Talking, Listening, and Walking with the Relational God

By Jim L. Bond

While serving as president of a Christian university, Bond often spoke in the college chapels. The students came from a variety of theological traditions. Some were better informed than others as to what they believed. Coming from the Wesleyan tradition, Bond felt some responsibility to help inculcate the theology of his denomination. After all, they brought the university into existence and continued to govern and support it.

It did not take the president long to discover that the perceptive students were aware of his indoctrination efforts and used the time to catch up on the sleep they had been missing. He determined there had to be a better way. A liberating thought ignited within: why not make Jesus the major thrust of my messages! It revolutionized his thought then--and he has increasingly become more passionate about it over the years.

Old theological thought forms and their stilted expressions no longer serve us well in communicating our liberating message to the current generation. In this book, Bond contends this can be done best by engaging biblical and relational language that focuses on "the simplicity that is in Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:3 KJV).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9798892435949

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Talking, Listening, and Walking with the Relational God

Jim L. Bond

ISBN 979-8-89243-593-2 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89243-594-9 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Jim L. Bond

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

To my beloved Sally, my wife of sixty-four delightful years, my companion in ministry and typist of this book:

To our son, Jim and his wife Donna, to our daughter Cristina and her husband Brent:

To our nine grandchildren and nine great grandchildren; I dedicate this book, prayerful that each of you will whole heartedly embrace the amazing relationship of talking, listening, and walking with Jesus.

For he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.

—Exodus 34:14 (NLT)

My Tribute

Preface

The Existence of God

Chapter 1

God or No God?

Chapter 2

The Creator God

What Kind of God Is He?

Chapter 3

The Why of Creation

Chapter 4

The Relational God

The God/Human Relationship

Chapter 5

The Relationship Idyllic

Chapter 6

The Relationship Fractured

God's Restoration of the Relationship

Chapter 7

The Relationship Renewed

Chapter 8

The Relationship Deepens

Holy Spirit Revealed as Equipper

Chapter 9

Equipped to Do and to Be

Chapter 10

Equipped as God's Representatives

The Relationship Lived Out

Chapter 11

The Relationship Personal

Chapter 12

The Relationship Broadens

The Relationship Eternal

Chapter 13

The Relationship Eternal

About the Author

To my beloved Sally, my wife of sixty-four delightful years, my companion in ministry and typist of this book:

To our son, Jim and his wife Donna, to our daughter Cristina and her husband Brent:

To our nine grandchildren and nine great grandchildren; I dedicate this book, prayerful that each of you will whole heartedly embrace the amazing relationship of talking, listening, and walking with Jesus.

For he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.

—Exodus 34:14 (NLT)

My Tribute

For several years this book has been on the back burner. I have spent countless hours during my lifetime with paper and pencil in hand. My professional career has called for much writing. It has seldom come easily. The words on the paper do not show the blood, sweat, and tears that have dripped on virtually every page, paragraph, sentence, or even choice of words. All of this tough grind has given me pause. At my age, why would I write a book? Why would I subject myself to the intensive research; the rigors of writing; and the daily, disciplined perseverance required for such a project?

I have done some deep, prayerful soul-searching. I have concluded that I have no personal need to write this book. It is definitely not for self-aggrandizement. Thus, I can say with a clear conscience, I offer these writings as a humble gift to that Great and Glorious Man at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Of that Man I can say with absolute certainty: For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). My life, and the way I have endeavored to live it, can only be defined by my relationship with Jesus. This work I offer as my gift to Him. To hear Him say, Well done, servant Jim, will bring the ultimate satisfaction to me and, hopefully, will be eternally valuable to those who read these words.

My prayer:

May the thoughts of my mind, the meditations of my heart, and the words that flow from my pen be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. May they be saturated with the pleasant aroma of Christ that brings life to those who hear and may it be used of the Spirit to draw them into vital, intimate, eternal relationship with You. Amen.

Preface

I like simple! This statement reveals the kind of person I am—common, ordinary, uncomplicated. Over the years, my penchant for simplicity has spilled over into my theology. Though I am a Wesleyan by training, I have read widely from scholars of other traditions that has broadened my theological understanding. I have decided it would be very difficult to determine that any one of the different schools of thought has everything exactly right. I have no interest in championing any particular theological system. My concern is how do we believers communicate the redeeming message of God in Christ to an unbelieving world. My focus is on the simplicity that is in Christ (1 Corinthians 11:3 KJV).

I believe wholeheartedly that the biblical truth of God's Word never changes. I refuse to compromise this truth in any way to accommodate the whims of naysayers. However, I do think it is prudent to acknowledge that old thought forms and stilted theological terminologies that were used successfully in earlier times may have lost much of their effectiveness in our modern times. Thus, we must diligently search for new, fresh compelling ways to convey the old truth to this new generation.

