slip-and-fall-245x300  Last Wednesday I was driving home from a dentist appointment near King of Prussia. Soon after I turned on to Highway 1 from the Schuylkill, I noticed a billboard advertising a slip and fall law firm. A customer of that firm was quoted as saying that those lawyers, “Helped put my life back together.”

   I have no idea what happened so that person needed to have their life put back together, but it must have been the result of some devastating event. As I thought about that, it occurred to me that I have never made an appointment to talk to a slip and fall lawyer. I guess that’s because I have never felt the need to talk to one. I take that as good news because something really bad would have to happen before I would want to sit down with one of those lawyers.

   That got me to thinking.

   Just as I see no need to contact a slip and fall lawyer (thankfully!), there are a lot of people who see no need to pursue a relationship with God. They see no need to get to know the Bible or worship in a Bible-teaching church. Would you be one of those people?

   I’m not saying that you have anything against having a relationship with God—you probably wouldn’t say it out loud—but you just honestly don’t see a need for it. I get it. We don’t generally add things to our busy schedules unless we feel a real need to do so. For example, you’re not going make a doctor’s appointment when you are feeling well (except maybe for an annual physical).

   That brings me to some questions that you may have already asked yourself. Why should you spend the time and energy studying the Bible or going to church? Is that really important? You may not see the need to do them, or maybe you don’t think doing those things will solve the problems that you have right now.

   You won’t be surprised to learn that I DO think spending time learning about the Bible and going to a Bible-teaching church is important to me. Why should those things be important to you, too, though?

   To answer that question, we need to begin at the beginning. God is our Maker, our Designer, the One who knows what our hearts really need. He made us to have a relationship with Him. In fact, when Adam and Eve had a close, ongoing relationship with Him, everything was perfect.

   In spite of that, though, our first parents ruined it by rebelling against the One who made them and had given them everything they needed. The result is that “your iniquities

[sins] have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). Adam and Eve aren’t the only guilty ones because all of us “have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

   Sin is such a huge barrier between us and our Maker that God will not overlook it. That’s because God’s “eyes are too pure to approve evil, and [He] can not look on wickedness with favor…” (Habakkuk 1:13). God even went so far as to command us to “… be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). Also see Leviticus 11:44 and 19:2.

   Since our relationship with God is broken and we can’t do anything to fix it, God stepped in and “demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:8–9).

   We should read the Bible and worship in a Bible-teaching church because we WANT to do those things. Why? If God loved us so much that He let the penalty of our sin fall on Him, then how can we help but not love Him for that? We understand this in our human relationships. If you love someone, you want to get to know that person better. If God has given you a love for Him, then getting to know God better will be a delight and not just a duty.

   “And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:11). If you would like to learn more about Christ’s love for you, let me know. He can put your life back together.