What Is God Like

The most fundamental concept in Christianity is the nature of God. What is He like? We must have a correct concept of this or our whole concept of Christianity will be wrong. Is there one characteristic that truly defines who God is? Does every other characteristic of God fall under this main category? I believe it does.

God is love

I believe The highest characteristic of God is love. I believe all the other characteristics of God flows from this highest characteristic. But what is love? Many people seem to think love is a gushy, emotional feeling. Many times if you say God is love, people will immediately say, “yes He is, but you must also remember He is holy and just.” But I believe love is a very different thing than most people believe. Love is both tender and harsh. Many see God as having a split personality; justice in the Old Testament and love in the New Testament. But I believe love and justice are the same thing. They are the same “coin” so to speak? A coin has two sides but is still one coin isn’t it? I think it’s the same with God. God is not divided between justice and love. God is God and the Bible says He is love!

When I think of my earthly father, the first thing that comes to my mind is love. Even though my father was just and punished me when I did wrong, the overlying reason he did so was because he loved me. He was never divided between justice and love, he was just Dad and Dad was love. However, when I was disciplined, I did not interpret it as love! But it was. Sadly, many fathers punish instead of lovingly disciplining their children, and that gives them the wrong impression of their heavenly Father.

Everything God does is filtered through His love. We must realize God loves everyone regardless of what they do. We must see God’s holiness and justice as not the other side of love, but love itself. If your child does something wrong, something that will put he or she on a path of destruction, the most loving thing you can do is discipline them. And depending on the offense, it may be a very harsh discipline, one that hurts both you and your child, but one that has to be done because of love. What I’m saying is many times love will look harsh and even terrifying, but it has to be that way for that is the true nature of love.

Seeing love in this way will automatically give justice and holiness its proper due, because love is those things. God is not a schizophrenic. He does not have two sides, but only one, and that is love. Many times we see God’s nature as divided between love and justice because we really don’t understand the nature of true love, God’s love. If we don’t understand this concept, we will never understand God, and our Christianity will never have its proper foundation. God loves us with a tender love but also with a terrifying one!

Micah 6:8

This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Micah was a prophet to the nation of Israel in a time when Israel’s leaders were very corrupt. Evil was everywhere and Micah warned of God’s judgement. In Micah 6 we find the people of God are still sacrificing to God and bringing Him their offerings, but are being very wicked with each other. God tells His people He is sick of their sacrifices and offerings. He tells them He just wants three things from them: To show justice and mercy, and to walk humbly before their God. I believe God wants the same from us today.

We must show justice when wrong is being done. We must stand up for right and defend it passionately. We must also show mercy to all people. This just means we are to love like Jesus did. Then lastly we are to practice humility by not taking ourselves too seriously and by considering others better than ourselves.

These three things are simple but extremely difficult to practice. We must remember that the power to show justice and mercy, and walk humbly before our God can only come from the life of God which is in us. With us it is impossible, but with Him all things are possible!

The Cart Before The Horse

Christians are those who follow Jesus. But following Jesus before experiencing a relationship with Him is like putting the “cart before the horse.” The horse has to be in front in order to pull the cart. If we are trying to follow Jesus without first having a life changing encounter with Him, we will fail every time. The Christian life will be dull and dutiful because we have never truly experienced a life change. We will only be trying to follow Jesus in our own strength without having His life in us.

Just rest

The solution to failure and frustration in the Christian life is REST. If we are trying to be righteous by following Jesus instead of simply resting in what He has already done for us, we will never get very far. We have to live from a position of acceptance instead of trying to gain acceptance. The Christian life is a life that just flows. It’s like being in love with someone. When you love someone, you enjoy pleasing that person. It doesn’t even seem like work because you simply love them. 

The Christian life is not about trying to follow and become like Jesus; it is simply allowing the life of Jesus to flow through us. It is His life we are living, not our own. We are like an electrical wire. The actual electricity is God. We are simply the wire so to speak that the electricity flows through. Our job is not to try but to abide. Jesus said to abide in Him. He is the vine, we are just the branches that flow out from the vine. And when we continually allow Jesus to flow through us, we will find that we are indeed becoming a lot more like Him because we are close to the source of power!

It’s time to stop trying to follow Jesus and just let Him live through us. When we are simply letting Jesus live through us there is peace, but when we are working hard to follow Him there is exhaustion. Jesus promised rest to all who would come to Him. Let’s stop trying and start resting!

The Dangers Of Islam

I believe Islam is the most dangerous threat to the world. I’m so tired of hearing that the problem with Islam is the  “Radical Islamists” and that most Muslims are peaceful, law abiding citizens. The only problem with this statement is that Islam explicitly promotes all sorts of hatred and violence.

Jesus and Mohammed

As Christians, we follow Jesus. His example was one of love, kindness and patience even with His enemies. Christianity is the real “tolerant” religion. Being a follower of Jesus is a free choice. It is never forced on anyone.

Muslims follow Mohammed. His example was one of hatred, intolerance and violence. Mohammed founded Islam in the 7th century. He supposedly received revelations from the angel Gabriel for 23 years. The word Islam actually means to “submit” and that is just what Mohammed promoted for most of his life. He was a vile and cruel man who raped, tortured and killed his enemies. Mohammed was illiterate, never claimed to perform miracles, and obviously never defeated death like Jesus did.

