Non-Wavering 2

Non-Wavering 2

4/29/17

In this side of the issue, we shall take a look at what occurs when God’s children honor His Word and willingly live under His Laws.  This does not mean that all life shall be a bed of roses but protection according to a just and honorable God is guaranteed. Life itself may bring disasters but when one lives within the Truth of God’s Word we can rest assured that our eternal presence with Him shall not be in question.  It is this Truth that we need to be sharing with the world for their separation from God shall not have the same identity when life ends as we know it.  It is our duty and eternal responsibility to show the world that God loves them and to demonstrate holy love and not what the world brings to the table.  Furthermore, this example of God’s Love is not a difficult one to ascertain but easy to acquire, maintain and grow and it comes through easy steps of obedience.

When my kids were in school I would frequently be shown a copy of award after award that they had earned.  All throughout their school careers my four girls would continually win awards for a various array of categories and whether I would personally lay eyes on these awards or receive notices in the mail, it would never fail to amaze me of how good my girls were and still are today.  As I look back at and reminisce about my girls’ school days I cannot help but remember these instances of such prizes for it is not the awards that bring me the most joy but their presence in my life and what they are able to bring to the world.  And as this school year comes to a close, my youngest shall end her high school years and embark on her college tenure with great ambitions, just as her previous three older sisters have.  I was so lucky to have more of these reports and I did calls from the office saying that my child was caught doing something harmful or destructive and it all came from obedience to the school, the place that was instituted for instruction.

What gets me the most about my girls and the awards that they earned throughout their younger education days is that with each award that they earned still reflects their attitudes and contributions to God, the family and to the communities that they live. They may not realize this fact about their lives but it is there and reflective about how they are made up individually and fearfully by God.  I may have created each one of my four girls but it is God’s presence in their life that separates them from every other person who is on this planet, or who has ever been on this planet or will ever be on this planet.  It is this unique characteristic about our lives that we need to understand for it is this truth that we honor God.  While their lives may not always have been roses and smelled like a cool spring breeze the awards that they earned prove that they wanted to what is right before the eyes of their teachers, family, community, and most importantly God.  It is this characteristic that defines our abilities to worship and to please our Eternal Creator for He has placed this desire in all of us and through this obedience, we shall reap a bountiful harvest for His Kingdom.

In the last article, we learned about what occurs when we decide to disobey God’s commands and how through this disobedience our lives dramatically change, both physically and spiritually.  We are going to be referring to basically the same Scripture passages for this topic but in Deuteronomy we will be using a few verses down from chapter 4:1-3 and focus on verses 4-9 and will tell the attributes of what we were originally made to do and live by, the true slap in the face of our enemy.  Many times we tend to focus on the bad side of our lives but we must remember that we also have the side of us that do good and to stand for what is correct, God also operates on this side of life and no matter what we may face, this is the side of God that we only can know for He is good, righteous, kind holy and sufficient at ALL times and is NEVER bad towards His children.  It is His desire for us to exemplify His characteristics of this nature at all times through our lives and we need to understand exactly how we can accomplish this truth about our existence.

When we study Genesis 2:15-17, we usually see the results of God and the command that He gave to Adam concerning the results of a potential disobedient act and the consequences thereof if he chooses to do so.  There is a minor detail here that I had not realized about this passage of Scripture before and even as we have discussed many times over the past few years about the first three chapters of Genesis, it was not until now that this detail stuck out to me.  In every Scripture past Genesis Chapter 3, we always see a good and bad side of God’s Laws.  Having said this, what I mean is that if one obeys this will occur and if one does not obey this will occur.  It is this common pattern that we tend to focus on and rightly so for after God’s Law and Laws are established it is always our choice to follow them or not, and since God understands our hearts and minds He shall give us the entire picture of proceedings for both choices.

But in this passage, there is a detail that now stands out and it is through this passage that declares the stability and condition of Adam before the fall of mankind.  In this passage God is telling Adam the single command that He gave Adam, God also gives the specific and detailed results that would occur to Adam if he chose to disobey that single command.  The present tense is there and the future tense is foreseen but there is no “good” side to the command if you wish to put it in this manner.  As God stated above, when we study His Word from this point forward there is always a good side and a bad side of human activity when it comes to the choice of obedience to His Laws, there is not this position here in this passage, only the present, and the future.

This can only mean one thing, that in the state of the Garden of Eden at that moment there was not history present and when God created such place it was of His nature which consisted of nothing but purity, holiness, perfected bliss, with Divine creativity on all levels.  This creative status included Adam and everything else that was associated with the Garden of Eden.  There was no need for God to mention a “both sides” issue here for only one side existed.  This may seem like a minor detail but it is one that serves a huge detail about God and His Order that we need to recognize and to understand for it is this detail of God that once again defines His character and how He operates.  His Order is established and it cannot be changed, that is why we shall not see both sides of the human issue in this passage but will continually see it after Genesis Chapter 3 because it was our choice to bring sin into the world, not God’s.  After sin was introduced, then there is a “both sides” issue and therefore can be given in context to each situation by the one and only consistent and complete God.

With this detail now in order, we can proceed with Deuteronomy 4:4-9 and adequately pursue what God is wanting us to know about His Law and our choices to either obey them or disobey them.  In verse 4 it states the following: “But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.”  This verse is a direct statement by God that demonstrates His knowledge of their obedience to His commands and what occurs when His Laws are obeyed.  As stated in the paragraph above when God created Adam and the Garden of Eden there was only the present concerning the human and when we look at God and His Being we must understand that God was never created He has always been which means He only has the present and the future defined in our belief patterns.  This is impossible for us to adequately contemplate and understand but it is this truth that we need to keep in our hearts for it helps us not only to understand God more but also understand and accept the truth that we need Him more than ever to live and to know our life as a whole.

Moses goes further about obedience in verse 5 when he conveys that he has tried to teach the people about God’s Ways and how important it is for them to continually follow so that they may receive the benefits of God and possess the land which He promised them.  This verse is also a direct communication of truth concerning what occurs when God’s Ways are obeyed and while we cannot fully comprehend all the reasons as to why God’s Laws exist, what we do know is that they are in place for a reason and not as a punishment as so many people want to claim.  It was the desire for Israel to enter into the land that God had prepared for them, but as we find out through study it took forty years wandering in the desert for God to get Egypt out of their lives before He showed them the way.  A pertinent issue that we need to understand today, for when God brings into His plan in our paths we first must be inadequate standing before Him first which means no worldly idols in our lives.  His cleansing is needed before and not after His blessings for if the process was reversed, then His Ways would automatically be and continually defeated.

Verse 6 expands on the issue of obedience by commending the children of Israel about the wisdom and knowledge they displayed in ascertaining the truth about God’s Laws and the concept of obeying its contents.  This is a huge verse because it reemphasizes that fact that even back in biblical times people had the opportunity to make choices, or in other words use the brains that God gave them in order to make the correct decisions.  It is obvious that not everyone that heard the commands of God listened and had obedience to those commands and for that choice they perished and left this earth.

This verse also details an important distinction between another set of words that have similar meanings but one has a far greater authority than the other.  From the time of the Greeks onward, intelligence is the form of understanding that everyone wants to display and from that period of human history until today, many individuals, groups, beliefs and even some nations are classified according to their “intelligence” level.  Today this word is thrown around quite frequently and is used in a negative manner as being non-intelligent especially used on those who do not favor the modern or new boundary-free societal philosophy.  In this verse, we see where the misinterpretation of wisdom is downgraded into the form of intelligence today.  Direct from Moses, God states that the children of Israel who obeyed His commands and stood tall when needed that they exercised wisdom and knowledge concerning such choices.  God commends these acts of faithfulness and today we are witnessing persecutions against those who go against the world thus justifying the difference in usage between these two words.

