Perhaps this topic is a harder Topic then I thought?
We must know whom God is if we choose to worship him. Perhaps the Problem is we don't know how to explain it in a manner everyday people will understand. Well if that is the case then we do indeed need to discuss this, because that is what we have been called to do.
Matthew 28
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And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
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Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
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Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Now how can we teach somebody about God if we can't explain who He is in a simple direct manner people can understand. I have seen many strong Christians flub up this simple task. I've done it myself. I think we all have. That is why I felt it was important we discuss the matter here. Have a place to practice. I don't know what anybody else in this Church out there is thinking, but for me, I know the hour is late. And I only have to get up form this seat and walk no more then 5 feet and look out the door to see a dying world out there that is perishing for want of the truth! The Simple Truth You and I have.
Are we like doctors with medication for our patients fatal condition refusing to administer it? I don't think so, (at least I hope not!). I think we are more like Doctors with a miracle cure that has the power, to cure a fatal disease, but we are unsure how to give the medicine to our patient in a way that it will work. What do we do? Go consult our Medical Training book! In this case the Bible! Make the issue secure in you mind, not just with "proof texts" but actually take the time to study and understand what those texts are saying. Absorb them into your heart so they become apart of your understanding. That is the only way we can explain it.
If nothing else I hope we come away from this topic understanding our need to be able to be real with people, and have the GOSPEL (GOOD NEWS) firmly planted in us in away that we can really share it.
Many times I think we know OF the GOSPEL but we don't Know it. That is we have a theological understanding that were not experiencing daily. Perhaps we do from time to time, like getting a glimpses here and there. But that is not a Daily walk.
We are human. And to often we walk around wrapped up in our own struggles, worrying about serious problems we have, financially, personally, family, emotionally and we completely lose Focus of GOD and what our objective is. Folks a Solider, who has lost His marching orders in the field is a well equipped time bomb! He wonders the jungle with allot a fire power and will only misuse it, unless he gets re-hooked up with his General. Where are you today? Are you like me sometimes, like the rest of us sometimes, carried away by serious issues, and struggles and before long, lost and floating further from God?
The Bible says this to us...
Matthew 6
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(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek 
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
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But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
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Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
OH that we as bible believing Christians would take the bible seriously as the word of God and DO IT! That we would allow it to impact our lives and TRANSFORM US! What a Glorious piece of advise and counsel, and even promise Matthew 6 gives us.
Who is God? Hmmm. This question has been with me all week. There are a Thousand token answers I could give you. But I don't want to do that. I have given deep thought before I wrote down any of my thoughts.
Who God is, is to big of a question to give an absolute to. It is something I plan to keep experiencing for life! Not just this Short life, but everlasting life!
But I can tell you this... I Can tell you who GOD has been to me.
1) Forgiveness.
Folks I am a sinner. Worse, I am the Chief of sinners. I don't say that to be dramatic. Nor do I say that to make a strong impacted theological statement here. It is the sad bitter truth about me. One I tried to hide for years (even after being in the church!) Before I came to Christ I was Guilty. I was Heavy hearted. Running but not knowing from what. Numbing myself with anything that worked from alcohol, to food, television, sex to whatever I found. Slowly destroying myself and people I can into contact with without even knowing it. It was a sad, had an empty life (no matter how I tried to fill it), which I struggled to make look good, and fulfilled hoping if nobody saw the Flaws in my life they must not be there. Still even Now as a Believer, if I should wander outside of Christ, for mere seconds, I and grabbed and sucked back into (although to a lesser degree, unless I stay there) that trap. If I Go outside of Christ I am a SINNER. It is only Christ who gives me the transforming power, and I only get it when I STAY IN HIM. SO I need HIS Daily forgiveness every second of my life.
2) God is My HEALING POWER
I was born broken, I was defected merchandise. I did not perform as my designer had planned. Defective, short circuited, and tampered with. Years of Sin in my genetic pool rendered me SIN SICK at birth. And it did not take me long as a reasoning being to understand I was not right, well, or prosperous. Nor to realize the same about the cruel, hatred filled world I lived in. Everything I came into contact with was darkened, polluted, and some form of Poison until I Met my HEALER, Jesus Christ. God seeks to HEAL ME. RESTORE ME, to my original BLUE PRINT he based me on. God want to re-MAKE into who it was he had in mind for VINCENT MACISAAC truly to be. I don't know that. Imagion that? I don't know whom i am to be... But God does, and He IS REMAKING me into who I am to be. (so much for all those pop psychology books about finding yourself!) I am so far from the mark, I can't see it. But I know God is redesigning me daily, minute by minute, second by second into who it is He originally wanted me to be, who the true me is to be. He is taking that empty, broken, defective shell, I arrived into this world as and making me feel WHOLE and complete in HIM!
3) GOD IS LOVE- HE is all the Love I have ever known.
When I had hurt Him, When I had rejected Him, when I had publicly and personal mocked Him. When I had despised for that He stood for. When I had set myself up to push him out of my life, and to make war with Him. When I was his Enemy.
He SIMPLY Loved me.
Romans 5
10For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
How can it be??? You know not how many times I have asked myself that question. It has perplexed my mind like no other has. How is it possible? It is not logical. Nor is it able (by and human understanding or effort) Yet it is so! Oh what great Love! Oh How the kind of Love can change the Sinner! Call back the lost, reach the hurt!
God is LOVE. Is not just another catchy catch phrase. No it is not. It is Statement of what He does. HE Loves. And God does not Change!
1 John 4
8He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Hebrews 13
8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
No mater who we are, what we do, how bad we sin, God does not change, He still Loves us!
That my Friends is AMAZING! Beyond all understanding.
My most beloved family and Friends to me can not say the same. Who is this God, who chases after Sinners such as us? And when He finds us, does not punish but rather LOVE and TRANSFORM. OH WHAT A GOD!
GOD IS LOVE.
All Love in the world exists because of His direct or indirect influence on this world. I Can only show the level of LOVE I have learned at the feet of My God. The more time I spend there, the more able I become to love the unlovable. And Folks let me tell you, that is what God doesm, is LOVE the UNLOVABLE. And that is just what I am (trust me, you never saw my sinful side! haha). We are all unlovable. Yet God LOVES US and Transforms us into HIS IMAGE! Can you imagine that? I could spend weeks thinking about such a concept! But for now lets us just say PRAISE THE LORD, Oh my soul, PRAISE THE LORD!
In my next post I will talk more about the God Head. In the mean time, I welcome and look forward to all your thoughts.
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~VINCE~ IN ~CHRIST~
SDA-TODAY moderator
This restless world is just illusion
All at once, there’s a message from above
This senseless world of mass confusion ....
In the name of love
There’s a message from above ... (Sammy Hagar 2000)
