God’s Love …

God’s love is not all sunshine and no rain…

God’s Love is not all sunshine and no rain. God’s love chastens, reproves, rebukes, has to allow one’s consequences of one’s choices, and not force what is good, truth, upright, holy, righteous. If God forced His love, He would be as Satan has accused him.

God’s love for us moved in Him and Christ that the Father gave His son, Christ; Christ chose to die the second death that we MIGHT (might because we have a choice to make) not have to. And so many want to justify disobedience so they can hold on to sin that Christ suffered, died that we might live! God’s love is not all sunshine and no rain.

God is love, all His love unto us is wrapped up in the gospel, the plan of salvation.

John 3:10-21 KJV
[10] Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? [11] Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. [12] If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? [13] And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. [14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: [15] That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. [16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. [17] For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. [18] He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [19] And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. [20] For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. [21] But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

1 John 4:9-10 KJV
[9] In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. [10] Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Chew the Word, digest it… Let that all sink in.

Your Own Husband!

In the beginning God famously began His creative phases with one small but mighty divinely empowered word: Let. Count the word: 12 times in Genesis 1.

Similarly, the Holy Spirit moved upon the Apostle Paul (according to 2 Peter 1:20, 21) to speak the very same command when he spoke of one’s lifetime companion in 1 Corinthians 7:2.

“Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” Why? He explained: “to avoid fornication.” In other words, to avoid sinning against the Most High God, be with your own husband, your own wife.

I meditated on that term, and a baffling question emerged. How many are with someone else’s husband or wife? Really! Is it possible that one could be legally bound or married in the eyes of local government to one who is not his wife or her husband in the eyes of God? The obvious answer is Absolutely.

How does that happen? It happens when people simply snag lifetime companions for themselves, based on anything other than the direction of the Holy Spirit (like Samson or those of the great congregation during Ezra’s era). They failed to depend on God to direct them to that one wife, that one husband, whom He ordained for him or her from the beginning. Abraham’s servant (Genesis 24), when called to go and return with a wife for Isaac, asked God to direct him to the woman God appointed for Isaac.

God knows each character like none other. And He is the only infallible one who can be matchmaker and get it right the first time. While yet being formed in the womb, God had a plan laid out for their lives. (Read Isaiah 49:1, 5; Jeremiah 1:5; Matthew 19:12; Luke 1:15; Luke 2:21; Galatians 1:15.)

The Bible says that we were created for God’s glory, for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11).

Is it not biblically sound to trust that the God who numbers “the very hairs of your head” (Matthew 10:30) also would have formed the perfect lifetime companion for every body He fashioned for His glory? Would He have left such a work to mortal man? Were not all things made for His glory? Are we, who are fashioned by God, not to do every thing to the glory of God? (See 1 Corinthians 10:31.)

To the God of glory, “marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” Hebrews 13:4.

Alone

Images immediately emerge that describe the state of singlehood and solitary confinement, but especially since 2020, a quarantine.

Yet neither of these necessarily fully describes what God meant when He said, “It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18 KJV). You see, within a mere civil marital partnership, extreme aloneness is typical. Separation and divorce statistics and personal testimonials aptly speak to that point. To learn what God actually meant, I sought help from the Strong’s Bible Concordance. To my surprise, Strong is silent in all usages of the term in the book of Genesis. It is not until its appearance in the book of Leviticus that any semblance of simply a solitary state is meant from Strong’s list of occurrences.

Therefore, I returned to the text itself. The next most-related term help meet offers only one word: aid. Before you are tempted to reply, “Duh,” there may be more to it than meets the eye. A further reading reveals that the help meet is supplied by the one woman God made from a surgical procedure on the man, during which was removed an element from the deepest part of him. It may be best to call it self. Hmmmm.

When this thing called self is removed from man, God can grace man’s presence with that which elevates him to a higher plane: woman. In every way, it is possible for man and woman to complement each other to the glory of God. When the union of the two is bound by the sacredness of a Holy God, marriage is achieved. Otherwise, there is no true marriage.

“Man was not made to dwell in solitude; he was to be a social being. Without companionship the beautiful scenes and delightful employments of Eden would have failed to yield perfect happiness. Even communion with angels could not have satisfied his desire for sympathy and companionship. There was none of the same nature to love and to be loved. {PP 46.1}*

“God Himself gave Adam a companion. He provided ‘an help meet for him’—a helper corresponding to him—one who was fitted to be his companion, and who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was his second self, showing the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation. ‘For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it’ (Ephesians 5:29). ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one.’ {PP 46.2}*

“God celebrated the first marriage. Thus the institution has for its originator the Creator of the universe. ‘Marriage is honorable’ (Hebrews 13:4); it was one of the first gifts of God to man, and it is one of the two institutions that, after the Fall, Adam brought with him beyond the gates of Paradise. [The other is the seventh-day Sabbath.] When the divine principles are recognized and obeyed in this relation, marriage is a blessing; it guards the purity and happiness of the race, it provides for man’s social needs, it elevates the physical, the intellectual, and the moral nature.” {PP 46.3}*

This divine union of the two becoming one, fully complementing each other according to God’s plan, is the movement from selfhood to otherhood—or more appropriately called communion.

