Who is God, anyway?

   Who is God? If anyone would have asked me that question 5 years ago, I would have given a fairly simple answer. God is the Creator of the Universe, He is my Savior, My Redeemer and My Friend; Something along those lines. And while I would not have been mistaken in my answer, it definitely would have been lacking.  Three out of the four things I listed pertain to me and what God means to me. The question was, “Who is God”? God is many things... none of which pertain to me. Pretty soon, and with a little help from entropy, our answer to the question sounds something like, “He is my co-pilot, my running buddy, or even "my homey.”

Today, like no other time in history, and in the United States of America, like no other place on earth, we worship ourselves.  Narcissism, is our adopted religion. Everything is about me. How I feel, How I look, What I like, What I don’t like, My family, My home, My car, My Space,  My stuff is all very important to me. Even when looking at recent history, we tend to relate it to us, and how it affected us, or where we were when it happened.

Everything has to be personal. We have personal computers and a personal God that we want to put in our pocket and take out occasionally when it’s convenient.  Especially if we have a problem, we know that our God cares about us and would never want us to hurt or feel pain. He would never want us to be sad or sick or lonely. I wonder about the apostle Paul? Did he ever feel pain? Was he ever sick or alone?

 I would like for us to forget about we, us, you, me and mine, for just a moment. I want us to step back and take a look at God for who he is. Not how he relates to us or what he means to me, but who he really is. I have discovered that He is bigger and greater than I ever dreamed.

The reason we are beginning with who God is, in His being, is because all other doctrines or teachings stem from what one believes about God. If we say that the Bible is the word of God and Jesus is the Son of God, marriage is ordained by God, or that children are a gift from God, we mean something very specific according to our view of God. So who is God? What are His characteristics? We will be looking at some of these in the next few posts.

Disclaimer: Of course everything is personal, we are people.