Verses 6-7 proclaim that because the children of Israel who listened and acted through the wisdom and knowledge of God’s Laws were the prime example of a great nation.  This is a magnificent compliment coming from the Creator of everything, don’t you think?  To be labeled as a great nation because we followed God’s Laws is mind boggling if you ask me because we cannot do anything remotely close to being like God yet He sees our obedience as a consideration to become a great nation.  Wait a minute here, you mean to tell me that all a person or nation has to do in order to be considered great by God is to obey His Laws?  Yes, it is that easy.

Now we reach verses 8-9 and these verses provide the way in which to maintain this great nation status.  It is not a hard or difficult process at all.  Human laws are complicated and can draw numerous conclusions to just one sentence.  The human mind is limited in every way imaginable but in verse 8 it states that God has the ability to recognize each heart that is included in the nation in order to provide coverage or non-coverage for His protection.  The process is still simple however, all we need to do is to keep God’s Laws first in our hearts which will automatically keep them first in society as well, this verse states that God has the power to see if a nation is living by this process or not, so if God can see an entire nation He will have no problem at all seeing an individual’s heart at all.

Verse 9 details how we can maintain this level and status of being a great nation and all that this process entails is to keep God’s Laws first.  God says and promises that if anyone lives by this standard that His protection shall always be upon them and in His eyes can do nothing wrong.  But it is when the individual or nation change this setting and place Him second on the list in their hearts, it is at this point where through deception that our status drops and then we become subject to the hand of God instead of living under His protection.  This entire passage of Scripture is straightforward, clear, and precise and there is no need for any other interpretation of said verses.  This is wonderful news people!!  It clearly states in these verses that if we simply obey god’s Laws and obey His commands that we as individuals and as a nation together will be considered to be great in the eyes of God. This means we have grace in the eyes of God and have accepted Him as the Lord over our lives and of our nation.  Such an easy task to handle, right?

Currently, in our nation, there is a great divide ongoing about a specific time period in our nation’s history.  In relative terms to European, African, and Asian, timelines the western societies are fairly young.  The West was the last place to be discovered, explored, and colonized.  This nation alone is just over 300 years in age compared to some nations being thousands of years old, we are relative newcomers to the scene.  Yet, this nation has bounded into the greatest nation to have ever existed and that the world has ever known.  But we have a huge problem, for some reason, we have followed into the democratic trap that every other democracy or free nation in the world has fallen into and it looks like it is close to breaking apart again.

The American Civil War issued into place a where the idea of division is an option due to differences in beliefs could last and thrive according to a playing field where God was used as a pawn instead as The Creator.  There cannot be any argument that this portion of our nation’s history is ugly with every household feeling the issues being fired upon from both sides.  It is this period of time where men and women became famous and great due to the activities that they believed were true, deceived or truth based both were allowed to play out.  It is this portion of our history that some people are trying to silence and to bury and understandably so but is a grave mistake because oral history based on one-sided freedoms leads to race baiting and slavery and automatically reverts modernity to ancient times again.

I have no idea what the most common practices of killing time were in the days of Egypt and the children of Israel but I have read many times that at least slave labor, calf building, and gossip were known about.  To be a great nation all must be known and studied for if it is not only hearsay, innuendos, gossip and lies can be spoken and believed, and I am not mistaken when I say that all of these traits were displayed in two groups of people in one single storyline in the Bible which means that for some reason both sides of this story line that includes all of the content from Exodus to Deuteronomy were connected by burying history.  Yes, each side had its own physical history but it was the history of God and His Ways that both sides buried, for Egypt was not like that when Joseph was alive and neither was Israel in the same timeline.

Why did some get it and others did not?  Even Pilot’s wife did not want her husband to have anything to do with Jesus, yet the timeline accurately states what occurred.  This nation was built on the Divine hand of God by hardworking and God fearing men and women who did not agree on every subject but God saw their hearts and created the world’s greatest nation based on this fact alone.  Over the course of time, we have buried this true history of ours in favor of one that is more self-centered and self-controlling completing the same pathway as every other democracy on this planet and identically as to the direction that Israel took during biblical times.  This portion of the message may seem like a turn in direction itself but it is not, it follows the description of both Genesis Chapters 2-3 and Deuteronomy Chapter 4 almost word for word.

It is this point in which God wants us to understand about obedience, if we obey His Laws we fall into the category of being a great person or great nation and when we fall away from this obedience we allow sin to overcome our lives and thus become subject to eternal separation from Him.  When Adam and Eve obeyed God’s single Law they were a great nation.  When Israel obeyed God’s Ways they were a great nation.  When David obeyed God he was a great nation.  When the Church obeyed and obeys God she is a great nation and when this country obeyed God it was a great nation.  But in every case mentioned here, each fell and they fell hard and our nation is now on the verge of following in the exact same footsteps as these. Obedience is a simple choice and through this simple choice so much of our lives ride upon them.

We do not have to follow in this step for step procedural destruction, just as each one of these examples above was created for perfection and not destruction.  We do not have to go through the same issues that others have faced, we have the perfect corrective measure right in front of our eyes yet we shove it aside because we believe we have the necessary and correct answers for today’s issues.  Well, guess what!!!  So did all of the other democracies, groups, and individuals for I can guarantee you that they said and believed in the same lie that we believe in today.  We cannot do things on our own, we shall fail every time.  Why? It is because we were created to worship God and to live under His protection and wisdom, not our own.

Church, we have been playing church for far too long and have forgotten how to live as the Church for the completion of the mission that Jesus set into motion, this is the perfect example of disobedience on our part and the perfect setting of obedience on His part.  We have lost the dreams and desires that God has for our lives and nation due to our selfish wants and continual worldly rants.  We have fallen for Moloch and have forsaken the Almighty God who provides us with the very materials we use to construct our idols.  You claim that the Bible is not relevant for today’s modern society?  How can you even honestly say that much less believe it?  Each story told in their accurate, holy, and perfect gift of wisdom tells us of events that occurred centuries and millennia ago that we see play out on this very day.  God is our answer, not the world.  The ruler of the world does not care anything about you all he wants is for you to be eternally separated from God.  If he has to use the church to do this then he shall, and for your information he is.

The best part about a non-wavering status is the foundation it provides the necessary basics that all of us are looking for when we make mistakes.  The process is simple and it is easy to follow, and when we mess things up we have the choice to cry out to God and to start all over again. Like nothing ever was wrong but we must make the choice to do this.  If we do, we will long to do things correctly in God’s eyes and be considered a great nation amongst His Kingdom and if we do not then we will reap our selfish rewards accordingly.  Following God’s Laws is easy, all we must do is to study them and apply them to our lives.  These laws are easy to follow, no human interpretations needed for they are explanatory as is with no clauses for grievances against these laws.  This is great news people!  In a world that delivers nothing but bad news on a second by second basis, this news should be recognized as exciting and easily heard and more importantly wisdom to share with others.

DLB

Non-Wavering

Non-Wavering

4/28/17

It is a common theme that people wish to elevate them and do their best to become equal with God.  The world sees nothing wrong with this venture and promotes it every day, but right from the beginning of our existence God has always stated not to add or to take away from His commands, yet as we watch continually we have no fear of these commands.  We forget that God is consistent, complete and all everything despite our lustful greed about our own status.  Our world is falling apart further and deeper each day and will continue to do such until we repent and turn back to God and place His commands back into our hearts.  God loves us and it is not His desire to see anyone of His children suffer or perish but that number of fallen that sleep in departure from God grows each day; we have work to do Church.

Arguments placing mankind at the center and root of our problems are mostly scoffed at today, but in truth, this is a long argued point from many past societies who deemed themselves to be far above any deity.  This is a hilariously sad statement because each one of those past societies had their own gods that they people of that society had to recognize and serve or be considered atheists.  When I was listening to a documentary on Christianity a while back I was amazed to find that the leaders and many people in the Roman Empire considered Christians and Jews to be such atheists simply because they would not recognize and worship the gods of Rome.  A thought that makes sense when one who lives within a society that does not consider God to be alive and ruler over people’s lives no matter who is in physical power, and a process that is being witnessed today as well.

