If you're reading this then you are looking for answers as to what is happening in the world. Why are there so many wars? Why are people suffering from a lack of food? Why do you feel this sense of hopelessness? What is happening in the world with weird weather, earthquakes, peak oil, and volcanos. Is it all because of global warming? What's HAPPENING?!!
Over 2000 years ago, in the little country call Israel, the same one that is at the heart and focus of so much of the problems in the Middle East, God sent to earth His only Son. Why in the world would God do that? An ever better question might be, why in the world would the Son agree to leave heaven (the place many people believe they'll go when they die) to come down to a little backward dusty country? Love. That's it. Love.
John 3:16 says that God loved the world so much that he sent His Only Son and decreed that anyone who would believe that He was the Son of God would not die an eternal death but would live forever with Them.
Sounds easy, right? No. You see God, the creator of the universe, is also a Holy God...I mean afterall, if you make the world you get set the rules, right? So about 3000 years before sending His Son, He gave 10 little rules to live by that would ensure anyone the opportunity of eternal life.
Well, how many people do you know that abide by speed limits? Almost no one. How many people can go their entire life and never, ever, tell a little white lie? How many kids grow to adulthood without every rebelling against their parents? Zero? Right.
See that was the problem, people couldn't live by those ten simple rules for the reason that they were and are sinful (which means separated from God). However, God did set up a system that would allow those sins to be covered and forgiven, thus restoring a right relationship with Him. Unfortunately it was a pretty steep price...death. But it wasn't just death, it was that blood had to be spilled (Hebrews 9:22) to "cover" the sin.
For several thousand years, animals were sacrificed so that their blood would symbolically cover people's sins. Unfortunately that was not an ideal solution, because every year another lamb had to be killed to cover a person's sin. (Yes, a lamb per person!)
God is economical and realized that that wasn't the answer (but he knew that all along, and the lamb thing was just a hint of what His real plan was), so decided to pay the price Himself. He would send His Son to live among people and then when the time was right, the Son would shed His own blood. From that point on anyone who would believe on the Son would have forgiveness for sins and eternal life.
So that's what happened. And now, if you've read this far, you're wondering what that all has to do with what's happening today. Well, stick around. I'll tell you more tomorrow.
Just think on these things:
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
There is still hope...it's not too late.
