There is nothing and no one higher or more important than God. Not the Prime Minister or President, not your parents, your boyfriend, not money, or fame, or success, or happiness - he is God most high. He created the earth and the universe, he made the sun, moon and stars, he controls the wind and the rain, he created all creatures great and small, and he created you.
The first of the Ten Commandments says, You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). We think of Gods as golden statues or idols but according to Timothy Keller in his book, Counterfeit Gods, an idol is anything more important to you than God. Challenge: Do you have something or some things in your life that you are obsessed with, that you can't live without, that you devote a lot of time or energy to? Are they more important than God?
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God's forgiveness is one of the key themes of the Bible. In fact, the whole point of the Bible is to show how Christ died and rose again so that our sins could be forgiven.
Elohay Selichot is used three times in the Old Testament. Nehemiah 9:17 But you are a God who forgives; you are gracious and loving, slow to be angry. Psalm 130:4 But you forgive us, and so we will worship you. Daniel 9:9 Lord God, you are merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against you. In the New Testament Jesus and the disciples teach us that we are to forgive like God does. Ephesians 4:32 says, Be kind and merciful, and forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ. Challenge: who do you need to forgive today? Ask God to help you forgive them. God is just and fair. It's easy to forget that when the world around us seems so unjust. Bad stuff happens to good people and good stuff happens to bad people. At the end times when Jesus comes again we will see the ultimate fulfilment of God's justice. For now, sin is still running amuck on the earth, but God's ultimate justice is coming.
God was fair and just with the Israelites. Isaiah 30:18 is part of a prophecy to the to them. Even though God was angry with them because they were disobedient he longed to be gracious to them. God was faithful to the promise he made to the Israelites, that they would be his chosen people - even though they didn't deserve it. God is just and fair with us too. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again to forgive us for our sins - he forgives us, even though we don't deserve it. 1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. God is faithful - if we do what he asks (confess our sins) he does what he promised (forgive us). It's hard to wrap our brains around eternity because everything in this life has a beginning and end. Our brains struggle to understand the concept of living eternally but that's why it's called faith. My brain struggles to understand gravity, but it exists whether I believe it or not. If you think that there must be more to life that going to school, getting a job, getting married, having a family, retiring then dying - you're right. The purpose of life is to love God in this life and live with him eternally in the next. Romans 1:17 says, The one who is right with God by faith will live forever.
This might be news to some of you, but the Bible wasn't written in English. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Your name probably has a meaning - mine means worthy to be loved. In Biblical times the meanings of names were really significant. Looking at the names of God will help us to understand the character of God. This first one, Elohim, was used 2,300 times in the Bible.
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