My Relationship with God

“And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’   So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he them, male and female created he them….And 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” (KJV).

(Forgive me for posting a picture of myself, but I am an example of a man who was molded by the hands of God, a man who had the breath of life breathed into him by God.   From that moment, the moment of my creation, not the moment of my birth, I became an eternal being loved by God.   Your picture inserted here would be just as valid.)

These three verses seem to establish rather clearly my relationship with God.  I was made in His image.  All of us, men and women, have been made in His image and have had the breath of God breathed into us.  Throughout creation we are told that “God said,” and it came into being.  Not so with the ones chosen to be His companions, the ones with whom He would fellowship.  He molded us with His hands.  With those He molded, you and I, He BREATHED HIS BREATH INTO OUR LUNGS.   How special is that?  We have been formed by the hands of God, and we have had the very breath of life, the breath of God, breathed into our lungs.  When He formed us with His hands, He made us to be like Him, unlike anything else.  We were set apart from the beginning.  And when He breathed His breath into us, He made us His forever.  How can anyone or anything ever be as close to God as those he created for His pleasure.  If we are created for His pleasure, then He desires that we return His love willingly.   Thus He gave us free will—free will to love Him or not.  He also gave free will to the angels.  

When God created the universe, He did not create evil, but evil was present in the mind of satan who exercised his free will to attempt a coup.  He wanted to become god.  From the beginning, satan lost the war and a place was created for him and his followers—a place just about as opposite from the Garden of Eden as possible—a place called hell.  All who choose sin, opposition to God, will be assigned to hell for eternity.  

Soon after Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, satan began his scheme.  He tempted them by asking questions about God and what He said.  He pushed for an answer that was not quite what God said, but similar enough that Adam and Eve were deceived and gave the answer he wanted.  They stretched the words God said, and they allowed satan to convince them that God didn’t really mean to keep them from knowing the difference between good and evil.  So they sinned, and by doing so, separated themselves from God.  They were dismissed from the Garden of Eden, and the gate was locked.  

But because God loved mankind, a way back to His side was put into play.  God sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to receive on Himself all the sins of all of mankind and pay the penalty for all of them.  Jesus’ human body died, and He went to hell.  He went there in the place of all of us who have sinned, a unanimous condition of mankind.  What satan saw as his greatest victory, turned out to be his greatest defeat when Jesus came out of the grave in victory, leaving all our sins behind.   Jesus offered this victory over sin, death, and hell to all of us, and those who accept it will not only escape hell, but will go a place better than the Garden of Eden, heaven.

I can sum up my relationship with God as being a beloved son who disobeyed his Father and deserved punishment.  But, my big brother convinced my Father to let Him accept my punishment and let me back into close, loving fellowship with my Father as though I had done no wrong., 

 

To be followed by three additional blogs, my relationship with Father God, my relationship with Jesus, and my relationship with the Holy Spirit.