Who is God? Part 2

I left my last post off with how the God of Abraham is a personal God. First, I'd like to define what I mean by "personal." When I say God is personal, I mean "being with personality," or "having a personality." I like Pastor Paul Mizzi's informal defintion of personality. "A personality involves existence with capability of self-conciousness and self-determination" (from Truth for Today). It could also be a description of emotional, thought, and behavioral patters in a person (wikipedia.org).

Which leads me to God. If God is personal, He should show characteristics of persons such as anger, grief, joy, love, hatred, etc:

God shows anger: Deut 1:34, Rom 12:19, Jer 8:19
God grieves: Jer 8:4 - 22, Gen 6:5,6
God shows joy: Matt 3:17, 1 Chronicles 29:17, Hebrews 11:6
God loves: John 3:16, Joel 2:18, ***Eph 2:1-5
God shows hatred: Psalm 6:16-19 (notice, however, that God's hatred is righteous)

There are, of course, more examples and these are but a few of God's traits, but if God is personal, He should not only garner these emotions; He should also think. Notice in Genesis 1:1 God thinks; a sign of a conscious. Furthermore, He has a plan. "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adpoted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His please and will..." Eph 1:4,5. Francis Schaeffer, in 25 Basic Bible Studies, wraps up God's personality with, "He thinks, acts, and feels; three distinguishing marks of personality. He is not an impersonal force, nor an all-inclusive everything. He is personal. When He speaks to us, He says "I," and we can answer Him "You."

And so the God of Abraham is more than a "impersonal force." He is interested in the universe, our galaxy, our earth, and most importantly, us. I'd like to submit my own definition of what it means to be personal. It's not just a matter of having the attributes of a personality, or thinking, or acting, as it is to being personal. It would be one thing if God created us and said, "Ok, here's the keys, have fun." But He doesn't. He doesn't just sit up on a throne somewhere looking down on us wondering what we're doing. God took it upon Himself to actually come down to us in His son Jesus Christ. He didn't require us to meet Him half way somewhere, but He decided to come all the way to us, so that He could know exactly what it's like to be born, to cry, to lose someone, to be sick, to hurt, to relax, to be tired, to eat, to drink, to sleep, etc. He came face to face with us because He's personal.

And so if God created people and is personal, then doesn't this mean He wants a relationship with the same people He created?

Blessings,

Joe