Did you know God honors you? One of the ways He does that is by respecting your choices. Even your choice of rejecting Him He respects. The consequences of our choices are not free to choose though, so that’s where free choice ends. That makes sense right? That our choices have certain consequences.
In what other ways does He honor us? He honors us by believing the best of us. We may not believe in him but He believes in us! He made us and therefore knows exactly what potential He placed inside each of us.
He also honors us by bestowing tremendous love on us. He honored us by dying for us. By becoming a man and paying the rightful penalty for OUR sin. He could have left us to ourselves when we messed up and turned from Him. But we have such great value to Him that He deemed us worthy to die for. He, the perfect Son of God who had no sin, reckoned us to have more value than his own life.
No. It’s more men against the devil. Although…God loves us that much that He considers our enemies as his own. Of course everyone who thinks clearly understands that if God is all powerful the devil is not a match for Him. After all God created the devil. Do you really think God lets the devil overtake Him? And yet, that’s what happened. In part.
When Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross it seemed like the devil prevailed over Him. Little did he understood that by letting this happen Jesus took the place of sinful men. By dying on that cross the rightful punishment for our sin was now undergone, it was paid. The devil only has access to peoples lives when they sin. But because Jesus suffered the punisment of sinful men the devil has now no autority to hurt believing men. The bible says that those who accept Jesus sacrifice for them and submit to God have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, which is the kingdom of his Son, Jesus Christ.
The kingdom of God is different from the kingdoms of this world where everyone that is part of it has to submit to its rules. You do have to submit to God’s rules if you’re part of his kingdom but it’s based upon free will. Everyone can choose to be a part of it or not. If you don’t God doesn’t love you any less. It’s just that He won’t save you if you don’t because He gave satan (the devil) autority over all who don’t submit to Him. We don’t have the option of being the king over our own lives. It’s either God or satan.
You might not believe in the devil, satan. Have you ever wondered why so many fables and fairy tales from about every culture on the earth are about evil versus good. Most if not all cultures have stories of tremendous battles against something evil that tries to bring destruction and death. Some hero then stands up and after many setbacks and personal loss prevails over this evil and peace is restored. I believe this is God speaking to us. We all have some innate understanding of what is right and what is wrong (evil). Your consience might be dulled through beliefs that prevail in the society around you. Still we all know that stealing is wrong. Or hitting someone innocent. Hurting animals etc. Except perhaps for some very extreme cases where people feel no guilt at all but it is also known that this is an abnormality and by no means normal.
It is up to you and I will not love you any less nor will God… But you can be saved from both the evil inside yourself and from evil influence from the outside which I believe comes from the devil. (See also “Saved from what?”)
“Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual autorities.”
This changes the way we see and do life and enables us to love people who are most cruel and are harming us. They too can be saved from the evil that now influences them and rules over them. And then we in turn are saved from the destruction they bring as well. There is hope for ALL people. There can be peace. But only if we submit to God and enter his kingdom. And not try having one leg in the kingdom of darkness… You will lose that leg, if it not drags you all together in it’s clutches and then you’re lost completely. Seperated forever from the One every soul deep down longs for and the only One that can bring us true satisfaction. The only One that loves us perfectly, without flaws.
God’s kingdom is there where a heart is surrendered to God. Inside that person the kingdom of God has come. What if a whole nation surrendered to God? What if the whole world did? I’ll leave the possibilities of that to your own imagination.
“Let your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Free Gift (click here to read how you can be saved)
God loves you! You are the treasure He came to find!
“They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”
What happened in between these lines? Sin happened. To be naked is only shameful when you have sinned. Adam and Eve were already naked. But they didn’t realise it because they had nothing to hide. Nothing to be ashamed of. To be naked simply means that everything about you can be seen. We might try to cover things up but God sees right through it. Maybe others don’t but He does. Our own coverings our not satisfying to God. He still sees our sin. But there is hope. We don’t have to go through life naked or with self-made shabby clothes trying to cover up what we did and who we are or were, once…
“The Lord God made garments of skins for both Adam and his wife and clothed them.”
