See what God is doing in our lives!

God is good–God is glorious, and I cannot begin to tell you of the things that have transpired here in Keystone: there are not words. But I will try:

For the last week we have been with a team of 14 men and women, and we have been learning about the power of prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, among MANY other things. But again, words do not express the glory of God and the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit.

Tonight, after a dinner of venison and antelope, we went out into the rain and played ultimate football (ultimate frisbee + football). The rain hit as hard as we played our game. I retired early because I retrieved the ball from the creek (which, mind you, is ice cold), and I feared that I would get a fever. So I went inside, took a long shower, and worshiped God.

A while later, Derek called the guys into one of the girl’s dorm rooms, where one of our teammates, Sarah, had yet to recover her breath. She hacked, wheezed, sucked in air, coughed, and cried with pain. We gathered in the room and prayed for her healing–we gathered in the hallway, all 14 of us (some of which were still in the room) and continued to ask God to heal Sarah.

Her breathing calmed. It didn’t just calm–it steadied so that she could speak! God healed her, and brought her erratic breathing muscles peace, so that she could have breath!

While we were waiting for the paramedics to arrive, we sat in silence in the hallway, praying quietly and separately–and then we began to sing. We began to glorify God! It was so awesome! Not only did God heal Sarah, and calm her, but we began to worship Him in the midst of that struggle.

The paramedics arrived, assessed Sarah’s condition and took her to the hospital, so we went back into the room, and we began to pray. Standing in a circle, each holding his or her neighbors hand, we prayed together–all at once–for Sarah’s healing, and for God to have victory over Satan here and now, and for God to be glorified.

See, Satan trembles with fear when the Body of Christ comes together and begins to truly grow. He fears, but he is not a creature of inaction–so he began to attack. He brought the worst blizzard LJ had ever seen against him as he travelled back to Keystone, and he tried to squeeze the air from Sarah’s lungs, but God had victory! Satan brings his forces against us, and God defeated him through us.

Prayer turned to song. Again our mouths were quiet, and someone asked if anyone else felt led to sing–several of us had, so we began to worship God and glorify His name. One song became another and another and another. It was truly amazing, more than the words I write for you.

Song turned to simple worship. The name of Jesus Christ has power. It has the power to make demons flee and tremble. It is by His name and His sacrifice that we are all forgiven of the atrocities we have committed against God. His name carries such incredible power. So we began to speak it–not just the name Jesus Christ, but more. We began to speak all names that came to mind. In Pennsylvania, I took a picture of the names of Christ, so I whipped out my phone and began to read.

Simple worship turned back to song, and song to prayer. God is glorious. See what He has done in the lives of the fourteen of us? Just this ONE instance of His power. God healed Sarah, she should be back right now, in her room, probably showering or sleeping. God healed her–the Holy Spirit worked through us and healed her. And this is just one of many instances.

One man shared with us, saying that if he had known Sarah in any other context, he wouldn’t have cared–it would have hardly mattered to him. Just another thing happening in this fallen world, and he was right. In any context other than Keystone, in this group, learning these things, none of this would have been very worried, or so empowered by the Holy Spirit to ask for this healing. I didn’t even believe in present day healing until I came out here. BUT GOD IS REAL! and He can do ANYTHING for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

I cannot begin to truly communicate to your the sheer wonder of what is happening amongst us. This is one thing that happened in the first week! We have three months! The Holy Spirit is moving in each of us. God is having victory through us and He is being glorified!

Awesome

What do you think of when you hear that word?

Awesome. Cool. Sick. Fun. Sweet. God. Song. Emotion. Whatever.

Now I ask you, what is awe? What composes the word ‘awesome’?

To remain academically honest, I looked up awesome. Here are some synonyms: amazing, appalling, breathtaking, ghostly, grand, hairy, imposing, majestic, solemn, uncanny, alarming, and astonishing.

Next I looked up simply awe, since my first answer was not satisfactory. This is what I got: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like: in awe of God.

~(Thank You Dictionary.com)~

An overwhelming feeling of reverence, fear and admiration.

I present to you that our culture has taken the word awesome and degraded it. Do we ever recognize God’s awesomeness? Are we ever overwhelmed by his immense power? Are we ever overwhelmed with fear when we just begin to imagine what we deserve from such a powerful God? Are we ever truly in awe of His unyielding love?

