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Chapter 14. Ending
God wants one thing above all: for you to fall in love with Him, through Jesus, of your own free will without any manipulation from Him. That's why He created us with free will. He wants you to choose to be with Him for all eternity. I believe this is the theme of the book of Song of Solomon in the Bible. [TOOL] If you meditate on this, you will have a different view of God and a different way of relating to Him.
So, what is your calling? You are called to be saved. You are called to know God and His nature. You are called to hear His voice. You are called to discover and use your God-given giftings. You are called to be His truth and His compassion to others. You are called to witness. You are called to be the Bride of Christ. You are called to be in intimate relationship with God and Jesus for all eternity. This is your calling.
If, at the end of the day (and this booklet), you are still resentful of how God set up the rules of life, then you have not yet come to grips with the fact that, as the Bible says, God is good. And if God is good, then the way He set up life is good. It's His nature.
If I were to sum up this booklet, here is what I would say:
1. Get lots of logos (Bible) in you;
2. Let your faith rest on God's nature;
3. Hear rhema words as best you can (for your family, job, whatever);
4. Find and use the giftings God gave you, and give Him the glory for what you accomplish.
I wish I could assure you that your life will be smooth sailing once you do the things listed above. The reality I have found is that it takes a lifetime, and more. The Christian life is really just a series of stages through which you gradually exchange your goals for your life with God's goals for your life. Some do that faster than others but it still takes time to go through stages and experiences of life. So don't get discouraged. Keep working on the steps above and I can assure you that you will finish your race closer to God than you began. And that is all He asks of us.
To those who fear death: Hear the heart of God when I tell you that the more you know about His nature, the more certain you can be that He and Jesus will be there for you on the other side, and the less you need to fear dying.
I would like to repeat some things from Chapter 1 that I hope are more meaningful now than they were then: (1) the goal of life is not to find out who we are but to find out who God is, so let God draw you to Him, and (2) the utter necessity of understanding God's nature and hearing His voice, without which we can never live as God intended us to live.
How, then, are we to live? If I hear one more TV commercial about how we are going to get through this Covid 19 crisis "together," I may throw up. “Together” is just another form of the false god of humanism. Our common bond of being fallen humans is nothing to be proud of. Yes, even non-Christians can help others, even at their own expense, in times of crisis. Romans 2 tells us that. But to see that trait as coming from ourselves and not from God is humanism. “Together” gets our eyes off God and onto human effort. Don’t be deceived. The real issue in this Covid 19 crisis, or any crisis, is where are you looking? God or man? Christians form churches and fellowship groups with each other to help each other with Christian living, and do join “together” with non-Christians to help others in times of crisis. But not just to help others get through the crisis, but to help others get closer to God and Jesus through the crisis. As for a Christian’s attitude in regard to Covid 19 for them personally, I believe it is to be the same as Paul’s: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” We can’t presume that God has to keep us well. Christians have also died from Covid 19. The only way to trust God with either outcome is to know Him and His nature very, very well, and to really, really realize that this Earth is not our home. This is how we are to live.
If you are facing a tough situation or a dark time, go through the [TOOL] bookmarks in this booklet until you find one or more that works for you. I've always found at least one.
My prayer for each reader of this booklet is what Paul wrote for his readers in Ephesians 1:17: “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation of him…”
And as King David wrote: “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord…”
Most of all, I pray that, like Paul, we all have this revelation of God's nature: "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
I am convinced that, like Paul, if we can only come to be able to understand even a little of the depth of God’s love for us, not in a general sense but for you personally, we would never be the same. God is not mad at you. He is not disappointed in you. He does not punish you. Jesus took upon Himself all the reasons God has to rightfully be mad, disappointed and punishing. The problem is we don’t understand that so we let our wrong image of God think that He is mad and disappointed in us, and wants to punish us. If I have any last words for the reader, it is to dwell on the goodness of God. There is a great song, "The Goodness of God.” Listen to it often. Meditate on God’s goodness often. It’s a life-changer.
Amen.
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