{"id":93971,"date":"2026-02-15T15:59:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T21:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=93971"},"modified":"2026-02-15T15:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T21:59:38","slug":"getting-to-know-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/getting-to-know-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting to Know God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Jason Hardin<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Who are you?&#8221; and &#8220;What do you do?&#8221; They are the most frequently asked questions when people are getting to know each other. They establish context. They create common ground. &#8220;Who are you?&#8221; and &#8220;What do you do?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Psalms 119:68 is a pillar of context for the entire Bible. That&#8217;s a sweeping statement, I know, but I&#8217;m pretty sure Psalm 119:68 can stand up to the test. Speaking of God, the psalmist writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>You are good and do good; teach me your statutes<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Who is God? God is good. What does God do? God does good.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s make that personal:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>God is good and does good when he teaches me. He knows better than I what is good.<\/li>\n<li>God is good and does good when he commands me. He is seeking my good.<\/li>\n<li>God is good and does good when he warns me. He wants to guard my good.<\/li>\n<li>God is good and does good when he challenges me. He is leading me to what is good.<\/li>\n<li>God is good and does good when he rebukes me. When I&#8217;ve wandered, he knows how to turn me back to the good.<\/li>\n<li>God is good and does good when he trains me. He wants me to be an imitator and ambassador for good.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Who is God? God is good. What does God do? God does good. What does God want for you? Only what is good. Doesn&#8217;t it make sense, then, that we would wholeheartedly say with the psalmist, &#8220;<em>Teach me your statutes<\/em>&#8220;? Today is another God-given day to grow on that front. Why? Because we want to be like God.<\/p>\n<p>So let&#8217;s open our hearts to his teaching, his commands, and his wise warnings. Let&#8217;s focus our minds on his challenges, his rebukes, and his training. With his help, by his grace, let&#8217;s be good and do good to the glory of our Father in heaven.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Jason Hardin &#8220;Who are you?&#8221; and &#8220;What do you do?&#8221; They are the most frequently asked questions when people are getting to know each other. They establish context. They create common ground. &#8220;Who are you?&#8221; and &#8220;What do you do?&#8221; Psalms 119:68 is a pillar of context for the entire Bible. That&#8217;s a sweeping&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-93971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-god"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17937,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-person-do-good-without-god-allowing-him-to-do-so\/","url_meta":{"origin":93971,"position":0},"title":"Can a person do good without God allowing him to do so?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We were talking\u00a0about God and grace and all that good jazz. We had a discussion about whether God is responsible for every good act done in the world. I disagreed with the statement because that would mean every good thing done would be credited to God. I am confused.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94543,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-all-things-mean-all-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":93971,"position":1},"title":"Do &#8220;All Things&#8221; Mean &#8220;All Things&#8221;?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne Wells via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 4, December 1994 One of the greatest promises found in the Bible is that God can cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to hear brethren argue that this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25787,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-is-it-good-when-your-wife-commits-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":93971,"position":2},"title":"How is it good when your wife commits adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Romans 8:28 says everything works for good. If you were in a marriage relationship, where you did everything you possibly could for your spouse, where you sacrificed a lot for them, then they cheated on you with the possibility of leaving you with some STIs, How is that good?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38359,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-everything-comes-from-god-doesnt-evil-come-from-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":93971,"position":3},"title":"If everything comes from God, doesn&#8217;t evil come from God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You said in a writing, that all good things come from God. I can understand this and agree with it. But what I don't understand is if by that same logic don't all things come from God directly or by proxy, including all the bad and evil in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34157,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-bring-an-agnostic-friend-to-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":93971,"position":4},"title":"How do I bring an agnostic friend to Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello. I thank you again for the opportunity to ask questions and get them answered so promptly! I am debating with my close friends, so my question is how do I bring my agnostic friend to Christ? Here is a discussion we are having at the moment and please\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61686,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-call-jesus-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":93971,"position":5},"title":"Why Call Jesus Good?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Mark 10:17-31 tells of a rich, young ruler who approached Jesus and asked, \"Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?\" He was interested enough to seek and find the right source for answers, but the issue was whether he was ready to listen and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}