{"id":7671,"date":"2016-06-15T00:05:22","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T07:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7671"},"modified":"2016-06-14T13:19:08","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T20:19:08","slug":"the-only-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/06\/15\/the-only-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Only God"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>For thus says the LORD, <br \/>\nwho created the heavens <br \/>\n(he is God!), <br \/>\nwho formed the earth and made it <br \/>\n(he established it; <br \/>\nhe did not create it a chaos, <br \/>\nhe formed it to be inhabited!): <br \/>\nI am the LORD, and there is no other. <br \/>\nI did not speak in secret, <br \/>\nin a land of darkness; <br \/>\nI did not say to the offspring of Jacob, <br \/>\n\u201cSeek me in chaos.\u201d <br \/>\nI the LORD speak the truth, <br \/>\nI declare what is right. <br \/>\nAssemble yourselves and come together, <br \/>\ndraw near, you survivors of the nations! <br \/>\nThey have no knowledge\u2014 <br \/>\nthose who carry about their wooden idols, <br \/>\nand keep on praying to a god <br \/>\nthat cannot save. <br \/>\nDeclare and present your case; <br \/>\nlet them take counsel together! <br \/>\nWho told this long ago? <br \/>\nWho declared it of old? <br \/>\nWas it not I, the LORD? <br \/>\nThere is no other god besides me, <br \/>\na righteous God and a Savior; <br \/>\nthere is no one besides me. (Isaiah 45:18-21)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>God is not living in the dark. He is not invisible.  He is not unorganized.  He is not hard to find.  His words are not so complex and difficult that no one can understand them. There are no secret mysteries, quests, maps, or complicated ideas that need to be discovered in order to get God\u2019s love or blessing.  There is no secret handshake or magical ritual.<\/p>\n<p>God stands in the open, easily accessible, pouring out his blessings upon all who come.  But oddly, people run away from him.  They seek him in dark places, they pray to everything else but him, worshipping inanimate objects, muttering at the rocks and sticks of wood and behaving like complete idiots, all the while imagining themselves to be deep, spiritual, and holy. They think that finding God and knowing God intimately has to be deserved: that it is granted only to those who strive hardest, or who make the most pilgrimages.<\/p>\n<p>But there is only one God.  And he alone can save.  That means, no one else can rescue you: not your neighbor, not a special ritual, and not yourself.  Only the obvious God.<\/p>\n<div class='kindleWidget kindleLight' ><img src=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\" \/><span>Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): I am the LORD, and &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/06\/15\/the-only-god\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7673,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671\/revisions\/7673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}