How Big Is God

By Duane S. Harlow

In this book, Pastor Duane Harlow wants you to know the vastness, the awesomeness of the God we serve. He speaks of the goodness and grace of God and shows you that this was His plan from the very beginning for our lives.

The new covenant is the gospel of grace! Grace and truth are found in the person of Jesus. Righteousness and justification are the result.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639036998

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How Big Is God

Duane S. Harlow

ISBN 978-1-63903-698-1 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63903-699-8 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Duane S. Harlow

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

To all of you who struggle to understand how great our God truly is. I have dedicated most of my books to my wife, Marlene, or to my children, but this one is different. You need to know just how big God is and just how great His love is for you. So this book is yours—yours to read and yours to hopefully learn from and enjoy.

May our God richly bless you,

Duane S. Harlow

Preface

While thinking about how big God is, I heard on the news about the spacecraft Voyager and that it has traveled more than twenty-three billion miles and is now in interstellar space, which is the space between the stars.

Considering this, I am again overwhelmed with the thought how big God is. He created the heavens and the earth, and I am thinking just how big the heavens are. Where does the space end and where does heaven begin? Are they one and the same, or how far does Voyager have to travel before it reaches the heavens? Do the heavens have a boundary?

With the edge of the observable universe, only ninety-three billion light-years away, how big is big?

When one considers that God spoke it all into existence, what does that bring to mind? Maybe the awesomeness of the God we serve. And His word tells us that He not only created the stars but named each one.

This work is not to measure God in any way, but it is to point out that He is boundless. When I use the word God, I am saying that He is beyond measure, unsearchable, and yet very present.

By the title, some might think that I forgot the question mark. But in fact, for me, it is no longer a question but a profound statement. I have come to a place that all I can do is declare how big my God truly is. I am reminded of the song How Great Thou Art, and I can’t think of a better statement. He is the Author of Life. His is the Alpha and Omega! He is the Creator!

And why did I choose the word boundless? What does that word bring to mind? What it means to me is that He is unimaginable yet not unattainable. Boundless means so much more than cannot be bound. Being bound would mean being able to put God in a box and having Him all figured out, and He is so much more than this. From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, His plan for mankind unfolds.

I consider all the books of the Bible as one book. And as such, they tell a story that one letter could never tell. We must put it all together to even get a glimpse of how big He really is.

In His service,

Duane S. Harlow

Acknowledgment

This is a testimony from one of the special people I allowed to read my manuscript:

This book is amazing, amazing, amazing. My heart is grabbed! I think it is your very best! I cannot wait to buy it for my friends and family and, of course, for myself! It answers so many questions we all have wondered about.

Thanks for the extreme honor of reading it! It makes me want to cry in a good way. As you told me, you wanted some help when we talked about this. I naturally put my legal secretary hat on. The book is perfect not using any of my horrible marks.

You are an amazing man who God has blessed beyond measure with His divine revelation. I will have to get duct tape for my mouth not to praise you. Remaining your supporter in Him,

Love you and dear Marlene!

I would like to give a special acknowledgment to Jill Schlickman who has helped with the editing of this book. Thank you, Jill! You have helped make this book much easier to read.

Then on the last page, she wrote: wow! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Although I am encouraged by this, please understand that I am very humbled by her words. For me, they are very difficult to read. What I have written I believe is from the Lord, and so I give Him all the glory. Yes, He has blessed me with words, but for the most part, they belong to Him.

By His grace,

Duane S. Harlow

Chapter 1

How Big?

You, Lord, rule over the surging sea. When its waves mount up, you still them with a word. You crushed nations that rise up against your people, and with your strong arm, you make your enemies turn and run away. The heavens and the earth belong to you because you founded the world, and all that is in it. You created the north and the south, and the mountains sing for joy at your name because it is above every name. You put the stars in the sky for our pleasure. Your arm is endowed with power, your hand is strong, and your right hand exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne, and love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are those who have learned to exalt you, who walk in the light of your presence, oh, Lord. They rejoice in your name all day long; they celebrate your righteousness. For generations, God reigned in the hearts of man with fear and awe. What would there be without gravity? Where would we be without all the elements? Your Word holds all things together. If you don’t know, this is taken from Psalm 89.

Is the earth but a twinkle in His eye, or is even that a vast exaggeration?