God does not leave us naked, in shame, when we sin. He gave us a covering. One that He made, not one of our own making. So what does this covering look like? It was not made of fig leaves. It was made of skins. Of animals. So that means something living had to die in order for them to be without shame. Their sin covered. This was a picture of Jesus the Son of God who died in our place and took our shame instead when He hung on the cross naked.
If we accept what Jesus did for us (since a gift can only be received if it is accepted) and we submit our lives to God then He does not treath us based on our sin anymore. It’s not like we can fool God and keep on living in sin because He covered our sin up. But when we truly understand this his goodness will lead us to repentance and not lead to more sin. And He will enable us to live holy.
Jesus was stripped naked for us and we are now clothed with Jesus. Our sin was reckoned to Jesus. He was punished for it so that righteousness would be fulfilled and God could be merciful and righteous at the same time. Like a judge that gives a sentence because it’s right but then pays that sentence himself because he knows that person never can. So now when God looks at us He treaths us based on the perfect life of Jesus who never sinned and was spotless. His holiness is accounted to us. So in God’s eyes we are perfect and without flaws now. Not because our actions our now perfect but because we are clothed with Jesus who is perfect and our sin is covered in his eyes because its was punished when Jesus hung on the cross. So is we confess it and repent He does not hold it against us and in his eyes it doesn’t exist anymore. It was erased by the blood of Jesus. That doesn’t mean He doesn’t see it when we still stumble and sin but He does not treath us based upon that sin. Now God is not to be mocked. Sin still has a negative influence on us and it gives the devil access to our lives. So if we keep sinning although we are forgiven it still brings destruction because what we reap we still sow, but it doesn’t lead to eternal seperation from God. And if we willfully keep sinning since we are forgiven anyways we are in danger of losing our faith because faith comes through hearing God and when we ignore his voice and commandments we harden our hearts and are in danger of not hearing that voice anymore that gave us faith. And we can only be saved through faith. But there is a lot of grace with God and once we accepted Jesus offering for us and submit to Him we are forgiven for all past, present and future sin. And meanwhile He works in our hearts to change us. He doesn’t leave us sinful. That would not be love since sin is destructive.
“Jesus died once and for all.”
All who receive this gift are now forgiven. Don’t keep walking around naked. Put on Jesus Christ. (through faith) It takes away every shame in your life. If someone still tries to shame you remind yourself of what Jesus did for you. That HE carried your shame instead. Your spirit is now made new (see “Free Gift”) and in Gods eyes you are perfect because your covering is perfect and does not leave anything unhidden. The price of your sin (the rightful punishment) has been paid by Jesus so you are not in debt to God anymore. You are now in rightstanding with Him.
IN GOD’S SIGHT YOU ARE NOW BLAMELESS if you’ve put on Jesus!
Read here how (it’s simple, just believe and submit your life to Him) to become blameless.
The whole history of mankind since the fall is about men restoring God to his rightfull place in their lives. I think it’s amazing that God doesn’t force himself upon us, like human leaders force those that are beneath them to obey. God is not like that. He wants a loving relationship with us and this can never be attained through force. God is good to all people also to those who will never believe in Him and acknowledge Him as God. He loves us equally and gives us all the gift of life. The rain is for all. The sun shines for all. We can all enjoy his beautiful creation and the pleasure of having loving relationships with others. The pleasure of having pets. You name it, why don’t you make a list of all the good things in you life. (don’t forget having warm water, heating, or water at all…) There might be more then you realised! Don’t forget the blessing of having two working hands even if your legs don’t work, or perhaps it’s the other way around. But despite disabilities and suffering we still have many things to enjoy and be thankfull for. Try being aware of them for a while. And then for the rest of your life…if you liked the result. It might just change your life.
