JUDGING GOD

God is not a man who has somehow acquired great power, wisdom and authority. Instead He is Deity, the supreme supernatural being who is far superior to man and who has a perfect mind and heart. He wills only from His perfect being. Unlike other life forms such as plants and animals, man was created in God’s, own image according to Gen. 1:27.  

Scripture also tells us that, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” according to Psalm 24:1. So all that exists is God’s personal property. We are not our own! Everything exists for God’s purposes. Humans have this illusion concerning their independence from God. Most believe that as they make their own choices, those choices shape their environment and control their own destinies, and that through their own efforts they provide for themselves, will and do as they please apart from any outside help or intervention. This is an illusion though, because in general we have no control whatsoever over the most basic factors of our life. The scriptures teach us in Proverbs 16, that man makes his plans but in the end it is God who directs his steps and wills the results. Our human tendency often times puts us at odds with God, who is judge over all the earth according to Genesis 18.

 

Some might ask, what right does God have, to decide whether our behavior is worthy of reward or punishment? Primarily it is, because He created us. Some Scientist tell us that humans evolved through a process of mutation and natural selection. If this were the case, there would be no standards of behavior that were more right than any other. Life would simply be a what evolves, with the outcome determining who was most fit to survive.  But God has revealed in the Bible that He is the great intelligence that created the universe and everything in it. Whether we believe it or not is our choice.

 

The apostle Paul expresses this principle in his letter to the Romans: “Indeed, o man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay?” Romans 9:20-21. satan would have us believe that God is a selfish liar who wants to maintain His power and exclusive privileges, keeping mankind from the truth. Satan wants us to believe that God desire to Lord over us as satan himself would love to do. He would like nothing more than that we disobey God as Eve did the day the he deceived her with his lies.

 

The Bible however presents a totally different picture. It reveals that God is love, who longs to offer His grace and mercy to us, even if we reject it. His judgments are an expression of His love to His creation, not a desire for control or revenge or an expression of malevolence. “He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth” Psalms 96:13. God promises in this verse that He will not pervert justice, and falsehood will not be able to prevail in His judgment. Some of the resentment that people have towards God and His judgments’ stems from the misconception that God is judging every little thing that we do and that the trials, pain and tragedies that we experience are God’s punishment for our transgressions. In actual fact, God is continuously shielding us from the worst consequences of our own actions. He nailed our judgment to the cross by sending His Son to take our judgment on Himself and pay for all mankind’s sin. If man does not accept that payment, then in the end he will in deed die a sinner’s death and be separated for eternity from his creator who loved him enough to make a way of escape.

 

God is holding back His wrath on us.  This is represented in the Book of Revelation as it speaks about the “four angels… holding back the four winds of the earth” Revelation 7:1. This world has suffered enough from sin, and the judgment is simply God’s way of bringing it to an end.  We usually think that judgment is all about our deeds and behavior, but actually when you think about it, God is being judged as much as anyone. At the very beginning, soon after creation in the Garden of Eden, the accusations were against God. satan cast them himself. Eve believed those accusations and disobeyed what God had told her not to do.

 

So maybe man’s issue is not so much about, “what right does God have to judge him”, but rather, “what right does man have to judge God”? Because that’s what people do when they consider God’s laws and the gospel message, and rejects them.

 

Loving on you today!

Bren

 

Lukewarm Complacency

Part 1

Sometimes God’s children fall into spiritual ruts. They seem to be going through the motions of being a child of God, but without passion or a genuine feeling of the closeness that they have had in the past, to the Lord. I admit, that I have found myself in that situation myself. It is in those times that we lose our excitement about the things of God and even damage our relationship with Him. While we do not reject Him altogether, we find ourselves in a very uncomfortable situation, for a while any ways. It is that in-between, not wholly with the world, but not totally in love with God either place. This place the scripture refers to as spiritual complacency, being lukewarm and straddling the spiritual fence. This may not be your  problem right now, but sometime in your Christian life, you will be, if you are not very careful to guard yourself by being filled daily and walking in the Holy Spirit. All of us have the tendency to slip into a lukewarm spiritual state. Instead of being the thermostat, we become a thermometer. When everything is going well and we don’t need anything, it’s very tempting to let our guards down assuming that it will always be grand. In Revelations 3:14-22, Jesus wrote a letter to the church in Laodicea, a church located in Turkey. He told them that they were spiritually complacent: "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Jesus is telling us to not be content in that condition. Get up, move out! He stand ready and waiting to help us out of that retched state, but we must desire Him more than anything else. You see it’s always “things’ trip us up and get us sidetracked. Don’t become so lukewarm that you like that common place you may be in. Be ready to pick up and move on to a higher spiritual calling. (continued)