How big is God? For me, this can be two things: a statement or a question. Years ago, someone wrote a song about how big God is, and the Hawaiians sang it so powerfully, but I don’t think we were able to grasp the fullness of it. So we will go for it from a different direction.

I want to try to bring this truth again. Not the truth about the size of God, although my views on this will become evident, but more about the why for Jesus.

Remember God had already brought the flood and the promise that He wouldn’t do that one again. This was the first attempt to bring His creation back to Himself. Secondly, He gave the Law to show men what sin was and what the consequences for it would be and how it destroyed relationship between man and God. This did what it was designed to do, but people still sinned, and the only way it would work was with a blood sacrifice.

So what’s next? In the council of heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit had a plan that they formed before time broke out of eternity. We will give them us. We will go to mankind with the good news that we love them, and we will make it tangable in such a way that they can’t deny it.

In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. (Pay close attention to these words) Fear Not; Good News; Great Joy; All the people. (wow!) For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased. (Luke 2:8–14, NASB)

Or in the King James Version: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." We call this the Christmas story, and we put up all kinds of decorations to celebrate it. But have we somehow lost the true luster of the meaning of it?

How many times have we heard this, read this, or seen it displayed on screens and missed the message? Peace on earth, and good will toward all men! People are funny! We only see what we want to see. Have we really heard the message that the angels brought? Ask yourselves, is this the message that you have received from the church? Again, is this the message that the world is receiving from us? What was the message that the angels brought when they announced the coming of our Lord? Let’s read it in another translation.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14, KJV). The Greek meaning for this word peace is at one again. What kind of message is that? What does it mean to be at one with God? The Hebrew for this word peace is the word shalom. I think it carries a much more complete meaning for us. As always, the Hebrew words give us so much more understanding. Peace, tranquility, safety, well-being, welfare, health, contentment, success, comfort, wholeness, and integrity. That is the full meaning of the word peace.

This then was the message, Hebrew 8 and Isaiah 61, which is again written in Luke 4: To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke does not write and the day of vengeance of our God. The Bible also declares that He will remember our sins "no more."

The angels were announcing that because of this event, the favor of the Lord was going to be for all men. What does all this mean? The fulfilling of Isaiah 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. (The Lord with us.) He came to give all peoples on this earth His favor. We know that it took thirty-three years to bring it to pass, but the favor of the Lord is ours. The provision was for every person on earth with one catch. You must believe.

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17, NIV). God the Son had come to dwell with man. I look at this this way; the favor of God was given to all men, so all men could see the grace of God, and that’s the truth!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:16–17, NIV).

In those thirty-three years, Jesus showed us what that meant. His life was to us an example of God’s mighty love for His creation. Ephesians 2 speaks of this great love. "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:4–5, NIV). It would seem that grace, favor, and mercy is the heart of the message that God has sent through His Son by His angels.

"And He said to them, to you has been entrusted the mystery of the kingdom of God [that is, the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly]; but for those outside [of our circle] everything becomes a parable" (Mark 4:11, AMP).

In these scriptures, the words secret and mystery are interchangeable in different translations. What do you think it means the Old Testament concealed and the New Testament revealed? What it means to me is that now because we are at one again with God; He is making known to us those things He held secret for thousands of years.

Shalom, my friends, and always remember, "‘Behold, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel’—which, when translated, means, ‘God with us’" (Matthew 1:23, AMP).

Understand with me that when God does something, there is much more meaning to it than most of us get. This is why He gave us this thing called revelation. The more we look, the more He reveals. There is always more to tell as within this story.

Where did Joseph and Mary have to go for the census? Bethlehem. And what does that name mean? House of bread. And who did Jesus say that He is? The bread of life!

How about this, what were the shepherds doing out in that field just outside of Bethlehem? Watching and caring for sheep. My understanding is that these were no ordinary sheep, but these were the sheep being raised for the sacrifice. This is where the high priest would go to get the perfect lamb for the Passover sacrifice. The priest would walk to Bethlehem from Jerusalem and carefully choose a perfect lamb, one without spot or blemish. After that, he would carry it back all the way to Jerusalem on his shoulders, so it would not be bruised or scratched, and he would then enter Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate. The people would gather there and wait for the priest to enter, and then there would be a great celebration. This is why Jesus superseded that priest and came through the same gate, riding on a donkey.