When men rebelled God did not stop giving them good things. However the result of their rebellion was corruption and suffering. It’s easy to blame God for these things but like I mentioned in “Saved from what?” we chose another god, another ruler over us when we turned away from Him. And this one does not have our good in mind. So how do we get restored to the place were life started for us? To a garden were everything was a delight and no suffering existed? I believe its starts by submitting ourselves to God again. The one who is the source of our life and therefore perfecty able to restore all things. Of course this is only possible through the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, by paying the price for our sin so that righteousness was restored. (see article “Creator’s joy”) But even as believers who have acknowledged God, we still need to give Him his rightfull place in our lives in practicality. In ALL the parts of our life. I think we often don’t even realise we are still sitting on the throne in so many area’s of our lives. One of these area’s is whom we go to for finding acceptance and gaining a sense of worth. God is the only one who defines worth and gives it to us. When we let our sense of worth be determined by other people and by how successful we are in what we do then we basicly don’t acknowledge God in that moment but reckon ourselves to be god instead, because we let others and our own achievements determine what only God can determine. So we gives others and ourselves the place of God. The only way to change this, since we do need to know our worth, is by having a relationship with God and asking HIM how He sees us and feels about us. If we don’t come to Him and let Him give us a sense of worth we are still on the throne of our lives. And when God is not on the throne we suffer because no one can give us what only He can. It will never be enough. (see also “Identity”) God truly is enthroned on our praises like the bible says. He rules in the area’s where we let Him rule. He gave us the earth and life but does not enforce himself upon us. The only way we can see an end of suffering is if we give Him the rightful place in our lives. That’s how kind He is.
We all have things we want to be saved from. Covid, any other sickness, too warm or too cold weather, annoying habits from our partners, the noise of our children, you name it. Make a list from all the things you want to be saved from. Write them down before you read further.
When Jesus the Saviour, the Messiah, came into the world the Jews expected Him to save them from the Roman oppression they were under. Throughout their whole history, in fact since the whole history of mankind recorded in the bible, since the rebellion of men against God He promised them a Saviour. But what did we need saving from? The last sentence provides the answer: for our rebellion against God. We needed to be saved from our sin, which now had taken over the nature of mankind. When we (the first men) first sinned we lost our ability to obey God. We lost our ability to have a free choice in how we live when it comes to moral living. Men were not made to be independent beings. Therefore there is always someone above us. Initially this was God, our Maker, the Creator of the world, who always has our good in mind. But when we rebelled against Him we submitted ourselves to satan, the accuser of our souls, the fallen angel that was jealous of God and wanted to be like Him. That wanted to be God. Satan was jealous at God’s children, mankind, as well. We were made in God’s image after all but he was not. The beauty and power God had given Him was not enough for him. When he couldn’t get what he wanted he went after God’s children, trying to destroy them and separate them from the One that made them and loved them deeply. Out of pure spite. And he succeeded. In part. Temporarily. But God promised men a Saviour right after they had fallen away from Him by giving in to satan’s temptation. And that’s what we are saved from when we give the autority over our lives back to God. When we let Him be our Head, the One we submit to. We are saved from the power of satan over us that always tries to destroy us though sickness and disasters and deception. And we are saved from our sin. Our sinful nature that is not able to obey God and brings destruction in our lives and that of others.
When we think about God, we often think about the things we want to be saved from but are not saved from. But we have to be honest and ask ourselves what it really is we need saving from. God is more interested in the eternal well being of our soul than in our temporary comfort. And many of the things we suffer have their root in sin. That does not mean that all suffering like disease are the direct result from specific sin in our lives but sickness came into the world through men’s rebellion against God. Thankfully He gave us a cure, which is only found in Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him our sin is reckoned to have been punished by Him. He himself paid the price for our sin when He died on that cross so we don’t have to bear it anymore. We can now be in rightstanding with God if only we accept what Jesus did for us and the result will be that we are delivered from many of the consequenses of our rebellion against Him. Sickness is one of them but also protection from other things like the heat of the sun. However certain protection is only found “under His wings, in the secret place”.
Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling, there shall be no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your tent;
When we become a believer we don’t automatically experience all the benefits we have been given through the substitutional death of Jesus for us. Like I mentioned before, life is a journey, and when we become believers we haven’t reached the end of our destination, rather we just started to go into the right direction. And the right direction is all about growing in our surrender to God and acknowledging His rightful place. Coming to the acknowledgment of who He is once in our life is not enough. We need to make this practical by appling it to all the specific parts of our lives. Are we willing to obey Him when it comes to choosing our daily activities? Or are there some things we are still not willing to let go of? There probably are…and willing to surrender these things is a journey we are walking the rest of our lives. And the more we surrender to Him the more He can protect us. That makes sense right? Parents cannot protect their children if they don’t obey and cross the street without looking. The same goes with God.
So what is this “secret place” (as some translations call it), this shelter? It means we put our complete trust in Him, just read the psalm it’s pretty clear. As believers we can still live in fear. Or…we can choose to trust Him and stay connected with Him and then we are protected. We often prefer it the other way around: to see God first and then to trust Him. But God gave us enough prove that He is trustworthy and good when Jesus died for us. One way to regain and grow our trust in Him is by looking again to what He did for us and keep reminding ourselves of this daily through taking daily communion. You do not have to go to church for that but you can do it in your own house either with others or “alone”, just you and God. Just take some red juice or whatever drink works for you and some food preferably something you can break like bread or crackers as a reminder that the body of Jesus was broken for you. Ask God to bless it so it won’t be just food but that you might experience the benefits of Jesus death while eating it. Like healing, peace, and a sense of his presence. Since Jesus died to give us all these things. The main thing I think is that we stay in his presence and like the word says, to have communion with God.
Because he (or she) has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, and I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.
So we live in this Shelter when we trust Him, obey Him, and stay in communication with Him throughout our day. It’s through being connected with Him that He protects us.
Peace!
You are the treasure He came to find. Read here how to become His:
Acknowledging your God-given beauty is not pride. It’s only pride when we don’t acknowledge it comes from Him.
What is humility and why is it important? Let me tell you what it is NOT! Humility is NOT feeling bad about yourself and dragging yourself down, saying what a pitiful creature you are and playing over and over again in your mind how you messed things up. THAT is not humility. THAT is pride! Yes you read it right, I’m not twisting it around. You might have though, like so many of us.
You see we are beautiful creatures made in the image of God. ALL of us. You might have some dirt on you that covers that beauty, true. But deep down beauty is hiding. I’m not just talking to believers here who gave their lives to Jesus and are now what we call “born again”, a new creature in our spirit. (read Free Gift) The gospel, the message, the good news this whole blog is about is that Jesus the Son of God came down from heaven to seek that what was lost. He came to redeem hidden treasures. You and me. He didn’t come to save trash. He came to buy treasures. He would never make a bad deal. God is not stupid. He would not lay down his life for something that’s not worth it. You may pay a huge amount of money for trash if you think that will raise the worth of that trash, and it might make it more valuable to you, but God would never do that. All humans are extremely valuable to God and He sent us his Son to show us our worth, not to make us valuable. We already are. However we were treasures that were lost. And by dying for us on that cross Jesus bought us back. He saved us from eternal seperation from God, and reconciled us with Him again.
PRIDE say this is not true. It says God is a liar. Pride puts it’s own opinion above God’s and therefore puts itself above Him. Yes you might want to reconsider you opinions about yourself and repent, meaning to change them. To stop seeing yourself as trash and a failure. God would not die for you if you were trash. Indeed we all sinned and fell short of his standards for right living (righteousness). But that does not make us trash. It just covers our beauty, hiding it in dirt. But like a rough diamant our beauty can be revealed! After He washes away the dirt with the blood of Jesus that was shed for us.
