Revisiting the flier

Here’s our flier. And here’s a slightly expanded version …

God is the creator of the universe. And he loves you - a lot! This is a perfect and free love - it doesn’t depend on us, or how we behave, or even if we love him back. He wants us to be healthy, free, and at peace. And most of all, to know him, as that gives us all of those things, and eternal life with him.

When God created the universe, he did a few special things:

1. He created it good. Very good.
2. He created man. He made him in his image, which meant he allowed man to think, create, and be love. But it also meant he gave man free will. Which meant we could choose good, or evil. God didn’t make us robots to worship him. He made us his children to fellowship with him.
3. God gave the earth to people to rule after. It was ours not his.

God’s not going to change any of those things.

Unfortunately, the first people sinned, and chose to follow Satan. They fell under his curse, and under his control. They were still technically the rulers of the world, but given Satan’s power over them, in practice he has become the ruler of this world. And Satan made the world a wicked place, and still does.

So what happens now? Well, if Satan is ruling the world and the hearts of men, he’s going to make the world a pretty nasty place. And if men are deceived by him, they’re going to do pretty wicked things out of their own free will. So, we’d expect the world to have a lot of evil and suffering in it. It does.

God is not evil. All evil comes from the devil or our own free will. So it doesn’t really make sense to ask “why did God allow <some bad thing> to happen” because he didn’t. God doesn’t kill people nor make them sick, even for their own good or to teach them a lesson. No, that would be evil. But he sure can use the hardship to teach us things.

In every way he can, God works for our good - that’s what you’d expect of a loving father. But, sometimes he can’t. He doesn’t override our free will. He doesn’t force us to follow him instead of Satan. He won’t take the world back off Satan when he gave it for us and it’s still ours.¹

What God can do, however, is fix things up even though we don’t deserve it. By sending his only son, Jesus, to be a perfect example of not following Satan, and hence make a way and example for us. To die, and in death, defeat Satan and death forever. He’s set us, the captives free. The only problem is, Satan doesn’t want you to know this. So he tries to keep you thinking you’re enslaved to him, that you’re evil, guilty, shameful, unworthy. They’re all lies. And this is the gospel: you’re free, you just need to know it. The truth (Jesus) will set you free.

Lastly, this is isn’t being naive. Those who follow God and Christ will likely suffer because the world and Satan will hate them and persecute them. But we have the privilege of becoming like Christ, and loving the world around us and, ultimately, defeating evil and deception like he did. It’s an exciting ride = )

If you’re keen to find out more, find a local Christian you respect, and ask them to explain it to you. If you can’t find one, find a bible. If you can’t find one, but you’re here - find a bible online. And feel free to contact us at hello@goodgod.nz.