The unfolding story of God's relationship with his creation can be summed in one phrase; relentless pursuit. This is so different from the human experience. Imagine a letter to an advice columnist.
The story of the relationship between mankind and God is a circle: man disobeys, God reaches out, man returns for a while, man rejects God again, God reaches out again, and so on through the cycle. This verse in Revelations 13:20 summarizes God's approach to having a relationship with us. "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me."
Dear Amy:
I like this girl and want to ask her out. I have tried to make friends with her and it is okay for a while until someone else comes along and she drops me. I send her flowers and she says, "Oh how sweet."and we are friends for a while. But when I ask her out she always has something else to do. I did her homework for her and she says, "Oh how nice." and we are friends for a while. But when I asked her out she can not make it. What should I do?
Lonesome
What would you advise "Lonesome" to do? I, for one, would tell "Lonesome" to forget this girl, look for someone else who is not so heartless. She had ample opportunity to date you. clearly she is not interested in you.
But God is not human! He does not operate as we do. To summarize the situation to date. God created the universe and humans. God loves his creations especially humans. God gave us the right to make our own choices and we chose to turn away from God. But God loves us and wants us to have a family relationship with him. So God does all he can to win our voluntary choice to return to him. Unfortunately, we reject his overtures to us. We reject him.
The story of the relationship between mankind and God is a circle: man disobeys, God reaches out, man returns for a while, man rejects God again, God reaches out again, and so on through the cycle. This verse in Revelations 13:20 summarizes God's approach to having a relationship with us. "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me."
God does not push himself into your home, your life, but he does stand just outside and knock on your door. He relentlessly pursues you, but you are the one who must let him in! God relentlessly pursued the Hebrews. He gave them rules and laws and they broke them. He gave the a new land and they disobeyed him. He gave them Judges and prophets and Kings all in attempt to have a strong covenant relationship with them. But they always had other things to do, they could not be bothered, they found other gods, they sought alliances with nations. Here is the unbelievable part; God did not give up on this hardheaded stubborn people! They continued in their sins: they continued to push God away! But God did not give up!
Your faith box must include the belief God loves you so much, he refuses to give up on you! You can not ignore him enough or reject him enough for him to step away from the pursuing you. In the grand story of God's pursue of his creation, he finally found a different way of reconciliation. He chose to forego his efforts to reconcile a peoples in favor of reconciling individuals to him. And that different approach is the subject of our next Foundation Belief.
Steve
May God Bless you on your journey to Christian maturity. If I can answer any questions or help you, please feel free to contact me at stevej_home@hotmail.com.
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