PRIDE can manifest itself in different ways in people that seem quite opposite, but the root is always that you resist God and put yourself above Him.
PRIDE also can say that you don’t need Him to forgive you and die for you but that you will pay for your own mistakes yourself. But we never can. Pride has a hard time receiving the grace of God. It’s not humility at all to keep insisting that you are not lovable and don’t deserve his mercy. Of course you don’t deserve it. All your ability comes from God. You can’t give him anything He didn’t give you first. Like a child buying a gift for their parents from the money they themselves gave them. To even think you can deserve anything from Him, even when you never made a mistake, is pride. You put yourself above God denying that He is the source of your live. You can’t earn anything from Him, and that is very freeing, because it means you don’t have to strive all the time to receive his love and acceptance or the approval of people. He approved of you when He made you. Your actions, neither failure nor succes, can’t change his affections towards you. His approval of you has nothing to do with your performance. He approves of us because we are his. Like you approve of and love your own child. You don’t get angry at your baby for not being able to walk. Or sing, or dance. And even when they have that ability but fail you don’t love them any less. You love them because they are yours. And that is how God loves us. Because we are his creatures. Not because we performed well.
It takes humility to accepts this.
Because then we can’t take any credit for our achievements anymore. Not when it comes to determining our worth I mean. Then we have to acknowledge that all our ability comes from God. But it also means that nothing, nor succes nor failure, can ever diminish our worth or seperate us from God’s love.
So you choose…
Do you want to keep your pride and having to fight your whole life for a feeling of worthiness, of striving to gain love and acceptance? Or are you willing to give that up, that pride that says you deserved this or that, but also often says you didn’t… Are we willing to acknowledge God for who He is? Our Creator, the source of our life. The source of any ability we have. Or… do we make ourselves gods. Do we attribute to ourselves that which comes from God….
God is the proudest parent in the universe. We are his offspring the bible says, which means we are his children. But are we indeed? All of us? Yes and no… We are if we accepted his love and sacrifice of Jesus for us. We all started out as his children though, but many have cut of the familybond and desinherited God. We may not even be aware of this. Is that even possible? Yes! God gives us free choice, He does not force us to be his children. He wants us to want Him. That is amazing to me. It’s not like He needs us…but He desires us! Yet many people don’t want Him to be their Father. Why? I think it can be due to several reasons. The main one is because of pride. Ours, not his… Another one is that we have a wrong image of God. We think He is cruel, abusive, judgmental or just absent. Or you fill in what you think God is like…. You might think you don’t believe in God. But often this is not true. Why would you be offended at the mere notion of God, that He exists, if you didn’t believe in Him? You wouldn’t care whether I believe in Him or not if you didn’t. Issue is therefore not that you don’t believe He exists but that you’re offended at Him. Just think about it for a moment. What do you feel when someone mentions God? Like I do right now. What toughts and emotions come up? Anger? Disappointment? Rage? For some maybe fear? Or just plain unbelief? Indifference? Hurt? And why is that? Dig a little bit further into your thoughts and beliefs. What makes you feel the way you feel about God? Stop being offended for a moment at what I write and the mere mention of Him and honostly ask yourself what comes up when you think about Him. You have it? Clear what you thoughts and feelings about Him are? Ok now tell God these things. Imagine Him being right there with you, because He is, whether you truly believe it or not doesn’t matter. Test Him. Give Him a chance to show himself real to you. Real and caring about you! Don’t go about like a proud peacock being angry or indifferent about Him without giving Him the opportunity to speak to you. Without having even met Him and heard Him out! You will only hear Him if you listen you know. So tell Him what you feel about Him and then ask (not demand) Him how He feels about that. What are his thoughts towards you? Is He offended at you the way you are about Him? His answer may surpise you. (Spoiler alert: no He isn’t!) Write down his answers. He often speaks through thoughts in our mind. Then share what He said to you with someone else and ask them to do the same. To tell Him their disappointments with Him and listen for his answer. You can have a conversation with him like with anyone else. And don’t get offended if you don’t hear an answer right away. It may come at an unexpected moment. Just be open for it. If you are sincere and give Him a chance to speak and show himself to you He will. He is not indifferent about you! But it takes two to tango. If you truthfully seek Him you will find Him. Just give Him a chance…
