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1. Have you ever been struck by the beauty, design, yes, even love in the creation? I know there is ugliness out there, death and disease and cruelty as well but as C.S.Lewis said in his book "Miracles, it looks like something perfectly magnificent gone wrong. There are qualities that are personal in life and creation that speak of a personal Creator. This is in such stark contrast to the teaching that everything is the result of impersonal forces and that we are the result of nothing more than a competitive desire to survive. Yes, "natural selection" is involved in change but life is so much more complicated than that. Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what was made."
2. We are made for meaningful relationship with God, the creator of the universes and meaningful relationship with each other.
3. Sin is transgressing God's law or failing to do what we ought to do.(Romans 3:10)We all do things that we ought not to do and we fail to do the things we ought to do. Our sin has separated us from God. (Isaiah 59:2)God's law is meant to be good for us, to set limits on us in ways that are healthy but because of our rebellious nature, it shows us how we fail. How can a sinful man be made right with a holy God? We need forgiveness and God's power to work change in us: justification and new life, restored fellowship with God and He offers it to us through the death and resurrection of his Son in our place for our sin. Does that seem like an unbelievable statement? I used to think so, until I found it to be true. Incredible that God could love us so. God has shown himself to be there and he has provided a way back to himself. He took our sin and gave us his righteousness as a free gift. An exchange takes place in which his righteousness is credited to us by faith. (John 3:16 above on the lighthouse:
"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.")
4. Jesus gives eternal life to those who believe in Him. (John 14:25-26) "I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me though he die, yet shall he live. Do you believe this?" Jesus said.
What is eternal life? In one sense it is what the name suggests-life that lasts forever and cannot be lost. In another sense it is the eternal living saving life of God within you, changing you to restore the "image of God" in your life and by the Holy Spirit, with your cooperation, operating through your life. Apart from meaning related to God, the meaning that one finds in the pleasures of this life evaporates choked by our sin. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The book of John says Jesus is "the life".
5. What about future fellowship with God when we fail again and in some ways and at some times we will? (1st John 1:7-9) "If we live by the light since God is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ (His death as our sin substitute) cleanses us from all sin.If we say we have no sin we lie and his truth is not in us. If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.") (We are not perfect but we are walking honestly trusting the gospel we are confessing our sins to God and we are in process and being cleansed. )
6. Spiritual life takes time to grow. From start to finish the Christian life is a life of faith. Faith is substantial. "Faith is the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) The Bible, God's word, is the book we need most and God's Holy Spirit helps us understand it. Jesus said "Sanctify them by the truth;your Word is truth" (John 17:17)
The book of Mark is the shortest of the gospels and the earliest. The book of John is a also a good place to begin to study as it was written that we might have eternal life by believing in Jesus. The letters of Paul are excellent for growth and doctrine. Ephes. 2:10 says "We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has already planned for us to do " So obviously good works are part of what God plans to do in our lives. Our works reflect our gifting. The word tranlated "workmanship" is very like the word "poetry" in the Greek. We are God's poetry, very personal.
(1st Peter 1:22) Peter says "Now that you have purified yourselves through obeying the truth so that
you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again,
not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. Love is another part and sharing the "good news". Good works and love go together. Love for God because he first loved us and for fellow Christians, love for neighbor.
Isaiah contrasts the eternal life and glory of God and his word with our temporary life.(Isaiah 40:6-8)
"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like
the flowers of the field:
the grass withers and the
flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord
stands forever."
