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The ultimate fullness of peace and joy , enlightenment and relationship with God.

The Lord was reaching out to Gideon, but meant him no harm. He communicated a wonderful feeling of calm and wholeness to Gideon. A total peace in His heart. Gideon dedicated an alter to the Lord to show the source of his inner peace and power.

To retrieve us from death, to become as one with us, to lift us up to spiritual places. A savior befriends us, teaches us, equips us with all that we need, takes away the danger.

The responsibility of the next

God has shown His grace to me by choosing me to be His friend. I am able to live in a beautiful seaside town in a lovely house with my beautiful family and enjoy a wonderful quality of life. Everything I am and have and know is from rich blessings of His grace and love. I have Christ in my life, the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the promise of eternal life in His kingdom. He is the God of all grace because all blessings come from Him even though we do not deserve them.

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being faithful is to have trustworthiness in that others can depend on your remaining loyal and honest and having integrity. I am inspired to try to be more like His character. We are God's witness to the world and should not bring shame to His name.

Israel couldn

I like the metaphor of God as Mother, it connotes warmth, gentleness, creation and unconditional love. Father connotes a slightly more distant relationship and a strong sense of discipline. Combining the two into one concept I think is a powerful notion. However, the Father and the son are presented in the bible as male and it tells us that God's order is for male to be above female in authority. It would not be consistent with God's plan therefore to represent God as female and have His authority brought into question. The Holy Spirit is also announced by Jesus as a male person.

God was the protector and overseer of Israel out of love, He chose Israel for his own and bound Himself to it with a convenant. He demanded loyalty and commitment from Israel. The church is the bride of Christ. Spiritual adultery causes God jealousy.

They are of one purpose . They are united in their mission of guiding, saving and judging us. They are both divine and reside in Heavenly places. Jesus is distinct from the Father as he was made by the Father and was the master workman in creation, doing the work of the Father. Jesus in his sacrifice became the bridge to unite us with the Father by paying the penalty of our sins in full. There is one true God and yet Jesus is our divine Lord much loved by the Father and given all authority by the Father. Jesus never claimed to be God and we should think of him as God's holy son, reflecting God's glory. I pray in faith to mentally grasp these concepts

Jesus preached a personal relationship with a warm and loving father. The Jews concept of God as father, was more like an overseer of their nation.

Our creation comes from him and we look to him for guidance. He is our leader and our protector. We need to behave in ways that bring honour to His name.

That God provides all that I need, abundantly. That life without Him only leads to disaster and death.

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