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Discussion Forum : Devotional Thoughts : Snapshot of the Father

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mguldner
Member



Joined: 2009/12/4
Posts: 1862
Kansas

 Snapshot of the Father

The Lord is so good in all He does, He moves and acts according to His will and purpose. What is the essence of God (sounds like a perfume name). Well it would be vague and naïve to simply say “God is Love and so the essence of God is Love”. This is so very true BUT the word love is tossed around so often we must look to other parts of God that are important to His being. The past three Sundays my pastor has talked about our picture of God; that how we see God is the most important part of our person. It is interesting to think of God as a picture and it is interesting to think of the nature of a picture, a single second frozen in time. Think about the old saying a picture says a thousand words, truly thinking about this though we see that often times those words are out of context or distorted.

For example, I could be driving my car and someone cuts me off and in that split second someone could take a picture of me just my face and see it squished in anger at what just happened. From this single picture one could say well he is obviously an angry person, however this is only a single second of who I am with little context to what really happened. Zoom out and one could see I was driving and conclude I have road rage, a little further they could see I have children in the backseat and so now I can be seen as a terrible father setting a bad example, and zoom out one last time to see the true cause of the anger, the person that cut me off. When they see the whole picture they have the most clarity of who I am, from the final zoom they can see I likely was angry because I wish to protect my children and so don’t appreciate someone cutting me off risking my children’s safety.

We do this with God, our picture is but ONE second of who He is in our world, and when we base our picture of God on only one attribute of who He is we lack clarity. God is love, YES, but it is the Love of a Father who disciplines and protects His children, teaching them and helping them grow into Holy and Righteous individuals. We fail often but how many can say they didn’t fall one time when learning to walk? Or when learning to feed yourself, you never got food everywhere? I fall often and I make a mess often but that’s why our big Brother Jesus Christ came for us to teach us and show us how to be one with the Father in a loving and caring relationship AND to provide a way for it all to be possible.

Many people “try” God out for a while and when they feel He doesn’t fit the bill or when they are in great need of an answered prayer that doesn’t seem to reach His ears (though they do), they become upset and angry at God for ignoring them or not being enough. This however is a split second of who God is. His thoughts and ways are higher than our own. Sometimes we go through suffering to become strong and sometimes we go through pain to see a new picture of God. A relationship with God shouldn’t be a still shot but should be like a movie ever changing and growing and moving, our picture of God should change and grow.

My favorite book right now is the Psalms for one reason alone, we can see David and his relationship with God growing and changing. Each Psalms is a snap shot of God for David, how he saw the Lord. Sometimes he would wail and ask for relief but other times he would be happy, all the time acknowledging God.

My final point is this, we must look to what God has revealed about Himself in the scriptures, they are the true picture God has already painted of Himself and His relationship with man. Not only taking to the scriptures for our picture of God but having a balanced picture of God. It’s so vital we consider who God is and how we see Him.


_________________
Matthew Guldner

 2012/1/22 8:19Profile
lylewise
Member



Joined: 2009/2/20
Posts: 494
Celina, Texas

 Re: Snapshot of the Father

Wonderful thoughts my brother. I have a good friend who is an artist and fellow brother in Christ. I have asked him, out of curiosity, "what constitutes a good painting." He has told me, in so many words, that many esteem the economy of strokes among those who have this gift. So if a picture does speak a thousand words, then the fewer strokes that compose it are worthy of greater admiration individually. Each attribute of God holds so much potential for us to admire, praise, worship, and awe the Lover of our soul. Shall we abandon the whole of the treasure for one coin. In like vein to what you have said, How will one appreciate the fullness of the overall Masterpiece if one looks upon but one stroke. A wealth of meditation waits our exploration. Thanks mguldner.

 2012/1/22 9:45Profile





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