| A Little Red Sucker Fish, Part 2 |
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| By Bob Klingenberg |
| Tuesday, February 15, 2011 23:11 |
 When it comes to what God excelled in and was good at, namely, His GREATNESS, I had at most when it came right down to it, a very vague and hazy concept of the greatness of God. As He had in that moment spoken to me about His EXCELLENT greatness, He then graciously and powerfully also spoke to me about His excellent GREATNESS. He simply said to me:“I MAGNIFY EVERYTHING I DO, FOR I AM THE GOD OF MAGNIFICENCE.”
Not quite sure about what I had heard, I was compelled to go to my Hebrew Lexicon, and sure enough, God was right. The word GREATNESS in Psalm 150:2 comes from a family of Hebrew nouns and verbs which mean “To Be-To Make Great, To Be-To Make Magnified.” And then the Holy Spirit began to open it all up so magnificently that I sat there in stunned and teary-eyed wonder. Or to quote Red in Shawshank Redemption, “I could barely sit still or hold a thought in my head.”
GOD’S MAGNIFIED CREATION
I thought immediately for some reason of the words of the world-renowned hymn, “How Great Thou Art” by Stewart Wesley Keene Hine. I can still hear George Beverly Shea sing it like none other can. The words of the very first verse came rushing into my mind:
“O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed; Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Did you note his words, “THE WORLDS THY HANDS HATH MADE.” Worlds! Not world. Where this Great-Magnificent-Magnifying God can be seen the best, according the Psalmist, is in His mighty deeds. Look at Psalm 150:2 again,
“Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to
His excellent greatness.” It is in His acts and deeds that we find God's greatness magnifed, that is, what He does is always magnified. He did not just create one world, He created worlds. “Worldness” had to be enlarged by God. “Worldness” had to be magnified by the “Great One.” Why? Because the “Magnificent One” has to magnify everything He does. That is Who He is! His greatness requires it! God’s magnificent power could not stop with just one world. Worlds! He could not stop with just one star. Stars! In addition to the Milky Way galaxy, some 75,000,000 are in existence, 50,000 of them being the size of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major). Man can see about 6,000 stars with his naked eye, which is but a tiny fraction of the number in space.
I am sure that neither the psalmist nor the hymn writer could have known that some stars are 10,000,000,000 light years (the distance that light can travel in one year at the rate of 186,000 miles per second) distant. Listen:
“GOD, IN HIS FOURTH DAY OF CREATION, WAS HAVING A GREAT-MAGNIFICENT DAY.” And just to think that our Lord keeps all of this cosmic magnificence running, like a mechanic fine-tunes a sports car in magnificent precision. Awesome! Humbling isn’t it as we stand here for the most part as mere observers in this wild, wonder-filled universe. When I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands hath made!
Let’s admit it! It is the variety in the natural world which makes it all so beautiful and a veritable daily feast for our senses. Such magnified reality both satisfies and entertains us at the same time. Think of the magnified rainbow of colors for our eyes. Eye candy! How about the plethora of aromas for our noses – excepting the not-so-nice ones? Nose candy! What about the wide range of delicious tastes for our palates? Mouth candy! Then there is the incredible symphony for our ears in nature. Ear candy!
Speaking about a symphony, there can be no magnificent composition without great diversity and variety of keys, notes, and parts. There can be no harmony without the vastly different combinations of musical tones. Think of it:
“ONLY GREATNESS IS HARMONIOUS, AND ONLY HARMONY IS GREATNESS.” The symphony of the human body itself would be impossible and painfully discordant without the contrasting parts that enable it to function in such wonderful and fearfully-made magnificence. His greatness, though unsearchable, is visible and audible all around us and in us. And it doesn't end there. Scientists have not been able to determine exactly how many species of animals, plants, and living things there are on earth. Estimates of the total number of species of animals on earth range from 2 to 50 million, of which 1.9 million species have been identified. According to one report, there are 5,500 species of mammals, 10,000 species of birds, 15,500 species of reptiles and amphibians, 31,300 species of fishes, 1,000,000 species of insects, and 322,000 species of plants. (Our Daily Bread, February 23, 2011, "The Variety Of Creation") These figures alone attest to the GREAT-MAGNIFICENT-MAGNIFYING GOD who magnified everything He created. He just can't help it!
HUMANNESS HAD TO BE MAGNIFIED
Adam should have known, but then how could he have known in his and the world’s infancy, that humanity would be magnified like everything else, and that he wouldn’t be alone very long. Sure enough, God made a stew of dust and dished up for Man-Adam a Woman-Eve. And what a dish she was! Very good! “Humanness” just had to be magnified, for on the sixth day of creation God was having another magnificent day. Human and yet so diverse in their magnified complexities, like every married couple to follow them, Adam and Eve would lovingly have to resolve their great differences. But like Andrew Peterson, in His song “Walking Through The Minefields,” sings about the “I Do’s” of marriage, “That is what the promise is for.”
