May 19, 2006

Hello. Welcome back to the church growth, mission, and evangelism blog. Please take time to visit our sponsor at: www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org . Another week is coming to an end, but there is always time to talk about Peace With God:

Everyone should know beyond a shadow of a doubt exactly who God is and what He is capable of doing. It is in the lack of knowledge of God and man’s own refusal to obey Him that lie at the root of every problem which besets us. It is man’s unwillingness to learn and to obey God’s laws that has laid such a heavy burden on our souls.

 

The Bible declares God to be Spirit. After his resurrection, Christ said handle me and see, a spirit has not flesh and bones. The Spirit has no body, yet it has being and power. Jesus knew the borderless reaches of the Spirit and came to try to give us an understanding of its wonders, its comfort, and its peace.

 

God is a Spirit. He is not limited to shape; he has no boundaries or bonds; he is immeasurable and indiscernible. He can be every where at once. He can hear all, see all, and know all. When man knows in his hear that God is an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable Spirit, it helps to overcome the temptation to try to limit Him. Those who doubt that the Bible is the true word of God do so because they are unwilling to ascribe to God anything that they are unable to do themselves.

 

Secondly, God is a person. Everything that we attribute to a person can be attributed to God. We have a hard time accepting that at death our personalities will leave our physical bodies. Personalities don’t have to have physical bodies. God does not have a physical body, but He still is a person.

 

Third, the Bible says that God is a Holy and Righteous Being. God is utterly perfect and absolute in every detail. He is too holy to tolerate sinful man. We can scarce imagine the overwhelming holiness of God, but we must accept it if we are to benefit from the Bible.

It is because God is so holy and man so unholy that so wide a gap exists between God and the unrepentant sinner.

 

Before sin entered the human race, God and man had fellowship with each other; but now that fellowship is only possible through Jesus Christ. Man would have remained lost forever if it wasn’t for the infinite mercy of God who sent His son to earth to save us. It is in God’s holiness that we find the reason for Jesus’ death. Only Jesus was strong enough to bear the sins of the whole world.

 

Forth, God is love. God’s holiness demands that all sin be punished, but God’s love provides the plan and the way of redemption for sinful man. Were it not for the love of God, none of us would have a chance in the future life. Until you actually accept God’s love and experience it, until you actually possess true peace with God, no one can explain it to you. You have to receive God by faith in His son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Please send your comments to: [e-mail] . We need your input to help us grow. I would invite any of you to write an entry for our blog. See you on Monday. Remember a new expanded podcast coming up next week.

For now, God Bless.

Pastor Bob Emery