This week I am exploring the question:  “What is God like?” or “What do you (I) believe about God?”  This conversation began because of a conversation I have with a young entrepreneurial “mom” who was running her business from the coffee shop of a nearby bookstore.  You can read the introductory blog post by clicking here.

I am not attempting, here, to develop some intense sort of intense theological or philosophical reasoning or rational for God.  I just intend to share briefly what classical Christianity has taught about the nature and character of God.

This topic might be instructive for many Christians, in fact, because centuries of traditions, denominations, and theological squabbles about many peripheral matters have distracted us from THE QUESTION:  “What is God like?”

So my aim, here, is to start a conversation with this young woman (if she’s reading) or anyone else who may pass by my blog and care to enage in conversation.  I offered the young woman in the bookstore three quick sentences and a business card. If she happens to be reading this blog as a result of following the info on the business card, here’s a few more details.

God is eternal – God always has been & will be. 

That’s how the Bible begins its revelation about God.  Genesis 1:1  “In the beginning, God…” So right there, at the start of all that we know to be, God already was.

I know, I know!  That sounds pretty philosophical.  It makes God seem like simply some sort of universal spirit…some “force,” to play off the whole Stars Wars theme.

But I don’t want to stop by just saying God is “eternal.”  That’s not enough to start the conversation.  There is a central character trait that the Bible attaches to the eternal nature of God.  That trait is that God is LOVING.  Exgtravagantly loving, in fact.

God is eternal and extravagantly loving.

In the Christian faith, the LOVE of God is the central theme in relation to God.

”God is Love!”

As such, God is by nature relational.  God is not some abstract omni-being who is the byproduct of post enlightenment thought and theology.  God cannot be described merely by the use of philosophical terms like the “unmoved mover” or “first cause.”

Because God is LOVE– there must be an other to be loved.  That is exactly why God cannot be merely a philosophical concept.  A concept cannot love.  Love makes no sense if it is not expressed.  This explains the centrality of the doctrine of the Trinity.

From eternity past and into eternity future, God is Trinity:  ONE God RELATIONALLY CONNECTED and UNITED in every way as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God is Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, forever enjoying a dance of love and passion.  The Father and Son are WITH one another in relational love.  The Holy Spirit is in the middle of that love – celebrating and being a part of the relationship.  They are one!

This relational Trinitarian life expresses the rational for God creating.  “In the beginning God…CREATED.”  Love creates.  Love gives birth.  God created the world and all that is in it – including  humankind – for the purpose of sharing the Trinitarian life and  love of inclusion, acceptance, and adoption.

What do I believe about God?

FIRST:  God is eternal & extravagantly loving  (and God includes us in the fellowship of that love).

More in the next post.

The Shack Revisited: There Is More Going On Here than You Ever Dared to Dream
by: C. Baxter Kruger
publisher: FaithWords, published: 2012-10-02
ASIN: 1455516805
EAN: 9781455516803
sales rank: 7207
price: $6.63 (new), $7.47 (used)

Millions have found their spiritual hunger satisfied by William P. Young’s #1 New York Times bestseller, The Shack–the story of a man lifted from the depths of despair through his life-altering encounter with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now C. Baxter Kruger’s THE SHACK REVISITED guides readers into a deeper understanding of these three persons to help readers have a more profound connection with the core message of The Shack–that God is love.

An early fan of The Shack and a close friend to its author, Kruger shows why the novel has been enthusiastically embraced by so many Christians worldwide. In the words of William P. Young from the foreword to THE SHACK REVISITED, “Baxter Kruger will stun readers with his unique cross of intellectual brilliance and creative genius as he takes them deeper into the wonder, worship, and possibility that is the world of The Shack.”

billnieporte

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