{"id":2557,"date":"2013-09-28T15:43:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-28T19:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/?p=2557"},"modified":"2013-09-28T15:44:16","modified_gmt":"2013-09-28T19:44:16","slug":"is-the-god-i-believe-in-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/28\/is-the-god-i-believe-in-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the God I Believe in Real?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Over the past few decades, I\u2019ve realized that much of the thinking of irreligious society has been incorporated into the lives of church people.<\/strong>\u00a0For example, more than one person in Bible-believing churches have told me about the ghosts in their homes.\u00a0<em>Ghosts<\/em>? OK \u2014 I enjoy a ghost story as much as the next guy, but I also enjoy stories about Santa Claus. That doesn\u2019t mean I believe there\u2019s a guy in a red suit being dragged through the sky on a sled by flying reindeer. And I don\u2019t believe in ghosts.<\/p>\n<p>My perspective on ghosts is not a denial of the supernatural. I believe in the supernatural. I\u2019ve experienced supernatural events. So how can I say I don\u2019t believe in ghosts? Because the God I believe in tells me what happens when we die \u2014 and haunting the living isn\u2019t part of the program.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe God I believe in\u2026\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Is that one of the goofiest things we could ever say or what? Yet whenever you hear someone say something that is in opposition to the teaching of Scripture, that\u2019s what they are saying. They are saying that their version of god is different than the Bible\u2019s version of God. And, make no mistake about it, they are saying that the god they believe in is superior to the God of the Bible. Wow \u2014 Is that arrogance or folly? Maybe both.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You don\u2019t pick and choose what God says or does. He\u2019s a person, distinct from you and me. We can\u2019t tell him who he is any more than we can tell gravity how to behave. <\/strong>The podcast attached to this post emphasizes this\u00a0important concept. And it demonstrates that <em>the place we go for a clear understanding of God has to be the Bible. And when the god I believe in contradicts the God of the Bible, the God of the Bible wins.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_9292\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2557-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2013\/20130922RealGod.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2013\/20130922RealGod.mp3\">http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2013\/20130922RealGod.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2013\/20130922RealGod.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/?powerpress_pinw=2557-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2013\/20130922RealGod.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"20130922RealGod.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few decades, I\u2019ve realized that much of the thinking of irreligious society has been incorporated into the lives of church people.\u00a0For example, more than one person in Bible-believing churches have told me about the ghosts in their &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/28\/is-the-god-i-believe-in-real\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":464,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[277,160,214,571],"class_list":["post-2557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon-podcasts","category-spiritual-life","tag-atheism","tag-bible","tag-faith","tag-pluralism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvmV-Ff","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2557"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2559,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions\/2559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}