The Living God

http://www.believingstudy.com/articles/53/1/The-Living-God/Page1.html

Gary Hall

I was raised as a Roman Catholic and intended to become a priest after I left school, but the Lord had other plans for me. In 1973, at the age of 17, I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour at the headquarters of the Liverpool City Mission. This immediately caused problems regarding my family. My mother and father were against what they called my "change of religion". The situation came to a climax when I arrive home one evening from a Christian friend's house only to be met by my father on the doorstep with the words, "You don't live here anymore". So at the age of 18 I would have been homeless but for the kindness of friends. One cannot rely on the goodness of others for too long, so I decided to move into a local boarding house. What I saw and experienced there cannot be written here. Eventually, after spending time living rough and in the Salvation Army hostel, I found my own apartment. I had fallen away from the Lord for two years at this time. My thoughts went back to my childhood desire to become a Roman Catholic priest. I made enquiries and found that the only real option for me was to become a monk in the Franciscan Order. The Saturday before I was due to leave for the monastery in Guildford, Surrey, I pleaded with the Lord, asking, "Lord, is it your will that I should become a monk like St. Francis?" That evening I attended a tent meeting in a local park. A preacher from Northern Ireland, Derrick Bingham, was teaching from the book of Nehemiah. During the service the preacher turned to my direction (there were about 500 people present) and said, God does not want you to become a monk like St. Francis of Assisi." Here was my answer from the Lord. From that moment I made a complete break from the Catholic Church and have come to see it as the biggest cult that this world knows. In 1979 I joined a church, The Mission, in the neighbourhood where I was living. From the moment I walked through the door of that small building I knew that I was home. The godly lifestyle and inspired teaching of Pastor Charles Bolton (promoted to glory 12 December 2003) and his wife brought me back to my first love for Christ. The church had no young people, but I never once felt that I was out of place. These people obviously loved the Lord. In my desire to reach others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ I began to give leaflets out in Liverpool City Centre. Many a Saturday afternoon was spent witnessing to those willing to stop and listen. On one Saturday in late Autumn 1979 I was approached by a girl with an Irish accent. She asked if I was a Christian and where the church I attended was located. The next morning the same girl was found at The Mission. To cut a short story shorter, six months later on March 29 1980, we were married by Pastor Bolton at The Mission. Margaret, my wife, also comes from a Catholic background, but was soundly converted to Christ and from the errors of Rome whilst visiting relatives in New York in the summer of 1979. (You may find her personal testimony one day on these pages.) In 1986 Pastor Bolton retired from the ministry at The Mission. The leadership of the church was handed over to me. To be very honest I did not fully understand what this would entail, but the Lord has been good and has led me each step of the way. Through the Lord's power we have been used to reach many hundreds of people, though our fellowship is actually small in number. In 1988 we changed the name of the church to Living Word. I am convinced that God is about to pour out His Spirit in revival one last time before the Return of the Lord Jesus Christ (see my article on Revival on this site). This revival will not come via the charismatic movement, it will not come from Toronto or Pensacola, it will not come from the ecumenical movement or the so-called Churches Together - these movements are bankrupt of the truth and the Spirit of God. This final revival will come as a result of the true believers in Christ Jesus getting right with Him. The revival will include a return to the Authorised King James Bible. My great desire is to see people coming to know Jesus as Saviour and Lord, to see backsliders returning, and to see the church of Christ revived. Though I have many failings I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all of my heart. I am willing to serve Him wherever and whenever He sees fit. The word of God is the delight of my life for I'm still amazed after all these years just how fresh and new The Holy Bible is each day!

By Gary Hall

Published on 03/13/2008

Life is found only on planet earth and all life comes from God alone. Science for centuries has sought to prove the Bible wrong. There are no extraterrestrial beings in outer space, so the millions of Pounds spent seeking them is foolishness. Evolution suggests that life spontaneously appeared after a mythical big bang, but it is impossible to produce life from nothing.

The Living God

“For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9), “Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein” (Acts 14:15).

Introduction

The Bible still has the answer; the Living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, is the origin of life. “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:20-21) ... “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

The living God is the origin of human life

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”

(Genesis 1:27).

We do not bow down before a marble statue, a lifeless image that cannot see, hear, feel or think (idolatry), nor do we worship nature (pantheism) or man (hero worship). We worship the true and living God who created us, who watches over us, who loves us, who hears our prayers, and who intervenes. “But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation” (Jeremiah 10:10). After Daniel was saved from the lions’ den by the power of God, the king wrote: “King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (Daniel 6:25-27).

The living God has spoken to man

When the old covenant was given, the people of Israel “heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire” (Deuteronomy 5:26).

When Jesus came as Saviour of the world, the voice of God was heard: “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Peter, James and John heard the voice of God when Jesus was transfigured. “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matthew 17:5). Peter testifies in his second letter: “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:16-21).

The living God has always spoken to man. The message is preserved in writings of the prophets. Private interpretation of Scripture is not permitted because God’s word has a fixed meaning that man can easily understand, whereas man’s interpretations usually confuse. Jeremiah warned the people: “For ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God” (Jeremiah 23:36), and because of this God says, “Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence” (Jeremiah 23:39). If we refuse to listen to the living God why should He listen to us?

Peter speaks of untaught and unstable people who twist the Scriptures to their own destruction (see 2 Peter 3:16). We must not pervert or twist the words of the living God. We bow our heads when we talk to God in prayer. We should be even more reverent when God talks to us, when the Holy Scriptures are being read, studied and taught.

We will be judged by the living word. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:12-13).

The Living God is revealed in Jesus Christ

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”

(John 1:18). The confession of Peter should be upheld by all Christians: “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16) ... “And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:69).

Only through Christ, both Jews and Gentiles can become sons and daughters of God, “And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God” (Romans 9:26). This is where our faith must be settled, “We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men” (1 Timothy 4:10) ... “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14).

This purification enables Christians to be “the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16). We are members of “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

Conclusion

We serve the living and true God, the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them. He created us in His own image and, like the Psalmist, we long for our Father. “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:2) ... “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God” (Psalm 84:2).