My motivation for writing this book is to make God's transforming truth simple, coherent, and livable. I perceive that, for me, the best way to accomplish my purpose is to engage relational language. Hence, the focus of the book is on the divine-human relationship.

I recently celebrated my eighty-eighth birthday. I entered into relationship with Jesus at the age of five. It would be accurate to say that throughout my life I have talked, listened, and walked with the relational God. I share vignettes of my journey with Jesus throughout the book but particularly in chapter 11.

The psalmist states profoundly my purpose and prayer for this book.

Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come. (Psalm 71:17, 18)

Part 1

The Existence of God

Chapter 1

God or No God?

The first eighteen years of my life were spent in a town called Pampa, which is in the Panhandle of Texas. It was an absolutely idyllic place for me during my adolescence. Population was twenty thousand, meaning it was large enough to provide needed amenities but small enough for meaningful people connections, particularly with my peer group. Schools and athletics played a significant role in my youth. Home and family with my parents and two older brothers provided shelter, warmth, fun, instruction, and love. Involvement in a vibrant local church resulted in exceptional spiritual formation, which laid the foundation upon which I built my life.

I cannot remember a single summer that we did not vacation in Colorado. We boys thrived in the cooler temperatures, the wonder of the Rocky Mountains, and catching rainbow trout in the small mountain streams. In fact, on our return trips to the flat fields and prairies of the Texas Panhandle, we begged Mom and Dad to move to Colorado. As far as we knew, they never gave it any consideration until we all left home for college. Then, to the surprise and delight of all three boys, our parents moved to the San Luis Valley in southwestern Colorado and became potato farmers. My two brothers eventually followed them. Had I not felt God's call into the ministry, I suspect that I too would have spent my days digging in the dirt for spuds.

High in the mountains above the valley where my family lived, there is an exquisite little reservoir that retains water used by the farmers. If you are a property owner and have water rights in the valley, that qualifies you to membership in the trout fishing club at Santa Maria lake. My dad and brothers were members. I never dreamed I would be a member of the trout club. To my great surprise—and delight—when my dad died in 1998, he deeded his membership to me. This, in turn, qualified me to purchase one of the little farmer-owned house trailers at the lake. Within months, Sally and I were proud owners of one of the trailers.

We did a lot of work inside and out on our mountain trailer to bring it up to our living standards. Though the trailer itself is inauspicious, the crystal-clear lake below and the towering mountains around provide a multimillion dollar view. We love it! The unforgettable memories we have created there with our children and grandchildren are priceless.

One of my most cherished memories is the countless times I have slipped outside at night and stood beneath the heavenly canopy above. It is mesmerizing! Our trailer is almost at ten thousand feet elevation. There are no city lights. The view is best on a moonless night. Many are the times when I have quietly stood in the black darkness, lost in breathless fascination and ineffable curiosity of the heavens above. You have never seen the Milky Way galaxy until you have seen it in such a remarkable setting.

I have always been enraptured by the grandeur, enormity, and sheer boundlessness of the cosmos. Think about that for a moment. Our sun is 1,300,000 times larger than the planet on which we live. There are hundreds of billions of stars like our sun, which make up the Milky Way galaxy of which we are a tiny part. There is a galactic center at the heart of our Milky Way, which is 25,000 light years (light travels at 186,282 miles per second) from our planet. It takes our solar system about 226 million years to make one orbit around the galactic center. One galaxy the size of the Milky Way consists of thousands of star clusters and billions to trillions of individual stars. There are at least one hundred billion galaxies in known space. Astronomers have mused that there might be as many stars in the universe as there are grains of sand on our beaches and deserts. Inconceivable! Standing outside our little mountain trailer on a soft clear summer night and staring into the endless cosmos always gives me pause.

My mind staggers in incredulity. Is it really possible that there is a Creator who brought all of this into existence? I came to faith as a child. For obvious reasons, I never had a thought about the matter of beginnings. I have sometimes thought that had I not become a believer in my adolescence, my questing mind would have demanded consideration of the creation question. This thought now gives me some tolerance for the serious-minded agnostic who is earnestly seeking answers to the profound mysteries of life. The atheist? That's a different issue! And this is the point of departure for this book. There are three significant theological questions that are foundational in addressing the subject of this book.

These questions are of supreme importance and must be given serious thought by every individual. Many dismiss these issues as irrelevant and unworthy of consideration. Unwarily, they reject the importance and gravity of the ultimate consequences of their decision!

The three issues are as follows:

Is there a God?

If so, what kind of a God is He?

If there is a God, what are His expectations of me?

