"When you're in your twenties you're young and indestructible," so goes popular thought.  I must be an exception to that rule.  I never thought of myself as "indestructible."  Full of dreams, yes, and young, but not indestructible.  I’m not sure that ANY of us really thought of ourselves as indestructible; we just didn’t see death the way older people do.  We rather had an idealistic view of death: going out in a blaze of glory—fulfilling some great destiny.  And older people looked on us and thought, “Yeah, yeah, ‘Ooooh!  Aaaah!  Destiny!’  Blah, blah, blah, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.”

I still have dreams.  Yet what would happen if the carpet was pulled out from underneath me and I was to find out today that there's a festering cancer in my abdomen that is lethal and indeed terminal?  What if I found out today that more than likely I will be dead in two years or less?  What would happen to all those dreams?  Where would my sense of destiny go?

Wiped out.

That's what happened to a young, promising student who was a year my junior back when I was in college.  He had quite a bit going for him: Athletic, happy, full of life and the Lord.  I think the ladies took a bit of a shine to him, too.  In hindsight, and if he would have been one of my students now, I would have said, "That young man has a destiny before him.  He would make a good missionary."  Then, in something as simple as a road trip from California to Missouri he and his best friend were in a car accident that claimed his life.  And there went all of what we could have ever expected of our friend.

Still, after his death and at his funeral there were more students that gave their hearts to the Lord than who might not otherwise have done so if he had never died.  And if the Lord wills to not return until later, those who followed Him that day will influence their children, their grandchildren, and perhaps generations beyond.  This young man’s example and witness is marked on the lives of those who knew him and is sealed with his blood.

I'd call that quite a destiny, wouldn't you?

But what made this young man so powerful in his influence?  Just following the Lord?  I don’t think so.  I know a lot of people who follow the Lord who don’t have half the influence my friend did.

I was reading the Proverbs the other day and came across this: "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."  It reminded me of what James said in his letter:

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."  As it is, you boast and brag.  All such boasting is evil.  Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

Wow!  That is really harsh!  But it echoes what David said in the Psalms:

Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days;

Let me know how fleeting is my life.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth;

The span of my years is as nothing before you.

Each man's life is but a breath.

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro;

He bustles about, but only in vain;

He heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

How depressing!  Aren't you glad you're reading this?  But then we find this in scripture: "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."  And again Paul says to be wise and make the most of every opportunity.  Today is really all we have to do anything.

Maybe that is what made my friend such a prime candidate for people to speak of him as having a great future ahead of him (well...not that he didn't, but I'm speaking of an earthly future).  He lived in the now and did as he knew what was right to do.  He didn’t wait until tomorrow.  He understood intimately, I think, the meaning of those verses.  His life’s motto seemed to be, “Carpe diem!”  And seize the day he did!  He had a heart of wisdom because he was very aware that our time here is limited.  Ultimately, he lived—and died—what he used to preach: “Anyone of us could go at anytime.”

See you later…if the Lord wills.

Did that title catch your attention?  You know why it did, don't you?  It caught your attention because of the bold title, "The One True God."  Likely there is a little part of you that is saying, "The one true God, eh?  We'll see about that!  He can't say there is only one true god."

Maybe.

The story is told of four blind men who were taken to an elephant to touch it and tell what it is like.  One touched the leg and said, "Ah...an elephant is like a tree."  Another touched the side and said, "No, an elephent is like a great wall."  Another touched the trunk and said, "No, an elephant is like a large snake."  Still the fourth touched the tail and said, "You are all wrong.  An elephant is like a rope."

 The story (in its various forms) is told to illustrate the fact that all of us are blind to what God is really like.  We each have our perspectives and nobody is really wrong, just different; we are all touching a part of God, and if we were to all put our perspectives together--finding the commonalities and discarding the differences--we would come up with what the one true god is like (provided we are monotheistic).

Absurd.

The story only illustrates that it takes a sighted one to bring the blind to the real thing and clarify things for them.  Furthermore, if all of us are blind, who is the sighted one?  Surely not the ones telling the tale, otherwise they are claiming they can see clearly and so contradict the very point they are trying to make.  They also fall under the condemnation of the Proverb that says, "Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for him."  Even secular philosophers say, "There are the foolish who think they are wise and the wise who know they are fools."

Maybe this tale has a grain of truth, but the people are eating the leaves--not the grain.

Two strangers were discussing their girlfriends with each other.  "So what is she like," asked the first.  "Oh, man, she is SO beautiful!  She has a perfect figure, dresses well, smells nice..."  "Wow," said the other, "mine is like that, too!  What does she look like?"  "Well, she has long, dark hair; smooth to touch; a balanced make-up: not too much, not too little."  "What a coincidence!  My Candace is just like that, too!"  "Oh really?!  Candace?!  That's my girl's name, too!"  "Wow!  What are the chances?"  There was an odd pause.  The second man said, "Uh...my Candace is the quiet type."  Another odd pause.  "S-s-so is...uh...my Candace."  "My Candace works over at the department store here."  "You know, maybe we should go and meet...uh...Candace."  "Yeah, let's do that."  So the two men headed off towards the department store.  They walked into the women's section and the second man smiled and said, "There she is," and waved.  "Who? You mean that girl at the cashier's desk?  She's blonde!"  "No, man...the girl standing on the platform!"  "What girl?"  "HER," he exclaimed, pointing at..."THAT'S A MANNEQUIN!!!"  "SHHH!!!  He didn't mean that, sweetheart.  You're for real and our love is real."  Just then a security officer walked up to the two and said to the second man, "Sir, you'll need to leave.  We don't want you creating a scene like last time."  The first man began cracking up.  "Oh, man!  Your Candace...is a...*ha-ha*...a mannequin!"

It is true enough that though one entity can have many different and paradoxical features it can still be one and the same thing.  Equally true, however, is the fact that equal features do not equal one and the same thing.  And the differences are not always negligable, but often times essential.

Why are there so many religions--really, so many gods?  I think it has to do with the fact that many people can't deal with the fact that God is one way and not another.  And so they end up creating their own god or gods and end up in Voltaire's headlock: "God created man in his own image," he said, "and man returned the favor."

So who is this one true god?  However we conceive of him (all of creation is female by contrast, but that's another thread), he is who he is.

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?'  Then what shall I tell them?"

God said to Moses, "I am who I am."