Confessions of an Infomercial Junkie

I am a sucker for infomercials. I don't know why I get sucked into these things. Is it the bubbly "fake" audience affirming the product with "oohhhs" and "aaahhhs," the passionate (and loud) salespeople, or is it the lingering promise of "But wait! There's more?" Who knows, but I can get sucked in faster than Jack LeLane could juice an apple!

My favorites are when it is some exercise machine or weight loss product and each testimonial comes to the set weilding a powerful weapon...their before & after pictures. Some of these pictures are unbelievable! The skeptic in me always wonders about airbrushing and photoshop, but it's different when I see the before an after of someone I know.

I can think of several people who I know have lost dramatic amounts of weight and my before memory is very different from their present reality. I also know of a beautiful young girl who I went to school with. She always had acne, but who didn't back then? I mean, come on! Anyway, she didn't like her acne so she bought a popular skin care line (no doubt about her infomercial watching habits, LOL) and it worked! She had such a great before & after that she was actually asked to be IN one of their infomercials! She now looks completely different. She's all grown up with radiant skin and has actually done some modeling.

Before and afters are amazing. That's all there is to it.

As much as I love infomercials and success stories, though, there is one that stands out among all the others.

Job was a man in scripture who knew a thing or two about pain and suffering. He also knew a thing or two about God and it was his knowledge of God that helped him survive an ordeal that included what would be most people's worst nightmares. He lost pretty much everything and everyone he loved. He got to keep his life and his wife and she was no help at all!

What was it that Job knew that helped him through all of this? He knew El-Shaddai, which means, "God Almighty." He knew that giving God your heart made all the difference in a person's life. He describes the before and after below.

Take a look:

Job 11:7-20

7 "Can you solve the mysteries of God? Can you discover everything there is to know about the Almighty? 8 Such knowledge is higher than the heavens -- but who are you? It is deeper than the underworld -- what can you know in comparison to him? 9 It is broader than the earth and wider than the sea. 10 If God comes along and puts a person in prison, or if he calls the court to order, who is going to stop him? 11 For he knows those who are false, and he takes note of all their sins. 12 An empty-headed person won't become wise any more than a wild donkey can bear human offspring ! 13 "If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer! 14 Get rid of your sins and leave all iniquity behind you. 15 Then your face will brighten in innocence. You will be strong and free of fear. 16 You will forget your misery. It will all be gone like water under the bridge. 17 Your life will be brighter than the noonday. Any darkness will be as bright as morning. 18 You will have courage because you will have hope. You will be protected and will rest in safety. 19 You will lie down unafraid, and many will look to you for help. 20 But the wicked will lose hope. They have no escape. Their hope becomes despair."  

What a difference El-Shaddai makes! From misery to hope, fear to courage, darkness to light, sin to forgiveness, and despair to safety, God Almighty is the way! It never ceases to amaze me that all I have to offer Him is my dark, dead, sinful heart and He has all of these blessings just waiting for me! I'm so glad that El-Shaddai is also infinite because that only means that I can't exhaust these blessings. There is no end to His abundance and love. What peace that brings to my heart! 

What Does a Banana Taste Like?

Sovereign. That's one of those words that I've always had trouble processing. When I realized that was my meditation for today, I was like, "Oh great! This should be interesting." You know how you have words that you feel like you understand in your mind, but it's hard to describe? Yep, that is how I am with the word "sovereign." It's like someone who asks "What does a banana taste like?" (A banana!) You can say it tastes sweet, but nothing else tastes like a banana so you have nothing to compare it to.

Much like that banana, there is nothing to which I can compare the sovereignty of God. That is what trips me up. Oftentimes, I explain things by making comparisons. My brain likes to process new information by connecting it with something I'm already familiar with so when I have to think of God's sovereignty, my brain grows weary of trying to compare it to the familiar.