So too my wife and I have learned to appreciate and not react to each other’s magnified differences. We are not just an odd couple, though we really are! We are a magnificent couple, if I have to say so myself. Frankly every married couple is a magnificent illustration of the greatness of God. Oh if they only realized this!!! And it surely should not mystify us that God wants magnified families. He said to the world’s first married couple in Genesis 1:28.
“…be fruitful and multiply….”
My dear wife Ruthie comes from a family of 13 children, four of which have already been taken to Heaven. Can you imagine sitting around the dinner table in that those multiplying children always included some very little, young ones? Why, it was a veritable Olympics where every spoon and dish was a javelin and a discus. You would almost have to wear a catcher’s chest protector and a batting helmut.
Be assured that on that farm there were only available communal beds and bedrooms, excepting of course Dad and Mom’s bedroom where they were busy making one of the most magnificent families that I have ever seen. But then again, in that old porous farmhouse in the winter, those communal beds and bedrooms weren’t all that bad, seeing those beds were the really only warm place in the house.
But “Humanness” wasn’t done being magnified. There was much more in God’s great-creative breath than anything or anyone could have known. “Human Race” is a couplet that conceals more than it reveals. More like “Human Races.” For God never has a single-minded day. The sixth day was no exception. Humanity would explode into magnificent greatness. We sang about it as little children over and over again, though we understood very little of what we were singing. You know how it went;
“RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE, ALL ARE PRECIOUS IN
HIS SIGHT; JESUS LOVES ALL THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD.”
All kinds of ridiculous theories have been put forth not only about the origin of the species, but also about the origin of the races. Man stumbles and bumbles all over his stupid brains when it comes to origins. You know, like man originated from apes, and black people originated from cursed Ham. That is not only the world’s original Ham sandwich, it is the original baloney sandwich.
Apart from God, all men are reduced to offering mere opinions that they are dumb enough to accept as facts. It was said about the human race in Noah’s day in Genesis 6:5 KJV,
“…and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil and that continually.”
In other words:
“MAN APART FROM GOD IS SO WICKED, THAT HIS SINS ARE
AS NUMEROUS AS HIS THOUGHTS." But not only evil! Foolish! We read about man apart from God in Romans 1:21,
“…but they became futile in their speculations, and their
foolish heart was darkened.” In other words:
“MAN APART FROM GOD IS SO FOOLISH, THAT HIS FOLLIES ARE
AS NUMEROUS AS HIS THOUGHTS.” You need reach no further than the greatness of God. When God created the human race, He was not suffering from monomania. When God created the human race, it could not be mono-anything. God, because He is the great God, had to magnify it. One race, one color, one kind would never do. God’s essence is too magnificent to express itself in repetitive sameness. He couldn’t help Himself. He had to magnify and multiply “raceness.” Hear me: “THERE IS NO GREATER MANIFESTATION OF THE MAGNIFICENT GREATENSS OF GOD THAN MAGNIFIED RACENESS.” Red and yellow, black and white, there they are, trumpeting the fact that not only is “racism” the evidence of the most sinful minds in the world, but is also the evidence of the most small-minded and simpleminded people in the world.
Racists aren’t just sinful, they are stupid! Not one thing great about their thinking. Racists are the most boring and small-minded people in the world. And there are no people farther from God than they are. This is a test! And I am sure that some who read this have been flunking this same test over and over again. Small-minded racists cannot even entertain such great thoughts, let alone allowing them to enter and take root in their minds. Why? We will use Psalm 139:6 as the answer,
“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high,
I cannot attain unto it.” Racists just keep on rotating the same bogus racist thoughts in their heads. They remind me of rotating car tires, which prolongs the duration of the tires without actually giving them a break. It is high time not only to change tires, but to change the entire unit – a great, magnificent new brain which only comes from God the Creator.
Suddenly the entire Psalm jumped off the page not only into my head but into my heart. Look at it again with me please. We read Psalm 150:2b-5,
“…Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.” “Praise Him with trumpet sound; praise Him harp and lyre.” “Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.” “Praise Him with loud cymbals; praise Him with high sounding cymbals.”
Then it all began to snap into place in my otherwise thick head, like pieces of a puzzle that I had never been able to find. Especially the words:
"ACCORDING TO!" Remember now what we have learned: “GOD’S GREATNESS IS HIS MAGNIFICENCE WHICH CAUSES HIM TO EXPRESS AND MANIFEST HIMSELF IN MAGNIFIED WAYS .” Never sameness, always diverseness! Never simplicities, always complexities! Zap! There it was! It hit me in the head and chest like a ton of guitar strings and dancing shoes. Of course:
“THE MAGNIFICENT, MAGNIFYING GOD DESERVES MAGNIFICENT,
MAGNIFIED PRAISE.” If you will:
“THE MAGNIFICENT GOD DESERVES A MAGNIFICENT RESPONSE.”
That is why we read the words, “According To.” That means, “In Keeping With.” Or again, “In Proportion To.” And again, “Commensurate With.”
