WHO IS GOD AND WHY DO I WANT TO KNOW HIM?
God Above
God stands above all things. He is the One and only God who created everything. Heaven, earth, and all its beings. He knows you inside and out, because he created you, and because of this, only God knows what you what you truly need.
Our spirit seeks the truth, and God, knowing we would seek the truth, gave us the Bible.
Word of God
The Bible’s consistency comes from its single guiding source: God Himself. God is the true author of every word of Scripture. The Bible is not a human book about God, it is God's words divinely written through man.
God gave us the Bible as a guidebook to life and to understanding Him. The best way to get to know God is to read His Book. Praying to God builds your relationship with Him.
How You Come To Know Him
Coming to know the Lord is a personal experience. For me, He planted a seed in my my heart that grew into the desire to understand Him in the way that He desired rather than the way I desired.
The best way to get to know God is by talking to Him in prayer. Prayer is not something that is reserved for church or bedtime. You can pray to God anytime and anywhere for any reason.
Reading the Bible (God’s word), will bring you understanding of the world through the eyes of the One who created it. This is the key to a fulfilling relationship with God. Spending time learning and understanding Him and his creation, will deepen your personal relationship.
What Is The Point?
Why would you want to know God and live in His Word when you are seemingly content with the life you have built without Him?
I’ll give you two important reasons to know God.
So you can live a life after death alongside Him in Heaven.
To have peace in life on earth. No more searching for meaning, God gives it to you.
Most people cannot bridge the subject of life after death. It is easier to assume it does not exist. There are five common perspectives people hold to negate the thought of Heaven and Hell, and each one of them is addressed directly in the Bible.
Perspective 1: There's a Heaven, but no Hell, so I don't need to worry about it.
Jesus describes Hell as everlasting fire, everlasting punishment, and a place of torment that never ends. In Luke 16, He tells the story of a rich man who dies and finds himself in Hell conscious, in agony, and separated from God by a great gulf that cannot be crossed. Hell is not a metaphor in the Bible, it is a place with a temperature.
Perspective 2: Only bad people (murderers and rapists) go to Hell.
The Bible makes no distinction, all have sinned. Even our best deeds, our righteousnesses, are as filthy rags before a Holy God. Break one point of the law, and you are guilty of all of it. Liars and the fearful are listed alongside the murderers in the lake of fire. The Bible does not rank sin the way we do, sin is sin.
The way out is not by being good in the eyes of man. Salvation is by grace through faith. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. No man comes to the Father except through Christ. Being a good person is not the currency of salvation, grace is.
Perspective 3: Heaven and Hell aren't real, it's just a peaceful spiritual realm where everyone coexists.
The Bible describes two resurrections. One unto life, one unto damnation. After death comes the judgment, there is no neutral spiritual plane described anywhere in the Word of God. The same God who created it all, explains it in the Bible. It’s worth reading about, I promise.
Perspective 4: We just turn to dust. Spirits aren't real.
The Bible agrees that the body returns to dust. The dust returns to earth, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Jesus settled it directly “you can kill the body, but you cannot kill the soul.” The spirit is real. God put it there, and it goes somewhere.
Perspective 5: I believe in the Big Bang. Science has answered the question of origins.
The first sentence of the Bible is, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
The Bible states that the things that are seen were made from things that cannot be seen or detected. The heavens themselves declare the glory of God, and creation is His testimony, not evidence against Him. God's eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen through the things He made so that every man is without excuse. No telescope removes accountability. The creation points back to the CREATOR.
The bottom line:
God’s existence does not depend on what you believe or do not believe.
Life after death is an eternity. It is important you get on the right side of that eternity while you still can.
Even if somehow God was not real and the Bible was not His Word, would you not rather play it safe on the chance that it was? Are you willing to gamble your eternal soul on the world's view for it?
Holy Trinity: God In Three Persons- Jesus Is the Lord
God is a Trinity, three in one. That is why He is referenced as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It is hard for the human mind to fully conceive, but that is the truth. Each entity is equal. God = Father = Christ = Son = Spirit of the Lord = Holy Ghost.
When people refer to Jesus, they refer to Christ. Christ is God incarnate. God came to earth as a human being. Jesus was not Buddha or an enlightened philosopher. He was the Son of God who came for one purpose: to absolve us of our sins.
