Farming Reveals Gods Character
Intercropping, the practice of growing more than one crop per field, allows the land to remain productive year after year. Here, Joseph and Genesita have planted potatoes and corn together.
When Joseph and Genesita joined FHs program on Farming Gods Way, they learned techniques like intercropping, mulching, and applying organic manure. We call it Gods Way because we learn from Gods Creation about how to care for the land. We study which techniques result in the highest yields year after year, while replenishing the land for long-term production.
Gods way of looking at the world, based on His character, is even more basic than Gods way of farming the land. Most importantly, by studying His glory, Trinity, love and goodness, we begin to understand how the world was meant to workand what we can do about it. These ideas form the foundation from which we pursue relief and development.
How does Gods character impact the way you see your own world?
The Cross And The Question
So the Bible reveals that God is just and gracious. But there is a tension here. How can he be both? How can God be gracious to those who have done wrong and deserve justice? How can he be righteous and still love those who are not? If God merely overlooks wrongdoing, then he is neither good nor just.
This tension is at the very heart of the Bible the person who is wrestling with this is on the brink of discovering the riches of who God is. So what is the answer? How can God remain just and save sinners?
We find the answer from a man named John the Baptizer, a man sent from God as a witness to Jesus.23 This is how John introduced Jesus: Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!24
For the original hearers, this announcement would have called to mind the story of the Exodus. In the Exodus, the most profound story of redemption in the Old Testament, God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt. In a specific portion of the narrative, God saved them through the sacrifice of many lambs, whose blood was painted on the doorposts of their homes. Jews celebrate the Passover sacrifice annually, keeping alive the memory of how God rescued their ancestors and made them a chosen people.
It is on the cross that we see God as he truly is. Consider how the writers of the New Testament understood the nature of God in relation to the cross:
In Closing On What Does The Bible Say About The Characteristics Of God
Sweet friends, after reading the characteristics of God chosen, along with scripture references, I hope it gives you a glimpse of WHO God is. That said, I barely scraped the surface of our Heavenly Father.
I encourage you to study the Bible to learn more about Gods character. I sincerely pray the Holy Spirit opens your spiritual eyes as well ears to hear Gods voice to the truth of His character.
If you wanting to know how to Be a Godly Woman that demonstrates the characteristics of God I highly recommend you check out Brittany Ann of Equipping Godly women. Brittany has an amazing post about 3 Characteristics YOU MUST HAVE.
Check out her video below:
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Jesus Christthe Word Of Life
Here, then, we have two great personages, two uncreated, eternal Beingsthe God, or God the Father, and the Word, who became Jesus Christ, both divinepresiding over the creation. As the late British theologian F.F. Bruce commented on the opening passages of the Gospel of John: “The Personal Word is uncreated, not only enjoying the divine companionship, but sharing the divine essence” . This Word was and is God along with the Father.
Later, in his first epistle, John adds to our understanding: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touchedthis we proclaim concerning the Word of life” . Here that same “Word” of John’s Gospel account is called “the Word of life.”
It’s easy to overlook the importance of this crucial verse and read right over its enormous significance. The One who became Jesus Christ, declared to be on the same plane of existence as God the Father, was born as a human being and perceived by and through the physical senses of human beingsparticularly of His early inner core of disciples, including the one who wrote these words, John. These men became Christ’s apostles His emissariesand were special witnesses of His resurrection.
John continues, “The life appeared we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” American King James Version×.
Who Is God He Is Kind And Loving
In many of our relationships, love is conditional. I love you if you think/behave a certain way. Or I love you because of these qualities in your life. As long as you live up to these youre loved, youre accepted. Its based on what you do.
Gods love is quite unique. It is unconditional, without requirements. He loves us, not based on whether we deserve his love. He loves us because is his nature to love. He describes his love as faithful, unfading, unchanging and personal. God does not just promise he loves us, he proved it when Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sin. He deeply desires for us to know him and experience his love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending is one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real lovenot that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to take away our sins.12
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.13
This is who God tells us he is. The following explains how you can begin a relationship with God right now: How to Know God Personally.
