Jesus is Not Like Buddha

I. God

Who is God?

   The first thing the Bible tells us is, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, `Let there be light,' and there was light." These verses teach us the meaning of the word "God":

1. "In the beginning": God existed before the heavens and the earth. He existed before anything or anyone else. He is the beginning of all things. He is eternal.
2. "God created the heavens and the earth": God is the Creator of everything in the universe. Since He created all things, all things remain under His control. His power is unlimited.
3. "The Spirit of God": God is Spirit. That does not mean that God is "less real" than physical matter, but just the opposite. All physical matter of the universe was created by God, therefore He is more powerful and "more real" than all of it. Also, matter can be destroyed. God, who is Spirit, can never be destroyed.
4. "And God said, `Let there be light'": God created the world by speaking His Word. God is not merely a spiritual force. God has power, but He is more than just "spiritual power". He is an intelligent Being who speaks and acts according to His will. That is why we ask the question, "Who is God?", not "What is God?"

   God revealed His name as "Yahweh" which in the Hebrew language means, "I am who I am," or simply "I am." (Exodus 3:13-14) This name emphasizes that God was not created by anyone and He does not depend on anyone. If I were to describe myself, I might say: I am a human being, I am an American, I am a Christian, I am 1.7 meters tall, I am a mathematician, etc. I describe myself in terms of categories that you are familiar with. But God is unique, there is no one and nothing else like Him. He is not defined by the categories we know in the world because He existed before the world and He made the world. Everything in the universe gets its meaning from Him. Therefore, when God describes Himself, He simply says, "I am."
   People apply the word "god" or "gods" to many different things: various spirits, idols, or anything that is worshiped. However, there is only One True God who created everything and everyone in the universe. Anything that is finite, anything that has a beginning, and anything that has limited power is not God.
   Buddha is not God because he had a beginning, he did not create the world, his power was extremely limited, and he is now dead. Even Buddha himself knew that he was not God. Some people worship him as a god, but they are wrong in doing so. No creature in the world deserves to be worshiped, only God the Creator.
   The past generations of ancestors who have died are not gods. They are currently in the grave. They have no power to help or harm us, and we have no power to help or harm them.
   Idols made of wood, stone, and metal are not gods. Small idols in the home are not gods, and big idols in the temple are not gods. They were all made by human hands. The Bible shows the contrast between those things that people worship as "gods" versus the One True God:
   The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:24-28)

God Created Science

   Has modern science disproved the existence of a God who created the world? Of course not! Science is the study of the world that God made. If not for God's work of creation, there would be no physical world for science to study, and no scientists to study it!
   Furthermore, God intentionally created all humankind as little scientists. When God created man He said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Genesis 1:26) God's plan from the beginning was for man to rule over the earth and over the other creatures of the earth. For man to rule the earth, man must understand the earth. God wanted man to study and explore the world world He made. God is not afraid of science, as if it could somehow make Him "unnecessary". God is not afraid of man exploring the world through science. God is all-knowing. Everything that man will ever discover, God already knows.
   One reason God wants man to study science is because science helps us to worship God. As we study the world, we see more and more proof that the universe was created by, and is sustained by, an intelligent Spirit with eternal power, namely God. I am writing this book on a computer. I've never met the people who worked together to design and make this computer, but based on everything it can do, I know some things about them. I know that they must have been smart and skilled. Likewise I have never seen God directly, but I have seen God's work. The more I study the world God made the more I am amazed by His limitless power and intelligence. The universe displays incredible order and organization. Science studies those orderly patterns that govern how the world operates. Every scientific textbook in the world is one more proof that the universe was made by a powerful, intelligent designer. Anyone who has studied science should be the first to believe, follow, and worship God. The Bible says it in this way:

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." (Psalm 19:1-4)

   Therefore science is wonderful when it helps us to worship God. But sadly many people study the world and ignore the Creator of the world. They say, "We have modern science so we don't need God," but they are very wrong. If you don't use science to help you worship God, then you will instead use science to help you worship yourself. We worship ourselves whenever we do things with our own selfish desires as the ultimate aim. And whenever people worship themselves, the result is very ugly. For this reason modern science also has a very dark side.
   To those who say that science by itself is the ultimate truth, I pose this scenario: What if Japan develops an very advanced new bomb which is 100 times stronger than the nuclear bomb and to show its power, they blow-up a fourth of the population of China. Now, that would be a big scientific achievement. Would you be happy on that day to see the "scientific progress" that had been made? Therefore, let us no longer study science for the sake of worshiping ourselves with horrible results. Let us instead let science help us listen to the voice of creation declaring the praise its Creator.

