Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

The demands for foundational truths are necessary in order to identify a proper understanding of content and context of scripture, whether historical or allegorical. If conclusions drawn by the text lead you to an understanding of God that is something other than these foundational truths about God, then your understand is imperfect and further prayerful study is required. While I list these foundational truths about God they are not set in order of importance.  They are all equally true, no one characteristic is more important than another.

1. God is Holy. Sin does not exist in God nor can it exist in His presence.
2. God is love. Agape love, God’s love is pure, without any selfish intent.
3. God is just. Since God is Holy sin must be dealt with, justice is demanded.
4. God is merciful. We are saved by grace and that is a gift from God, unmerited, unearned.
5. God is true. God neither lies, nor tempts. All God’s promises are real, He will keep His word.

Quoted from Bible 101

My sense of justice often outweighs my sense of mercy. I am human, I cannot be equally both. God is God and He does not lessen one of His attributes while applying another. We have trouble seeing that because we have a hard time doing that.

What I would like to do over the next few days is to clarify in more detail some scriptures about these five attributes and try to place them into a proper perspective of who God is so that we might see Him more clearly.

I will be praying on this. I hope you will join me.

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

A friend today was sharing a painful experience. A person was causing great pain for him in a family situation. The situation seemed solvable but this one person just would not let go f their position. His description of this person and the pain was that of a screw.

I saw something in this and shared this insight. The situation was the screwdriver, it was driving the screw deeper and deeper into the struggle. What my friend needed to pray about was not the removal of the screw, nor was it the removal of the screwdriver. It was the unseen hand that turned the situation into a painful situation for him.

So often we blame a person for the pain they cause. People, like screws, are driven by circumstances. Even if you can get past the blaming of the person and recognize the situation, we want to fix the situation, which may or may not affect the screws position. People do not get over these things just because circumstance change for a moment.

The enemy of Ephesians 6:12 will change tactics and use another situation, another screwdriver to drive that screw once again. So what is to be done for everyone involved if this is the case?

Change the hand from the enemy to the Lord’s hand. The Lord will use His circumstances to back out the screw and relieve the pain.

Our first best answer to painful situation should be to pray the Lord will grab hold of the situation of make things right.

Isaiah 60:17b I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness.

Which is my way of saying, back off Satan, Jesus is in charge here.