Free But Warned
The garden looked pristine and beautiful and Adam and Eve walked slowly through the trees, looking at all God had given them. God said "I have made it all for you but don’t touch the one tree in the midst of the garden, or you will die". God gives us freedom but He is not irresponsible. He shouts and cries out wisdom in the streets and in our lives. If you do somethings it will kill you. If you do other things you will end up in bondage so don’t commit adultery, don’t steal and don’t worship false Gods. You are free to choose but often the way that seems right to a man is the way to death. Often men choose to do things that will hurt themselves or other then when there are consequences, wished that God had of stepped in to avoid it happening. Why doesn’t He step in and stop the young man from crashing off the road while drunk. Why doesn’t He step in and stop people from their free choice and their harmful actions. If someone is drunk He doesn’t take the keys but He has already said don’t be drunk. Why doesn’t he stop the teenager from getting pregnant? He has already said do not fornicate.
Friend God gives His intervention up front by way of warning. If we fail to heed them He will not interfere with our choices.
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Who’s in Control?
The sovereignty of God doesn’t mean he makes everything happen that does happen. God is not behind the murderer or the rapist. He is not the planner and the plotter of tragedy, in fact there are many thing that are not Gods will that happen every day. God is not willing that any person should perish but some do every day without Christ. Both Christians and non-Christians fail to do His will every day. He forces no one. In so many ways the world is now disconnected from Gods perfect will. God operated in two modes His perfect sovereign will and his permitted will, have if you like; Gods will and his accommodation of free will and sin in creation. The ordination of King Saul was not Gods perfect will but He allowed it to happen. He was able to work around it and through it. He always can. The fall of man in the Garden was not god will but he chose not to interfere with man free choice. But part of Gods perfect will for us to be to love him and choose him freely; therefore he had to give his free choice. Mans freedom of choice was a necessary risk. God will not force men to worship but neither can he force people not to sin. Here is Gods dilemma: Shall I make people good or shall I make people free? Free to choose Good or evil.
Friend we are free to choose Gods way or our way but only God way ends in relationship with God and man in peace and joy.
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All dried up?
Elijah walked down to the river as he always had for months but it seems that the river from which he drank each day was becoming just a trickle. He was about to find out why. When the place that God brought you to becomes dry and unsustainable it is because God is getting ready to take you to a new place. God never takes you to a place that dries up and leaves you there. Though God had provided for Elijah at the river with obedient ravens, He had more in mind. That meant getting Elijah’s attention through a provision that dried up. God was not caught out. God knows everything all the time; He knows everything about the present the future and the past and He has known it from eternity. He has perfect understanding and wisdom. With perfect control and power He ensures all things work together for good.
Friend, if wherever you have been placed is drying up- look up; it may be a sign that He has a new thing, place, ministry and encounter with God, perhaps a increase of His supernatural power or a new people to be a part of.
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Key to everywhere
Cars, buses and taxis ply the streets of our town. Men and women walk to work and home again. It is easy to think that there is only the world we live in but high above and deep beneath there are other worlds. Three realms exist. There is heaven, the spiritual realm that God dwells in. There is earth on which the masses of humanity live, which we to reach with gospel and there is under the earth. The cross is the key to opening all three. The cross opened heaven for us. It restored our relationship with our Father in heaven. Through the cross of Christ, we are reconciled to God. Praise God that through cross we are able to fellowship with Jesus. The cross is also the key to authority with men in the earth. When a man or women speak as one truly carrying the cross of a disciple of Jesus there is a ring of authenticity about them that has impact in men hearts. Also between believers, it is the cross that reconciles brother with brother as the cross is embraced. It is the cross that releases ministry to men and women. Certainly the cross is the key to authority under the earth. It was the victory of the cross that destroyed the authority of Satan. The cross is the only badge of authority the devil recognizes. So the cross is the key to authority in every realm. The cross gives you recognition in heaven, recognition in earth, and recognition under the earth.
Friend, it is not a uniform of bright colours or a flag that flutters proudly that gives us authority, but the cross. Not a physical cross to be lifted or carried through the town but a cross clung to in faith and embraced in our heart that gives us power in every place above, on or the under the earth
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Dress to Impress
Esther was getting ready to appear before the king and she asked Hegai what she should wear. She trusted him completely as he knew what the kings liked and disliked. All the girls in the palace selected for the king all knew that they could have anything they wanted to wear and no doubt they went shopping to look stunning in their own eyes. The bible challenges us to please the Lord and not to please ourselves. One thing we sometimes struggle to grasp is the difference between being accepted in the Beloved and living in ways that please God.2 Corinthians 5.9. It not a works salvation but of pure grace. We don’t try to please Him to be saved but we will want to please him if we are saved.
Friend, the key I see to pleasing God, is not to live in a special way in order to get to heaven but to live a special way because we are going to heaven.
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Fear Not
The devil knew Jesus was coming to set the man free, stirred up great storm to stop Jesus coming to the region. You know the devil is not really interested in stopping you doing anything but he is interested in stopping the Lord Jesus from touching people's lives. It was not the disciples that he was trying to stop from reaching the other side, it was Jesus. The disciples at this point were merely men. Christ did not live within them. They were not anointed with the Holy Spirit. Jesus authority was not dwelling in them. The only person that worried the devil in that boatload of people, was Christ. But things are different now. Today Christ is in our life like he was in the boat and because Christ is in us; the devil will cause the storms and troubles to come against us. If he can he will seek to way lay us, distract us and cause enough trouble to turn us back. How many times have you made a fresh commitment to be available to God only to find that quickly trouble comes?
Friend if you are with Jesus in His purpose to reach the lost, the enemy may seek to rock your boat but with Jesus in the boat your life and boat is safe.
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No bones about it
When Darwin was asked about the fact that there is no fossil evidence of any intermediate life forms between a fish and a cow or a bird and a monkey, he confessed that it was as embarrassing problem with his theory. What the fossil record does show which is embarrassing to evolutionist is that the foot prints of man are found in the same strata as signs of what they call homo erectus and Neanderthal man. In other words the ancient primates where living at the same time as men. So far all the primitive men that are meant to be the missing link between man and monkey are either all in the monkey bones or men’s bone but still nothing in between. They are embarrassed about Piltdown man who turned out to be a total hoax and likewise are embarrassed about Nebraska man who was all based upon a pigs tooth.
Friends make no bones about it...God made us.
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Castaway
When the Potter has finished firing the vessel, it is ready for final inspection. He looks closely all over the vessel, to see if it has been ruined by cracking. The vessels that pass the inspection test are approved, meaning proven and found to be without cracks.2Cor 10:18 . For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. When a vessel did not pass inspection, it was cast out the shop into the Potters Field; it was called a castaway. Paul said he strove to walk in integrity lest he became a castaway vessel.1Cor 9:27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become castaway. KJV . One man who did become a castaway was Judas Iscariot, who was finally broken, in the Potters Field.Mat 27:7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.
Friend, are you in a test right now? Pass you final inspection! Be faithful to God, keep integrity with people, hold you peace because the Potter is about to pour greater treasure into your life. God never makes a great vessel except for a great purpose.
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