God Reflection Paper

The infinite Life, the universal and impersonal Life we call God, accepts you as you are, and where you are, for you are always one with It. Ernest Holmes referred to this as the Law of God: impersonal principles by which Life operates. Others see this universal receptivity as evidence of God’s forgiveness; however, I must respectfully disagree, if forgiveness is viewed as a pardon, a parole, or any other release from judgment. Those who judge may forgive, and thereby free themselves from the consequences of being judgmental; however, I do not believe that the infinite One can judge anyone. I believe that our relationship with God is one of Love: our recognition of the Truth that the infinite One is within everyone. That recognition of inherent

He knows everything. God is faithful. As followers of Jesus this faithfulness gives ushope of eternal life in heaven. God will honor his promise that our sins will be forgiven and wewill live forever with him. God is Love, not the emotion but the action of love. God is allpowerful. God has no beginning or end he just exists. Nothing else in all the universe is thisway, only God. God is just and his character is the definition of what just is. God is merciful.He shows his mercy to all who follow him. God is good and kind toward men. God is gracious,this grace came through Jesus Christ. God is always with us in all we do. We learn about theseattributes in the bible so we can understand who God is and how he loves us. God kept his promises in the bible as he keeps them today. He promises to love us,accept us, and forgive us. He promises to help and protect his people. This kind of promise is acovenant. A covenant is a legally binding obligation or promise. In the bible and throughouthistory God made covenants with his people. History shows us that he would keep his side ofthe covenant if they would keep theirs. A few of the first covenants were found in the book

     Throughout these chapters we see many portrayals of God’s character: The destroyer, the ever-judging, a God with expectations, a God that grieves, feels pain, repents, a God that demands justice; a self-evaluating, ruling and omnipotent God whom also passes on saving grace to the deserving.

Our God is loving, kind and merciful, but there is another side to His personality, the side that defends and fights for His people. Paul declares we must know the “goodness and severity of God.” To understand the full character of God we must read the entire Bible. God is a lover of His creation and He is a warrior who fights for those whom He loves. The author makes an excellent point that since we are made in His image we must take on every aspect of the character

God the Son is revealed in the Christian Scriptures. God the Spirit is revealed in the Church. The Trinitarian doctrine states that there are three co-eternal, equal persons in God, which is the notion of unity within community. The Trinitarian doctrine was further developed and defined at the councils of Nicaea in 325 CE and Constantinople in 381 CE. God was always trinity, however gradually this reality became known through revelation. Jesus calls God and speaks of the spirit which indicates a plurality in God. The difficulty is reconciling the concept of monotheism with the notion of God existing as three persons. The divine essence is common to all three, however the three persons have attributes or properties which distinguished them eg Fatherhood, sonship and sanctifying power. Once essence means that the actions (creation, redemption, sanctification) are attributable to all. Mutual relations is the concept that the terms Father and Son are not titles but expressions of a relationship and thus all three persons are co-equal

According to the Christian Worldview, God is to be feared, known, and loved as the sovereign creator whom all should glory, honor, and praise. God is believed to have many characteristics, included but not limited to being unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing, good, loving, jealous, faithful, and holy. These characteristics are believed to be true because they are seen through his eternal nature,, his omnipotence and his goodness (DiVincenzo, 2014). In Romans 1:20, the Holy Bible says, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, aver since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” God is also the first person in the Trinity, the belief that there is one God who exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Kilby, 2011). Another belief of the Christian worldview is that God is the creator of all things; however, distinct from his creation. The first

A person both is and is not identical with God and in this way must be both possessed of a capacity to know Him and equally must be beholden to the laws that He lays down for behaviour and worship. The simultaneous closeness and distance is present in the idea of that people are made in the image of God. This paper will consider the breadth of the Hebrew Bible in order to show the consequences of this seeming contradiction that a person is an incomplete replication and possesses a separated, although potentially bridgeable relationship to Divine. To begin with it will argue that, while prior

Jesus spoke in parables. He used simple stories and metaphors to teach moral lessons to the disciples. In his parables, there were familiar settings, objects, rituals, etc. in order to make the lesson easier for the disciples to understand. The parables of The Sower, Ten Bridesmaids, Weeds in the Wheat, and Treasure in the Field are parables which provide us with instructions on how to be true followers of Christ. Jesus’s philosophy of life, as shown by these parables, is to be open minded, prepared, spread positivity, and to give up mental roadblocks in order to have faith.

