Tag: Return to God

  • Return to God

    Return to God

    Return to God

    Just as Moses said in the Book of Psalm, our life on this earth is but trouble and sorrow and it quickly pass, and we fly away to death in the end. (Psalm 90:9) Then why are we living the life of hardships and troubles on this earth?

    The Parable of Garden of Eden

    God teaches us the reason through the parable of the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden lived Adam and Eve. Their life was prosperous, and everything was provided to them, even eternal life by eating from the tree of life. However, one day, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. Since they disobeyed the words of God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were cast out from the paradise to the cursed land which produced thorns and thistles instead of the tree of life.

    This story of the Garden of Eden is a parable given to us to teach us about our origin and our life on this earth. We were once in the Garden of Eden (the Heavenly Kingdom) with God and other angels, but due to our disobedience we were sent down to this earth, the land of sufferings. We broke the heavenly law, and practiced lawlessness or committed sins. And because of the lawlessness and sins, we were separated from God. Because we were sent away from God and His blessings, we are in the agony of death on this earth.

    Separation From God Due to our Sins

    Isaiah 59:1 Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

    Then how can we restore to the Garden of Eden our Home and live in joy and happiness with God again? Is there any way we can go back to the paradise again? The bible teaches we can go back to the Garden of Eden and eat from the tree of life again. To return to God, the very first thing that we need is to receive the forgiveness for our sins we committed in heaven. Since we were sent out due to our sins, it is natural that we should receive the forgiveness of our sins to go back to God and heaven.

    The Forgiveness of Sins Through the Passover

    Then how can we receive the forgiveness of sins to return to God? 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ taught us the way to receive the forgiveness of sins and return to God. On the night of the Passover, Jesus took bread and wine, which represents his flesh and blood, and gave to the disciples, teaching them that they could receive the forgiveness of sins through the Passover.

    Matthew 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

    Returning To God through the Passover

    By giving us the new covenant, Jesus opened the way to the Garden of Eden again that we may return to God. When we keep the new covenant Passover, we can return to God and be with God, receiving all the blessings we received from God in heaven again.

    John 6:53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.

    Hezekiah’s Passover

    Once we got separated from God because of our sins, but now we can be with God by keeping the Passover. Therefore, we can be sure that we can go back to God by keeping the Passover. We can confirm this this the bible. In the time of King Hezekiah, the king realized the importance of the Passover and sent his message all over the land, inviting them to keep the Passover. And this was his message to the people.

    2 Chronicles 30:6 At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read: “People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. 7 Do not be like your parents and your fellow Israelites, who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror, as you see. 8 Do not be stiff-necked, as your ancestors were; submit to the Lord. Come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. 9 If you return to the Lord, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.”

    Again and again he earnestly entreated the people of Israel to return to God by keeping the Passover. This message clearly teaches us that the Passover is the way to return to God and receive His blessing.

    The Results of Obedience and Disobedience

    Then what will happen if we do not keep the Passover and return to God? In the story above, despite the message from the king, many people did not listen to him. In those days, the nation of Israel was divided in two kingdoms: southern Judah and northern Israel. The people of Judah obeyed to the message of the king and kept the Passover, but the people of Israel not. Later the two nations had to face completely different consequences due to their action.

    The kingdom of Israel got destroyed by the Assyrian army, but the kingdom of Judah was saved out from the war against Assyria. And God teaches the reason for those results.

    2 Kings 18:12 This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out.

    God teaches that the nation of Israel was conquered by the army because they did not obey the command of God and keep the Passover. On the contrary, the land of Judah was protected from the disasters because they obeyed the command of God.

    Conclusion

    This lesson was given to us as examples. We are living on this earth, going through many sufferings and in the end to death. It is all because of our sins we committed against God in heaven by disobeying his commands. Now God came down to this earth and opened the way to the heaven again by giving the forgiveness of our sins through His own flesh and blood.

    We should not be like the people of Israel who ridiculed and scorned the message of God to their own destruction. Rather, we should obey the words of God and keep the Passover like the people of Judah.

    Christ Ahnsahnghong and God the Mother came down to this earth and opened the way to return to God by restoring the new covenant Passover which Jesus established 2000 years ago. And they are inviting us to return to them and to receive the water of life by keeping the Passover. Now we should not practice lawlessness again and disobey the words of God. We must return to the Spirit and the bride with a mind of humility and keep the Passover. And then they will forgive our sins and take us back to the eternal Garden of Eden.

  • [WMSCOG] Sins Committed By God’s People

    The bible says that the wage of sins is death and everybody suffers the pain of death because everybody committed sins. And also even though they are sinners, Christ came down to this earth and shed his blood to give us the forgiveness of sins so that we can be freed from the sentence of death given to us as sinners. Therefore, not to commit a sin anymore we must understand what sins are and we must eradicate the source of sins from us so that we would not entangle into the same sins over again. Then first we must know what are considered as sins in the eyes of God. What are sins?

    Jeremiah 2:13   “My people have committed two sins:
    They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
    and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

    God teaches us that two things are considered as sins by God: first, forsaking God, and second digging their own cisterns. Then what are the meanings of these verses? First, let us think about God’s rebuking for forsaking God, the spring of living water. What is the living water?

    Isaiah 12:2   Surely God is my salvation;
    I will trust and not be afraid.
    The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense;
    he has become my salvation.”
    3 With joy you will draw water
    from the wells of salvation.

