Contrary to Public Demand

Contrary to Public Demand

12/29/17

There have been a number of debates lately concerning laws and how they govern the land, with many personal feelings interjected into either support for or disapproval of such laws.  While laws tend to divide instead of truly govern, political hotheads convene at regular intervals to appease their public but subjecting all to such bought off subscriptions.  No wonder there is so much animosity when it comes to passing or defeating such bills for humanity is now governed by popular demand instead for the common good which demands attention on all sides of the law presented.  God has His own laws as well and it is not difficult to understand why some of His Laws strike anger and separation from His Word even before they are completely understood.  But unlike God’s Laws which serve as an eternal basis for our lives, human laws conquer our lives whether we know it or not, yet the demand continues for self-righteousness without regard for actions and consequences.

For at least a couple of articles down the road, we will be dealing with topics that will not make everyone happy.  I understand that God has been hitting the Church pretty hard over the past few months but for a while, we will be pursuing the contemplations of the world and how greatly they differ from God and His Ways.  I know that in this article there will be an example that could be disturbing to some but it is exactly what the world is offering many and thus needs to be shared so that we know exactly who and what we are supposed to be witnessing to.  I was surprised by this topic and the passage of Scripture that God gave me at the same time for I have never tied the two subjects together but when I stop and think about it I should have for the worldly pulling towards such activity is a demand of the highest order.  With that said open your hearts and listen to what God wants us to understand about the world and how we are supposed to be a witness to those who have fallen into its trap of death.

All of us have heard the Scripture passage in Isaiah where God speaks about how His thoughts and ways are not like the ways and thoughts of a human.  It is difficult sometimes for our finite minds to wrap our presence around this passage and one of the quicker judgments that we come to is that God is outdated and thus not relevant today.  But when we come to this conclusion we give the enemy an open door to shatter our lives from the inside out until we are nothing but empty shells worth nothing and considered worthy of death alone.  It is this passage that gives us eternal hope of fulfilling what God wanted for our lives way back in the Garden of Eden, for even though we were created from dust we have the ability to learn what God says to us on an individual level and then to gather further strength from corresponding words from the Bible in order to proclaim the truth to those who do not understand.  But for us to complete such a mission we must understand what God is saying because if we teach the wrong message to the lost the lost shall stay in that manner.

It would not be an untruth to say that most people place matters of the heart in the physical atmosphere.  There is nothing wrong with this statement for it is the natural thing and process to do but it becomes a heavy burden if left to just the physical because the heart does not just represent the physical but the spiritual as well.  It is this leaving out of the spiritual status that proves to be the most damaging because when the physical takes control of the spiritual pain and suffering can only follow, for the spiritual will continually fight against the physical just because of its original status in our lives.  It is for this reason alone that people who have placed the physical first laugh at the auricles of God’s Word and at those who have covenantal submitted to His Laws for living and guidance and it is also the direct explanation as to why the world harshly or sometimes violently disagree and react when biblical principles are spoken.

I have always laughed at humans when they do things yet do not see what their actions are producing; however, many times my laughter turns into tears because of the devastating consequences that those selfish and worldly actions produce.  I cannot control the choices that others make but I do know that I have been commissioned by God to teach of His Word and His Ways to those who will listen and even to those who have already made up their minds to be against God too.  The pattern of the world is strong and at any given day it will gladly show off its advantage and usually does at any given moment.  This brings us to the unusual passage which we will learn from in this article and it has to do with Mary, and Joseph and how they found out about the pregnancy of Mary.  Only one book of the Bible deals with the lineage of Mary and that is Matthew and the story of how God chose Mary to carry His Son falls into this category of world versus God.

Matthew 1:18-25 will serve as the passage that we will refer to as we progress.  This passage gives us an idea about how men and women acted towards each other and it also gives us a perfect setting of how God goes against the world to bring forth good news to people’s lives then go contrary to public demand.  Verse 18 states the following: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”  Right from the beginning, we have a good idea of what Mary’s friends were going to think about this and how easy it would be for them to cast judgment towards her, not to mention the other relational party involved here, Joseph.  Mary could not have ignored this and countless thoughts must have run through her head trying to ponder exactly what was happening.  She was an unmarried woman who found herself pregnant and we all know that not anyone would believe the story that “God” got her pregnant.  It is at this point that we find ourselves facing a worldly issue and the results of such condition that demand attention.

