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Sunday, May 1, 2016

Sharing the Characteristics of and the Certainty of God

Sharing what we know about God is not easy. That is because many people today do not know anything about God, while other people do not want to know anything about God. This is sad, because it tells us that teaching about God is seldom done in most homes today and that knowledge about God is often not even taught in some churches anymore. Shockingly, many people today even ridicule the idea of the God’s existence, especially some in the scientific and liberal world. In fact, it is kind of “in vogue” to be an atheist, to be able to create your own god or to decide for yourself whom or what you want to worship. However, denying the existence of God or creating your own god does not mean that God doesn’t exist. Moreover, ridiculing the idea of God or ridiculing those who believe in God doesn’t take away the existence of God. For, God is real and He loves you, even if you don’t yet know Him or love Him.

Deep down in their souls, though, most people want to know God. In fact, many people actually want to know God, but they just don’t know where to start to look for Him or where to be able to find Him and get to know Him. But, even if these same people have gone through a great deal of their life without knowing God, there are still several ways that they can learn about God and come to know Him, if they really want to find out more about God. 

If you are interested in knowing God, continue reading this blog. If you are interested in being able to share your knowledge about God and His characteristics with others, then keep reading. Furthermore, if you are interested in becoming an Active Relational Christian Mentor, it’s important to keep reading. To make your reading easier this blog is broken down in segments so that you don’t have to read it all in one sitting. Just take your time and digest God’s Truth as you get to know more about God. Then, you can share what you have learned with others.

Week before last, I told you about the Trinity of God, sometimes called the Triune God. Then last week, I talked about how we can get to know God through God’s creation and through, God’s Word, the Bible. I also talked about the fact that there is really no one who will be able to say that they could not find God. For, if they truly search for Him, God will present Himself to those who are searching. But, even if you do not want to search for God, God is still everywhere, and He can be seen throughout His creation. (See Romans 1: 19). So, no one has an excuse for not finding and getting to know God. Having said that, I now want to focus on both the characteristics of God and the certainty of being able to know God.

The Importance of Knowing God

Why is it important to understand and know Who God is? Well, it is important, because as humans, we tend to put our view of life or our perspective on life, as well as our ideas of right and wrong or good and bad upon the being of God. In other words, we make up our own mind as to what God is all about, and we often create a god to fit our needs. This means, our perceived idea of who God should be is more often than not totally wrong. Moreover, developing our own personal idea of God is presumptuous on our part. How dare the created tell God, the Creator, Who he should be and what he should be like! God is the potter and we are the clay. (See Romans 9: 21). Furthermore, do you really think that an infinite and holy God is going to change simply to be what you want Him to be? Well, if you do, you need to reassess your assumptions and ideas and then replace them with the Truth of Who God is.

Many people have an idea of Who God is, but their idea is sometimes not based on facts or on having a relationship with God. Instead, they base their knowledge of God on what they have heard others say, as well as on what they don’t want God to be. That is because, humans have a tendency to make quick judgments based on very little knowledge or information. At other times, we have a tendency to want God to be what we want Him to be, or we want God to act the way that we would like Him to act. We also sometimes base our understanding of God on what we have heard others say about Him, just as we base our knowledge of an event or another individual upon what someone has told us about the event or the other individual. For example, have you ever overheard someone telling another person about you or someone else they may have met? They may be describing bits and pieces of what they believe you or the other person is like. But, did they really describe everything about you or the other person?

On the other hand, you may have had someone come to you directly to tell you what they think about you or who they believe you are. But, whether it is a relative or an acquaintance who confronts you, it can be either enlightening, or hurtful when you realize that they don't really know you.

Sometimes, someone will actually confront another person with their opinion of them, simply because they are upset or hurt. Or perhaps the person wishes to compliment the other person. But, no matter the person's reason for coming to the individual to tell them what they think, the one who has the opinion will often base their perceptions and ideas on just one or two incidents in that individual's life. Or, they may base their perceptions of them on perceived character traits of them such as: they are either arrogant or sweet, defensive or thoughtful, prideful or humble, or kind or thoughtless? Whatever the perception, though, the individual has suddenly been labeled.

But, no matter how someone describes you, their perception of you has not included the whole essence of you. Instead, they may have just described a little part of you, or they have based what they believe about you on just one incident or emotion that occasionally comes to the forefront. 

