4 results for tag: nature of God

When “God cares” doesn’t cut it – Brad Jersak

I remember the day when the assurance that “God cares” no longer cut it for me. Worse, it felt offensive. It particularly seems trite when we’re faced with the unmitigated affliction of children who suffer war, abuse, disability, disease, and painful death. God cares? How so? The image that gnawed at my mind and heart and evoked anger was a divine king, seated on a throne, telling me, “I care,”… as in, “I have this caring feeling in my heart toward you,” while failing to provide protection, provision, consolation, or healing as families searched through the rubble of homes flattened by earthquakes or hellfire missiles. God cares? So ...

One God – Vengeful in the Old Testament, Loving and Forgiving in the New? – Greg Albrecht

Question: How does a person reconcile the God of love and grace with the one described in the Old Testament as filled with rage, violence and wrath?  I must admit that this is why I do not like to read the OT as I can't picture such an angry God.   It is just confusing to me is all. I am trying to read the Bible but the Old Testament just doesn't make sense to me. I don't know if I have made any sense here, but after years of feeling that God was disappointed and angry with me for what I had done and that I was condemned to hell because of it, I sometimes wonder if the OT writers are writing the truth about how God really is. ...

God is not what Christ forbids – Brad Jersak

"Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you." Eph. 4:31-332

Q&R: “If God isn’t controlling, what about prayer, healing & miracles?” Brad Jersak

Question: I have just finished reading A More Christlike God. I found your book challenging and spiritually uplifting. I have a few queries. First, if God doesn’t "do control," are miracles off the table? Are the miracles in the Gospels and Acts to be viewed as exceptions in ushering in his kingdom and not something we should expect? Second, following your advice, I try to avoid seeing prayer as either (1) a way to get our wishes or (2) taking the opposite line of being a fatalist. But I am having trouble understanding how to structure prayer when God doesn’t "do control." Take healing as an example. Let’s say a friend had cancer. I ...