Let Me Introduce You to My Father : A Study on the Nature of God

Our God is not a distant and uncaring God! He wants us to know and understand Him. He wants to be your Father. The most insulting response you can make to God is apathy. To acknowledge that God exists and claim some allegiance to Him, but to do so with carelessness and indifference is the ultimate put-down. How could you live before the awesome Creator and Sustainer of the universe and offer only stiff and minimal compliance? Phillips makes the case that God would actually prefer for us to yell at Him as yawn at Him.

Phillips proclaims open warfare on apathy. The book1s lessons attempt to attack apathy at its root cause: a failure to know and understand God. Apathy pervades the non-Christian bulk of our society. Why are people so difficult to interest in spiritual matters? First, they are tragically caught up in a doomed pursuit of happiness. Many people have experienced painful failures trying to find fulfillment and security in material possessions and physical pleasures. They are periodically depressed and at times become bogged down in often incredible escapist activities. Spiritual concepts and words do not easily penetrate such troubled minds. Also, many are understandably disillusioned and turned off by organized religion. Financial and sexual scandals have rocked professed Bible-believing, spirit-filled, born-again leaders and groups. Where are people to turn for answers to their deep spiritual yearnings?

And what of the church? Apathy has also spread its life-numbing cloud over multitudes of church members. Many, hounded by guilt, still go to church and walk through the motions. They do their duty, but they never experience nor exhibit to others the exciting and joyful relationship God intended for His children to have as they live in Christ and as His Spirit lives in them.

It all begins with a wrong view of the heavenly Father. We have been deluded into thinking this is what He wants, but our Father is most expressive about what He likes, and about what even delights Him! It is time for us to look at His words and listen and respond to Him.

We sometimes treat the Bible like a long, complex story from which we are to struggle to extract just the right laws, commands and rules which will please God. But why is the Bible such a thick volume? Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian king, chiseled his entire code of life on one eight-foot tall stone pillar. And God etched His basic laws to Israel on two tablets of stone which Moses could lug up and down a craggy mountainside.

The Bible was written primarily to reveal the nature of God. It is brimming with interactions between God and people, and in this real-life drama we discover the true identity and exciting Person of God. He is convinced that when we know and understand Him, we will not be able to withhold our praise. It will jump to our lips and control our lives. To know Him is to love Him! Hear His own words as He tells you what He wants above all else for you.

Jeremiah 9:23-24: This is what the Lord says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord.

The lessons in this book are presented to help you confront the God of the universe. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you find, or even astounded, but you will never be bored.

Our God is not a distant and uncaring God! He wants us to know and understand Him! He wants to be your Father!

The root cause of apathy is a failure to know and understand God! You were created to glorify God and in the process of glorifying Him, you will lift your life to the place of glory God intended.

Divided into thirteen chapters, Let Me Introduce You to My Father is an excellent study guide for use in adult, college age, or high school classes, small Bible study groups, or by the individual Bible student. Based on the belief that the best source for a study concerning the nature of God is God's own Word, it is filled with over 680 references to over 1050 scriptures (conveniently listed at the bottom of each page rather than at the end of the chapter) concerning God's descriptions of Himself, the relationship He wants to have with us, what He likes, and what even delights Him. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you find, or even astounded, but you will never be bored.

Dale E. Phillips has been a preacher of the Gospel for nearly thirty years. A graduate of Oklahoma Christian College, he has also studied at the undergraduate and graduate level at Freed-Hardeman College and Abilene Christian University. In addition to his work as a preacher at several congregations throughout the Midwest, he has also led campaigns in Manitoba, Canada and Fairbanks, Alaska. More recently, he has made two missionary journeys to India to work with the Christians in Maharashtra State. Since 1976, he has worked and worshipped with the Tiffin Road Church of Christ in Findlay, Ohio. Dale has been married to his wife Phyllis for over 25 years and they have three daughters.