Introduction

Proceed with caution, as you'll soon see why.

In the following humble words, we shed some light on the majesty and attributes of God, but not to give a pure definition of the world He has placed us in. There's no reason to try, because His gifts to us, tangible and not, will take more than a lifetime for us to savor.

Our purpose here is to leave the reader with a greater sense of awe, of inspiration and devotion to His plan and provisions, in preparation for our eternal fellowship with Him.

Let's jump to the 'bottom line', right away.

1. Questioning God why He has done something, in a judgmental manner is terribly risky. But to learn a bit of His why of something, to magnify our awe of Him, is a necessary ongoing part of the maturing Christian.
2. God has never had to 'fix' or change His plans for us because of mankind's actions and attitudes – and never will.
3. God intentionally placed Sin in our world because of His unfathomable agape love for us, for all eternity. Here's why:

Chap #1 – Getting Started Right

News reporters are driven to frame their research with the Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why of the event. You and I often do the same thing. But when it comes to God's fingers in the affairs of men, in a heartbeat we begin skating on thin ice – why? There's the reason; we start our deepest felt questions about God with the wrong reporter word; WHY.

“Why did God put sin in our world, since He hates it?”

In this beginning chapter 'getting started right' we should state a simple definition of the word SIN, as follows:

Sin is thinking or doing things we KNOW God doesn't like.

With our feeble earthly minds, we are wise to set the standard for our vision of the why of things, particularly where God Almighty is concerned. It's the word Almighty we struggle with. It is a daily task to have the firm mindset that God is the 'Almighty'. Judgment is by Him toward us, never by us judging Him. He answers to no one, for His actions and authority. He is the ultimate in authority, with no close seconds. i.e. there is no one or nothing we can compare Him to. Daniel, in the Old Testament, was inspired to say it this way:

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest thou? Daniel 4:35.

In this short journey toward learning more about our awesome sovereign God, we'll begin by visualizing two bookends facing each other. The left one we'll call “Eternity Past”, and the right one “Eternity Future.” The attribute that is common to all the objects in our gifts and bookends illustration is, FELLOWSHIP: cooperation with purpose.

His gifts to us, far more often, than not, come to us as PACKAGES - not those in a box with a ribbon. [~]

Chap #2 – Trinity Gift Package

Our beginning package, that is, God's gift(s) to mankind is God Himself. He is beyond man's ability to fully describe Him. His written inspired word about Himself only gives us pieces of Who and What He is... only enough for us to desire Him and make His will our own.

Our limited human understanding of scripture, indicates that God is a triune God. He is 3 persons in 1. Basically, God the Father is the sovereign One. He has chosen a plan for God the Son (Jesus Christ) and for God the Holy Spirit.

In obedience to God the Father, Jesus Christ who made creation, and all things, by His speech, took on the form and flesh of man. He became our teacher and sinless blood sacrifice for the sins of mankind on the Cross of Calvary.

God the Father commissioned God the Holy Spirit to become our inner teacher of Bible truths and applications. He further takes the prayers of each man to the Heavenly Throne in words no man can utter.

This first of our gift packages, like all those to follow, is not to be divided. Whether we talk about Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit, or God the Father – we must strive to think of them as being co-equal and unity. Man's logic struggles with this 3 in 1, but that's the package. [~]

Chap #3 – Our Second Gift Package is Creation

Our second gift package from God we'll call the Creation Package, some may call it the Natural Revelation. This package of His creation includes rivers AND trees AND animals And etc. The thing to see is that all the parts of this Creation Package existed in harmony; in fellowship with each other. More than that, they all needed the abilities of the other. We can't imagine how the trees and grass could survive, if God hadn't also created the sun AND the rivers... and the birds and squirrels to scatter the seeds. See?

Our minds quickly begin a list of purposes for the Creation Package with providing food, shelter, and opportunities for service. We learn from Creation; from nature, principles that become the content of classes in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Ecology, etc.