How many of you had parents repeated something to you that they deemed was important especially after it seemed like you ignored their concerns?  How many of you had parents that punished you when you did something wrong, how about when you did that same wrong thing again?  The laws of this land often state that the accused knew what they did was wrong or that they should have known what they did was wrong, therefore giving the law grounds for appropriate charges.  I know that when I did something wrong my parents would always make sure I understood what I did was wrong and not punish me for something I did not know was such, but if I ever did something repeatedly, my punishment was a tad bit stronger than the time before, a reasonable clause in the parenting and child sides and one I tried my best to avoid but sometimes found.

There is a reason why we should consider a mistake just that but when we present tendencies of repeating such “mistakes” they no longer can be considered mistakes but deliberate disobedience.  If one is told about a certain law and knows exactly what that law states, then we voluntarily go against that law, we have no excuse when we get caught.  Probably the most common law broken or one the most common laws broken is the speed limit.  How many of you have ever sped down the road?  All of us have done this for whatever reason and while some get caught others do not but even if we do not get caught it is still considered breaking the law when we speed.  I am guilty of this infraction and while I have not received too many tickets over my driving career, some of the ways that I have handled them have not been illustrious by any means.  I quickly found out that the consequences of these infractions result in a higher premium on my insurance bill, a small price to pay for a disobedient act but one that reminds me to stay within the guidelines of the law as well.  By the way, it has been almost 20 years since my last ticket and I do not plan on receiving one anytime soon either.

God deals with His children in the same manner for there are occasions which His laws state a certain thing and when it is disobeyed our lives reflect such disobedience in a certain manner but we are spared and then there are those disobedient times against other sets of His Laws which terminate our lives rather quickly.  Why would we wish to push our luck in finding out which ones God deems important enough to wipe out a nation or just allow His children to walk in a wilderness until they figure things out?  Parents have a duty to teach their children to stay away from harm and from evils that would have negative effects on their lives, or at least that would be the proper way that parents should act.  However, today we see that many parental settings have different views towards their children and even go to the bars with them thus setting an example that shall follow both dominions ineffectively.  But God does not waiver on His Ways or Laws for they represent His definition and since He has no rival and has never been beaten on any level this means that His Laws are true and tried and shall never be defeated or broken by Him.

As we see in Genesis chapters 2-3 mankind believes that they can bring themselves up to God’s level thus deeming God to be flexible in His Ways and Commands.  God gave Adam and Eve one law to obey and over time they sunk into believing a lie that God was just kidding somehow when He delivered this command to them, this “kidding” belief came from Satan our immortal enemy whose only desire is to see us die in our sins (disobedience) and spend eternity away from God.  As we have also previously read, it was the Israelites continued disobedience and ignorance of God’s Laws that kept them wandering around in the desert for forty years instead of entering into the land that was promised to them by God unscathed.  For such a grievous time explained in both of these examples why would anyone down the road in human history decide to live other than what God has commanded?  But, here we are in serious trouble again due solely because of our sins and selfish lusts that have produced a wicked society in the eyes of God.

One of the fundamental aspects of our lives is the family and when we look at biblical history and overall secular human history we cannot deny that the major downfall of any society begins with the destruction of the family.  We first see the destruction of the spiritual family that God created when Lucifer fell, then his antics carried over into Adam and Eve and it has been a destructive pattern and course ever since.  This pattern has not changed since Lucifer’s fall and he and this pattern have no intentions of changing what-so-ever either.  God was never lax in His authoritative presence in the Garden of Eden but He never forced Adam and Eve to obey His single law either, it was ruled over by their hearts and chosen to either live by or disobey.  This is why the family is so important to God for it was His family that was both spiritually and physically attacked and while God stood Strong and True the attacker faltered grossly for eternity.  It was this course that brings us to why humans disobey and why the family is the center of God’s life.

In Genesis, we have the example of Eve adding to the command of God when she stated that they could not touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God had proclaimed the consequences of such a disobedient act if done and it must have been an unexplainable concept come to life when that truth was fulfilled.  God had no choice but to fulfill the punishment of their disobedience and while banishment from their perfect Garden of Eden setting was hard, their bodies were now introduced to a permanent stage of death which had never been understood before.  It was clear to Adam and Eve of what God said not to do and it was also clear to what would occur when and if they decided to disobey, a setting that should have been continually reminded to oneself over time.

In Deuteronomy Chapter 4 we once again have the Israelites being warned about not obeying God’s commands about a certain law that God deemed worthy enough for the disobedient act to result in grave consequences.  Deuteronomy 4:1-3 gives us a passage where God is speaking to the Israelites about not adding to or taking away from the commands that God has given them for it would be such a grave example as He had to demonstrate concerning those who worshiped Baalpeor versus those who listened to His Laws and obeyed them.  The people that received such consequences concerning this disobedience were not from another land or culture, but of themselves, people they knew and probably grew up with, ate dinner with, walked and with and might have even had daughters marry their sons.  This intricate detail did not matter for when God said to not do something He meant for it to be obeyed.

The consistency and completeness of God is shown here in these two passages, and I must admit that I did not see this connection before but this link now is engrained in my heart strictly because I have studied God’s Word with an open and willing heart to what He wants me to hear, thus share with you.  In Genesis 2:15 it states the following: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”  Deuteronomy 4:2 states the following: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish (ought) from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”  There is a single word here that ties these two verses together and set the stage for the future is followed or not followed and that shared word is “keep”.

The word keep used in Genesis 2:15 and the word keep used in Deuteronomy 4:2 is the exact same word, there is no difference in the word at all.  Therefore, when Genesis 2:17 states: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” and Deuteronomy 4:3 states: “Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you.” can be linked due to the completeness and purity of God and the Order in which He is defined.  Another intricate detail here that we should remember is that the first command that God gave to Adam was disobeyed and death reigned in his life and here in Deuteronomy where it states that men failed to follow God’s first commandment of the 10 Commandments which also detailed death as the punishment.  Is there ANY question of how important God’s Laws to us are now?  If you are not familiar with the story about Baalpeor, I refer you to Numbers Chapter 25 and it gives a small detail about Moab, Moabites, and their gods.

What God wants us to understand is that it is important for us to keep His commandments close to and inside our hearts.  We must remember that the definition of sin is disobedience and sin will always separate us from God unless we accept Him and His Ways completely.  Also by definition, our lives can do nothing but sin which means that we must be totally dependent on God for our salvation, this truth is exemplified throughout each book of the Bible.  It is not for us to say which law of God will bring about destruction or death but it is our duty to understand the laws of God and to obey them according to His Covenant with mankind.  It is through the choice and willingness to obey His Laws that is important, not counting the cost (physicality) of each law.  If one counts this cost then we automatically place value upon sin and therefore allow our minds to create “a little white lie or a big black lie” in our hearts.  Sin is sin no matter how we look at it and when we disobey God’s Laws we automatically add to the enemy’s purpose of destroying our dominion.

God states that our dominion is a necessity in our lives when He gave us charge over it in the Garden of Eden.  Our dominion represents and defines our life according to God and His Creative status of our lives, a hard concept to grasp but when God reveals this truth it makes perfect sense why Satan’s number one target is the family and why sex is so important to keep holy and pure between humanity.  Want to understand why homosexuality is such an abomination to God?  Study the relationship of our dominion to our lives through God’s Creation of our lives itself and you will begin to know why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and all of the related cities around them.  In no way can God ever accept the voluntary destruction of life or in this case dominion at the hands of mankind that He purposefully created.

