God on the stand of the accused

 BY Argie Simonis 

"God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him." 1John 4:16

John here describes God beautifully and simply. But religion unfortunately comes and presents us with an angry and vengeful God. He only accepts you when you are a "good" child and waits in the corner to strike you with a lightning bolt on the first mistake you will make.

Religion presents a child-killing God, who takes babies and toddlers to Heaven because he "needs" them there more than their natural parents here on earth.

Religion presents a God who sends sickness and tribulations to His children to "teach" them humility and obedience.

Religion presents a God who is responsible for every war, famine, earthquake, disaster and every evil that happens in the world, because nothing happens if He does not "allow" it.

How is it possible to love and trust someone who treats you like that? In a court of law, if such a God ascends to the stand of the accused, I am sure he would be sentenced to life imprisonment as a common criminal, or even to death!

So let us not be surprised that many people reject the Lord and do not want to have anything to do with Him. All this distorted image of God presented to us by religion is far away from reality, and as a result it turns people away from Him instead of attracting them to Him.

Let's read the following passage from 1 Corinthians, and where the word "love" is(according to 1 John 4:16) we put "God":

"God suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; God braggs not Himself, is not puffed up,

Does not behave Himself unseemly, seeks not His own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;

Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." 1Cor. 13:4-7

One of the greatest truths of the Gospel that will change your life is to understand that God loves you just as you are.

He loves you so much that if you understand it, you will not want to stay as you are. You will begin to change, not to gain His love, but this change will be the fruit of His love that works within you.

The nature of God has always been love.

Amen;