I thank God to be alive to share my story with you. I believe that every life is a Miracle created by God for a special purpose. And it is only as you begin to discover this purpose will your life be truly satisfying. I thank God for bringing me to Uzbekistan to meet some of the most wonderful people here in Nukus. Although it was a difficult time with the pandemic, I learned a lot about myself and Central Asia. Some of the most difficult moments can be some of your best moments as well if you allow God to reveal himself to you. I found that this year, God taught me things about myself that I could not have learned otherwise without the hardship and trouble. It was just a few weeks before the New Year that several teachers in our school reported that they tested positive for Covid. Although most were told to self-isolate, a few of us had to go to the hospital for quarantine. I was one of those teachers. It was the most difficult three days of my life that I had to endure because I could not communicate with the hospital staff. I prayed to God and asked my church back home to pray for me. So often in life, we think we are in control but in reality, we control very little. I learned that God was in charge, and I had to trust him to get me out. After three days, my supervisor said that I had a negative test and was allowed to leave. Glory be to God!
As an English and Mathematics educator of children, I have found my experience working in Nukus, Uzbekistan to be most refreshing. The students here are extremely friendly and respectful to adults and want to please their teachers. As one who has sought to fulfil the great commission of our Lord Jesus Christ, I find the “4-14 window” quite challenging. Most people have heard of the “10-40 window” which speaks of the geographical region and the location of this population being in East Asia, Central Asia and North Africa. The “4-14” window speaks however of the age of this people group. It encompasses around a quarter of the world population. It is to this population between the ages of 4 to 14 that I am hoping to encourage and teach some of the most basic understanding about life and the world we live in. Some of the most difficult questions in life can be answered simply but having a good understanding of who Jesus is and His Gospel. Hence, I have written this book for both educators and parents of youth in the age bracket and beyond.
My daughter Maggie who is 15 told me that kids in this age bracket do not read so reaching them may present some difficult challenges. This generation is at a lost in terms of their identity and direction. Without a moral compass from the word of God, the “4-14 window” is lost to the world and the devil. Having spoken to a youth group here in Uzbekistan, young people are looking to the older generation for affirmation and support. They have been told that they are seedlings with great potential to grow, be fruitful and multiply. However, many also know that they are reaching the end of history seeing the signs of the times of Matthew 24. What they need most is our time and listening ears so they can have hope, courage, strength to endure, and faith to move ahead. We will rule as kings and priests in the new world if we will remain faithful to our King Jesus (Luke 19:11-26)
We will cover the following topics – sin, Satan, salvation, kingdom of heaven, repentance, man, God, creation, Holy Spirit, Jesus, etc.)
How can I be good when everything is bad?
What does it mean to love God and my neighbors?
How can I follow Jesus and God’s Spirit today?
Who is God and what is he like?
What is sin and where did it come from?
Who is Satan and what is his role in this world?
What is the gospel of the kingdom?
Introduction:
Every time I see a baby being born; I am witnessing a miracle. I don't know how many times this has happened in the world, but I do know that I have watched my dearest Anne give birth to our three beautiful daughters. They are older now but when I think back, they were all exciting experiences filled with awe and wonder. As soon as the baby comes into the world and takes its first breath, a new journey begins. It is a Miracle created by God that no one could imagine can happen to you, but it did. The fact that you are reading this is because God thought of you before you could even think. Our life is not an accident. The Bible says that we are all wonderfully and fearfully made. I was born in Hong Kong in January of 1962. I am an Asian American who converted to become a follower of Jesus at the age of nineteen. Having emigrated from Hong Kong to the United States at the young age of six, I did not have a strong ethnic identity as a Chinese. My family ties and relationships were also very weak. My grandmother ritualistically practiced Buddhism but the rest of my family abstained. My childhood remains a blur except after I arrived in America when I started pursuing some kind of meaning for my life. Why am I here? Who am I? Does life have a meaning or purpose? These were some of the questions I wrestle with even at the age of nine. At the age of fifth teen, I discovered that the bible actually answered some of these questions when a blind man would stop in the Carvel ice cream store where I was working to drop off bible tracts with verses in them. At the age of nineteen, I attended a Christian family retreat in upstate, New York. It was there that I got to ask all of these rather philosophical questions. For the first time, the answers I received satisfied my search for reality. The youth pastor and his friend who came to my cabin while the program was going on caught my attention. I was impressed by the fact that they would rather spend time with me than with the rest of the people outside. They patiently answered my questions about the meaning of life. One thing I remember was that they said this life was a test. Where I would end up was determined by how I respond to this test. God tests us for various reasons. There is a heaven and a hell. Up until that point, I knew I was going to hell. I was a compulsive liar and would try to deceive people all the time. I also had many sinful habits that I could not break even though I tried. When they shared the gospel with me that I did not have to go to hell, I began to listen. Although I did not understand everything, I did accept the fact that Jesus died for me and that I could be forgiven. It was such a relief to know that I may not have to be punished forever for all my wrong doings. I did whatever I could to escape hell including to accept Jesus as my savior. Today, I have a much better understanding of who I am, the meaning of life, and where we are heading. It is my prayer that young people today can receive much help from some of the topics covered in this book, have their questions answered, and find the direction in life that will lead them to God, joy in the Holy Spirit, and heaven.
