Category — Attributes of God

For many of us, somewhere along the line, our relationship with God degenerated into a joyless, obligatory maintenance of moral and religious behaviors. This was the case with the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Jesus’ day. On one occasion, Jesus had collected a gathering of “tax collectors and sinners” who were listening to him teach. The Pharisees and teachers of the law found this disgusting and criticized Jesus for fraternizing with these low-lives.

Specifically in response to their grumbling, Jesus told the Pharisees and teachers of the law three parables: that of the lost sheep; the lost coin; and the lost son—also known as the parable of the prodigal son. In the parable of the lost son, Jesus gives the Pharisees and teachers of the law at least three stark lessons to chew on. [Read more →]

In the previous post I challenged us to see ourselves as followers of Christ who have been and are being transformed. What are some of the ways that God wants to change us? What are some telltale characteristics of a follower of Christ? Paul urges us, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”

In the Gospel of John, Jesus gives us some very clear indicators of what it means to follow him. Observe how relational these characteristics are. These indicators are not meant as a list to keep—that does not work in a relationship! Instead, view them more like relational skills in pursuing our relationship with Christ. (What I’ve provided below are merely five such characteristics.) [Read more →]

Psalm 100 is one of the classic Psalms on worshiping God: “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

Reading through that Psalm it’s hard to miss the joy, gladness, joyful songs, thanksgiving and praise! These are all right responses to God in worship because of who he is. We often mistakenly think we have to feel joyful before we can worship God with joy. Typically what that means is that we behave as though our joy was tied to our circumstances—which manipulate our feelings—which drive the tone and intensity of our worship. For many years I was caught up in thinking like that. But that’s all upside down thinking that stifles our freedom to worship God joyfully! [Read more →]

Worship of God is the highest expression of relationship mankind is capable of. No earthly experience is more euphoric, more intimate and more fulfilling than the act of worshiping God. In worshiping God, we draw attention to and revel in His perfect, holy awesome Person. In view of His infinite greatness and everlasting love toward us, our only right response is one of humility, brokenness, neediness and overwhelming gratitude—all expressions of worship.

A mere glimpse of God’s great love for us buckles our knees before Him in profound thanksgiving and praise! Before His glory, we are stripped of all pretense and worthiness. He sees right through us and knows our secret thoughts and passions. We are laid bare—naked and exposed before him. Yet, God’s infinite joy and peace overcome our fear of exposure, and we find safety and acceptance in His presence. With Him we enjoy relief and release from all guilt and shame. [Read more →]

Values are life-guiding principles. Values are not behaviors, but they provide the motivation and drive for action. In Romans 8:5 Paul talks about “living in accordance with the Spirit of God and having our minds set on what he desires.” Right-valued living is living in concert with God.

Another great passage in which Paul deals with this issue is Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” [Read more →]

This action has everything to do with trusting God. Consider the following parable and let God speak to you through it.

For 40 years God led Israel through the barren wilderness of the Middle East. In spite of their repeated grumblings and rebellion, God continued to love, lead and provide for his people. Even when they were unfaithful to him, he remained faithful to them. In all those years, God sustained this massive company of people by miraculously providing them with manna. Manna was a food substance like bread that God caused to appear on the ground each morning. The people of Israel gathered manna as their staple food through all those years. [Read more →]

God gives us the power to choose to follow him and be changed by him. But there are a couple more stifling misconceptions that prevent us from experiencing the radical life change that he wants to bring about in us. We all fail spiritually, but have you ever caught yourself saying something like the following? “I experience spiritual failure because I lack the strength, knowledge, support, environment, opportunity, etc. to succeed.” I know I have! But we’ve got to be very careful about this kind of thinking.

The idea that someone or something else is responsible for our failure is deadly and will kill our spiritual growth! Our culture has become so blame oriented that we don’t even recognize how often we blame others or something else for our own shortcomings. In the Quest book I refer to this as a victim mentality. There is a cardinal principle that prevails when it comes to seeing oneself as a victim. Simply put, a victim never wins—never! A victim will always find themselves powerless under the control of someone or something else. [Read more →]

A third misconception of the paradigm, God gives us the power to choose, argues God won’t use me to do his work until I get my own issues worked out. As with all the stifling misconceptions, this one also contains an element of truth. God wants us to serve him with “clean hands and a pure heart.” All too often, however, we use our own past failures or shortcomings as an excuse for inactivity.

The liberating truth here is that God uses growing people, not perfect ones. The trajectory of my life is aimed at victory! Think of some of the people in the New Testament whose personal life issues were not yet worked out and yet God used them to represent him to others. There was the man whom Jesus healed from demons wanted to go with him, but Jesus told him, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.” (Mark 5:19) [Read more →]

God’s passion is for our spiritual transformation, but viewing our salvation as merely an event that occurred at a point in time is a misconception that stifles our transformation. The apostle Paul draws attention to this danger in 1 Corinthians 10. In that passage he challenges us to remember the fact that all of the children of Israel whom Moses led out of Egypt enjoyed a common experience. They all experienced God’s deliverance (salvation) from Egypt; God’s leading through the pillar of cloud; and God’s miraculous rescue by taking them through the Red Sea on dry ground.

In fact, Paul says, “all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.” Then Paul cautions us, “Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. These things happened as a warning to us.” (1 Corinthians 10:2-6 NLT) [Read more →]

God’s passion is for our spiritual transformation. But another couple of misconceptions stifle our growth in him. These misconceptions protest: I shouldn’t question God, but merely have the faith to obey. And, God’s will is so hard to figure out. I can never be certain of what God wants.

While these two stifling misconceptions are common, they both have their roots in a false understanding of God. Both misconceptions perceive God as impersonal and uninvolved in our lives. They see him as too busy to be bothered with our puny issues; too exalted to care. Such a view is a dangerous lie from the evil one! [Read more →]