In historical context, time and time again, God is depicted as a perfect being and the creator of all things living. In a Monotheistic approach, God is portrayed as “the Supreme being”, and in some philosophical texts, God is said to be omnipotent, omnibenevolent, all loving, and all knowing. As The Supreme Being, God cares for all of his creations and has even been described to put his arms out for the people who obey him and whom he loves. Even though God shows love, compassion, and sympathy for humans, his creation, there are times where even an omnibenevolent God can exhibit the opposite behavior.

Delkeskemp (2013) expounds on Trinitarian theology and its impact on the nature of God. He speaks of a relational “dance” God has performed for all of time, where each essence of God is always looking to love and serve the other. God is relational at his core, and this core value is passed on to humanity. Humans were created to love and be loved just as God has been doing for all of existence. Delkeskemp (2011) points to this reality as evidenced by the affection we feel for total strangers who are suffering and the phenomenon of social

Inherently, the focus of God is love and to respect His authority is to love Him. Learning to worship God as Trinity involves more than just searching for creative techniques. We need to know about the nature of our triune God if we are to worship him and enjoy him properly (Shaw 79). Often when I feel discouraged, the instinct is to blame God, the creator of everything. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my own selfishness, that I forget all the things “God” has done, not just for me, but also for the world. His mercy is compassionate love for sinners who do not deserve the redemption in Christ that he offers. His grace likewise speaks of his free favor granted to sinners (Shaw 81). I am also reminded that God is transcendent. He surpasses time and money, earth and space. God is so important, that metaphors are constantly referred to as representing God: God is a rock, God is the light, God is the bread, God is a fortress, God is the potter and we are the clay (GCU text).

The most impactful and visual image is when someone is nailed on to the cross. Yes, here I am talking about the story of Jesus Christ facing the crucifixion. In the movie, Son of God, the crucifixion of Jesus is powerfully illustrated. The movie focus on the narration of Jesus Christ from birth, life, sacrificial death, resurrection and the ascendance. However, the Hollywood encouraged by the church focused on the scene where Jesus was flogged and then carried his cross up on to the “skull.” Where he was physically nailed and placed upon that cross and suffered a humiliating death. This film played throughout many movie theaters around the United States and even the world. Therefore, many people witness the crucifixion of Jesus on the big

To understand where I am now in relation to Catholic theology I feel that it is appropriate to look back on the thoughts and ideas that I had when I first started this THEO 1001 class. Honestly coming into college I have thought about my faith very little and studied the bible and what it means even less. In my mind I have always thought that theology was primarily a group of people just sitting around reading the bible repeatedly and then coming up with ways on how to interpret certain beliefs and messages in it and what they mean to us as Christians. Now I understand that theology has many more aspects to it than just the one example I gave earlier. The fact that this class was just about Catholic theology doesn’t really have a meaning to me because I haven’t studied other religions or denominations theology. Diving deeper into what I thought about how Catholic theology impacted my life will be a very shallow dive, given that I am neither Catholic or a theologian I honestly thought that this class was going to be a history of how Catholics are the greatest Christians and their way of looking at the bible. Thankfully I was very wrong about both those things and have learned about some very interesting topics throughout the class, one being the fascinating section we did about anthropology and what role it plays into theology.

When you first begin a class you never know what to expect. When I first began Intro to Ministry, I did not know the level of insight that I would have about myself and about the character of God. I have been able to combine the things that have happened in my past and things that are happening now to try to paint God's picture in my life to come. Although you do not need to pinpoint the exact moment in time when you received your call for it to be legible, I am thankful that I do. I think it was a series of people and events unfolding in my life and God opened my eyes to the plans He had for me that lead me to that night. The day that I accepted my calling to be a youth pastor (December 30,2015) I did not go into that evening thinking “I’m going to listen to God and go into Ministry” - but I guess you never do. Since then God has been preparing me emotionally, physically, and mentally through programs that I have gone through, people in my life such as my friends, family, and professors I have gotten to know during the short time that I have been at Indiana Wesleyan. I am nowhere close to being where I want to be but that is the beauty of accepting God's call into any type of ministry, you do not have to have it all figured out, you just have to trust Him.“God is a God of infinite variety, and His call comes to people in many ways.” (Drury, K. Pg.67). I didn’t receive my calling in a damascus road way, instead God knew my heart and character so He gave me my calling in a

Christian Tradition course exposed me to the Christian Tradition based on Biblical and church history. The course taught me the differences and similarities of Christian Tradition from other major world religions. I learned about the significance of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Trinity based on the teachings of the Bible. The course also briefly covered 2,000 years of church history but with emphasis on the impact of the Council of Nicea, Council of Chalcedon, and John and Charles Wesley on Christianity. The professor emphasized the importance of the reformation that sparked a revolution in the church.