How can I be good when everything is bad?
There was a time when I was a teenager that I would do everything in my power to change my life. I knew of the shame and guilt feelings I had when I was cursing people out and hating almost everyone for no reason. I had a foul mouth and would curse people often. I was also addicted to porn at a young age. In addition, I was a compulsive liar and did not know how to stop lying. On occasion, I would shoplift at stores that I knew were easy to leave without anyone seeing. A lot of my friends at the time were doing similar things so I knew I was in good company. My world was controlled by the devil, and I had absolutely no control over my life. One of the greatest difficulties was I could not concentrate for any length of time. It was as if my mind was controlled by another entity. It still amazes me when I realize that I got through high school in this kind of condition without reading more than just a few books and having cheated on multiple exams and papers.
Although I knew I was bad, I did not want to stay that way. I hated the way I was living my life and wanted to change desperately. However, the more determined I was to try to change, the more frustrated I became because any change of habits I initiated would work for a brief amount of time but then I would go right back to my old habits with more intensity. The change was only temporary. It was like trying not to eat for a while and then getting hungry again and end up eating even more as a result. What a wretch I was when I found out all my attempts to break my sinful habits were absolutely futile. When I became a believer and saw my life change, I realized that it was God who did it and the change was permanent. One of our tendencies is to blame everything on our upbringing or our environment. I used to tell people that I could not change myself and people needed to accept me the way I was swearing, lying and being absent-minded all the time. I would say that was the way I was taught growing up with the people I hung out with. My Parents did not care about me since they were always busy working and never home. Of course, I was going to be bad with no good role models around to follow. So, who can blame me?
This may sound logical at first, but the bible says that we all have a sin nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve. So, the fault is with our sin nature which has a leaning or bent towards evil and rebellion against God. We can see this in the story found in Genesis. The story at the beginning after God created the world in six days, he made Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden. Adam was told that he could eat from every tree in the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that was located at the middle of the garden. However, the serpent tempted Eve to take of the fruit from that tree and she ate and gave some to Adam to eat as well. When they did that, their eyes became opened and saw that they were both naked in the garden. Their perfect fellowship with God was broken with this first sin we see, and nothing was the same afterwards. A great curse fell on the man and woman as well as the serpent. The ground of the earth became cursed so that things began to decay and die with age. Eventually both were kicked out of the Garden of Eden preventing them from eating from the tree of life.
Disobedience was not only a problem with our Adam and Eve but with all of us as human beings. You don’t have to wait long to see a baby or child do what you tell them not to do or to not do what you tell them to do. It is this sinful nature that we must all deal with if we will have any hope to become good. It has been foretold in the Old Testament that a savior would come and save us from our sin and self. Jesus Christ would come to destroy this sin nature in us by nailing it to a cross. Jesus is God’s one and only Son who died for the sins of mankind. 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” And in 3:18, it says, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” Our only hope to be good is to have Christ’s righteousness in us and not our own. Jesus lived a perfect life and never sinned, so he is able to offer us his perfect righteousness.
In Romans 1:17, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last or from faith to faith, just as it is written: the righteous will live by faith.” And so, we receive Christ’s righteousness by faith. It appears that as our faith in Christ grows, we will be made increasingly more righteous in our obedience to God in action and attitude as God reveals more of our personal shortcomings and weaknesses. Repentance is an act of the will to turn away from sin and turn towards God. Repentance comes before faith in Christ. True biblical faith according to James leads to good works and a righteous attitude and behavior. Satan also believes in God, but he does not have the right kind of faith because he does not obey God and his deeds are evil.
I remember when I was first exposed to the truth of the gospel, my struggle was not in the acceptance of the message but rather my unwillingness to change my way of life. I found my sins too pleasurable to give up. I could not bring myself to repentance towards God although I knew some of the things I was doing was wrong. There came a point in my life that I knew I was on my way to hell if I did not change and I really did want to change. People began praying for me in church and my sister Janet invited me to a Christian camp where I made a decision to repent of my sins and trust Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life. I believe that on this side of heaven, we will never be truly good. In Mark 10:18, Even Jesus said to the rich young ruler, “why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” However, one day when we see Jesus face to face, we will be made perfect. Hebrews 11:40, speaking of those who had gone before us in faith, “God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Are you excited for that day to come?
What does it mean to love God and my neighbors?
I am always amazed every time people ask questions, they already have an answer to. In some ways, I feel this is one of those kinds of questions. On one occasion, an expert in the law went before Jesus to ask him, “What must I do to gain eternal life? Jesus replied, what is written in the Law and how do you read it? He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus then said “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.” But the expert in the law wanted to justify himself so he asked Jesus, “so who is my neighbor?” Jesus went on to tell the story of the good Samaritan who helped a man who was robbed along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. In the end, it was recognized that it was the person needing help who was our neighbor. Too often, we want to justify ourselves when we don’t want to do what we know is the right thing to do. We know the people who are in need around us but like the first two people on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho who passed him by, we get too busy to stop and help.
One of the biggest problems of our society is that we are so distracted by the good things in life that we cannot hear God speaking to us to help a neighbor in need. The speed of life is sometimes going so fast that we cannot even feel what is going on in our own hearts let alone what God is saying to us at any given moment. Our God is a personal God and speaks to us all the time. However, when our relationship with God becomes broken due to neglect or sin, that is when the problem begins. Entire churches today are living in a backslidden state, and some do not even know it. They go through the motion of having weekly worship service, but God is not impressed. In many cases, God has left the service, and the people just continue to carry on with their religious rituals without him. Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and fellowship with them.” If just one person from such a backslidden church would repent and seek God out on behalf of such a church, there is a hope to get God to come back.
If you are reading this and sense that you have left God or that God has left you, then get down on your knees and repent. Remember the place where you have fallen and return to your first love. Do the things you did at first when you came into a personal relationship with the living God. If you have been a Christian for a long time and are not excited about God for any length of time, you may be going through the motions. When everything becomes habit or duty and there is no more excitement in following God, then you have forsaken your first life. You can pray, “Lord Jesus, I am so sorry that I have walked away from you without knowing it. I have strayed from the father like the prodigal son who decided to leave the security and safety of your presence to go off in doing things on my own without the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit. I confess that my spiritual life is dry and I often do things out of habit or duty rather than out of joy and love for you. I confess that I no longer consult you and just do what I feel like doing most of the time. Please forgive me Holy Spirit that I have neglected or grieved you in any way. Please come back into my life. Help me to remember the place where I have fallen. I want to return to my first love and do the things I did at first when you initially called me, and I responded in the affirmative. Like the apostle Simon Peter who denied you three times, come and restore my first love to you. I don’t want to go back to my old way of life. Restore my relationship and love for you. Restore my life calling also like you did for Peter. Help me to trust you in every moment of life not to live life by my own strength and wisdom but to live under the power of the Holy Spirit so I can do all that is well pleasing to you. I ask you to lead my life every day from now on in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Amen”
We have been given a mandate since the beginning when Adam was told to increase and multiply and rule over all the living creatures on the earth. This implies that we are responsible for our role in being care takers of the earth. Even after Adam and eve got kicked out of the garden, they were still expected to fulfil this mandate from heaven. When their sons Cain and Abel were preparing their offerings to God, Abel found God’s approval while Cain did not. Abel offered the best of his fatted calf and Cain offered up some kind of grain offering as a farmer. However, God accepted Abel’s offering while rejecting Cain. This was too much for Cain to bear so he killed his brother Abel out in the field. We can see from this action that Cain’s heart was filled with envy and he could not accept rejection. Today, we see hatred and acts of violence on the street because we have not learned how to love God or our neighbors.
Many of us go through life completely unaware of what is going on inside emotionally. We are so accustomed to numbing ourselves and deadening our feelings or senses because of all the emotional pain and guilt we carry around. Often, we live in an escapism mentality because we don’t want to face ourselves or reality. There are so many illegal and over-the-counter drugs we consume so we can ease our sorrows. We live in a fallen and broken world and the only way to help fix it is to stay awake no matter how that may feel. God understands our feelings, but we are not to live according to our feelings. Sin and Satan have marred and corrupted our world so much that we sometimes do not want to live in such a world. Satan deceives people into thinking that suicide is the answer. Scripture says we should submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from us. Man was created spirit, soul, and body. Our feelings live in the soul, but we must allow our spirit to direct our lives. Our spirit is able to communicate with God. The bible teaches us to watch and pray so we don’t fall into temptation. No matter what sin you may have committed or fallen into, it is never too late to come back to him. Scripture says this is love: not that we loved God but that God first loved us and sent His Son Jesus as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. And if God so loved us, we should also love one another (1 John 4:10-11). Receiving God's love and forgiveness through Jesus is the first step to loving God and our neighbors.
How can I follow Jesus and God’s Spirit today?
Jesus called the disciples to follow him in the gospels. Today, he is doing the same. When he first met Simon Peter, he was out fishing and had not caught anything. While he was washing his net, Jesus climbed into one of the boats that belong to Peter and began to teach. After he finished, Jesus told Peter to let down the net that he had just finished cleaning for a catch. And when Peter did this, they caught such a large number of fish that the net began to break. So, he signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help. And they came and filled both boats so full of fish that they began to sink. At this, Peter fell at Jesus’ knee and said, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” In the realization that Jesus was no ordinary man, he realized his sinful state and we also need to realize our sinful state before we can follow Jesus. Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Don’t be afraid, from now on you will catch men.”
To follow Jesus, we must first recognize our sinful state and as Peter did, count ourselves unworthy of following him. Before a holy God, we see our wretchedness, sin and our deserving of judgement. Like Peter, Isaiah said, “I am doomed because I am a man of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:1-5) There is no getting around this fact that we are all unclean and cannot compare ourselves with God who is perfectly righteous. All our righteous acts are like filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) Only when we recognize this and humble ourselves to acknowledge our need for God does he clean us up and cover us. We begin to repent of our sinful ways and to accept his grace and mercy. This is a pattern we find throughout the bible – sin, judgment, repentance, reprieve, and sin again. Man falls back to sin which is our natural tendency sometimes called the sinful nature, and we have had this since the fall of Adam back in Genesis. In and of ourselves, no one would choose to follow God. However, when we recognize this and put to death our sins, we begin to seek the help of the Holy Spirit to put down our sinful nature so we can follow him. This is to be done on an ongoing and consistent bases as Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Putting away selfish interests and desires is to be done on a daily basis as well as being willing to endure no matter what may come our way are necessary if we are to become his disciples.
There are certain requirements in receiving the Holy Spirit. First, putting away all known sins. Second, definite trust in the power of the blood of Christ to cleanse from all unrighteousness as in 1 John 1:9. Third, obedience right up to the edge of light through the word of God. Forth, full surrender to God as his entirely, with not one thing clung to and withheld from him. Fifth, the act of faith in which the believer, fulfilling these conditions take the gift of the Holy Spirit as simply as he received the gift of eternal life through Christ. I believe these simple steps can help us know and come close to the Holy Spirit as given by Jessie Penn Lewis.
