About the Author
Message by:
Pastor Terry Crawford
Covenant Church
Shepherdstown, WV
The Christmas Story, how it changes my story.
IDEA:
If you can trust the Author you can trust his words.
God gave it to us for a reason. He told it to us to guide our hearts and path.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Scripture has inspired, transformed, empowered, and enabled, us to do the good that needs to be done.
God is the author of the Christmas Story.
What it the Author (God) like?
An attribute is not a part of God but what is true about God in his very nature.
Although the purpose of the next few minutes is to give a peek at some of the Attributes of God, I must apologize because all I can share in the words of Job are "the fringes of His ways and how faint a word we hear of Him!" God’s attributes are to be learned over a lifetime and digested slowly, purposefully and personally and at times we will find ourselves still and knowing that He is God. But to not touch on who God is today would be a shame and a loss since he is the author.
God is faithful.
Psalm 100:5
For the LORDis good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
We don’t care how much you know until we know how much you care.
God has, from the beginning, faithfully invested himself in humanity. He has relentlessly chased us and called us to himself. He even says we can call him Father which helps convey a picture of a faithful parental figure.
God is Omnipotent - He can do it.
Jeremiah 32:17
‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
God is Omnipresent - He is here.
Psalms 139:7-12
7Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
God is Omniscient - He knows it.
Daniel 2:21
He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
1 John 3:20
If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
God is immutable - He never changes
Malachi 3:6
“I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
God is truth.
John 17:17
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Truth - That which coincides with reality. God cannot lie, that is reality and so he is truth.
God is love.
Jeremiah 31:3
The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
“The Bible is a whole series of highways, all leading toward God. And when the text has been illuminated and the believer of the text knows that God is the end toward which he is moving, then that man has real faith.” ― A.W. Tozer
30 Days of Praying the Names and Attributes of God
So when we trust the Author, and we trust the facts, then we can trust the story.
Infinite/eternal/limitless - Psalm 90/147
God is just. Balance the scales morally. His nature and character is the standard by which he judges. Why is lying wrong? Because, God is truth.
God is good. Psalm 119 shows God exercising his goodness and provokes praise. Do not grow weary in doing good. No matter how we respond God keeps exercising his goodness.
God is love. Not does he loves, but God is love. The more I learn of him the more I love him. Jeremiah - I have loved you with an everlasting love. Christ’s love is uninfluenced. Nothing made it happen. Nothing triggered it.
God is faithful - Psalm 119 and Deuteronomy 7:9, knowing that God is faithful increases my confidence in him.
The greater we know God, true God, the greater he will be glorified in our lives.
“When Jesus died on the cross the mercy of God did not become any greater. It could not become any greater, for it was already infinite. We get the odd notion that God is showing mercy because Jesus died. No--Jesus died because God is showing mercy. It was the mercy of God that gave us Calvary, not Calvary that gave us mercy. If God had not been merciful there would have been no incarnation, no babe in the manger, no man on a cross and no open tomb.” ― A.W. Tozer
Trusting God’s word benefits us and glorifies Him.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Hebrews 12:2
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
NEXT STEPS
- Today I commit my life to Christ, the author and perfecter of faith.
- Today I commit to read the Christmas Story with an open heart and mind.
- Today I commit to let God’s word equip me and complete me.
We instead prefer to understand the precise period, and that's why something similar to the replica watches is a great match. That's since the Rolex, whilst nevertheless the single-hand style, provides you with a replica watches sale far more conventional undertake monitoring period. This really is achieved by way of the leaping hr disk, departing the fake rolex sale actual solitary hands in order to after that monitor the replica watches uk actual min's. For individuals who choose the "pure" single-hand view, this replica watches sale particular defintely won't be associated with attractiveness, due to the fact a person shed a number of which lackadaisical appeal. With regard to people such as rolex replica sale me personally, nevertheless, this particular enables you to obtain which distinctive style whilst nevertheless sustaining performance.
ReplyDelete