You Too Can Become God’s Friend! (Transcript)

Don’t miss today’s very special broadcast by Bob Barney…

Click Here to Listen to Bob’s Special Sabbath Day 7:11 Broadcast: You Too Can Become God’s Friend!

Hi, this is Bob Barney with The Plain Truth Today Podcast. Yesterday I was talking about how I became to believe what I believe. I left off some of the details because this broadcast is not about me, it is about God and the news of today and what is best for those who come to The Plain Truth. You need to know what is going on in the world.

I did receive an email on the subject and one thing I think about those who are struggling to find God have in their lives, they think that those people who know God and believe in God are different somehow than they are. I am here to tell you reluctantly so, that at least when it comes to me who believes in the true God of the Bible, God the Father and Jesus Christ made up of the Holy Spirit, a lot of people struggle and don’t believe in God, but they want to, or they do not know what they believe. Even worse yet, there are people that think they are such sinners and have done such horrible things in their lives that there is no way God could ever forgive them or be a good person. Unfortunately, we think that most people who are so called “religious” people are good people. That simply is not necessarily the truth. You try to be good, and you are supposed to try and be good but the Bible makes it clear in John’s letters for example, that if we say we do not sin than we are a liar because God says we all sin and if we ask God to forgive those sins, then that is the key.

The key is that you have to admit that what you are doing is wrong. If you read the Bible and are supposed to do x, y and z, and not supposed to do a, b and c, and if you are honest with yourself you will take notice of what you are doing that God says not to, then in prayer you have to admit that you need the strength to do or not do what God tells you to do. What most Christians do is make up excuses. Saying the law has been done away with and that it doesn’t matter…that God loves everyone…and if that is true, then why is there a Lake of Fire and why are people going to be thrown in it to be burnt up and forever gone? Obviously, God doesn’t love sinners, he can forgive them, and that is key, you need to go to God first and ask for forgiveness.

Going back to my own experience with God. I think that most people just hear my voice and assume they know me or know how I have become to know what I believe…people think that I am different. I am no different than you out there. I am a sinner like you are, I have bad thoughts to this day like you do, I have gone through miserable times in my relationship with God. I have gone through times when I am positive God has forsaken me, has left me…and have gone through times of torment and misery. Doubt. I have been through times thinking God cannot forgive me. Yet, I continue to know that God does listen to me and he is my best friend. I believe He cares about me and will move mountains for me. It takes a long travel with God, a long walk, many years before you really do see the changes that God will do with you…so do not lose hope when you are searching.

I said it in recent broadcasts, God says that those who seek Him diligently will find Him. That is the key. You have to really want to find God. If you really want to find God and study His Word and pray to God, God will listen. God will forgive any sin that you could have ever done. There is no such thing as the unpardonable sin of a repentant heart. The unpardonable sin comes with an unrepentant heart.

This week as I have been talking about how we should look at God and how we should depend upon Him…all of the news that we read, God has something to do with it. He either has HIs hands off of it allowing things to happen and allows us to go our own way, or once in a while, God does move His Hand to save His people that He is protecting. It is very comforting to me in my times of doubt, and it always has been, when I read God’s Word when He says He was a friend of Abraham, and that Abraham was His friend. Could you imagine God saying about you that you are His best friend???

I want God to say that about me. I think you should also want Him to say that about you. He can become your best friend. He can be to you what they were to Abraham. Honestly. To Abraham, God said to Him in a blessing “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you”. I don’t know how many people have heard that in their times at church, but God loves people and He likes people who loves Him. He likes His best friends and is willing to do what They can do…I say They because there are two Gods.

So, when you have a relationship with God…and do wrong…who did more wrong than anyone? David…David murdered a man who lusted after His wife…and God eventually called Him a man after His own heart. David never let his fame and power go to his head when it came to God. He always was willing to bend his knee and admit he was a sinner. God saw his willingness to lose his ego when it came to God, and this was a blessing. David’s blessing. It is what made David the apple of God’s eye.

