Flipbooks

44 24. W H AT D O E S I T M E A N TO H AV E A G O D? It means to trust in and rely on something or someone wholeheartedly to help us in times of need and to give us all good things. 59 Isaiah 45:20 They have no knowledge who carry about their wood- en idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. 60 Proverbs 11:28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall. 61 Matthew 10:37 [Jesus said,] "Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." 25. W H Y D O E S G O D N OT WA N T U S TO H AV E A N Y OT H E R G O D S B E S I D E S H I M ? As our Creator and the only true God, God loves us and knows that only He can provide us with all we need for time and eternity. 62 Isaiah 42:8 I am the Lord; that is My name; My glory I give to no oth- er, nor My praise to carved idols. 63 Matthew 4:10 [Jesus said,] "You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve." 64 Romans 1:22–23 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and ex- changed the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mor- tal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 65 1 Corinthians 8:4 We know that "an idol has no real existence," and that "there is no God but one." 26. W H AT D O E S G O D R E Q U I R E O F U S I N T H E F I R S T C O M M A N D M E N T ? We should fear, love, and trust in Him above all. 66 Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 67 Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 68 Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 27. S H O U L D A L L P E O P L E F E A R , LOV E , A N D T R U S T I N G O D? Yes. He created all people to live under His care and to trust and rely upon Him. He is the one true God, who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ, the world's only Savior. There is no other God. 69 Psalm 22:27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. 70 Acts 17:28–29 "In Him we live and move and have our being"; as even some of your own poets have said, "For we are indeed His offspring." Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 71 1 Corinthians 8:5–6 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. A CLOSER READING OF THE SMALL CATECHISM

• Cover