And more importantly, Creation certainly becomes a schoolmaster to man, of God's power, His ongoing control, and unity (fellowship). Above that, we gain a deeper understanding of God by walking among the trees, swimming in the lakes etc. Heaven's fellowship will be richer because we have tasted berries, peaches, drank the milk of cows and so much more. We've tasted His gifts from the inside, first hand.

The simple point here, is that God's gifts to us, yes, even the stormy days, comes as a package, better interconnected than a spider's web or a Robin's next, cradling her hungry newcomers to God's world.

– They Are Without Excuse.

Another purpose of God's Creation Package is called the “Natural Revelation”. In his letter to the church at Rome, the apostle Paul answers a question that we still hear in our life and times. “What does God do, eternally, with those who've never heard the Gospel of Salvation in Jesus Christ?”

Romans 1:20 tells us, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” Paul says the 'Creation Package' shows enough about God, that our hearts should burn to know this all-wise, all-powerful God and that I should put my faith and service in Him. Anyone that doesn't, is without excuse for salvation. [~]

Chap #4 – Family Gift Package

Our third example we list of God's gift packages, we'll call the Family package God created man, in His image, but stated that it was not good for man to be alone. (Gen. 2:18) So we remember that God created Eve. With that creation act, God made man into a Family package. We see here, an attribute of God Himself, copied into mankind – the critical attribute of FELLOWSHIP.

The description of that fellowship, of Adam and his spouse shows us a level of partnering called 'help meet'. As his help meet, she possesses the skills and strong points that Adam lacks. Likewise, her weak points and missing skills are found in Adam. This relationship is so crucial, God speaks of her as being an extension of Adam, himself. They are one; one Family package – made in God's image.

We want to stay keenly aware that each gift package we outline, is distinct from the others, and progressively reveals more of the character/attributes of God for us to learn, thereby making eternal fellowship with Him sweeter.

It would be well worth the few extra minutes needed, to review the preceding gift packages Trinity, Creation, and Family, to see what they've taught mankind about God, … and what they have not.

• But Something is Missing........

Chap #5 – Grace Gift Package

There have been moments that I'd characterized our lives, with it's trials and growing pains, as Choir Practice. It has to do with where we're going in this resource and the eternal destiny of the Christian.

We've already touched on the FELLOWSHIP aspect of our life's purpose, and that especially carries through to our being in our new promised land in Heaven. One of our activities that seems to stand tall in the list is praising – praising our dear Savior and all we've learned about Him during our 'choir practice'. More about that in a minute.

It is true that God hates sin and Satan himself. But you see, if He'd never put sin and the choice to think and act in it, there'd be no alternative to obeying Him. We'd be heart-beating robots. I suppose more in the sense of animals that do what they do, largely by instinct.

I could have made my little boy stay away for the busy street and the traffic by building a fence around our yard, so strong and tall, he'd definitely be staying away from the traffic, like a dog in a pen. But I cherish my son so much the more, because he trusts and obeys me and my desires of him.

Because he does those things I desire of him, I happily give him gifts that show I recognize his actions are toward my wishes.

So for proper preparation for our eternal Choir of Praise, God has included a package that partners with the Natural Revelation Creation Package... The Sin-Love Package. Caution: here and elsewhere we are careful to always remind the reader that God didn't create sin... period. Sin is part of a package including the whole sin, love, choice, compassion, fellowship, mercy, on and on... That's just the way God loves us. His fatherly gifts to us go beyond human language.

