What is God?

This is only my opinion. I do not claim to know things that others do not.

I've touched on this subject before and I want to elaborate here on my opinion of what God is and how he reacts to the world. God holds many different meanings and faces depending on what person you're speaking but mostly everyone has some description for God. They're description might be that God is simply a tool used by the church to control the people but still, even this description gives God a face.

Now, I've read the Bible and many other religious books. Some of my favorites are written by Buddhist monks. I like to believe that what separates me from every other reader is that I fully accept that all religious texts, no matter how old, were written by a human being. A human being that is trying to introduce the world to a new way of being, a new way of approaching life-- trying to give them reason and encourage them to follow a better path. It's obvious that along the way, many of these men strayed and filled pages with what could easily be considered their own personal views. It had to be their own personal views and their interpretations of what they felt God was saying to them because they were the ones writing it. A celestial hand of gold did not come down from the sky with a golden pen and inscribe words upon paper. No, man did that. Except for the one instance with Moses and the Ten Commandments.

So, what do we do with this understanding? If you realize that this is indeed the interpretation of someone else you can start taking responsibility for your own interpretation and stop trying to blame God for every choice you make. Get down to the basis of the teaching. What is God saying to me about what He is? What is He saying He wants from me? Read the New Testament. Don't overlook the actions and interpretations of man in the Bible but look deeply in to it and find the basic structure.

Jesus taught love.... Man spoke reverently of God's love.... Everything God did was out of love... God IS love! He is the embodiment of love. He is the creative energy of the universe. Nothing can be created that does not come from God. Imagine God as a circle. God is all love, all happiness, all joy, all peace, everything that is good is God and is within His circle. What does this tell you? It tells me that all of these wonderful things exist only within God's circle. I can not find love, happiness, peace, or joy anywhere else except for in the presence of God-- within His circle.

Then we have the choice. We all know that we have the right to choose. God gave us free will, right? How can God give us free will and then insist that if we do not choose the way He wants us to choose then He'll punish us? That is not free will. That's slavery. I am not God's slave. He is my father and I am His child. He knows what's best for me better than I do but He allows me to choose. Does He lose or gain more love for me depending on what I choose? How could He if He is love? If I make the choice to edge closer to the shadows or be so bold as to step out of his circle completely I have chosen this for myself. God did not say "If you don't stay here with me I'll punish you!" God said, "My child, I love you. I don't want harm to come to you. Please stay in the light with me. It's dark where I am not."

I can only find all the goodness of life within my Heavenly Father's arm and there is nothing outside His arms that can do any good for me. It is not His punishment nor His reward that holds me to Him but rather His love.

You can find the answers to any of life's questions in the Bible... I absolutely believe this but you have to be willing to let God explain it to you. Some of the stories come out with the same solution that I've come to but they go about it in a humanly way. The best way we knew how to discipline our children in the old days was to threaten punishment so they explained God's relationship with His children the best way they knew how.

Make a good choice. Let God fill your heart.