It is not that people don't believe in God; it is that they won't acknowledge God.
Paul tells us in Romans 1:8-20:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse (NASB 2020).”
The key issue here is that our pursuing God reveals himself through His creation and based on this fact, God has made His very existence evident “within them” because God himself has made it evident. Creation is one of the clearest examples of God’s existence and when anyone lays claim that God does not exist, they are simply ignoring Him, and to do that they must ignore the universe itself.
God pursues us through his self-revelation. He reveals himself in three basic ways: his incredibly complex creation, his word – the Bible, and his incarnate, resurrected Son Jesus Christ, who died in our place to make reconciliation to God possible.
Our pursuing God desires for us to respond to his pursuit of us through confession of our sins against Him and repentance of those sins (stop doing them).
God pursues us to rescue us from unfathomable separation from him in a horrific place called Hell because He loves us. When we have grappled with the real fact of His existence and respond to Him in complete and utter trust for that rescue through His resurrected Son Jesus Christ through confession and repentance of sin against our perfectly holy God, he changes us in the most sweeping and overwhelming transformation possible.
The main response our pursuing God seeks from us is summed up in one word: repentance.
We must live a life of repentance.
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We can come to know Christ through confession of our sins and repentance (turning away from sin). Let me encourage you to do this by talking to God through prayer. Here is an idea of how you might do that:
"Dear God, I believe your son Jesus Christ died in my place on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day following his death. I confess my sins, all of them, to you now with a humble heart. I repent of those sins and ask you to empower me with your Holy Spirit in overcoming further sin. Amen”
If you prayed this or a similar prayer committing your life to Christ and becoming one of his followers, let me encourage you to find a good, Bible-believing church.
Begin talking to God in prayer and reading the Bible daily. A good way to begin to read the Bible is to start with the Book of John in the New Testament.
Feel very free in connecting with me if you need any further help in your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. You can do this via the above email or Facebook page or this web page.
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Mercy Road Ministries was founded and now led by Ben Bounds. Ben has pastored churches across Texas for over thirty years and is an ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). He holds a BA in Pastoral Ministry and Biblical Studies from Southwestern Assemblies of God College and did graduate theological studies at the BMA Theological Seminary.
Ben's first book, The Divine Chase: Responding to a Pursuing God, was released on 12.08.2017 through Westbow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. It is available in paperback and hardback through your preferred bookseller (Mardels, Barnes and Noble, etc.) and paperback, hardback as well as ebook through online book retailers (www.christianbook.com, www.cokesbury.com, www.amazon.com, www.booksamillion.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, etc.).
Ben is the host of Staying in Bounds, an on-air Bible devotional broadcast multiple times daily on KWJV 103.7 FM Weslaco, TX which can also be heard worldwide online at www.kwjvthestar.com. Ben and his wife, Linda, together have four adult children and nine grandchildren. They live in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Ben can be contacted for preaching engagements at benbounds695@gmail.com or 903.441.3279. Ben can also be contacted via his website @ www.benbounds.com, which is also his blog and contains more information about his ministry.
Follow Ben @ https://www.facebook.com/mercyroadministries/ and this website www.benbounds.com.
©2024 by Ben Bounds. All rights reserved.
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