"O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; you understand my thought afar off, you comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways." Psalm 139:1-3 If you were to ask people to express their concept of God, most wouldn't be able to because they do not know him. For many, God is some kind of power in the skies who is aloof and distant. Of course, Satan has deceived them because the last thing he wants is for a person to come to know the Lord. And for most, they're easy game. The truth is that God is anything but aloof. He knows our every movement, our every thought, our every care, and he deeply desires that we know him personally. He wants an intimate, personal relationship with us. When I was first told this, it seemed unreasonable to think I could know him personally or that God wanted to play an intimate part in my life. I had grown up believing that the only thing God was interested in was in judging me. I had no idea… vs 4: "For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether." If God is interested in every word one speaks, so that there is not a word on one's tongue but that he knows it, how can we think he's aloof? vs 5-6: "You have hedged me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it." And this was my reaction that day when I was told he wants me to know him personally. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it." Yes, it IS high, but it is true. The following is the way it was put to me, and it's exactly the way it turned out. The person who brought me to the Lord said to me: You are a house of many rooms, and each of the rooms has an individual key. Each room represents a part of you, a part of your life. As the owner, you have not done well with this house, it's pretty much a mess. But the Lord God of heaven wants to purchase the house. The deal is that he wants you to surrender the key to every room in the house. For many rooms, you're willing to give him the key. But there are hidden rooms, dark rooms, rooms even you don't ever go into, they're locked and hidden away. The Lord wants those keys as part of the agreement to purchase this house, and the intent of the Lord is to make changes. He'll start with the foundation, he will replace that. Then he'll knock down walls. That will be painful. He'll gut everything out. And then he'll remake it. He will turn this shack into a palace. But it starts with the purchase. Are you willing to let him take over every part, even every hidden part of your house? Then he went on to tell me that there is a purchase price. The Lord Jesus paid for you ...with his own blood which he shed for you on the Cross. On that Cross he bore in himself the judgment on all your sins. Are you willing to turn over your entire life, and your entire self ...to him, to the one who brought you into the world? I was. That day I was born again, and the story of my life unfolded exactly as it was presented to me. He created a new foundation, he has broken down walls, he has used all the stories of my life to shape and grow me, and he has been with me in every part of the story, he has never left me, he has never forsaken me. Through it all. Turn to him and let him change you, let him make you all that he has desired you to be. You'll never regret it. You'll rejoice for all eternity. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2nd Corinthians 5:17
"Have I therefore become your enemy
because I tell you the truth?"
Galatians 4:16
Truth...
In every moral issue there is only one truth. Truth by definition is simply the bottom line. Truth cannot be argued, for when it's argued it is no longer truth.
People are offended when a believer quotes the Word of God that might make a sinner feel guilty. The believer is called every name under the sun should he dare speak what the Word of God says on an issue. He is called, "judgmental," "hater," "homophobe," and on and on ad infinitum. What sinners don't realize is that the motive in the believer is not to hate them nor to judge them. Indeed, believers are only too painfully aware of their own failures, and aware that they are always under scrutiny by the Word of God concerning their own failings. No one knows that more surely than the believer.
So then why do believers "throw the Bible" at others?
Well it's not for the reasons they think. The truth is that it is love toward the sinner, it is a holy fear and dread for their fate. Why else would the believer care?
The laws of God are meant to bring sinners under conviction, not to condemn them but to show them their need for a Savior - so that they will turn to the Savior. The believer knows only too well that if the sinner does not come to repentance, he will be lost for all eternity; there isn't a believer alive who doesn't grieve over lost souls, remembering only too well the lost state he himself was in before he received the salvation of God.
And so, the believer quotes the Scriptures in order to show the sinner his lost state. Has not the believer himself fallen to his knees in heartfelt thanksgiving to the God who brought him/her under such horrendous conviction - conviction that caused him to see his helpless and hopeless state, thereby urging him to turn to God for salvation and restoration?
Knowing the fate of the unsaved is so grievous to the believer that he will labor in prayer that the sinner might find redemption.
vs 19:
"My little children, for whom I labor in birth again
until Christ is formed in you…"
The Word of God has much to say about hell, and far be it for the believer not to labor in prayer so that souls not be lost. Eternity is a long time to spend in regret. And so the believer reaches out to the lost with the Word of God, hoping that sinners will come under conviction of sin and turn to God for salvation JUST AS has been the experience when the believer himself came under conviction for his own sins and turned to God for salvation.
