6 Facts on who God Is

6 Facts on who God Is

By Millie H.

In all honesty I think anyone reading this article would admit that God is many amazing things. Given that I don't have all the time in the world I am unable to list them all. But here are a few facts about God that stuck out to me this week.  

Fact #1  God is a living person.   God is not a "force" or just some higher power  

Fact #2  There is Only one God.   Isaiah 45:5 clearly states "I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me..." as well as Isaiah 46:9 "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me". 

Fact #3  God is a spirit.   This statement is in no way a contradiction to the previous statement I made above. Although God is a living person he doesn't have a physical body like we have since God is all spirit this is why we cannot see him nor are we allowed to make images after him.  We are also told in scripture that this is why we must worship Him in spirit. John 24:4 "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth". 

 Fact #4  God is glorious.   The glory of God is so bright we could not bear to look at Him, just like we cannot bear to look at the sun because of its fierce brightness so imagine how God must look and He is much brighter than the sun.  But He (God) said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" Exodus 33:20. Habakkuk 3:4 states "His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power." and Ezekiel 10:4 says "Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD'S glory."  

Fact #5  God is light.  

 God is pure, perfect and without any sin. 1 John 1:5 states "...God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." God always does what is good and right. 

 Fact #6  God is love.    1 Corinthians 13 is the ultimate guide to what love really is. God is a perfect example of all of the characteristics described in one. 

Love is Just a Feeling, or is it Much More

Love is Just a Feeling, or is it Much More?

by Julianna O.

            Love, what is it? Some people might think its an action, others might think its an emotion and some might think its just a feeling. To tell you the truth, all those people who are saying that about love is technically right. Most people have no idea what love is. In 1 Corinthians 13, it talks about what love is not and what it is. I will start off by taking you into the mysteries of love by starting in 1 Corinthians 13:1.

            “If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so that I can move the mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). The first few verses of 1 Corinthians 13 talks about what you have gained if you do not love. In verse 1, we see that if someone were to talk in the languages of men and angels but doesn't love will sound like a gong or a clanging cymbal, basically what that means is that when you speak but don't have love you are loud. Verse 2 says that if you understand all the mysteries, same as knowledge, because of prophecy and have all the faith but don't love, you are nothing. If you know a lot about God but don't love you are nothing. Verse 3 says that if you donate everything you own to feed the poor and give your body to be burned but don't have love, you gain nothing. If you do good deeds but don't love you gain nothing. It is as simple as that. Now you are probably wondering, what is love? How can I love? Well, I have an answer for you.

            If you read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, you will know what love is. “Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited; does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs; finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes in all things, hopes in all things, endures all things.” Love is patient, kind, rejoices in the truth, and bears, believes, hopes and endures in all things. That is the basic meaning of the love that God has given us (also known as agape in Greek). Also agape means loving someone even if they don't deserve it. Isn't that what God did for us by sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins because he loves us even when we didn't deserve it? I know the answer to that, and the answer is yes. God did send his Son to die and save us because God loves us.

            In order to love like Christ does, you must understand His love for you! In 1 John 4:7-8 it says “Dear friends, let us love one another because love is from God and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God because God is love.” These verses are saying that God is love! If you don't have love you do not know God but if you do have love, you have been born of God and know God. So, let us love each other, and God, for He is love.

            I hope I have inspired you to love each other as God has loved you because I know I have been inspired to write this article. I was inspired by my youth group pastor, who was talking about agape (love). At first, when I heard him talk about love, I was like, “I am not going to like this topic” but I eventually got hooked into the topic, which inspired me to write this article. Anyways, just remember God's love for you is greater than any love you have ever  experience.

God’s big project for His children, By Chadia M.

God’s big project for His children

By Chadia M.