Hearing someone put you in a little box with a label, is frustrating and sometimes very hurtful. This results in not only frustration but maybe a little sadness, because in them giving you a label, you can tell that the person doesn’t really know you completely. They are just taking a couple of things that have occurred somewhere in your life and then have used those things to describe or bolster their idea of who they believe you are.

If either of those scenarios have ever happened to you, perhaps you can imagine just a little how God might feel when a human says something like, “I don’t believe in God, because a loving God would not do …” Obviously, a person who says something like that has not read the Bible and has not tried to get to know God through the Scriptures or through prayer. For, God is not only loving, but He is just, and He requires obedience. 

God’s ways and thoughts are also higher than our ways and thoughts. (See Isaiah 55: 9). This means that God has reasons for doing things that we cannot possibly understand. On the other hand, not everything that happens here on earth is because God wanted it to happen. We live in a fallen world that is inundated with evil. So, to help us navigate this fallen world, God has given us direction throughout the Bible, but we have to read His Word and then follow through to obey and live in God's Truth. Moreover, God expects obedience, but we often fail to listen to God, and instead do what we want. Sadly, though, is the fact that the person who makes the above statement about not believing in a God who does something they disagree with is essentially trying to put God in a box of their making. For, he/she is putting their beliefs, values, and desires, whether right or wrong, upon God as indisputable facts about the Sovereign God.

Another reason it is important that we get to know and understand as much as we can about God, is because we need to be able to tell others the Truth about God and be able to help others find the answers to their questions about God. Christians, especially, need to be able to share the Trinity of God with others they encounter. Accordingly, it is important to have answers ready for your friends or for your mentee’s questions. Moreover, having knowledge about God and Christ, the Son, is extremely important when engaging in Active Relational Christian Mentoring. To that goal, there is only one way that we can truly get to know the Trinity of God, and that is through reading the Bible. For, God has told us within His Word all about Himself.

God’s Word tells us More about God and Ourselves

This week, I am going to highlight some of the characteristics of God’s as seen in His Holy Word, the Bible. The Bible is God’s love story for His people. It was written over a period of 1600 years by 40 different men. Even though it took that many years and several different types of men to write it, the Bible is a unified whole from beginning to end. Furthermore, each man was given the exact words to write by the Holy Spirit. Yes, they wrote God’s Word using the nuances of their culture and their language at their specific time in history. They did this because it was their day to day language and their culture, which meant that the people they were writing to would be able to understand God’s Word, and they would be able to relate to the stories God wanted written. Even so, the content or words, which were inspired by the Holy Spirit, are the exact words that God wanted written. Thus the Bible is the inerrant Word of God! Although, the Bible is now divided into two sections, the Older (Old) Testament and the Newer (New) Testament, the Bible is still one unified whole with the central character of the story being God.

When we read the Bible, it is important for us to understand that each biblical event in the Bible was written from God’s perspective and for instruction. In other words, the stories and the prophecies that have been fulfilled, are stories telling us about God’s love, righteousness, truthfulness, wisdom, morality, etc., all of which were written to tell us of the ultimate mercy and grace that God offers to bestow on each of us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Along the way, God also tells us about Truth, Obedience, Love, Faithfulness, and Goodness as well as about the consequences of disobedience and of our sinfulness. Furthermore, God also wants us to know what He expects from us and what our failure to live righteously in Salvation can bring.

The Bible also contains examples of human nature along with all its frailties as well as examples of sinfulness; all within the stories about individuals who either lived for God or who were tempted by sin and succumbed. There are stories in the Bible, too, about people who refused to believe in God or failed to be obedient to God’s commands. Accordingly, all the stories within the Bible give us examples of either how we are to live for God or examples of the consequences of not living for God and His Truth.

God had His Words written down for us so that we could have a foundation of Truth and goodness for our lives. For, God wants to bless each of us. In fact, the Apostle Paul told us in his writings for God that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.– (II Timothy 3: 16, 17. NASB). But, because we live in a fallen world, all since the incident in the Garden of Eden, we have to constantly try to stand up for God and try to live moral, truthful and upright lives instead of succumbing to temptations and the wiles of the devil. Unfortunately, those who fail to read the Bible and fail to learn about God and His love, also fail to understand the ramifications of living without God, and without Jesus Christ, i.e. God’s Son, in their lives. Consequently, sin and its repercussions ravage many lives that are lived without knowing God.

