You cannot get closer to God than you concept of God will allow

[Not me]

When I became convinced that God was good. That only works of good could come from His hands. Whether in scripture, they were put forth as His storms, tempests, His frosts or His chastisement or His wrath. It all came forth from this one God who alone is good.

For of a truth He is;

“an Eternal Will to all Goodness”,....always. 

Blessings in Christ, Not me 

Edited August 5, 2019 by Not me

[enoob57]

5 hours ago, George said:

... that's the point of the thread.  To explore our own understandings of God ... and how our perceptions may be skewed.  

I read an interesting Open God's Love Letter that I was forwarded.

 

May I copy this George?

[George]

6 hours ago, enoob57 said:

May I copy this George?

I don't see why not.   I don't know who to attribute it to ... but it was a great read. 

[Tzephanyahu]

22 hours ago, George said:

Have you ever considered if your "perception of God" may limit your "understanding" of God?  I'm curious.

Absolutely.  Our concept of Elohim is far too limited.  It seems the more revelation I get of the Father, the more I feel overwhelmed by His majesty, glory, power and love.

This is the main problem for most atheists in the world as well.  Their concept of who God is, is far too small.  As they try and fit Him into an infrastructure of laws and morality, written by mere men, they inevitably trip up.  

But we could all do with opening our minds more and pushing our understanding of Him past the traditions of men - to observe His splendour through His Word, with great awe.

Love & Shalom

[Sower]

On 8/5/2019 at 1:04 PM, ayin jade said:

Romans  8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
 

In a nutshell!.............He gave
So cool, succinct...

[Blood Bought 1953]

 

I think most people still view God as that “ Mean Old Man In The Sky, The Cosmic Kill-Joy who is determined to wipe away any hints of Fun.Eager to Punish and Cast into Hell all that dare disobey!What an effective liar Satan is!His first lie was to tell Adam and Eve that God did not really mean what He told them-GOD was deceiving the two,There was something much better going on that God was hiding from them. “ Eat of the tree .....know good from evil ......and be like God!” With the 613 Commandments , God showed man Good and Evil, Right from Wrong and we all know how that has and is working out.The whole Bible and the story of mankind is God showing Satan to be the true liar all along.Satan has done a great job of putting a lid on our perception of our Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit , Who is more powerful than Satan ,has blessed  many with the Truth about God. “Your God is too small”, somebody said.Paul was willing to set aside everything simply to “ know Him”. I know what he meant.May the Holy Spirit lead us all to “ know”Him as He truly is.A LOT of good things will follow.

[Willa]

We don't need great faith;  we need a tiny bit of faith in a great God.

Eph 3:16  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

Eph 3:17  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Eph 3:18  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

Eph 3:19  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

[Neighbor]

Going back to the title ( Of this thread ) and the first step of this ponderance process. Am I limited in getting closer to God at all?

Well yes I guess I am by both my own limitation in understanding, but perhaps more so by God's limitations placed upon all ( of us) unevenly, and on me individually; expressed  as seeing darkly now and also in the sealing up of a revelation plus not all are the head of the body.

I am  limited by the purpose God has made me personally. I am not made, nor have I been gifted by  the Holy Spirit, in the same manner as another saint might be made and then gifted. I do not have the direction from God to teach for example.

Yet, I am given task  to make sure a teacher is not diverted from their own best use  by God  by their having to tend to facilities, schedules, and rolling five year plans, and all the matters of government agency's compliance.  In turn, I do get to hear from the gifted teacher their exposition of the Bible  in a verse by verse manner and or a topical one. Their work, their gift, benefits me.

God is sovereign. Perhaps, in the immense beyond my comprehension ability, He has seen fit for His pleasure and for my duty, spared me the sinking feeling of not getting it, of not being that scholar that  a gifted teacher might be.  Instead,  He has had me spare the gifted  teacher pastor the boredom to him  of having to tend to the air conditioner repair and maintenance for which I do have knowledge and skill.

 I definitely rely upon the skill sets of others; from  Spurgeon, Sproul,  Criswell, Kreloff, Piper and numerous others that are gifted of God to do His will by their working hard at hermeneutics and exergesis in a manner I just never will master, nor need I.  I do have sufficient understanding of God and his awesome power as I stand my own post assigned me. I am a bit glad as I think about it that I am not so gifted and brilliant as to be bored at my own  humble station.

Militaries do not make generals out of company clerks and do well. Nor do militaries make company clerks out of generals. Each has their purpose. God knows the purpose each  of us are to serve to His Glory.  That's good enough for me. I'm good with being limited. And I am close to my creator for He has me covered by His mercy and grace. I hear His "voice" and am comforted, secure in the certainty of my own eternity forward by Christ Jesus, and His willing sacrifice made for me personally.

[enoob57]

It is the Scripture that forms faith within and the same that tells us of our heavenly Father... it is in this that we have truth and the truth shall set us free from the error that is here to the perfection that is there.... It is through this modem that we are established in our relationship with The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The priority is established in Scripture:

Matt 10:37-40

37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
KJV
 

 

[Dennis1209]

1 John 4:10 (KJV) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

I can't possibly imagine how much God loves us, and the unimaginable lengths He went to to demonstrate that love. I don't want to imagine what life would be like if we were not created in His image and there was no love; God is love. I don't want to ponder on what life would be like going through our existence with only hate and selfishness filling our heart, soul and spirit. 

The one and only attribute of God that's stated three times for emphasis in two different places in the Bible [Holy, Holy, Holy]. When I truly consider what that means and I examine myself; I'm a filthy rag, helpless and in great need of a loving and wonderful and merciful Lord and Savior.

In my finite mind I can only partially understand God's love toward me by using a comparative of my earthly father: I feared my earthly Dad and trembled at my punishment when I did something deserving of punishment. At times I thought he was a hard man and unfair; but I always knew the punishment was not of hate for me, he loved me and cared for me, but the punishment was to recognize my disobedience and for correction. I never did this; but I now think back; what if when I messed up big time, I went to my Dad and confessed I did something terribly wrong and feel terrible about it, and asked his forgiveness and what should I do. I wonder now how my Dad would have reacted and what would have been the consequences? I have a Heavenly father now and an advocate for me before the Father, so I know the answer to that question. 

BTW: I learned something new not long ago in reference to the scriptures you quoted, and applies to many passages in the Bible. No doubt you already know the definitions, but I discovered there's a big difference between the words "sin" and "iniquity".