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Theism Deism And Pantheism
Theism generally holds that God exists realistically, objectively, and independently of human thought that God created and sustains everything that God is omnipotent and eternal and that God is personal and interacting with the universe through, for example, religious experience and the prayers of humans. Theism holds that God is both transcendent and immanent thus, God is simultaneously infinite and, in some way, present in the affairs of the world. Not all theists subscribe to all of these propositions, but each usually subscribes to some of them . Catholic theology holds that God is infinitely simple and is not involuntarily subject to time. Most theists hold that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent, although this belief raises questions about God’s responsibility for evil and suffering in the world. Some theists ascribe to God a self-conscious or purposeful limiting of omnipotence, omniscience, or benevolence. Open Theism, by contrast, contends that, due to the nature of time, God’s omniscience does not mean the deity can predict the future. Theism is sometimes used to refer in general to any belief in a god or gods, i.e., monotheism or polytheism.
God Blessing the Seventh Day
Jesus Christ’s Existence Before Abraham
Several other passages in John’s Gospel reveal significant details that help us understand even more fully who and what Jesus Christ was before His incarnationHis conception in flesh as a human being.
Consider an account later in chapter 1: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward Him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, “After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me”‘” (John 1:29-30John 1:29-30 The next day John sees Jesus coming to him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.
American King James Version×).
In dealing with accusations from the Pharisees in John 8, Jesus said to them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going but you do not know where I come from and where I am going” .
Later the apostle Paul commented on their lack of understanding, “The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, or understand the words of the prophets which are read Sabbath by Sabbath indeed, they fulfilled them by condemning him” .
Just as in the first century, relatively few people today truly comprehend who Jesus was, where He came from, what He is doing and what He will yet do.
He patiently explained, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” .
Recommended Reading: Rhema Bible College Courses
What Does God Look Like In Revelation
John, a disciple of Jesus Christ, had an encounter with God that is recorded in the book of Revelation. He was imprisoned on the Island of Patmos for his faith. Revelation is the last book of the Bible and a fitting conclusion and a summary of the Bible. John also records a physical description of God in Revelation.
The book of Revelation shows the leadership of Jesus at the end of this age. Gods physical description fits in well with how He relates to the world. Ill explain this in more detail after we look at Gods appearance.
First, lets look at the text and then well look at some of the descriptions in more detail.
At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
Rev. 4:2-6
Old Testament: The Single Author Theory
The Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, narrates the history of the people of Israel over about a millennium, beginning with Gods creation of the world and humankind, and contains the stories, laws and moral lessons that form the basis of religious life for both Jews and Christians. For at least 1,000 years, both Jewish and Christian tradition held that a single author wrote the first five books of the BibleGenesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomywhich together are known as the Torah and the Pentateuch . That single author was believed to be Moses, the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and guided them across the Red Sea toward the Promised Land.
Yet nearly from the beginning, readers of the Bible observed that there were things in the so-called Five Books of Moses that Moses himself could not possibly have witnessed: His own death, for example, occurs near the end of Deuteronomy. A volume of the Talmud, the collection of Jewish laws recorded between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D., dealt with this inconsistency by explaining that Joshua likely wrote the verses about Moses death.
Rembrandt van Rijn, painting of Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law, 1659.
That’s one opinion among many, says Joel Baden, a professor at Yale Divinity School and author of The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis. But they’re already asking the questionwas it possible or not possible for to have written them?
Recommended Reading: Old Testament Stories In Chronological Order
Jesus Christ Was The Creator
Not only did the apostle John write the fourth Gospel account and three epistles preserved in the New Testament, but he also penned the book of Revelation. It was here, in the message to the seven churches of Revelation, that Jesus identified Himself as the One who produced God’s creation: “These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the source of God’s creation” .
It should be noted that since the word rendered “source” can be translated “beginning,” some take that to mean Jesus was the first creation. But the sense here is that He was the beginner or origin of creation, a fact John 1 and other passages make clear.
