Posts
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They do not believe that the God of
the universe loves them or cares for them.
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What is it that makes most people
think this way?
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First,
most people in the West think this way because they are steeped in a culture
that teaches them that God does not
exist.
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The God who creates all things and
runs all things by the power of his word has been replaced by the grand theory
of evolution which began with the Big Bang,
OR aliens from another planet brought life to earth, but certainly not God.
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In a universe without God, people can
live however they want just to please themselves without caring for others.
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A universe that exists without God as
Creator is a universe in which human beings ultimately do not matter.
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No wonder people feel that their lives
are insignificant, that they are unimportant, they do not care about
themselves, and that no one cares about them.
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Their lives lack meaning beyond
pleasure, enjoyment, and entertainment.
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The Bible presents a view of life
which stands in sharp contrast and distinction to a godless universe in which
human life ultimately does not matter.
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The Bible tells us that in the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
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According to the Gospel of John,
Jesus, who is the incarnation of God’s word, was there at the beginning with
God.
o “In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He
was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created
through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been
created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
(John 1:1-4, CSB)
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contrast to a godless universe, the Bible teaches that God created the universe
and that Jesus was with God through that process.
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John tells us that life comes from
Jesus and that life that we have from Jesus is our light.
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Life in a godless universe is dark and
depressing because it has no ultimate purpose or meaning for human beings.
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No one needs to remain trapped in a
dark, depressing worldview robbed of all meaning because God exists and he
created us through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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A second
reason most people in the West think that the God of the universe does not love
them or care for them is because they have a
wrong concept of God.
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#1.
many people think God works on a barter system, so they try to bargain with God.
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They ask God to do something for them
while they promise to do something for him, but what happens to them when they
are not able to hold up their end of the bargain?
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They fear punishment from God, they feel
shame and guilt for not keeping their promises, and they end up feeling worse
off than they did before their bargain.
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Many years ago, I knew a woman who had
a miscarriage and she felt devastated.
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So, she made a bargain with God. She
told God, if you will give me a healthy baby, then I will go to church.
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Of course, in time she had a healthy
baby, so she and her husband began to go to church, but gradually things
started getting in the way of church attendance.
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Because things started getting in the
way, she started feeling guilty.
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The less often she made it to church,
the guiltier she felt until the guilt was too much for her and she quit going
to church entirely, fearing the punishment of losing another baby.
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Thankfully, that is not how her story
ends.
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Eventually, she learned that when you
have a relationship with God you do not need to bargain with him, you just need
to trust him, love him, and be loved by him.
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#2.
some people think that God is vindictive.
They think that God saves up his anger at all the wrong things we do and then
occasionally lashes out at us.
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I know a woman who says to her kids
when they misbehave, God will get you for that.
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Let’s say they’re out for a walk later
and the child trips and falls, the mother will say, that’s God getting you
back.
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Folks, that is a wrong concept of God.
God is not vindictive, mean, spiteful, or cruel.
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God does not pay back evil for evil.
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#3.
some people think God is like some
impersonal force just like in Star Wars.
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They figure that God has no interest
or no involvement that it’s our responsibility to tap into or access this force
so that life is better for us.
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When I was in my early teens, I spent
some time studying the Chinese martial art, kung fu.
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In Chinese mysticism, each person has
within them a life force called Chi, which is the flow of energy within and
around the body.
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In kung fu, Chi is the source of power
for the martial arts practitioner.
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However, one did not practice kung fu
for self defence only but to harness and balance Chi.
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If a person’s Chi is properly balanced,
then they will have a long life that is mentally and emotionally well-adjusted.
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The practice of yoga is much the same.
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The yogic postures were created by the
yogis for union with the divine ultimate spirit and as offerings to the three
hundred and thirty million Hindu gods.
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Former yoga instructor and practitioner,
Laurette Willis, described yoga as the missionary arm of Hinduism and the New
Age movement.
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According to kung fu and yoga, if we
could all just get our practice right, then we have no need of Jesus Christ.
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#4.
some people do not understand God’s
grace which shows up in them thinking
they are not good enough for God to
care for them.
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They think they must clean up
themselves before coming to God.
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They think God cannot accept them just
the way they are.
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Plenty of people think that they must
get rid of all their bad habits before they can come to church and get right
with God.
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What they do not understand is that
they put the cart before the horse, they have it all backwards.
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What people need to understand is that
before they can deal with their bad habits, they need to come to God through
Jesus.
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I will share with you one Scripture
that I think addresses these issues.
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King David wrote Psalm 139 while
thinking deeply about how well God knew him and the following verses speak very
clearly about how God sees us.
