Click the icon for the one-page, front and back, printable version of this small group lesson as
The Jesus MeetUp
"The Nature of God"
Week #26
The Jesus MeetUp The Nature of God Week 26
“I wonder what God is really like. I have heard so many say that He loves us but I also hear that God
is angry and hates sin. Does this mean God hates me because I have sinned?”
Let's talk about this. Firstly, where can I find God?
God is all around us in His natural creations. We enjoy seeing His handiwork, but our real joy and amazement is found within our own minds and souls, as this is where He dwells with never-ending love for us.
2:6.1 In the physical universe we may see the divine beauty, in the intellectual world we may discern eternal truth, but the goodness of God is found only in the spiritual world of personal religious experience. In its true essence, religion is a faith-trust in the goodness of God. God could be great and absolute, somehow even intelligent and personal, in philosophy, but in religion God must also be moral; he must be good. Man might fear a great God, but he trusts and loves only a good God. This goodness of God is a part of the personality of God, and its full revelation appears only in the personal religious experience of the believing sons of God.
Faith is required in order to more fully experience the Personality of God within.
True religion is actually defined as simply friendship with God. The old beliefs of what religion was/is are falling away. Our understanding of real religion has been newly defined. God is our friend!
2:6.2 Religion implies that the superworld of spirit nature is cognizant of, and responsive to, the fundamental needs of the human world. Evolutionary religion may become ethical, but only revealed religion becomes truly and spiritually moral. The olden concept that God is a Deity dominated by kingly morality was up-stepped by Jesus to that affectionately touching level of intimate family morality of the parent-child relationship, than which there is none more tender and beautiful in mortal experience.
Even if some of us were not blessed with loving parents we still understand what one is. A good parent loves their child with an astonishing affection, a watchful eye, careful training for the child’s own betterment and provision for the needs in their life. This does not mean that God will give us all of the material things we want. Look to the life of Jesus. He worked hard, provided for His family, He struggled to care for them and this was not easy for Jesus. The living of our lives will also entail hard work and various struggles. This is how we grow. And, God loves us, so He wants us to grow as well.
What happens to me when I find Him?
Some people are afraid to pursue God in His spiritual realm because they do not know what He will do to them. However, our indwelling Paradise Father desires to help us in every aspect of our lives. This all begins within our minds where real adjustment, healing, spiritual insight and capacities are enhanced. The more time you spend with God the better growth you will achieve – at His hand.
2:6.3 The “richness of the goodness of God leads erring man to repentance.” “Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.” “God is good; he is the eternal refuge of the souls of men.” “The Lord God is merciful and gracious. He is long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.” “Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who trusts him.” “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He is the God of salvation.” “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up the wounds of the soul. He is man’s all-powerful benefactor.”
Will He really love me?
If you are a human being living in our world today you can rest assured that YOU ARE LOVED BY GOD!
He gave you your own unique personality and He is your loving spiritual parent. Believe this with your whole heart!
2:6.4 The concept of God as a king-judge, although it fostered a high moral standard and created a law-respecting people as a group, left the individual believer in a sad position of insecurity respecting his status in time and in eternity. The later Hebrew prophets proclaimed God to be a Father to Israel; Jesus revealed God as the Father of each human being. The entire mortal concept of God is transcendently illuminated by the life of Jesus. Selflessness is inherent in parental love. God loves not like a father, but as a father. He is the Paradise Father of every universe personality.
News Flash! God craves YOUR affection for Him.
So many of our fellows have a hard time even discussing our Paradise Father as a Person-ality. But, He most certainly is. It becomes a pivotal point in one’s life when they come to accept this spiritual Fact. And, as God is a real personality He has longings and desires as well. Guess what His greatest desire is for you? He yearns for YOU to want to know and love Him. I stopped in my tracks when I realized how wrong I was about God. My life dramatically changed when I began to pursue Him, wait for Him to come closer to me and when I began to make direct contact with Him inside my own mind. You can too.
2:6.5 Righteousness implies that God is the source of the moral law of the universe. Truth exhibits God as a revealer, as a teacher. But love gives and craves affection, seeks understanding fellowship such as exists between parent and child. Righteousness may be the divine thought, but love is a father’s attitude. The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, presupposed absence of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to the elaboration of the atonement doctrine, which is a philosophic assault upon both the unity and the free-willness of God.
It high time that we clear up the MANY misconceptions about our incredible and loving Paradise Father.
God did not create the sacrificial system whereby humans slaughter something for its blood and then think [and teach] that the blood plasma convinces God to then forgive them as an individual, or even an entire nation. No. God did NOT do this. Humans did. God’s love for us is so beyond what we think of in terms of material/physical expression. His love for us is transcendent and goes beyond our natural understanding. But He knows this. He works with us using tender care, gentle prodding until we finally choose Him over everything else. He is LOVE!
Our Paradise Father is not to be feared.
Certain thoughts and emotions can become poisons in the mind which set up hurdles that can make it more difficult for your indwelling Paradise Father to come closer to you. Fear is one of those. This is another reason why the atonement doctrine is so damaging to the child of God. How can one enter into a close and trusting relationship with God when that child thinks that He is a killer of His own Son, created Hell to eternally torture His subjects or demands certain behaviors in order for His love to be doled out. No. None of these things did God do. Your mistakes did not nail Jesus to the cross. His death had other purposes and it is not your fault. Time to dispel the lies and clear God’s reputation for good. God is love and mercy!
2:6.6 The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on earth, is not a divided personality — one of justice and one of mercy — neither does it require a mediator to secure the Father’s favor or forgiveness. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God as a father transcends God as a judge.
Your Paradise Father is not mad at you.
God knows that the best thing for all of us would be to choose His will, of our own free will, and to become more and more like Him. When His child chooses error, evil or sin instead He knows that what is best for that child is for him/her to learn valuable lessons between what is right and what is wrong. In this way the child really learns the lesson/s. But He is never impatient, unkind or vitriolic in this. He simply wants His child to grow.
2:6.7 God is never wrathful, vengeful, or angry. It is true that wisdom does often restrain his love, while justice conditions his rejected mercy. His love of righteousness cannot help being exhibited as equal hatred for sin. The Father is not an inconsistent personality; the divine unity is perfect.
Your mistakes do not define you unless you choose for them to do so.
A fundamental fact of the universe is that everything is moving towards progress. Change is a constant. The way that we grow is by trying something out and discovering if it works well, or not. If it did not work well we should probably do something else. If it did work well then we might consider doing it again. Our mistakes are what we grow from. It is never best to purposefully make mistakes we know will hurt us, but learning from our mistakes is a treasure. Over time, and as we grow, we become better and better at living our lives well if we are pursuing God’s will in our daily living. Ask your indwelling spirit to adjust you.
2:6.8 God loves the sinner and hates the sin: such a statement is true philosophically, but God is a transcendent personality, and persons can only love and hate other persons. Sin is not a person. God loves the sinner because he is a personality reality (potentially eternal), while towards sin God strikes no personal attitude, for sin is not a spiritual reality; it is not personal; therefore does only the justice of God take cognizance of its existence. The love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin. This attitude of the divine nature would apparently change if the sinner finally identified himself wholly with sin just as the same mortal mind may also fully identify itself with the indwelling spirit Adjuster.
To seeing ourselves the way God sees us -DEEPLY LOVED!
Questions to discuss:
1. Did you discover God in a new way in this lesson? If so, how?
2. How does it feel to know that God is not mad at you?
Now is a good time to say The Lord’s Prayer. Consider writing down a prayer request and give it to your leader.
Next week we discuss The Soul in Week #27
