What Is God Like

What is God like? People are usually asking about Father God when they ask this. People have all sorts of answers to the question of what is God like.

But Jesus answered that question by stating, "He that has seen me has seen the Father." This is found in John chapter 14 verse 9. We read what Jesus was like, and still is like, in the Gospels which are: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. We can read the Gospels for ourselves and find out what Jesus is like. And we should!

We also read that He is good! We read this in several places in the Psalms, "Oh give thanks unto the Lord for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."

Now I want to suggest that anyone of the elements of the fruit of the Spirit could be substituted in the phrase, "He is good." Why? Because Father God is the original source of the fruit of the Spirit! He is all of these things!

Therefore:

He is Love! (As is written in First John chapter 4.)

He is Joy!

He is Peace!

He is Patience!

He is Kindness!

He is Goodness!

He is Faithfulness!

He is Gentleness!

He is Self-control!

Now let me say this another way:

He is Loving! (And altogether lovely!)

He is Joyful!

He is Peaceful!

He is Patient!

He is Kind!

He is Good!

He is Faithful!

He is Gentle!

He is Self-controlled!

He doesn't change! He will always be this way!

So, He is not a cranky old man that is hard to please! Don't think that way! That's a lie of Satan!

Therefore, when a believer (you) is filled with, or baptized in, the Holy Spirit, this fruit is going to grow in the believer (you) and nothing is going to stop it (except the enemy's deception). Ask for this filling and see what happens! Expect some really good changes!

The phrase "enemy's deception" needs some comment. Let me just say we need to fight it by continuing to read and take in the scripture (the Bible) several times a week, or better yet daily.

Hallelujah!

Larry Carroll

He Pursues Us

Encouragement

You may have heard that the Lord God is called the Hound of Heaven. (No? Well, now you have.)

You know that you can run from Him, but you can’t hide! This should be obvious!

You know He loves you!

And maybe you know that Jesus is a Savior, and He can be, and wants to be, your Savior!

You know that your mom and dad, and maybe your grandma and grandpa, or maybe some friends (me included), are praying for you. Or, if they are gone, they did pray for you. 

You know that your mom and dad prayed or are praying in agreement with what the Lord God wants! This is very significant!  You know He wants you! This is very good, for He is Good!!  

So, rejoice!!!

Advice

Don't fight it! For some reason little kids have very little trouble responding positively, but older folks seem just naturally to want to go their own way, usually. This is not good, for the process needed to soften our hearts and change our minds can be rough.

And no matter how old you are, or what you have done, or whether you have walked away from Him already, He hasn't stopped loving you and pursuing you. He will never stop pursuing you, because He will never stop loving you. So, I strongly recommend that you just respond by saying, "Yes, Lord." And see what happens!

Let me say this again, He loves you!!!

Hallelujah!

I rejoice that He is continuing to pursue me, even right now!

Larry Carroll

Today, 18 September 2025, is our 60th Wedding Anniversary.

I'm happy to say that our marriage is a covenantal relationship, rather than a contractual relationship.

I would describe (not define) a covenantal relationship as: for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part. (Yeah, all of that. There is much sacrifice and forgiveness in a good marriage, but it is worth it. And there is also much joy and celebration, too. Remember, sometimes you are the one being forgiven!  We are all imperfect people.)

I would describe (not define) a contractual relationship as one which can be terminated for poor performance.

The Lord Jesus established a covenantal relationship with both of us (saved us) and empowered us to maintain this covenantal relationship that binds Helen and me together. For this we are most grateful.

Well, what do we have with this covenantal relationship? We have a relationship where Helen and I still love each other.  And we even like each other!  We also have a wonderful family who still loves us. For both of these we are most grateful to the Lord Jesus for His faithfulness in enabling us to keep going and not give up!

And you can too, with His enabling power!  Ask Him to intervene, and save your marriage by His grace!

Larry Carroll

 The Bible stories that we learned as young children such as:

    David and Goliath

    Jesus born in a manger

    Daniel in the lion’s den

Are all good, but we need so much more. The Bible warns us about drifting away from the faith that has been revealed to us in the Lord Jesus. Hebrews chapter two asks "How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation as this!?"

I've been there.  Saved (Yes, saved from Hell!) at age 6, learned about taking my faith (that is, my relationship with the Lord God) seriously as a teenager, and filled with (baptized in) the Holy Spirit as a young man, I still got so distracted that I let the Word of God (the Bible) slip.  I was drifting away from Christ, and I didn't even know it!  Oh, I was still going to church, but that means I only got a limited feeding once a week.  Not enough!

Well, I was fortunate that somebody confronted me about this, more than once.

I know other people are offended by church goers and cast off their relationship with the Lord God. They say the church is full of hypocrites.  Hey, I think everyone has been offended by church goers, and by believers even.  And I know some people have been offended by ME!  

Hey, the real question is: have you been offended by Jesus Christ? No, you haven't!

