God is For You, Not Against You!

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

I was terrorized! I was nine years old, standing outside the principal’s office and waiting to be called in to be disciplined. It was the most scared I had ever been in my life. The principal was not a nice person. She always looked mad. She had disciplined me a few weeks earlier for something I did not do. My teacher had even told her she had disciplined the wrong guy. She didn’t even apologize. Her words were, “He probably deserved it anyway.” To get pulled into her office for judgment that day was terrorizing.

Many people are afraid that this is what it is going to be like when they stand before God one day. Their conscience is filled with what they know wouldn’t be pleasing to God. Consequently, they would rather push the reality of God out of their mind renaming Him a concept, a crutch for weak people, or nonexistent, than think about and feel terrorized in their heart over the thought of one day standing before Him for their life’s actions. They feel this way because they really don’t know Him. Ignorance of God’s kindness and love is tragic!

God is not like my less-than-wonderful school principal. God is God. He is merciful, patient, kind, just, holy, all knowing, all seeing, and a thousand wonderful things more. People can deny His existence and push Him away, but He is still God and He is still there. He is not evil. He is good. He has a plan for every person to stand before Him without fear. That plan is Jesus.

Jesus paid the price for our sins through His death. He paid the price for us enabling us to stand before Him washed and cleansed from sin. This out of His great love for us – not out of a desire to punish us. The book of Revelation shows a time where all of Heaven is singing about this great love and what Jesus did for all mankind – for all who would believe. Rev. 5:9 “And they sang a new song with these words: …For you were killed, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” God is not someone to be afraid of. He is someone to run to!

Terrorists hate and take lives; not love and give up their lives out of their love for others. God is not someone to be afraid of. God didn’t love us when and while we were living perfect for Him. He loved us when we were at our worst. I know we struggle to lovers like that, but He doesn’t and Jesus is the proof. That is what makes Him God and so wonderful. Romans 5:8 reminds us, “But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” This kind of love is greater than we can wrap our minds around. We have to accept it by faith.

And if we blow it? What do we do? First, it’s not if you blow it; it’s when you blow it. You will. But, God knows that for you to learn to live for Him is a process of learning and trying. So He says to us in, 1 John 1:8-10 “If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong doing. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His word has no place in our hearts.”

Each of us is constantly surrounded by two kinds of people. The ones that don’t know the Lord and are dealing with being afraid of God for what they think He will do to them. And the ones that know the Lord and are still dealing with thoughts of condemnation, guilt, and thinking God is rejecting them. Is that you? Jesus is not out to get you. He is out to love you, and help you get it right. If you know the Lord and are still struggling with His love because in your mind you don’t measure up; then confess your sins, receive His forgiveness, regroup, and try again and again, and again. HE LOVES YOU!

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us argue this out,” says the Lord. “No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool.”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt