God’s nature is
perfection, justice, and love. He wants us to be near to him. Since he is
perfect, he hates sin. He gives us the choice to choose to follow what he says
or not. Adam and eve sinned by choosing
not to listen to the only rule God gave them. God gave this rule to protect
them from pain they were not ready to know.
Genesis 2:16-17 16 And
the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in
the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will
certainly die.”
God cared about Adam and Eve and didn’t want
them to live forever in their sin. So God took them out of the Garden of Eden,
and thorns grew, and they felt pain, because they knew what they did was wrong.
Since then every one of us have tried to run away from him. We are the children
of Adam and Eve, and so our whole world is affected by sin. Romans
3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
But God is a God of second chances. He
warns us many times to listen to him. He gives us time before he punishes us.
Jeremiah
29 10-16
This is what the Lord says:
“When seventy years are
completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring
you back to
this place. 11 For
I know the plans I
have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to
prosper you and not
to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and
come and pray to
me, and I will listen to
you. 13 You will
seek me and find
me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be
found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will
bring you back from
captivity. I will
gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares
the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from
which I carried you into exile.”
.
In this
passage, The Israelites sinned and worshipped other Gods. They refused to
acknowledge only The true God alone had the right to be worshiped. God loved
them so much that he was sad and angry when they ignored him. He should be
respected and loved! So he punished them by giving the people of Israel what
they wanted. If they wanted to be like the other countries that were sinning,
they were going to be slaves in that country.
If they didn’t want God, he would give them to someone else for a short
amount of time.
People
might think of God as mean for sending the Israelites into slavery, but they
chose it. He gives opportunity to come back, and you see again and again in the
bible that God gives them lots of time to come back but they don’t want
him!
.
The second part is
about God’s love and the redemption.
God will take you back. I’m not saying
everything will be easy when you follow Him, far from that! But life is always
better (not easy) with God. His idea of what’s best and our idea of what’s best
are very different. No matter what you have done, no matter how much you think
God should not love you, you can still come back. He has a purpose, and
sometimes the bad things in your life shape you to be used by God for something
better in the future of his Kingdom.
Look for him, search for him, and you will find him. He makes that a
promise.
Luke 15 11-24 11
Jesus
continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his
father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property
between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had,
set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole
country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a
citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed
to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave
him anything.17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s
hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will
set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against
heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me
like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But
while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with
compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed
him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against
you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’22 “But the father said to
his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his
finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s
have a feast and celebrate. 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive
again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
In the
runaway son story, the son dishonored his father by asking for his inheritance,
the money that he should have got when his father died. Yet again God (the
father in the story) gives him punishment by giving the son what he wants. For
a while the son parties and gets drunk, and soon his money is gone. His friends
leave, and he gets the worst job there is.
He was starving, and there was no food, and he was paying for his party
life. But when he goes back to the father (God) he is welcomed back!
These
themes are seen again and again in the bible. Man sins and runs away, God lets
them run away for a while, and when we turn back to him, he welcomes us. But
that doesn’t mean we should treat God badly and ignore him. God is powerful and
Mighty. Everything we do has consequences. When a child falls down, he scratches
his knees, but his parents are there to help him up. When we run away from God,
we get hurt, and we keep him from helping us. Even
when we are trying to do good things for God, we fail. We can never be perfect
because of Adam and Eve’s sin. Everything we do cannot even get close to how
good God is. That is why he sent Jesus. Jesus is all God, so he had no sin in
him. He was all human, so everything we struggle with also tempted him.
Jesus could have sinned if he had wanted to, but he chose
not to. Instead, he was laughed at, hurt, and killed. Jesus, the son of God
died to make us pure. He did all of this just to make a way for us to come back
to God! Can you imagine a God so perfect?
He loves us so much that he lets us learn by our mistakes, he allows us
to choose to be with him, and he Dies in order for us to come back to him! He
was the last sacrifice we will ever need for our sin.
So what now?
We WANT to be
with God. His plan is always good. There are hard times in our lives, but when
we have the Holy Spirit in us, when we believe we have the authority God has
given to us, we will always have Him to help us. We will always be ready. God
gives us a second chance, he makes us sons and daughters of Himself, the highest
King. He makes us warriors with the best armor and weapons. So that now, we can fight the sin and the
enemy that keeps us from God’s love. We
are on the holy God’s side of the war against sin. So now what do we do? The first thing we do is pray. Pray for
forgiveness, and admit you are a sinner. That is why Jesus died. So that all
humans could come back, and be with God instead of the death we deserved. Jesus
took our punishment, that’s how much He loves! God is our friend, and he wants
to hear from us, even though he knows everything already. He will give us what
we ask for, as long as we are obeying him.
Talking to the God who created everything is powerful! Ask what you need
to do!
The
second thing is to do it! God has given you faith, Authority and everything
else you need. The fight belongs to the Lord, and he has already won, you’re
just fighting a small battle, but it still makes a difference. You are a son of
God now, so you need to fight for your kingdom. You are saved, now it’s time to
fight for the right of others who don’t yet know the love of God. That is who
you are in the grace of Christ Jesus! Be
careful what you do and think. Would God approve? Is it good? Stay away from
things you know are wrong. Go towards a life of being holy and pure. Worship
God for how awesome he is. Show love in what you say and how you act.
The
last thing is said in this bible verse.
Philippians 4; 7-8 7 And the
peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus.8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever
is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think
about such things. 9
God is a Good God, and he loves
you. He has given you all the things you will need to stay strong in him. Love
him, and respect him, and he will bless you.
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