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Jesus can be your best friend
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God’s desire was that man not sin. But man, having an ability to follow either God’s or Satan’s way, made the choice to listen to the devil.
When man sinned in the Garden of Eden, God justly could have destroyed man. Instead, he had devised a way for man to be justified in his sight again. The account of how man’s redemption was to occur is found in the pages of God’s word.
The coming of a savior was promised to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3), and the story of this man and his descendants leads us to the time of Christ. The account tells of two periods of captivity for God’s people. The first is their time in Egypt, where they went there as guests but became slaves (Exodus 1:7). The other time was when they had turned away from God and were carried away captive by Assyria (the northern tribes) and Babylon (the southern tribes). God gave directions to his people on how they were to follow his guidance and how they were to treat each other, but they did not follow his guidance.
It also is seen that God blessed them when they followed him and even delivered them from enemies as long as they followed his commands. God kept his promises to man. The promise to Abraham was carried out, through Christ, that all nations would be blessed.
The mystery of salvation has been revealed to man (Ephesians 3:8-12). God’s desire is that all men be saved, but he leaves the choice up to man whether to accept or reject his terms. He has given the ultimate sacrifice — Jesus to die for all men (John 3:16), he has given an instruction manual to be followed — the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and he has given man time to obey (2 Corinthians 6:2).
God still wants all men to be saved, but man still has to make the choice as to which way he will follow. Knowing that God provides a way of salvation, it would seem that all men would search the Scriptures to find out exactly what God desires them to do and follow God.
Sadly, there are those who feel they have no need for God, failing to realize that without God they could not even have life. They assume that just because things always have been, they always will be. This is a false belief.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?’ For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this, they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the Earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the Earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:3-7).
God has prepared the way and made salvation accessible for all men, on the same terms. If man will simply study and obey God’s commands, he can be saved. Why not obey God as He desires, since he prepared the way?

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