Fasting, prayer, and giving are also said to be ways of getting closer to the Holy Spirit because they push against the sins of lust, pride, and greed. Romans 7 and 8 talk about the conflict between the flesh or sinful nature and the Holy Spirit. They are in opposition to one another so you may not do what you want. We must choose to be led of the spirit and not the sinful nature if we want to please God. The deeds done by the sinful nature led to death, but the deeds done by the spirit lead to life and peace. Perhaps the best way to know the Holy Spirit is to apply the principle of Matthew 7 where we are told to ask, seek, and knock. If we continue to ask, seek, and knock, this gift of the Holy Spirit will be given to us. Our heavenly father desire to give good gifts to his children and what is more appropriate than to ask and seek for the gift of the Holy Spirit? He is the best gift of all to receive because He is a person who wants to lead us in what is best for us. And he knows us better that we know ourselves! (Romans 8:28)
In the first century, Jesus appeared to his disciples on the road to Emmaus and explained to them the kingdom of God. When he came back to life after he was put to death, he showed himself to his disciples over a period of 40 days teaching them about the kingdom. Jesus is the king of kings and lord of lords. When his disciples asked when his kingdom would be established, they were eager to find out when the nation of Israel would have him as the everlasting king as promised in the covenant given to King David. Someday, he will rule on the throne of his father David and his kingdom of Righteousness will never end.
Who is God and what is He like?
God is almighty. He is holy and just. God is sovereign and in control of everything. Sometimes we cannot understand all the things that happen, but God does. God is the creator, and we are his creatures. He has our best interests in mind even when we cannot understand everything that happens. He is also the judge and knows everything. The bible says that we cannot hide from him, and everything is laid bare before him. One day, we will all have to give an account of everything we have said and done to Him. The dominate character of God is that he is holy and just. Holiness means belonging to God or separated for his purpose and use. It also means perfect, sinless, without flaw or impurity. God is transcendent and imminent at the same time. The bible says that no one can see the face of God and live. And yet he is a personal God who can be known and loved.
On a more personal level, I came to know God through people in church who told me about the Bible. Although, I did not read the whole bible, I was able to read a little here and there. My understanding of God was very shallow but through others who knew God better than I did, they explained God’s word more clearly and were able to answer a lot of life’s most basic questions. What is God like? Why do I exist? What happens after I die? I discovered later on that the Bible has an answer to all of these questions and answers them thoroughly. I was satisfied with the Bible’s answer to all of these questions when no one else was able to answer in a way that made sense. When I finally accepted the Bible to be true at the age of 19, everything opened up to me spiritually and a whole new dimension of life came alive. God gave me hope and a future which changed my life completely. I was no longer under the control of the dark forces of the enemy when I discovered who God was in the promised savior Jesus Christ.
In the history of the Jews, we can see God’s patience with his chosen people. This people is described by God as a stubborn and stiff neck people who are always disobeying God. Their history is full of idol worship and departing from God and yet God does not give up on them. Jesus Himself was Jewish, and it was through him that God brings his people back. The five major narratives in the bible are creation, fall, redemption, restoration, and new creation. The relationship of God with man can be seen more clearly under these headings. The bible also says that God is love and desires a relationship with mankind. God beginning with the man Abraham started to share the nature of God to the rest of mankind, but he failed. Although he is known as the father of the three major religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, he was not able to make completely known to the world who God was during his time. Not until many generations later through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the way to David and down to Joseph and Mary do we see Jesus coming into the scene. He came to enact the plan of God once and for all by offering the perfect sacrifice of himself on the cross for the salvation of mankind. No greater love has anyone than this that a man lay down his life for a friend. Jesus showed us what true love was by sacrificing his life for us. All of us have failed God and sinned. But Jesus died to pay for all the sin and mistakes that we have made so we can be forgiven by God. This is the good news that ought to be shared with everyone. No one is beyond hope in this life because Jesus is alive now. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, the Bible says he did not stay dead but was brought back to life on the third day and appeared to many people. Someday we will be too if we place our trust in Jesus. His life is an everlasting life, and he will not die again. God is glorious and full of light. In him there is no darkness at all.