In many places of Old Testament Scriptures, we find examples of people engaging in intimate relationships that were not authorized by God yet allowed through the process of free will and choice.  In many cases, these actions came back to harm the ones involved in such acts some time down the road with others proving more costly and deadly for multitudes instead of just a few.  Most of these infidelity settings, sexual perversions, and other types of sexual deviances from God’s authorized plan came about on a continual basis, so the practice of such scandalous activities had to be curbed.  Some of these laws were fair and others quite harsh on one side of the parties involved.  Ever since mankind has put into place laws that govern many of these either fall short or open doors for many others to follow, all of which can be broken.

It is commonly known that Mary was a virgin and a woman of young age who knew no man, a virtuous status that she must have enjoyed within her heart.  It was this virtuous heart that served as a foundation for God choosing her to be the mother of His Son, another unusual unfolding that has puzzled many.  Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph who is described as a just man and one that was fair in many aspects of character.  Mary did not keep her pregnancy a secret from him and even told him of the message of what the angel said to her concerning the matter.  But Joseph did not believe this and instead of “flying off the handle” and publicly humiliating Mary he was willing to quietly send her off and let her live her life in peace.  That is until the truth was given to him in a dream proving what Mary said was true.  This changed the entire complexion of the setting and both Mary and Joseph set about a new life together.  We must never forget the importance of this moment not only for the persons involved in this story but to all of mankind as well, for if either one of these participants had listened and then obeyed their worldly duties our lives would have been irrevocably changed, a desire of our enemy.

This coming together as a couple was not what the world would have wanted Mary to do nor what it wanted Joseph to do either, for Jewish laws had established a specific system that provided guidelines for such marriages.  The public demand, in its entire religious splendor, made sure that if the husband or betrothed spouse wished, the woman in question could be charged with adultery then executed by stoning and everything would go away as a just punishment.  There is a significant danger here because even though the Bible does not specifically mention this but we all know that Joseph had friends and probably some family members who wanted Mary punished in this manner.  You can almost imagine the people in the background with stones in their hands ready for Joseph to give the word for punishment to be handed out.  The world would have had no issue with this at all and with Satan in control of such environment probably begging the backgrounders to just throw the stones at her anyway, to get the “ball rolling” so to speak.

Another side of this scene we must take into consideration is that Joseph himself could have been in just as much trouble as Mary for NOT taking the public demand and fulfilling it as it was written, for religious laws were strictly devised and controlled by the religious community and could be called upon to enforce certain laws when presented.  Joseph could have been stoned for not obeying the law that had been justly put in place to protect society from those who deliberately disobeyed it.  His friends could have projected him as a lawbreaker which that itself deserved severe punishment and with them already in a frenzy over Mary, could have changed the direction of the stones being hurled in the air.  In either case, the world had its laws and they demanded that they are followed and fulfilled in this situation.  But both Mary and Joseph having heard the truth from God left the area together in unity and both respected what was going to occur in a few short months.  We all know that many times people who have chosen to leave the places or settings in which they have been in just to have a friend, group of friends or even a family member turn them into the authorities out of “obedience” to known broken laws.

The possible death of Mary or of Joseph plays into the world’s hands more than we casually think about for the same type of creative laws provide easy manipulations of life today.  One may think that the two paragraphs above may be overstated or exaggerated a bit, but when I give you this next example of a setting that occurred this year one must be forced to enact the tributes of the human mind and proceed as such positions were conjured during the time period of Matthew 1:18-25.  I have always and shall always contend that all of the issues that we face today will continue to be and even escalate until we change the human heart and mind back to God.  The selfish institution called sin rules this world and unless we totally combat its existence we will at some point in our lives succumb to its presence, an eternal mistake that shall not end well.

The process of taking care of an unacceptable situation when intimate relationships were involved, was handled in a totally different manner than they are today.  With Mary being a young girl there is no question that she was frightened when she understood the magnitude of the situation she was in, and then to top it all off being in this state without intimately knowing any man.  But the human mind will always take over and when people have differing opinions about such settings a numerous amount of acceptance and criticism will come around.  Which brings us to the next example which might be a bit disturbing to some but for everyone reading this article must understand the importance of the power of the human mind when it is controlled by the ruler of this world and how this controlling could cost a person their life if directly challenged without understanding what is at work.

