Dear Katherine (teacher of RS this week)

This week, in RS, we were discussing the nature of God. In short order, we began listing on the white board the traits of our Father in Heaven. Coming to mind, for me was 'ABSOLUTE' and 'HOLY'....I ended up saying, 'inflexible'. I had a good reason behind my suggestion--but many of the women in the room did not like that word, because (they said) it sounded HARSH, and NEGATIVE. Why??? Because we want to argue about the scripture, "No degree of allowance...."???? Why is something inflexible negative? I would think myself, that would evoke thoughts of peace of mind! In a word with no absolutes, isn't something that is un-bendable, strong--unable to be thwarted or changed a good thing?? I do in no way seek to change, influence or 'flex' my FATHER! I do not imagine myself needing of anything different than that which my creator has already created--knowing as I do that ALL things were created in the spirit by HIM, even before the world--before anything was made in the flesh. I trust in these things. I am comforted by His plan, His choices, His word. And, I do not want to delude myself into believing I can or should be able to CHANGE Him (to be what? More like whom??) or that He might change Himself.

In response, I wrote a letter to Katherine. She was merely the teacher, and not one who was arguing against my "definition of God" --but ultimately what I wanted her to know was how in GENERAL I felt about trying to understand the nature of GOD--and how just making a list of HUMAN traits falls so so short of what God is, and should be to us. Why do we keep trying to humanize God? Why does it make us "feel better" to see Him as 'one of us?' when He never will be? It makes me shake my head---it makes me sad and fearful of the arrogance of some men----He is HOLY---he IS.

Like a child who asks "why" of the unanswerable question....why do we ask WHO about God? I am who I am. I am, 'The great I am' says He. What does THAT mean??? To me, it means we shall never TRULY know......in this life anyway....and that is O-K! It is just fine with me.

Here is that letter:
Dear Katherine!

I wanted you to know that a good teacher inspires her students to consider the things spoken of in class beyond the end of the discussion. I have wanted you to know that I have been engaged in understanding further some of the things we spoke of in class last Sunday. Here is what I have come to feel after much reading. Of course, these are only my own opinions, and everyone would have to search it out on their own to know.....

THE NATURE OF GOD:

God is Omnipresent

God is Omnipotent

He can do anything. It is said that the only thing that is beyond His power is the fear of Him; that is, we have free will and He cannot compel us to do His will. God has a reason for allowing all things (good and bad), even if we in our limited perception and understanding cannot see the reason.

God is Omniscient

God is Eternal

God is ALL: Just, Merciful, and personal (representations of the three parts of GOD--the Father, Son, and holy ghost)

God's justice is tempered by mercy, the two qualities perfectly balanced. The holy spirit allows this balance to be communicated to us while we are on earth. Of the most commonly used names of God in scripture, one refers to his quality of justice and the other to his quality of mercy. The two names were used together in the story of Creation, showing that the world was created with both justice and mercy.All we know of this balance is because of the holy ghost.

God is Holy and Perfect

We should be careful to give all praise to Him--and to allow some holiness to remain about Him. It is not necessary for us to know all things about Him, but it is necessary to have faith in His perfected nature. The WORD Perfect is not to God what it is to man--His perfect nature is beyond what we can see or understand as mortal beings, and we must be careful to temper our discussions with an understanding that all we can KNOW of his nature is limited by all we as humans CAN KNOW. God is infinitely more than we have the capacity to "see" or understand.

THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST:

There is only one living God, and we are commanded to praise and worship only Him. As limited humans trying to understand an infinite personage, we have to remember that GOD in his divinity can and does describe His oneness in a very different way than we can fully conceptualize. In fact, we learn from scripture that His ONEness comprises three separate personages---each part demanding praise to the ONE-- the "I am". One way to partially visualize this concept is to examine the nature of water (H2O). Water is a single compound that can exist in three states – liquid, ice and vapor. This is illustrative of the fact that His three “persons” in no way invalidate His oneness.

Just as God had a purpose in creating every thing in his universe--and universes--He had a purpose in creating his oneness to be represented in three distinct personages--each with a value to the great plan He created along with every other thing created by Him spiritually. The Holy Spirit is not a vague, ethereal life force. He is not impersonal or unthinking. The Holy Spirit is a personage equal in every way with God, the Father, and God, the Son. The Bible tells us that all the characteristics of God apparent in the Father and the Son are equally apparent in the Holy Spirit. While we honor the FATHER, we must recognize that Jesus, the HG, and "God" are in some way exactly the same, even in their separate states.

