Seeing God for the First Time

I can't begin to describe the shame I will face when I meet God. Despite my salvation, and my desire to be with Him, I will be on my face in shame of all that I have done, or not done before Him. It is the man on God's right that will stand and recognize me. My eyes will be wiped of their tears, then I will enter the kingdom and live with them forever. I get goosebumps thinking about it. We can read it in the Holy Bible everyday, over and over again, but all jaws will drop and be in awe of our God and his Son on that day.

Will Jesus recognize you?

Are We Chosen by God?

God gave us freewill to choose Him, but also knows how we will choose because He is God. An illustration of this was shared with me several months ago.

When we seek God, we come upon a gate with a banner that reads "Salvation". When we choose to enter the gate we are saved and stand in a huge field. Jesus is in the center of this field and we begin walking toward Him, wanting to be nearer to Him, like Him, with Him. As we get closer to Jesus, we look back to the gate in which we entered. On the back of the banner that read "Salvation" upon entering, reads "Chosen by God" from the inside. Then we look around and the entire field is surrounded by similar gates, all different, yet similar to one another all of them with a banner "Chosen by God" above them. When we come to Jesus, it is by our choice. When we get closer to Him, we understand that God knew that we would make the decision, and therefore, ultimately choosing each of us as His people. When Jesus saw us coming to him, He sees that we were all "chosen by God" despite the gate in which we entered to be in the field with Jesus.

As seekers of a relationship with God, did we just not know that He knew, or did we not take it into consideration? Do we tend to under estimate, or sometimes forget, the power of God?

What does God really want?

A relationship.

-iKe

What does Sacrifice mean to God?

Genesis 4:5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had no respect. And Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell.
Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

The first recorded sacrifice to God and what God expects of our sacrifice. Many initially think, when they recall the story without referring to it, is that God accepted Abel's sacrifice because it was an animal, and rejected Cain's because his was not an animal. Cain got angry about it and killed Abel because his sacrifice was better. This picture of the story, although true, has some critical missing parts to it. God rejected Cain's offering, when He saw that Cain's heart was not right. Abel's sacrifice was really not any better than Cain's, but God saw Abel's heart, that he was sincere, humble, and was giving out of his love for God instead of himself. Abel's faith in God, made his sacrifice complete. According to the scripture, Cain's heart was not right with God when he gave his sacrifice. Because his heart was not right, God rejected Cain's sacrifice. Cain could have brought an entire heard of sheep in there and "outdone" Abel's presentation, but God would have seen through to his heart and would have rejected it still.

We can give up our time, effort, and offerings. If we do this, or do not do this, by faith and with a humble heart, will it be rejected also? Can our salvation be considered a sacrifice to God?

Is it where our heart is as we earn it, prepare it, and how we present it to the Lord? What we give, or how much, is irrevellent to Him. The salvation that God offers is free. The perfect sacrifice has already been made. You can't give more than what God has already GIVEN to each of us. His mercy and grace of offering His Son Jesus. For you. For me. For everyone.

-iKe

w.bloggar tool

Do you like the web interface to post on Blogger? There is an alternative. I am using a Windows Client to post to blogger. As a matter of fact, this is the first post to my blog using w.bloggar.

Updating your blog(s) is a snap and can be updated offline and posted when able to connect again. Check it out if you haven't already. Pretty cool little tool.

-iKe