"A good many people nowadays say, 'I believe in a God, but not in a personal God.' They feel that the mysterious something which is behind all other things must be more than a person. And in a sense they are right about this. But although they say God is beyond personality, they end up thinking of him as something impersonal, as a vague sort of power, or as a great void: that is, as something less than personal" (C. S. Lewis).

God is more than personal: he is superpersonal. God is three divine Persons united in love and in being. In these meditations we have focused on each divine Person, often in connection with a particular activity. We've linked the Father with creation and providence; the Son, with forgiveness and salvation; the Spirit, with indwelling and transformation. But even when a particular Person stands in the forefront of a particular work, the three always work as one.

If you are a Christian, you have at least one spiritual gift, a special ability from the Holy Spirit. You probably have more than one. Gifts like healing, miraculous powers, or speaking in different tongues may seem the most impressive. But gifts like serving, teaching, encouraging, or paying bills are no less important (Romans 12:4-8). So be the person God made you to be. Use each gift the Spirit gives you to use.

The church is Christ's body, and a body needs its different parts. Wouldn't it be crazy if the ear said, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body"? What if the body were one big eyeball? It would look hideous! And how would it hear? So don't envy someone else's gift or think your own gift is unimportant. The church needs you and your gift.

Ask a farmer what he does, and he'll say, "I'm a grain farmer," or, "I raise cucumbers," or, "I grow grapes." No farmer sums up his work by saying, "I plow up weeds," or, "I get rid of bad bugs." Although farmers do those things, their main focus isn't what they plow up or get rid of, but what they produce.

God is a farmer. He wants to produce a good crop in his people. We sometimes think of God only in terms of what he's against, but that's a mistake. Of course, God is against various sins and works to rid us of them, but his main focus is producing a rich harvest of Jesus' character in us. If we're in step with God's Spirit, that will be our main focus, too.

"The righteous are as bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1). But Peter wasn't always bold. After Jesus was arrested, Peter pretended over and over to have no relationship with him. Even a lowly servant girl scared Peter so much that he would not say he knew Jesus.

Just a few months later, however, this same Peter boldly preached Christ to the very enemies who crucified Jesus. The same Peter? No, this was a new Peter, filled not with fear but "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 4:8).

When Satan tempted Jesus, how did Jesus fight him off? "It is written"! "It is written"! "It is written"! If the Son of God himself appealed to Scripture over and over in overcoming evil, then surely we need the Bible.

To know the thoughts of God and the way to be saved, you need "the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). To grow mature in faith, you need the Bible: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16). To resist sin and conquer Satan, you need "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Ephesians 6:17).

There is no one more important in a child's life than the child's father.  The father is irreplaceable and critical to the child's all around well being.  Fathers have an amazing responsibility to train and shape their children.

It is the dream of many fathers for their children to succeed in sports, particularly boys, for many reasons including: overcoming both internal and external obstacles, benefits of physical exertion, character building, and learning how to work with others.

So fathers often pour themselves into their children's success as they repetitiously drill the fundamentals with their child until they reach an age appropriate perfection.  If a child asks the father to throw the ball, kick the ball,bounce the ball, swim, ski, surf, etc, the father often happily, or if not happily, willingly agrees.  Many fathers will coach the team, drive the child up and down the state, stay all day during the tournament or swim meet, all in an effort to encourage and support the success of their child.

Christianity is more than the fact that Jesus once lived on earth or that he now lives in heaven. Christianity is Jesus living in you by his Holy Spirit. Christianity is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Through the Spirit, Jesus' life lives in you. Jesus said, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing" (John 6:63). On your own, you are spiritually dead. But the Spirit gives you Jesus' life.

Books about gardening can describe various vegetables, but you can't grow vegetables just by reading aloud to a garden plot. Dirt can't grow corn just by being told what corn is like. It takes living seeds, not just words. In the same way, you can't grow in obedience to God's law simply by hearing words. The reality described in those words must be planted and nurtured inside you by the Holy Spirit.

This Spirit-driven growth in holiness--called sanctification--is a process, not a once for all event. We saw yesterday that when we are justified by faith, God gives us a new standing and credits Jesus' perfection to us. Despite our sin, he declares us not guilty and adopts us as his children, freely and forever. Justification is a once for all declaration which completely changes our standing. Sanctification, by contrast, is an ongoing process which gradually changes our character. In this process, the Spirit's life is stronger than the old sinful nature, just as newly planted seedlings are stronger than weeds that have been plowed under. Still, more weeds do spring up, and the seedlings still have a lot of growing to do. Once the Spirit's seedlings of holiness are growing in us, we also need his "weed and feed": the Spirit shrivels sinful weeds and feeds the good plants of obedience to God's will. The plants will be mature, full of ripe, Christlike fruit, when God's new creation reaches perfection.

Suppose you work hard and do everything your boss tells you. Then, on payday, he hands you a check for the amount you've earned and says, "Here's a gift for you." Wouldn't you feel insulted? That's no gift--he owes you! You earned that money. "When a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation" (Romans 4:3).

If we always kept the Ten Commandments, if we loved God and loved others without fail, salvation would be not a gift but an obligation, something we deserve. However, the fact is, we've sinned many times. Even as Christians, we often break the Ten Commandments; we don't love God and others perfectly. God doesn't owe us anything except the wages of sin: death (Romans 6:23). We cannot be justified--have a right standing with God--based on our efforts.

In the books of God's perfect memory, he is keeping an exact record of everything we think, say, and do. Can God really keep track of every last thing about billions of people? Well, even humans can store astonished amounts of information on computer, so the Almighty can surely maintain a complete record of what happens in his universe. At the final judgment the books will be opened, and the Lord will publicly display the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about your entire life.

Then another book will be opened, "the Lamb's book of life." The Lamb is Jesus, and the book of life is the record of all who are saved by his blood and follow him in faith. Your eternal future depends on whether or not your name is in the book of life. God's judgment about you will be based on whether you have a saving relationship to Jesus.