The important message God wants us to understand in this article is that when we disobey there shall be consequences to our sin if we choose to adhere to such ways.  Those disobediences do not “pile up” per say but have its own effect on our lives as disobedience occurs.  In all reference to the Bible, God does not punish people for mistakes but He does allow for severe and sometimes destructive consequences for direct disobedience of His Laws.  All God wants us to remember is that when we sin we cut short our dominion and it is our dominion that defines our existence eternally.  When we sin we cut short and harm our dominion which is our definition and what represents to Satan as God’s Kingdom.  Our dominions are stymied enough by the weight of sin that we inherit God wants us to not further weaken our lives by voluntarily adding to this weight, that is why He provides us with His Ways and wants us to choose life.

Even the Church has lost this truth about our lives, for if they had not she would NOT be acting in such a manner as she is today, or even in the Early Church days either.  How important are you to God?  The message from God in this article should point out that importance very clearly.  It is time that we repent and turn our hearts back to God and allow Him to restore our dominion (life) once again.  We need to walk under the blood of His Covenant and study its principles thoroughly so that we know how to live properly.  We were never made to “just survive” but we were wonderfully and masterfully created for a Divine eternal purpose and it is high time that we start living in such a manner.  God is non-wavering in His Laws and I am so thankful for that truth.  He might have to smack me at times for my willing disobedience to these eternal Laws but I am so thankful that He has provided me a way that I can choose to live perfect in His sight under the blood of His Son.

DLB

Important Defenses

Important Defenses

4/27/17

Much controversy has been circulating around considering the construction and reinforcing the borders of this nation.  The sides have been drawn and are defended quite heavily on this issue by all those who care to weigh in.  But in all-around standings, we must consider the protection of this nation and how to make sure that all lives are safe as much as possible.  Our spiritual protection is just as important as our physical and should be protected in like manner and whether we wish to admit it or not, both issues are at hand today.  God wants both our physical and spiritual dominions protected and when we look at it in this manner, it is easy to justify this necessity.

This topic runs deep with parallels in our lives and for the continued protection that we so desperately desire.  I find it difficult to sit back and observe the patterns that emerge each day but at the same time, these patterns do not surprise me, for they represent a graphical truth that all humanity expresses.  To be honest, I would not expect anything different to be showing right at the moment for it is a true reality of what lies within our hearts.  The only issue that is of any eternal concern is that we fail to recognize exactly what is transpiring and that our actions today shall affect our standing both physically and eternally at some point in the future.

One needs to understand a few words of wisdom before we proceed any further.  First of all, this message comes from God and not me, I want to make sure that this truth is set into motion upfront before anything else is written.  Secondly, this message has nothing to do with politics or one side of an issue or another, it will strictly be guided and directed to you the individual reader from God on your behalf of your life.  Protection is the utmost of importance to God and He wants us to remember the reasons why it is important to protect ourselves first, not later.  Again, this is NOT a political topic it is one of pure safety of you.  If anyone tries to play this message from God into a political ploy then shame on you for God gave us brains and He expects us to use them in the only capacity that we can, honorable and true not biased.  

I find it amazing of how many conflicting answers people give concerning the issue of protection, and what intrigues me the most is the ensuing arguments that those answers provide.  While none of us shall ever agree on all issues I truly believe that all should be civil in our disagreements.  Yet, as each issue comes and goes we see tensions between ourselves increase and thus promote further division.  Defense structures are in place for a reason and there is an intimate and specific detail that we must consider before we rush into whether or not we build a wall or not for even the individual protection of a society is just as important as the entire society itself, a detail that we do not even follow with consistency.

Anyone remember the old movie “The Boy In The Bubble”?  It was a movie that gave some details about a young boy who was born without an immune system and basically had to live in total seclusion from all society due to this condition.  I watched this movie with my parents back in the early 80s and it raised many questions in my head concerning how people felt and how they got bugs and how they got over them.  There were all kinds of imaginative thought processes over this movie and how a family would respond to such an event, not to mention all of the differing opinions that the movie brought to light as well.  All of us have had the flu or had a cold and even some of us have other immune system conditions as a long term illness.  But do we understand that our immune system is at work even when our bodily functions are at a perfect level?  And do we understand that we need these immune functions in order for us to not be subject to live inside an enclosed environment?  In other words, our immune systems build a wall starting with our skin and then also being reinforced through tiny molecules running through our vessels and tissues so that our defensive mechanisms stay within normal boundaries. It is for this reason alone that any choice made in our lives must be carefully and specifically rectified before ignoring the overall possibilities.

Over the past few months, God has been showing us some of the detailed events that took place in the Garden of Eden.  Some of these events were well known and yet God expanded our knowledge concerning examples but there were a few of these items that God has completely opened our eyes about and through this new content has brought about a better understanding of how things transpired in the Garden.  God makes it clear in Genesis Chapter 2 that Adam has a job to do and that his job is to dress and to keep the Garden of Eden in order.  The Garden of Eden was Adam’s dominion, the one that God gave Adam to live in and to ensure all things were kept in order, thus serve as the defender of his dominion the one who would be the defense from anything that sought to do harm.  Harm over what?  You know that question had to be asked by Adam and one that God must have explained to him over the course of time before the fall of man occurred.  While we have previously discussed borders and boundaries, there is a specific detail that God wants us to know through this message, so while some of the material may be a repeat the read and knowledge is valuable to our lives.

Adam and Eve had the choice to keep God’s Law continuous or to break its protection by doing what they deemed to be adequate in their own eyes.  It was totally up to Adam and Eve for this decision and when they made the decision to listen to another who convinced them that no godly defense was needed, their world soon came crashing down around them for God’s protection had been breached by disobedience.  This is a prime example of why it is so important for us to maintain and to recognize the boundaries and defensive mechanisms of our lives for when Adam and Eve chose not to keep up the dominion that they had, they lost it and were never allowed to have it back or even return to its presence again.  Here lies the truth about having defined boundaries and fortified borders around and in our lives for without them or if we do not believe in them, we are defenseless and shall believe anything that is told to us by anyone operating within our reach.

We must also remember an important detail about the dominion that God gave Adam and Eve to dress and to keep, their dominion was alive.  From the command that God gave Adam, it meant that the Garden of Eden would not keep itself that it had to have someone over it to maintain its presence in the fashion that its life gave and in order for the Garden to provide what it was meant to give it had to have someone over it.  Therefore, its life was in the hands of Adam and Eve for when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden angels and a flaming sword was put in their respective places; besides a few further references the Garden of Eden was never mentioned again nor was it ever saw either, a significant detail about how important it is to keep up defenses for just our own lives but for other life as well, a matter to really contemplate about when one looks at it on this level.

Back when I was a kid, I became a bit confused when at times my parents wanted me to be around certain kids when they were not feeling well.  When I was living in Hope, Arkansas I remember that one of my friends had a bunch of red dots on his skin and when his mother approached my mother about the situation it seemed to be all ok.  I also remember that within a few days I too had those little red dots on my arms, chest, and legs and I was not feeling the best either.  But, when another one of my friends became sick with the flu, my mother kept me away from him poured cough medicine down me and checked on how I was feeling every few hours.  A tad confusing to a kid but with whatever method my parents took I knew that they were doing the best for me and only wanted the best for my life.  Boy, you should have heard me when it was mentioned that it was time for me to get a shot, we will leave this subject right there.  That trend from my parents about knowing what is best continues today and I am so lucky that they are still with us and continue to provide valuable guidance and wisdom to me and to my family. 

I know that not every person reading this message will agree with what my parents did back then, and that is ok but in my life what they did turn out to be the best defense system for my life, for I do not know how things would have turned out for me if they had not loved me enough to make sure that I was protected on every level as possible.  Mom and dad could have counted on my healthy condition to be the warranting pattern and not had I received the inoculations but what if I received something else of a greater magnitude, what if I did not?  All of these questions plus much more do loom large in a parent’s heart but it at this point where the nervous parent should trust the physician and their recommendations as guidance.  Do we follow such healthy guidelines today or are we mandated in some certain areas to complete this type of task without question?  A sign of variance that is not considered to be a stable environment if one wishes to push it to this limit – which we all need to do.