God Does Good Work

   From its very first sentence, the Bible describes a God who works, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." God is the Creator, it is His nature to create, to do, to make, to work. In the beginning, God was active in the work of creating the world. Currently God is "resting" from that work, but He is working just as much in other ways. Jesus said, "My Father [God] is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." (John 5:17)
   Just as God is the Creator of science, God is also the Creator of work. This can be seen in several ways:

1. God set the example by being the first Worker. Mankind's instinct to work comes from our Creator.
2. God gave man the ability to work. God gave man a body with arms, legs, strength, eyesight, etc. God gave man a mind with the ability to think, reason, plan, and organize. God gave man air, food, and water to sustain his body. Man is able to do absolutely nothing except what God has enabled him to do.
3. God provided all of the raw materials for man to work when He created the universe. When God works He is unrestricted, He can speak into existence anything He desires. When man works, we are limited and only able to use what God has given us. Man builds things using the trees God created, the minerals God created and put in the earth, and other materials harvested from God's creation. Even when man makes new chemical compounds he is only rearranging the atoms and molecules that God created, and usually he is only making a copy of a substance that God designed.
4. God is the Boss. He is watching over our work to judge it even when no one else sees. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." (Colossians 3:23-24) "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

   God does not merely work, God only does good work. Seven times in the first chapter of the Bible we are told that God looked at His work and saw that it was good. "Everything God created is good." (1 Timothy 4:4) God made the world beautiful as we can still see even though man has corrupted it with enormous amounts of pollution and trash.
   Furthermore, God's work is good not only in its results, but it is also perfectly good in its process. For example, unlike man God does not lie to make His work easier, "God is not a man, that he should lie." (Numbers 23:19) In the business world, you can often bribe certain officials to help your business plans succeed. Many people carry this idea over into their religion. They offer up various kinds of incense and offerings, and they perform all kinds of rituals to try to gain the attention and favor of their "god" or "gods" in hope that the "gods" will give them what they want. But don't bother trying to bribe the One True God with any gifts or endless rituals. The Creator doesn't need anything from us, and therefore He is not impressed with anything we might try to offer to gain His favor. You can't buy His time or attention to suit your own desires. He won't be turned away from the good work that He has planned:

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. (Deuteronomy 10:17-18)
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. (Acts 17:24-25)

Why We Cannot See God

   If there really is a God -- a supreme, intelligent Spirit with eternal power who created the entire universe -- then it seems He should be obvious. If God has the power to create the world, He certainly has power to show Himself to the world. And if God wants all of the world to worship Him, then it seems He should clearly reveal Himself to all the world. So then why do we not see evidence of God around us? Why do we go through life everyday without God speaking to us and telling us to worship Him?
   The Bible gives the answer to these questions. It says that God has made Himself obvious to mankind from the beginning. The works of God are literally everywhere around us. The Bible forewarns us that there is a Day of Judgment to come. We will stand before God and have to answer to Him about how we lived, including whether we believed Him or not. If we did not believe in God, we will not be able to say that we had no evidence to believe. The knowledge that one ultimate, eternal God made everything in the universe by His own power does not require any special religious teaching. Through the work of His creation, God has made His existence plain and obvious to every person in every nation, in the cities and in the villages, East and West, rich and poor, educated and uneducated:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. (Romans 1:18-22)

   The passage above tells us why most people do not see God. The problem is not that God is hard to find, but that we are blind. God is perfectly righteous and pure, but our minds and our hearts are evil and corrupt. Our minds have been darkened because of our evil deeds. The evil cannot see the good, and if evil looks at good it does not understand what it sees. "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." (John 1:5)
   If a man who lives in Beijing says, "I have never seen Beijing," we will not conclude that Beijing does not exist. Instead we will conclude the man is blind. Likewise, you may have been told many times by many people that there is no God. But anyone who told you this was speaking from their own blindness. God is real. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." (Matthew 5:8) Whenever someone says they see no proof of God, the only thing they have proven is the impurity of their own heart.
   Perhaps right now you find it hard to see and believe that God created the world. But the more important question is whether you want to be able to see God. If so, the good news is that God has made a way to purify our hearts so that we will no longer be blinded from seeing Him. Keep reading this book because God's good news for us will become clear by the end.

