not so wonderful

Sunday June 21^st, Job 38: Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:  "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?  Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.  "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?  Luther speaks of the two kingdoms, the kingdom of heaven up there somewhere, hidden from our eyes and hearts, and the kingdom reveled, the one shown to us by the life and teachings, compassion and grace of Jesus.  Sometimes we like to spend our time speculating about the kingdom up there, often this is to find some way we might tap into and gain power from that special gnostic knowledge.  In the process all we end up with is a headache, or in the case of our first parents, shame, and a bunch of wild speculation.  Living our lives as we do in a three dimensional world, we have tried to speculate the things of God.  Mathematicians have calculated the existence of up to a fourth, fifth, sixth, and even up to an eleventh dimension, but even armed with that knowledge, we still only live, breath, exist and think in a three dimensional world.  It is kind of hard to speculate all the reasons of God with odds against us like that.  We are limited creatures and we must learn to deal with it.  For those who read scripture however, there is the kingdom revealed.  It is what we know of God.  It is all we need to know of God.  It is the Kingdom we find revealed in Jesus.  Anything more is pure speculation, and more often than not leads us away from one another and therefore away from the very God we seek.  This is not a solo journey of ascent, rather this life is a journey walking with God and all the wonderful, and some not so wonderful, companions along the way that God has provided for us.