God Almighty!

Written by Joanne Beckley

When you read those two words, did they read like a curse as so many in the world say so very lightly? Or did the words bring to mind who God is?

Our faith will depend on how well we understand the very nature of the God of the universe. By the same token, our understanding, weak or strong, will affect our children’ understanding and therefore their developing faith in God Almighty. Once we and they truly understand who God is, how foolish we would be to deny serving Him. He is all that we are not. Then again, once we put our trust in God, that trust will be held in the most secure hands you and I could ever imagine. Jesus has told us, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”, John 17:3. We MUST know Him if we desire to find a reason for living, and then to continue to live after our physical bodies are buried.

Luke recorded a wonderful sermon by the apostle Paul when he spoke to unbelievers of Almighty God in the city of Athens, Acts 17:21-31. Take time to read this passage of Scripture.

God is infinite –unlimited, unbound. God is not created, He is not physical. He is not bound by time and space as we who are flesh and blood are bound. Only a God who brought everything into existence–out of nothing–can be infinite. He is above all that He creates. But, even as he has no limitations in His power, He has limited himself by the very universe He created. His own character also limits Him. God cannot lie, Titus 1:2. It was by his choice that He created man and woman with the ability to choose right from wrong. God’s character of righteousness and justice requires that He punish the wicked, Psalm 35:24; Isa 5:16. Yet we also learn that God’s love for us in infinite, 1 John 4:9, and oh, how we benefit from it!

God is uncaused. God is. He is not dependant for existence on anything else, but our very existence is because God willed it so. We would therefore be foolish to worship a god created by the mind of man, whether gods of war (Greek gods), benevolent gods (Budda), or even our ancestors who could not even parent us in all righteousness while they lived on earth.

God is immortal. God will not die. “I AM” is, whether yesterday, today or tomorrow, Exodus 3:14; 1 Timothy 6:16. Time does not control God. God created time and therefore He can choose the length of days for his creation. Time does not weary God, Isa 40:28, nor does it limit His existence, Deut 33:27. Unlike God, man’s spirit is not eternal. God created our spirits; they have a beginning. He has chosen that we will exist even after the world is no more. He willed that we exist.

God does not occupy space. God is not a physical being. He is spirit and cannot be measured. When King Solomon dedicated the new temple for God, he asked, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!”1 Kings 8:27. Solomon understood, and worshipped. (I would ask, do we live our lives as if God is only present with us when we walk into the church building?)

God is everywhere, just as Jonah discovered, and the psalmist echoed Jonah’s discovery, Psalm 139:7-14. God asked Jeremiah, “‘Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?’ says the LORD; ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ says the LORD”, Jeremiah 23:24. God does not occupy space, therefore, not in rocks, trees, or any thing He has created. God is above it all.

Most of all we must understand and accept that God in infinite in knowledge, Isaiah 40:28. He KNOWS us. He knows all our thoughts and our actions. He knows if we need to repent. Read again Acts 17:30. When our hearts and conscience condemn us, God knows! He is greater than our hearts and He knows all, 1 John 3:20. God’s understanding in infinite, Psalm 147:5. Let us go back to Psalm 139 and begin with verse 1. Yes, this is the Almighty God whom we serve.

Again, I ask, are we making sure our sons and daughters come face to face with their Maker?