My wife Vivien has been on my case to sort through stacks of magazines and papers that I have not touched for decades. I admit to coming from a long line of "Steptoe and Son" hoarders and have reduced the stacks somewhat. But you know how it is, many items like computer magazines are totally outdated and need recycling. Yet hidden in the stacks are items that bring back memories while others contain real treasures.
I came across a church bulletin dated 1994, and I'm sure I did not go to the service but I may have picked it up at a bookstore associated with the church. For some reason, the church included the words of songs sung that day, and one jumped right off the page and into my consciousness. The chorus of the song says...
Don't put your limits on my God,
Don't tell me what I must believe.
If God's going to do His work He must be free.
Don't put Him in a little box
And say, "You must be orthodox."
For the love of God's unlimited to me.
(On the internet I found it was from a song written in 1981 by Lucille Olson.)
Did that strike a chord with you (pun intended)? The verses talk about rules and regulations given to worship God, and how "there really is a danger That you're worshiping the rules instead of God." How true!
Its the first line of the chorus, though, that should get implanted in our minds: "Don't put your limits on my God." I get many emails asking me if I believe this or that. If the questioner is really persistent, I will say I believe in the Apostles' Creed, which was good enough for the early church of the 2nd century. But of course even that gets me into trouble with some folk. And the reverse is true too -- I don't want to put my limits on your God either!
"Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?" (Jeremiah 32:27). "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21). That's my God!
The Law of First Mention
One of the principles of interpretation of the Bible (Bible hermeneutics) is the law of first mention. Dr. F.E. Marsh (a Baptist pastor) in his excellent work The Structural Principles of the Bible, defines it this way: "The first time a word occurs in the Scriptures gives the key to understand its meaning in every other place." He quotes B.W. Newton (Brethren): "I find in Scripture a principle of interpretation, which I believe if conscientiously adopted will serve as an unfailing guide as to the mind of God as contained therein. The first mention of a thing, the very first words of any subject of which the Holy Spirit is going to treat, are the keystone of the whole matter."
This is fresh in my mind, having just finished the updating of my 1975 book Giving and Receiving, where I emphasize the sowing of seed, cultivating the crop, and reaping the harvest. There are at least three examples I can give from that book, all of which come from Genesis, and I refer to the principle on one occasion. The first example concerns the word "seed". "And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth. And it was so" (Genesis 1:11 ESV). The principle is set that plants and fruit trees in order to reproduce themselves produce seed, and many more plants and fruit trees are the result. God's specific intervention is not required, though He does supply the moisture and warmth required for growth.
We next see the promise of God to Noah, that "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease" (Genesis 8:22). This is the first mention of agriculture, that is of humans putting seed into the ground with the aim of reaping a harvest. So God sets the principle of continuity. If there is daylight, then it will be followed by night, and just as surely, if seed is sown into the ground, it will grow and develop into food, and humans can reap the harvest.
After these two tremendous principles we are finally given a specific example of a man following God's program. "And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy" (Genesis 26:12-13). Isaac sowed and reaped, God blessed him and so he became rich. The principle has been around a long time, and it still works in whenever it is applied.
(You can get my Kindle book on Amazon.com and hopefully in paperback by the end of May. You can get F.E. Marsh's book from Book Depository, UK.)