God is an Author

The men that God used to write His words are called prophets, because they were writing the inspired words of God and not their own words. Furthermore, many of the words God gave them to write were prophetic and were then fulfilled at some point in history. Still other prophecies, though, are yet to be fulfilled. But, whether writing prophecies or writing the stories about lives lived for God or about lives lived against God, all of these writer prophets knew the importance of writing exactly what God told them to write. For, the Apostle Peter wrote: “… that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” – (II Peter 1: 20, 21. NASB). So, the author of the Bible is God. Moreover, the Words of God will never change, because God does not change.

God does not change

God is the same yesterday, today and forever. In fact, God said in His Word, “I am the Lord, and I do not change. …” – (Malachi 3: 6. NLT). Then later, in the book of Hebrews the writer tells us that Christ, God’s Son, is changeless, and we know that Christ is part of the Trinity of God. Therefore, God is changeless. 

God expresses the changelessness of both Himself and His Son through the Words the Holy Spirit gave to the writer of Hebrews. For, “… to His Son He (God) says, ‘Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. Your royal power is expressed in righteousness. … And, Lord, in the beginning You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but you remain forever. They will wear out like old clothing. You will roll them up like an old coat. They will fade away like old clothing, but You are always the same; You will never grow old.’” – (Hebrews 1: 8, 10-12. NLT). 

Now, let’s take a look at a few more of the characteristics and traits of God that God wanted to reveal about Himself, and so are thus recorded in His Word. Obviously, if God never changes, neither will His characteristics and traits.

God is Omnipresent

God is Spirit. He is the divine and as such, His divine nature means that He is pure and holy. Because He is pure and holy, God is worthy of our worship. Indeed, Jesus Christ told the Samaritan woman at the well that “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  -- (John 4: 24. NASB). This means that God, as Spirit, is not limited to being in one place at a time. Rather, God is everywhere at once. In fact, the very word “omnipresent” means being present in all places at the same time, which  perfectly describes God.

Even though it is hard for us to wrap our minds around God being everywhere at once, He is indeed everywhere at once. That is because God is Spirit. In fact, King Solomon who wrote the book of Proverbs for the Lord, wrote, “The Eyes of the Lord are in every place. Keeping watch on the evil and the good.– (Proverbs 15:3. Amplified). That means God sees what I am doing just as He sees what Betty is doing half way around the world. For, God is not limited by time or space. Furthermore, the Scripture expresses God being omnipresent when we read in the Scripture: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will lay hold of me.– (Psalm 139: 7-9. NASB). So, as Spirit, God is everywhere at once. This means that God is omnipresent.

Obviously, if God is everywhere, He can also be worshiped anywhere and at any time. However, if we want to worship God, we must remember that in His being everywhere, God can always see all aspect of our lives. So, we cannot hide anything from Him.

Not being able to hide anything from God, also means that we must worship God with genuine and true worship. In other words, we cannot belittle our worship of God, nor can we worship God in the way that the world worships icons and heroes. Moreover, to curry favor or make sacrifices that God never asked for is not true worship either. Instead, we must worship God and His Son, Jesus Christ, in the truth of the Scripture and through the Holy Spirit who indwells all believers. Indeed, believers “… have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” – (I Corinthians 2: 12, 13. NASB).

God is Timeless

Because God is not limited by time and space, the type of time that God created for our world to run on is not the type of time that God uses to mark His days. In fact, God created the sun and the moon for light and for dark, and then God used both the sun and the moon to mark one day or one 24-hour period for humans to use. We know God planned it this way, because God told Moses to record His creation of the world in the book of Genesis. In doing so, Moses writes that God said, “Let there be light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Then later God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and it was so.– (Genesis 1: 3-5, 14, 15. NASB). Thus God created a particular way for humans to measure time.

God’s idea of time, though, is different than our idea of time. For, in his second letter to the persecuted believers in northern Asia Minor, God inspired the Apostle Peter to  write to them about not being anxious regarding the time when Christ would return for the second time. The persecuted believers knew that only God, the Father, knew the date and time when He would send Christ back to take them home. But knowing that God was the only One who knew when He would send Christ back to take the believers to Heaven did not lessen their anxiety about persecution or their desire for knowledge of when Christ would return. That is because these believers were struggling with severe persecution for their belief in and trust in the Lord, and it was a hard thing to deal with day in and day out, because their belief in and trust of Christ could mean their life. So, Peter wrote: “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? ...’ But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”  -- (II Peter 3: 3, 4, 8, 9. NASB).

