Teaching - Taking off the spiritual blindfold!

I've got no doubt that at some point in your life you will have heard of Jesus?, but the point is in what context have you heard his name mentioned and when you hear that name what does it mean to you?. Let me ask you another question, do you remember the story of how God told Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt away from the slavery of the pharaoh - Yes? and God promised to give them their own land flowing with milk & honey....well that land is Israel today - and now I'm sure you are only too aware of the trouble in the middle east, in and around that area today.
Do you remember what happened to the Jews during the second world war? thousands of them were killed and starved to death after being made to dig their OWN GRAVES and do you know why.....just because they were Jewish. In actual fact if you look back through history the Jewish people have been persecuted repeatedly, and it's no different today, but here's the key, and it's quite simple really it is because they were God's chosen people, now some may say, well ok but what does that have to do with it, well it is quite simply this

I know some of you may have never read a Bible, or perhaps not opened one for a long time, but if you can please have a look in the Bible index (if you have one) and you will find Ephesians, this is what the Apostle Paul wrote to the people who lived at Ephesus. Now look at chapter 6 verse 12 and you will see it says something like this "Your battle is not against flesh & blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the "unseen" world." What he is referring to is that we are constantly engaged in a Spiritual battle against the devil and his minions, because make no mistake, the devil hates God and God's people, and he will do anything he can to prevent anyone being reconciled to God.(and that includes YOU!) When Jesus died on the cross he said "it is finished", what he meant was that he had paid the full price for our sins, that's mine & yours! yesterday. today and forever!, now the devil knows this only too well and he also knows that if people don't come back to God through Jesus they are going down with him when Jesus comes back again so naturally he wants to take as many people down with him as he can, and why? because he knows that God loves people, he didn't create mankind and everything that goes with it just on the spare of the moment, yet all he wants us to do is to recognize that we are sinful and to say sorry for the way we have been and return to him of our own free will, then he can give us a new life and wipe our slate clean, that starts immediately and will last into all eternity.

God wants to know you - Now!

Sure, God could force us to Love him, but then that wouldn't be Love would it, of course it wouldn't, God wants us to turn to him of our own free will. You see God gives all Men free will, which is actually the answer to the question "If there is a God, then why is the world in the state it's in?" well I say it again, it is all to do with Man's free will, There are not many people in the west that don't know about the existence of the Bible, the big problem is that most people sadly choose to ignore it because they think it's only for goody goodies, or weirdo's but no matter what people think, it still leaves them with no excuse because at the end of the day you can take it or leave it!, look at it this way - A teenager decides to leave home and go it alone, when it's blatantly obvious that they haven't got what it takes to do so, but regardless they go ahead and do it because they know best, right? - WRONG! and it doesn't take long before they are doing all the wrong things be it stealing, taking drugs etc. or then there is the odd few who reliase their shortcomings and return home to their parent(s) and admit that they made a mistake and in doing so they experience growth in Love and understanding, but we who return to God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ not only come back to a loving Father, we also become children of the Living God the creator of the entire universe.

You see God WANTS to have a relationship with you, a very personal relationship like no one else's, because you are very much an individual, and that's not all, God has a plan for your life just waiting to kick into action. Look at it this way - if your friend knew your future and each day you went to him for advice, I reckon you would live a pretty productive life - don't you?, to say the very least my friend!!! God KNOWS what is best for you, and ONLY wants to give you the best, and as you come to know him you will quickly begin to realize just how true that actually is, let us not forget that you are a child of the King when you belong to God, and no ordinary King but the King of the Universe.

Tell me more?

Ok, here is the main hurdle. God is incredibly Holy, and I don't mean maybe! - he is Perfect, flawless, and there isn't even a hint of sin to be found in his entire being, and as such God cannot stand anything or anybody that is unholy or sinful, so I guess that puts a bit of a hurdle up for us, what do you think??? - But this isn't by any means a new problem, it goes way back to the very beginning of creation. You see God's original plan was to create human beings that would be HIS people and he would live amongst them and be their God and provide for them abundantly, and they could worship him and have a Father / Son / Daughter relationship with him for a long, long time - did you know that in those early days God set our life span to an average of 900 years!
I am almost sure that most of you readers will be somewhat familiar with the story of Adam & Eve, and that God created a beautiful garden for them filled with all kinds of goodies for them to look at and eat, in fact they had more than enough and everything was going just as God had planned, that was until one day....

In the garden that God had given to Adam & Eve there was one particular tree, that God called the tree of the knowledge of good & evil, and he warned Adam & Eve NOT to eat it's fruit or they would die!, so naturally they agreed, but there was someone else listening to all this, can you hazard a guess as to who that was ???
Yes that's right, it was indeed the devil, satan the tempter - He said to Eve, you will not die if you eat that fruit!, the reason God does not want you to eat it is because he knows that you will become like him if you do, knowing the difference between good and evil, so Eve looked at the fruit, and it looked very juicy and succulent, so she, not knowing what it meant to lie took some of the fruit and eat it, and also gave some to Adam who was with her - and it was at that very point where sin entered the world, and man has suffered because of it ever since to one degree or another.
God knows all things, so He knew they would eat from the tree, so why did God put it there and tell them not to eat from it? God allowed sin to come into the world because it was through this act of rebellion and disobedience that we began free will. God doesn’t want robots or He would have made them. He wants mankind to willingly obey Him. And those that do, constitute the remnant of the human race that will spend eternity with Him. I wonder will you be one of them?
This bad choice caused a BIG divide between man and God and there was / is nothing we can do on our own to bridge the gap (see below).