The Bible also says that God is a consuming fire. In Romans 1, it says he is angry at all the evil practices and injustices in the world. If you ever heat up milk in the microwave oven or simmer it in a pot, you have to watch it carefully or it could boil over and make a mess. God’s anger is like that in that it simmers for a while and if we don’t watch it carefully and continue on our path of hiding the truth in our rebellion and stubbornness, his anger will turn into judgment. One day, he will pour out his wrath on all the senseless violence, wickedness and sin we see in our world today. Although God is patient, he is also a God of justice. God loves mankind and wants to protect it.
What is sin and where did it come from?
Sin is anything that is counter to or against God’s will. It is disobedience and rebellion against God himself. Sin is missing the mark. As mentioned before, God loves us and wants the best for mankind, but we sin by seeking to upend this with our destructive behavior and evil practices. Man is made in the image of God and anytime when we don’t act accordance to his love and justice, we are out of God’s will. This type of suppression and distortion of his love and justice is sin. Sin is godlessness and unrighteousness. God is angry at sin and will judge it. In Romans 1, it says that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. To put it simply, God is good, and man has become bad because of sin. To say it in another way, God is good, and we are not.
The Bible says that all have sinned. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. Jesus paid the penalty of our sins by dying in our place on the cross. God will judge our sins, and it is up to us whether we will accept Jesus Christ to take our place as a substitute to receive this judgment from God or not. That is good news. If we accept this perfect sacrifice, our sins can be forgiven. I think all of us know that we are not perfect. We have all made mistakes and done something wrong in our life at one time or another. Some may ask the question whether we can somehow make up for it. We try to do good works to make up and cover up the bad. However, this does not work because the Bible says that all our good works and efforts are like filthy rags to God. It requires someone who is perfect and sinless to offer up such sacrifice and his name is Jesus. Only his perfect and all sufficient work of salvation counts to God. Acts 4:12 says, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” I Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.”
Some may ask where this sin came from? For this we must go back to the story of the beginning in Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the six days of creation after God made everything, he created man in his own image. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. In the metanarrative of the Bible, we have creation, fall, redemption, restoration, and new creation. In the Garden of Eden, we see the fall of man. While Adam and Eve were living in the garden, they had a perfect relationship with God. One day, the snake who is the most cunning out of all the animals God had made went up to Eve and he asked, “Did God really say that you can’t eat of any of the trees in the garden?” Eve said, “No, God said we can eat from all of the trees in the garden. It’s just the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that is in the middle of the garden that we cannot eat from.” God said if we even touch the fruit from that tree, then we will die.
The snake said, “That’s not true. God knows that if you eat from that tree, then you will become like him and you will know good and evil.” When Eve saw how good the fruit looked, she was convinced the snake was right, so she took some and ate it. She gave some to Adam who was with her, and he ate it too. Immediately they realized that they were naked and for the first time, they were ashamed. So, they took some leaves to make coverings for themselves. Later that day, they heard God walking in the garden and they were afraid, so they hid from him from among the trees in the garden. God called out, “Adam, where are you?” Adam said I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid from you. God said who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat from? Adam said, “Well, the woman you created, she gave me some of the fruit and I ate it.” God said to Eve, “What have you done?” Eve said, “Well, the snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit.” God said to the snake, “Because you have done this, you are cursed, and you will crawl on your belly and eat dirt forever. You and Eve will be enemies. Your descendants and her descendants will be enemies. You will bite her descendant’s heel, but he is going to crush your head.” God said to Eve, “Because you have eaten the fruit, it will be very painful for you to give birth and have children. You will want to control your husband, but he is going to rule over you.” God said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit, the ground is cursed, and it will grow thorns and weeds. You going to have to work really, really hard to be able to eat anything from it.” Notice that the cause of sin is pride. By putting the “I” at the center, we have the words sin, pride, and crime. God should be put first and center, not I. Oftentimes we try to play the role of God and end up sinning.
Who is Satan and what is his role in the world?
When God was creating everything, he also created spirit creatures called angels. Sometime people can see angels and sometimes they can’t. God created the angels to serve him and to worship him. But some of the angels stopped worshipping God and rebelled against him. These fallen angels became to be known as demons and God sent them away from him. They went into the world and their leader is named Satan who is known as the devil. God has made all people in his image, but Satan and his demons are at work today deceiving all of them. But God has declared his judgment on Satan and his demons that one day at the end of time, he will throw them in the fire that will never go out.
