A Personal Compendium
By Chris Boyle
This page is the public proclamation of my belief in faith and grace. The is a living document and will be extended and revised as I grow in my faith in The Risen Jesus Christ.
Topics
GOD
I believe in:
The God Of The Universe; The creator of all; His close personal presence in my life.
First, permit me a bit of divine logic. Belief in the existence of God is a binary choice: either He exists, or he doesn’t. I have tremendous respect for all who have made that choice: Atheist or Believer! What makes little sense to me is the evangelical agnostic. If you are not yet sure what you believe then you are filled with questions, not answers. In other words, your questions are of great value, your answers are of no value.
Any view of God as having some imperfections, like Superman’s weakness for kryptonite, or Achilles vulnerability in his heel, is simply a silly, self-serving view of God.
I see God as Perfect!
Perfect in power. Perfect in knowledge. Perfect in His presence. Perfect in wisdom.
(Some scholars describe this perfection as: Omnipotent — all‑powerful; Omniscient — all‑knowing; Omnipresent — present everywhere; Omnisapient — all‑wise.)
Humans, quite rightly, have trouble getting their heads around this astonishing level of perfection. However, God gives us hints of each of his perfect abilities.
His power1 is hinted at in the tremendous beauty of his creation: the mountains, the prairie breeze, the waterfall, the sunrise. His power is also hinted at in: the thunderstorm; the volcano; the hurricane; the tsunami; the tornado. ♫The same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in me♫ (from “Same Power” by Jeremy Camp).
His perfect ability to access all knowledge2 is hinted at as scientists unlock the power of large language models (naively labelled “artificial” “intelligence”).
His perfect ability to be present3 everywhere, all the time, is hinted at by a glimpse of the weekly geographic statistics of this publication, Boyle Park Media.
His perfect wisdom4 is hinted at whenever I willfully proceed with my own wise idea in the face of His lack of support. Romans 11:33 — “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments…”
But to me there is much more than His Perfection. There is His Grace, which is when He cancels the punishment that I do deserve and replaces it with blessings that I do not deserve.
1 Luke 1:37 — “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
2 Hebrews 4:13 — “Nothing in creation is hidden from His sight.”
3 Proverbs 15:3 — “God sees everything everywhere.”
4 Romans 11:33 — “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments…”
I Don’t Understand
In my early days as a believer I was discipled by Bob Shelton, the pastor at Garden Park Baptist in Winnipeg. I had lots of questions during bible study and Bob was quite familiar with the teacher’s creed: “if I don’t have an answer, I promise you that I will get one.” However, one momentous day, he answered simply with “I don’t understand …” For me that was a pivotal moment of learning. I began to realize that “I don’t know” and “I don’t understand” are a fundamental part of my identity as a Christian.
Scripture confirms:
1) I am assured that my experience is normal: “I heard, but I did not understand.” 1 and “They understood none of these things… the saying was hidden from them.” 2
2) I am cautioned that my understanding is limited: “My thoughts are not your thoughts… My ways higher than your ways.” 3
3) I am certain that one day my understanding will be complete: “Now I know in part… then I shall know fully.” 4
4) I am challenged to ask when I don’t understand: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God…” 5
5) I am to have peace with my lack of understanding: “The peace of God… surpasses all understanding.” 6
As I study scripture and walk with the spirit, I do find those moments where I say: “Awe, now I understand that!” Then, it soon follows, that my new understanding opens a plethora of new things that “I don’t understand …”
The Supernatural
When Jesus succeeded in drawing me to Him in 1989, one of the first things to challenge me and this scientific, logical brain of mine, was The Supernatural.
I remember in those early days as a Christian talking with an old friend that I hadn’t seen in a long time. I remember talking about my faith and his response was “yeah, humans seem to get off on the idea of the supernatural …” That proved to be an interesting challenge to me since I was very much a logical, common-sense type person. My highest mark in university was in Logic 101. My life decisions had always been based on “what made sense!”
As my faith in Jesus deepened, I have found myself developing a great affinity with the supernatural. The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is filled with stories of the supernatural. I have heard endless explanations of people trying to “explain away” each of the miracles. These explanations themselves tended to get tangled in contractions. (One sermon illustration has two people discussing the parting of the Red Sea. One person scoffs “Oh, that wasn’t particularly difficult since the Red Sea was only 4 inches deep at the time and place of the crossing.” The other person went away and checked the biblical facts and returned to say “That miracle was even more impressive than we discussed. Just think, Pharaoh and his entire army drowned in 4 inches of water!”)
In the face of overwhelming evidence, I have come to wholeheartedly accept that the supernatural exists. For me, there will forever be things that are be beyond human explanation.
As God states “My Ways Are Higher Than Your Ways” (Isaiah 55:8–9); “lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). The miracles in the Bible did happen as documented. I also believe that God continues to intercede supernaturally today. God may not have yet chosen to reveal to me the documentation of present-day miracles, but that causes me no issues whatsoever.
I also believe that God usually acts according to a natural order of things (ScriptureRiver.com). This order is, only in part, documented by science, logic and human common sense.