So, we have this large divide between us and our God, and that gap is called "sin", something I think we have all heard of in addition to also being guilty of too, the thing is that if I were to ask you what sin is, you would probably say Murder, or beating up and elderly person, stealing etc and you would be absolutely right, but..through the eyes of God it is not just the major things that are sinful, but in actuality sin covers a whole multitude of thoughts, words and actions that many people do on a daily basis without even giving it a second thought, because that is how subtle sin is, the world emanates sin, so we are born into a sinful world, we adopt it by natural causes because it is everywhere, and of course this is not going to do much for our relationship with God at all, and God knows this too, but the point that many people miss (or ignore) is that they do have a choice, everybody has their own free will, remember when you read above the reason why God placed that tree into the garden, it was so that his creation could make a choice of their own free will, just like now, we can either choose to know God, read the Bible and accept The Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour or we can just carry on as we are, still knowing the one and only certain thing in life, which is that we will die, and life is too short and fragile to mess around with so I cannot understand anyone with this kind of knowledge who would not want to change!

The other side of knowing this certain fate for those who choose to ignore God, is the fact that through Jesus, we can have the most fantastic life that is beyond anyone's wildest dreams!, I'm not too sure if you have realized that God, as well as being many other things is very just, he does not change his rules on a daily basis, he is always the same, so even though he Loves us so much and longs for us to come to him, he isn't going to say "oh well I know that you have led a life full of sin, but what the heck - come on home! it's ok", because if he did that then how different would you be?, maybe you would appreciate him giving you a break, but you would still be the same. However, there is ONE way and ONLY ONE way that YOU CAN have your sins forgiven and come into a relationship with God and that is through the Cross of Jesus Christ

A price had to be paid for us to return to God, and it was nothing that we could do on our own - Let's think about that for a moment, God wants you to have the very best standard of life and to be the best you can possibly be, that's what he has always wanted for his people, he really, truly does Love us so very, very much. This is summed up in the Gospel of John in the Bible which can be found at Chapter 3 and verse 16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
If you have read this far, and you are not already a Christian then I would suggest to you that the reason you are here is because God has brought you here to read this information, to reveal the truth to you, he is calling you because he knows how much you need him.
We all have an emptiness inside us, a void that we try to fill throughout our lives with all kinds of things like money, drugs, material possessions, selfish-ambitions, drinking, sex, shopping etc, and the list goes on and on - you know what I mean, it's the "feelgood factor"!, you know you want something, but you're not sure what it is, so (for instance) you go off on a shopping spree and you see a beautiful new sofa, and after picturing yourself relaxing on it, you buy it. The thing is that within a short period of time you are already fed up with it, maybe it doesn't match the carpet as well as you thought, or there again you may get a lift in a really nice car and you think to yourself WOW if I had this baby I would never want for anything again!. The fact is that we go through life doing this kind of stuff but no matter what you do (or buy) only serves as a temporary fix and then you want more, but when you get more you're still not satisfied. This void, like a black hole in space that we try to fill with whatever is a bit like a hole with a vacuum that sucks all kind of things into it, but the problem is that the hole is where God should be and trust me, nothing else is God shaped!

The problem with a vacuum is that, when too much stuff clogs up the opening, nothing else can get in there. And so it is with God. We can try to fill that void with all of the desirable stuff we can find, but the void won’t be filled, because everything else is the wrong shape. We won’t be satisfied. But, as long as all of that junk is clogging the opening, we can’t get what we really need, either. God belongs at the center of our hearts — at the center of our lives. At the very deepest level of our souls, we want Him there. We long for Him. It’s that aching emptiness we feel in the world, the emptiness that doesn’t fill up, no matter how many nice things or nice people we have around us. But we can’t let Him in until we’ve unclogged things a little.

This doesn't mean we have to give away all of our possessions and live in squalor, or to separate ourselves from other people. We just have to make sure those things are far enough away from our hearts, and from our affections, that they’re not in the path of the suction. Things are nice, but we recognize them as things. People are wonderful, but we don’t set them up as gods. Only God is God, and He goes in the middle. Once we’ve done all of this, and our hearts are being constantly filled with God, it’s amazing how different the things of the world can look. Sure, they’re still pretty. We still like them and enjoy them. But we don’t build our lives around them. We appreciate people, but instead of seeing them as means to fill our needs, we see them as God's creation, and love them as He does.

Please come with me now over to the second part of this teaching text by clicking here and see what God has in store for you, and to give you the opportunity to come home to him.