Why this matters

If you read the Koran, you will see it directly in opposition to Christianity and the Bible. I believe Islam is the counterfeit Christianity. Satan always counterfeits God and the religion of Islam does just that. We hear all the time that Islam is a peaceful religion and most who practice it are good and peaceful people, but this is missing the point. These people may be good people, but they are deceived! Islam (properly followed) is not peaceful and wonderful at all. It is oppressive, intolerant and incredibly violent as we recently saw in Boston. Most Muslims have no idea what their religion really teaches!

The main problem with Islam is that the radical Islamists are the only ones who are actually practicing what the Koran teaches. Most of the people who practice Islam are not practicing what the Koran teaches. This is so different from Christianity. When so called “Christians” blow up abortion clinics or spread racial hatred and violence, they are not practicing what the Bible teaches, but when Muslims kill people who are their enemies, they are doing exactly what the Koran teaches. Most Muslims are deceived into thinking their religion is based on peace. It certainly is not and never has been!

So the problem with Islam is Islam itself. This religion is based on control, intolerance, domination and hatred. Sadly, most Muslims have never taken the time to carefully look at their religion, and most of all their leader! Most are either ignorant or self deceived and unwilling to accept truth.

I must admit I am frustrated with the media concerning their portrayal of what Islam represents, but as a Christian, I must pray that the deception of Islam will be exposed and they will see the truth in Jesus.

Two Ways Of Living

There are only two ways to live. We must either trust God or trust ourselves. We must either chose to be dependent on God or be dependent on ourselves. We were created to be dependent on God for everything, and our decision to live independently from Him is the cause of all the pain and suffering in our world.

The choice in the beginning

When God created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden, He gave them a choice. They could experience the knowledge of good and evil, or they could experience Life. When they chose to experience the knowledge of good and evil, they actually had to experience evil, for without experiencing evil, they would not know the difference between it and good. To experience something means you have to do it. But God never intended His creatures to experience evil, for evil brings with it pain, death and destruction. 

No good parent wishes his or her child to experience the painful consequences of wrong choices in life. They would much rather their child trust in their wisdom, which would keep the child from making those painful mistakes. In much the same way, God never wanted mankind to experience the painful consequences of wrong choices, He simply wanted them to trust in His wisdom and believe that He would provide for their every need. So where does that leave us? Can we ever get back to the original plan God intended for us?

The law was given

After sin came into the world, God gave us laws. These laws were given for two reasons: First, because they were needed. When there is an offense, there needs to be a law put in place to stop the offense. After murder became commonplace, God instituted a law which said “Thou shalt not murder.” The Law was needed because people were committing murder. If there was no murder, there would be no need for a law against it!

Second, the Law was given to show us we could never keep it. Remember, if you kept all the commandments, yet broke one, you broke the whole Law. God considered the Ten Commandments as one Law, not ten individual ones. The Law was like a speed limit sign; if we were going faster than the sign allowed, it showed us our error. Without the sign, we wouldn’t know we were speeding. The Law of God does the same thing; it shows us how far we are from God’s standard.

But both reasons, the Law doesn’t get us anywhere closer to God, for it was never designed to. It was simply there to punish evil and show us our faults.

Grace is the solution

There is a solution, however, and that solution is Grace. Grace has always been God’s plan, and that plan hasn’t changed. Grace simply means undeserved favor. We can’t earn it and we don’t deserve it. We can’t even ask for it; it is a gift. The only thing we can do is accept or reject it. The Tree of Life represented Grace. God desired mankind to simply accept His gift of Grace.

When we view Christianity as a bunch of rules, we are eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Remember, rules were only made because of people’s wrongdoings, and God never intended for us to keep any rules but one: Accept His Grace! When we do that, there is no need for laws because we are obeying God already. We need to stop focusing on the rules and instead focus on God’s Grace.

Putting it all together

God has always wanted us to trust that He would provide for us. The sin in the Garden of Eden was a belief that God was not good and could not be trusted. Adam and Eve, like children disobeying their parents, did not trust God.

The only way to please God is to trust Him and accept His Grace. We can never earn God’s approval by obeying His laws, because His laws were never designed to give life. They were designed to punish evil and point out our shortcomings.

So we are back to the beginning. The choice is presented once again. Do we trust in ourselves (The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) or do we trust God (The Tree of Life). The plan has never changed. God is good and can be trusted. Even though our inclination is to distrust God because we learned this from our first parents, we must chose trust. The Tree of Life is still waiting for us!

What God Wants From Us

I had a much longer post about God’s ultimate purpose for us, but I think I can condense it to a couple of lines.

God wants sons and daughters who will trust in Him and rest in what He has done for them. He wants us to feast on the Tree of Life forever, living in utter dependence on Him just like children depend on their parents for everything. He wants us to stop striving, trying and working and just accept His grace. Then, out of this acceptance, we can truly live as He intended all along.

Grace

Grace, grace and more grace. This is the only thing we have to offer the world. Every other religion offers the law, but we have grace! And I’m not talking about grace and law, but just grace. The gospel means “good news,” and the good news is grace. Nothing more and nothing less. We cannot mix grace with law, there is only grace. Grace and truth are the same thing. The truth is grace has come.

Grace is the only thing that will change us. The law cannot change us because sin gets its power from the law. Without the law, sin has no power. If we don’t want sin to have power in our lives, then we must stop focusing on the law!. Grace is this: our sins have been forgiven and erased. It is finished and has been for over 2000 years! Let’s accept God’s good news that grace has come. It’s the only thing we’ve got. It is Christianity, and there is none other!