So to call a believer the names they are called is totally missing the point as the believer labors in love for the lost so that as many as possible might be saved.
Friends, this is not hatred, nor is it any kind of phobia, this is the highest form of love, the love of God, God's agape love with which the believer SO hopes to help the sinner along towards repentance and salvation, that he/she too might spend eternity in the glorious place that God has prepared for those who love him.
"...because the creation itself also will be delivered
from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God."
Romans 8:21
The creation ... the bondage of corruption…
Jesus Christ said that Satan is a liar, and the father of it (John 8:44). The methods Satan uses to corrupt the world are twofold: deception and counterfeit. If mankind could only understand the ways of the enemy, so many things would suddenly become clear, so many questions would be answered.
One of the masterpieces of deception that Satan has caused men to believe is "the theory of evolution." In the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, God clearly states that every living thing reproduces "after its own kind." There is no evolving into another kind. Birds will never produce dogs and ducks will never produce cats. It is astonishing that scientists continue this deception after the discovery of DNA, because DNA clearly reveals that evolution is impossible.
It is astounding that the world so loudly insists that teachers teach evolution under stiff penalties for any who would suggest otherwise. Why do they care so much? Why do they shout so loudly? It is because if there be a Creator, then the ramifications of that are huge. It is because if they were to acknowledge a Creator, they would have to deal with Him, and that they absolutely do not want. They would have to submit the pride of their science to Him, and that they defiantly refuse to do. This is Satan's masterpiece. One of them, that is.
No, the truth is that nothing evolves. In fact, the truth is - EVERYTHING IN CREATION DEVOLVES. Genetic mutations never produce a benefit to the organism, genetic mutations always produce disorder.
I was in a college Anatomy & Physiology class. I raised my hand and asked the professor whether genetic mutation could be a benefit to the organism, or does it always produce a breakdown leading to disease, etc. He avoided my question and answered something vague. I didn't realize it then, but he understood the question and it rattled him. I repeated the question and again he answered something vague, not addressing the question at all. I asked a third time, trying to reword it to make my question clear. He did not answer the question. But he gave me an "A" for the course, which stunned me because he was a notorious hard-ranker.
The process of devolving started with our first parents Adam and Eve. They were created perfect. They were placed under only one restriction - only one fruit was forbidden to them. God plainly told them that eating that fruit would produce death. But Satan came and lied about God! He told them that what God said was NOT TRUE. They ate. And the moment they fell for the lie and rebelled against their Creator, the death principle entered into the world just as God had forewarned. From that day on, under the death principle, everything began to devolve. Each generation afterwards produced further genetic mutations until this day - there are so many diseases showing this, that it would be near impossible to list them all.
The death principle brought corruption into all the world because God had given man authority over the world, and when sin came in EVERYTHING came under the curse of the death principle - everything dies, even plants and animals. The death principle rules over all the earth. If one spends some time thinking deeply on this, it becomes shocking to realize the extent of it. The principle of devolution corrupts everything in life, even music, art, culture. Even society devolves, because the world is under the rulership of Satan and the whole world lies in the evil one.
"We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the evil one."
1st John 5:19
The promise of the Redeemer provides the creation great hope. Our Redeemer never sinned and he provided himself as the sinless sacrifice for our sin. When he comes to this beleaguered earth and sets up his kingdom, the death principle will come to an end, "...because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Romans 8:20-22).
This is the hope we have - deliverance from the death principle. All that sin produced will be overcome by the life Jesus Christ brings. The curse will be ended because the Redeemer is life itself. Satan's kingdom will come to a deathly end when the Redeemer comes to this earth, abolishes all evil, and sets up HIS kingdom which will be life to the creation, and that more abundantly (John 10:10).
Turn to him now. He has put into play another principle - eternal LIFE. Those who surrender themselves and their lives to the Creator will have a dramatic change take place inside. Turn to the Redeemer and ask him to receive you, and he will give you a new life.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new."
2nd Corinthians 5:17