Who is God?

We had a riveting and heated discussion last night at our "house group" about the different perceptions of God. How do you view who God is and why?

Two different camps of thought formed in the room, one with a single member. Camp 1 believes that they know God from their personal experience with him through relationships with other Christians and the Holy Spirit working in the world today. Camp 2 believes that the one and true way to learn who God is is to read the Bible, because those words are "God-breathed."

While Camp 1 acknowledged that the Bible is a crucial part of faith and developing their view of God, it is not the most important aspect of Christian life. It's probably not often the case that a non-believer just decides to pick up the book, read, and become a believer without some other prompting. It is the personal relationships and the outpouring of love from those who already know God that introduce Him to non-believers.

If God is only contained on the pages of the Bible, does he not still exist in this world? Is he not everywhere and in everything you see? It only furthers the point that our perception of God is based on our religious and cultural background. We can't even broken the surface on the varied interpretations of the Word. Great discussion though!