God is an amazingly powerful God – He spoke the world into existence; and He’s omnipotent – all powerful. God is powerful. That speaks for itself. His power is so immense that He flooded the entire earth, it is so immense that He stopped time – held the sun in the sky – just so that the Israelites might have victory. He is so powerful, that when the Philistines so much as had the ark in their possession, disease broke out; so powerful, so holy, that the seventy Israelites that looked inside the ark when it came back died where they stood. So powerful, that he decimated Sodom and Gomorrah for their immorality. God is powerful; that much is clear.

Now think of what God could do with that power if He were not merciful, if He were to unleash His wrath on all of his deserving creation. All have fallen short of God’s glory, all have sinned, and all deserve death, deserve his wrath. That means that You and I are both at the mercy of that awesomely powerful God. We deserve His wrath, we deserve the worst kind of pain we could imagine, and worse. Just think of what happened to Christ. Okay, He suffered horrible things on earth. But that was nothing compared to God’s wrath. That was the wrath of Man. Imagine God’s wrath who is infinitely more powerful than we are. Imagine that and be filled with fear.

Finally, think of God’s love. His power is awesome, His wrath is awesome, but we yet live – why? It’s because God loves us. John 3:16 is a well quoted verse. It basically says that God sent His only Son to die by our hands, so that we may be with Him. God sent His Son, to suffer His awesome wrath, just so that we could be together with Him. Is that not awe inspiring love? So it’s not only the love that keeps us from suffering His wrath, but love beyond that; so that we can go to heaven and be with Him. Is that not amazing? Is that not awesome?

Attributes of God

Attributes of God
Have you ever wondered about God’s true nature? A breakdown of His character, as revealed in the Bible, can be discovered.

The Meaning
God is a word that means different things to different people. What enters our minds when we think about God is considered to be the most important thing about us.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without him was not one thing made that has come into being.” (Gospel of John 1:1-3)

Characteristics

Wisdom
“Wisdom is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve these ends by the most perfect means.” (Dr. Fred R. Johnson, Ph.D.)

Infinitude
Infinitude impacts all of the others, and since God is infinite, everything else about Him must also be infinite.

Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the application of His other attributes of being all-knowing and all-powerful. Sovereignty makes Him absolutely free to do what He knows to be best.

Holiness
Holiness is what sets God apart from all other created beings, which is pure and righteous in all the universe.

Trinity
The Trinity consists of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all called God, given worship as God, exist eternally, and are involved in doing things only God could do.

Omniscience
Omniscience means all-knowing, which means God knows everything, and His knowledge is infinite.

Faithfulness
God’s Faithfulness guarantees everything that He has promised will come to pass. His faithfulness guarantees this fact, which has Jesus confirmed.

A Continuing Study

Love
Love simply means that God holds the well-being of others as His primary concern.

Omnipotence
Omnipotence means all-powerful, and since God is infinite and possesses power, He possesses infinite power.

Self-Existence
Self-Existence means God has no beginning or end; He just exists. Nothing else in all the universe is self-caused.

Self-Sufficiency
God is Self-Sufficient. He does not need our help with anything, but because of His grace and love, He allows us to be a part of advancing His plan on earth and being a blessing to others. We are the ones who change, but never God.

Justice
The Bible says that God is just, but it is His character that defines what being just really is. His justice is needed to be satisfied, but He took care of it for all who will believe in Jesus.

Immutability
It is why the Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” This simply means that God never changes.

Mercy
“Mercy is the attribute of God which disposes Him to be actively compassionate.” Since God’s justice is satisfied in Jesus, He is free to show mercy to all those who have chosen to follow Him.

Eternal
God always has been and will forever be, because God dwells in eternity. It is why God can see the end from the beginning, and why He is never surprised by anything.

Goodness
Goodness is why He bestows all the blessing He does on His followers. God’s actions define what goodness is, and we can easily see it in the way Jesus related to the people around Him.

Gracious
God enjoys giving great gifts to those who love Him, even when they do not deserve it.  Jesus Christ is the channel through which His grace moves.

Omnipresence
Omnipresence means “always present.” Since God is infinite, His being knows no boundaries. This is certainly a comforting truth for all who follow Jesus.

The Conclusion
By learning the attributes of God, you may praise God for who He really is and for how each of His attributes impacts your life in a positive way.