Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Back to basics

In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 AMP

Lets get back to basics, who is this God?

This God is three in one - God the Father, God the Son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. 

So there are three witnesses in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are One. 1 John 5:7 AMP

And what's more, He created us in His own image.

God said, Let Us [Father, Son and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:26 - 27 AMP

But then came the disobedience and things had to change. We became separated from our God.

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us [the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit], to know [how to distinguish between] good and evil and blessing and calamity; and now, lest he put forth his hand and also take from the tree of life and eat, and live forever - therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. Genesis 3:22-23 AMP

Sin. We all do it. In different ways. We all, everyday, think, do or say something that is not in line with God's will for us. None of us are perfect. Some sin is more overt than others. But we all sin. 

God is Holy. Holiness and sin don't mix. A bridge, a mediator is required to re-join the separated. The bridge is Jesus. 

Therefore Jesus also suffered and died outside the [city's] gate in order that He might purify and consecrate the people through [the shedding of] His own blood and set them apart as holy [for God]. Hebrews 13:12 AMP

The bridge is there for everyone who chooses to believe in Jesus, no matter what our sin. Through true repentance,  and God's forgiveness, grace and mercy - Jesus - we can again be in right-standing with our Heavenly Father. 

And we [have seen and] know [positively] that the Son of God has [actually] come to this world and has given us understanding and insight [progressively] to perceive (recognise) and come to know better and more clearly Him Who is true; and we are in Him Who is true - in His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah). This [Man] is the true God and Life eternal.  1 John 5:20 AMP

Today, in our world, when it is so easy to look and see the 'big overt' sins of others, let's not forget that we too sin, every day in different ways. Let's take heed of our desperate need for Jesus, and ask Him for help to continually make the choice of putting Him first in our lives.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false gods) - [from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life]. Amen (so let it be). 1 John 5:20-21 AMP

Let's make a decision to let His light shine through us today.

For what we preach is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves [merely] as your servants (slaves) for Jesus' sake. For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God [as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah). However, we possess this precious treasure [the divine Light of the Gospel] in [frail, human] vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4:5-7 AMP

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