God is Outside Your Heart

   When someone we love dies or moves to a place far away, we think of them often and remember them fondly, and so we say that they are still with us "in our hearts." But what does it mean when people apply this same phrase to the Creator of the universe, saying, "God is in your heart"? When people say this I am afraid that they mean that God has died or that He has gone far away so that we can never meet Him again except "in our hearts." Or even worse, I am afraid that "God is in your heart" means "God is in your imagination," as if God is a pretend friend that we create in our own hearts. But God is not dead, and He is not an imaginary friend that some people create in their hearts. God is "I am", the One who has always been alive outside of the human heart.
   God is greater than your heart because God created your heart along with the rest of your body. "For you [God] created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Psalm 139:13-14) Indeed, God created the entire universe, thus the entire universe is not large enough to contain God. "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you." (1 Kings 8:27) God was the King of the Universe before my heart was born, and God will be the King of the Universe after my heart goes to the grave.
   If "god" was an imaginary friend in your heart, then no one outside of your heart would have to deal with him or answer to him. If "god" was an imaginary friend in your heart, then you could make him to be whatever you wanted. Perhaps these are reasons why some people want to think that "God is in your heart." But God lives outside of the heart and therefore everyone must answer to Him, and no one has the power to make Him what they want Him to be.
   Several times the Bible compares God to a potter and man to clay. God made us, He has the power to form us however He wants, and He has the power to destroy us whenever He wants. But people are always trying to turn things upside down, as if man was the potter and God was the clay. Thus to keep things straight I like to say, "God is outside your heart", God is the potter and we are the clay, He is beyond our control, He is greater than us, He is more powerful than us, He is bigger than us, He is above and beyond us.
   However, Christians will also sometimes speak about God in their heart. But we must be clear, they do not mean that God is merely an imaginary friend who they created in their heart. Rather, God the Great King who rules over the affairs of the universe, who existed before the world began, who created all things by His wisdom and understanding, that this God who is alive outside and beyond every man's heart has incredibly sent His presence to dwell in the hearts of those who come to Him in humility:

For this is what the high and lofty One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." (Isaiah 57:15)

   God never said that He would live in everyone's heart. The human heart is evil and God is pure. God will never live in an unclean place. Therefore God will not live in your heart unless your heart has been cleansed. Later we will see what God has done to cleanse man's heart. For now, it is enough to observe from the passage above that God lives with those who are "contrite" (those who humbly admit that their heart is evil and are sorry for it).
   Furthermore, even when God's presence lives within a Christian, He still remains the potter and they still remain the clay. One time Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:21) The kingdom of God is the domain where God reigns as King. When Christians say that God is in their heart, they mean that they have acknowledged God as the King who rules over hearts.
   Having God as King in your heart is very different from having "god" as an imaginary friend in your heart. God the King often tells His people to do things that they might not want to, for example, sell all of your possessions and give to the poor (Mark 10:21), love your enemies (Matthew 5:44), preach the good news of Jesus even if it causes you to be thrown in jail and killed (Acts 20:23), etc. An imaginary friend in your heart wouldn't tell you to do those things.
   It is absolutely wonderful that God is outside of my heart! If there was nothing greater in this universe than the stuff in my heart, then this would be a very dark and depressing universe. If there was nothing more powerful to change me than little imaginary friends in my heart then I would have no hope. But there is something, in fact someone far bigger, far better, far greater, and far more powerful than anything in my heart! Praise be to God.

God Does Everything for His Own Glory

   God wants us to know is that there is nothing greater than Him. Mountains, rivers, sunsets, and oceans are beautiful, but God created all of them so God is greater. The vast expanse of the universe and the enormous number of stars that fill the countless galaxies is incredible and shocking to our minds. God created them all so God is greater. The discoveries of science and the development of the arts are wonderful in many ways. It is God who gave man the ability to do these things so God is far greater.
   If you were in the presence of a king, you would sense the power of his greatness and power. The atmosphere around a king or queen is as if a bright light shone around them. That sense of awesome, powerful, shining greatness is called "glory." God is the Most Glorious One and He loves to display His glory. God's glory is so bright that the heavenly city of the future will need no lights apart from God Himself, "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light." (Revelation 21:23)
   God Himself shines with glory and God is the most worthy to receive glory. Therefore God's purpose in everything He does is ultimately to bring glory to Himself, and He refuses to share His glory with anyone or anything else:

