How Well Do You Know Your God?

By Author: Terry Dashner
Total Articles: 105
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How well do you know your God?

Terry DashnerFaith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013

First impressions are important. Men and women alike place much emphasis on making a good first impression to a potential employer, a possible relationship, a business contact, and etc.

Consider the difference between knowing a person on first impression and knowing a person through years of experience. Some people build their success on their ability to make a good first impression—the smile, the face, the curly hair, the interesting mannerisms. Yet when they are known through many experiences, their inherent superficiality or mediocrity may become known. On the contrary, a person whose first impression is very unassuming may show through the years that he is a very remarkable human being.

Now let me carry this further. How well do you know your God? God does not prove Himself to exist on the basis of a first impression or on the basis of an apparently airtight logical argument. Through many experiences, Israel would really come to know the Lord. Through many divine revelations, ...
... many divine providences, many divine miracles, many theophanies Israel would arrive at an immovable conviction of the reality of God as the living Lord.

As a matter of fact, the Bible declares God to be a living God. What does this mean? Listen again to the words of Professor Ramm, The real issue in the Old Testament was which of all the competing gods was the living Lord, The word living was used to indicate that God does make a difference. A god who is not living can make no difference; but a living God does make a difference. For this reason, the logically ordered proof for God's existence doesn't exist in the Old Testament.

The prophets set up certain differentia which would enable a person in doubt or confusion to determine which among the gods was the living God. The God who complied with such differentia was the living God, and the god or gods who couldn't were not gods at all. Therefore the emphasis is on the living God, for the living God can make a difference; a dead god cannot.

Think about this. Is the god you serve alive? I serve the living God. He is personable. He is demanding, yet giving. He is grand and glorious. He is willing and able. He is approachable. He is loving and kind. He is Holy. Is the god you serve listening to your prayers? I serve the living God who has ears to hear, eyes to see, a mouth to speak, and a hand to hold in troubling times. The gods of secularism and recreation are wood and stone. They have no ears to hear you. They have no eyes to see you. They are dead and a very poor help in times of trouble. I know God as the living God. What about you?

The living God is Creator of all things. He made everything out of nothing. False gods created nothing. The living God I know is self-existent. He is the Great I Am. He was. He is. He will be forevermore. False gods must be sustained by human cognition. The living God acts sovereignly in nature and yet is not a nature god. He has answered through fire, but He is not fire. He sends the rain, but He is not rain. He is God above all. The gods of nature need to be many. The living God is one.

The living God I know became flesh and lived on the earth. He died on a cross for my sin. He was buried in a tomb. On the third day, He was raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit. He appeared to many before He ascended to the Father God in Heaven where He lives and makes continual intercession for me. His name is Jesus. Have you gotten to know Him? He'd love to meet you.


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