THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

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Who Is God?

(transcript from my podcast - Fearless Podcast with Rachel Mellema)
The Bible tells us that God’s existence is very obvious, both through creation - creation being the world and everything in the galaxy, and also through our own conscience, our thoughts. And because His existence is so clear and obvious that the Bible calls the atheist a “fool” in Psalm 14:1. The Bible reveals the nature, character and the work of God, it assumes His existence from the very beginning in the book of Genesis.
Having the right idea about God is very very important because having a false idea about God is considered idolatry. A good summary of who or what God is is this: The Supreme Being, the Creator, and Rule of all that is, the Self-existence One who is perfect in power, goodness, and wisdom.
We don’t know everything there is about God but we do know certain things to be true of Him for one reason: In His mercy, He has come down to reveal some of His qualities to us, and they could be found in the Bible. I’m not going to quote every single bible verse because I’d be here for a long time if I did, but if you’re interested I’d recommend doing some personal study in this area. God is spirit, by nature. God is one, but He exists as three Persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God is infinite, incomparable, and unchanging. He exists everywhere, knows everything, and has all power and authority.

We also know some aspects of God’s character, now this is important because a lot of people misunderstand His character and falsely accuse Him of things that He isn’t responsible for. God is just, He is loving, He is truthful and holy. God shows compassion, mercy, and grace. God judges sin but also offers forgiveness.
We can’t understand God apart from what He does, because what He does flows from who He is. Here are some examples: God created the world, He actively sustains the world, He is executing His eternal plan which involved the redemption of humanity from sin and death. He draws people to Jesus Christ, He disciplines His children and He will judge the world.
I mentioned before that God exists in three Persons, and one of them is God the Son, what I mean by this is God became incarnate, meaning he because human flesh. God the Son became the Son of Man and therefore became the bridge between God and humanity. It’s through Jesus that we can have forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God and be eternally saved. So, to know who God is, we should look at Jesus and you can do that by carefully studying His life the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible.
A lot of people don’t believe that God exists and it’s not necessarily something that can be proved or disproven. The Bible says that we must accept by faith the fact that He exists. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him”. If God wanted to, He could just appear and prove to the world that He exists but if He did that then we wouldn’t need to have faith. Like I said earlier, the world and the galaxy are proof of His existence, when we look at all the beautiful things like stars, sunsets, nature, it all points to a Creative God. And if that wasn’t enough the Bible also tells us that there’s evidence of God in our own hearts, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says “He has set eternity in the hearts of men”. Meaning that deep within us, there is the recognition that there is something beyond this life and someone beyond this world. I’m not going to get too far into the arguments for God’s existence because that’s now what this episode is about.
Let’s talk more about what God is like. A lot of people have the wrong view about God like I said earlier, or a narrow view about God. God has no beginning and His existence will never end. He is immortal and infinite. He is just, He doesn’t show favouritism. He is all-powerful and can do anything He pleases, but His actions will always line up with the rest of His character. God is everywhere all the time. He knows the past, present, and future, including what we are thinking at any given moment and since He knows everything His justice will always be fair. There is only one God, and he alone is able to meet our deepest needs and longing of our hearts. He alone is worthy of our worship and devotion. God is righteous, meaning that He can’t and will not overlook evil. It’s actually because of His righteousness that our sins need to be forgiven and Jesus had to experience God’s wrath when our sins were placed on him on the cross.
The most important element of His nature is His holiness. God is holy, He is set apart, He sees all evil and it angers Him. Holiness is the foundation of all other aspects of God’s character and it’s repeated several times throughout the Bible.
God is gracious, and His grace includes His goodness, kindness, mercy, and love. If it weren’t for His grace, His holiness would exclude us from His presence. And thankfully, as I mentioned earlier, that isn’t the case. and He desires to know each of us personally. God is also the literal essence of love. 1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” God’s love is eternal and because He is immutable, His love never changes. His love is perfect and holy.
Ultimately, God is an infinite being and no person can fully answer this God-sized question, but through reading His word, The Bible, we can understand a lot about who God is and what He is like. I really hope you wholeheartedly continue to seek after Him, a good place to start that I would recommend is reading through the book of Psalms and reading through the Book of John.

The Army Beat Its Recruitment Goals This Year by Targeting Students in Debt - VICE

alwaysbewoke:

The U.S. Army has already achieved its recruiting goal this year, after falling short about 6,500 recruits in 2018. At the Pentagon this week, the head of Army Recruiting Command Maj. Gen. Frank Muth attributed the success to America’s crippling student debt crisis.
Thomas Gokey, an organizer with the Debt Collective, an organization of activists working toward debt cancellation, also believes that the Army’s use of offering help with student debt in exchange for enlisting is harmful. “Debt is a form of social control,” he said. “You can force people to do all kinds of things if you put them in debt first, including waging unjust wars, killing and hurting other people, and risking [their] own life and limbs.” Gokey also points out that colleges often benefit immensely from the GI Bill financially, giving them incentive to support recruitment on campus.
so you can understand why so many republicans are against cancelling student debt and making college free. if you not in debt and/or in need of money to go to college, who will they send to die in unnecessary endless wars?
you know who doesn’t go into debt for college or worry about how to pay for college? the rich. the 1%.
you know who also overwhelmingly avoids fighting in these unnecessary and endless wars? the rich. the 1%.
cancelling student debt and making college free would afford the average guy/gal the same protections in this regard that only the rich have enjoyed and republicans and many democrats will fight tooth and nail to keep that from happening.

(via alwaysbewoke)