I bet everyone knows this verse, Jeremiah 29:11, in which God says: “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.” Isn’t all this wonderful? Imagine this; God only wants the best for you. It was not in His original design that we should go through so much trouble.
If we analyze this Jeremiah 29:11, we see that God’s plan for us is to be rich; prosperous and not poor. I wish everybody could get this just the way it is: There must be no lack in your life. When Jesus died on the cross, one of the beautiful exchanges He made was to take your poverty so that you may have abundant life. When I talk about prosperity, it’s not only about money, it’s about everything: grades, jobs, relationships, health… God wants you to prosper in all the domains of your life. That’s what He has already written for you. Some people always ask why they are poor, or why they are always sick even though they believe in God.
Sometimes it is hard to try to understand, but it goes back to the Fall in Genesis – the Earth is not redeemed yet, and so pain and suffering have not yet been done away with. So, that means poverty, diseases, pain… come from the devil. God does not cause or want anyone to suffer; it was not in His original plan. Yet, that doesn’t mean that we should never get ill or be in trouble. No, sometimes God allows that for a good purpose, sometimes to prove to Satan that we have strong faith. Remember the story of Job? God let Satan try to make Job abandon Him (God) through sufferings but he failed because Job refused to betray God, even though he was about to die (Job 1 & 2). Job overcame not because of his might or power but because of God’s Spirit.
Remember the Word of God says in Matthew 11:30 that God’s yoke is easy and His load is light. And in 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul says that “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (NIV) So it’s never hard to recognize when you are put to test; for even there you know you are heading to greater prosperity (whether here or in heaven). At the end of the book of Job, the Bible tells us that God rewarded Job with the twice of what he had before. Isn’t our God just awesome? He is a God of abundance, not a God of poverty.
When you feel limited, just hold onto the promise of this verse. I don’t know whether you remember when I talked about my grades at school being so low. I had faith and I spoke prosperity to my studies, confessing it, adopting a victorious attitude and not a victim’s attitude even though it seemed I was drowning. And do you know what happened? I got more than what I had asked for, and all my classmates still can’t understand what happened to me. Our God is good.
Today my dreams are coming true. I don’t understand the ways God took to achieve them and I can’t even explain them. All I know and all I want to tell you today is that God cares about your dreams. If your dreams are in line with His will, they come from Him. So, let Him fulfill them, because that’s His will. He wants to bless you and He wills to give you more than what you have asked for or thought of (Ephesians 3:20) because He’s a God of abundance! So dare to dream big and be a prisoner of hope (1 Corinthians 13:13). Do not give up even when the devil is trying to destroy you. Remain firm and always remember that God’s plan for you is to bring you prosperity and no disaster can get in His way – He is bigger.

Faith+ Hope+ Love for ever.

Chadia

The True Love of God, By Melodie Michelle

The True Love of God

 By Melodie Michelle

These words about love are familiar to most of us, but I can honestly say that living them has not always been easy for me. As a child, I was not always exposed to this (God's love) kind of love—in fact, I was  taught to be suspicious of everyone, including myself. I was told that the motives of other people were not to be trusted, and that I was not trustworthy, because I couldn't possibly know what I was doing. This instilled in me a a negative form of "love." My grandmother, Gladys, was the apple of my eye. She loved me unconditionally, but when she passed away, I was lost again, for she had taught me some about Jesus... After that, all I knew about Jesus was that our Baptist church that told me I was going to hell for wearing shorts, that were down to my knees, no less! To a young 14 year old girl, this was not a loving God. I didn't know then that people were telling me that because they believed that God said these things... I wanted no part of that at all.

It took me a while to overcome this, but I finally learned that the love of God was real. It took several years and many promptings of the Holy Spirit to show me the TRUE LOVE OF GOD - He doesn't care what attire we wear, or what we have done - He loves us ALL unconditionally - period. Drugs, alcohol, or people cannot fill that void inside you that is made for JESUS. When we LOVE HIM with ALL we are inside and seek Him first and foremost, that is when we can live the life with PEACE that He gives us and have a joy inside - no matter what we are "feeling" inside, and no matter what is going on around us. Focus on Jesus, my friends, and allow His love to shine through you, onto others.

Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious . . . it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it . . . does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything. . . . Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8~

Valentine's Day, By Mikayla T.

Valentine's Day

By Mikayla T.

Most people celebrate Valentine's day, don't they? People such as us kids give out treats or Valentine's to our classrooms. Valentine's Day is a day when you show your love to one another.

In 1 Corinthians 13, God talks about love. Here are some verses from 1 Corinthians 13. Verse 4 says: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud." Also, verse 8 says: "Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away."

Well, God is love; He shows His love to you everyday. So Valentine's Day is everyday for God. Don't just show love on Valentine's Day - show it everyday. It could be simple, like telling someone you love them, or that you appreciate them, or showing kindness, even loving your enemies. It`s hard to show your love to your enemies but....God always shows His love to you and He never gives up! I know it's hard to do all of this, but you can work on it bit by bit.