This works for belivers only but…you can always become one… Or let a believer pray for you who does believe this. You do not need to be a believer for God to heal you. His love has no conditions. But you do need to believe to be saved and become his child. If you want to know how you can click here: Free Gift
I once read a book from Maxwell Whyte called “The Power of the Blood” about pleading the blood of Jesus. (see amazon) Often as believers we tend to beg God for things that actually already belong to us, but we haven’t claimed them yet. Like when you go to the bank or store with your creditcard to cash what is yours. Now of course you don’t bark into God’s courts (through faith we can acces God’s throne in the spiritrealm to receive what we need the bible says) without respect and demand angrily what is yours. Unless your anger is directed to the devil of course… We do always approach God with respect when we enter his presence. But…we do not have to be shy or beg for the things we need. We can just open the fridge so to speak and take what is there like we do in our own home, because heaven IS our home. So what is there, in the “fridge” of heaven? What “food” does God have for us? The bible says we have an inheritance through the death (and resurrection!) of Jesus. When Jesus died He basicly said ”all that I have is yours”. He literally gave us his life but with that He gave us access to everything that belongs to God. God our Father, the one who made us and therefore surely can heal us as well.
Jesus died to pay the rightful punishment for our sin. Because of that we are forgiven and our sin is erased. The debt we owed to righteousness was paid and we are in rightstanding with God again. So when we feel accused, by others, ourselves or who or whatever we just have to take a closer look at what Jesus did for us and let it sink in until we believe it with our whole heart. Until we applied our belief to our own life and current situation. Don’t think that belivers/christians are hypocrite because they don’t have it all together. Though they seem to say they know it all, is that not what their faith implies? But we all are still on a journey, and faith is something that needs to grow and applied throughout our whole lives. So we can believe something, in theory, to a degree, without seemingly any result. Like believing God’s love is unconditional and yet condemning ourselves or others over certain things. We need to apply this belief in a practical way. The same goes for healing. Sickness came into the world through sin. (how can you expect to be healthy if you’re not connected to the source of your life, to The One that sustains it) However because Jesus died for our sin we can now also be healed. The first step to our healing is to believe this. And it might take some time for our faith to grow. Just water it with the truth. Reminding yourself of it constantly. But then what? Do we storm heaven and beg God for healing? Well you can give it a try of course. You are free to pour out your heart before God. How would you feel though if you gave someone a gift, like putting money on their account, and they would keep begging you for money? You would tell them to go to the bank and cash it right? It’s the same with much of the things God gave to us. So how do we cash them? We plead the blood of Jesus over our circumstance, over our whole life. Over sickness, over anything we need. Because Jesus died to give us access to anything that belongs to God. It’s ours now. God is like that. He is not stingy. He is not witholding anything good from us. “If He gave us Jesus, will He not give us everything?”
So like pleading a certain right you have in a courtroom we can plead the blood of Jesus. It is not a magic formula, you do have to believe it. But if we do then it works every time! “Whatever you ask in my Name (pleading is like asking in his name), if you believe you wil have it”. And if we have trouble believing, we may have to grow our faith first. A book I can really recommend about the benefits of the cross is “Bought with Blood: The Divine Exchange at the Cross” by Derek Prince. I also see he has another book called “Applying the Blood: How to Release the Life and Power of Jesus’ Sacrifice” which is probably much the same content but more practical. (see amazon)
Even Jesus cried out on the cross: My God why have you forsaken me? And don’t we so often pray for God to come to us? Does life not all so often seem empty and void of any God? Does He even exist and if He does, does He care for us?
