What's
Your Relationship Like With God?
TAKING
IN THE BIG PICTURE
This
will be a six part series. Included will be:
- What Is God Like?
- How Good Do I Have to Be?
- The Extreme Extent of Jesus' Love For You!
- How Can I Get In On It?
- Can I “Know” I'm Saved?
- What Does The Future Hold For Me?
The
Holy Bible is a unique book given to us by our Creator-God. This
amazing book tells about the most important things of this life and
the one to come. This book unfolds to us the character of God, His
expectations of us, and declares all we need to know about the future
too. What an incredible book! Let us touch on some of the most vital
subjects it contains. Are you ready? Let's go!
WHAT
IS GOD LIKE?
PART
1
The
first words God chooses to share with us are, “In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) We know then,
that God created everything – it was not left to chance, or an
accident – God designed it! All these things He fashioned in six
literal days. On day six, the climax of God's epic creation - people.
He made both a man, Adam, and a woman, Eve. These would be the first
two people, and they would be husband and wife. From these two, come
the rest of humanity! These two human beings, God would place in the
most awe-inspiring place, the garden that He personally designed for
them - Eden. They had need of nothing, all was perfect. God had
proven Himself to be a God of love! Yet, did the first man and woman
reciprocate that love?
I
wonder now, if you were to get out a canvas and paint a masterpiece,
who you would say it belonged to, and who would have the right to do
with it as they pleased? I'm sure you'd respond, “It's mine, I can
do with it whatever I want!” Ah, you're right! So it is with God!
He made you and me and then wrapped around us His marvelous creation
for us to enjoy! Wow, what an awesome God! Who could we possibly
compare Him too? The Bible says of Him, “I am the LORD, and there
is no other, besides me there is no God.” (Isaiah 45:5) Yes, we are
answerable to God, because He made us. He has
every right as such, to tell us how things must be done, and in some
sense, the Bible He gave us, is His instruction book for us!
So
what is God like? Can we chat with Him? Can we go to live with Him in
His home called Heaven when we die? Is He an angry God,
or a caring and loving God? Well, we already noted that God is
loving. However, we want to get a fuller picture of God, and we will
get to these answers soon enough, but for now, we want to look at the
fact that God is holy.
First
of all, what does “holy” even mean? Well, it means to be without
sin. “What is sin,” you ask? It is that which misses the bull's
eye of a target. You see, God has placed certain rules for the people
of His creation. We'll be looking at this subject more in another
segment, but for now, we'll see that these rules show us the absolute
perfection of our Creator-God. God has never sinned and the truth is,
it is impossible for Him to sin. Now, not only is God holy, but His
dwelling place, called Heaven, is also holy. For the Bible says, “His
holy heaven.” (Psalm 20:6)
We
further read of God that He is, “Holy, innocent, unstained,
separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.” (Hebrews
7:26) Yet God's desire is that we have a relationship with Him and
worship Him. For we read, “But this command I gave them, 'Obey my
voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk
in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.'”
(Jeremiah 7:23) We see then, that God is holy, that we are sinners,
and that God is “separate from sinners. Yet, we see too, that God
desires a real relationship with you and me. That is what God has
always intended and desired. He desires to shower His love and
blessings upon us!
So,
we are beginning to get a little understanding of God and His
holiness, but just what does this imply for you and me? We'll dive
into next time! See you there!
Victor
J. Reimer
*All
Scripture taken from the ESV.
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