So, what do this matter and subject have to do with our eternal placement?  The choices that we make will in all roads lead to where we will spend eternity.  If we do not or refuse to put into place defenses around our boundaries we will be subject to the invaders, any invaders, who wish to harm our lives.  If we have a system in place that requires certain procedures to be followed before such individuals are allowed to freely enter this country the chances of us or others becoming victims of their wrath are slimmer than if none existed.  The same concept can be placed on an individual level, a national level or spiritual level and each level will be directly involved in the other guaranteed.  I do not care what you have been told before about humanity and how good people may seem to be, in truth all humans have an evil nature to them for it is a condition that we all have, the Bible states that all are born into sin and sin is disobedience which means not doing something that is good or right.  ALL are born into sin, with no one being exempt from such a condition which means that no one is exempted from this border, boundary or defensive positioning.

Why do the positions of so many today not surprise me when they voluntarily forfeit their defensive mechanisms in the name of “freedom”?  Because it is the common will of today’s societies to want to be absolutely in control of their lives and in order for that to be accomplished no boundaries are allowed for there is so much love to go around.  Plus, and this is the most important reason as to why people do not want boundaries or defined borders is that if these wonderful people believe in the Bible they believe it on their terms alone but for the majority of them they do not consider the Bible to be credible enough to warrant a sincere thought about which places them in line with the enemy of our lives both physical and spiritual and by this definition of belief and the truth that all are born into sin concurs with what the Word of God says about yours and my eternal positioning. 

As Adam and Eve found out, an untidy and undressed dominion is subject to fall from your grasp at any moment.  As my life has progressed over the last forty nine years, I have learned that if I do not take up the defense for my family, they shall be taken away from me.  The truth of these two events also applies to God and to our spiritual lives, for if we do not adequately and purely defend God and His Word, our eternal positioning shall be with Satan and his defeated life.  Why would we want to listen to and place our trust in a belief of non defense to the king of losers?  Hello!!!  Our enemy is eternally defeated because God adequately defended His Dominion when Lucifer decided to try and do things on his own.  It is our goal to be like God and while we fall short our hearts are the one that should desire to be more like Him and not the world.

God asks us to take a hard look at our lives and to see where our defenses are.  Are they in good shape, do they need repair and reinforcing or are they even there?  If a nation has shoddy defenses and a good army their status shall be overrun after a while, the same is true when you have good defenses but a lousy army, but God did not and does not intend for His children to be subjected to those types of conditions.  So why do we enthrall ourselves in such madness?  God wants His children to live in peace and prosperity at all times, ALL of His children, not just a few.  Living in God’s Laws fortifies our lives both spiritually and physically and provides us with the best defenses possible to withstand the attacks from our enemy.  God asks us if we will allow Him to be our definition of our defensive system, both inside and out.  If we do allow him this title in our lives then He is faithful and just to protect us according to His Covenant that is in place for us but if we do not then we shall soon witness a great destructive force that will not only eat at us from within but physically change our land until it is no longer recognizable to any eye.

Our inner immune system builds a wall of protection that we need in order to survive, just as our national borders need a defined border of recognition which is respected not mocked.  Remember all wars have begun when an enemy, declared or undeclared, has crossed a boundary in force and when this occurs whose fault is it when the invaded country falls?  It is not the invading country or enemy but the country that was inadequately prepared to defend itself when it came time, a horrific example to enforce the options of choice into play but a necessary one to remind us that we all need to ensure the proper border defense instead of building up personal walls in retaliation to those being proposed.  If we automatically limit our inner defense mechanisms how will we be strong enough to protect our surroundings when the time calls for endurance?

Church, it is our responsibility to build up the inner immune (spiritual) system through the living words of the Bible.  We are the examples that need to be in touch with God at all times and not messengers from the world.  God does not care about Republicans, Baptists, Democrats, Catholics or any other descriptive word or phrase that we tend to hide behind cheaply relate with, He ONLY cares about your heart and how it needs to recognize its Creator for if we do not then He will lose a child for eternity.  Our lives need a good defensive mechanism in order to survive and so does our heart.  God has given us a brain to take care of the physical and has given us a spirit to take care of our eternal.  It is our wakening up to the fact that we need both aspects protected that is of the utmost importance and this life-saving formula shall not occur unless we have God first in our lives.  If we approach God’s Word with shoddy tactics and “bits and pieces” belief we are sunk.  Allow God to restore our hearts so that we shall understand the importance of defenses, for as the old saying goes the best defense I a great offense and vice versa.

DLB

Just As I Am 2

Just As I Am 2

4/25/17

A couple of years ago God shared with us a message about the words to a song that has been a foundation in my life.  But now God comes to us again with an extension of those words and a direct meaning to his calling for us to repent and to return to His Way.  This is a straight forward message and one that God wants us to take to heart and to listen, for our ways that we have chosen have followed a certain path and it is this path that He wants to be changed.  God loves us and wishes not for us to be in a wilderness either spiritually or physically but right at the moment that is exactly where we are located.  Let’s change our path and our hearts so that we may not spend “40 years” wandering in circles waiting for our Promised Land.

A while ago, I took some time to look back at some of the messages that God has shared with us in the writings that He has given me.  I went all the way back to the beginning of my writings and a common theme soon jumped out at me, it was obvious that for the majority of my life I refused to write or to develop this skill.  Almost every aspect of my words and sentence structure were utterly confusing, at best choppy and most of the sentences were so grossly fragmented that their meaning was difficult to comprehend.  Even today, I am not considered to be a professional writer by any means but I can tell a difference in my writings today from that time ago almost six years now.  I cannot contribute this growth to anything or to anyone besides God and it is this truth that God wants us to understand about our belief that it is ok that we stay in the same place after we turn our hearts to Him and how wrong that belief is to our eternal existence.

The words that I stared at on my remembrance tour were jumping off the page and screaming to me to be fixed, so I resigned myself to begin a project that would take some time but what I believed to be necessary in order to make things look better for those who might migrate back to that writing time.  As I have stated from time to time I did not like to write when I was younger and when I look at those first articles of mine I can easily see that the statement I just made was 100% accurate.  When my eyes saw my efforts back then, I quickly began to rewrite one of my first messages to reflect a manner to which I believed would be fitting for my current writing style.  It was then that god asked me “what are you doing?”  My response was great, a human and selfish one and it was out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying.

“I am making your messages better” was my statement and as soon as I finished those words God spoke and said to me that those were His words and that they served as an example of how growth in Him works.  I felt like I had been cut down to an inch high for it was then that God showed me that what He wanted me to write about was how His restoration process worked and that I was not the same person, in writing and in life that I was when I first obeyed what He wanted me to do.  His words revealed to me that the world shall drive you down to a point of destruction and then hang you there until you give up and succumb to its grip. But God works in a manner in which a process of restoration begins but in order for us to receive it we must understand that it is a growth process and not one that occurs and is completed overnight.  And it is this process that we need to understand about the world, God’s processes and our restoration in His manner.  It also describes just how God works in this process and once again the children of Israel provide us with an excellent example of this glorious process, both of how God operates and how we sometimes miss out on what He is doing in our lives as well.  Oh, and those words that I tried to fix were left just as they were written and they now serve as a foundation for my growth in God and what He is doing in my life today.

Back in 2015, God shared with us about a wonderful song that many churches sing at certain times of the service when God is calling people to return to Him.  While this song is a great hymn that all should hide within their heart it serves as the foundation for our lives and not stabilize our hearts in a specific staying spot, thus restating that God accepts us as we are but does not expect us to remain in that condition of worldly existence.  It is this point that many people who attend church these days live under – staying in that same spot – and honestly, believe that they are safe from the world and are doing what is expected of them from God.  It is this personal deception that is eternally dangerous and needs to be eradicated completely from our hearts and beliefs.

