Many of us seem to think it isn’t necessary to give God anything. We don’t want to give Him our time on Sunday and He doesn’t need our money. Many of us don’t even want Him in our life or our hearts. So why do so many people who feel this way claim to be Christians? Is it because they know Who He is but they don’t want to know Him really? Are they afraid of Him? Possibly. In years past, God was pictured and preached as a vengeful God and a jealous God and He is both of those…to an extent. He is vengeful because He loves us not because He is going to punish us for something that we said or didn’t say. His vengeance is toward those who have wronged and persecuted His people, Israel. He will also avenge the church which grew in the past two thousand years because of the disciples preaching and because of the persecution which Christians still endure.

God is jealous, not like a lover or a husband, but because the “other” gods which mankind has created for himself are not gods at all. They are just figments of our imagination and our idea of how “god” should be. Humanity tends to try to squish God down into a more relatable god that we can understand. God cannot be put in a box or be made smaller so that we can relate to Him and feel comfortable with Him.

But we still say things like, “My god wouldn’t send anyone to hell.”. God doesn’t send anyone to hell either, that is your choice. God has made it possible for everyone to be saved but there are those who just won’t accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord. When you reject Him and turn your back on His offer of grace to be saved, then you have condemned yourself to hell and unless you accept Him before you die…that will be your eternity. Our spirit is immortal and we will be given a new body for eternity, one which cannot die unless we refuse God’s offer of grace. That is why hell is called the “second death”. There is no Life outside of God and that is where you will be if that is your choice.

God loves every person but He doesn’t like some of the things that they are doing with their lives. Just like parents, He loves His children but sometimes He isn’t happy with their choices in life but He does allow us those choices even if He doesn’t agree with them. Jesus came and paid the price for your sins regardless of their “size”, even though there aren’t really BIG sins or little sins, although the killing of children or babies would likely rank a little worse than a lie any day.

What does God want from each of us? Our love and our heart. Be thankful for His grace which has given you all of your talents and the blessings in your life. Be useful to His Kingdom and for His Kingdom because each of us who have been called to know Him were called because of our influence in someone’s life that He knows that you can reach better than anyone else.