The Matter

EV Training – God

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the motivation for evangelizing. As a refresher, evangelism is sharing the good news of the gospel. For the next month or two, I’ll be summarizing the following lessons since it outlines the key points of the gospel. 

If you’re a Christian, then you may be wondering, “Why do I need to know the gospel again to share it better?” Good question! Has this happened to you before? You’re trying to share the gospel with someone, and then they ask a question like “Why do Christians have to go to church on Sunday?” or some other question that’s important, but not really relevant to the message of the gospel. Then, you politely answer their question and try to go back to talking about the gospel. However, you spent an hour talking about that question, and now you don’t have much time to talk about the gospel. This happens to me a lot.

In the class, we talked about the key points, because it helps guide the listener to know the full truths of the gospel. There are four key points regarding the gospel: God, Man, Jesus, and Repentance. Today, I’ll be talking about God.

To help talk about God, I’ll also be talking about this older lady who God graciously allowed for me to talk to when I went random EVing last week. That means you go up to random people somewhere and talk to them about God. It’s terrifying but good. The things that we talked about deal a lot with the questions that people have about God, and the lesson on God gives the answers to those questions.

Okay, the lady’s name was Sheryl ( i think.. We’ll say her name is Sheryl), and she was an older lady. I approached her and politely told her that I was part of a church going around asking people what they thought about God. She smiled at me and showed me the side of her stomach and said “well this is my leg.” Somewhat shocked, I realized that it was a skin graft. She told me that she was burned alive back in 1987 and that she managed to recover from it. From there, she told me a lot about her life and all of the bad things that has happened to her. She said that she was a Christian and that she believed in God, but she asked me “why would God allow all these bad things to happen?”  Let’s think about this question with the two main points: God is the Creator and God is Holy.

The Bible has many verses about God as the Creator. We are going to look at the specific imagery of God being the potter and how we are the clay. Isaiah 64:8 says “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.” Isaiah 45:9 says “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker- An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?” These verses talk about how God has made everything and how sorrow goes to those who quarrel against God. I’m sure that most people would agree that there is a God of some sort and that this God created us. Let’s go more into the idea of that second verse which explains more of Sheryl’s question and conveniently leads to the second point.

God is Holy. The word holy means set apart. That means that no one is like God. 1 Samuel 2:2 says “There is no one holy like the LORD, indeed, there is no one besides Thee, nor is there any rock like our God.” God’s holiness also means that He is on a completely different standard from what we could possibly comprehend. His standard for right and wrong is also the true standard for right and wrong. Habakkuk 1:13 says “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil. You can not look on wickedness with favor.” The verse clearly says that God’s eyes are too pure to approve evil. He can’t even stand the sight of evil in His eyes, so this brings us back to the question. “Why would God allow all these bad things to happen?”

The answer kind of bleeds into the future topic of man, but we are evil. God does not look at mankind and think “Look at how great man is! Oh yeah, these bad things should not happen to them. I should stop it!” God’s not a superhero trying to save mankind from all kinds of danger. We’re the bad guys. God is the rightful judge whose holiness demands that evil be punished. By His holy nature, He sees us and our sin and His just response is judgment. That’s why God allows these “bad” things to happen. It’s bad for us, but it’s right for Him. 

Let’s look at a passage that highlights God’s holiness during unfortunate events to man Luke 13:1-5 says:

1 Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? 3 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Thankfully, and Oh thank God, thankfully, God shows mercy on sinners like us. Look at God’s heart in Ezekiel 33:11, “Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’ The fact that any of mankind is still alive to this day is a testament to God’s mercy. This also bleeds into the topic of Christ, but I can’t help it.. God as the holy creator wants mankind to repent and to live.

I think I’ll stop there. This can easily lead me to go off topic. For the TLDR version, God is the Creator, and God is Holy. Those two points can help explain a lot of the things that a person may be wondering about God. Feel free to learn and understand these two points better to know more about God and make Him known.

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