Quote from Forum Archives on February 16, 2005, 4:32 pm

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Word for Today, Wed, 16 Feb 2005: Your Concept of God

Today's devotional message comes from the daily writings of Neil
Anderson. You can find out where to subscribe to or read more of
his material in the references at the end of this message.

Many of us have a distorted view of God that has been dulled,
blinded, obscured, so that we cannot see the true character and
nature of God, even though we know of Him. We may believe in
Him, we may even trust His Son, yet we distance ourselves from
God. It may be because of past circumstances that we behave in
this manner. Satan or a legion of demons may be behind the
actual deception, or it could be that we have made choices of our
own.

Either way, the God of the Bible, the One I trust and place my
hope in is altogether good, right, just, and true. In spite of
our doubt or lack of belief, that does not, in any way, change
who God is.

If you are unsure that God could possibly love you in the way
described here, I invite you to follow Neil's article, and I
would certainly be glad to correspond with any of you through
private Email.

My concept of God is that He is everything that I am not. He is
Almighty, yet He is reachable, He is Holy, and that means that He
is kind.

Yours in Christ,
Brian
______________________________________________________________________

NEIL ANDERSON'S DAILY IN CHRIST
from Freedom in Christ Ministries

February 16

YOUR CONCEPT OF GOD

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give
what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11).

Most people in spiritual conflict have a distorted concept of
God. Mentally they may have embraced correct theology, but
emotionally they feel something different. True concepts of God
are filtered through a grid of negative experiences to produce
false concepts of God. These false concepts must be replaced by
truth in order for freedom to be realized.

A pastor's wife who came to me for counseling told me about her
rigidly moral home which was dominated by her demanding mother.
The father was a wimp who knew better than to interrupt the
mother's tirades against their daughter

"You really love Jesus, don't you?" I asked the pastor's wife.

"Oh, yes," she responded.

"And you really love the Holy Spirit?"

"Yes, I do."

"But you don't even like God the Father, do you?"

She could only respond with tears. Her concept of the heavenly
Father was distorted by the image of her earthly father. She
perceived Jesus and the Holy Spirit as actively involved with
her, but in her mind God the Father, like her earthly father,
just sat around passive and uncaring while she went through
torture in her life.

I often ask, "If you performed better, would God love you more?"
Most people know the right answer: no. But when I ask if they
feel loved by God, most express that they show more love and
concern for their own children than they expect God to show for
them (see Luke 11:9-13). This is all part of Satan's strategy to
raise up thoughts against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians
10:5). If the enemy can keep people from a true concept of God,
he can destroy their hope in God.

Dear Father, I don't want any distorted concepts of You to come
between us. Correct me where my concepts are wrong so I can know
You in complete truth.

-----------
This daily devotional is published and distributed by
Crosswalk.com. It is written by Neil Anderson at
www.crosswalkmail.com/tezvkz_qenmpm.html

Additional devotionals are available from Crosswalk.com:
www.crosswalkmail.com/bzirem_qenmpm.html
-----------

=====
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more.
info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250