SUBJECT - Which way is right??? [2]
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When I closed
last month's message, I was commenting about the condition of this nation, and how we are deserving everything we are getting.
Looking at the nations in the bible, including the children of Israel, one thing is crystal clear. And it is not just a one time thing. Every nation that purposed to abide by God's direction, prospered, and was blessed. In contrast, those nations that refused to abide by them, suffered greatly. In a lot of instances, they were either captured, or destroyed through war or disease.
This not only applied to nations but cities, groups, families and individuals. It was quite possible in many instances that even though a nation was highly prospering, groups or individuals within that nation would be suffering.
These examples, are facts that can be used to prove a point. And that point is,
Obedience is better than sacrifice!!![1Sam 15:22]. In order to be obedient to something, or someone, you must first know what they have to say about the actions/choices available to you in any given situation.
The next thing that should be looked at is, what are the consequences you will face if you choose to abide/reject their direction. Along with it should be examples that show a consistent pattern that guarantees a high probability of following the same pattern. This means, it is not a haphazard type of thing where the chances are, let's say, less than 25 percent.
The bible, gives us the guarantee of 100 percent that the results of our actions will be met with blessing/cursing accordingly.
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Jer 1:12 Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
The three scriptures above [there are hundreds more], give us a clear insight in to God establishing His credentials so to speak, as to why it is necessary for us to follow His directions. He not only gives us direction, but provides us with clear evidence of what will happen in the end.
Now having said that, let's look at one of these directions, that is the cause of the majority of our problems in this world today.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. What we are being told here, in a nutshell, is that those that live their lives based on what is called common sense [the flesh, carnally mindedness], are going to end up in misery, or even dead. By contrast, those that live by what God says will have the best that life has to offer.
Common sense loosely defined is the process of evaluating how to deal with any given situation that meets the approval of one's peers, relatives, friends, community, or nation. Usually, their stance on the issues, is based on scientific data. I will address that in a minute.
Anyway,
because many believe the same thing, it becomes 'a common belief' and thus is titled common sense. The problem with it is that its foundation is based on something that for the most part completely excludes any recognition of the existence of God. And thus leads us to ignore God's directions.
Science loosely defined is the institution that has the task of finding out why things happen the way they do, and how to remedy those things that cause us misery. It is made up of men/women that seek to find out how to remedy the problems that plague us through strictly human efforts. Their core belief is,
man is able to solve any problem that we face. All we have to do is find it. This belief therefore, puts man in the place of being his own god, and as such can set his own rules to live by.
Of course, when man uses his own rules to live by, his solutions seem perfectly fine to him because they come from his own way of thinking. And, if things go wrong, all he has to do is learn from his mistakes, and change the rules.
The problem of course is, God, and His Rules are still in place, and as such, any one or thing that challenges those Rules is in for a world of hurt, especially when that challenge seeks to put them in the place of God.
When I think about all the so-called solutions to the vast amount of problems we are facing, I see more and more of them following the same pattern and that is they are derived from man, with no regard for what God says. Admittedly they all make a lot of sense to man, but, as I mentioned in part one of this message, the end result, which may not
be revealed for years down the road, shows just how foolish our actions/solutions have been.
Going back to a common theme, practically everything we do seems 'spot on!!!' It makes perfect sense. Therefore, most people would go along with it, no problem.
And why is this??
Because most of us have been trained to think along those lines by way of our parents and our public schools.
Our public schools are inundated with the carnal minded way of thinking. There is no recognition of God. Man is his own god. Any person trying to bring up what the bible has to say about things, is considered a 'nut!' And as such needs to be institutionalized or at the very least, ignored.
If we go back to the bible, we can see the very same things happening not only to the men of God, the prophets and the disciples, but Jesus Christ as well.
While it may seem to be a stretch, I have said, and history bears this out,
'the way mankind feels about God today, if He came back here as He did a little over 2000 years ago, in the form of Jesus Christ, we would crucify Him again!!'
Want to hear something even more astounding???
While most people outside of the Church would be expected to act in this manner,
we are seeing an ever increasing number of Christians taking this same stance. Of course, it is so subtle that most of them don't even recognize what they are doing.
As it was in the bible, old and new testaments, the children of Israel, God's chosen people [IE. the Church] turned against Him on several occasions because they let their pride, envy, jealousy, greed and other human traits overrule, or put out of their minds, any directions God has put there for them to follow. And it was usually because what they wanted seemed perfectly fine.
Other nations had a king, so they wanted one. Other nations had all sorts of sinful practices that appeared to provide a lot of pleasure. Sexual debauchery, drunkenness, the worship of false idols, and every thing else that pushed God out of the picture. So, as the bible puts it, they went 'a whoring' after these things [other gods]. That meant they spiritually gave their souls to the devil, so that they could receive pleasure.
As I mentioned, it was so subtle, that they didn't even recognize what they were doing. As a result, when God removed His umbrella of protection from them, and they began to suffer the consequences of their actions, many of them, went in to further rebellion against Him, because He was punishing them, they felt, without cause.
This same mentality pervades many Churches today.
What are the keys to this rebellion, and make no mistake, that is what it is, you might ask.
While God tells us to abide by 'every word' that proceeds out of the mouth of God, we have chosen to compromise on many of
them in order to make ourselves acceptable to those that hate Him, or to receive something from them, that makes us feel good.
Here are a few of the most egregious actions that we have taken that God hates the most, but seem to be totally innocent.
The number one thing God hates, is the taking of an innocent life. And of all the innocent lives out there, there is nothing more innocent than the life of a child in the womb [Abortion].
Given God's position on that child, to deliberately take actions to kill them, is to slap God in the face.
Yet today many born again, supposedly Spirit-filled Christians, especially women, have chosen to overlook what God has to say about it, so that they can appear to not be against a woman's right to choose, by participating in a
war on women.
The result!! Women are being treated like second class citizens, in that statistically, makes them earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. They have several health issues that puts them at a higher risk of death than men [IE heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes and a few others]. It is a curse on those that not only participate in it, but on those that support it.
While women and politicians fight to eliminate the wage disparity, it still remains, because it is of God. The same thing for the life threatening illnesses.
Next is the homosexual lifestyle. This is the second thing that God hates. Why?? Because it goes totally against His plan for the family[nature]. God told mankind, as well as the animal kingdom to be fruitful and multiply. Well, there is no way that can be fulfilled when you have two men or two women trying to be what can only be achieved by a heterosexual relationship.
Yet, once again, most Christians throw their support behind these people because they want to appear to be their friends. They probably figure that since Christ died for the ungodly, then we should not show hate towards these people.
The problem is, while God loves the sinner, He hates the sin. As a result, many Christians are relaying the message that God is overlooking their abominable acts to the point that they need not repent for what they are engaged in, and most Churches are giving them the idea that they have God's blessing.
The result!!! AIDS!!! This one disease, has been the single most devastating occurrence in the gay community, wiping out over 60 percent of them, at its height. And because many Christians, chose to support them by not calling what they are doing as being sin, but rather condemning those that do, this disease is running rampant not only in the gay community, but the heterosexual community as well.
Tens of millions of people have died needlessly, because these Christians chose to compromise on God's Word, for the express purpose of not being seen as mean-spirited, or homophobic.
There is a right way to do things, and a wrong way to do things, and Churches, in far too many instances, are choosing the wrong way, and therefore are causing not only them to suffer, but itself as well.
I hope to be closing this message,
next month.