Category Archives: God

Do we meet God in particular places?

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Life in lockdown has, for Christians, raised questions about what it means to meet God when our places of worship (aka ‘churches’) are closed.

Old Testament

Genesis 28:10-19 records Jacob’s experience of seeing in a dream angels on a stairway that led up to heaven, and of hearing God’s promise to give his descendants the land.  Jacob concludes: “Surely the LORD is in this place, but I did not realize it!”

Specific localities are important in Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush, and in the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. …

Romans 1:18 – Wrath: personal or impersonal?

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C.H. Dodd contended that Paul speaks of ‘the wrath’ ‘in a curiously impersonal way’, Rom 2:5; 9:22; Eph 2:3.  More recently, Derek Flood (Healing the Gospel) has argued similarly.  Flood says that although Paul takes up the OT idea of the wrath of God, he can at the same time be seen to be moving away from it as being too much focused on a ‘problem’ with God (sin makes him angry) rather than with ourselves.…

The Trinity in action

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1 in Creation

God the Father spoke, Genesis 1:3 “And God said, Let there be light.”
God the Son was the Word spoken, John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word.”
God the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the waters, Genesis 1:2; Job 26:12,13.

2 in the Incarnation

God the Father gave His only Son, John 3:16.
God the Son was born into the world, Luke 2:11.
God the Spirit came upon Mary to cause conception, Luke 1:35.…

The fear of the Lord

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A term used frequently in Scripture to denote a right attitude towards God.

1. IMPORTANCE

Deut 4: 10 “…that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children so.”

Prov 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

Eccle 12:13 “…the whole duty of man.”

Luke 12:4, 5 “…fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell.”…

Making sense of what the Bible says about God

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The Bible says many different things about God, at many different times and by many different people.  It is all too easy (wrote Ian Paul some while ago) to simply read the words on the page and then decide whether we think we believe them or not.

Think of the passage in Numbers 15:32-36, where God says concerning the man who was caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath, “The man must die”.

It is conceivable (just!)…

Genesis 1:26 – Why a plural name for God?

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Gen 1:26 – ‘Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness”.’

Much has been made of the plural name for God here (‘Elohom‘) and of the expression ‘Let us make…’.  A number of interpretations have been proposed:-

The plural of majesty or intensity (as with the royal ‘we’).  This was the view of Keil, Dillmann, and Driver.  But this is not well attested in Hebrew.  Barnes Notes: ‘Such was not the usual style of monarchs in the ancient East.…

God’s presence

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The presence of God’s glory is in heaven;
the presence of His power on earth;
the presence of His justice in hell;
the presence of His grace with His people.

If He denies us His powerful presence we fall into nothing.
If He denies us His gracious presence we fall into sin.
If He denies us His merciful presence we fall into hell.

Fear God for His power.
Trust Him for His wisdom.
Love Him for His goodness.…

God does not need us

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What! he who guides the stars, and keeps them revolving in their orbits by the motions of his fingers, does he need an insignificant atom like one of ourselves to serve him?

What! he whom all the hosts of angels do worship, and before whose throne the cherubim do veil their faces with their wings, does he need a tiny creature like man to give him homage and reverence?

If he did need men, he could soon create as many mighty kings and princes as he pleased to wait upon him, and he could have crowned heads to bow before his footstool, and emperors to conduct him through the world in triumph.…

Tozer on God’s self-sufficiency

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Here are some extracts from A.W. Tozer on God’s self-sufficiency.

A voluntary relation

‘God has a voluntary relation to everything He has made, but He has no necessary relation to anything outside of Himself. His interest in His creatures arises from His sovereign good pleasure, not from any need those creatures can supply nor from any completeness they can bring to Him who is complete in Himself.’

We must learn to think differently about God

‘We must reverse the familiar flow of our thoughts and try to understand that which is unique, that which stands alone as being true in this situation and nowhere else.…