How Do You Explain GOD

Speaking Christian-God

Acts 17:28

Psalm 139:8-10

“God” is central to Christianity and is referred to in two main ways. God is to a being beyond the universe, another being in addition to the universe who is almighty and all-knowing, This being created the universe and thus God and the universe are related to each other as artist/art, designer/product.

And God also refers to a sacred presence all around us- a reality that is more than the space-time world of matter and energy, ever as it also is present everywhere and permeates everything in the space-time world. God is right here and even more than right here.

God as being- is separate and distinct from the universe. An example is how we address God- Our Father in heaven. Or God is a personlike being—who loves us and yet is an authority figure. Often referred to as He/ Lord/King many churches are using more gender inclusive names for God. But no matter how we refer to God, God is real and for believers, God  exists beyond themselves.

Yet God as a sacred reality is all around us and within us. Acts 17: God is ‘The one in whom we live and move and have our being.” We are in God. We live within God. We move within God. We have our being within God. God is the one in whom everything that is exists and is a reality that encompasses us and all that is. God is present everywhere.

Theologians Paul Tillich and Karl Rahner affirm this understanding of God who contains everything and is contained by nothing. An idea first presented by Irenaeus in 200. This notion that God is not a being separate from the universe but a sacred presence all around us strikes some Christians as unfamiliar, even strange. And there are many other ideas now shared about God.

What do you think about Moses discussion with God? God is “JHVH”_ I AM WHO I AM?  What do you understand about “God”? here—there- everywhere? Divine presence, intentional ,interactive? Who is God to you?

PRAYER:

God of all we praise you for you call us to listen and hear, and see and do. Enable us to understand who you are for today and call us to discern who are may be in our lives tomorrow. We believe in you help our unbelief and not understanding. Reveal yourself to us we pray. Amen.

REFLECTION:

If you were to encounter a person who had never heard the word “God” how would you explain God to them? What is your understanding of God in your life? Do you believe in this higher power who also dwells within the lives of believers?

For further reading, Marcus J. Borg, Speaking Christian.(Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning, 2011), p. 98-112