We must never forget that it is our enemy who designed deception and it is through this act that he is defined as the father of lies.  A good description of deception is one that glorifies you instead of God, in other words, anything that lifts our standards of life and lowers God’s is deception.  The Bible gives us a perfect example of this process and it is one that has been taught about many times over the centuries and it deals with the children of Israel and their time in the wilderness.  Through this example we will learn that while God does accept us as in our ugliness when we come to Him but we will also learn that He cannot allow us to remain in this condition and that He offers cleaning on every level so that we may seek His eternal life spotless and blameless before Him, totally separated from the world.

There are many aspects to the story of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt.  Their arrival into Egypt was a glorious relief but after a long time in that country, their presence became a concern from the ruling leaders and one that needed to be kept under control for fear of a takeover.  Slavery and pure human trafficking soon appear and the existence of Israel now is being threatened from their own living quarters.  How could a life of luxury and sustenance be turned into a personal knowledge of absolute slavery in a matter of a few centuries?  But if we take a closer look at what took place during that time frame it becomes clear exactly how that option occurs because we are living this exact setting today and just as the children of Israel we do not recognize it one bit.

There is no question that the children of Israel were living a nightmare before their tenure in Egypt was concluded.  The cries that God heard on a continual basis were justified and in a matter of God’s timing would the situation be corrected, in His way, not man’s way.  The pharaoh hit it on the head when he said that if they did not do something quickly the number of Israelites would outnumber the Egyptians and would be able to challenge the Pharaoh for the throne.  This also explains that pharaoh had no concept of who God was and how He would deal with the situation for God sees all and tries His best to avert any true violence at first.  This was displayed through the meetings between Moses and Pharaoh, the battles of spiritual control, the plagues on Egypt, and eventually the agreement to free the children of Israel.  While this process of freedom was a learning lesson for Pharaoh it should have been one as well for the Israelites, but over the next 40 years, we see that they did not learn too much from that process and it cost them valuable time away from the Promised Land.

True and complete excitement must have been in the Israelite camp when they heard the words to pack up themselves and to get ready to leave, for their freedom was now a reality.  I have never been in complete captivity before and I certainly have not been a prisoner of war or been deemed as a slave or the status that it brings but I do know that the issues that I bring into my life subject me to that type of living and through these settings I have learned that they only bring hurt, pain, and agony which I do not need.  The leaving process was not an overnight thing, for Israel had acquired many things during their time in Egypt and it was this aspect of their lives that God had to work on and to get rid of, all unknowingly to the children of Israel.  But they should have known that God was going to clean them as they left that land and I can imagine that this cleanliness process, they thought, was going to be completed as soon as their feet walked out of the country.  But in truth, their leaving the country was the first step in a process of God’s cleaning process and the key to understanding restoration and the process that it had on their (and has on our) lives.

Exodus Chapter 12 gives us the order for the Israelites to be expelled from Egypt, the preparation for their departure and the process of them leaving the land.  In verse 37 of this chapter, it states that the Israelites leave the city of Rameses and go to Succoth, and this verse also gives us an idea of about how many able men left that day when it says that the Israelites included about 600,00 men walked that day.  This is a bunch of folks, folks, a true testament to their growth while they were in Egypt and if looked on through physical eyes a reason to believe that their numbers could grow enough to overthrow a ruling party.  It was also felt that through these numbers that god could use their strength against any opposition to their leaving one which proved feeble when the time came to encounter this opposition in the desert.  Remember the stories of D-Day 1944, when it was the job of the Allies to storm the beaches at Normandy?  It was the job of the Germans to throw them back into the sea, thus declaring the return of captivity of France and mainland Europe to Germany, the same concept of the battle for freedom warfare and slavery is given here on a modern day example.

For every human, it is easy to believe that once you are out of a situation that your problems are solved and over simply because of the relief one feels after they have left the scene.  But it is exactly the time where those who leave are in the gravest danger for we all know that while one party has left and felt better the other party involved is not and seeks out the other side and to find out exactly what they are doing and where they are at specifically.  This type of freedom feels liberating to one while betrayal to the other, a setting that many of our current relationships undergo and more specifically one that our eternal enemy finds insulting, for it means that his kingdom has lost and has been pushed backward and the potential for God’s Kingdom to advance just greatly increased.  So, it is the job of the enemy to ensure that this newly found freedom does not last and that an immediate return to slavery occurs.

The truth that God had work to complete was not hidden from the children of Israel, even from day one when they feet actually left Egyptian soil, for we must remember that when God acts He is a complete God on all sides of the issues and must work accordingly.  But for some reason as soon as their feet left the confines of slavery they forgot that through their own possessions and belongings they were still holding on to Egypt.  It was this part of Egypt that God still had to rid them from and one that was much harder to accept from Israel than the excitement of physically leaving the captivity of Egypt.  We can relate to this setting by knowing that after centuries of captivity and being controlled as slaves, God chose to accept His children just as they were.  God understood and recognized that their status of royalty had been taken away from them and that they were not considered anything more than slave laborers with growing numbers, but even in this type of lifestyle God worked His love into their existence and brought them out of their slavery according to their sincere cries to Him.

Now, marching a million or more people around in a desert or wilderness is quite a task and one that should not be scoffed by anyone either.  And when one studies the landscape of the deserts and wildernesses that the Israelites wandered in for such a long time, one has to contemplate as to why this amount of time was taken for that entire area is not that large, treacherous yes, but not that large especially if one considers the amount of time involved here.  It is this point of being “just as I am’ that God wants us to understand that He wishes for us to drop and to begin to allow Him to infiltrate our hearts and to grow within them.  For if we do not allow this process of His to grow inside, completely inside we will find out real soon that our wilderness walk will take a lot longer than we had at first expected.

God cannot just perform one aspect of a process and then call it good, that is a human attribute and not one that God operates through.  God is a complete God and when He begins a process He first must remove His children from the setting in order for them to have a level playing field.  God understands that the things that we acquire from the world weigh heavy on our lives and if not loosened and let go will eventually bring us to our knees in such a destructive manner that we may never fully recover.  This is a glorious process and one that leaves us feeling free from the situation that we had been in but just as my short and choppy sentences at the beginning of my tenure writing I still needed to grow in stature and continue this growth process by depending on God to fill me with His presence.  This was now the point where the Israelites were in and while it felt good to leave the land of Egypt, their journey had just begun and was going to be difficult for quite some time ahead.

I can guarantee that God had no real intentions of keeping the children of Israel wandering in the desert for forty years.  But I can also guarantee you that if it takes forty years to get the world out of our lives God shall use that time or even longer in order for us to see what He wants from our lives.  It would be difficult to watch a loved one die in the wilderness especially when they left the land of their captivity they were in almost perfect health.  When any loved one, friend, or general acquaintance passes away we all spend a time of reflection in due part of our own mortality, but this point we should also try our best to figure out if we are in right standing with God too, for it could mean that our mourning process and our wilderness travels could be shortened.  In order for us to have this shortened period of travel, we must give up our self-standards and allow God to come into our lives and be the leader and ruler over us, thus taking another step in the restoration process.

We must understand that the wilderness portions of our lives are there for a reason and while this time period hurts it is god’s way of teaching us to depend on Him and not the things of the world.  In Numbers Chapter 20 we have the perfect setting of how humanity lives when they have not figured things out about God and who leads them.  Here we have the children of Israel camped out in a specific part of the wilderness called Kadesh.  It has been almost forty years since they have left Egypt and they are just now reaching the southern part of modern day Israel, far from their destination yet so close at the same time.  We read that Miriam has died and is now buried in the area, there is now land for planting of seeds or to grow the necessary plants for food, and more importantly, there is no water for the people of the livestock.  The situation is desperate and needs immediate attention.