You can be not the person you should be and God will still love you.

I think it is very important in these days when people are searching for God and for their own perfection…which you are never going to get near perfect or be able to deserve any of the blessings that you get…you are going to get them however, because God is going to become your friend. You have to want God to be your friend first. Once this occurs, then God will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you; it is that simple. As hard as it is to believe for unbelievers, God does have a friendship with people…in the New Testament even with some people in addition to Abrham and David. Even those of us who continue to do wrong and not to hit the mark, I always tell people, don’t copy me, copy Jesus. I am not right about everything nor am I a know it all…there are a lot of things I do not know and a lot of things in prayer to God I ask why children have to suffer.

Nothing bothers me more than these commercials with these children who have cancer or awful diseases, and it is to no fault of their own and they are suffering. I wonder why God allows it. I have come to the conclusion it is because God is not the God of this world, we don’t want to live in His world, we want to be our own person…so innocent people suffer for our decisions. That is The Plain Truth.

But going back to what I was going to say…God wants to protect you once He becomes your friend, He will move and blow-up mountains for you…He will kill people for you. That is an unchristian thing people will say but it is the truth. He will defend those that love Him against those that are trying to do them harm. That isn’t a reason as to why you should want to become a friend of God’s because you can get even with your enemies, because that isn’t going to work either. But what I am trying to say is if you think you have to be perfect in order for God to become your friend, then you are never going to succeed. You will stay in your doubts and depressions… and you will stay in a state of limbo. That is a place where you never become a real believer.

Through my life I have gone through good times, hard times, I have gone through times when I was flat broke and wondered where the next paycheck would come from. There were times when even in the last 15 years where I have worked to death to stay afloat…I prayed to God over and over again and it didn’t seem like God was even listening to me but eventually I have become so blessed. I may lose everything i Have worked for could be gone tomorrow, but I know God gave it to me and He can take it away from me. God now, in my life, is my friend. He can be your friend. Invite Him in. Read His word. Do not listen to other people who want to tell you who God is, read the Bible, go to God and see what He says and think that God is actually saying it all directly to you that which you read…because HE IS saying it to you. His Word was written for you and for everyone that reads it. God has the ability to write one sentence to 8 billion people! God’s mind can handle all of that confusion that you cannot even comprehend. God’s Bible is a love letter to His children, and you are his children. He wants to protect you, reward you, He wants to be good to you and mostly be your friend.

Like I said about Abraham, God said, “Israel you are not destroyed because of My promise to Abraham who was my friend”. God allowed people, the nation of Israel, to go and turn their backs on Him time and time again and He did not destroy them as a nation because of a promise He made to Abraham…His friend.

That can be the relationship that you have with God. God can become your friend!

You do so by opening up the Bible and start reading it…and I always suggest reading an easy-to-read Bible…I like The Plain Truth’s Bible that we have, but you get the New Living Testament or the Century Version, even the Good News Bible…you will get the message and you will read and understand it. With the King James it is more difficult to understand the words so choose a version that is easier to understand. If you do go to The Plain Truth’s Bible, you will see that the very first chapter is not Genesis where it says, “in the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth…” That is not the beginning of the Bible. The beginning is really John Chapter 1. It is the second place we do read the words, “in the beginning”…however, unlike Genesis 1, instead of it saying God created the Heavens and the earth…well, billions of years earlier, God was still in existence doing other things. In the book of John chapter 1, we read, “in the beginning was the Word…” and that was Jesus Christ, “And the Word was with God”, that is God the Father, “and the word was God”. Jesus and the Father as it is shown there, make up the Godhead. It goes on to say that “the Word dwelt amongst us, and we did not know Him”…so if you read the first chapter of John before you read the Old Testament, then you will see the OT reads much different than it did before. If you read the OT the way the church wants you to start at Genesis, instead of John 1, then you will not know the identity of the God of Genesis, of Leviticus, of Exodus! Or of the entire Old Testament!

