Who is God?

     "For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God."
–A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy 

     The most important aspect of any person is what they think about God. This statement is changing my life. What are the first words to come to your mind when you think about who God is? Do you get a mental picture of Santa Claus in all white with lightning instead of presents? Also, why did God create people? Was it because He was lonely or wanted to be worshiped? I did not have a right view of who God was. At very best I had a conflicted view between a loving God and a wrathful one. My mind began to be renewed when I read this in Ephesians 1:3-6 

      ^"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." (NLT)

     God wanted me and you to be redeemed to Him through Christ Jesus before He made the world. Jesus was not plan B from God! Also what does it mean to be redeemed through Christ Jesus? John 1:1 tells us Jesus has always been with God and is God. Jesus has been in relationship with the Father forever. When we are redeemed through Christ that means we get, not a relationship with God and the Trinity, but Christ's relationship with God and the Trinity. We are redeemed into the perfect everlasting community that is the Trinity through Christ and God designed it that way before we sinned. 

     This radically shifted my view of God. He is community, relationship, and love within Himself, but He doesn't stop there He created a way for us to share in that community. God created us to be in perfect relationship with Him. He wants to love us and out of that we worship Him, praise Him and live for Him. 

Testimony Time

As I arrived here at YWAM last Monday, among the nerves and excitement of this new chapter in my life, I felt a strong sense of joy. It was hard not to, every person I passed on campus was smiling and everyone I conversed with jovial. I thought on this atmosphere of joy for some time before I found the reason behind its existence. This answer became clear to me during a time of sharing for the students and staff involved in my Training School. We all had to share our testimony. During this time the realization came upon me why so much joy was present in this place. In every testimony was an individual story of God's redeeming love. The atmosphere of joy was formed by a focus on God. When a group of people get together to learn, experience and know God there cannot help but be an ever present joy. And so I have come to the conclusion that the most efficient way to connect with someone and form immediate friendships is to have the common joy of sharing in the redeeming love of Jesus Christ.