| By God's Design |
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 Heaven is an eternal abode promised to those who are faithful to God. It is a place for which many of God’s people have longed for as they lived in this life. Throughout the scriptures we can read of how desperately God’s faithful have longed for and desired to go to Heaven. When we carefully consider the scriptures it becomes clear why they wanted to go to Heaven, but what about you? Why do you want to go to Heaven? 
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 The idea of God’s providence is not something gathered from one particular passage in the Bible. Rather, it is a doctrine that appears on nearly every page of Scripture to which the term providence has been appropriately attached. Our understanding of God’s providence comes from a thorough study of His word as a whole, and not from a few passages of scripture.
 Throughout the Bible we find that God measures the actions of men and deals with them accordingly. He is impartial in this act for He uses the same standard for all men. Those who are righteous are blessed, while those who are wicked are condemned. It was for this very reason that Abraham could not believe that God would treat the righteous and the wicked the same way in His judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham asked, “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” The word “right” means just, and it is an appeal to the righteousness of God. With this thought in mind, let’s take a broader look at scripture to consider the righteousness of God.
 With each new tragedy, people call God into question. There are many who believe that God is not real because of the suffering that exists in the world. Others come to the conclusion that if God is real, they do not want to serve Him. These people cannot reconcile the pain and suffering that exists in the world today with a loving God. Therefore, they ask the question, “What kind of God is He?” By examining the scriptures we want to answer this question.
 How does God answer the prayers of His people? This is a question that raises our curiosity and gets our attention. There is only one place that we can turn to for the answer to this question, and that is God’s word. Through a careful study of the word of God we can get a general sense of how God answers prayer.
 On the sixth day of creation, God made man. Prior to this event God simply spoke and the rest of creation came into being. With man, however, a Divine Council took place. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit discussed what was to be the crown jewel of their creation. Man was to be different from the rest of creation. God made man to be different, wonderful, the most excellent of all His creation. God made man in His image, after His likeness.
 The question of how everything originated has always been within man. In fact, the Bible teaches us that God placed it there. Man has a desire to know how he came to be as well as the universe around him. Yet, God's creation is so vast that we simply cannot know it all, otherwise, we would be God. God has, however, provided us with the information we need to know Him.
 There is enough evidence in nature to convince man of the existence of God. Creation can make us aware of the fact that there is a God, but it cannot teach us anything more. Divine revelation is needed to know who God is. This is where the Bible comes into play. It is God's message to man. Without the Bible we would not know that there are three divine beings. We know of these beings as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 Much of the ancient world was steeped in idolatry. Man knew that someone was responsible for creation, but he often sought out a god of his own making that he could control. God's people of old were not immune to this tendency. Israel often allowed herself to be influenced by the nations around her and sought after their man-made gods. The prophet Jeremiah pointed out the foolishness of this error. These man-made gods had to be carried from place to place because they could not move. There was no need to fear them because they could not do evil or good. Most importantly for our discussion, they could not speak. The One True God is a God of communication.
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