Origins
We live in a universe that had an origin: a first cause. We live on a world that had an origin. Both were made by an intelligence outside of the universe who's all powerful, all knowing and not tied down by limitations of space and time. We call that intelligent being God. God made the Earth and all that is in it. The high point of His creation is humankind. In scripture it says "So God created mankind in His own image,in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them." It also says "God saw all that He had made, and it was very good."
So in the beginning God created something that was very good. Scripture also paints a picture of God walking and talking with the first humans, Adam and Eve. In other words they interacted in a personal and relational way. Life really was good...
Bad News
But (you knew this was coming) our first parents weren't content with what they had and were tempted to go for more than God had intended. They wanted knowledge so they could be like God even though God had told them not to. This unfolds in the Bible as the simple act of taking a piece of fruit from a tree, the fruit that God had told them not to. This act of disobedience soured the relationship between God and humankind and brought a spiritual death to our first parents that's passed on to all generations after them. This willful disobedience to God is still in every human born on Earth. Our relationship with Him is broken. Beyond our broken relationship with God, the first act of defiance also brought death and devastation to all of creation. What was once very good, is now not so good.
Our continued defiance against God is what the Bible calls sin and one of the earliest examples it gives is Cain and Abel. "Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’" Cain didn't listen and decided to kill his brother. We've been defying God and looking for reasons to kill each other ever since, it seems. Our relationship with God is broken. Our relationships with others are broken. We're lost, we're broken. We need help.
Good News
Into this broken world steps Jesus. Jesus claimed to be God and proved it by dying and rising from the dead. In dying on the cross He took on Himself our sins and opened the way for us to restore our relationship with God.
What Jesus did for us is a free gift from God. It’s not something we can earn through religious activities or by trying to be a good person - or at least a better than the person next to me. It is a gift. And as with all gifts, you can chose to accept it, reject it or just plain ignore it. If you do accept it, the scriptures say “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
Response
Having read this post, you can't plead ignorance as a reason to not believe, but how do you respond and receive the gift God has given? The scriptures say simply “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Most often this is done through a simple prayer, telling God that you need forgiveness and believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection was sufficient to do so. Nothing more. Nothing less. No rituals. No good works. A free gift.The following website includes a simple prayer that can be prayed to make that first step in following Jesus by receiving His free gift: https://peacewithgod.net/