I think He does, but I do not feel him as much as I would like. Not yet anyway. So where is He? I would like to ask him some questions, you might think. First thing I would like you to consider is that God does not need to answer to US. It makes more sense it’s the other way around right? WE answer to HIM…one day. But…if He is interested in us He surely should make himself known to us?
Maybe HE is asking us the same question: Where are you my child? My beloved son and daughter? I so long to hear from you. You broke of the familyline. You disinherited Me. But I will accept you back as my child in an instant. If only you will come to me.
And to those who already became his children again: My child why don’t you talk with me? Why don’t you eat from the dinner I prepared for you? Why didn’t you move in the room I made for you in my house? Why do you sleep on the treshhold instead? It’s drafty out there, come closer to the fire. Let me warm you. Let me feed you. Let me sing over you. Let us be merry together. Rest your head on my chest and I will give you peace. I will take care of you, you don’t have to do everything on your own.
Let’s go back to the cross for a moment, where Jesus the perfect Son of God who came down from heaven gave his life to pay the rightfull punishment for OUR sin. He cried out to God his Father: “Why have you forsaken me?” But had God really forsaken him? Just the night before He had told his disciples they would all forsake him but that his Father was with him. The bible also says that Jesus endured the cross through the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God that comes from God the Father. And it says this very Holy Spirit rose him from the death. So clearly Jesus was not alone on the cross. His Father had never forsaken him.
It just felt that way.
Moments later after He cried out in anguish to the why of his seeming abandonment by his Father, He said “into your hands I commit my spirit”. He quickly regained his awareness of the Father’s presence even in his suffering. And He surrendered to him, showing him his trust like He had done the night before in the garden of Gethsemane, when He said “not my will, but yours be done”. When Jesus felt forsaken on the cross He completely identified with our feelings of forsakeness. Feelings. Not facts. He also showed us the way to respond. With perfect trust. With total surrender.
“Father, into your hands I place my life.”
You can click on this link Free Gift if you want to know how you can place your life in his hands, your Father’s, who loves you and never left you and never will leave you.
“Where shall I go from Your spirit, or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.”
(btw we are not to follow David’s (who wrote psalm 139) example to hate those who hate God and those who do wickedness, we are to love them, because God loves them)
It’s kind of hard to get over christmas after only two days of celebrating it. I don’t intent to ever get over it by the way. This painting hangs in my livingroom all throughout the year. I feel this whole thing of God becoming a baby has not even properly sank in yet. I was raised christian and although I am thankful for that the danger is you’ve heard certain stories so often you don’t even realise the true meaning of them eludes you. Like christmas. I think the bigger our conception of God is the more this amazes us. Just think of it a bit longer. God became a man. The Creator became part of his own creation. I think that is pretty amazing.
So what does christmas tell us? What’s the message? First I think the picture of a baby being born in a filthy stinking barn is quite an accurate picture of the state of the world Jesus came into. Jesus, innocent like a baby, did not come into a perfect sinless world. If that was the case then He didn’t need to come at all. He came because the world was dirty and needed cleaning up badly. He didn’t come to condemn us, He came to save us from our dirt. To take that sin away from us. To wash us clean from our guilt and then to change us into new persons that were not addicted to sin anymore but that were now able to choose freely the kind of life they want to live. He gave us the ability to obey him, which we hardly were able to do before. That’s why He came.