From the above verse we learn that God views time totally different than we do. Moreover, God has not set up this world to run by His timetable, but by what He created for the world. In other words, God’s personal time-frame is different than the one that He set up for us here on earth and certainly different than the one that God measures time by. Certainly, God is timeless as we know time. 

For believers in Christ, knowing that God has His own personal time-frame means that we are to totally trust in God's Word and in His timing in all aspect of our lives. It also means that what may seem like a huge delay in Christ’s return is actually not a delay, but rather His timing is right on track according to God’s calendar and time-frame. Moreover, from the above Scripture we also learn that God's reason for waiting also has something to do with the fact that God wants all people to have a chance to come to the “Saving” grace of Jesus Christ before Christ returns; "not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." For that reason, God’s time-frame is different than ours.

Unfortunately, because we do not understand God’s time-frame we often get frustrated when things do not go as quickly as we would like them to go or as quickly as we think they should. God, however, uses our perceived delay in our earthly time table to deepen our trust in Him as we wait for what we have requested, or as we wait for Christ’s return. God's delay in sending Christ to return also makes Christians rely more on God for our strength, and it creates a desire within us to share the Good News before it is actually too late.

 God is Self- Existent and Omnipotent

 Now, let’s see if we can better understand why we owe God our allegiance and reverence. First, we learn from the Bible that God is self-existent. This means that God had no beginning and neither does He have an end. He exists without external cause. In other words, nothing created God and nothing is causing God to exist. He exists in His own energy, power and being. We know this because the Bible tells us in the Psalms of Moses that Moses said, “Before the mountains were created, before You made the earth and the world, You are God, without beginning or end.” – (Psalm 90: 2. NLT).  Then, later in the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ explained that He, the Son of God, has no beginning or end when Christ told the Apostle John “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” – (Revelation 22: 13. NLT).

  Christ was using the Greek alphabet to explain to John that He, i.e. God, is both the beginning and the end, or a complete circle of time and being. Remember, that Jesus Christ is part of the Trinity of God and as such, in this statement He is again telling us that the Trinity of God is self-existent with no beginning and no end.

There is Only One God

To better understand more about God and His characteristics, let’s start with what God told the prophet Isaiah to write about Him. God said, “… I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, …”  -- (Isaiah 45: 6, 7. NASB). In other words, there is no other God besides God. Just as importantly, though, in this verse God also says He is "the One forming light and creating darkness". Therefore, God is omnipotent, which means that God has unlimited power and authority

So, God is all powerful with complete authority over everything and everyone. We see God’s power in His creation of the universe and the world that we live on. Just read the first two chapters of the book of Genesis in the Bible and you will see the power it must have taken to create the world and all the animals and plants as well as create humans all within six days. But, it is the prophet Jeremiah who tells us even more about God’s power when Jeremiah wrote, “Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You.” – (Jeremiah 32: 17. NASB). So, God can do anything He wants to do.

God is Sovereign

God is Sovereign, which means that God is the greatest and most supreme of all beings. He is supreme in power, rank and authority, while being independent from other beings. Being sovereign also means that He is royalty! In earthly parlance, God is King above all! The Psalmist wrote in his praise of God: “That they may know that You alone, whose name is Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.– (Psalm 83: 18. NASB). Yes, God is somewhere High over all the earth, but what this verse really expresses is the Sovereignty and Divinity of God. 

God is infinitely superior to all beings, and He has absolute authority over everything. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of God’s superiority and authority this way: “There is none like You, O Lord; You are great, and great is Your name in might. … The Lord is the true God; He is the Living God and the everlasting King. … It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; and by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens. …-- (Jeremiah 10: 6, 10, 12. NASB). So, it was through God’s authority over all things and in His superiority in having all knowledge and wisdom that the earth, the universe, all its elements, as well as the animals, fish, fowl, and all beings were created.

God is Omniscient

God is omniscient. This means that God is all knowing. He knows everything and has always known everything. In fact, God has infinite knowledge and wisdom, which means that God has never nor will He ever make a mistake. Yes, we live in a fallen world since the sin of Adam and Eve, which means that there can be seeming mistakes in nature and in the beings that live here on earth. But, God does not make a mistake. So, anything that is not perfect is because of the chemicals, the distorted DNA that has come about from many years of intermarrying and from the things that we have chosen to eat and drink or not eat and drink.