(*PP – Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen G. White, https://egwwritings.org/?ref=en_PP.46.1&para=84.127. Accessed March 10, 2021.)

All About Choices

In all our daily living, who are we worshiping (serving), really?

Are we measuring all and everything in us, our lives by every word of God? “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (Deuteronomy 8:3). “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons” (Colossians 3:16-25).

“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 4:10, 11).

God is Creator and Redeemer. This holy Sabbath day of God is a memorial of Him. His holy seventh day is all about God. Period. What He says. Not what we want, not what we say, not what we want to do, listen to, not how we “think” to want to worship, to serve God, but only “Thus saith the Lord.”

We are not to put ourselves on Satan’s ground any day, especially on His holy Sabbath. “Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God” (Luke 4:12).

We are not to love iniquity: Iniquity is the enemy of God. If you hold iniquity in your heart, your very prayers are an abomination to God; your prayers are hindered.

God is Creator and Redeemer. Our bodies belong to God. Our mind is the secret place of Him, the Most High. The Most Holy Place in us where He dwells in us, is our mind (our heart).

We do not put drugs (whether or not prescribed by man) in God’s holy Temple (our bodies, our mind). Nor do we put in us that which is harmful in the least. Many are professing God. Yet they are taking His name in vain with their daily life choices. We, who belong to the Most High, do not obey man in anything that effectively gives them dominion over us. We do not “follow” their counsel, nor their instruction one iota. To do so even in the least is contrary to God.

Man, whether friend, foe, wife, husband, child (adult or otherwise), even an employer: no one is in any way to have the authority or dominion over us that belongs to God alone. Period.

We must be mindful and know, not guess at what God says concerning our worship, our service to Him in our daily lives. Yes, even in marriage: for the two in the LORD glorify God and are edifying one another in God by their union. Let that sink in, and study that out.

God is our Maker and our Husband. The church (His people, His children, etcetera): we are His bride. We do not choose to commit adultery against Him; for He said we shall not turn to the right nor left to serve other gods.

God’s children belong to Him (first and foremost). We have been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. His death and resurrection grants us victory over death and sin. His work as our High Priest in the Sanctuary of God in heaven makes it possible for us to be reconciled unto God, if we so choose. It is a work by faith.

God and God alone has the first and last word or say in our lives in all things concerning us. Any unconverted soul (the double-minded, being unstable in all their ways; the fearful, whose spirit is not of God but of Satan; the brute; the accuser of the brethren) cannot get a prayer through to God. Only the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous, the prayers of His saints, the prayers of the contrite in heart are heard of God. He hears and answers them. Yes, He hears the sinner’s sincere cry for deliverance from bondage to sin in all its forms.

Anything that contains blood, fat, man-made substances, chemicals that are harmful even in the least are not to be ingested. The bride of God, the child of God, is not to exercise their freewill of choice to tempt the Lord God and ingest or give permission to be injected with such things-wickedness concocted to destroy God’s created.

It is all about our choices.

When we allow God’s will to be performed in our lives, when we allow Him to work all things together for good to them that love Him, to the called according to His purpose, we are choosing Life.

Let us be very mindful what we put into our bodies. Let us be careful what we allow our eyes to gaze upon; for we become changed by that which we behold. The eye is the light of the body; and if the eye is dark, then the whole body is dark. We are to be very careful and mindful of what we allow in our hearing, what we set our hand to, our feet to. Let us be mindful of what is our walk every day and especially on Sabbath. For what the walk is throughout the six days of the week, and especially on Sabbath—the seventh day, the holy day of God, reveals the true character of the soul.

The six days we are to be separating from sin and the sinful: cleansing ourselves, fasting as God’s Spirit leads us to, and praying without ceasing. We are to be cooperating with the Holy Spirit: submitting ourselves to God, resisting the Devil, acknowledging and confessing sin, forsaking sin, repenting and as far as possible making restitution that we may be reconciled unto God. All that is involved in becoming sanctified. God does not give His salvation to anyone who has not surrendered completely to Him: being healed and clothed in our right minds by God.

God does not go against His own word. God is light; and in Him is no darkness at all. God is righteous; and in Him is no unrighteousness.

Nothing about God’s children is about self. It is all about giving God glory in all we eat, drink, do; we do all to the glory of God.

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:22-24).

“The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light” (Luke 11:34-36).

“But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:16-18).

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 58:13, 14).

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14).

Let all that sink in.

(All Bible verses are from the King James Version.)