Exploring Truth Ministries

The goodness of God is revealed to me the most when I am dry and thirsty for something to quench the parching spiritual dullness that sometimes overtakes me. His presence is counted so much more glorious when I “feel” like I have been stowed away from God. Like I have been hidden deep in the recesses of the earth so far down that God Himself could not reach me. When my emotions are waging war on my own soul and I am desperately longing to be enlightened by the Holy One. This is when the greatest hopes and and the richest joys are born in my heart. It has happened over and over again. After days, and weeks and even months of struggling, wrestling, fighting and failure to be in the presence of God. Without even a moments notice God once again grants His presence and restores elatedness to my heart.

Why does God tarry? Why does he hide His face? In order to make us appreciate Him more, that’s why. No time is so glorious as the blessed reunion of the Christian and the divine presence of His Savior. Those are truly the most glorious times in life!

When Moses was speaking with the Lord in the story of the burning bush Moses asked God a question. “Whom shall I say sent me?”, to which God replied “Tell them I AM sent you” (my paraphrase) Most scholars believe this response was given because there is nothing like God, he is completely holy or separate. He cannot be compared to any other being or creature. His otherness is simply too much for our minds to grasp. In essence He is unknowable.

It may seem paradoxical then that God’s end purpose for this world is to make Himself known among His creation. He desires for every tongue, tribe and nation to know Him. He even gives specific commands in the scriptures for us that are impossible if we don’t know Him, ie “love the Lord thy God….”etc. The Bible even says that we can know Him in His fullness. We can fellowship with Him, worship Him and experience him. Therefore, there is a God whom you can know and yet who is completely unknowable. Sound like a paradox to you?

If our relationship with God rests in what we view as a paradox then the situation itself proclaims the holiness of God and further proves that God is completely other. We, as humans, see a paradox as something that is not resolvable. However, God sees it as an opportunity to display His Glory. We are restrained by the bounds of a paradox. Therefore the act of making Himself known proves God’s otherness simply because He is not restrained by the situation like we are.

In making Himself known God displays His Holiness. Do you wanna know why I get so mad when I hear people say things like “Jesus is my homeboy” or “Jesus is pimptastic” or “I think Jesus was Hot” Because they do not understand the holiness of God. Yes, it is true that Jesus is our friend and we do have a personal relationship with Him, but the fact that we are even able to have a relationship with Him is proof enough that He is not bound by human parameters.

Furtheremore, it proves He is HOLY and thus we should not treat Him as common. We should honor Him, cherish Him, love Him, and esteem Him highly simply because he is worthy of it. The question then arises how is God able to accomplish this. How has greatest being in the universe who is seemingly unknowable made himself accessible to humanity. The answer, He became like us in the person of Jesus Christ not only to make propitiation for sin but to also display the attributes of His Nature, Character, Being, and Glory. He has even conveyed in His Son the fullness of the Godhead. Everything is summed up in the person of Christ. He is our mediator and ultimately our paradox breaker.

Today I preached the funeral of Mrs. Frances Tucker. She was a faithful member of my church, amongst other things. Devoted wife, loving mother, wonderful grandmother, family chef, chief gardener, but most of all she was a great reflection of the Lord Jesus to her family, church and community. Never a bad word has ever been uttered about Mrs. Frances, only good things. “Jewel of a woman”, “Finest woman I ever knew”, “Sweetheart to the core”, are only a few of the phrases I’ve heard as accolades to this womans life.

She married John Tucker at the age of 13 (he was 15). John says, “The lord must have known what he was doing when he put us together. We were too young to know for ourselves.” So, this past year as they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary we as a church marveled at God’s faithfulness in the lives of these two remarkable people. When asked about how they lived together so long John simply replied, “I couldn’t have lived without her. It’s been wonderful waking up every morning this past 60 years with her.”

What a wonderful legacy to leave behind.  What a wonderful work of grace.

Mrs. Frances, you will be dearly missed.

Your loving Pastor,

Bro. Carlton

One year ago to day God gave me enough courage to call up Jenny Miller and ask her out on a date for the following Friday night. I am so thankful that God has granted me the privilege of eventually marrying such a wonderful woman.

As I sit here in the Hospital with one one of my church members my wife is on her way to bring me some lunch on her lunch break. Then she will scurry back to work to finish her day. What a wonderful blessing she is to me and to the church. Without her I don’t know what I would do and without her the church would be much worse off.

The writer of proverbs asks, “An excellent wife who can find?” (Pro 31:10a) I can honestly say, I have. And I proclaim with the author when he goes onto say, “She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.” (Pro 31:10b-11)

Thank you Lord for granting a nervous young man the grace and courage to do your will. Thank you Jenny for loving me so much, not only in word but in deed.

Carlton

After several months of Exploring Truth being down I am now proud to announce that we are back up and running, somewhat. First, to my faithful readers let me give you an explanation for my disappearance from the world wide web (and seemingly the world) for the past several months.

The covertness of ET all started when a server that was hosting the site failed and the original blog was lost. I have gotten some of the old posts recovered from the physical hard drive but it may be a while before I’ll be able to repost them. Secondly, this all happened simultaneously to me getting married and starting in a new pastorate. Needless to say my life has been quite busy over the past few months and I’m just now getting settled enough to not only fix the technical side of the site but write as well.

I hope that my desertion has not caused anyone to be agitated. I look forward to reading your comments and writing in the next few weeks. Just a reminder, I got the shell for the site up today and ET is functional again. But over the next few weeks it will be a work in progress so just ignore any changes!

Once again,

Carlton