My Father's Voice

I attended my cousin's funeral yesterday, Nov 22, 2011.  She and I had been close as children, but because my dad was in the army we, unfortunately, did not grow up together.  Of all my many cousins she, her sister and I were the closest.  I remember spending summers with the girls and their two brothers out in the country in New Castle, Pennsylvania.  We played in the barn and out among the grape arbor, romping in the huge back yard, and the fields beyond.  We picked fruit from a large cherry tree and captured butterflies and bumble bees in jars. Watched and caught lightning bugs in the summer nights. Those were days of carefree laughter.  Later I spent time with them when I was about eighteen.  We were older and had more than picking fruit on our minds.  By this time the family had moved to a small town in Ohio and new adventures awaited us.  My uncle, their father was a Baptist preacher and we...

Do you struggle to understand the who of God?  God is love... God is faithful... God is merciful.  We hear these words and most of us process and assimilate them on a natural level.  We know people who are loving or kind.  We know people who are trustworthy or loyal, although these are attributes of that person, they are only attributes. Those qualities make up the person, but the person does not make up those qualities. These descriptions are not adequate to sum up the person of God.   Attribute defined: An attribute is a quality or characteristic of a person, place or thing. (noun) Intelligence, charm and a sense of humor are each an example of an attribute. A 'loving' person can choose to love or not love, but God is love and cannot not love.  Love is His person.  A mortal person, kind as they may be, can, given the right circumstances, not be kind, but God's goodness flows to the righteous as well as...