Second I believe God becoming a baby shows us how approachable God is for us. He is not some angry distant deity far away on a high mountain we need to climb. He cares about us so much He wants to be in relationship with us. It has been like that from the beginning. Men turned away from God through rebellion but before they rebelled they walked closely with him in a place called the garden of Eden, which means delight. They were delighted which each other. God was delighted with men, men were delighted with God, and men were delighted with each other. That all changed in one moment. A fallen angel, named Lucifer (later called the devil or satan, which means accuser, because he accuses us all the time) came into the garden in the form of a snake, and seduced men to disobey God. He made them doubt about God’s good intentions toward them. Lucifer himself, once a beautiful radiant angel gifted with many talents like music, became proud of his gifts and beauty and didn’t realise they came from God. That He had given those things to him freely out of love for him and the other creatures who would be blessed by them as well. He failed to see how much God cared for him and had blessed him tremendously. I don’t know why but for some reason it is or was possible to be in heaven with God and yet not know his love. At least for the angels. It seems it has something to do with the free will God gives to the creatures He makes. Or at least to some of them like the angels and men. Somehow Lucifer did not believe God loved him and therefore he rebelled against Him. He thought God was holding out on him and that it was desirable to be God himself. God had no other choice than to kick him out of heaven, together with one third of the angels Lucifer had managed to pursuade to rebel against God with him. I don’t know what those angels were thinking. They didn’t seem to be very smart to me though, since now they basicly made Lucifer their new god. What made them think he would be better?
Maybe that’s what we humans often do as well. We don’t like the notion of a God that is above us, and we can’t really believe He loves us, because there are certain things we don’t understand like sickness and suffering, so we reckon ourselves to be god instead. We probably don’t call ourselves god consciously but we do so nonetheless when we consider ourselves to be the highest autority in this world and don’t acknowledge God. We also make other people and things in our lives god by giving them a place that only God should have. Like those things are better than God…
So the question remains: Is there room for God in our lives? It seems amazing to me that we even get to ask ourselves that question. I mean how is it possible that we even get to doubt God’s existence? How can God allow us not to believe in Him? Now that’s an interesting question right? What does it say about God that He let’s us question Him? That He allows us not to believe that He is good and kind towards us? That He allows us even to rebel against Him and call Him all kinds of blasphemous things? Why does he allow all this?
I think all people have at least one moment in their lives they have an understanding, a knowing deep inside, that God exists and made all this. Yet we seem to be able to suppress that understanding and to live the rest of our lives in unbelief, even unbelief of his very existence. How can this be? I believe it has all to do with the kind and tender nature of God. He is tenderhearted towards all of us. He is gentle. He does not bark into our lives like a bulldozer and forces us to believe in Him and acknowledge Him as God. That could never lead to a loving relationship with Him could it? We wouldn’t trust Him to truly care for us and to give us a free choice. We would be like slaves forced to obey. Robots even. But God wants to be involved in our lives and He wants us to want Him. Now that is one of the things that truly amazes me about God. That He wants us. That He longs for a connection with us. That He wants to communicate with us during our lives. It brings me back to the chrismas story. Of a God in the form of a baby. A baby that not only brings joy, but that we can bring joy to as well. We humans can bring joy to God, simply by being his children and having a relationship with Him daily!
So the question is: ”Is there room for God in YOUR life?” He loves you and He desires you! Do you want HIM too?
If you never made the decision to become a child of God you can do so now. Don’t wait. Life is short and you don’t know if you’ll have another chance to come to Him. You can come to Him any moment, but you might not be willing to another time. You might just forget about Him, like we all so often do. And you might not live another day. But if you are his child, you will be with Him forever and death won’t be the end of your life. Rather it will be the beginning of something new.
But if you’re not his child and you die today you will be separated from Him forever and both you and God will eternally long to be together, you with Him and He with you. But then it won’t be possible anymore because it has to be a free choice. Once you see his full glory after you die you can’t choose anymore. Anyone will be compelled to bow down to Him and worship. You only have a free choice now, in this lifetime. So take it. Accept his invitation to become his child. He loves you deeply, more then you know!
Click on the link below if you want to make this decision that will change your life forever. You will never be alone. You never have been by the way, but you may not have known it.
Creator's Joy 