{"id":2210,"date":"2017-07-20T07:23:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T11:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2210"},"modified":"2017-07-20T07:25:48","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T11:25:48","slug":"who-is-your-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/who-is-your-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Your God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s first reading <\/a>continues the story of Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush. \u00a0God told Moses that he would send him to rescue the Israelites from Egypt. \u00a0Moses asked whom should he tell them sent him. \u00a0For us the answer might seem obvious, God, but we must remember that it was polytheistic culture, meaning they believed in many gods.<\/p>\n

We use “God” with a capital “G” to signify the name of the “god” that we believe in. \u00a0In Moses’ time many believed that there were various gods. \u00a0Sometimes, the ‘god’ you prayed to might depend on your need. \u00a0Do you pray to the god of the harvest or the god of the sea? \u00a0People also thoughts of “gods” as being territorial, meaning the power of the god was limited to a geographic area. \u00a0This would have been very important to the Israelites as Moses led them from Egypt to another land. \u00a0Did the ‘god’ that was rescuing them have any power in Egypt? \u00a0Or was he a god in Midian where Moses was? \u00a0Was he a god of the land there were going to?<\/p>\n

As Moses led the Israelites out from Egypt towards the promised land, they would learn what it means to be God’s people. \u00a0Here I use “God” with a capital “G” again referring to our God’s name. \u00a0Our belief is founded in monotheism meaning there is only one god. \u00a0Even today not all cultures are monotheistic.<\/p>\n

Our own country was founded on monotheistic, and largely Christian, principles. \u00a0As the place of faith in our culture diminishes, I wonder if it is becoming “polytheistic” is a different way than what I spoke of before. \u00a0Today there is not a “god of the harvest” or a “god of the sea” in our culture but people have made earthly things into gods. \u00a0For instance, there is “money”, “power”, and “government.”<\/p>\n

By “money”, I refer to people who think that all they need to be happy and safe is enough money. \u00a0They make their whole life about getting more money and forget God. \u00a0I refer to “power” in a similar way that some people think if they just rise to a high enough status they can fix everything themselves.<\/p>\n

I also included “government” because some people think that all we need is more “government programs” to address everyone’s needs. \u00a0I agree that government programs that help the needy are good and needed today but the government is not our “savior.” \u00a0Government exists to serve the needs of its people but we need to look at the way we live our lives and change to follow God’s ways. \u00a0If we believe in money, power we think we have all the answers. \u00a0If we make the ‘government’ our ‘god’, we think it has all the answers. \u00a0God is the one who brings “Truth.”<\/p>\n

Who or what is your god?<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s first reading continues the story of Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush. \u00a0God told Moses that he would send him to rescue the Israelites from Egypt. \u00a0Moses asked whom should he tell them sent him. \u00a0For us the answer might seem obvious, God, but we must remember that it was polytheistic culture, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Who is Your God?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[313,314],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-zE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2213,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions\/2213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}