If a complete stranger asked if he could borrow your car for a few hours, you’d probably say no. But you would surely say yes if a close friend made the same request. We can only put our full trust in someone we’ve come to know well. That’s one reason why the study of God’s attributes is vitally important to the believer. To know Him is to trust Him. To know Him is to worship Him.
Although we can learn much by studying each of His qualities, don’t expect them all to fit together easily as if you’re piecing together a puzzle. Does God’s love fit easily next to His wrath? Does His justice fit nicely with His grace? Never cease learning more about our exalted, mighty God; just leave room for mysterious words like unsearchable and unfathomable.
All of us who follow Christ have sensed God's working, even if we couldn't put our finger on exactly what He was doing. But how do we recognize it? This spiritual sense comes from the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer and who gives believers inner promptings to participate in God's activities in their lives.
The Christian life is like a car. One needs at least two important things to drive it: a key and fuel. When an individual comes to faith in Christ, he or she is given the key—salvation. But the car of the Christian life doesn't get very far without fuel—the divine enablement of the Holy Spirit, what the Bible calls being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18)
Of the three persons in the godhead, including God the Father and God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is the least understood and the most mystifying. Let's dispel some of the myths and mystery by getting reacquainted with the Spirit of Power.
The Apostle Paul warned us to turn our attention to what really matters—the cross of Christ—even if the world thinks it foolish and weak. Because through the cross, God blesses.
Those who are meek and mild possess a character too wimpy for the times, so we think. We love lions, not lambs. But Jesus demonstrates that meekness isn't weakness—it is incredible strength.
What the world shuns as foolishness, the Lord embraces as wisdom—the wisdom of pain to turn mere followers of Christ into disciples of Christ. Jesus called it “the cup.” To Him the cup was the anguish, humiliation, and torturous death on the cross. To us it means “taking up our cross” and following Him daily.
The Bible makes it clear that Jesus came to earth to seek and to save those who are lost in their sin (Luke 19:10). But why did Jesus do this?
Some Bible words have been handled and mishandled for so long they've become shopworn and of very little interest to anyone. Not so with the word grace; it still retains its lustre and mystery.
The popular notion of God, as if He were a benign, aging grandfather, sitting passively in heaven—affable, lenient, permissive, and devoid of any real displeasure over sin because He loves us—cheapens God's love. It doesn't uphold the value of His love. In truth, looking into God's heart to discover His love is to discover His other attributes as well.
In the beauty of God's holiness, we see the ugliness of our wretchedness, yet we also find the encouragement to be holy…as He is.
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