God is…

Fill that blank in to some extent. What are the “key” traits you would highlight?

The way we view God will determine how we live and share Christ.

It is important we understand this. When, as we will, emphasize one trait over another there are behavioral consequences to those belief.

Choices have consequences.

Seems pretty straightforward but reality is more complex.

God provides.

As we open up the beginnings of SCripture, which reveal who God is, we see this truth. As Creator he built a place for humans to be.

Genesis 2:8 NIV

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

God gives meaningful work.

We were not created to sit around and do nothing.

Genesis 2:15 NIV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

God provides boundaries.

This is an important concept to learn. Boundaries are not constricting as we like to think of but instead life giving.

Genesis 2:16–17 NIV

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

God alone is sovereign. He has no equal.

As we head into Genesis 3 we see that the creature, serpent, is a created being. The ancient world had many ideas of evil but God is revealing that He alone is above all.

God desires relationship. He wants to be with us.

Look at verse 8. This is where we get the concept of the hymn “In The Garden”.

God allows consequences.

He did not save Adam, Eve from the consequences of their choices.

God provides grace.

Fear has us run away from the one who can cover our shame. Sin has us try to make things ourselves. But God, the greatest words of Scripture, provides what we cannot do.