The Old Testament is rooted in a works-based system. In order to be right with the Lord after death, one had to make blood sacrifices and follow the commandments laid out by God through Moses. It was also specifically a system for the Jewish people to follow. Christ is referenced over and over in the Old Testament. This was God's plan all along and we are still living inside that plan.
It is all laid out in His Book.
Why Jesus?
Rather than a works-based system that acknowledged only one bloodline, a new covenant came into existence through Jesus in the New Testament of the Bible. Why? Because God (the author of life) saw that it was good. The door to the Kingdom of Heaven was opened to everyone through the Father sacrificing His Son, Jesus.
Jesus came to earth and lived a life entirely free of sin. That is literally impossible for a human being to do. We have all cheated, we have all lied, we all lust, and it is very likely we have all worshipped something or someone other than God Himself. The point is clear: we are all sinners, without exception.
But Jesus came, and in His sacrifice, took on the sins of the entire fallen world. His blood is the blood sacrificed for our sins. The Old Testament blood sacrifice system was always pointing forward to this moment.
What It Means To Believe
To believe on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour is to truly believe in God. Everyone is invited into a relationship with God through prayer and worship. The more you get to know the Lord through reading the Bible, the more you trust Him with your earthly woes and cares.
Most importantly and beyond this life and into eternity, when you believe on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour you are invited into His Kingdom when your physical body dies. That invitation does not diminish so long as you believe in the LORD. And your growing relationship with the Lord only deepens your understanding of what eternal life means.
This is why people say they are "born again." Their old understanding of life (the one the world gave them) dies the moment they come to know and trust who and what God actually is. The Holy Spirit comes into your heart and you are born again.
SALVATION IS FREE, AND ETERNAL.
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Scripture References All verses quoted from the King James Bible (KJV)
General References
[1] Genesis 1:1 — "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
[2] Isaiah 44:6 — "Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God."
[3] Exodus 20:3-5 — "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them."
[4] Psalm 139:14 — "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."
[5] Jeremiah 1:5 — "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee."
[6] Matthew 4:4 — "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
[7] 2 Timothy 3:16-17 — "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
[8] 2 Peter 1:21 — "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
[9] Psalm 12:6-7 — "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever."
[10] Philippians 4:6 — "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."
[11] James 4:8 — "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you."
[12] John 6:44 — "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him."
[13] Deuteronomy 30:19 — "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life."
[14] Joshua 24:15 — "Choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
[15] Hebrews 9:27 — "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
[16] Revelation 20:15 — "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
[17] John 3:16 — "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."
[18] 1 John 5:7 — "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."
[19] John 10:30 — "I and my Father are one."
[20] John 1:1, 14 — "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
[21] Colossians 2:9 — "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."
[22] Luke 19:10 — "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
[23] Romans 3:23 — "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
[24] Leviticus 17:11 — "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls."
[25] Hebrews 9:22 — "Without shedding of blood is no remission."
[26] Isaiah 53:5-6 — "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities... and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
[27] Romans 10:9-10 — "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
[28] John 14:6 — "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
[29] John 3:3 — "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
[30] 2 Corinthians 5:17 — "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
The 5 Perspectives — Additional References
Perspective 1 — There's a Heaven but no Hell
[31] Matthew 25:41 — "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."
[32] Matthew 25:46 — "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."
[33] Revelation 20:10 — "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone... and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."
[34] Luke 16:23-24 — "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments... Father Abraham, have mercy on me... for I am tormented in this flame."
Perspective 2 — Only bad people go to Hell
[35] Isaiah 64:6 — "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."
[36] James 2:10 — "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
[37] Revelation 21:8 — "The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone."
Perspective 3 — A peaceful spiritual realm where everyone coexists
[38] Luke 16:22-26 — "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence."
[39] John 5:28-29 — "All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."
[43] Ephesians 2:8-9 — "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
[44] Titus 3:5 — "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us."
Perspective 4 — We just turn to dust / spirits aren't real
[40] Genesis 2:7 — "The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
[41] Ecclesiastes 12:7 — "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."
[42] Matthew 10:28 — "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
Perspective 5 — I believe in the Big Bang. Science has answered the question of origins.
[45] Hebrews 11:3 — "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
[46] Psalm 19:1 — "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."
[47] Romans 1:20 — "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."