LOST AND FOUND

God has arranged this encounter. The bible tells us no man seeks after God, but God seeks after man. I'll bet you didn't get up this morning looking for information on God, the Bible, your sin or how you could be forgiven of it. Yet here you are online reading about those very things.

God's pursuit of man didn't start two millennia ago with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. It began when the first humans disobeyed God, losing their innocence and becoming sinners. As a result, they gave birth to sinners and we are all their descendants. Humans by their very nature are selfish rebels. This is most evident in our own natural inclination to disobey and break our parents' rules. No one needed to teach us to do wrong. We had to be taught things that were not natural to us - like sharing, waiting, and saying thank you. Even adults need speed limits and cops to enforce these limits.

Our relationship with God is much like a relationship with a father. He gives us life, but we don't follow His rules. He cares for us, but we ignore Him. He offers us grace, but we don't want to hear about our need for forgiveness. We look at all the marvelous things He has made for us and fail to recognize the greatness of the one who created it all. We are taught to embrace a theory of creation that denies the existence of a creator. Humans were created in the image of God so we could know and relate to Him. We have a sin problem, and it has ruined our relationship with God to the point that we need an intervention.

Like any good Father, God did not want to leave us in this state. God wanted to rescue mankind. So, God came to the world by birth and lived among us. Jesus Christ was fully God, fully man - conceived by the Spirit of God and born to a virgin named Mary. Having no earthly father, He was not predisposed to sin at birth like the rest of the human race. Jesus lived a perfect life of obedience to God. God validated His sinless life by performing many miracles and drawing great crowds to hear His teaching.

During His time on earth Jesus gave us a proper understanding of God and a clear way to be reconciled to God. Though many people believed Jesus Christ to be the answer to man's sinful condition, the Jewish religious leaders despised Him. Intimidated by Christ's power and His great following, they sought to have Jesus killed. These Jews falsely charged Jesus with sedition before the Roman government. The Romans, in an effort to keep the peace, yielded to the angry mob and had Jesus crucified.

After three days in the grave, Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus then showed himself alive to His closest followers and many others after His resurrection, confirming His victory over death. The resurrection of Christ is a historical fact confirmed by over 500 living witnesses at the time (many of whom lost their lives for this testimony). Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. But before He left the earth, He commissioned His followers to proclaim His message to the entire world. He also promised to return to earth one day to live with His followers.

For nearly two thousand years, now, Christianity has spread by word of mouth from one generation to the next. With the Bible as our standard, we can verify that message has not changed as it was passed down. Churches fund and send missionaries around the world with this message. Pastors teach local congregations about Jesus Christ and encourage them to share Him with their neighbors. This is all part of God's plan to reach the world with the hope of redemption. From palaces to prisons, mud huts to mansions, the Amazon or the Arctic the message of Jesus Christ reaches every corner of the globe. Now this message is coming to you.