Gen Z

In the past twenty or thirty years there have been so many different ways of looking at religion and those who claim to be religious. From evangelists on TV to cults to churches that preach “prosperity” gospels and quite frankly Jesus would not endorse most, if not all, of these. Young people today have been exposed to so many false teachings that it is no wonder that there are so many people, young people, not claiming any religion at all.

Jesus came to bring God and even the worship of God down to us at a human level. Reading the Bible can be overwhelming for someone who has never had a background in a real teaching church that teaches the Bible as God’s Word. Church and the services that we attend are supposed to be teaching God’s Word as He had the scribes write His Word down. Simple, easy to understand but not mixed up with personal ideas or political agendas. The Bible and the message of Jesus is supposed to be taught by using His Word and His wisdom, not ours.

When we begin to add our own ideas and our “wisdom” into a message that is meant to be taught from God’s Word and His Wisdom we are diluting it and changing it to fit our “idea” of who we think God is. We are bringing Him down to our level and placing Him into our “box” and God doesn’t fit in a box! He is the Creator and the Almighty God, not our genie that we call on when things go wrong or when we need or want something. God has provided a Savior in the Person of Jesus who died on the cross and paid the penalty for my sins and yours. All that we need to do to have salvation through Him is to believe that He did this because He loves us.

God does love each of us and He has since the very beginning. He planned the salvation of the human race through Jesus’ sacrifice at the same time that He was creating mankind in the Garden of Eden. It didn’t surprise God that man disobeyed His law/rule about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He knew that they would disobey Him even before He created the Earth. The message of salvation began in the book of Genesis and continues with God being merciful to Israel throughout the Bible. He used other nations to discipline them and get their attention turned back to Him, and then He forgave them and rescued them each time. Then, they would turn away from Him and begin to follow other gods all over again.

The truth of the gospel is that God loves us far more deeply than we can grasp. But, He doesn’t like the lifestyle that many of us have chosen to live. Being gay is a sin against God’s law but He still loves you…the person. He wants to save your soul but in order to do that you have to give your heart and soul to Him and turn away from your sinful life. That is what it means to repent of your old way of living and follow Him. Yes, God loves every person but their lifestyle may be offensive to Him. God is holy, like a pure white field of snow. We can’t take one step into His Presence without being cleansed by the blood of Jesus. With that cleansing, we take on the holiness of Jesus and we can come into God’s presence as if we are walking above the snow and not making it “messed up” and dirty.

The problem with our humanity is that we can give our hearts and our lives to Jesus and then fail to follow Him every day. That is what He meant when He said to take our cross and follow Him. We have to nail our old selves to that cross every day. Our sinful lives and the way we were living before we gave our hearts to Him have to be nailed to the cross every day. Then study His Word and learn from Him how to be more like Him. Don’t ignore the possibility that God loves you enough to save your soul by believing in Jesus as your Savior.