WHO ARE WE?
by
Pierre Bittar
August,
2019
GOD’S FAMILY
The Bible doesn’t clearly reveal why God created this universe and for whom He created it. However, in His Holy Bible, God doesn’t hide His infinite paternal love for us.
God is very generous and His abundant Love is superior to our human love. For Him, Love is not simply a feeling, it does rather express the essence of His very Nature because GOD IS LOVE.
This very source of love expects to receive love in return. Hence God’s decision to create us and live with us in one family. This decision goes back to eternity, a long time before God created us. In fact, God knows us intimately before we existed. He shaped each one of us in His own image and likeness.
This wonderful revelation should put and end to people’s uncertainty about the reason for our existence. Instead, it should increase our trust in God and fill our hearts with great expectations regarding our infinite future life.
The Bible confirms on many occasions that we are indeed God’s family. First He created us in His own image and likeness. Second, He granted us the faculty of procreation which is a kind of likeness to God’s power of creation. It is important to remind here that angels do not have such privilege, they cannot pro-create and they were all, one by one, created by God.
Thanks to this gift of procreation, our human offspring increased the members of God’s family by 100 billions of people during these last 6,000 years. Obviously, they are not all physically alive at this time but, at the End Time, their souls will be gathered in one big family Fathered by our God Jesus the Lord. Also, not all these souls will be part of God’s Family. Only those who believed in Jesus the Lord and received from the Holy Spirit the rebirth of their dead spirit. This is confirmed in John 3:3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
In the book of Revelation God fills our hearts with hope in regard to our future. This will start by enchaining Satan and His evil spirits for 1,000 years. Then, they will be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur and will be tormented for ever. Thus we will live in peace with our God for ever and ever. We can read this in Revelation 20:2-3 “He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time."
With respect to our peaceful life with Jesus which will start at the End Time after the big tribulation, here is what we can read in Revelation 21:1-4 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
OUR BEHAVIOR TOWARDS GOD’S FAMILY.
God respects our decision no matter what we choose. As explained above, God’s love for us is beyond our comprehension. To make us feel at ease, God granted to each one of us a total freedom in our decisions. He offered to us what we call “The Free Will”. This free will is also a vow. Which means that God will never be against our choice even if it disobeys His commands. However, because of God’s holiness, those who disobey
Him are spontaneously separated from Him.
As explained above, God is very generous with His love for us. He also expects us to love Him in return. God needs our love and expects it because HE IS LOVE. This can clearly be noticed on the top of His commandments to us as written in Matthew 22:37 “Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Beside our love for Him, He wants love to reign in His holy family. This is shown as His second commandment in Matthew 22:39 “And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
In life, most people have experienced loving their boyfriend or their girlfriend. Do they remember how that love occupied their mind? It was almost permanent or at least whenever their mind was not taken by an important activity. When we ask ourselves, how many times we thought about God in a day. We will probably discover that God is not occupying our mind as much as He should. This is simply because there is no reason to think about Him during our daily time unless when we are suffering or are in difficulty. Contrary to what we think, there are many reasons to think about God beside when we need Him. Try to thank Him for what you receive and He will be in your mind most of the time. Every good thing we receive is from Him. God gave us five senses through them we receive a lot of feelings, admirations, good news and so many other things. Did your admiration of a beautiful flower or a breath taking sunset or a magnificent landscape view compel you to glorify the creator? What about watching the sky on a clear peaceful night? Didn’t this immensity impress you? Didn’t you praise the creator for His amazing and infinite creation? Did you ever think that He created this universe for you and for me and for all His children that He loves so much? What about your sense of hearing? How many times did you hear a song, classic or country music that you enjoyed listening to. Behind these musicians and talented people is a creator. Does He receive part of your applause after you hear them? Shouldn’t He be part of your admiration? What about your sensation of good flavor you perceive from what you eat or the fruity taste of a good wine you drink? You go through all that several times every day. Have you thought of God during your life? If so, how many times a day, a month or a year?
How many times did you thank God for healing you or saving you from a fatal accident? Did you ever think that He was behind these good deeds or did you attribute all these blessings to luck, mother nature or others?
What we really need to do is to recall the blessings that we received during our life and try to guess who was the real beneficent behind all of them. Such experience will certainly reveal to many that they have been missing to believe in God throughout all their life. May God open their mind, heart and soul to see the truth which is only in Jesus our Lord as written in John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
To conclude this section, we must be very grateful and blessed to be created by such mighty loving and generous God. We should be very excited to live for eternity with Him. During our entire future life we will have no more evil spirits to seduce us. No injury or sickness to depress us. We will remain young and will never pass 33 years of age which was Jesus’ age when He lived among us. We will be guided and controlled by our loving Lord Jesus who knows about each one’s potential and what will make our life endlessly joyful.
Ephesians 2:19 NLT
So now you Gentiles are no longer
strangers and foreigners.
You are citizens along with God’s holy people.
You are members of God’s family.
HOPEFULLY WE WILL ALL MEET THERE.