God Wants To Love You

Pastor Roy writes:

When I looked at the ocean, or a sunset, or even the structure of a leaf, I used to wonder how anyone could believe that all this beauty just happened by chance. I always knew, deep in my soul, that there is a God who put our universe together. But thinking about God was very unsettling to me, because I had no idea how to relate to such a powerful being. I thought it was as impossible as striking up a conversation with an amoeba. But God convinced me differently. The Holy Spirit of God spoke to me through the messages that were first given many years ago and recorded in the Bible. Over a period of time God showed me five things I needed to understand and accept in order to have a healthy relationship with Him.*

1. God created the human race so He could love and enjoy us and we could love and enjoy God.

After each part of creation God pronounced it good, but when He created human beings He said it was very good. Later He spent time teaching and just enjoying the company of the first humans. God provided harmony, security, and purpose in life. In return God asked the people to trust Him.

2. God took the calculated risk of allowing humans to choose to love and trust Him or to reject Him

Love is not love unless the person chooses. God wanted more than blind, automatic obedience. God wanted us to freely respond to His wonderful goodness and generosity. Unfortunately, the first humans, and every generation since, chose to distrust God and to use Him rather than to love Him.

3. Turning away from God brought death into the human race

Life comes from God, and rejecting God meant rejecting life and embracing death. First their spirits shriveled and died, and then their bodies did the same. "Sin" is just a term that means choosing less than God's best. Sin poisons our minds, souls, and bodies. Sin makes it impossible to draw near to God, because God's perfection would devastate us in our imperfection.

4. God's love found a creative way to rescue us from death

God was not willing to allow all humans to perish, so He entered the world in the form of Jesus Christ. Jesus was fully human, yet fully God. Jesus was the first and only human to love and trust God completely in every detail of life. His perfect life deserved to be rewarded with eternal life, but instead Jesus followed God's plan to allow himself to be unjustly accused, arrested, and put to death. Jesus took on the sins of the entire human race and experienced the death they had earned. Then God raised him to life again on the third day to show that his love is more powerful than death.

5. We still have a choice

Jesus died in order to take the penalty for all our sins. Now he offers to give his perfect record to any who will receive him. It is the best trade anyone will ever offer us! We get to lose guilt and anguish, and in return we receive real life filled with love and joy. But love still involves a choice. Each person must choose to trust God by trusting and believing in His Son. When we do that, we begin a wonderful relationship with God that will never end.

I did not come to terms with these five concepts all at once, but over a period of time I came to see how each one must be true. I also came to recognize that I needed to allow God to come into my life through Jesus Christ. When I did that the whole world changed for me!

Perhaps you are not convinced about one or more of the things I have listed. I would be happy to dialogue with you about them. Just email me at roy@firstpresbyterianpontiac.org.

"Lord Jesus, I admit that I have been living a life that isolated me from God. I want to know real life, and I accept your loving offer to take away my sins and give me your nature. Fill me with the Holy Spirit and show me how to grow in my relationship with You. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer, I encourage you to contact me at church or the email address above. I want to rejoice with you and give you some material that will help you grow in your newfound faith. Congratulations! You have just begun the greatest adventure in the world!

*I realize that God is Spirit, neither male nor female, but the way we use our language makes it more accurate to refer to God as "him" or "her" rather than "it", and the Biblical precedent is to use the masculine pronoun.