A Personal GodCould you be friends with someone who was..

• Good looking/ attractive, but doesn’t spare you a second glance?

• Clever, but not bothered about talking to you

• Powerful, but did nothing to help you?

• Sensitive, but doesn’t care if you are hurt?

God is perfect. All-powerful, all-knowing, all-good. He doesn’t need anything to make Him happy.

And yet He chooses to be a Personal God to us, and to have a relationship with us, and lavish His love and care on us, a speck in creation.

A Personal GodTo describe what is meant by a Personal God

To contrast the personal and impersonal aspects of God

To explain the importance of having a personal God

Which of these descriptions are personal , and which are impersonal?

Motherly

Fatherly

Compassionate

Forgiving

Generous

Communicating

Loving

Just and fair

All powerful

Pure spirit

Holy, all perfect

All knowing

Unimaginable

Everywhere present

Eternal(ever living)

Unchanging

1. Write out the 2 column headings, and write out the words under the correct column.

2. What is the difference between the personal and the impersonal aspects of God?

3. Why would it be important to people to have a personal God?

**Which aspects of God are most important to you? Why?

Jealous of His peopleHating evil

2. Cares for us

4. wants to be our God

3. not necessarily friendly

1. is all holy and perfect

Find 2 ways of describing...an impersonal God ...and add up the numbers of your 2 answers...

1. How is God impersonal in the passage?Choose 2 and explain.God is shown to be an impersonal when He says… because…2. How is God personal in this story? Choose 2 and explain.God is shown to be a personal God when He says…. because** Why is it important for us that God is a personal God? What different would it make if God did not have any “personal” qualities?

In the story of the Burning Bush, Moses meets a God who is BOTH personal and impersonal. Read the story and find out how. . Exodus 3:1-15

1. Write out the definition of Revelation.

2. What does God reveal about Himself to Moses in the Burning Bush? Explain what you think this means.

**Do you think revelation is a reliable way of finding out what God is like? Why?

Revelation =God himself tells us what He is like

Watch the clip.

What does Moses learn about God that he didn’t know before, during this conversation?

“I AM WHO AM”

Write a prayer to God, Include lines that refer to God as both personal and impersonal.

It is the Bible that reveals to us that God is a personal God who is in relationship with us, and who does things to help us. We could not have known this otherwise.

Sikhs , Muslims and other religions do not believe in the Christian God – because they have their own different “holy books” with different stories, and therefore a different picture of what a personal God is like.