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another." (Isaiah 48:11)
The LORD works out everything for his own ends -- even the wicked for a day of disaster. (Proverbs 16:4)

   God is the most important One in the universe (in fact, beyond the universe). Therefore God created everything in the universe for His own sake:

God, for whom and through whom everything exists... (Hebrews 2:10)
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)
Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth-- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. (Isaiah 43:6-7)

   God's zeal to defend His own glory is a truly amazing and wonderful message for us because the more that God displays His glory the more that we get to enjoy it. Most people find a certain pleasure in visiting huge mountains and valleys, looking across the vast ocean, or staring at the night sky full of stars and thinking about how small they are in this enormous world. When the king, prime minister, or president visits a city almost everyone wants to come and try to have a look at him. We desire to experience things much bigger, much more powerful, and much greater than ourselves. That desire is in us because God created us to enjoy His limitless glory.
   Therefore, just as God does everything for His own glory, likewise He commands us to do everything for His glory. "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31) Jesus also said the greatest commandment in the entire Bible is this, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37-38) When God commands us to seek His glory above everything else, it is a commandment of great love. The greatest pleasure available to humans in this life and the next life is to see and soak in the glory of God. God knows that the best possible life for us is if we would turn from seeking the small and temporary pleasures of this world, and instead seek to take in more of His glory.

God is a Consuming Fire

   Since displaying His glory is God's greatest aim, what God hates most is anything that defames or belittles His glory. One of the main ways that man defames God's glory is when we worship things that are not God, or when we ascribe glory to any other thing and do not give God the credit He deserves. When God gave His people ten commandments to summarize His law, the first two commands were:

1) You shall have no other gods before me.
2) You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)

   Frequently in the Bible God compares His relationship with His people to a marriage in which He is the husband and people are His wife. When they bow down to false "gods" they are like an unfaithful bride who gives herself and her love to other men. When God's people love or reverence anything in the world as only He should be loved and reverenced, He says they are committing adultery and prostitution against Him:

I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. (Ezekiel 6:9)
They committed adultery with their idols... (Ezekiel 23:37)
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

   As a husband burns with anger if his wife loves other men, even more does God's anger burn when people honor non-gods in the way that only He, the True God, should be honored. Therefore anyone who says that it doesn't matter which "god" we worship is dead wrong. To say that we can worship any "god" anyway we want is like saying a wife can sleep with whatever man she wants. God describes Himself as a consuming fire, His anger burns against human hearts that treat anything apart from Him as a god:

Do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:23-24)
They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. (Deuteronomy 32:21)
Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O LORD our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this. (Jeremiah 14:22)

   Therefore, when people bow down to statues in a Buddhist or Taoist temple God views it as an act of enormous evil against Him. When people bow down to worship ancestors in any way that only God deserves it is a horrible offense against God. God will not share His glory with any other. In marriage a husband and wife must renounce any romantic relationships except to each other. Likewise in order to follow God you must renounce allegiance to any idols and treat nothing apart from Him as a god.

You Cannot Love God and Money

   There are many other things that people treat as a god even if they don't call it a "god." God is also called the Lord, He is our Master. Anything that acts as a master over people's life is therefore a false lord and a false god. The consuming fire of God's anger burns against anything apart from Him that we treat as our lord and master, even if we don't call it a "god."
   Perhaps the most common master that controls people's lives is the love of money. Jesus said that we can love and serve either God or money, but not both:

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Matthew 6:24)

   Anyone who "prays to God" only with the hope that He will help to make them wealthy has proven that money is in fact their master, and they view God only as a tool to help them get rich. "Praying to God" like this is not worship of God, rather it is just the opposite, it is spitting in God's face and saying we don't care about Him but only about what He might give us.
   God commands us to work which we will talk more about that in the next chapter. However, a Christian will go about his work with an entirely different set of values from someone who does not love God. For the Christian, it should be clear that God is his master and not money. For example, if a higher position with more money will take away too much time from being with his family and serving other people, then someone who loves God will likely prefer to stay in the lower position with less money.
   The Chinese language is full of wishes and hopes for wealth and prosperity. In contrast, the Bible is full of warnings against seeking wealth:

For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:7-10)
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. (Hebrews 13:5)
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. (James 5:1-5)
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

   God commands us not to seek wealth because He has something far more valuable to offer us than money: life in His kingdom. God has promised that as we obey Him, He will certainly provide for our basic physical needs, therefore instead of worrying about these things we can seek the greater treasure:

