God, Man, and the Gospel
God has always been alive and will always be alive. Before anything was, He was. God was and is full of life.
Because He was full of life, He made more life. God made the angels and the stars and the Earth and man. There is nothing that He has not made.
God made man so that man and God could enjoy each other's company and be friends. This is called fellowship. God made men to live forever, just like He does and will.
God did not want anything to break up the friendship that He wanted to have with man. So God made rules to prevent this from happening. This is where sin comes into the picture. Anything that a man does that prevents him from being a friend of God, is called sin.
What are some things that stop man from being a friend with God, what are some sins?
Not believing that He exists.
Worshipping someone or something with worship that belongs to God.
Cursing and using God's name as a curse word. God does demand that man respect Him.
Murdering.
Committing adultery.
Stealing.
Lying.
Wanting someone else's property or spouse for yourself. This is called coveting.
Why do these sins and others break our friendship with God? God is perfect, just, and loving. Anyone who does these sins above is not respecting God or other men. God wants all of us to be like Him: perfect, just, and loving.
Beginning with the first man, Adam, man sinned. Each generation became more sinful than the last. After about 1,500 years only one family on Earth had any love or respect for God or other men. But that is another story to be saved for another time.
Today, 6,000 years since God first made man, we are the same. Most have no respect for God or other men. Cursing God, murdering, adultery, stealing and lying are happening every where all the time.
God made a rule that those who do such things will be punished with death. They will not live forever as He wanted them to. So, all men are deserving of the death penalty in God's eyes.
But God loves man and He provided a way for man not to have to suffer this final death. God sent His own Son, to pay the sin debt for us by giving up His life and dying for us. Most call Him Jesus. I call Him by His untranslated name, which is Yahoshua.
This may sound like a strange thing for God and Yahoshua to do. But we have studied the Bible for years and we know that this is what the Bible teaches. Many men of God believe this very same thing.
But God still expects you to do something in return for this sacrifice He made for you. He expects you to make a commitment to try and not sin any more and to be sorry for the sins you have done and to believe that Yahoshua died for you. He also expects you to forgive all others of wrongs they have done to you, just as He will forgive all your sins if you ask Him to. And He expects you to do your best to live the rest of your life knowing that God is there and that He wants to be your friend and that one day He wants to bring you home to Him forever.
John 3:16 KJV, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
See, how short and easy that was.
With love,
In Christ Yahoshua,
Rick
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