Yes, Jesus not only died for our sins so we could be reconciled to the Father, but He isour Creator. The apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:9Ephesians 3:9And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:American King James Version×tells us, “there is no salvation through anyone else in all the world no other name has been granted to mankind by which we can be saved” .
This passage is all-encompassing. Jesus created “all things . . . that are in heaven”the entire angelic kingdom, which includes an innumerable number of angelsand the indescribably vast universe, including planet earth. Many people do not grasp the clear biblical fact that Jesus Christ is our Creator!
God Is A Consuming Fire
John describes Gods appearance as sardius , deep red . Carnelian is the modern term. Its a stone with a deep red color. Some also say that it could be like a ruby.
This speaks of Gods fiery desire and burning passion. The Bible talks about the zeal of God, His great energy and enthusiasm. God has a great desire for His people.
This also speaks of Gods zeal for justice. There is zeal to remove all that is not holy.
John sees the God of sardius-like passion upon His throne. One of the first direct descriptions of God in the Bible is that He is a consuming fire. This means that He is calling for absolute loyalty to Him.
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Deut. 4:24
God had just delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt where they were oppressed as slaves. God tells them that He wants them to be His people. He wants all the nations to be blessed. He calls His people to live in righteousness and justice.
Being jealous has a negative side to it when its fleshly, but when its applied to God, it speaks of His zeal, fervor, and passion.
Not only does Gods appearance resemble light and fire, holy fire surrounds His throne. There are also seven lamps of fire and seraphim burn before it. There is also a sea of glass which is ablaze before the throne of God.
Why does it matter that God has sadius-like passion and zeal? God is not only light, purity, and goodness. He is focused on the ones that He loves and this zeal desires exclusivity in the relationship.
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Materialism And Humanism Conclude There Is No God
In the world today, millions of people hold to the beliefs and conclusions of materialism and humanism. According to these ideas, physical matterand the laws of physics and chemistry that act on matterare everything.
As the famous astronomer Carl Sagan summed it up, The cosmos is all that there is or ever was or ever will be.
In this way of thinking, there is nothing beyond matterno God, and certainly no God who can be known personally. Such teaching has become widespread, especially in the Western world, in the last two centuries.
If the conclusions of materialism and humanism are adopted, then the answer to the question What or who is God? becomes God is nothingexcept the imaginings of human beings.
According to this way of thinking, as the human race has slowly evolved from lower life-forms, it has invented God as a superstitious answer to questions about life that it cannot otherwise answer.
That is, religionand ideas about a God or gods who are beyond nature, beyond the cosmosis a remnant of ignorance from mankinds evolutionary past. In modern times, in its highly evolved state, mankind has rightfully discarded these old, superstitious notions of God.
Many influential people in the modern worlds institutions of education and culture advocate these conclusions. Millions of people have accepted them, at least to some degree.
How about you?
We Will See Gods Face
Some people might wonder whether its even necessary or proper for people to be curious about what God looks like. Shouldnt it be enough that you believe in Him?
One thing to note about studying Gods appearance is that people cant see the fullness of Gods glory yet. It would be too much in this life .
You cant stare at the sun directly for long without damaging your eyes. If you see the fullness of the sun, you might never see anything else again! And the sun is millions of miles away. With God, were not just talking about physical intensity, but One who is perfect and holy in being.
Although you cant see Him fully, the Bible repeatedly reveals different aspects of what God looks like. God reveals Himself. And what He does is meant to bless you.
Why does the Bible show how God looks? So that you will be fascinated in your spirit and heart . Also to strengthen and sustain you to endure through hardships and difficulties.
When the early church was living in persecution and tribulation, God gave them a revelation of Jesus through the book of Revelation. He showed them what He looks like.
God does the same for you. He reveals His beauty and majesty to you so you can trust Him, know that He is good, and His justice will triumph. The descriptions of Gods appearance from the Bible is meant to produce something in you. It releases a spirit of wisdom to know God so that your love and loyalty will be stirred up.
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