The Bible says that Satan is the ruler of this world in John 12:31 signifying his capabilities. This is not to say that he rules the world completely. God is still sovereign and is in absolute control. But it does mean that God, in His infinite wisdom, has allowed Satan to operate in this world within the boundaries God has set for him. When the Bible says Satan has power over the world, we must remember that God has given him domain over areas that have been ceded or forfeited to him. In Genesis, God gave man the responsibility and authority to rule and care for the world. However, through deception and trickery, Adam and Eve gave up that authority by sinning. Satan is the author of sin and has dominion over sin. He rules wherever there is sin and by man’s sinning, they lost control over the world in which they were supposed to rule. This will all change when Jesus returns and establishes his new kingdom on earth with believers having a share in it. Jesus says in the end, “Behold, I make all things new.”
One of the lies of Satan is the belief that man can earn God’s favor by a certain act or acts. In almost every false religion, meriting God’s favor or earning eternal life is a predominant theme. Earning salvation by works, however, is contrary to the Bible. Man cannot work to earn God’s favor and eternal life is a free gift according to Ephesians 2:8-9. And that free gift is available through Jesus Christ and Him alone. You may ask why mankind does not simply receive the free gift of salvation. The answer is that Satan, the god of this world, has tempted mankind to follow his pride instead. Satan sets the agenda, the unbelieving world follows, and mankind continues to be deceived. It is no wonder that Scripture calls Satan a liar in John 8:44.
To see how Satan fell from heaven, we can go to Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-15. Satan fell because of pride. He desired to be God, not to be a servant of God. Notice the many “I will...” statements in the two passages. Isaiah and Ezekiel describe Satan as an exceedingly beautiful angel. Satan was likely the highest of all angels, the anointed cherub, the most beautiful of all of God’s creations, but he was not content in his position. Instead, Satan desired to be God, to essentially “kick God off His throne” and take over the rule of the universe. Satan wanted to be God, and interestingly enough, that is essentially what Satan tempted Adam and Eve within the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:1-5. It would be more accurate to say God cast Satan out of heaven.
Now the serpent was most crafty than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” The serpent questioned God’s goodness and deceived Eve into eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She also gave some to Adam and he ate as well. Both their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked. In seeking to be wise, they became fools to the serpent’s deception and lie. Satan who was the first to rebel against God is now deceiving man to follow him in disobedience. He has led a third of the angels to follow him in rebellion and these today are known as fallen or dark angels or demons. They are active in the spiritual realm deceiving mankind to sin and oppose God.
What is the gospel of kingdom?
The gospel of the kingdom is the good news that there is coming a day when this kingdom arrives. The phrase gospel of the kingdom and references to the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven are used repeatedly in connection with the Lord Jesus and His work on earth. The word gospel simply means good news, and the term kingdom means the realm in which a sovereign king rules. Throughout the New Testament, the word kingdom consistently refers to the rule of Christ in the hearts of believers, since, for the time being, Christ’s kingdom is not of this world according to John 18:36.
When Jesus began His three-year earthly ministry, He preached the kingdom of God. The Bible gives a concise description of Jesus’ primary focus during His time on earth: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” When asked to define His kingdom, Jesus explained it this way: The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. . .. The kingdom of God is in the midst of you according to Luke 17:20-21. Romans 14:17 says that the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking but is a matter of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The gospel of the kingdom is the good-news message of repentance, redemption, and restoration offered by God to all who will receive Christ through faith. Those who accept this offer become part of His eternal kingdom. Those who choose to remain in their sin cannot be a part of this kingdom according to 1 Corinthians 6:9–10. Although grace makes this offer available to anyone who will receive it, Jesus warned that it would be very difficult to enter His kingdom and few would do so.
The gospel of the kingdom is the news that there is freedom from our slavery to sin if we will repent and turn to God according to Romans 6:18-19. Our Redeemer has come, but it is difficult to enter God’s kingdom, not because God requires impossible standards for us, but because we do not want to repent and change. We tend to love the darkness more than the Light. Many would rather cling to their old sinful identities than allow Jesus to create them anew.
