Wrestling with God 5

Intro

Don’t all religions teach love and to be morally good in some way?

What’s the real difference?

Does it really matter if I follow your God as long as I am “good” and love people?

Other Religions

name your favorite religion that isn’t Christianity

Islam- stemming from YHWHsm but following Allah- half of them claim a peaceful religion, half claim by word or by sword conversion of the world

worship Allah alone to reach paradise and avoid destruction

Buddhism- following the teachings of the buddha

reaching Nirvana, ending the cycle of death and rebirth, removing greed hatred and envy

Hinduism- polytheism and reincarnation

the ultimate goal is to free your self from the reincarnation cycle through becoming separate from what ties you to the world

HSD- YHWH is different

do these things sound the same as what we are after?

maybe Islam sounds similar but there is an important difference even between those two

Allah and YHWH seem to differ in a very crucial way

Exodus 34:6- Moses pleads with God, knowing the nature of the one who would bare with this people for this long

God will still go in the midst of them despite what they have done because he has something no one or thing else has

Every other religion has the relationship backwards from the way that ours works

in every other case, you need to be devoted to god or gods or some great teacher’s teaching or to your self etc...

we follow a God who is first and foremost devoted to his creation and because of his love for us we try to love him the same way, even though we fail now and again

Application

live and love your God like he loves you

be devoted and loyal and steadfast

not some ambiguous ideal like the rest of the world

John 13:31- John 15:12- how the world will know that we are his, that we have love for one another as he has loved us