God gave us everything needed to keep us healthy and productive, but humans have “free will” to choose how we use those things and how we live. Then there is the constant spiritual battle with the devil and his minions that we fight each and every day, even when we don’t realize that is what we are doing. For, example, the devil constantly instigates and tempts people to make ever more harmful and addicting drugs to be made in order to keep people from finding God and living for Him. Thereafter, the devil’s job is easy, because once the devil helps to get the drugs on the streets through implanted ideas and plans, it is the depressed and lost souls that seek the thrills and highs of mind altering drugs. Yet, God is there for each and every individual, if they will just seek Him and then turn to His Son, Jesus Christ. God knows what each person is going through and He wants humans to rely on Him instead of drugs, etc.

God Rewards and Disciplines

Even though God is omniscient, i.e. all knowing, He will not force His knowledge and Truth on anyone. Still, God sees what each person does with the knowledge they have gained. God also knows when a person distorts His Truth or refuses to see the Truth that is right in front of them. For, we read in the book of Jeremiah where Jeremiah spoke of God’s omniscient powers saying, “… You are very aware of the conduct of all people, and You reward them according to their deeds.”  -- (Jeremiah 32: 19. NASB)

So, God knows even our darkest secrets that we may have thought that we hid from everyone else. Moreover, because God is omniscient, God knows our thoughts, desires, frustrations, and anger as well as any loving and kind ways we might have. Certainly, God then rewards those who choose to follow and live by His Truth, but God also disciplines those who refuse to see the Truth and refuse to acknowledge it. But, God has not taken away our "free will" to do as we choose. However, God tells us in His Word that there are ramifications from our actions and inactions as well as discipline that will come about from behaving negatively and from not following God's Truth. There is an even bigger repercussion, though, from not choosing Christ as your Savior, and that is in finding that once you die without Christ in your heart that you will judged and then spend eternity in hell.

Although we are complicated beings, God knows every part of each of us even when we lie to ourselves. Consequently, we can’t hide anything from God. To this point, David wrote in one of his Psalms, “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my every thought when far away. … Every moment you know where I am. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You both precede and follow me. … I can never escape from Your Spirit! I can never get away from Your presence!” Then David ends this Psalm with, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”  -- (Psalm 139: 1–5, 23, 24. NLT).

In the above verse, David asked God to search his heart so that could repent of any sin that he unknowingly committed or participated in. For, sometimes we speak without thinking of the consequences or the hurt that was inflicted on another, or we do something that leads us into sin at a later point in time. However, for true Christians today, the Holy Spirit indwells us, and He points out our sin when we commit it, so that we can repent and then try not to do that sin again. All Christians, though, still need to pray for God to tell them of their specific sins, so that they can repent and ask forgiveness. For, sometimes our sin is not an overt sin, but rather a sin that has occurred because we have had wrong motives for doing or saying things; such as pridefulness and jealousy. So, when we, too, request God to search our heart the way that David did, we are then more able to keep the devil and evil from encroaching upon our lives lived for the Lord.

God is Wisdom

God is omniscient and knows all things. So, God is also all wisdom. This means that God is the source of all wisdom. Furthermore, God can bestow wisdom on individuals for His benefit and theirs. We know this because God equipped some of the Israelites people to make specific items for the Tabernacle in the wilderness. God did this by giving each individual the wisdom needed to do their specific job.

First God gave Moses the blueprint for the Tabernacle, but obviously there had to be people who could build and craft the needed items for the Tabernacle, which was to be the House of God. Some of those individuals would need to be able to make the priestly garments and the Ephod for Aaron and the other priests. So, God spoke to Moses about Aaron, his brother, who would become God’s earthly high Priest. He told Moses, “You shall speak to all the skillful persons whom I have endowed with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister as a priest to Me.’ – (Exodus 28: 3. NASB). But, God did not stop with just equipping those individuals at that time in history with the wisdom they would need. For, God continues to equip and bestow wisdom on people even today. In fact, God will use His wisdom to bestow on individuals the wisdom, gifts, and talents that each will need to be of service to Him and His Kingdom.