In verse 3 we have the people arguing with Moses about their concerns and they are frustrated enough to even question their presence in this land and wondering why God would not allow them to die as their forefathers did instead out here in the wilderness.  In verse 4 we have the details of what exactly is in their hearts and the proof that even after forty years in the desert they still did not understand what God was doing in their lives, when they ask Moses as to why “he” had brought them out into the desert and live under these “evil” conditions?  For every person who has been associated with or has lived in or around a desert knows that this type of living is not easy and hard work must be continually achieved in order for survival.  Yet, as we read in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy we find that God has over and oversupplied each need that the children of Israel had while wandering these lands.  A true sign that they had nothing and that their dependence should come from God and not mankind, a process of restoration in God’s timing and manner that should have opened their eyes to the situation that they had come from and that they were presently in. 

Yet, even after forty years, it is obvious that this truth about why they were in the desert was still hidden from their eyes.  For as we read in verses 8-11 of this chapter even Moses does not heed the specific Word of God and disobeys His command concerning the rock and the need for water.  God still keeps His promises of survival to the people but through this lack of trusting in God and showing the children of Israel the true nature of God and His provisions, Moses and Aaron would be included in the ones who would not physically see the Promised Land.  We know through the stories in the book of Exodus that Moses understood about having faith in God and we also know that the people of God saw these acts of faith through the miracles that God performed over this amount of time, so why is it so difficult to surrender our entire being over to God and recognize His processes as necessities for our eternal survival?

The truth about the wilderness is that it is a place to allow us to learn that God wants every part of our lives at all times.  It is a great feeling to know that we are no longer subject to the world because we have chosen God to be in our lives, it is even a greater and unexplainable feeling of joy when we recognize this truth but God does not stop there because He must be a complete God for if He was not then Matthew 12:43-45 shall automatically take place and would nullify Jesus and everything that He was sent to do on the earth.  The wilderness is a time that we should recognize our emptiness and not return to the world but allow God to restore our lives according to His Divine policies.  It should be a time of constant reflection on God and how He supplies our needs according to His Word.  The toughness of the wilderness comes as we complete our time with God and not the world.  During this time there is a huge battle for your house, one that eternal implications and as long as you trust God and seek His wisdom and truth the world cannot infiltrate your being again.

This wilderness process can take one of two paths and each path has its own results.  The first path is one that the children of Israel walked and it took them forty years to complete.  They did not recognize what God was doing or wanting to do in their lives but saw it is as a punishment instead.  They elevated themselves by using their chosen status of being God’s children and used it as a defining matter as to question God about why He was allowing this to occur.  They failed to understand that God took them from a slavery lifestyle and once again was in the process of making them great again.  The ONLY way that God could have completed this process was to take them through a wilderness process and it was their choice to understand that process and the reason why or not.

The second path that can be taken in the wilderness is one of complete surrender to God and His ways.  In this choice of paths the stories of the wilderness will have different tones articulating from them for as we look at our past situations we can see where the world has its grip on our lives and as we scan forward we can see where God has taken the world out of our lives and has proceeded to refill that emptiness with His Word; commonly known as restoration.  Just as my first articles reflected a person who knew little about writing, I can look back at my life, not only about writing but about many other issues as well, and see where I was and where I am at today.  It is this process that still frustrates me because of how far and deep I allowed the world into my life, but at the same time I see the work that God has done in my life over this wilderness period and I now can reflect toward others this restoration process that He wishes to give everyone.

After you complete this message from God, take a while to reflect on you wilderness to see if you have kept any portion of your life from God.  Are you in the wilderness still?  If you are, where are you at, just beginning, in the middle of nowhere?  The important part is to understand that God has you right where He wants you and that He has you there for a reason and that reason is to restore you according to His Will for your life.  It is a process that is painful, I know but it is one that needs to be completed for until we allow this to occur by God’s standards we shall never know just how infected the world has become in our lives.  It is this process that while God accepts you just as you are He cannot allow you to go unchanged after you have been set free.  It is a lifelong process of growth that has its rewards every single moment of each day but in order for us to understand this vital truth we must not be like the Israelites and ignore what God is showing and telling us.

Which brings me to the final point of this article and it is this: God is calling for His nation of America to turn back to Him so that we can fully understand that it was He who freed us from our captivity setting and it is He who has brought us into this present wilderness.  Times are tough and answers are few, that is not an arguable position but what and who we declare as our enemy is arguably the underlying question yet we are so blinded by the wilderness conditions that we cannot see who our legitimate enemy is.  It is not our fellow mankind nor is it the atmospheric conditions but it is the one who deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the one who lied to the children of Israel in the deserts, the one who provoked evil spirits to control lands, and the one who thought he had won victory when God’s own Son died on the cross.  But in that time of wilderness, God proved Himself as God by uplifting those who believed in Him and by raising His Son from the dead to establish the path of restoration for everyone who wishes.

It is our duty and responsibility to make sure that the wiles of the devil are told and seen so that all can be witnesses for God and the true Light of the world.  Church open your hearts back to God and shun the world for it is the only way that we can escape from our wilderness.  Yes, we are in a wilderness for when numbers of a youth group outweigh the numbers of those youth entering the ministry we are in a wilderness.  When we would rather sit in a pew in church on Saturday / Sunday mornings and then do absolutely nothing with what is taught we are in a wilderness.  When we allow the world to enter into our lives and then entertain it instead of telling it to flee we are in a wilderness.  So the question now becomes this: which path will you take and will you allow the wilderness to rule your life or will you allow God to guide you through the wilderness through restoration and teach you about Him so that you can tell the world?  In other words, are you saying “just as I am” or are you allowing God to grow you?

DLB

Placement

Placement

4/24/17

Many of us struggle with the fact that sometimes we feel like we do not belong, both in our presence and where we live.  It is commonplace for us to think this but when we do we must keep in mind that God has His purpose for our existence and where He sends us.  It is easy for us to misplace the truth that god defines us and one of the processes through which He completes this definition is through His placement of our lives.  We see this action occur in the Garden and all throughout His Word.  Tough positions will before us but that is all part of our existence and a detail that we must understand as a separation status from the world.  Instead of complaining, we need to take responsibility for this placement and realize that for this placement requires a direction and purpose.

Moving around is tough and this aspect was not uncommon in my life.  Being a minister’s kid requires flexibility in this area because many times we had to pick up our lives, leave our friends and settings, and move to another part of our country.  I have to admit that it was never easy to accomplish this task but I never questioned it for I knew that my parents were listening to God and obeying what He was telling them to do.  As I have stated before, I do not hold anything against my parents for the life I had when I was growing up, in fact, I have to admit that I learned a lot over those years and am applying these lessons to my life today.  Even though one moves around a lot they can still be grounded in God enough that no matter what change one encounters He is enough to stabilize any situation, a truth that this society should keep in mind for the upcoming changes that God is going to allow.

Most of the opportunities I had in my growing up and developing years came in handy even though my words, phrases, and accents always made notice when others engaged me.  This change was sometimes difficult but most settled in and allowed me to participate with them on their playing fields.  Moving is an exposure that some cannot cope with, but through this change, one can understand other aspects of life that show us that each one of us is unique and have a purpose while we are on this earth.  We also must contend that many of these changes occur through the experiences of our lives and sometimes those experiences come in dire circumstances which promote pain and agony.  Just as the first example of people moving in the Bible was under scrutinized circumstances and a result of bad choices and major change, God places us in a specific setting and He expects us to follow through with what He authorizes us to complete, but many times we forget this truth and go on our merry way and do what we wish complicating God’s placement for our lives.  We must recognize that through this misguidings we expose ourselves to the world and we voluntarily place ourselves in a precarious situation for it is not what god originally wanted for our lives, but have no fear God can still work through this setting if we repent and turn back to Him for our guidance.

