22 Nov It is What It Is (Discovering the true character of God…because He is not a car-wrecking, cancer causing Creator, but a loving, life giving Lord!) part 17

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6, “For without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

From there we shared three very important takeaways:

1. Notice the word “cometh”.  The Greek tense for the word “cometh” is in the continual tense, meaning it is discussing those who continually come to God.  It could read “those that cometh and cometh and cometh to God”.  It describes a continual, communicative relationship.
2. When we continually come to God, we must believe that “He IS”…not He was or He will be.  That describes a vast majority of the Body of Christ.  “God did a miracle in Biblical days” or “One day when we all get to Heaven, He will heal then.”  God is not the Great I was or the Great I will be…He IS the Great I AM!
3. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  Now we’ve left behind three quarters of the Body of Christ.  Most don’t believe He is a rewarder…most believe He is a taker!

Then we gave you 4 View Verifications:

1. How you view Him will determine how much you come to Him.
2. How you view Him is how you will treat others.  In other words, if you think He’s mad at you, it will be very difficult for you to treat others kindly.
3. How you view Him will determine your outlook on life.
4. How you view Him will determine your destiny.

Then we began to discuss 11 Characteristics concerning the Character of God:

• You can’t create God in your own image (Rom. 1:25).  

• Heaven yes…Hell no!

3 Hell Happenings:

1)  Hell was not originally created for man (Matt. 25:41)

2)  God will respect your will all the way to Hell (Matt. 25:34,41)

3)  It’s not sins that send one to Hell, it is a sin that sends one to hell (John 16:7-9)

• Sin ruins the view

In this section we looked at “Three Sinless Scenarios”:

1. The Garden of Eden before sin
2. The life of Jesus – while certainly sin surrounded Him in His earthly ministry, there was no sin in His life (see Heb. 4:15)
3. Heaven

      4.  Will the real God please stand up?  (John 10:10)

Then we began to look at Six Nice Nature Necessities:

             1.)  In the Old Covenant, sin had not yet been dealt with

             2.)  In the Old Covenant, God only acted harshly in judgment.

This week let’s continue…

             3.)  Remember the causative verse the permissive tense in the Hebrew language.

Look at these two scriptures:

Amos 3:6 “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?”

Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things.”  

At first glance, it looks like our loving Heavenly Father is an abusive dad!  Until you understand that in the Hebrew language (the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew) there are both causative and permissive tenses in their language.  In both of these verses it looks like God is causing the evil but other verses have the permissive tense in the verbs.  In other words, God is not directly causing evil…He is permitting or allowing it.  God will still allow evil to this day.  

The Bible tells us “neither give place to the devil” (see Ephesians 4:27).  The Greek word translated “place” is the word “topos” (we get our word “topography” from it).  The word “topos” means “ground”.  Therefore the Bible tells us it’s our responsibility to give the devil no ground in our lives.  

If I am bound and determined to rob a bank, God may send you to try to talk me out of it.  However, God created me with a free will.  He will permit or allow me to rob that bank!  That doesn’t mean it’s His will or that He caused it.  God created us in His image and likeness (see Genesis 1:28) and God will not erode at His creation’s free will!

Join us next month as we continue this series…