I was talking in the comments about not knowing much about what is taught in the churches today.
That got me thinking. What did the church I go to teach as a child?
The fear of God, which ultimately leads to our Saviour.
You know I was taught the whole Bible.
It wasn’t the pretty verses only. What is seen as motivational inspiring verses today.
I was taught straight from God’s Word the Almighty God that He is. His straight forward approach. He said do it and it was done.
There was no Mediator. Not in the sense of the last sacrifice. Before the Sacrificial Lamb.
Before the Lamb what we had was God. We had lessons, punishment, and sacrifices.
God didn’t play.
The stories I would be told with no fear. Of how the grumbling would happen. We were never satisfied. Or good children. We didn’t follow the rules. We would get to a point that we didn’t think God even saw what we did.
The ungratefulness of it all and if it didn’t stop, there would be no telling what could happen. We could be swallowed up in the ground. God would do it. Fiery serpents, plagues galore, floods.
As a child, of course, the questions were, is God really going to swallow them up in the ground?
Yes
And He did.
Of course, followed by childlike questions of, will God do that to us now?
He could but we have a Mediator. And so the gospel once again gets brought full circle.
I really, really appreciate my Saviour Jesus Christ.
I would have been one of the first ones to have been taken out by one of the well deserved punishments if not for Jesus. I’d have probably been at the front of the line, “what? we have to walk this desert 40 years?”. Yes, and you will want for nothing. You will grumble, and complain. God will do what He said. There will be wonders and miracles.
God will be waiting for us to do what He asked us to do.
We know how that turned out.
It turned out like when Jesus said. They are coming to crucify me after dinner. I’m going to pray. You stay here and pray too. Only to return to us sleeping. Not once but twice.
Or when Peter was telling Him to stop it with the crucifiction talk. No one loved the Lord better than Peter but Peter not only ran off and forsook Jesus, like every one else. He did just what Jesus told Peter what he would do. Peter denied Jesus not once, not twice, but thrice. Then ran off.
No judgment. I see a lesson. One that shows us what they went through, and what they did. What we will go through, and what we will do.
These are the things that I was taught.
I was taught before all else, I am a righteous child of the Almighty God. And I need to act like it. I will never be Jesus but that doesn’t mean I can do whatever.
Jesus is the only way I am ever getting an eternal life in heaven.
God gave that Gift to us through Jesus. Jesus also willingly gave His life knowing it would save the lot of us. He gave it, no one could take it. I don’t feel He necessarily wanted to since while we were sleeping and He was praying. He said take this from Me. But not His will but God’s will. Jesus had the faith that God would do what He said. Another lesson.
Jesus is the best Teacher.
These are the things that I was taught in church. It wasn’t always rainbows and mountaintops. It also convicted me in a way that felt good. I feared the LORD as He should be, and I loved Jesus as He should be :) I don’t know any other way to put it about Jesus. I love Him.