Those who receive the gospel of the kingdom become citizens of heaven and are freed from bondage to this world. 2 Corinthians 5:20 refers to God’s children as ambassadors for our heavenly Father. Just as an earthly foreign ambassador retains his national identity when representing his country in another, the spiritual ambassadors of God’s kingdom owe their allegiance to God even as they reside in this world. We must follow our heavenly Father’s code of conduct while sojourners on earth. We need not conform to this world’s habits, values, and lifestyle, because this is not our home.
Jesus said My kingdom is not of this world in John 18:36. So, although we must live here until God calls us home, we are not to live for ourselves or according to this world’s value system. Those who have been bought by the blood of Jesus have been given the right to live according to God’s value system. Citizens of the kingdom of God live here on assignment from our Father the King. Living with a kingdom mindset empowers us to make wiser decisions as we invest our lives in furthering the gospel of the kingdom.
Conclusion:
The Bible is God’s words. Although it has human authors, they were inspired by the Holy Spirit when they were writing its message. There are over 40 authors from all walks of life spanning a period of over 2000 years. Although these people who wrote in the Bible did not know each other, their message which was inspired by the Holy Spirit became one cohesive message of hope of the promised savior. The Bible is God’s story flowing from beginning to end telling the history of the human race. It begins with the story of creation, then fall, then salvation and restoration, then new creation. God is reversing everything that Satan’s rebellion began in the fall of man to make room for the new heaven and new earth in the last days found in the book of revelation. When Adam and Eve listened to the serpent in the garden and ate of the tree which they were not supposed to eat of, they found themselves naked and ashamed for the first time. Their relationship with God was perfect before this until Satan deceived them into disobeying God. This has led to the curse we see in today’s world in the form of all kinds of sin and evil within the human heart.
Although we do not know the exact origins of Satan, we do know that he was once a Cherub who had led in the worship of God until one day he stopped worshipping God. He is also known as the fallen angel that led a third of heaven’s angels to rebel against God. But since they are no match for God, they are trying to destroy God’s creation instead. And at the forefront of these attacks are aimed at humans who are made in the image of God. In Ezekiel 28:15, it says, “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until wickedness was found in you.” There is a spiritual warfare going on in the spiritual realm. It is a battle between two kingdoms. It is a battle between good and evil, a battle between God’s army vs. Satan and his host of fallen dark angels. Mankind is caught in the middle of this battle, and we cannot escape this dilemma we are in.
I remember that before I became a Christian, I was in all kinds of bondage. My grandmother was a Buddhist, and we had an altar in our home in Hong Kong that we burned incense to. I still remember some of the horror dreams I had at night where I was being attacked by monsters. Much of my life was controlled by fear as I reflect upon the reality of ghosts and demons. I did not know God at this time, but I was aware of the spiritual realm around me. I knew there was a spiritual world especially when we were worshipping idols in our home. After coming to America, one might think that I have escaped that kind of environment. Little did I realize that that even after I became a believer, I still had many demons inside of me that needed to be cast out. One night while I was sleeping, I let out a scream so loud that my entire family came to the room where I was sleeping. My sister who was in the same room had a blanket over her head because she was so scared. My body was lifted off of the bed where I was sleeping, and I was laying on the floor while demons were coming out. I cried out to Jesus to save me, and seven demons left as I cried out multiple times. I was completely calm after this happened, but the neighborhood dogs were all barking, and my uncle also came up to my room to see what was happening. I felt as though I was being pushed out into outer darkness. It was the most frightening experience I had but it taught me the reality of spiritual darkness and of Satan. Although I do not remember when the demons had entered, I do know that even after conversion to Christ, some of these past demons that had entered need to be expelled. This happened in 1989-1990, a few years after my Christian conversion. What this tells me is that we are in a spiritual warfare and the Devil seeks to control and attack whenever he can. He hates each and every one of us because we are made in the image of God, and that image haunts him. He cannot stand God and any reminder or image of God here on planet earth.
Our only hope is to place our faith in the promised savior Jesus Christ. He came to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus said, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." It is so good to be free!