Philosophers, theologians, and scientists have debated these subjects profusely and inexhaustibly throughout time. I do not pretend to speak authoritatively on such weighty matters. I am aware that my brief address of such substantive questions can be dismissed as oversimplification. I am quite all right with that! I am convinced that the simpler I write, the better I can be understood and not be misunderstood. Thus, it is my intention to engage easily understood language to express profound biblical and theological truth. God never intended theology to be only a subject endlessly debated by bright, trained minds in the halls of academia. This statement does not disparage the work of scholars. They are needed! But the fundamental purpose of theology is to help each of us understand God's true purpose for our lives and then live accordingly. Theology plays out in human lives. Thus, it is essential that it be intelligible, practical, and livable. When biblical truth is embraced wholeheartedly, it sings and dances joyously in human hearts and then is lived out in wonderful, winsome ways. Christian theology enfleshed in the lives of people like you and me is the design of our Creator God. I hope this clarifies my intent. Now let's move to question number one: God or no God?

On December 21, 1968, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched the first manned space flight designed to orbit the moon. Astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman manned the craft. On Christmas Eve, the spaceship successfully slipped into orbit around the moon. No one who was watching on television that night will ever forget what the three men did before bedtime. They took turns reading Genesis 1:1–10 from the Holy Bible: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… (v. 1). How powerfully impacting on the millions of earthlings who heard that scriptural passage read from 240,000 miles out there in space on that historic Christmas Eve!

It is true, of course, that some were offended that in such a spectacular moment of human scientific achievement, the astronauts would cast a dark cloud over that incomparable feat by reference to the Creator God of the Bible.

On the other hand, the clear message from Genesis 1 was joyfully embraced by believers while being dismissed with haughty, contemptuous disdain by atheists.

My attitude toward atheism is reflected in a happening that occurred several years ago. Driving down a familiar street in the town where we lived, I saw a sign on a billboard that grabbed my attention. It stated in bold print: Don't believe God? You are not alone, Join the club. There was an email address at the bottom of the sign. I said to myself, What is this? Are atheists becoming more intentional about winning ‘converts'?

A few weeks later, I was invited to speak on Sunday morning in a nearby city where I had seen the same message on their billboards. I mentioned that I had a plan to address this issue. I proposed that I would raise thousands of dollars, rent billboard space across the country in close proximity of the offensive signs, and print in large letters, The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God' (Psalm 14:1). There was excited applause! People were grabbing for their wallets and checkbooks, I quieted their ardor by informing them that I was being totally facetious. I reminded them that we have always had, and always will have, atheists among us. I doubt that quoting Psalm 14 would produce our desired results. To believe or not believe in God is the choice of every inhabitant on planet earth—and this choice is incomparable in its importance to each of us.

Talking about stating something of unfathomable significance in elegant, elementary expression, how about this: In the beginning God created. Astounding! God Himself must have inspired the human author to write these words. It is stated much too simply for one of us to have written it. We would have engaged more explanatory and flamboyant language to prepare us for this big announcement. After all, this is a proclamation about the origin of all things, including planet earth and human life. While we are enthralled by the compelling beauty and simplicity of these first words of the Christian Bible, they are also bursting with mystery, intrigue, and questions.

The first big question is, Who is this creator called God? Where does He come from? From whence comes His power to create? Where has He been prior to His creative action? Is it possible that He has always existed? The human mind reels with these probing, pulsating, haunting questions about the existence of God.

What evidence does the Bible give to substantiate God? If you are not aware of the answer to this query, brace yourself because, interestingly, the Bible is strangely silent on this matter. Why? Evidently it is not deemed necessary to provide us mortals with this information. The simple truth is that in the beginning, the scriptures assume and therefore assert that there is God. Throughout the sixty-six books of the Bible, there are not detailed arguments specifically designed to prove the existence of God. Theologian Thomas Oden writes,

Scripture's first phrase, In the beginning God' (Genesis 1:1), unmistakably expresses this prevailing biblical assumption, not that we arrive at a well-argued conclusion that God is, but from the beginning God is, and only later may we perhaps debate, think, and argue about it…before any human rationality or argument, there is God.¹

The meaning of human life in all its dimensions is established on the foundation of this simple truth: there is God!

In similar vein, Hans Kung states,

It is important to remember that the creation accounts in the Bible do not intend to offer scientific information about the way the universe came into being. What they do intend to show is what we have to call a testimony of faith about the ultimate Whence of the universe, a testimony which science can neither confirm nor refute: at the beginning of the world is God.²

At the time I launched this writing project, I became aware of a recently published book with the intriguing title Reflections on the Existence of God. Best-selling author Richard Simmons III is the writer of the book. If you are an atheist or struggling agnostic or have a friend or family member who is, this is a must read. The book is the end result of thirty years of research. What fascinated me is that Simmons lists the names of some of the most renowned atheists, current and historical, many of whom ultimately became God believers before they died.

