Ephesians: Who is God and what is He doing?

The Scriptures tell us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our
soul, and with all our minds (Luke 10:27). But in order to love him, we need to
know him.

If asked, nine out of ten of us would say that we believe in God. But which god
do we believe in? Is it the god of our mothers, the god of our nation, or the god
of our culture? Or is it the God of the Scriptures as revealed in the person of
Jesus Christ?

Do we really know who God is and what he is doing with us in this world?
There are those who picture him as an overbearing father, while others are sure
that he blesses them when they are good and disciplines them when they are
bad. Still others say that they cannot love a god who allows war, floods and
famines. For some he is too distant, and for others, too demanding. And on it
goes, each with his own image of who God is.

Knowing who He really is, then, is the key. If we don’t know God, we will not
be able to understand either life or death, or evil, or eternity. And we will never
understand his desire to have a personal relationship with us through his Son.
How then, do we find out who He really is?

The apostle Paul, a follower of the resurrected Jesus Christ, wrote to a group of
Christians in western Turkey about 64 A.D. One of his primary reasons for
writing was to communicate to them the character of God and the nature of His
relationship to them as well as us.