Chapter 3

The Character of God

  • The story of redemption has one main character.  It is God. What do we learn about God in this story? Who is this God anyway?

    In the first chapter I challenged you to use your imagination to think about what life might look like if God really existed or if God didn’t exist. Which life makes more sense to you? Which life seems right and true and good? Which life better explains the world as you experience it, assuming that in the end it is impossible to prove with absolute certainty that God exists or does not exist.

    As we’ll see in the chapters that follow, the witness of the Bible leads to the inevitable conclusion that if God exists then we must treat God as first and foremost in our lives. God is God all the time and in every situation. As the greatest being in the universe, this God is worthy of worship, trust, and obedience. We come to know God by committing to God. There is no true knowledge of God apart from such commitment, for commitment—and only commitment—turns what was once just an idea to us into a living reality. 

    Which raises another big question: Who is God? What is God like? How do we know?

    Continue reading in The Christian Faith as a Way of Life

Spiritual Formation

  • It might seem utterly audacious to believe that it is actually possible to know God, a being we can’t see, hear, or touch. But the Bible does exactliy that. Read Exodus 3:1-15; Isaiah 6:1-8; I Kings 19: Luke 5:1-11; Luke 19:1-10; John 4; Acts 9. These texts tell stories of encounters with God, the first three involve OT characters who encounter the God of Israel, the last four NT characters who encounter Jesus, the Son of God. What happened to them? What did they learn about God?

  • Take one of the stories that you read in your homework assignment and read it several times over the next few days. Try to master it. In this exercise, read it as if you were present in the story. Identify with a character in it. Use your imagination. What do you see happening? How do you feel? What are you discovering about God? How do you see the extremes of God’s character held together in a perfect tension? What would it mean for you to know, trust, and follow that kind of God? Do you dare pray to this God? What would you say if you did?

  • What did you learn about God in the Bible study, in the chapter, and in the spiritual exercise? How can you envision God—the God you encountered over the past week or two—becoming real and active in your life?

  • Psalm 103:1-5

Resources from the History of the Church

Prayer

Great Church Prayer

God, the origin of creation, open our eyes to know you and place our hope in you, the highest and the holiest.  You put down the insolence of the proud, and scatter the plotting of the nations; you lift up the humble and lay low the mighty; you make some rich and make others poor, kill some and bring others to life; the God of the spiritual and the material worlds; you see everything that happens; you are the helper of those who are in trouble and the Savior of those in despair; creator and overseer of every spirit; you cause nations to grow, and you have chosen from all the world those who love you through Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom you taught us, made us holy and honored us.  Lord and Master, help us and rescue all those who are in trouble; have mercy on the lowly; lift up those who have fallen; reveal yourself to the needy; heal the ungodly; convert those of your people who have gone astray; feed the hungry; release those of our number who are in prison; give power to the weak; encourage the faint-hearted.  Let all the nations know that you are God alone, and Jesus Christ is your Son, and we are your people and the sheep of your pasture.

Written by Clement of Rome, 96 AD

Hymns

Praise to the Lord

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy
health and salvation!
All ye who hear,
Now to His temple draw near;
Sing now in glad adoration!

Praise to the Lord, who o’er all
things so wondrously reigneth,
Who, as on wings of an eagle,
uplifteth, sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen
How thy desires all have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully,
wondrously, made thee!
Health hath vouchsafed and, when
heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief
Ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper
thy work and defend thee,
Who from the heavens the streams of
His mercy doth send thee.
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
Who with His love doth befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that
is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come
now with praises before Him!
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again;
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Written by Joachim Neander, 1680

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all life Thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish, but nought changeth Thee.

Great Father of Glory, pure Father of Light
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render, O help us to see:
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life
Written by Walter Chalmers Smith, 1867

Holy, Holy, Holy

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before thee,
Who was and is and evermore shall be.

Holy, Holy, Holy! though the darkness hide thee,
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
Only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
Perfect in pow'r, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again;
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Written by Reginald Heber, 1826