Part 2

Last week I encouraged you not to visit the land of the lukewarm. The place where you become spiritually content. That place where you feel neither hot nor cold for the Lord, just lukewarm. To be lukewarm means, to be indifferent and undecided. You haven’t resolved to do something. You are not passionately invested in a cause. Nothing you do seems to motivate you to exert yourself. When we are lukewarm spiritually, the progress of God’s work is not as important to us as much as it may have been in the past. Outwardly, we may seem to be doing quite well. We may seem to be happy and satisfied, and are committed to our routine of Christian life. However, we dislike anything that “rocks our boat.” We just like the way things are. We are comfortable and feel like we are in our control. But really, we are just pitiful! If this is where you are sweet friend, you don’t realize your true situation. You have no spiritual strength. You think you are doing well, but in fact you are in tremendous danger of being far away from God. I know this because of my own spiritual failures and past waywardness at times. However, the good news is that God loves us dearly and will always be ready to embrace us when we wake up from our spiritual slumber. In verses 15 and 16 of Revelations chapter 3, Jesus tells the Laodiceans their actions indicate their spiritual complacency. When people are truly moved by something, they take action. If you love your family, you will work hard to support them and meet their needs. If  you have ambition for power, if not careful, you will be ruthless in pursuing it. If a child is trapped in a burning building, a mother will do everything she can to save her child. A true believer, will not be able to stay in a place of complacency very long. The Lord wills it that way. He knows that His children can only rebel for so long and at some point they will return to Him. Why? Because upon salvation, God places His Spirit inside them. He promises that His Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth, guiding them as they walk through life and seals them until the day of redemption. No one can remove that seal, no one! A true believer will sense that complacency in their lives and will be convicted by the Spirit of God to repent and turn back. If that does not happen in a person’s life, they will need to rethink and work out their salvation according to God’s Word. However, to the child of God, Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” If we could save ourselves by our good works and deeds, or our great motives or any other means, we would not need a Savior. But since we can’t save ourselves, we must surrender to the One who does save, and when we do, we will have the desire that only He gives to want to serve Him and live for Him. The book of James tells us that Faith without works is dead. No good! Ephesians tells us that, it is by God’s grace that we can be saved, through our faith and nothing from ourselves, for it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Today sweet friend, take a moment and gage your spiritual walk. How is your relationship with God? Draw neigh to Him and He will draw neigh to you! Jesus is the way to God. No man comes to the Father but by Him.

Loving on you today,

Bren

 

How's Your Spiritual Walking Going?

 

When I became a Christian, at first I did not know what “walking in the Spirit” meant. As a matter of fact, there were many things about my new spiritual life and future that I had no idea about. However, there was one thing that I knew for sure. I knew that whatever I now had, I did not have before, and that was the desire to know God better. As I began to study God’s word, the Bible became more clear to me, as I took my spiritual knife and began to cut into the Bread of life and break it off piece by piece, mentally ingesting it into my daily life.  Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh”. That verse is telling us not, to walk as our flesh dictates for us to, but rather to be controlled by God’s Spirit that dwells within the child of God. Once a person receives Christ into their hearts, their old ways of living ceases to exist and God gives them a new life to start over in. Yes, a person can begin again, start over. While they may have to deal with the consequences of their past sins form that point on, they can live in peace knowing that they have been forgiven. Once a person gets born again, they actually become a new person, a new creation. The old person that they were disappears and the new person is free to live, to love and obey God requires them to. That person now sees and knows that something has truly happened to them that they cannot explain, yet they know, that they know, they have been forgiven and made new; and because they know there is a difference from the old life to their new life, it simply urges them to live differently, having new desires that compel them to obedience to God.

 

If, a person does not experience a new change and they continue to live in the same state that they were in prior to asking Christ to forgive them and save them, the scripture describes them as being deceived. If there is no change, there must have been no real repentance. For true repentance brings change. Living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit are two different things. You cannot have Christ come into your life and have no heart change concerning sin. Galatians 5:25 says, “If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit”. If one is in (lives) the Spirit, let him walk in therein. Like a new born baby learns to crawl and then walk, drink milk before they take on solid foods, so the child of God must follow that same process. Walking does not come automatically, it takes time and effort. But nevertheless, the true child of God craves the things of God and to do His will. As they seek God by learning about Him and obeying Him, they began to grow and walk in Him. Being saved allows a person the right to become the children of God. As they walk in the truth that is shown to them by and through the power of God’s Holy Spirit and the Word of God, their new spiritual inclination is to walk deeper and talk to him on a deeper level, and when that happens God is honored and walks with them. I John 2:6 says, “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” The Christian life is a life of progression, but once a believe understands that the new life they now live, is actually, a life that they no longer live, but a life the Christ lives in and through them, then they will understand what it really means to walk in the Spirit! How is your walking today sweet friend?

 

Loving on you today,

Bren