the way it is, deal with it” one way or the other?

Are you so convinced of your belief in something subjective that you stake your belief in God on it?  What makes you so sure?  What if you’re absolutely wrong?

How do you think conditional devotion bears witness to the all-satisfying savior that you believe in?

Let me start off by saying that I started off in film school.  Well, before film school, I started off as an entrepreneur.  In middle school, I decided that I would start drawing comic books.  This love for comic books translated into more simple comic strips (and if I ever find my old strips, I’ll be sure to post them). From there, I watched The Matrix and was convinced I needed to do special effects.

From there it went to directing movies.  I went to film school and discovered that I wanted a family and a steady job, and really liked the idea of being the god of my little world, so I started writing.  I self-published my first book in 2004, and haven’t finished a project since (more on that some other time).

As I dug through a box, I found a letter, written on the tithing envelopes from our church, in my handwriting.  I don’t remember how long ago I wrote this, but I found it very enlightening into myself.

I realize now, that in spite of all of my hard work, my creativity, my money spent, my time spent, that it’s not all me.  I’ve come to recognize that I believe God is breaking me.

I guess I’m upset because I need it to be done.  I’ve been writing for tons of success based on everything that I door have done.  I need to give up.

I can’t do it on my own.

I will always fail.

But, perhaps I’ve been running away from God because I’m afraid to give my talents away.  Maybe, just maybe, I’m afraid that I would become like all of the other “lame” writers and movie directors that plague Christian media.

What I’m forgetting is that God doesn’t want to kill my creativity for His own desires.  He wants to help me.  To mold my creativity.  To use the gift that He has given me to its fullest extent.

I will never be successful on my own because of what I know about God.  He just won’t let me.  I know too much.

I will always fail.

Maybe not at the beginning, maybe not for a long time.

But God will break me.

He is breaking me.  And I need to give up.

Because He doesn’t fail.

May the Lord break you.  May you see the Lord working in your life.  Let Him take over your life, and let Him steer your career.  Don’t be afraid to fail.  Don’t be afraid to be lame.  Live fully in God.  Tell others about Him.

And create.

There are times in my Christian faith that seem like the sunrise.  I can’t stop looking at it, admiring what God has done.  Looking at the beauty of it, snapping pictures (and if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or my Flickr, then you know I love me some sky pictures).

Sunrises are beautiful.  Everyone, aside from the waking up early, want to see the sunrise.  I’m not going to look up the science of why, but the sunrise makes the sun look beautiful and a deep, reddish-orange and I love it.

There’s nothing all that beautiful about noon.  Everything is going well, there’s no clouds in the sky, but, it’s boring.  The sun doesn’t seem like it’s moving, it’s plain, and you can’t look at it.  And, it’s burning you.

That’s right, during the “noon” times of faith, sometimes you struggle.  You don’t want to be outside, you might not want to do it.  You want to go in and sit in the air conditioning.

I would say that for a while, I was in my noon time.  I didn’t want to do it.  I didn’t want to believe.  Could I deny what I believed, no, but I would consider it a crisis of faith.  I’ve never been a fan of nonfiction books, but out of the blue, I got a hankering to read some.  Not just some, but some theology-heavy ones.

It started with reading through The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn with my wife.  Now, I’ve been reading through Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper and at the same time, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.  I couldn’t tell you where the urge to read these books came from, but I started to get signs that I was supposed to read them. We had 2 copies of The Treasure Principle, I was given 8 copies of Don’t Waste Your Life out of the blue, and my wife already had Blue Like Jazz.

These have been great books for me in my stagnant noon phase.  They’re encouraging, yet not encouraging me to stay stagnant.  They’re helping me to think through some of the issues that I’ve had.  And, I’m sure, if you’re reading this, you’ve been able to see some of that thought process because that’s how I think.

It sure seems like God is trying to help me get back to sunrise.  I’m starting to see the beauty in my faith again, and it’s big and colorful and I love it.  But, I’m also realizing, that it can’t always be sunrise.  Life has to move on, and noon is where you really grow.

Welcome to another edition of Discussions Ahoy!

A while back, I posted about the idea of predestination.  While I’m still, honestly, on the fence about it, and I know it’s a heated debate among everybody, I want to know more about how your belief in either side shapes your faith.

So, if you believe in predestination, how does that affect your faith?  What would you do differently if you believed you weren’t predestined?  What are you struggles with it? Etc.

And if you believe in free will, how does that affect your faith?  Are you inclined to tell more people about the Word?  What would you do differently if you believed in predestination?  What are some struggles you have?  Etc.

I remember when this movie came out, everyone that I knew saw it.  My church brought groups of people to the theater to watch Jesus be whipped, ripped apart, and hung up to die in some of the most gruesome imagery from a non-horror movie.

I’m not sure how other people felt by this, but at the time, it didn’t move me, except to the point of feeling sick.  Not because this was “Jesus” being beaten, but because it was horrific in general, and I was disappointed in how “human” they made Jesus.  How they left out the parts of His life where His God-side broke out.  Like in John 18:6 when the people come to take Jesus to the courts. “So when He said to them, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.” Or, when He is resurrected, I thought they did it very minimal, and it could have been awesome.

What a witness this movie could have been, I thought to myself.  Another missed opportunity.

I’m leading my small group in a study of John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life and this past week was all about “boasting only in the cross”.  Galatians 6:14 says, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

When I read that for the first time, the book was saying how “surprising” or “shocking” that sounds to most people, and I didn’t feel either of those things.  For me, I remembered The Passion.  Or, more accurately, how I felt about it.

The fact of the matter is that Jesus did not have to resurrect for Him to fulfill His purpose.  I realize that a lot of people think that is the focal point, but Jesus fulfilled His purpose by dying on the cross.  He was sent to be the fulfillment of the law for everyone. The part about Him being awesome on Earth is an extra.  Above and beyond.

Now, Jesus’ humanity in The Passion, whether intentional or not, now makes sense.  I shouldn’t have to see God’s awesome power in physical form all the time.  The AWESOMENESS of God’s sending Jesus was that He made Him human, so that He could be beaten, torn and hung on a cross for me, for you, for everyone.  EVEN IF THEY DON’T KNOW IT.

And that is awesome.

Walking outside of our house this morning, my wife and I were engulfed in fog.  The whole neighborhood was.  The sun filtered through the haze like a Chinese lantern, and the humidity choked us.

The day was looking to be disgusting and sweltering.

We got into our car and began our drive to work.  It’s a long drive along the highway that passes over a lake.  A very beautiful drive when you can see it.  Today was not the day.  Today, all that could be seen was white, and the immediate area around us.

I can only see a very short distance in front of me.  The sun is in the sky because I can see some stuff, and I see it’s effect on the world around me, but I can’t see the sun.  I can’t deny that it’s there though.

No matter how much fog, I can always tell that it’s daylight. The drive may be more dangerous with the fog, but I can’t control that.  I just have to keep driving on the path that I know.

And occasionally, you can see the outline of the sun, it’s dim, but it’s still there.

And if I know all of that, how can I possibly deny God in times of trial.  When the fog of my life (busyness, heartache, annoyances) seems to crowd around me and it seems like it’s all I can see, it really isn’t.  I still can’t really deny God’s existence.  I can still see Him shining through the little things and the big things.

Even if it’s dim, I can’t deny He’s there.