Who do we say God is?

This began in my reply to Tim on his blog and a few of the questions he asked. Actually, it began before that. It focused itself for me on two events last week. Actually getting yself motivated enough to read a Christian book again (Provocative Faith by Matt Turner) and a great converation in the early hours of last Sunday morning. The topic: Who is God to me?

Over the last year and a half in our church we have kept looking at the question "who do you say Jesus is?" but I think in all this different reflection & interperetation of Jesus, we haven;t spent nearly enough time looking at the Father & Holy Spirit aspects of God. After all, Jesus didn't come to the Earth to be worshipped, but to bring us closer to God. If we just focus on the Jesus side of God, the loving, understanding, human side, I think we lose out on a lot of what God is.

I've really been thinking that as Christians we need to temember that God of the New Testament is still God of the Old Testament. He's still jealous, angry, vengeful and feared, just as he is also understanding, loving, forgiving and comforting.

God didn't suddenly go "whoops, Ive stuffed up mankind, I better send my Son down to die and then become an easy way out for all people from now on...".
God knew in the beginning what he was going to do. Jesus was there in the beginning when god planned it. Jesus' coming was simply another step in the God's overarching plan to bring humankind to him. And just as there were many who didnt fear, worship and follow God in the old testament who he turned away, there will still be many who are turned away. Even Jesus didn't entirely preach a "it's ok, you can keep coming back to God" message. He overturned tables, he called people vipers, he said "Go away and sin NO MORE", he said "Away from me, I never knew you".

People will argue that God is forgiveness. I agree, but that is when the repentance is genuine. Is our repentance genuine when we continue to go and commit the same sins? Is our commitment honest when we can't be bothered following God's commandments? Is our faith true when we don't trust God with ALL of our lives, just the small bits we are willing to hand over?

Why don't Christians feel and hear the spirit any longer?

Why is our world so full of God's traditional signs of anger (drought, famine, disease, war, unrest) in a world turned away from God yet we continue to ignore these signs?