We list simple definitions of a few of the ingredients of the GGP, as follows:

== Sin is thinking or doing things we KNOW God doesn't like. ==

== Love is the sacrificial heart-led in action or attitude toward another. Scripture presents at least 3 levels of love: Agape = Godlike love, love in-spite-of; Phileo = Brotherly love; Eros = Sensual, often lustful love. ==

== Sacrifice is internal or external surrendering of a conviction or object, to benefit or pay homage to God or a person. ==

== Mercy is the act of diminishing the discipline deserved by a person. “Mercy is Not Getting what I DO deserve (punishment)” ==

== Grace is the act of giving a present to someone without expecting it be returned or compensated for. “Grace IS getting a Gift I DO NOT deserve” ==

== Repentance is seeing one's own attitudes and actions as being contrary to God's will, and 'turning around' toward achievement of God's will, which would also include asking for God's forgiveness. ==

== Forgiveness is to pardon; to release resentment or hostility against another. i.e. might be the ultimate of mercy. ==

Mankind have become quite lazy in their learning of the terms above, among many others. The result is the use of these terms in glib, shallow, often insincere ways. This then, becomes open doors to Satan's subtle testing, i.e. “yea hath God said?” Genesis 3:1

Now, it's true, He could have just poured the meanings of these words that form some of the sweetest of His attributes, into our heads at birth. But see, we learn the meanings and depth of these attributes from the INSIDE. God gave us a thinking feeling brain designed to savor the joy of forgiving, loving, compassion, and God-honoring choices by our receiving gifts from Him that may even contain some of our tears mingled with His. This is Choir of Praise practice in a whole new level.

This whole INSIDE method of learning the meanings of God's attributes is woven together with many threads... one of which is the command 'to remember'. Over and over we are to remember our roots... all the many times He's delivered us from selfish choices.

Our cheerful choice to obey God's will and way for us, from the inside, also gives evidence to God, ourselves, and others that we honor Him with our choices, day by day.

Love is the sacrificial heart-felt act or attitude toward another. Deep love is often evidenced with real tears; 'heart tears'. Jesus Christ stated and then set an example for us at Calvary, in that, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.

The Resurrection is that act of Christ taking life back into His human body, by His own power, AND evidenced by many infallible proofs. (Acts 1:3) The Resurrection of Christ is the KEY EVENT putting Christianity in a class far above comparison with other types of god-worship. The Resurrection proved Christ had power over death itself – ultimate power.

God wants to show us more of Himself, if we're faithful in what He has already shown us. Want to know WHY? It has to do with FELLOWSHIP in eternity past and eternity future. The more we seek to learn and use of His goodness, the closer (more joyful) we'll be able to serve Him on this Earth, AND the sweeter will be our eternal fellowship with Him.

Chap #6 – Scripture Gift Package

This gift package from the hand and lips of God, surpasses the imagination and skill of any human to fully absorb or share with others. We spend a lifetime feeding on the Bible's content and hardly scratch the surface of its riches. So valuable are its truths and promises, God the Father sent God the Holy Spirit to dwell within every true believer in aiding the knowledge and guidance of all 66 books.

The Old Testament foretells of events to happen as listed in the New Testament. The New Testament tells us of quotations of the Old Testament, one most notable is Jesus Christ. Hebrews 11 speaks of many Old Testament saints, and their faith-filled obedience to God's will.

Matthew 5:18 tells us that all the God-breathed prophecies shall come to pass even before heaven and earth shall pass away.

Those 66 books are truly a package, never to be divided up or taken any away or added to. Two of the last four verses of scripture pronounce a terrible end to anyone who shall add to or take away any of scripture.

Chap #7 – Action Gift Package

This Action Gift Package is the culmination of all the packages we've seen this far. It is truly a Gift, far more precious than we can ever imagine. God has not made mankind as animals that move by instinct, or as heartless robots of pulleys and motors. We have been given a brain to remember and reason, but also a soul and spirit, that makes us self-aware. But the richest attribute is that we know God is our maker deserving of our allegiance.

The parts of this package would include us learning of and seeking to serve our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ; seek the fellowship of like believers in a local church; following the Lord's example in water baptism; participating in the local church's Communion celebration; personal fervent prayer; edifying the saints, and praising our Lord in word and deed.

This action package holds us responsible to obey the Lord's Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20: And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Dear Lord, May I be your fingers, lips, and feet today by your power and leading.

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This is the final post (chapter ) of the book by the same name