So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:31-33)
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46)

God is Holy

   One of the most important qualities of God is that He is holy. That means that He is perfectly good and pure, without any trace of evil. Holy also means "separate" or "set apart" because that which is holy is set apart from that which is not holy, the two cannot mix. Remember that God is a consuming fire; the holiness of God can completely destroy anything unholy that comes into His presence.
   The Bible uses repetition to emphasize the things which are most important. Some words are stated twice in a row to draw attention to something important. Only in two verses of the Bible do we find a word that is repeated three times in a row. Both of them magnify God's holiness:

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. (Isaiah 6:3)
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. (Revelation 4:8)

   Just as God is holy, His desire for His people is that they be holy, "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy." (Leviticus 19:2) But the things that people often ask God for are things that He is not concerned with. God is far more concerned about your character than your circumstance in life. God doesn't want to make you rich, He wants to make you holy. He doesn't want to take away all of the problems out of your life, He wants to enable you to respond to them in the right way.
   Generally, the opinion of mankind is that the biggest problem in the world is suffering, but this opinion is wrong. The biggest problem in the world is mankind's sin and evil. We are not holy as God is holy. Suffering is only a result of the deeper problem of evil. Most people want a cure for their suffering but not a cure for their evil hearts. God does have a plan to overcome our suffering, but to do so He must first destroy the evil that is in us.
   Therefore what God wants to give us is often different from what we think we want. God wants to give us holy character, wants to make us like Him. Do you want God to help you to be wealthy, prosperous, and successful? God wants to help you be free from greed so that you can give your time and possessions for the benefit of others. Do you want comfort and freedom from all pain and difficulty? God wants to help you learn to love and enjoy Him above everything so that you can rejoice through all of the hardships you face in life. Do you want to have a long life? God wants to help you prepare for death so that you will be ready to face Him on that Day.

God Doesn't Want to Help You Sin

   Many people around the world believe in a religion because they want God to help them with their life - help them to get a good job, help their family to be healthy, help them find success, etc. A popular saying says that "God will help you." But the truth is that there are many things which God certainly will not help you with.
   God created the world for a purpose -- to bring honor and glory to Himself. The word "sin" refers to anything that does not honor God. Anything that breaks the law of God is sin. God never breaks His own law, therefore God absolutely never sins, and God will never help you sin!
   Selfishness is sin and God doesn't want to help you sin. So if you come to God full of selfish desires, don't expect Him to help you:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (James 4:1-4)

   Another phrase people use sometimes is, "We don't need God to help us." People who say this are probably living a life full of selfishness and greed. They are right; we don't need God to help us to be selfish and greedy. Man is perfectly qualified to live like that on his own. But if you want to be empowered to live a holy life, a life that is pleasing to God, a life full of love for God and sacrificial love for other people, then you desperately need God's help. Tell God right now that you need His help to be made holy. God is more than ready to help you:

It is God's will that you should be sanctified [made holy]. (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)

Fools Say There is No God

   You may have been taught that it is foolish to believe in God, but if so, you have been taught a lie. The truth is just the opposite. God is real, and the beginning of true wisdom is the fear of God. To not believe in the God who created you is foolish:

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. (Psalm 14:1)
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Proverbs 1:7)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)

   A fool acts in a way that brings harm to himself. If you do not believe in God it is yourself whom you are hurting. God is not weak, He doesn't need us, He doesn't need our help, and He doesn't need our belief. Remember, God's name is "I am", He was not created by anyone and He does not depend on anyone. He doesn't need us to bring Him offerings of food or money because He already owns everything:

I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. (Psalm 50:9-12)

   If you do not believe in God, He will still continue to be God, He will continue to have everything He needs, He will not get lonely, He will still receive the glory He deserves, and He will continue to live forever in perfect joy. The only people who will suffer for unbelief in God are the unbelievers themselves. Jesus told this parable:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24-27)

   You will have to answer to God one day about how you lived your life, and the thing that God is concerned with most is how you responded to Him. Did you believe, trust, love, obey, and follow Him; or did you disbelieve and ignore Him? Don't be foolish. Acknowledge that it is God who created everything in this world including your life and everything that you have. God is merciful and forgiving to those who come to Him in humility. There is more good news to come about God's love for those who will trust Him. But as for the proud and self-reliant fools who say there is no God, the stormy days are coming when everything they have achieved comes crashing down on top of them.