When God made man in his own image....He did so representing this "trinity" in our 'self' as well. After all YOU exist in three distinct persons yet you remain one woman.

1. You have a body/flesh which is the part of you that others can see.
2. You have a mind where you think your thoughts and make your plans.
3. You have a spirit where you feel and where your essence lies.

Your body, mind and spirit are separate and distinct. My hand is a part of me, but it is not my intellect, my mind. My thoughts are a part of me, but they are not my spirit. You are undoubtedly tripartite (body, mind, spirit) yet you remain one entity. If you and I were in the same room and I looked at you, I would only see your flesh. I could not literally see what you were thinking or what you were feeling. I could not see who you really are. In this way, we cannot see who God really is without experiencing or having faith in all three parts equally.

One of the most direct scriptures testifying of the trinity of God is 1 John 5:7:

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and THESE THREE ARE ONE.

Jesus is no less God because He is subject to the Father. The holy ghost is no less God because He is subject to Jesus. Even as a human being, my body is subject to my mind. A signal must go from my brain to my hand in order for me to move it. Does that mean that my hand is not a part of me because it has to do what my mind tells it to? Certainly not. It is still a part of me even though it is in subjection to my mind. The holy ghost is HOLY--Godly, and deserves reverence, respect, acknowledgment, and praise. In Acts 5:3-4 Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? ...thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

Further, each Person of the Godhead SPEAKS AUDIBLY in the Bible--

1. God the Father SAID of Jesus in Matthew 3:17 ..."This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
2. Jesus SAID in John 10:30, " I and my Father are one."
3. The Holy Ghost SAID in Acts 13:2, ..."Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work where unto I have called them."

Each portion of God--were operative in the Old Testament--

1. The Father--Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
2. Jesus--1 Corinthians 10:1-4, 9 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: AND THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
3. The Holy Ghost--Hebrews 3:7-11 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved ME, and saw MY WORKS forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

From the very first chapter in the Bible, God makes it known that He consists of more than one Person--

Genesis 1:26-27, And God said, LET US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God [remembering here my example of H2O or an egg] created he him;

Genesis 3:22:

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil...

When Isaiah had a vision of the Lord sitting upon a throne, the Lord asked him a question,

Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for US? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

In the Old Testament, we find that God has a Son (Proverbs 30:4, Psalm 2:7-12) and a Spirit (Isaiah 40:13, 2 Samuel 23:2, Judges 3:10, etc.). We also find that the LORD said that the LORD would send Him to the earth (Zechariah 2:10,11).

In closing...

When we seek to understand the nature of God--let us remember that God has THREE portions--and each has a direct connection between He that created ALL, and He that has given us ALL. Just as we have a body, a mind, and a spirit--so has God given Himself to the world as a BODY, a Mind, and a Spirit. We can argue back and forth if Jesus is the literal child of God--our brother, or our Father--as some have and will continue to Do--we can argue if the holy ghost is an individual personage from God that God created, or if He is a seperate part of His oneness, but what I believe is most important for us to KNOW is what he told us in the very beginning of time...namely, that God transcends time and ultimately our human capacity to understand. He has no beginning and no end. He will always be there to fulfill his promises. "I am that I am" says He. The rest, if even a compelling philosophical exercise can really only help us spiritually if we are willing to accept that it matters less if we can "DEFINE" Him than if we "ACCEPT HIM"....accepting that He IS--and to acting like we do. (after all, I can know that eating cake every day will make me fatter over-time, but unless I understand that NOT eating cake and NOT getting fatter is just as worthy to my understanding of that "truth" as eating cake for 10 years, getting fat and THEN stopping eating cake to lose weight and "prove" THAT was the true cause of my weight...I won't ever be acting in the same Faith God asks me to. God asks us to do this every day. God asks for us to have faith based on the examples and evidences He has given us to this point, and not to NEED to "TEST HIM" in all things....least we accept that the "proof" may be more than we bargained for to begin with!)

I love you!

Dani