Here on earth, we might talk about those that are wise or who seem to have wisdom. But true wisdom comes from fearing God. No, I am not talking about fear in sense that one is afraid of God, but in the sense that we have come to understand Who God is and come to know how powerful and loving but authoritative and sovereign that God is. In knowing Who God really is, then we can reverence, respect and worship God as the Holy and Supreme God that He is. In fact, Job, in the Bible, told his friends that God is all wisdom. For Job said in speaking of God, “… We have heard a rumor of where wisdom can be found. God surely knows where it can be found, for He looks throughout the whole earth, under the heavens. He made the winds blow and determined how much rain should fall. He made the laws of the rain and prepared a path for the lightening. Then when He had done all this, He saw wisdom and measured it. He established it and examined it thoroughly. And this is what He says to all humanity: ‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding.’” – (Job 22-28. NLT).

In order to fear God, though, one must know that God exists. According to the Scriptures, “Only fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’” – (Psalm 14: 1. NLT). Denying God makes a person a fool, because each person will eventually have an encounter with God either here on earth or when they die. At the time of their death, each individual that has not accepted God’s free gift of mercy and grace through Jesus Christ, God’s Son, will realize they have made a mistake in denying God, but it will be too late. For, hell is awaiting them. Therefore, it is foolish to let your so-called intellect and personal stubbornness rule over the obvious Truth of the existence of God and His Creation, which is all around you. Those such as true atheists who deny God are either foolish or wicked.

Atheists who are just foolish have simply ignored the evidence of God. But those atheists that are wicked have deliberately refused to acknowledge God and have instead simply refused to live by God’s Truth, thus turning themselves into their own god so they alone can determine what they do and when they do it; all for self-gratification and perverseness. Certainly, they are not wise and they lack spiritual wisdom, which is given to those who fear and trust in God. Naturally, some atheists acquire earthly wisdom along the way, such as learning how to make money, or learning how to navigate a particular area of the country in safety. But, according to God’s Word they are still fools, because they have lacked the wisdom to know God.

Most of the wicked atheists are also extremely unhappy and want everyone else to be unhappy as well. In fact, when we encounter these atheists, we often get to see that they are grumpy, angry and hateful. It seems that the only time the wicked atheists are momentarily happy is when they are able to keep someone else from worshipping God.  However, we are told in the Scriptures that “Terror will grip them, for God is with those who obey Him. The wicked frustrate the plans of the oppressed, but the Lord will protect His people.– (Psalm 14: 5, 6. NLT). This means that those who attack God’s followers are actually attacking God. But, little do the wicked know that attacking God is useless, for God is all powerful and wise.

To be Continued...

I will stop here for this week’s blog even though there is so many more characteristics and traits of God's that we all need to know and understand. I hope you learned something about God that you can share what you have learned with others. However, I don’t want to leave you without the knowledge needed to understand and worship God in all reverence, respect and honor. So, next week I will continue to give you more information about God and His characteristics so that you, too, can get to know our mighty and wonderful God better. Moreover, if, as a true Christian, you should choose to mentor another person, I want you to be able to share your knowledge and understanding of God with your mentee. Furthermore, having knowledge of and understanding of God as our Sovereign God is the foundation on which the sharing of the Good News of Christ must be based. That is because, God the Father sent His Only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us from eternal death and destruction. But, it is still our individual choice to be “Saved” or not.

I don’t know about you, but at a particular point in time I chose to believe on and trust in Christ, God’s Son, as my Savior. For, I love God and I do not want to spend a moment of time away from the love of God either while here on earth or in eternity. I also want others to get the chance to know God and accept His loving gift of Salvation offered through His Son. That is why I believe that it is so important to engage in Active Relational Christian Mentoring at every opportunity that you can do so. For, it is through active mentoring that women can share their faith in God and the Good News with those who have yet to hear or understand the gift. Moreover, God has specifically given women the ability and knowledge needed to be able to comfort, help, teach, support, sponsor, and empower other women through Active Relational Christian Mentoring. But, like in all things in life, we have to prepare ourselves to be able to do those things. Therefore, we need to be able to answer our mentee’s questions by studying the Word of God and by developing a closer personal relationship with God. Then, we can truly live for God and shine the light of Christ out upon the world and others through our Christ-centered behaviors and words.


You can do it! You can mentor for the Lord! You can help, support, encourage and empower other women to be all they can be for God, themselves, and their family and friends!

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