God in power & character, Part 1

When God created man in His image, He not only created a creature which would resemble Him in looks. But a creature which be able to perform certain things on His behalf, at a lower scale. God gave His powers to mankind while keeping others to Himself. While He is present everywhere, we're present somewhere, while He's all knowing, we know certain things and are ignorant of others and while He can forsee all things we can forsee some. Same applies to His character, He is all loving, we can love at lower scale, He is all good, we can be good but not most of the time.

Omnipotence, God has power to every single thing, there is nothing impossible for Him. It takes the same effort for God to create an atom as would be required to create a star. This often confuses us, because we often weigh the requests we make to God thinking that the difficulty of it matters to Him. All God needs from us is Faith the size of a mustard seed, whether to walk on water or heal the sick. Because, faith in God is what matters, it's not the action but Who or who the action comes from. If you were to ask someone to do something for you, the effort would matter, maybe it takes energy to time to be done, maybe it requires the person to make huge sacrifices. That doesn't apply to God at all, because He can do abundantly and above all that we can think or imagine. That's how powerful He is. This also means that God can do anything for or against us without limitation. And if you and I fall at His hands as enemies, there's absolutely no thing and no one that could defend us from His wrath. Fortunately for us, God has a character for carrying out His power, which He uses to limit Himself. He won't throw tantrums when He is angry, but has longsuffering, He is patient not to destroy us. We're not here because He can't get rid of us, or that He needs us, we're here because God wanted us and we need Him. God is everything in Himself, He is God with or without us, with or without our consent. But without Him, we are nothing, we wouldn't be alive without Him, if He takes one step away we'll be all gone, but He doesn't. Omnipresence, God is present everywhere, He sees everything happening, everything about to happen, everything that could happen, everything that has happened, everything that could've happened, all at the same time. Now that's truly amazing. We may have glimpses as human beings, but God sees the full picture, not only does He see that in my life, but in the lives on others, all over the planet, in the lives of those who lived a thousand or 100 years ago, those who will live tomorrow, or next century or millennia. Nothing is hidden in His sight, He is therefore omniscience, He is all knowing. Wouldn't you want to trust Someone like this? Who not only sees but can do something about it. Imagine if He was omnipresent but not omnipotent, He would know what could happen and have nothing to do about it. Or if He was omnipotent but not omniscient/omnipresent, He would be taken by surprise and would be ineffective. What if He was not good, He would be using those powers to torture us. Knowing this about God, can be unsettling, if I cannot hide anything from God, how then can I approach Him as the Holy One. Knowing my past present and future is in display in His eyes as we speak, I ought to be ashamed, because I have sinned, I sin and I will sin, in the eyes of God, who's tolerance of sin is non existent. Enter Jesus...

When the Egyptians were masters of the Israelites, Godtold His nation that He would kill all firstborn children from all the household, be it human or animals, unless there was blood smeared on the door posts. And when He saw the blood, He would pass over. So when God sees the blood of Christ, the eternal Passover lamb, He passes over. Not only does the blood obliterate my past actions, but the sins I have yet to commit. So that God sees me as someone who has not sinned. That's not all, the righteousness of Jesus is then deposited into our accounts, so that we righteous before Him. God is just, this means that He want each person to receive what they deserve. The soul that sins deserves death, just one sin should be enough to warrant the death penalty. God is a judge and and just judge must ensure that all sins are paid for, an unjust judge doesn't do that. Justice would be for God to give us all the death penalty, to burn in hell forever. Some would say, well why doesn't God just forget about our mistakes or just weigh the good and bad and let us in? Imagine if our justice system worked like that, you've been violated, maybe someone cut your arms. The judge suggests you just forget about it and move on, no compensation for having to work the rest of your life without arms. Or alternatively the judge weighs the good and the bad the person has done, and decides that he should be set free, again without compensation because, although he is a criminal but he was a good person. This would be a grand injustice, no one would want to go to a court with a judge like that. But we often expect the same from God. We have hurt Him, His people violated His laws and when He demands compensation we claim He is not being fair. So what God does, is offer grace, which allows compensation to the victim while setting the criminal free. But this particular criminal is penniless, He is unable to appease the arm of the law. So a stranger comes in, a good Samaritan and offers to pay the whole fine and the judge sets him free. It had nothing to do with the criminals earnings because He couldn't pay his way out. It also had nothing to do with a corrupt justice system because a fine was given to the perpetrator. Everyone walks out of the courtroom happy. We have gone through some attributes of God, and character quite briefly. But what makes God God is not the abilities but the character. Jesus was NOT omnipresent, or omnipotent or omniscient, He was just like us in attributes, not in character. The bible says that Jesus laid aside the privileges of Deity but did not cease to be God. This means that the element which made God God, remained in Jesus and it was not the power but the heart. And Jesus changed this world, in a way that no human being, in the same capacity and situation He was in would have managed. But we as human beings, even if for a day we had God's abilities, the whole universe would fall apart, the world would be a horrible place to live in. We would only be doing everything for ourselves, because we're selfish but God is selfless. We are at times inclined to focus on what God can do, and forget how God is. Someone who only focuses on the abilities, will be looking for how to exploit God, so to speak for their own selfish ambitions. And when God doesn't dance to your rhythm then He is seen as the enemy. God puts His character above His abilities, so if it's not in His character, He will never do it. The first thing we should focus on when praying is to be in His will, God is always right. It's easy to forget at times that God sees everything and most importantly has our best interest at heart. We do not have our own best interest at heart, because our vision is limited, we see in glimpses but He sees fully, until one day we will know ourselves the way God has always known us. It's impossible for us with our limitations to know what's best for us. When you're stranded, better ask the Expert, who understand cause and effect, Who knows all possible outcomes and chooses the best. We don't need to understand, as Jesus was limited like us, did not accept the cross out of His own will, but the will of the Father. He knew the Father had knowledge of all possible outcomes, and accepted what was presented as the best outcome. When Jehovah looked at the endless possibilities and endless routes to heaven He revealed to Yehoshua, You are the way and besides you there is not other. No human, nor Angel or Member of the Gply Trinity could serve as a substitute. When God pushes you to the edge, He might teach you how to fly, catch you when you fall or let you fall...He chooses the best outcomes, based on His unending love and then abilities, and He will not withhold doing anything when He can do everything for us if He did not deny His ownself. When He said, My God My God, why have you forsaken Me? He had denied Himself and has called us to deny ourselves and trust Him fully🙌