I Believe In God

by Tim Howard

Everyone believes a multitude of things but some beliefs like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy are pure fantasy. While some believe in the fake, fraudulent and false, others believe in things that are real, genuine and true.

I believe in miracles. I believe that our future has not yet been written. I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love unless we put up a wall and YES, I believe in God! In a living God who actively works among us – Difficult to prove in a scientific manner – yet nonetheless true!

The phrase “I Believe In God,” can mean many things and just saying that phrase doesn’t mean you believe in the true God who’s revealed in the Bible.

The Bible distinguishes between many ‘gods’ and the ‘God of all gods.’  Within the 66 books included in the Bible, there is a myriad of people mentioned who chose not to embrace the true God found in scriptures. Time and again they are found to be in search of other gods. Why? Why do we as well, seek other gods?

Maybe it’s because we want a god who will do what we want when we want it and how we want it. Possibly we want a god who will tolerate our sin, ignore our behavior and allow no consequences. Could it be that we desire a god who will protect us from all the bad and provide us with only the good?  When the true God doesn’t yield to our demands – Off we go… In search of a god we desire to find.

When you make God into what you want Him to be, you create an idol and serve another ‘god.’ You break the 2nd and 3rd commandments and do yourself harm. Psalms 96:5 says: …” all the gods of the peoples are idols but the Lord made the heavens.”

Today we see many who have combined fragments of Christianity, Buddhism, New Age, plus a number of notions derived from personal experience to create an image that bears little resemblance to the God in the Bible. Even many modern churchgoers derive their understanding of God as much from popular culture as from the Scriptures.

That’s a major problem because no other god can rescue, deliver, heal, help or save you. Only Jesus who is the revelation of God to mankind can do these things. When we serve, worship, seek after or allow some ‘god’ to become our first priority, things break down. Jesus came to preach the good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, free people who are captive to addictions, find those who are lost and help those who are hurting. He is God in the human form. He and He alone is able to save.

We don’t live in a god-less nation. We live in a god filled nation! Many gods rule our land so be cautious when someone says “I Believe In God,”. It may not mean what you think – Then again, it may!

Your God Is Too Small

by Andrew Cromwell

In 1961, J.B. Phillips wrote a book entitled, Your God is Too Small. In it, the author outlines the tendency that we have to limit God. The message of the book is as revolutionary and accurate today as it was fifty years ago.

Chances are, the picture you have of God is too small.  

We all have these frameworks or lenses that we see God through. Sometimes the way we view God is based on something we learned from our parents or a Sunday school lesson we had when we were kids. It may be based on one or two verses from the Bible or some commonly repeated phrase (like “God helps those who help themselves”) that we have taken as Scripture.

Some of us see  Him as a Divine policeman, carrying around a billyclub waiting for us to make a mistake so He can whack us over the head. Others see Him as the white bearded, wise old man who offers sage advice but doesn’t get His hands too dirty. Still others see Him as a kind of Divine teddy bear waiting to wrap us up in His soft and comforting arms whenever we need it.

Here’s the problem: most of us are wrong about God.

Think about it. You and I are limited, mortal human beings. God is unlimited and immortal. You and I are physical creatures that are imperfect. God is immaterial and perfect. So how good do you think we are at understanding God? Not very.

We make conclusions about God all the time. Something bad happens, we shoot up a prayer, and then when things don’t turn out the way we want, we draw a conclusion about God. Someone does something to us and we blame God for allowing it to happen. We lose our job and guess who’s at fault for not saving it? God.

Or, we see God as easy. So we figure we can do whatever we want to do and that He will always be ok with us. He’ll give us a hug, pat us on the head, brush us off and pick us back up so we can go back out and keep acting stupid.

Whatever your current view of God is, the real question is, how do you get the right one?

The best way to get it straight is to go to a trustworthy source. There are plenty of “sacred texts” out there, but only one that I know of that aligns with the state of our world and the state of the heart of humanity. Whenever I read the Bible, I am confronted with a picture of God and a picture of the world that my heart tells me is true and accurate.

In John, Jesus said, speaking of anyone who wanted to know the truth, “set them apart in the truth, your word is truth.” If anyone wants to get their false image of God corrected, all that must be done is to hold it up to the truth. It works every time.

What are you doing to correct your distorted image of God? Maybe it’s time to get a better picture of the One who is perfect and who always has the best in mind for you. 

Big

by Tim Howard

As a kid, I remember visiting New York and looking at the Empire State Building. The first words out of my mouth were: “Wow, that’s big!” When I visited the Grand Canyon as an adolescent, the first words out of my mouth were: “That’s enormous!”

As an adult, whenever I look at the stars and the Milky Way I use a variety of words. Huge. Big. Awesome. Unfathomable. Immense. Vast and Incomprehensible, to name a few.

Our galaxy is beyond big and when you look into deep space as they did in 1996 through the Hubble Space telescope you discover the magnitude of what we call the Universe.

According to scientific data there are 200 billion to 400 billion stars in our galaxy alone. In 1996 they discovered at least 3000 more galaxies beyond the Milky Way when they focused the Hubble Space telescope onto one dark patch in the constellation – Ursa Major – right next to the Big Dipper. 

In 2004 they opened the lens of that same telescope for 11 days and focused it on another spot in the Orion constellation. They discovered thousands and thousands of other galaxies. Imagine how our data would increase if they could focus on all 88 current constellations and not just in one or two spots. That is gargantuan and beyond perception. That’s BIG.

