Revelation 1:8

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

God created everything for his pleasure. He is the Lord of all. God also created man and he loved man. Man's history started with Adam, who lived in the garden of Eden. In the garden was a tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam not to eat of its fruit, for when he ate of it, he would surely die (Gen 2:16-17).

But Adam ate of the fruit, and as a result his soul died and when his body died it would go to hell (Mat 25:41). But God really loved man and did not want him to go to hell, where the devil is destined to go. "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever." Rev 20:10.

God is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega. So once the devil became God's enemy, he is God's enemy for eternity and he will suffer in hell forever. But God loved man from the beginning and he will love him until the end and for eternity (John 13:1, John 14:17-18).

God loved man so he saved him from the devil, hell, curses, death and hell by sending his Son, Jesus Christ. "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29. See also John 3:16, Isaiah 53:5-6 and John 6:38-40.

God created man in His own image and let him fulfil God's will on the earth. "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." "Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.'" Gen 1:27, 29.

Even though man listened to God's enemy, the devil, and would have had to suffer in hell forever, body and soul, God promised to send His only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to save man. We have received such amazing love from God; all we can do is just to thank Him over and over again. How could we ever understand the Father's pain when Jesus was about to be crucified?

"He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.' Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.'" Mat 26:37-39.

"About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' -which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" Mat 27:46.

Dear brothers and sisters, as we begin the new year, let us resolve to love as God loved us, even to the point of His being crucified and dying in such agony. Let us love and be loved only by the Lord. Let us be blessed by God and pray without ceasing.

Let us love God as He has loved us from the beginning. Let us obey completely Him and evangelise those who do not know Jesus and are going to hell. Let the church be the body of Christ and be with Jesus. Let us love like Jesus, even to the point of death. Let us do so from the beginning to the end,  and forever.

2013.1.4