• Watch
  • Listen
  • Study
  • Articles
  • Links
  • About
Sunny Slope Church of Christ
  • Watch
  • Listen
  • Study
  • Articles
  • Links
  • About

What Is God Like?

3/9/2014

 
   This past Sunday morning, I launched into a series of studies asking the question, “What Is God Like?”  This series will study the nature of God by examining various characteristics of Him that we can observe in scripture.  Hopefully, by carefully considering these characteristics, we can come to a better understanding of God and develop a closer relationship with Him.
   Most people probably have a fairly shallow concept of God.  Most of us probably don’t put a great deal of thought into trying to understand, to any real depth, what God is really like.
   There are some characteristics of God with which many people are comfortable.  There are others with which they are uncomfortable. We like the idea of God’s love and goodness and kindness and mercy and forgiveness and grace.  We may have a little trouble considering too closely God being a God of commitment and absolute truth.  But we certainly don’t like to think too much about God’s justice and judgment and wrath.  Thinking too much about those characteristics can be most unsettling for many of us.
   But the more we understand about God, the better we should be able to understand what God expects of us and why.  Many of us have a rather unrealistic image of God.  We want Him to be an ever-loving, continually over-looking, always forgiving- no matter what- Heavenly Father.
   We want God to always be there for us, when we want Him, but we don’t want Him to get in our way.  We want to be able to do pretty much whatever we want to do with no accountability to God for doing it.  We want to feel justified in whatever choices we make in life.  We want to call the shots, not God.
   We want God’s blessings, but we don’t want to be responsible to use His blessings appropriately, except as we personally determine appropriateness.  We want His forgiveness, but we don’t want to Him to hold us accountable for our sin.  In fact, we don’t want our sin to be counted sinful.  We want to be able to make our choices based on a self-formulated philosophy of relativism that can change from moment to moment, based on our felt needs.  We want God’s commitment to us, but we don’t want to have to make undue commitment to Him.
   People don’t necessarily sit down and reason out the kinds of positions herein described.  Such positions sort of formulate in their minds as a result of not sitting down and reasoning out what their concept of God should be.  They want to feel good about who they are and how they live, and they don’t want to have to change.  So, they adjust their concept of God to fit their lifestyle instead of adjusting their lifestyle to conform to God’s will.  Hopefully, this series of lessons will shed much light on the nature of God, our relationship with Him and what He expects of us…

Comments are closed.

    Author

    Gary L. Hutchens

    Categories

    All
    Dennis Stackhouse
    Gary Hutchens

    Archive

    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    March 2008
    February 2008
    January 2008
    January 2007

Member Login
SUBMIT PRAYER REQUEST
© 2019 Sunny Slope Church of Christ | All Rights Reserved
3606 N. 108th St., Omaha, NE 68164 | (402) 498-8397 | Contact Us
  • Watch
  • Listen
  • Study
  • Articles
  • Links
  • About