    The living water means “the well of water” that gives salvation. So living water simply means salvation. Let us confirm this through the teaching of Jesus. Christ taught what the living water was to a Samaritan woman.

    John 4:10   Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”  13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

     

    The living water is the spring of water welling up to eternal life. Then who is the source of living water? It means, “Who is the source of eternal life?” It is only God who can give us eternal life. That is why in the Book of Jeremiah God the Father Jehovah said that he is the source of living water and in the Book of John Jesus said that he is the source of living water. It was because Jehovah and Jesus were the names of God given to God’s people in accordance with the plan of God for the salvation of his people. Therefore, the first sin of God’s people of forsaking the source of living water means that they forsook God who could give them eternal life and they depend on themselves or someone else for the salvation.

    sins of God's people seeking the way of salvation by themselves

    If we take a look at the time of Jeremiah, we can understand the situation a little bit better. In those days, God’s people did not obey the commands of God and they depended on different things for salvation both physically and spiritually. In the time of Jeremiah, God warned his people of coming disasters through Prophet Jeremiah so that they might repent of their sins and return to God for the salvation. When the Babylonians invaded the land of Judah and destroyed the city of Jerusalem, God taught them for the reasons of disasters and destruction that came to them.

    Jeremiah 16:10  “When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. 12 But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. 13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

    The reason for the disaster was that they forsook their Savior who could give them salvation and they followed and worshiped different gods. Through this God is teaching us the greatest sin is forsaking the true Savior and following different gods who could not grant salvation. It was not just things that happened in the time of Jeremiah or the Old Testament, but the same thing happened in the time of Jesus and even in our time. Jesus who was the Savior in the Age of Son appeared to God’s people and gave them the new covenant through his flesh and blood that they might receive the salvation, the living water. He taught them, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.”

    But after Jesus’ ascension and the death of his 12 disciples, his people started to forsake Jesus the true Savior and they followed different gods and laws. The law of Sabbath was changed into Sunday worship, the day for the sungod. And the new covenant of the Passover was changed into the Christmas, another day for the sungod worship. These pagan teachings exist even in our time under the excuse of worshiping the true God. But what does God say about those who follow different laws and different gods? God says that they are committing sins and they would not receive salvation because they forsook the source of living water, the true Savior.

    Then what is the second sin of God’s people? It is that they dug their own cistern which cannot hold water. What does this mean? Cistern is a place where you can store the water, in other words, the source of living water. But who prepared this cistern? God should be their cistern, but they prepared their own cistern. However what is the problem with this cistern? It is a broken cistern and cannot hold water. It means it cannot be the source of living water and it cannot give salvation. But instead of depending on God, God’s people they depend on their own ways and methods for the salvation. In the time of Jeremiah, God commanded King Zedekiah to surrender to the Babylonians and go to their land until the appointed time, and then God would bring them back from the Babylonian land to the land of Canaan back again and he would restore them to their own land. But King Zedekiah made an allegiance with the king of Egypt and tried to defeat the Babylonians. He tried to save himself and his country by his own method, disobeying the command of God.

    Jeremiah 36:6   Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: 7 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of me, ‘Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt. 8 Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.’ 9 “This is what the Lord says: Do not deceive yourselves, thinking, ‘The Babylonians will surely leave us.’ They will not! 10 Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn this city down.”

    For the salvation they should have listen to the command of God, but Zedekiah disobeyed and finally he and his sons got captured. All his sons got killed in front of his own eyes and after that his own eyes were put out by the king of Babylon. Let us think about our time. Even though–as the bible says–there are Christians like sands on the seashore, how many of them truly depend on God for salvation? In the time of disasters, God already taught us that we must receive the seal of God through the Passover, and then we will be protected from all the disasters and receive salvation. This was already given through the Passover in the time of Moses as copy and shadow. On the night of the Passover, even though all the Egyptian firstborns got killed by the disaster, but all God’s people who kept the Passover could be protected from the disaster.
     

    Exodus 12:12   “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

    Just as the bible says, today we hear the news of impending disasters. There are climate change, natural disasters, wars, and plagues that can cause pandemic, and all these things can bring about total destruction for all the living things on this earth. To save themselves from these disasters people prepare their own methods such as underground cities, submarines, mountain city, space station or human colonies on moon or other planets. Rather than depending on the words of God for the salvation, they also try to dig their own cisterns which are broken and cannot hold water. Those who depend on themselves will not be able to save themselves.
     

    Amos 9:2 Though they dig down to the depths below,
    from there my hand will take them.
    Though they climb up to the heavens above,
    from there I will bring them down.
    3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
    there I will hunt them down and seize them.
    Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea,
    there I will command the serpent to bite them.
    4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies,
    there I will command the sword to slay them.

    This prophecy was given to Prophet Amos who lived about 750 BC. Through this prophecy God already foretold what people would do to save themselves, but he also said all the man-made things would be useless in the time of disasters. And people would not be able to save themselves with their own method. We are now living in the time of fulfillment of all the prophecies of the bible. As people of God, we must return to God and obey his words for the salvation. In our time, Christ Ahnsahnghong came to us again for the second time and he restored all the truth of the new covenant so that we may receive salvation. Forsaking God and disobeying God’s commands are considered as sins and all the sinners would be put to death according to the words of God. Therefore, now for salvation, we must return to God Ahnsahnghong who is the true Savior in our time and obey his commands.
error: Content is protected !!