Friendship with God

 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them. Ps 25:14 NRSV

There are Christians who do not take God's holiness seriously, but they approach Jesus as if he were their mate who should tolerate all their excesses.

Real friendship with God looks very different. Jesus said we must trust God like little children.

A Jewish girl grew up in a strange family. Her parents were active in a conservative orthodox synagogue. Her father behaved like a devout Jew, but at home he was a dogmatic atheist.

This was difficult for the girl to understand, but God had a plan to reveal his love to this girl. The girl had a secret. Even her parents didn't know about it.

This girl had secret conversations with her invisible friend. She believed her friend was God.

In her adolescence, she experienced traumatic disappointments, and she no longer believed in God.

As a teenager, she loved horses, but she experienced a tragic accident. The horse she was riding fell on top of her and crushed her.

She had a near-death experience and her soul left her body. In the heavenly world, she met Jesus, who spoke to her with love. She recognised him as the secret friend from her childhood. When doctors revived her, she remembered her encounter with Jesus, and she firmly believed.

Jesus wants to be your friend, but not your mate, who is comfortable with the bad stuff in your life.

We all have serious faults. God loves you anyway, but he wants to restore and purify your life. He doesn't want to condemn you, but like a real friend or therapist, he wants to help you so that God's image can shine through in you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jn 3:16–17 NIV

Jesus loves me, this I know ...

 A child lay on his deathbed in hospital. His mother was holding his hand, trying to hold back her tears.

The little boy believed in Jesus. He knew that he would soon be in heaven and that his pain would be over, but he also felt insecure.

He felt compassion for his mother, who was already grieving deeply. He could not imagine life without his beloved mother, but he knew that after his death his mother would suffer grief that would be hard to bear.

"Mummy, please don't cry too much. I'm going to heaven, aren't I? And then you will go there too when my sister grows up."

"I know, dear child, but I will miss you."

"Mummy, I know I will be in heaven soon, but what will it be like there?"

"Dear child, I have never died myself, but I am sure you will be quite safe and at home there."

"Imagine going to sleep and waking up in the morning in your own bed at home. I won't be there, but I will come to you later. When you wake up, Grandma and Grandpa will be standing there with Jesus. They love you so much."

This is a story, but we must never despise childlike faith.

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them
and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2–3 ESV

But the Jewish scribes had no time for such simple ideas. Jesus was humble, but they were too arrogant to understand Jesus.

Unfortunately, even today there are not only Jewish rabbis, but also humanistically oriented theologians and pastors who are so busy with academic theories that they do not understand Jesus.

When Jesus spoke of faith, he meant that we should have childlike trust in God. When Jesus or Father God speaks plainly, we simply have to believe.

Shortly before his death on the cross, Jesus spoke to his disciples at the Last Supper.

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. am, there ye may be also. John 14:1–3 NKJV 

Many educated people think this is too childish, too simple, or too good to be true, but Jesus explained the truth.

Someone asked Karl Barth, the famous Swiss theologian how he could sum up his theology.

He answered briefly with a line from a children's song.

"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."