We need to continually read the scripture, the Bible, a few times weekly if not daily, to get through this life.

We need to read the Bible for ourselves!

Now don't you go saying you can't understand all those old English words.  There are SO MANY new translations.  In fact, I don't regularly read the old King James Version of the Bible.

And don't say you can't find a Bible, for if you have an Apple or Android phone, you can easily find an on-line Bible.  I'll suggest two: BibleGateway.com and BlueLetterBible.com.  These both have apps you can find in your phone's Apple App store or Google Play store.  I like BlueLetterBible since the BLB app has no ads.

But WHY read the Bible regularly?

Because:

1. It’s like no other book; it’s inspired by the Spirit of God.

2. Although all of these reasons are important, #2 is the most important reason:

It will lead us to Jesus, to know about Him, and then to know Him personally. Start in one of the first four books of the New Testament, called the Gospels. Start in any one of them.

3. It will comfort us when we are down. The Psalms are good for this, but this can take time. Pray the Psalms.

4. It will change us!  We will become, little by little, more and more like Jesus!  And that is Good!

This will keep us from drifting away from the Lord God.

I want you to read the Bible for yourself. Please!

Larry Carroll

Larry Carroll

This morning, I read an article (from BibleGateway.com) by A W Tozer, in which he decried the tendency of many believers to share only the good parts of living as a believer in Christ. He called it salesmanship.

It brought to mind an old song I heard almost 60 years ago, sung by a ladies trio, which said “It’s not an easy road“ living as a believer. Some people in the audience didn’t like that. I can see now that there are two sides to this issue:

1. As believers, we are encouraged to cast all our cares upon the Lord God, the Lord Jesus. This is wonderful, and such a blessing!  Yes, He is a Savior!

2. However, as believers, it truly is not easy having our faith tested, and having our faith mocked, even persecuted.

It was not easy for Abraham to obey God’s command to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, or for Daniel to continue praying to the Lord God, knowing he'd be thrown into the lions' den for doing it.

So I see that it truly is not an easy road; the cost of discipleship is heavy (but worth it!)

However, the cost of living without the Spirit of God within us, without the Spirit of God guiding us, without the Lord bringing us into His kingdom, without His peace now, is eternal ruin!

Larry Carroll

Larry Carroll

 A pilot in training has a goal: someday to fly solo, that is, to fly alone. This is as it should be.

In life it's the opposite, we start out flying alone, but our goal should be to fly with 'our instructor', our Shepherd, our Savior, our Maker, our God!

But why?  Because He loves us so very much and doesn't want us to end up crashing into a mountain, which we will surely do if we fly alone!

Blessings!

Larry Carroll

Covenants

    My marriage is a covenant relationship.  And hopefully, if you are married, yours is, too.

But what does that mean?  It means that my wife and I are fully committed to each other, "for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part."  Yes, fully committed even though there have been compromises and sacrifices that she made and that I made.  These go both ways.

This covenant is modeled after the covenant that the Lord Jesus makes with His bride, the body of Christ, a.k.a. His church, those who have embraced Him as Lord and Savior.  He said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."  He is fully committed to us!

Oh, but there is one thing: forgiveness.  In Matthew chapter 6, we read in verses 14 & 15: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Does it really mean that? Doesn't Titus 3:5 say "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us."?  Yes, absolutely!  So isn't forgiving a work of righteousness?  If you think that through your own efforts you can forgive, tell me how successful you have been in the past.  We all can recall how past abuses have come up in our memory, especially when we are trying to fall asleep, and we find that "I just can't forgive!".

This is out of context I admit, but it is written in Mark 2, "Who can forgive sin, but God alone?"  I believe it.

Now this is really important.  Don't just skim over this: We need the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, to come into our "hearts", our innermost beings, to empower us to forgive.  Now when we know we need to forgive, but know we don't have the power in us to do it, we have to go after that power to forgive, earnestly.  We choose to forgive even though we hate it.  Keep choosing to forgive until you receive the power to forgive.

In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus told a parable that illustrates all of this, the parable of the unforgiving servant. This is from verses 21 through 35.

Servant #1 owed A LOT of money to the master. He begged for time, but instead, the master forgave him the whole thing! (So, yes, not by works of righteousness which we have done He saved us!)

Servant #2 owed servant #1 A LITTLE bit of money. He begged for time, but instead, servant #1 threw him into debtor's prison (ie, did not forgive him).

When the master heard this he was furious!

This is how Jesus ends the parable:32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. 35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

 

So you have to forgive, but you can't forgive.  What to do?  Choose to cry out to the LORD to fill you to overflowing with His Holy Spirit.  He alone has the power to forgive, and He wants you to have it!  Ask!  Ask for the filling (or baptism) of the Spirit, and ask for the ability to forgive now!

We serve a wonderful, loving God.  Expect a blessing.

Larry Carroll