Sunday, December 30, 2012

Week 01 - The Atonement: God’s Provision for Man’s Sin

When God created man, it was His desire to have a family of men and women in His likeness and in His image with whom He could fellowship, share his life, and love.  God spent the first five days of creation preparing a home for the sons and daughters of His love.  The Lord God created all the stars of heaven, the sun and the moon to give light upon the earth for His sons.  All the beautiful flowers, tree, mountains, rivers and all the brilliant colors of the world were given and prepared for the enjoyment and pleasure of the men and women whom He would create to be His own.  On the sixth day of creation, God made man and woman in His image and gave them the breath of life.  And God saw all His creation and acknowledged that it was good God placed the man and woman He had made in a beautiful garden prepared just for them.  Among the trees in the garden were the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.  God gave them permission to eat from any tree in the garden, including the tree of life.  However, there was one tree from which God commanded them not to eat; for if they ate from it they would die.  Notice that God set before His beloved ones a choice of whether to obey God, love Him and live – or to disobey Him, not love Him and die.  The God of heaven and earth has never forced man to love Him – or serve Him, but desired that they would love Him and choose Him with their free will and from their heart.

Memory Verses:

Romans 5:9 - And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

Galatians 1:4 - Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.