Anything that we can come up with can not compare to the sovereignty of God. It's really a combination of several of His attributes that I've already blogged about all rolled up into one. Consider this:

Jehovah  +  Omniscient  +  Omnipresent  +  Omnipotent  +  Infinite = Sovereignty of God  

Translate that equation into a sentence and you've got:

I AM ultimate knowledge, existing everywhere at once, and abundantly powerful without beginning, end, or limits. Whoa! That really puts it in perspective.

Scripture says:

1 Chronicles 29:11-13

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. 12 Riches and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and it is at your discretion that people are made great and given strength. 13 "O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name!  

As I have embarked on this journey, I have processed God piece by piece. I have taken it one attribute at a time or one name at a time to learn more about His character. Each day, I have been blown away by who God is and who He will always be. It isn't that he "tries" to be these things. He just IS.

Because God is sovereign, we have access to knowledge and limitless power as He surrounds us in every part of creation and allows His spirit to live in us. The Spirit of the sovereign God, the creator of all things, chooses to live in us to guide us, strengthen us, and help us on our journey.

Whoa!

Read that last sentence again. Doesn't that blow your mind?!

I was right in the beginning when I said that I have nothing to compare it to. Nothing compares to that!

The sky really IS the limit.

Typically, when someone says, "The sky is the limit," they mean that the possibilities are endless. You'll often hear phrases like this from opportunists, motivational speakers, hopeless optimists, used car salesmen, and that good buddy who keeps trying to get you to join his downline in his latest network marketing venture.

As you may have expected, I have a different take on the phrase. Shocking....I know.

Grammatically speaking, it is really saying, "You can go as far as the sky, but that's it. You can't go further. You are limited in how far you can go." Sorry if I ruined that phrase for you forever, but welcome to my brain. :o)

Today's medidation time (which seems to be growing beyond my commute) was spent on an attribute of God. "Attribute" (at-tri-byoot...not uh-trib-yoot....two very different things) is a term referring to a quality of God's character. Today's attribute: God is infinite.

Romans 11:33 (NLT)

33 Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods!  

We live in a world full of people who won't believe in anything they can't see. They have to have quantifiable, visible, and tangible proof. They call it scientific. They call it wisdom.

God can't be measured. You can't put Him on a scale to see how much He weights and no tape measure in existence could measure His height. He is beyond our finite minds, scoffs at the tiny boxes in which we try to squeeze Him, and can not be limited. With a word, He spoke the world into existence. He breathed life into a man-shaped lump of dirt and gave him life...eyes blinking, heart beating....the whole nine yards! 

There is not a person on the planet who can do that, I don't care how smart and creative they think they are. 

God can not be stopped by time, space, demensions, powers, or authorities. His wisdom is so far beyond ours that we can't even BEGIN to comprehend it. I am one who loves to know the method to the maddness. Unfortunately, there is only so much of God I can understand because my brain is not big enough to hold it all. The combination of all the brains on the planet (including the ones who actually use more than 10%) working together would not be enough to fathom Gods wisdom and knowledge. 

I guess I should remember that the next time I don't understand why something is going awry and I feel the need to throw up my fist at God. Who am I to think I can tell God how to do His job? I know I get annoyed when people who know nothing about what I do try to tell me how I could do it better. So why should I do that to God? {spoiler alert: I shouldn't.} Yeah, that would be what one of my friends calls and "Amen/Ouch."   

I thought about all of this as I looked up at the beautiful blue sky full of puffy, white clouds. The sky is enormous. It seems to go on forever in all directions and it does...to a point. The oxygen in our atmosphere, the gravitational pull that keeps our feet on the ground, and the winds pushing those clouds around exist even though we can't see them. However, if you keep going higher and higher into the sky, you will discover that even gravity and oxygen are limited. Ask any astronaut and they'll tell you. These things do not exist in space, but God remains the same. He is as real in space as He is in the earth's atmosphere.

The next time you look at the sky, look all around as far as you can see and remember that God is beyond limit and measurement. Your circumstances may not make sense, but get to know the One who knows what the real deal is. Don't think that because God is infinite that He is too big to care for you, though. He just cares for you more than you can imagine, that's all.