Thursday, March 8, 2012

I Want You to Meet Someone

Imagine that you had a single sister and you also had a friend who wanted to date her. Your sister had never met this friend so you began to tell her about him. You told her that he did not have a job because he was too lazy and that was the same reason that he was about 100 pounds overweight. Further, he was rude and a real bully. Besides, he was a liar who would cheat anyone he came in contact with. Unless your sister was a total fool, she would not be interested in starting a relationship with this man. - On the other hand, imagine if your friend was a wonderful man. He had natural leadership abilities, he held a position of great authority, he was honorable, respected, strong, beautiful, honest, kind, loving, merciful, and just. After hearing that, your sister is probably going to be interested in getting to know him a bit better. - I fear that too often when we witness about God, we are kind of like the brother that tells his sister that he has found the perfect man for her to marry, but does not take the time to tell her anything about him. Should it surprise us if the sister changes the subject and wants to talk about something else? Instead of telling our sister that she just needs to call our friend and agree to marry him, we should first tell her something about him. I believe we should do the same as we talk to others about God. - Psalm 96 gives us a wonderful example of this as it speaks of how wonderful God is and how His attributes should be declared. “For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens. Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” (Psalms 96:4-6) - God is wonderful and is worthy of praise. Unlike idols that were created by men, God created everything, including men. Let me tell you a few things about God. He is powerful, strong, and all knowing. He is pure, holy, honorable, and just. He is kind, loving, merciful, and gracious. - God is also righteous, and because He is righteous and just, He cannot let sin go unpunished. The fact that God must deal with sin often causes some to misunderstand Him. Realizing that He is all powerful and perfectly just and righteous, if He did not deal with sin, He would be like a corrupt judge who took bribes. But since God is perfect, justice will be served under His reign. - Because God is righteous, He must bring justice to all sin and all of us have sinned and come short of His glory. But our God is so loving, gracious, and merciful, that even though we have come short of His glory, He has come up with a way for justice to be served. - In order for God’s justice to be served, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a). God is so loving that in order to pay those wages and satisfy His justice, He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) - Once we understand how wonderful God really is, we should want to know Him better. He provided a way for us to come to Him, and that way must be through the Lord Jesus Christ. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6 ) If you want to come to God, then simply believe on Jesus Christ as your savior.

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