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To fully understand the message of the Bible we must begin from the beginning. The Bible begins with: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 God as revealed in the Bible is the creator of all that is seen and unseen that ever existed. God owes no one anything. We owe God everything. That's just for a start. Because He is the creator He has the right to demand anything from us, to do as He pleases, to lay down any condition for His creatures. In another word, God is sovereign, like it or not. He deserves the glory and honor simply because He is The Creator God! He is the great “I AM" who is from everlasting to everlasting! We as creatures simply cannot understand. We can fully grasp the concept of eternity because we have a beginning and a perceived end. God has no beginning and no end. In the book of Revelation Jesus says in 1:8, 21:6 and 22:13: I am the Alpha and the Omega — the first and last letter of Greek alphabets. Meaning He is the beginning and the end of time. The world began with Him and ends with His second coming, reigning as King. Without this foundational truth we cannot understand what follows properly. Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground." Mankind was made to be like God, given the prerogative to rule over all the rest of created things. We were the 'creme de la creme', the climax of God's creation, the only creature made in God’s image. Man was made to reign over everything on earth! What glory that was to be a man! (Women included) But that image was marred by Adam and Eve’s rebellion. In wanting to know/decide what is good and evil, as offered by the serpent/Satan, “you shall be like God if you eat…” they did the only thing commanded against by God and experienced spiritual death, a separation/cut off from God, which eventually resulted in physical death. “The wages of sim is death…”Romans 6:23 Like Humpty Dumpty who had a great fall, nothing could put him back again from his brokenness. Only the glue of God’s Grace could fix it. And God set out to fulfil what the part 2 of Romans 6:23 …”but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus.”(Paraphrased) Then in Genesis 3:15 a hidden promise of God for the salvation of mankind was stated: “And I will place great hostility between you and the woman, and between her seed and yours. He will crush your head as you crush his heel.” Satan will lose in the end, the ‘son of man’ (one of Christ’s titles) will triumph! When the son of God who came as a son of man to suffer on the cross (heels crushed, but not fatal), with his resurrection Christ won the victory over death. Death had lost its sting. Man has the ‘hope of glory’ when their life is “hidden in Christ.” From Ephesians 1 we knew this was not an afterthought of God, but God’s plan from eternity. Ephesians 1:4 TPT And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence. Christ came to reconcile us to God as we unite with him in his death and resurrection via our faith in him. Why do we need to be reconciled with God? It implies that man were on good terms with God in the beginning. It means we are at war with God! We are rebels by our fallen nature. Every one is born without God today. If we are not reconciled with God our future in eternity will be spent without God. If you think that that's ok, you are being deceived! God is the source of life and all things good. Apart from Him there is nothing good. Hell is such a place. How do we know there is even a life after death, how do I know I can trust the Bible, how do I know what's the way to be reconciled with God, how do I know what is the truth, how can I know the meaning of life, how do I know the God of the Bible is the true God? You have to hold your breath. We'll come to that. Meanwhile .... ..the Bible says.... Gen. 1:27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! Everything God created was very good! Because God is good, His goodness is the essence of His character. If God were a bad God, He is still God. We still can’t complain. “Who are you 0 man to talk back to God"— Romans 9. But ‘thank God’ He is a good God! Even when things do not turn up well in your life it doesn't change the fact that God is good. We just don't see it. We are often unable to because we are limited by space and time, and sin affects all our faculties to understand the truth. There is a reason why the world is in the mess as it is. The Bible has the answer. God had the solution to our problem from the very beginning. (May 2023) To be continued ......