0 Introduction We, that is Christians, Muslims and Jews can actually get along, work together and most of all, believe in and worship the same God. We must however, agree to ourselves, that we all may be slightly wrong about God and Jesus and indeed His Holy Spirit etc. When Jesus returns as Messiah, at the right hand side of God the Father Almighty (Allah) and with His Angels to Judge the nations there will be only one religion. It is better for us to accept this concept now or at least be open to it before we actually have to, or shall I say it will be compulsory – but it can actually be easy, at least easier than carrying falsehood. The truth is actually light to carry. How many times as a child when we stubbornly held onto a lie, did we feel burdened, until we told the truth to our parents and alas were ‘released’ like “Wow, that’s better, the truth is out”? People have this habit of mixing tradition up with truth and religion and then for some unknown reason hang onto it for dear life, even unto martyrdom, even though sadly, they may be slightly wrong or distanced from the actual truth about God and His Messiah Jesus all along. Just all I ask is, that you may be willing to bend your ideas to God’s Almighty Will. Amen. The philosopher of the Bible sums up “After all this, there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God and obey His commands, because this is all that man was created for. God is going to Judge everything we do, whether good or bad, even things done in secret.” And “This is all that I have learnt: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated (Ecclesiastes 12 v 13-14 & 7 v 29). November 2013 – all paintings done up to approx. start of book 20/08/2015 start of book 1 Chapter 1: Concepts 11/09/2015 Ezekiel 18 v 21-23 (around 600 BC) “If an evil man stops sinning and keeps My laws, if he does what is right and good, he will not die; he will certainly live. All his sins will be forgiven, and he will live, because he did what was right. Do you think I enjoy seeing an evil man die?” asks the Sovereign Lord. “No, I would rather see him repent and live.” Micah 6 v 6-9 “What shall I bring to the Lord, the God of heaven, when I come to worship Him? Shall I bring the best calves to burn as offerings to Him? Will the Lord be pleased if I bring Him thousands of sheep or endless streams of olive-oil? Shall I offer Him my first- born child to pay for my sins? No, the Lord has told us what is good. What He requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God. It is wise to fear the Lord.” Joel 2 v 32 & 3 v 21 “But all who ask the Lord for help will be saved.” “ .. and I The Lord, will live on Mount Zion.” Jesus (Matthew 5 v 17) “Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law of Moses or the Teachings of the Prophets. I have not come to do away with them, but to make their teachings come true.” Qur’an 9:129 “If they turn away, say, ‘God is enough for me; there is no god but Him; I put my trust in Him; He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne.” Help me Lord to Glorify Your Holy Name. God, Your Wisdom is far beyond my want. Help me Lord to help my neighbour in the best way You see possible. 2 If these words save one life or help somebody in the direction of helping someone else, then it has been worth it. Let us assume that the Lord is good. He has said Himself that He is “Holy” (Leviticus 19 v 2). If we believe that God exists and has created the whole world in all its beauty, the stars, “the whole universe” (Isaiah 66 v 2) and its delicate balances and keeps it going as we know it, then He truly must be amazing. I think many people that doubt the existence of God, by their very doubt, have questioned and even though they haven’t got the answers that they wanted, they have questioned; I pray for them. We all have questions and doubts. Jesus’s last words, “Father why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27 v 46) show that even he had. I can’t tell God to give me this answer, or give me that, because one, we can’t put the Lord our God to the test and two, we must bow to His superior knowledge e.g. that it may not be the right thing for us at that time – there may be a lesson somewhere to be learned etc. Personally, I would love to heal the whole world but I have been given an answer – that the timing isn’t right and that just say I did heal a few people – it wouldn’t be long before I would be a human experiment, with scientific tubes etc. probing me, so I must bow to God’s superior knowledge. The next thing is how great is God? Well assuming He has created the universe, then He truly is Great. For scientifically speaking energy can neither be created nor destroyed but changed from one form to another, but He the Lord our God can create and that in itself is truly amazing, to actually create something from nothing, be it a loaf of bread, a fish or a whole universe. The word ‘infinite’ sometimes pops up but even though our simple explanations of e.g. a straight line going infinitely in both directions we soon run out of time trying to continue the thought, because He is greater than time itself – biblically (Psalms 93 v 2) “Your Throne, O Lord, has been firm from the beginning, and You existed before time 3 began.” Another thing is, if we say ‘big’, He can say ‘Bigger’, and He will win. Time as we know it, is not infinite, it had a beginning and will have an end but He is ‘Immortal’ which is greater than time itself, it just “IS.” He is and He often uses this expression, “I AM” (Exodus 3 v 14-15). He is just Greater than our minds can imagine – it is an acceptance we will all have to come to sooner or later. I’m not trying to give complicated theories; children seem to accept these concepts very easily. So, anything in this book will be understandable by children, the way Christ meant it to be. On the subject of Christ ‘Jesus’, he even simplified the law into two commandments: the first, “We should love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength” and the second, “to love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22 v 34-40 & Mark 12 v 29-31). How simple can it be? Personally, I feel today people are forgetting the first part of these two simple commandments somewhat, and that is fatal, because the greatest commandment is the first. We may try to do everything ourselves today and squeeze God in as an afterthought before going to bed etc. but that’s not good enough. God wants to be first. In the Old Testament His will was frequently sought, for major decisions and minor ones. It was important and still should be. We should seek His will. He relishes the thought of us asking for His guidance. 4 Chapter 2: God Exists There seems to me to be this ‘modern’ idea that God is far away and doesn’t care for the world but God actually wanted to live on earth with humanity. As an ordinary church going Christian, I never really tried to get to know God as He really is until I read the whole bible from cover to cover and then I started to realise that God actually wanted to live with us. As Christians, we seem to forget that for “forty years” during the exodus the Lord lived with the Israelites travelling in a “cloud pillar by day” and “fire pillar by night” (Exodus 40 v 34- 38). He gave them instructions in very fine detail for his sacred Tent (Exodus 26) and years later in Jerusalem, for his sacred Temple (1 Chronicles 28 v 1-21). How can we just leave these as mere afterthoughts? The only reason the Lord abandoned the Temple of the Israelites is their sin. This leaves the very real possibility of the Lord our God returning to live with us if we could just kick the sin thing. On more than one occasion the Lord showed “the dazzling light of the Lord’s presence” (Exodus 40 v 34-38 and 2 Chronicles 7 v 1-3) to the whole Israelite community present. God doesn’t show Himself to us in person because of our sin. Jesus backs this up by saying, “Only the pure of heart will see God” (Matthew 5 v 8). He showed Moses “His back as He passed by” (Exodus 33 v 18-23) and His “Form” (Numbers 12 v 8). Also in Exodus 24 v 9-11 Moses and the leaders saw and ate with God.