God loves you
I am very passionate about the Idea of God not being a body of philisophical ideas but a relational personal God.
If you begin to speak of the cross, for example, without mentioning love I believe you have missed the whole point.
There, first of all, was no change in God's mind about how He will relate with people when he sent Jesus and when jesus referred to Him as Abba. This Abba view of God was always desired of us. If you believe that God created Man in "In His image" (as it states in Genesis)and you believe that man is relational than where do you think this relational capacity originates? If you conclude that our relational character comes from God than you must conclude it came from the very beginning.
Read Micah 6:8.
I believe that God is very involved with the lives of his people and obedience is the the end in itself that he desires. I submit that the scriptures are clear that God cares not just for Himself but actually cares for His people, is actually involved in our lives. Why else would God care so much about poverty and opression. Obedience to Him is not some posession for His gratification in and of itself. The reason God commands obedience is because it leads to the restoration and unity and perfection of His great world.
If God only wanted us to "bow down" he might not have given us "free will." We know God is a lover because of his obsession over our motives and where our hearts are.
read Matthew 15
We are described in scripture as His bride.
Read ezekiel 16
God wants a "personal relationship" with His people and most of all He wants His people to be healed.
If you begin to speak of the cross, for example, without mentioning love I believe you have missed the whole point.
There, first of all, was no change in God's mind about how He will relate with people when he sent Jesus and when jesus referred to Him as Abba. This Abba view of God was always desired of us. If you believe that God created Man in "In His image" (as it states in Genesis)and you believe that man is relational than where do you think this relational capacity originates? If you conclude that our relational character comes from God than you must conclude it came from the very beginning.
Read Micah 6:8.
I believe that God is very involved with the lives of his people and obedience is the the end in itself that he desires. I submit that the scriptures are clear that God cares not just for Himself but actually cares for His people, is actually involved in our lives. Why else would God care so much about poverty and opression. Obedience to Him is not some posession for His gratification in and of itself. The reason God commands obedience is because it leads to the restoration and unity and perfection of His great world.
If God only wanted us to "bow down" he might not have given us "free will." We know God is a lover because of his obsession over our motives and where our hearts are.
read Matthew 15
We are described in scripture as His bride.
Read ezekiel 16
God wants a "personal relationship" with His people and most of all He wants His people to be healed.
Comments
then again, can an infant equate the sharp pain of a vacination needle with love? can a toddler equate mommy saying no to a cookie while she is fixing dinner with love? I'm so glad that Jesus clarified matters by urging us to call God "abba".
Jesus died for alot of reasons. He died not just for a sacrifice but also to bear the impending punishment of israel. He would later be vindicated and marked as the messiah, the son of David, through the raising of the "New" temple which in a hebrew mind would link directly to the son of David.
God promised to give David a house (family, son) where the LORD God would dwell among His people. It was not merely in a life that the Son would be made manifest but in the raising of the temple, the resurrecting of the Son of David (adopted as son of God) the Christ was marked. Christ Died to do save His people from their own punnishment, which they brought upon themselves.