DenverCRU



	<<back Knowing God cont... In order to form a personal relationship with God, you must know three things: Who we are: We are God's creation. God created us and built us for a relationship with him. We belong to him, and we owe him gratitude for every breath, every moment, every thing. Because humans were built to live for him (to worship), we will always try to worship something-if not God, we will choose some other object of ultimate devotion to give our lives meaning. We are sinners: We have all chosen (and re-affirm daily) to reject God and to make our own joy and happiness our highest priority. We do not want to worship God and surrender our self as master, yet we are built to worship, so we cling to idols, centering our lives on things that promise to give us meaning: success, relationships, influence, love, comfort , and so on. We are in spiritual bondage: To live for anything else but God leads to breakdown and decay. When a fish leaves the water, which he was built for, he is not free, but dead. Worshiping other things besides God leads to a loss of meaning. If we achieve these things, they cannot deliver satisfaction, because they were never meant to be "gods." They were never meant to replace God. Worshiping other things besides God also leads to self-image problems. We end up defining ourselves in terms of our achievement in these things. We must have them or all is lost; so they drive us to work too hard, or they fill us with terror if they are jeopardized. Who God is: He is love and justice. His active concern is for our joy and well-being. Most people love those who love them, yet God loves and seeks the good even of people who are his enemies. But because God is good and loving, he cannot tolerate evil. The opposite of love is not anger, but indifference. "The more you love your son, the more you hate in him the liar, the drunkard, the traitor," (E. Gifford). To imagine God's situation, imagine a judge who also is a father, who sits at the trial of his guilty son. A judge knows he cannot let his son go, for without justice no society can survive. How much less can a loving God merely ignore or suspend justice for us-who are loved, yet guilty of rebellion against his loving authority? He is Jesus Christ. Jesus is God himself come to Earth. He first lived a perfect life, loving God with all his heart, soul and mind, fulfilling all human obligation to God. He lived the life you owed-a perfect record. Then, instead of receiving his deserved reward (eternal life), Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins, taking the punishment and death each of us owed. When we believe in him: 1.) our sins are paid for by his death and 2.) his perfect life record is transferred to our account. So God accepts and regards us as if we have done all Christ has done. Last Page>>	"To live for anything else but God leads to breakdown and decay."
DenverCRU--an extension of Campus Crusade for Christ 2006

Knowing God cont...

In order to form a personal relationship with God, you must know three things:

Who we are:
We are God's creation. God created us and built us for a relationship with him. We belong to him, and we owe him gratitude for every breath, every moment, every thing. Because humans were built to live for him (to worship), we will always try to worship something-if not God, we will choose some other object of ultimate devotion to give our lives meaning.

We are sinners:
We have all chosen (and re-affirm daily) to reject God and to make our own joy and happiness our highest priority. We do not want to worship God and surrender our self as master, yet we are built to worship, so we cling to idols, centering our lives on things that promise to give us meaning: success, relationships, influence, love, comfort , and so on.

We are in spiritual bondage:
To live for anything else but God leads to breakdown and decay. When a fish leaves the water, which he was built for, he is not free, but dead. Worshiping other things besides God leads to a loss of meaning. If we achieve these things, they cannot deliver satisfaction, because they were never meant to be "gods." They were never meant to replace God. Worshiping other things besides God also leads to self-image problems. We end up defining ourselves in terms of our achievement in these things. We must have them or all is lost; so they drive us to work too hard, or they fill us with terror if they are jeopardized.

Who God is:
He is love and justice. His active concern is for our joy and well-being. Most people love those who love them, yet God loves and seeks the good even of people who are his enemies. But because God is good and loving, he cannot tolerate evil. The opposite of love is not anger, but indifference. "The more you love your son, the more you hate in him the liar, the drunkard, the traitor," (E. Gifford). To imagine God's situation, imagine a judge who also is a father, who sits at the trial of his guilty son. A judge knows he cannot let his son go, for without justice no society can survive. How much less can a loving God merely ignore or suspend justice for us-who are loved, yet guilty of rebellion against his loving authority?

He is Jesus Christ. Jesus is God himself come to Earth. He first lived a perfect life, loving God with all his heart, soul and mind, fulfilling all human obligation to God. He lived the life you owed-a perfect record. Then, instead of receiving his deserved reward (eternal life), Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins, taking the punishment and death each of us owed. When we believe in him: 1.) our sins are paid for by his death and 2.) his perfect life record is transferred to our account. So God accepts and regards us as if we have done all Christ has done.

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