I have chosen to focus on one person only from Simmon's list: a world-famous French philosopher and writer who lived in the twentieth century named Albert Camus. Many years ago, I read his book entitled The Stranger. One of his books was enough for me! I cannot recollect a more depressing, pessimistic view of life. It is no surprise that Camus would eventually coin the term the absurdity of life. He argued that life has no meaning because there is no God and death is the end of everything human.

However, his personal story does not end on such a hopeless note. Late in his life, he became acquainted with a Methodist minister named Howard Mumma. They met one Sunday morning at an English-speaking church in Paris where Mumma was guest preacher during the summer. Many conversations ensued. At one point, Mumma said to Camus, You are seeking the presence of God Himself. His reply was poignant: I am ready. I want this, this is what I want to commit my life to.³

Simmon's summary statement is powerful:

Camus found his atheistic worldview to be unlivable. He could not live with his belief that life is ultimately empty, meaningless, and absurd. He recognized he had this deep thirst for meaning, and had the courage and the humility to be willing to abandon the atheistic philosophy that made him famous and begin a search for truth. His search led him to God.⁴

Camus's decision to believe in God is mirrored in the lives of several other famous atheists whose stories are told by Simmons. Their pathways are different, but the end result is the same: belief in God.

To make the commitment to believe in God is what another famous Frenchman called The Wager. Blaise Pascal lived more than three centuries ago and was an acclaimed mathematical genius and inventor among his peers. It was, however, his writing called Pensees (French word for thoughts) that has not only endured across the generations but has special relevance today. The best known of all Pascal's thoughts is The Wager. Philosopher Peter Kreeft summarizes succinctly Pascal's concept:

The wager is not an attempt to prove that God exists. It is not a new argument for the existence of God. Rather, it tries to prove that it is eminently reasonable for anyone to bet on God, to hope that God is, to invest his life in God. It moves on the practical, existential, human level rather than the theoretical, metaphysical, theological level… We can be wrong in two ways: by wagering on there being no God when there is no God or by wagering on there being no God when there is a God. The second mistake loses everything, the first loses nothing. The second is therefore the stupidest wager in the world and the first is the wisest… We can also be right in two ways: by wagering on God when there is a God or by wagering on no God when there is no God. If we are right in the first way, we gain everything. If we are right in the second way, we gain nothing, for there is nothing to gain. Therefore the first is the world's wisest wager and the second is the stupidest.⁵

And so Pascal is not seeking to do something that was never done in the Bible. He is not writing to provide proof that God exists. He is making a statement that wisdom is on the side of believing that it is true.

Here is Pascal's final word of encouragement to believe:

I tell you that you will gain even in this life, and that every step along this road you will see that your gain is so certain and your risk so negligible that in the end you will realize that you have wagered on something certain and infinite for which you have paid nothing.⁶

I conclude this chapter with a very contemporary illustration. For more than half a century, I have been a subscriber to Christianity Today, the evangelical voice of the Christian Church. In recent years, the magazine has featured on the last page of each issue the testimony of an outstanding conversion to Christ. They have all come to faith in God from remarkably different backgrounds.

In the April 2019 edition, I was immediately captured by the title of the testimony "I Got Smart and Took a Chance on God." This narrative is about Dr. Rosalind Picard, founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of our nation's most prestigious universities.

Here's an encapsulated version of her story using her own words mostly. As early as grade school, when I was a voracious reader and a straight A student, I identified with being smart. I believed smart people didn't need religion. As a result, I declared myself an atheist and dismissed people who believed in God to be uneducated.

While in senior high school, she was challenged to read the Bible. She figured that if I wanted to be an educated person, I needed to read the best-selling book of all time. And so she did. I felt this strange sense of being spoken to. It was disturbing yet oddly attractive. I began wondering whether there really might be a God.

During her freshman year at college, she began attending church with a friend. One Sunday morning the pastor pointed out the difference between believing that God exists and actually submitting to His lordship in your life. She was intrigued with the thought of God leading her life, Ultimately, the light dawned that she could have a relationship with God. So in the spirit of Pascal's wager, I decided to run an experiment, believing I had much to gain and very little to lose. After praying, ‘Jesus Christ, I ask you to be the Lord of my life,' my world changed dramatically, as if a flat, black-and-white existence suddenly turned full-color and three dimensioned…I felt joy and freedom—but also a heightened sense of responsibility and challenge.

These are her compelling concluding remarks:

I once thought I was too smart to believe in God. Now I know I was an arrogant fool who snubbed the greatest Mind in the cosmos—the Author of all science, mathematics, art, and everything else there is to know. Today I walk humbly, having received the most undeserved grace. I walk with joy, alongside the most amazing companion anyone could ask for, filled with desire to keep learning and exploring.⁷

I urge you,