The World as we see it...
Songwriters and poets tell us that love makes the world go round. What do you think makes the world go round?
None of this is new - in short, it’s a survival of the fittest manifesto.
In this dark vision of the world, religion becomes a means of keeping / acquiring these things (Luke 20:46-47)
So are the poets naïve idealists?
But The Bible Paints a Different Picture
We meet the God who is love (1 John 4:16)
- Love is not an attribute, it’s a movement. (e.g. John 3:16)
- This God is a community of distinct persons in loving unity (2Cor.13:14)
- This God created everything (Prov.30:2-4 / John 1:10)
- The love this God has had eternally between the three persons, he wants to share with humanity and has given creation to humanity as a gift to enjoy and through which he will teach them wisdom. (Gen.1:27-30)
- They hijacked this gift from God (Gen. 3:22) becoming lovers of themselves not lovers of God (2 Tim. 3:4)
- We inherit their guilt / nature and add to / multiply it ourselves – inventing new ways of doing evil (Rom.1:30) e.g. Internet crime didn't exist 50 years ago - we invented it after someone else invented the internet.
- Evil isn’t just doing bad things – it’s doing "good" things (Isaiah 5:20) whilst refusing to love God (Matt.22:37)
- We have airbrushed God out of the picture (Rom.1:18)
- We see nothing wrong in what we have done (Prov. 30:20)
- We deserve to die for this (Rom.1:32)
- Became one of us (Heb 4:15)
- Reminding us of what we had chosen to forget – that God is love – sacrificial love (John 13:1)
- At the Cross – Jesus bore the wrath of God for all our rebellion against him (2. Cor. 5:21)
- At the resurrection – Jesus in incredible love, shares his victory over sin, death and the devil giving new life to the world (1 Pet. 1:3)
- Living the “good life” means He gives us his Spirit that we might know and love him (Rom. 5:5)
- There is a more real world beyond our eyes where those who love him will be given new bodies and live with him forever. (1 Cor.15:48-49)
What will you do with this God and your future?
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