GOD

Who is God? Christianity begins and ends  with this question. "Who do you say I am," asked Christ to his apostles.

Who do you say God is? If you embrace the Christian God, you still have a broad number of characteristics to define. Do you worship a triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Do you glorify a sovereign God, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent? Is the God you serve the God as defined in the Bible rather than by human tradition?

The modern evangelical church does not present God with clarity. God, in many cases, is either stripped of His attributes or is misconstrued by the pens and mouths of His people. His holy characteristics often become lost upon our hearts… at great peril to the sheep of this mighty shepherd.

Consider how those who know God best (the angels of heaven) are depicted as they glorify our Father. In Isaiah 6 we read the prophet’s description of seeing our Lord: "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." Does this give you the picture of God as merely some sort of celestial big brother, a God that mirrors the Hallmark image our culture sometimes ascribes to Him? Or is this a God who Isaiah fell before as a dead man, crying out that he was unworthy?

The key to understanding God is two-fold. First, know that all of scripture can be understood as His biography… and thus the Bible is sufficient in describing Him, without the need for outside traditions and writings. Second, be willing to embrace ALL of His characteristics as expressed in His Word. Is God loving, merciful, holy? Yes, yes, and yes. But He is also a God to be feared… a God the Bible describes as having great anger and terrible wrath. If you meditate solely on the comforting aspects of God, you risk treading with ignorance into those areas he judges most harshly. Know God in all His fullness and you will know him aright.

It is my prayer that God will reveal Himself to you, and that you will seek this revelation earnestly. The church will succeed most completely when it glorifies the sovereign God in a manner consistent with who He is.