IN THE BEGINNING... GOD

Part 1

 

Before we say anything about the spiritual journey, it is vital that we understand a fundamental principal on which everything rests. God is the source of all things, He is the beginning. The Bible opens with, "In the beginning God," and from that point everything else comes into being, the heavens are created, along with all its spiritual beings, the earth and finally us. Spiritual laws, natural laws, moral laws, everything seen and unseen, was birthed by God. There is nothing which exists which He is not the Father of... the first source of. (Of course I am not speaking of rebellion, darkness and the like, but these are simply the absence of God's presence not a substance of their own - we will discuss this in a fair amount of depth much later again.)

 

God as the initiating factor is true on a grand scale, but the principal is echoed again on a small scale. What I mean is this, it is a spiritual truth that you will not be able to take one single step towards God without Him initiating or birthing the opportunity for you. This is a crucial issue even at the very first step of the spiritual journey. Many people falsely assume that they can call on God and become a Christian any time it suits them. That is not so.

 

I heard someone who did not yet know the Lord once say that the perfect life would be a life lived as a non-Christian, unburdened by its rules and moral obligations and then at the very last possible moment, on their deathbed, to call out to God for forgiveness and spend an eternity in heaven. Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds? There are two things horribly wrong with that way of thinking. The first is the misunderstanding of the beauties and joys of a life lived in God's hands (but that topic will also have to be discussed later). The second is an obvious misunderstanding of how the spiritual world works. You see, every man's natural, sinful inclination is to move away from God, not towards Him. Everything inside of his being wants the exact opposite of what God wants. There is nothing inside of him that would ever lead him to surrender to God - absolutely nothing! He may come to his deathbed moment and unless a miracle happens, he will not be able to make himself even desire to call out to God. The truth is that our sinful nature loves to hate Him.

 

"The mind governed by the flesh (sinful nature) is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so."

- Romans 8:7

 

That should begin to give us an idea of what lost creatures this fallen nature has made of us and how desperately we need God's help. The fact is that for salvation to occur in any person's life, God must first do a miracle. He must reach out to us and stir our hearts to desire something that is against our own nature. He is the one that has to stir our longing for Him or at least an awareness of our hopelessness without Him. Only then are we even able to call on Him for help. That is why He is called the "author" of our faith.

 

"Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith..."

Hebrews 12: 2

 

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

 

So you see, God is where the journey begins. Thousands of years before you and I even contemplated looking for Him, He sent His Son to die and make a way for us to find Him - that alone gives us any hope of ever succeeding. Of course that truth leaves us with a new list of questions and God willing, we will be able to address all the important ones. Let's take a look at how it all works.

 

 

Click here to continue to Part 2: Many are called.

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