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SCRIPTURE Deu 30:19, Ge 6:8 JUNE, 2013 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. SUBJECT BLESSINGS, CURSINGS AND GRACE PLAY/DOWNLOAD [MP3] The message for this month, takes a look at three things, that help form our relationship with God. While all of them come from God, and one seems to be contrary to achieving anything positive, they all help to guide us closer to Him. I know, most of you can't see the reasoning of this, but, as we go further in to this message, you will see my point. First, let's look at what God has to say about, just who is responsible for whether we are blessed, or cursed. In the first subject scripture, we see God telling His people, through Moses, that He is giving them/us a choice. Unlike what a lot of people think, blessing or cursing, is not specifically aimed at any certain group of people. What happens to any person, or group, is dependent on what choices they have made. This excludes children of certain ages, and many of those that are incapable of knowing right and wrong. In the vast majority of these instances, the choices parents make, end up affecting their children, positively or negatively. In the overall design of things, no one can rightfully blame their condition on anyone but themselves, even though they may try to do so. It is all about the choices you make. Some will ask, 'What about people in other countries, where, in case of the gospel, they have never heard about God/Christ?? How can you say, that their condition, is their fault??' Well, true, in a nutshell their suffering is not their fault entirely, because others helped put them in that position, and thus their situation is one that is of the making of their parents, or prior generations of theirs, that guided them in to the position they find themselves in, but more about this later. Let's start out looking at the first of these conditions, blessings. A blessing, is anything that comes to us from God, that is good. It can be money, healing, deliverance, good health, success, position on a job, or any one of a million other things. These things come to us, because God chooses to send them on us, because we have made choices to follow His direction for our lives. Many of us, directly, or indirectly, make choices that God is pleased with, whether they know His rules or not, and as a result, reap the blessings, all because of those choices. A person may not know all about electricity, but, they know that if they flip a switch, a light, will come on, or some appliance, or machine will operate. Do you see my point?? It is something that they do naturally because they were raised, or taught that way. Right, is right, no matter where you are. And as a result, God will bless you/them for your actions/choices. By the same token, cursing is a result of the bad choices we make. Since cursings are the opposite of blessings, then, it stands to reason that they come about because God is not pleased with what a person chooses to do. The result for this choice is, poverty, sickness, oppression/depression, poor health, failure, job loss, and any one of a million other things, including death. I mentioned electricity, earlier. Let's use that as a guide for cursing. Electricity is a very helpful part of our lives, something that the vast majority of us can not imagine doing without. There is an inherent danger that is always present when using it, and that is, if you use it the wrong way, it will injure, or worse yet, kill you. That is why, many electrical appliances, come with warnings, or if you are around electrical lines, or power grids, there are big signs, giving the warning of danger. It is because any wrong action on our part, can very well prove fatal, even if we are totally ignorant to that danger. Electricity doesn't make the choice of who to injure, it just acts, according to the circumstances. It is automatic. Well, in like manner, God's blessing and cursing formula, is essentially the same way. Violate the rules, and the resulting curse, is automatic, no matter whether you know any better, or not. However, there is such a thing as, grace. If you will look at the second subject scripture, it says that Noah found grace, in the eyes of God. Grace means, among other things, 'God's unmerited favor.' That means a person can't do anything to earn it. It is essentially up to God Himself whether to bless someone, even though they may not deserve it. If we look at the condition of mankind in general, since the fall of Adam, in the 'garden of Eden', there was nothing, absolutely nothing, that man could do, to earn his way back in to the relationship he had with God, before that fall. If not for Christ, who was the epitome of God's Grace towards us, we would all be on our way to hell. Thanks to His Grace, many people, are recipients of His Grace, because they may do something God is not pleased with, but, God will stretch forth His hand, and protect them from the danger they have unknowingly put themselves in. But, it goes even further than that. His Grace extends to most of those that, choose to do contrary to His direction, knowingly. Think about this. A person named Joe, for example, goes to bed one night, planning to get up the next day, and go to rob or kill someone. Clearly, if there were any God at all, we think, if He is all knowing, He would not let Joe carry out that plan. Yet, even though Joe is planning to do this, God gives him 'grace' to get up and do it. Why!!?? Only God knows, but, rest assured, He knows what the outcome of His 'Grace', toward Joe will be. It could be that the person that is Joe's target, may be on the 'cursing' side of God, and is deserving of what is about to happen to them. But, as I said, no one knows this, but God. One thing though is sure. If Joe's target were someone that is on the blessing side of God, then, God will intervene in some way to stop him, short of allowing him to die. His gun might malfunction, he may get sick, his car may not start, he may have an accident, or any other thing. This is Grace extended to even the most evil among us. Think about this, there are some of you, that were the worst of the worst, that if it were not for God extending His Grace to you, you would have been dead a long time ago. As I mentioned earlier, all three of these things, are designed by God, to draw us closer to Him. We can understand blessing, and grace doing that, but cursing?? That is a hard one to swallow. However, if you will consider, that there are many people that feel that they can do what they want, and live any way they want, with impunity, with absolutely no consequence for their behavior. If they suffer some negative effect to their lives, they don't account it to being part of a curse. They consider it, bad luck, or if another person brings this on them, they have a target to retaliate against. However, if, and when they are presented with the Truth, that God extended His Grace to them, rather than wiping them out, like He did, back in old testament times, then, a lot of them would come to Him, because He gave them that grace, even though they, most surely, didn't deserve it. I used to wonder why it was that some of the most evil among us, seem to live longer than those that do good. God revealed to me that, He was giving them all the time they had, to get right, so that there would be no excuse about them not having enough time to get it right. Knowing that whether you are cursed or blessed, comes from God, then, unless you have some sort of mental disorder, you will choose to run to Him, so you can be blessed. It is not so much about using fear, as much as it is about getting man back to Himself, by any means necessary. After all, didn't God sacrifice His own Son, to achieve this?? He pulled out all the stops, so, the specter of God's wrath coming on a person, is just another tool, to accomplish that Goal. I have gone back over my life, and recounted the amount of times that I, in my ignorance, got caught in situations, that could easily have landed me 6 feet under, by being on the wrong end of a gun, in a car, in a dark alley, but, God's Grace, prevented the persons from taking my life. Before that, as a child, I could have drowned, but, God's Grace, pushed me to the shallow end of the pool, where I stood up, and was able to get out of the water. In both of these instances, though I didn't know Him, He was there for me. So, I am committed to Him, as long as I have breath in my body. This is why I tell it like it is, because that is exactly what He wants me to do. There are many out there that don't like it, and like to make fun of me, and others like me. Just remember this, 'IF YOU KEEP PLAYING WITH ELECTRICITY, SOONER, OR LATER YOU ARE GOING TO GET BURNT/CURSED!!' |