Matthew 1:20-22 My Relationship with God the Son
“But when he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins.’ Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, ‘Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name, Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us’”(KJV).
Because He took the punishment for my sins, because He speaks to the Father on my behalf, because He brought me victory over sin and satan, because He heals me, because He hears me when I call, because He is always by my side, because He blesses me daily, because He is my Savior, because He is the agent of creation, because He sacrificed His life for me by dying on a cross on my behalf, because He put aside His godly persona and became a human, because He has promised to come back for me, I love Him. For all those reasons and many others I didn’t list, I love Jesus. What did I do to convince Jesus to love me? Absolutely nothing! Why does Jesus love me? He loves me because that’s who He is and that is what He does. He is the earthly embodiment of love, and love is what He does.
The Scripture above describes the moment that Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, was told about this miracle baby. What a responsibility Joseph had. He must have often looked in amazement at Jesus and wondered if he was capable of being Jesus’ earthly father. When Mary was told that she would be the mother of the “Messiah,” she answered, “…be it unto me according to thy word.” Praise God that these two people were obedient to God, and my Savior was born to earth.
The picture above illustrates clearly the grand basis for my love for Jesus—HE IS RISEN!” Because He rose from the grave, leaving my sins behind in hell, bringing victory to me, I can and will spend eternity, that’s right, eternity with Him in heaven! All of the “because He” statements in the paragraph above describe my relationship with Jesus. My relationship began with Him when I accepted Him as my Savior, and it has grown since then. It has not grown in regular upward steps because I have not always been faithful, even though He has been. Every time I wandered away, I could feel a calling “Come back, I miss you.” And then I returned, and any break in our relationship was healed instantly. Jesus leads me, guides me, and directs me, and I do a lot better when I listen to His leading. Jesus became my brother at the same time He became my Savior. No man has ever had a better or more loving big brother than my big brother, Jesus! Leaning on Him has become a way of life. Thank you, Jesus!
I Corinthians 8:6 My Relationship with Father God
“…yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live” (NIV).
God, my Father, is eternal, and He has always known me. It has been my great joy for many years to know Him. He has known me as His son for eternity, and now, I know Him as my Father God.
I am overwhelmed that God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, not only knows me but loves me, and He created all this, the entire universe, because He wanted to have fellowship with me. I do have fellowship with Him daily in my prayers. And I think of Him every time I look at all that He had created. I say
“had created” because the verse quoted above says, “all things came from Him,” and it also says that all things came through Jesus. To me, that means that God provided the materials and that Jesus put them together by His spoken Word to form the universe. So God owns everything, and I owe Him everything I have. But He asks for only ten percent of it back in the form of the tithe. It’s important to me to return that small portion to Him though offerings to my church.
“had created” because the verse quoted above says, “all things came from Him,” and it also says that all things came through Jesus. To me, that means that God provided the materials and that Jesus put them together by His spoken Word to form the universe. So God owns everything, and I owe Him everything I have. But He asks for only ten percent of it back in the form of the tithe. It’s important to me to return that small portion to Him though offerings to my church.
God has given me everything I have, including each breath that I take. I feel confident in receiving that breath because “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” James 1:17 (NIV). He gives me “good and perfect gifts,” and He will do so forever because He “does not change like shifting shadows.” I can count on Him every day for everything.
I, like Adam, have sinned, and I know that sin is not permitted in the presence of God, but He even made provision for that by sending His Son, Jesus, to carry all of my sins on Himself. Second Corinthians 5:21 tells us that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (NIV). He did this so that we could fellowship together.
Father God, our omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God, loves me and He desires that I know that He loves me, and He wants me to love Him back. The most magnificent being in the universe yearns for my love. My relationship to Father God is that of a favorite child who disobeyed his father, thereby also disappointing Him. But He does not want me to feel like a disappointment. He wants me to feel like a favored son who never disappointed Him. In fact, He says in His Word that when He looks at me He sees His “only begotten Son,” Jesus, and not my sinful deeds . Bottom line—FATHER GOD LOVES ME with all His omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.
Genesis 1:26,27, 2:7 My Relationshipo 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.
“7 One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul” (VOICE).
7 "the Lord God formed the human[a] from the topsoil of the fertile land[b] and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life"(CEB).