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“Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in
your book and planned before a single one of them began. God, how precious your
thoughts are to me; how vast their sum is! If I counted them, they would
outnumber the grains of sand; when I wake up, I am still with you.” (Psalm
139:16-18, CSB)
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Having a right concept of God means
that we don’t bargain with him for we know that he loves us because he made us.
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Having a right concept of God means
knowing that God personally knows us intimately, better even than we know
ourselves.
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Having a right concept of God means
knowing that we don’t have to save ourselves by accessing some impersonal force
because God knows our lives inside out and backwards since his plan includes
every day we live from the day we are born until the day we die.
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Having a right concept of God means
knowing that we are always in God’s thoughts, and no matter what we’ve done,
his thoughts about us are always precious.
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The third reason people in westernized cultures do not think that the
God of the universe loves or cares for them is because of a misunderstanding of what the church is to be.
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Plenty of people in the world look at
the church and they see the church as judgmental and legalistic.
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Therefore, they think that God must
also be judgmental and legalistic.
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Similarly, plenty of people in the
world look at the church and they see a social club.
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Therefore, they think that God must
have favourites.
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The church, however, is not supposed
to be a judgmental, legalistic social club.
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The church is supposed to be something
else entirely.
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The apostle James wrote about this
very issue.
o “My brothers and
sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious
Lord Jesus Christ. 2 For if someone comes into your meeting
wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in
filthy clothes also comes in, 3 if you look with favor on the
one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you
say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my
footstool,” 4 haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves
and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my dear
brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in
faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 Yet
you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into
court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked
over you? 8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in
the Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well. 9 If,
however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as
transgressors.” (James 2:1-9, CSB)
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James makes it very plain that the
church is not to play favourites because God has no favourites and we are not
to judge for judging others without discerning their heart reveals our own evil
thoughts.
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We have seen that many people all
around us do not believe that God loves and cares for them. But…
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God
is real, and he cares, so in Christ he sets us free to care.
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What
difference can this make?
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First,
followers of Jesus need to be equipped
to defend their faith against those who claim that either God does not
exist, or he does not care.
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The apostle Peter tells us that we
need to be ready at any time to give a defence to anyone who asks us about the
hope that we have and to do so with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15-16).
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From evolution to atheism to aliens,
all of us need to be equipped to defend the hope we have in Christ gently and
respectfully.
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One great resource that is available
to us is creation.com.
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There are many articles and videos
available to read and watch for free to help us in being equipped in these
areas.
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God
is real, and he cares, so in Christ he sets us free to care.
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Second,
we must examine our own lives
prayerfully, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to us if we fit into any of the
categories I’ve talked about today.
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Do
we struggle with believing evolution, atheism, or aliens?
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Do
we have a wrong concept of God as evidenced by bargaining, thinking God is
vindictive, that he is uninvolved or uninterested, or that we are not good
enough for God?
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Do
we deeply struggle with understanding what the church is to be?
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Our answers to these questions will
reveal to us how much or how little we need to work on them.
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As we work on these questions, we will
discover our own personal stories of God’s love and providence in our lives.
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When we take the time to reflect, we will
discern that trials and crises test our relationship with God and help us to
grow in faith.
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Most of the time when people ask us
about the hope that we have it’s because they
have seen how we have dealt with trials and crises and they know that something
is different about us.
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When
they ask us, “how do you know there is a God?”, they want to hear how our faith
has brought us through our suffering.
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God
is real, and he cares, so in Christ he sets us free to care.
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Third,
I talked about getting equipped and sharing our stories of coming through
trials, but there is also the tangible element of love.
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We
need to love those outside the church and we need to love one another.
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James
1:27 tells us that religion which is pure and undefiled is caring for widows
and orphans in their distress.
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In James’s day, without the support of
extended family members widows and orphans had nothing; they were in distress.
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We need to figure out who the people
around us are that are in distress, both those who belong to Jesus and those
who do not.
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Also regarding tangible love, we need
to be practising the ‘one another’
directives of the New Testament.
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Jesus said, 34 “I
give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are
also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that
you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35, CSB)
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What does this love look like in
practice?
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It looks like: being devoted to one
another and showing preference to one another (Romans 12:10).
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It looks like not judging one another
(Romans 14:13).
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It looks like building up one another,
accepting one another, and warning one another (Romans 14:19; 15:7; 15:14).
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Love also looks like waiting for one
another and caring for one another (1 Corinthians 11:33; 12:25).
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We see love serving one another but
not consuming and devouring one another, rather love bears one another’s
burdens (Galatians 5:13, 15; 6:2).
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Love shows tolerance and kindness to
one another (Ephesians 4:2, 32).
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We are called to confess our sins to
and pray for one another, and to comfort and encourage one another.
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This list continues, but it’s enough
to know the love of God in us is intensely personal and practical.
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The world needs to know…
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God is real, and he cares, so in
Christ he sets us free to care.