The very first verse in the Bible says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He is not enamored with the galaxies as we are because He made them.  He’s not surprised by our discovery of a measureless universe because He is the one who brought it into reality.  The Grand Canyon may impress visitors but its small potatoes when compared to His ability and greatness. As the Creator of this massive and astronomical universe – He is obviously greater and bigger than the creation He brought into being.

No wonder David said in Psalms 139 “this knowledge is beyond my capability to comprehend. It is too lofty for me.”  In view of God’s immensity, Paul the Apostle said in Eph. 3:20 “He is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” As creator He is all – powerful. More powerful than anything we have ever seen or known – because He is big!

He’s big enough to help you find your way when you get lost. And we all get lost now and again. When I lost my way and experienced severe depression in my senior year of High school and contemplated suicide, God showed His greatness by helping me to find a way through.

He is big enough to help people who have lost hope and bring healing to people who are broken. He’s big enough to extend mercy and withhold judgment for a season even though we deserve it. He’s big enough to love you even though you may not love Him. That’s BIG!

God Is

by Tim Howard 

If someone asked you asked you to fill in the blank: God Is _________? What would you say? It would be difficult because explaining God is impossible. If you could explain Him – He wouldn’t be God. 

Last weekend many people celebrated Easter and the truth that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead by the power of God and lives today. 

If God is dead then there isn’t anything worth worrying about. If He really is alive, however, everything changes. The author of Hebrews said: “it’s sobering to discover that God really is alive.”  If God isn’t alive then ‘nothing matters’ but if God is alive ‘nothing else’ matters. 
You may know very little or nothing at all about God. You may not be able to articulate what you believe about Him or you might call Him a ‘higher power’.  Wherever you find yourself – there are 5 truths about God that every person on this planet needs to know. Lies, misinformation and opinions abound but these 5 truths are found in the Bible and are true for all people, at all times and in all places. 

These 5 truths have the power to change a person’s life.
1.    GOD IS! It may sound simplistic but the starting point for knowing God begins with this simple belief.  Heb. 11:6 “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.” When God created the heavens and the earth, he revealed His existence. Romans 1 tells us that the creation is His primary way of revealing His existence. 
2.    GOD IS all knowing. My grandson at age 7 thinks he knows everything but he doesn’t! When my sons were teenagers, they thought they knew everything but they didn’t! The theological term is ‘omniscient’ and it only refers to God because He really does know everything.  He knows your name. Everything about you. All you have done, all you haven’t done – that you should have done, all the pain you’ve caused. All the good you’ve accomplished. Nothing escapes His notice. He knows you are broken and can’t fix yourself. He knows about your dreams and desires and how many of them haven’t been fulfilled.
3.    GOD IS compassionate toward you. Even though He knows all the good bad and the ugly – Even though He knows what you will do tomorrow and what you did yesterday He still cares for you. And He wants to invest in your life.
4.    GOD IS able to fix what is broken. He can put you back together! Broken relationships, broken dreams, broken marriages, broken families – No problem, God is able to do the impossible
5.    GOD IS committed to helping you discover His destiny for you.  Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

We’ve heard great speeches like Martin Luther King’s: “ I have a dream… We’ve heard about the American Dream but God has a dream for you and He’s committed to walking with you so you won’t get lost along the way.

John 11:25 - 26 “You don’t have to wait for the end. Jesus said - I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?” Do you believe GOD IS?

I Believe In God

by Tim Howard

Everyone believes a multitude of things, but some beliefs like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are pure fantasy. While some believe in the fake, fraudulent and false, others believe in things that are real, genuine and true. I believe in miracles. I believe that our future has not yet been written; that we can make a difference in our world and I believe in God.

Your conviction about God is one of the most important beliefs because your true identity is only unveiled as you discover the truth about God. Since He created us in His image, we pursue a hopeless search for significance if we exclude Him from our quest.

The phrase “I Believe In God,” however, is one of the most meaningless statements a person can make today. Although public opinion polls tell us that 92% of Americans believe in God, the God of the Bible is not who they have in mind.

The Bible distinguishes between many ‘gods’ and the God of all gods. When you read the Bible you encounter a myriad of people who will not embrace and have no desire for the true God found in scripture. Time and again they are found to be in search of other gods. Why? Why won’t we embrace our creator and accept the truth about Him?

Maybe it’s because we want a god who will do what we want, when we want it and how we want it. Possibly we want a god who will tolerate our sin, ignore our behavior and allow no consequences. Could it be that we desire a god who will protect us from all the bad and provide us with only the good? When the true God doesn’t fulfill these desires we are off to find something that will.

When you make God into what you want him to be, you create an idol and serve another ‘god.’ You break the 2^nd and 3^rd commandments and do yourself harm. Psalms 96:5 says: …”all the gods of the peoples are idols but the Lord made the heavens.

Today’s generation often believes in a god of his or her own making. They have combined fragments of Christianity, Buddhism, New Age and any number of notions derived from personal experience and have come up with a god that bears little resemblance to the God of the Bible. Even many modern churchgoers derive their understanding of God as much from popular culture as from the Scriptures.

Here’s a major problem! No other god can rescue, deliver, heal, help or save you. Only Jesus who is the revelation of God to mankind can do these things. When we serve, worship, seek after or make some ‘god’ our first priority, things break down. The true God came and revealed Himself through Jesus in order to preach the good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, free people who are captive to addictions, find those who are lost and help those who are hurting. He and He alone is able to save.

We don’t live in a god-less nation. We live in a god filled nation! Many gods rule our land so be cautious when someone says “I Believe In God”. It may not mean what you think! I can’t speak for anyone else but as for my house, and me we believe in the God who is revealed in the Bible. Why don’t you check out one of the many church families in Kings County this weekend and hear the truth about God.