COREY'S BELIEF GIVES US PEACE

The Bible speaks of new beginnings many times.  The first book, Genesis, is named for the beginning, and starts out with, "In the beginning...."   In Chapter Four, we are told that men began to call upon the name of the Lord (YHVH).   It took three generations before man understood his need for God's help.  Adam's son, Seth, had a son, Enosh, and only then did man begin calling on the Lord.  We are such slow learners.

The Gospel of John starts with the same three words: "In the beginning...."  The next word(s) in Genesis One, and in John One, describe the same person, but the Lord used different ways to say it.  In Genesis, it is "God." In John, it is "was the Word."  To those unfamiliar with the Bible, "the Word" is a title for Jesus.   If one reads the entire first verse of John, it is clear that Jesus is God;  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."   Then in verse fourteen, John tells us that "...the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth."

So did Jesus begin at the moment of His conception, at His birth, or some other time?  The answer is that He did not have a beginning!   He is God, and God is eternal.  Over and over again, Jesus speaks of being with the Father before the foundation of the world, which by the way, Jesus created (Jn. 1:1-3; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; and Heb. 1:1-2).   He told His opponents that He lived before Abraham (Jn. 8:58).   And, in John 17:5, Jesus prays to the Father and says, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."  The Son of God had no beginning, but He chose to become a man in order to die for us (Phil. 2:5-8).  And because He made that choice, you and I can have a new beginning.  Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, that when we believe in Christ, we become a new creature (creation).  We begin a new life, a new life that will have its final change when we see Jesus and are immediately changed into His likeness (1 Jn. 3:2).

On October 7th, my eldest grandson, at the age of twenty-nine, entered into the presence of God.  Because he had believed the Gospel that says Jesus died for his sin, that He was buried, and that He rose again, according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4), Corey was transformed into Christ's likeness!  He no longer struggles with the trials and temptations of this world, but is now experiencing that for which all born again believers long:  the peace and joy of being in the presence of Almighty God!

If you were to die today, would your loved ones know you are with Jesus?