In Genesis 2:8 we have the example of mankind’s first placement and when the bible states: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.”  This is a short and sweet verse that gives a specific detail about where God wanted man to live and one that could have been the only thing mentioned about placement and where God wanted our lives to exist, but of course our enemy wanted other things for us and instead of us resisting him and his tricks we succumbed to the lies and here we have present day settings.  This verse says that God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, a specific place with specific coordinates.  Many will argue about where Eden was and where the evidence for its Garden but that is really of no concern here because once again the subject of placement relies on obedience and the importance of obedience.  Obedience displayed here was not just the physical workings of the Garden of Eden obedience was also the direction to the personal side of Adam and Eve’s dominion as well.  When God creates something He does so with completeness and gives His creations the ability to do the same.

The placement of Adam was a perfect setting and one that God intended for him and his descendants to live in forever.  It was a perfect place to live with no imperfections to speak about and it would serve as the perfect home to Adam.  At the same time, God was introducing him to his new home God also gave instructions to Adam about how he was to make sure that its appearance was kept up and according to the standards God commanded.  God gave Adam the authority to complete this task as well, with the abilities that God created in Adam, nothing was left out to keep this command.  It was the authority that God gave to Adam and Eve that Satan desired to overthrow and one that he would use against them when the time came for him to set into motion his plan for their destruction.  It was this creative process and authority that God gave to mankind that infuriated Satan even further and a detail that Adam and Eve forgot to keep up and dress as God had commanded them.

I cannot foresee God leaving out the details of this portion of their lives by not explaining to them the reason why it was vital for them to maintain order in the Garden.  Adam and Eve had the full capacity to choose and to do what is right in the eyes of God.  If Adam and Eve would have displayed faith in the words of God and truly believed in what God said was true concerning their dominion then it would have been a different display that Satan recognized.  But what Satan noticed was a division between God and Adam and Eve, one large enough to drive a truck through evidently because he used this division as a door to their destruction.  This setting also provides us with a picture of what Satan is really after and that is the destruction of “we” which defines the true nature of the family.  When the unity of the family is destroyed the represented dominion is torn and defeated therefore allowing our enemy to conquer the only sanctity that humans understand.  God intended our lives to be equal with Him being the centerpiece of our existence together, not divided and separated from His presence.

Agreeing with complacency is not a suitable feature to restore equality.  This means that we recognize the family is in disarray and instead of returning to the Creator of such family we rely on self-made institutions for guidance, kind of like having a divorce lawyer as the CEO of a marriage counseling center.  Adam and Eve continued in this separation state until the moment was right for Satan to pounce, driving the wedge deeper and causing a wider gap between the two sides.  When sin enters into a place God cannot be the ruler any longer, the house or dominion is now divided from its original Creator and all hope of equality and restoration has been destroyed.  The enemy’s goal is to steal, kill, and to destroy, there is no playing nice when the being we fight has this position and when we allow his patterns to infiltrate our dominion, he has control, not God.  Satan began this mission of his in the Garden when he was able to dive deep enough into Adam and eve’s world and he promoted and then executed the first divorce ever known to mankind; a similar one that he initiated in heaven when he fell.

Has anyone ever asked why the family unit is always under attack from many different sides, issues, and ways?  Well, this is the answer to all of those questions concerning this matter, it is Satan who is behind these attacks and as long as we place the world before God those attacks shall continue and grow stronger as each day passes.  We cannot find any peaceful placement in our lives unless God is first in every aspect of our hearts.  The concept of family unity was defined in the Garden of Eden and any attempt to display any alternative to such an arrangement is not of God but of our enemy.  God shall allow forwarding addresses to this truth of His but in the end, the mail shall not arrive due to the fact that the house has already been destroyed.  The heart of the house is now diseased and that disease continues its course throughout the rest of the body and shall not stop until it has nowhere else to invade, the complete separation from its Creator.

In Genesis chapter 3 we see a pure and holy dominion being ripped apart before Adam and Eve’s very eyes.  Once a perfect life is now haunted with an element of agony that has not been recognized before, an agony that continues its path in our lives today due to the fact that humans chose our own way instead of God’s Way.  I cannot imagine how Adam and Eve must have felt when the first ping of pain hit their bodies, maybe it is the same way as we feel when our bodies feel it for the first time, the only difference is that they knew perfection on earth and we do not.  It is our fault that we are in the shape that we are in today, not God’s but it is God who is the only one who has the ability to restore this perfection in His eyes and that way is through His Son’s blood.  Perfection is what God creates which is the direct opposite of what our enemy offers.

We know what it means to be living in correct conditions with God and it is our responsibility to wipe all portions of the world from our hearts so that we may offer a clean house to God so that He can decorate it with His Life.  Adam and Eve fiddled with the truth instead of understanding and living in the Truth and it was then that Satan had deceived them enough that he now could mess with their placement.  When we choose to accept sin into our lives we automatically endanger our dominion and our placement in God, there are NO exceptions to this law.  Every descriptive story about humans in the Bible deals with this Truth and just as Adam and eve did so long ago we are doing the exact same procedures by following our own physical eyes and justifying our existence through the world and not God.  The only outcome of this lie is that Satan shall pull back on the rod and reel and our lives are dead as we know it when that hook buries into our hearts.  Then everything that we know that defines us shall be ripped away and destroyed right before our eyes.  A harsh reality but if it happened to Adam and Eve (AND IT DID) it shall happen to us as well. 

This nation was created in a like manner as the Garden of Eden, it is not perfect as such but it is similar in many ways.  God has stated over and over that if we put Him first in our hearts our nation shall never fall and never cease to be prosperous.  Even all of the Deists and Atheists who wrote the Constitution of this nation knew that this nation stood for something higher than any other nation or empire that had ever been presented previously on this earth.  It was because God forged this land and from day one of the first landings in the early 1600s, Satan has been at work doing his best to see to it that this nation falls.  This nation is god’s dominion and He has charged His people to proclaim His values through its lands, but just like Adam and Eve we have placed our dominion on the gambling table as a bargaining chip to the world and we do not have the correct cards in our hands to win this gamble.

We have the opportunity to leave the table intact and to stop playing the gambling game with God’s dominion, but if we do not stop and leave the table we shall lose this land of ours by a power so much stronger than we can ever imagine in order to prevent the complete sinful annihilation of God’s holy creation.  Leaving the table is called restoration and the willingness to allow God to change the state of our affairs and to return them to His deeds and not the world’s deeds.  If we are honest with ourselves we can no longer believe that our nation’s heart, and thus our dominion, stands for anything but worldly concepts.  We are not right in God’s Order nor are we pure in heart according to His Ways.  Right before Eve took of the fruit of the tree of good and evil she could have turned away from that table and stood her ground, but she did not.  We shall face the same disastrous conditions as she did if we do not get up and turn our lives around and back to God.

Adam and Eve lost their placement and never was allowed to return to it again.  Angels and a fiery sword were placed at the gates to keep anyone from entering the Garden again.  I ask you this question if God did this for the Garden of Eden and all of the personal loss of Adam and Eve and since He is a complete and continuous God how can we not believe that unless we change our ways that He shall not do the same today?  Satan desires to laugh at us while our placements are destroyed, he takes great pleasure in hearing the cries of God’s people after they have watched their livelihood go up in flames.  He sees no greater thrill and dances around us when God’s children wander aimlessly in the desert with no home to call their own.  And Satan especially loves it when he waves goodbye to you as your life slips away from this planet to face God knowing that he accomplished his job in ensuring that you knew nothing about God.

God is real and this nation is His.  Church, you are playing a gambling game with Satan while holding the cards that he gave you to play with.  God does not gamble nor does He contend with sin, so why are you?  Clearly, you are not in right standing with God and it is you that is supposed to be changing the world for God, you are no better than the Pharisees and you should be condemned as such.  God is calling you to turn around before it is too late, stop believing in the lies of the world and get up from the table before we lose our dominion.  Our dominion is all about placement and it is strictly up to us as to where our placement shall be, both spiritually and physically.  God is warning us once again and we need to heed these warnings before our dominion is totally destroyed.  Just as our bodies have walls of defense our spiritual lives need to have spiritual defenses that will allow us to keep our placement exactly where it was created to be.

DLB