Day 4 - Personal God

[fmckinnon]

Today we discuss Day 4 of Week 3 - "Personal God"

Share your thoughts on today's lesson about friendship with God.

[MandoRon]

You're up early Fred!

I just finished reading today's lesson, and I really like the Daily Praise exercise. It had never occurred to me to seperate the all-powerful Elohim and the relation Jehovah. Not that we're supposed to in normal living. But I think it was helpful to focus on the all-powerful aspects of God for a while - creator, author of life, majestic, all-knowing, holy... and then on the relation aspects for a time - merciful, caring, compassionate, full of grace, loving...

I think that would be a great regular practice for us. It would be interesting to work those themes into a song as well.

[fmckinnon]

Ronnie,
I totally agree - we should use this stuff to enhance our personal and corporate worship, and even write songs about what we're learning!

The most profound statement in today's lesson for me was that simple word, "if" in John 15:14 ...

When Dwayne opened up with that comment about the "I am a friend of God" song, I thought to myself, "that's a bold thing to say", but he sure did back it up with the Scripture.

"In the same way, we worship leaders are in danger of merely going through the motions of "professional praise" without connecting on an intimate level with the One to whom the praise is directed. Friendship with a personal God is an absolute must for us."

Wow - I think we all know that, but hearing it that way makes me more hungry to stop and nurture that friendship.

[RuthABraun]

How do I become God's friend? Not so hard to fathom when I think about how I became friends with my friends. I have a common set of ground rules and behavior with them, I don't ignore them, I talk to them about stuff that matters to me and I know their stuff, we have common interests and goals, we have other friends in common, we do fun stuff together and we cry together, we respect each other in our differences, we share and give to each other. Is there any difference in doing these same things with God?

As far as obedience to God, I know that I need to slow down and walk with Him, not run ahead. This means seeking His approval before acting and obeying what He tells me to do (or not do). I am often impulsive and have offended others with actions that seemed like great ideas at the time or words that I thought were funny but that were actually hurtful. If I stay in step with God as we walk thru this garden of earthly life I will be able to keep the path He wants to walk, and I won't miss any of the great beauty He has prepared for me.

[russhutto]

Friendship:

The fact that we are friends amazes me.
We’re not friends because of my merit or my ability to be friendly.
We are friends because of You.

You initiate. I respond.
You called me friend long before I even knew about You.

Wrapped yourself in a robe of humanity and stepped into a dying world.
Extended the hand of rescue and friendship when I was drowning in myself.
Who am I, that you would even cast a thought in my direction?
What have I done to deserve such a friendship?

The fact that we are friends amazes me.
I can’t say I’m surprised, though.
Every new detail I learn about You leads me to this conclusion:
You are a friend to the friendless, a lover to the loveless.
You are home to the homeless.

The fact that we are friends amazes me.

[efrisch]

"Whether we're on stage in front of a thousand people or alone in our homes, God is still Elohim, worthy of our fearful reverence. At the same time, we can enjoy his intimate fellowship because he is Jehovah."

I love this quote... it does such a great job of separating the two aspects of God as far as his relationship with us. And I definitely agree with Ron and Fred that we don't necessarily think about it that way very often. The love, the "parental" care is always there, we can't escape it. The friendship, on the other hand, requires action on both parts. I can want to be friends with someone as much as I want, but if they don't reciprocate that desire, no friendship is going to be forged. God has done His part in a BIG way, now it's up to us to do ours.

GREAT study today!

[MimsiGal]

This week has been a great exercise in really looking at Who God Is...

It is easy to forget that He is Almighty when you think of Him as a buddy, and it's easy to forget that He calls us His friends when we step back and look at His Glory. Finding the middle ground of reverential fear and intimacy is the hard part.

A very thought provoking week on that front.

How do we - especially as leaders - find that balance between awe and intimacy? More and more I see that we can only find that balance by knowing Him more and more.

His Grace forgives us.
His Kindness draws us.
His Love surrounds us.
His Holiness astounds us.
His Son saves us.
He makes us His.

What else can we do but worship these aspects of His character? I recently wrote down every name of God I could think of (and the list got pretty long) and it was eye opening to see just how many ways God's character is shown to us. (it was in a blog post from last week) It was also humbling to realize the many ways I don't often think of Him. There are the obvious ones - Savior, Almighty, Holy, Just, Father, Redeemeer, Teacher, Merciful, etc - but there are also the ones that I don't often remember - Advocate, Life Giver, Sanctifier, Desire of Nations, Ransom, Shield, Yahweh Shalom.

We need to know Him intimately so that we can truly grasp who He is.

Beyond that we need to remember one thing - just as we are His, He is ours...

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

I have longed for many years to know that I was God's friend, and He mine. I have wished that when I sang, "I love You, Lord," that I was telling the truth.
There have been peroids of time when I was on higher ground that a friendship began, but when my heart slipped away, I stopped pursuing friendship. An ugly picture, but true.
This study is giving me the tools I need for my wish to begin to blossom into a beautiful reality.
Now you know why I call myself "Wannabe a Worshiper."

God, I know you want to be
my friend
You've been standing there
with outstretched arm
longer than I
can comprehend.

And I'm learning
Slowly learning
The key is my
obedience-
Gotta stop
Gotta stop
Straddling the fence.

I'm gonna love the Lord
With all my heart
Why did it take so long
for me to start?

I'm starting a new
relationship
With the lover of my soul
And he's promised he is gonna
make me whole!

Jesus! Jesus! I'll be your friend
Jesus, my friend
Jesus, my friend
I'll be your friend.

(I'm a wannabe songwriter, too.)

[Wrapped in Jesus Love!]

Just wanted to share this website. I received an e-mail this evening that had an interview with Dwayne Moore about the Pure Praise book. I thought it was interesting that I would receive this e-mail at this time while we are studying the book.

http://blog.nextlevelworship.com/200...-time-america/

Here is some more information that was in the website.

We are excited to announce that Dwayne will be interviewed on Prime Time America on Thursday and Friday, January 29 and 30, 2009! Dwayne will be discussing his new book, Pure Praise: A Heart-focused Bible Study on Worship. His interview segment will be during the two-hour show, which airs from 4-6 PM.

[Smitty]

Great thoughts Russ and Jennifer!

I am learning SO much from this study, and growing too.

Smitty