7 "The Lord God took some soil from the ground and made a man.[a] God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing" (CEV).
7 "Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and formed a man[a] out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live" (GNT).
7 "Then the Lord God formed a man[a] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (NIV).
7 "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).
Why so many translations? The point is that there is very little difference in the numerous translations, so therefore, there is little doubt as to the meanng of Genesis 2:7. God took special care in the creation of mankind. He formed us with His own hands, and then He breathed HIS BREATH into us and made us living beings.
I have no pictures of God, and I have no pictures that show the time of creation of mankind. So, in this instance, let us say "A word from the Word is worth a thousand pictures," rather than "a picture is worth a thousand words." Picture in your own mind the gentleness and the love that God put into His creation of mankind. The words quoted above show how a loving God created the object of all His love.
And now, the crux of the matter. After all the universe had been prepared, God created mankind. Notice the difference in the creation of mankind. In every other instance of creation, God said something like, "Light be,” or “Let there be light,” and light appeared. But when it came to the object of God’s perfect love, He did the work Himself. He “scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human.” Then, He “breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul.” In no other animal did God breathe life from Himself—only mankind. He made us special when He breathed His life into us and gave us a “living soul.” We had been created in His image to fellowship with Him. Genesis 1:26 tells us: “God: 26 Now let Us conceive a new creation—humanity—made in Our image, fashioned according to Our likeness. And let Us grant them authority over all the earth—the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, the domesticated animals and the small creeping creatures on the earth” (VOICE).
God is a tripart being, including Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, just as man is a tripart being having a body, soul, and spirit. We have been created by God to include and experience all parts of His being, and thus, we can fellowship with Him. What a privilege we have been given, and we have been given that privilege because God loves us and wants to communicate with us in a very intimate way. We can hear His voice, know His heart, and commune with Him in a way that no other being can. Let’s not waste our lives staying away from Him; let us draw close to Him and experience everything that He has planned for us!
Colossians 1:16,17 God Revealed in the Functions of the Universe
“For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or power: all things were created by Him and of Him” (KJ21).
There are certain laws of nature that make the universe function so that it is suitable for mankind to live and enjoy. These laws are invisible in themselves, but their effects are certainly visible in our daily lives. They affect us every day of our lives, and God created them as surely as He created the sun, the earth, and all its environment. We are told in Amos 5:8: ”Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night, who calleth forth the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth. The Lord is His name” (KJ21). The portion of this verse that reads; “…and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night” speaks of day and night, the process whereby everything on earth has time to rest between times of action, and He made this day/night cycle to pass across the face of the planet so that there is always someplace where it is day and someplace where it is night. There is always daylight somewhere, and there is always dark of night somewhere. That means that sunrises and sunsets are constantly occurring.
Further in the same verse, “…who calleth forth the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth” describes what we call the water cycle. Rain or snow falls, flows toward the oceans, and evaporates, only to be carried over the land and water the crops again. This is the water cycle by which plants and animals are provided with needed water.
Water, itself, has a unique property. Everything contracts--gets smaller as it cools. Water does the same until just above freezing, when it expands and continues to expand for a few degrees below freezing. This causes ice cubes to float. It also causes rivers to freeze over because this frozen water stays above the flowing water and insulates it so rivers don’t freeze solid to the bottom and kill all the fish. It also provides a method whereby arctic villages can be provisioned by trucks driving over the tops of frozen rivers and lakes during the winter. It also allows water to flow year round to turn the turbines of dams to produce electricity. God had all of this in mind when He created.
Water is an interesting compound. It is made up of hydrogen, a very explosive gas, and oxygen, whose presence is necessary for any fire to burn. When God put these two fiery elements together in a special combination—two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen—a substance is formed which puts out fires. God is amazing. Table salt is made up of sodium and chlorine, two poisonous substances when ingested alone, but when God put them together in His special compound, sodium chloride--one atom of sodium with one atom one chlorine—table salt is formed, and our steaks taste better. Without sodium chloride we could not live. Again, God was thinking ahead.
Much of God’s creative action is visible in land forms. water features, plants and animals, but just as important are the innumerable physical and chemical processes that He put in place. When we consider all these processes, we are doubly amazed at the creative aptitude and power of our great God.
