under a special agreement with
presents "The Way to Heaven"
under a special agreement with
Lesson 1: What is God Like? (Part 1)
God is so great and so wonderful that we can never know all about Him. But God has given us a wonderful book that tells us what He is like.
This book is the Bible, God's Word. God gave us this wonderful book that we might know the truth about ourselves and about God. The Bible tells us many things about God.
God is Almighty.
This means that God has ALL power in Heaven and in earth. He can do anything. Nothing is too hard for God. The Bible says,
"For with God nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37)
God is Spirit.
Do you wonder why we cannot see God? The reason we cannot see God is that God is a spirit. When God made us He gave us a body. He also gave us a spirit. Our spirit lives in our body. Other people can see our body, but they cannot see our spirit.
God is all spirit. He doesn't have a body like ours. That is why we cannot see Him. The Bible says,
"God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
We cannot see God, but we can know Him, and we can love Him. Knowing God is the most important thing in all the world. It will make us truly happy. When we know God, we will love Him, we will trust Him, and we will worship Him.
God is Glorious
God's glory is so bright that we could not bear to look at Him. We cannot bear to look at the sun when it is shining brightly. It hurts our eyes. If we were to look at it very long, we would lose our sight.
God's glory is much greater and much brighter than the sun. This is why we cannot bear to see Him. God said,
"There shall no man see Me and live." (Exodus 33:20)
The Bible tells us about a man named Moses. Moses was a special friend of God. He talked with God, and God talked with him many times. But Moses never saw God.
One day Moses asked a special favor of God. He said, "Please show me Your glory."
God said to Moses,
"You cannot see My face because no man can see Me and live. But I will hide you in the rocks, and then I will pass by you."
Moses went up on the mountain alone. God hid him between the rocks. Then God caused His glory to pass by Moses. Moses did not see God, but he saw a little bit of God's glory and it made his face shine as bright as the sun.
When Moses came down from the mountain, his face was so bright that the people were afraid of him. It is no wonder that Moses and the people said, "Who is like unto You, O LORD...GLORIOUS in holiness?"
God is Holy
This means that God is pure and perfect and without any sin at all. In the Bible, darkness sometimes stands for sin. The Bible says of God,
"God is light, and in Him is no darkness (no sin) at all." (1 John 1:5)
God is all light and glory. God is pure. God never sins. God always does what is good and right. Nothing sinful can ever stay in God's presence.
The Bible says:
"The Lord our God is holy." (Psalm 99:9)
God once spoke to a prophet named Isaiah in a vision. A vision is like a dream. Isaiah saw a vision of God on His throne. Around His throne were many angels, praising God and saying,
"Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isaiah 6:3)
When Isaiah saw this vision of God, he was afraid. The vision showed him that he was a sinner and that God is holy.
God is Love
This means that God loves us and wants only what is best for us. Though He is the Ruler of the universe with all power and glory, God knows and loves each one of us. He knows you and He loves you.
One of the deepest needs of every person is the need to be loved. We need to be loved as we are, not as others would like for us to be.
One of the wonderful things about God is that He loves us just as we are. He even loves us when we are at our worst. You may say, "But how can I know that God loves me?"
There are two ways we can know that God loves us:
1. We know that God loves us because the Bible says so.
In His Word, God says,
"I have loved you with an everlasting love." (Jeremiah 31:3)
Because God loves us so much, He wants us to love Him. The Bible says,
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." (Matthew 22:37)
This shows us God's nature: God is love. It also shows us what God delights in. He delights in our love. God wants us to love Him. He would not ask us to love Him if He did not love us. But we cannot begin to love God with all our heart until we are born into His family. The Bible is God's love letter to us telling us that He loves us and that He wants us to become His children by trusting Christ as our Saviour.
2. We know that God loves us because He gave His Son to die for us.
The Bible says:
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
This verse says that God loved you and me so much that He gave His only Son, the Lord Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins.
When we believe on the Lord Jesus and take Him as our Saviour, God forgives us of all our sins and makes us His child. We have everlasting life. The Bible says,
"He who believes on the Son has everlasting life." (John 3:36).