Truth Seekers Newsletter
May 27, 2007: Relationship with God
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Never Alone!
God is the Author of relationships. What is the first relationship recorded in the Bible? God's Relationship with Himself! That's right. God began by creating relationship with Himself. God is part of the great Trinity. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit live in harmony with each other and in fact, each is a part of the other.
Note that when God got ready to create man, He said, "Let Us create man in Our image." It was clear from the formation of the world that God intended for us to function within relationships, because that is how He Himself functions.
God's Other Relationships Before the Creation of the World
With whom did God have relationships before the creation of the world? Angels, including satan . What can God's relationship with satan teach us?
Risky Relationships?
Have you ever had the experience of loving someone with all your heart and suffering the rejection of their not loving you back? In fact, what if they hated you and turned others against you? God had such a relationship issue with satan . Satan wanted to be, not only on the same level as God, but one notch up. And he convinced others to join him in rebellion.
Dealing with Rejection, As God Deals with Rejection
When someone rejects you, do you have the urge to take back every good thing you gave them, from the smallest compliment to the largest, most expensive gift? Note, God did not do that. He did not take back the gift He had already given satan . He honored His Word. Romans 11:29 says that "God's gifts and His Call can never be withdrawn; He will never go back on His Promises." So God did not retract satan 's gift of free choice. God let satan choose his destiny.
Consequences
So, if it is true that God allows free choice, why did satan end up, bounced out of heaven? Allowing consequences is not taking back a gift. We have what we choose and that includes the consequences of our actions. If you choose to jump off the roof, you will feel the natural effects of gravity and you will fall, likely injuring yourself. Did God want you to hurt yourself? No, you were reaping the fruit of your choice.
Satan chose to separate himself from God. God honored His Gift of free choice, including the consequences of that choice. Satan could not live in heaven any more.
Is There Any Way Back Home?
Satan was not cast into outer darkness at that time. Even though his deeds were certainly indicative of the dark side, God allowed him to come to earth. God was still nearby and available even to satan . Check out the book of Job. It was obvious that God and satan were still on speaking terms. Would God have restored him to his former level if satan had repented?
God keeps His Word. If there were true repentance on the part of satan , I believe God would have taken him back. Would he have gotten his old job back? Questionable. We know that God restores us to fellowship, but as Genesis proves in the case of Adam and Eve, sometimes there are changes in what we are permitted to do.
From Everlasting to Everlasting!
God has always been and always will be. While we may not be sure we have always been, we know that we will always be. God has given us the gift of eternity and He has given us the gift of choice of where we will spend that eternity.
Continued Creation!
Is God done with His creation of you? Look around in nature. One of the interesting things about God is that while part of His Nature is to "change not", much of His Nature is about change. As good as this present version of you is, God has updates unending! Part of our ongoing relationship with God is to submit to the changes He has in mind.
If it is true that God is not done with us yet, then it must follow that He is also not done with those people around us. When someone has gotten on your last nerve, and you start to think, "they're always this way", remember that is not so. Pray for God to do a new thing. Look for it! Anticipate it!
Our Father
So we know that God wants to relate to us. We know that God is from everlasting to everlasting and He wants this Relationship to go on forever. We know that He is our Creator, Who continues to create us and the world around us. What else do we know about God? We know He wants us to think of Him as a Father.
What are some characteristics of a good father? Loving, protective, nurturing, providing, resourceful, smart, limit setting, giver of good gifts and someone who wants only the best for us. Does that sound like God?
You Look/Act Just Like Your Father!
When there is a biological/genetic connection, often we look like our fathers. Sometimes I can be surprised when I look at myself in the mirror, and I see my father! Although he no longer lives on Planet Earth, I have genetic traits of him that allow him to still be visible on this earth.
When we spend enough time with our fathers, we begin to pick up their mannerisms. We absorb their teachings and we begin to act like them and talk like them. My conversation is often peppered with, "As my father used to say …"
Why did God Want to Be in a Relationship with Us like a Father and Child?
God, the Father and Jesus, the Son are the greatest examples of how God wanted this relationship with us to function. He wanted us to trust and obey Him and love Him. He wanted us to be so close to Him that we could truly live out what He wanted to communicate to the world.
God created us in His Image. He wanted us to spend so much time with Him that it would be easy for others to see that we were related to Him, indeed created in His Very Image. Jesus said, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." God would be very proud indeed if everyone we met could say, "If you have seen them, you have seen the Father."
What was the Purpose of Having Jesus on Earth?
Many of us would say that Jesus came to save us from our sins. That is true, praise the Lord! However, many people focus so much on Jesus' death that they miss the impact and purpose of His Life. Jesus said He had come so that we might have Life and have it more abundantly.
Jesus, God's Demonstration of All He Wanted Us To Be!
God is unseen. We can certainly look around us and see the evidence that God is here, but He told Moses that no would could see His Face and live to tell the tale. But God wanted a relationship with us and He realized how important it was for us to see Him. So He came to earth as Jesus. People were able to count His fingers and toes, feel the warmth of a hug, see a smile, and see His Face!
God wanted us to look at Jesus and then look in the mirror and realize that we were created to reflect the same Glory. He wanted us to look and see Him and know that we were closely related. Then He wanted us to look at those around us and know that we were related too through our Father.
I Will Never Leave You Nor Forsake You!
God came as Jesus, giving us the perfect example of the relationship He wanted to have with us. But when the lesson was over, God wanted us to grow up into the relationship He had demonstrated through Jesus. He wanted us to function without the visual cues, knowing that He was still very much present. As He took away the model of Jesus, He said, "Lo, I am with you always …" He didn't plan to leave us for even a moment. He wanted to continue the Relationship with us. And so He continues with us as the Precious Holy Spirit, Who lives within us.
The Mission of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is referenced as the Spirit of Truth. Jesus told us the Holy Spirit would remind us of everything that Jesus had taught us. He would intercede for us when we did not know what to say. He would even tell us things about the future.
God's Grand Design!
God designed us for relationship. He started with having a relationship with Himself. Then He added the relationship with the angels. Then He added His relationship with the created wonders of the universe. But that was not enough. He wanted more.
He wanted a relationship with us, His human Creations. The Bible is the Story of all the different Ways God used to communicate with us His message that we are made in His Image and that He wants to be so close to us that we will show all the characteristics and traits of Himself. Every other relationship we have stems from our relationship with Him.
In the following weeks, we will explore how we live out our relationship with God through our relationship with other He has created! Start thinking now about the relationships in your life and how they line up with the relations we have with God.
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