You see…the God of the Old Testament, the God who was the personal friend of Abraham was none other than the being that we know today as Jesus Christ. God the Father is not found very often in the Old Testament. He is hinted to in the OT. Jesus is Yahweh. The Lord of the OT. He is the One who created everything that was created. You read that in John chapter one. You do not read that in Genesis chapter one. Jesus is the God that made the universe…the angels, and you and me. He created this world that we live in. When you read that first and understand from then on and see the world LORD in capital letters in the OT, you are realizing that that person is Jesus Christ or that being…because He is more than a person.

When you read stories about God being angry and ready to destroy men, women and children, that is the One that became Jesus Christ…a lot of people mistakenly believe that Jesus is an effeminate man who forgives everyone without anyone having to ask Him for forgiveness…that He accepts homosexuals, but God does not accept them, nor does He love them. The idea that God loves the sinner just not the sin is not true. Here is a phrase form the OT and the God speaking here is the Lord Jesus Christ, “Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated”.

Did you ever read that in the Bible or did anyone ever tell you that God hated a person? The twin brother of Jacob in fact? That is in the Bible. When you read it for yourself and do not let any holy roller tell you what is in there, you will find a different God than you have ever believe in. You are going to find a more personal God…that this God who thinks like you do and cares like you do and grieves over tragedies like you do. He wants to be your friend like you want Him to be your friend. Jesus became a man and understood the thoughts of mankind. He understands your thoughts and cares and concerns. they are His, too.

You have a God who became a man and lived a perfect sinless life…who understood the temptation we are under. Because He is God and has the spirit unmeasured in His being, He did not sin. God does not expect you not to sin. You are going to sin. That is what John says in his epistles. He says if we say we do not sin then we are calling God a liar but if we confess them, God is with us.

I think it is important for people out there who are searching for God, to stop looking to a man to tell you who He is. Stop looking for someone to bring God to you. You just need to ask God into your life. It is very simple to do. Open up the Bible and start reading. Start with the first chapter of John. Read who God is. The Plain Truth Bible by the way is in the order that the Bible should be read in, the order of the King James Bible is not correct. The Bible has the number of books it is supposed to have if you go to The Plain Truth Bible. Did you know there are not two books of Kings? There was only one. The King James has that wrong. It isn’t that way in the original Bible that the Apostles read in the OT…it was not in the order that it is incorrectly done today. So, we have corrected that. We did something special that no one has ever done, of course there was no New Testament for the Apostles, but we took the book of John and put it in front of Genesis so people could read and understand the notes that I added as to who God is, what He is and what your purpose in life is. Your purpose is so far superior to you have ever thought. You can become His best friend.

I humbly say that I believe He is talking to me through to you…to tell you this…that there is nothing that you have ever done that someone of God hasn’t done worse. Most people out there would not have done many of the things that God’s heroes have done. God gives you examples of the most terrible sins that people did, like David, like the Apostle Peter who denied Christ 3 times…but God expected it from him. God understands your human nature, your frailty, God can forgive you of anything…there is nothing that you can do that God cannot forgive if you ask Him to from a sincere heart…and you repent of those sins and try to stop doing those sins. There are some sins that some people have a hard time with, and it takes a lifetime to overcome them. However, if you keep struggling and search Him out diligently, you will find Him and He will find you and you will live a life of blessings. You will have the two most powerful beings in the universe, that created everything, calling YOU their best friend. They will move heaven and earth and do anything they have to do to help protect you.

I am not teaching here protectionism that you won’t be turned into a martyr when the bad times come because you may, but one thing you will have when you become God’s friend, you will have eternal life…you will have made it….and you do not have that now if you do not have God.

I hope you open up your Bible, start reading it, and make God your friend because God will become yours.

This is Bob Barney, thank you very much for listening.

Transcript in Progress…Check Back Soon