Therefore, an organ is glorious, but by itself it will never do! The piano is wonderful, but by itself, it falls far short and does meet the Divine requirement of greatness. Praise must be magnified to suit the great God. Bring in every instrument known to man, and invent some more. Bring in the trumpet, the flute, the harp, the timbrel, the stringed instruments, the cymbals both boomers and screamers. Anybody got a cannon? Bring it in and blow it off. The 1812 Overture will do nicely thank you. Of course, that is going to rattle the teeth and the chest cavity, but so be it. But then, worship is not and must not ever be designed for little man but always for the great God.
But then again, if we want a nice, sedated church, the devil will always cooperate in making sure that the church is a nice, soft bed, and the sanctuary is a nice, quiet bedroom. Sleep on soundly, but I am leaving. Why? Because:
“TRUE WORSHIP MUST BE A MAGNIFICENTLY MAGNIFIED SYMPHONY
OF PRAISE FOR THE MAGNIFICENT GOD.”
Truly, God’s House of Worship is and should be the greatest place on earth, making “Go Blue” and “The Michigan Fight Song “at the University of Michigan Big House sound like a lullaby. You see, magnified worship will encourage and inspire others to join in the celebration of our great God. The House of Worship, the true, authentic “Big House,” should stir men’s souls and not anesthetize them.
How many times have you seen people go bonkers over their sports-gods, as they wave their arms and shout their brains out in excitement? You can’t help at least joining in a little. You feel like a jerk just sitting there amidst the inspired multitude. And how often have you seen those same people in church barely moving or opening their mouths in worship?
When all the while the Lord calls to us in Psalm 48:1,
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of
our God, His holy mountain.” Or, Psalm 47:1,
“O clap your hands, all peoples; shout to God with the voice
of joy (a ringing cry). For the Lord Most High is to be
feared, a great king over all the earth.”
It is no coincidence that again and again the “Great God” is to be worshipped with “Great Praise.” The "Magnificent God" is to be worshipped with "Magnified Praise." How do we know that? Very simple – ACCORDING TO His Word!
WE’RE OH SO DIFFERENT – ISN’T THAT GREAT?
Before my very eyes, God was magnifying “worship” and “worshippers.” I had never seen or heard the likes of “it” or “them” in the churches where I pastored. Some shouted “Amen” while I was preaching, and each time I just about lost my place in the sermon. Others declared their “Hallelujahs” in between the “Amens.” They were all so demonstrative and vocal, while at the most, the traditional worshippers only had a few who from time to time would nod their heads affirmatively during my sermons. They were very modest “Bobble Head Fish.” It was all that they could muster. Then came the famous or infamous “Little Red Sucker Fish.” Then I saw it! Because He is the great God, He simply had to magnify “fishness” beyond “troutness,” and of all places in a highly touted trout fishery.
Who would have ever thought that those fish could live in the same watery habitat together? The “Great God” did! Variety! Diversity! Magnificence! Greatness! It is only Christ’s great and magnificent church that makes room for the likes of Boanerges and Barnabas in the same river of life. Oh yes:
“SONS OF THUNDER AND SONS OF COMFORT – ‘THUNDER
FISH’ AND ‘COMFORT FISH’ WORSHIPPING THE GREAT GOD TOGETHER.”
Isn’t that magnificent? Isn’t that just the greatest? Who is asking those questions of us? Why none other than the “Little Red Sucker Fish” in a trout stream, of course. The really great churches are those who have become the embodiment of God’s great love and power. They have gotten rid of the cookie cutter mentality when it comes to worship and worshippers. Differences among worshippers does not mean oppositeness, it means greatness. I had always known the great importance of the genus called worshipper. But now suddenly the multiplied species of worshippers were swimming into the church, and it took a little red sucker fish to slap me across the head get my attention.
My beloved cousin Herm never caught a more beautiful or more important fish in his whole life than sucking-lips “Red.” And Red convicted me of what J.B. Phillips had been trying to teach us all along;
“Your God Is Too Small.” Hear this:
“THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST’S CHURCH IS ONLY TO BE FOUND
IN MAGNIFICENT CONTRAST, NOT IN BORING CLONENESS.” Failure to be the great God’s show-and-tell of that truth has caused more damage and division in the body of Christ than anything else that I can think of. And failure here is why:
“SO MANY CHURCHES ARE ALL MAINTENANCE AND BURIED
POTENTIAL, AND PUTTING FORWARD LITTLE BY WAY OF PERFORMANCE.” And some of those churches have already died or are dying. And:
“TO ANALYZE THESE UNGREAT CHURCHES REQUIRES
ARCHAEOLOGISTS, NOT EXPLORERS.” So we read the Apostle Paul’s instruction to us in Romans 15:7,
“Wherefore, accept one another, just as God in Christ also
accepted us to the glory of God.”
You see, only when we embrace God’s magnifying greatness can we truly bring glory to Him. If we historically had learned this, the church would be far more magnificent and therefore God-glorifying than it is. God help us!
And, oh God, we would need Your supernatural help in the midst of what now You were about to unleash in the church. Not only would I be tested as never before, but it would be the greatest test that had ever taken place in our country church. Would we prove to be a great church of the great God with a great heart? Or would we prove to be a small-minded church with a small heart and a small god? A torrent of Spirit River was about to reveal it all!
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