Nathanael's blog

How do humans relate to God?

Man was created in the image of God “Let us make man in our own image (Genesis, 1;26) . We know that humans have emotions as well as the ability to reason things logically. (with what they see) Does that mean that humans must use both in order to fully relate their experiences in order to attempt to understand how they view God?  It would seem so. Let me give some examples.

Logically one can see that Christ died for the forgiveness of mankind  because He loves us,  as He proclaimed saying  “for God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.(John 3;16-17).

• Logically it is known that we as individuals, do not deserve this Love because we have done nothing to earn it; and thus we can’t explain this love or any love for that matter as a formula; except in what we read

• Emotionally, we understand that the forgiveness and love manifest in the death of Christ  that we may be free from pain,guilt and shame is needed and thus can be explained by humans in the realm of their emotions

1 Corinthians 2:1 “When I can to you brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God”

1 Corinthians 2:4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power”

• The Gospel of Christ is not rocket science. Put simply  it’s  this Gods Son was born as a man, was tempted as a man, did not sin in order so that He   Might die as a man in order to free you from the bondage of Sins like shame, guilt pain and fear.

• Logically, People have this need to try and explain things in terms of what they can discern with their five sense .
• Logically, I can explain God in terms of what I read about him, and what I hear about him; what I can’t explain logically is how He makes me feel, in terms of what he’s done for me

• Emotionally, I understand  that God sent his Son to take my guilt, pain, and shame over my disability; along with other things
• Emotionally I understand  the feeling of peace and joy that comes from things such as prayer and reading the Bible and thus relate that to a certain situation.

The Bible from Genesis to Jude is full, history, stories and lessons where emotion and logic go hand in hand. One cannot exist without the other.

I Challenge  you to  start reading from  any one of the letters of Paul (they can be found after the book of Acts) ( they are just brimming with emotional-logic ).

http://nathanaelsblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/by-the-grace-of-god/

http://nathanaelsblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/summing-up-the-bible/