God is not...

God is not the easter clown

God has many attributes. Some of which we are able to understand and know, and others which we are unable to comprehend fully. One of the major ways in which we can know God and his attributes is to be in relationship with him. Much like when you spend enough time with someone, you begin to gain an understanding of who they are and how they behave. Another way in which we can know and understand God is through theology, the study of God. Through theology we can begin to learn what God is and what He isn’t. Being able to know how God acts or behaves, as best we can, can help us in evangelism, apologetics, and our own personal lives. It is my personal opinion that knowing the attributes of God, what he is and what he isn’t, is the best way to know God.

In my personal relationship with God I am quick to hold on to his sovereignty, omniscience and immutability. I love the sovereignty of God. It is so dear to me when living through the many trials that I have and will face in my life. To know that there is someone in control of this mess and that he is perfect and can have no wrong intentions is so comforting. Open theism commonly attacks the omniscience and sovereignty of God. I hate open theism. In an open theistic world, I’ve created the mess around me completely. There is no father going before his son with a flashlight through the woods.

Another attribute of God, which he has fortunately shared with us, is love. An attribute of God that I don’t think I fully understood until I heard John Piper speak at the reformission conference in 2004. I was only able to fully realize his deep love for us by realizing my great iniquities. My whole life I had been asking why God didn’t save everyone. At that conference my question became, why did God choose me? Only a truly loving, gracious God could look past my failures and still love me. Since that day it has been a quest to understand how to live in his grace and not my works. I believe my true conversion happened at that conference.

If you’ve noticed I have described only two of the attributes of God, it blatantly yells of my lack of knowledge of who God is. I can only pray through this process and Lord willing a full life of time in his scriptures that I will become closer everyday to knowing the true God and what he is and what he isn’t.