John 1:1-5
Goodness of the Word is in the World
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 3:16-17
God So LOVES the World
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Mark 12:26-27
God is Alive and Living
26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!
Romans 8:28
God is in the Lives of Those Who Love Him
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Acts 17:22-31
God Created Us So Perhaps We Would Reach Out for Him
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Matthew 1:22-23
Jesus is Born and God is With Us
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Do you believe that God is around and near you?...Do you think that God is in our lives through His creation or maybe through fate?...Do you believe that God is with us?...Do you believe it when Jesus said God is not a God of the dead, but a God of the living?...So if God is alive, He is doing things for those He LOVES...For believers, God's fingerprint is on every single item and thing that He created large and small and even on the invisible things that He created that we cannot even see...After all, our God is a Personal, Living, LOVING God...
God LOVES us...And I think that this is important to remember, because He wants what is best for us...He wants us to make good decisions and the right choices...
St. Paul said this about God: He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else...From one man God made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out our appointed times in history and when we would live on earth and even where we would live...God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us...‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’...As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’...And for St. Paul to say "For in Him we live and move and have our being" is quite a bit...For it is in God that we live and move and have our being...After all He is our Creator...We exist because of Him...And since we exist and move and exist because of Him, we do not have to go far to find our LORD and our God...He then has to be as St. Matthew says, that God is with us...
So since God created nature and the universe, can we believe that in creation that some, if not many of His desires come through like, those things of great beauty, goodness, faith, hope, and love...These things are in the world, because He both created the world in which He and we love and He controls the world He created around us…
If one believes that God has created all things, sets the time when we are on earth, and where we are on earth, then we can assume many things are predetermined by Him in His creation and in nature and certainly in those things around us and in our lives...(I might add if He wants too)...And if one believes in God, then we must believe that in the end that what He has determined is right and that His will will get done...Thus, it can be said, that God’s will then in the end always gets done, if you believe in Him...Since, there are so many things that He created and that are around us and in our lives, then many are the things that are predetermined by God, He must somehow influence us, or at least have an influence on us....In seeing all these things of creation, maybe we do want to seek Him through things like nature...And since He appointed our time on earth and where we live this also maybe has an influence on us...Thus these many things around us and in our everyday lives are predetermined by Him...But to what degree do they influence us?...And do we let these created things around us influence our lives with the choices we make daily?...Only does God's unconditional and unfettered LOVE trump Him from always nudging us and influencing us and convincing us to do the right thing in our lives...Our free choices seem to override His immediate will...(But not His overall will...Again in the end, God's will gets done)...So even though nature and the universe and the world is controlled by Him, He lets us make our own daily choices out of His complete LOVE and understanding…God lets us make our mistakes and sin, and allows this free will of Divine LOVE happen subtly...God LOVES us so much that He will not compromise our free will and the daily choices that we make...And in our free will, we can choose God to be in our lives or choose Him to be more in our lives, and to be more engaged with us...Or we can choose otherwise...
One thing I think we must give some thought to is: If we believe that God is our Creator and the Creator of all the things around us and in the world, what kind lives do we have if we do not want to follow Him and His will?...But for some reason, this seems hard to do (to follow His will), even though when we really think about these things -we know He LOVES us and the world...We seem to rather follow our own will...
We are both LOVED and have free will, because God is all powerful...And by being this Almightiness, His will gets done in all things...Their is no other authority that can trump God and the statement God is LOVE...
As you look around each and everyday, see if you see God, or feel God, or sense God...He is there waiting for us completely on earth, the sky, the clouds, the sun, the trees, the grass, the seas, our plants, our pets -in all of His creation...