God spoke to man and said, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day you eat thereof you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2: 16,17).  God himself proclaimed the penalty of death as the consequence of the crime he described.  This was His law.

 

Sin is the opposite of God, an exact 180 of his essence and character. Sin is repulsive to God.  There is no gray area with God.  With God, there is only right and wrong.  You either did wrong or you didn’t do wrong.  You are with God, or you are without God.  Mankind, unfortunately, crossed the line God drew in the sand.  With that crossing, the sentence of death was required.

 

Almighty God is sovereign with nothing or no one greater or having higher authority than He.  He is supreme.  He does not lie.  If Almighty God said death would be the penalty of sin, then death would surely be the penalty.

 

God is life (John 1:4a), satan is death (John 10:10).  Satan is the exact opposite of God.  In fact, the name satan means the opposer.

 

In the book of John chapter 10 verse 18, Jesus says, no man takes my life!  “I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again”.  In fact, Jesus laid down his life; he died by choice (John 10:15).

 

Arising from death indicated God is ALL POWERFUL and there is nothing or no one greater than He.  This proves God to be True and Faithful.  God did not just Tell us who he is, He Showed us who he is. He is Almighty God!

Too often we try to “know God” instead of getting to “know God”.  This is a problem with the English language; some words are spelled alike but have different meaning or connotation.

 

With the statement “to know God” there are some who study to understand God’s existence, purpose, nature, character, thoughts, motives, plans, goals, and behavior.  There are schools and seminaries that are expert in breaking down the bible verse by verse and word by word for the express purpose of understanding the above “topics” as they relate to God.

 

Knowing the “topics” of God is not what God wants from us.  He wants us to know him emotionally in the spirit not in the mind.  He wants the emotional feeling of agape love to flow reciprocally from our being to his being.  He wants a relationship with us through simple faith where he is our father and we, his children.

 

Scientificating God is when we attempt to comprehend eternity and how it is possible God has no beginning and no end.  We scientificate God by trying to understand and be able to explain creation and our existence.  We scientificate God when we try to understand why God allows death, sickness, suffering, and evil.  We scientificate God when we try to explain unanswered prayer.  We scientificate God when we attempt to interpret the bible to explain God’s timeline and the end times.

 

God never asked us or commissioned us to get to know him so we could explain him.  He has always wanted us to know him the same way Adam and Eve knew him before the fall following the temptation to live our lives without him.

 

God is very clear.  “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” Is. 55:8.

 

God wants us to have Simple Faith in him as creator, provider, and sustainer, AND after our sinning, our savior.  God is the great I AM!

 

Learning to understand and know God and his existence, purpose, nature, character, thoughts, motives, plans, goals, and behavior is not evil or sinful.  Knowing God in these ways however leads to head knowledge but it does not lead to peace and contentment.

 

Debating evolution or creation doesn’t matter.  Believing the flood or Jonah doesn’t matter.  Baptismal sprinkling or immersion doesn’t matter.  A relationship with God DOES MATTER!  Childlike Faith DOES MATTER, and REPENTANCE DOES MATTER!

 

We need to get to know God.