While abortion was not an option back in the ancient times even though measures could be taken to end a pregnancy, the acceptance of such an abomination was not around.  And while this example is not an exact one to fit the topic it does specifically measure the command that the worldly mind has and what lengths it shall go in order to make a point to those who disagree.  A few months ago a story broke out of Argentina when a group of at least three women stood in front of a Catholic Cathedral and simulated one of the women having an abortion, with the other two women assisting with the procedure.  A baby was extracted and dropped to the ground, fake blood was spilled as the baby came out of the woman, all while the three women were smiling and happy that the “problem” was being taken care of.  While this example is disturbing enough there is another detail that needs to be spoken about which places truth about how the human mind works and how far it will go to get a point across.  The woman having the abortion had a crucifix around her neck and as she was having the procedure claimed to be the Virgin Mary.

It is these types of laws that define the difference between God’s Ways and how humans want their lives to be represented.  I am not just dwelling on this one law of abortion but will include it in the vast majority of selfish laws that humans come up with in order to justify their existence to their peers.  It is through these types of laws that also define the demand that is required to enforce or to even dream up a law of such magnitude.  What is so sad is that while our population has demanded such inherently devastating laws, at some point down the road we stop and criticize those for who are now falling from their positions due to some other human activity that we have allowed to fester for an unimaginable amount of time.  We fail to fully comprehend our fallacy of such matters yet continue to abide by these specific laws that only have one devastating result.  But when challenged we can only respond in such a matter as to serve the courses that we have made, thus creating a divided kingdom upon which to stand.  Furthermore, it is this divided status that defines the ruler of this world’s kingdom, providing more proof that our hearts are not contrary to public demand.

I thank God every day that He proves Himself to far greater of a Father and friend of knowledge and wisdom than I could ever dream of being.  It is evident with the passage of Matthew 1:18-25 that He had ordained their relationship long before they knew about the journey that they would take which should give hope to everyone that is waiting for that right and special person to come into their lives.  It took a great amount of courage for Mary and Joseph to reject the demands of the world and to follow God and His voice.  It was not easy for them to adhere to their choices either but they stuck it out and accepted the entire pattern that God had for their lives.  There is one more detail that stands out concerning this passage and the choice of going contrary to public demand and it is given to us in verse 25 where it says that Joseph did not know Mary until she had given birth to Jesus.  It is important to remember that even though Joseph was now the husband to Mary the process of purity of what had already been established must be completed without that purity being broken, a sign of covenant between God and mankind that was essential in order for Jesus to be born and to be able to fulfill His role as our eternal sacrifice.  This is a topic we shall discuss further at a later date but a thought to place in our hearts.

As our human laws become more and more difficult to read, understand, and then follow the simplicity of the truth about Jesus remains solid.  It has almost become an impossibility to comprehend the velocity of our own laws and it is this truth that our enemy has done a superb job in mucking about in order to imply that God’s Laws are the exact same way.  God’s Laws and the laws of the world do share one thing in common and that is we have the choice to obey them or not.  That choice is so much easier to make when the belief of such complexity could mean differing from governmental laws but in truth the Laws of God must go contrary to public demand for God created Adam and Eve to be separate from the world and live in complete authority over what had been created around them, not to be subject to them.

Church, I guess this article is self-explanatory to the condition that we are living in and it should not take too much convincing to provide examples of our worldly shortcomings either.  Yet, here we stand fighting amongst ourselves about who is right and who is wrong and which side of the political aisle we stand.  But if you stop for a moment and listen you can hear clapping in the background and in the state that we are in, we automatically believe that it is God clapping.  But it is not, it is our enemy clapping for he is giving us a standing ovation because we have unwittingly and voluntarily accepted the laws of worldly demand over our eternal Creator and Satan loves it. 

Another issue to think about concerning our actions and how high we place our selfish political beliefs upon and that is how we feel about our President.  Do you really understand what we are doing when we fight amongst ourselves about our leader?  It is an accepted fact that not everyone will like said leader nor will everyone agree with what he/she says and does but when we do not accept a leader for who they are we are dividing what God has put into place that we should be learning from instead of further destroying.  Every leader over every type of role is in place for a certain reason and it is our responsibility to understand what has led to such admission.  For those of you who say that President Trump was not placed in the position, he is in today by God, wake up for he was placed in that position by God.  Likewise, for those of you who say President Obama was not placed in the position he was by God, you too need to wake up.  Read Old Testament Scriptures and it will become clear that God allowed both good and bad kings to rule over Israel yet the people of Israel whined about all of their human kings, just as they did with God.  Did you ever really and truly pray for either of these leaders or any other local, state, national or other nations’ leaders?  If so, how did you pray for them?  And if not, why didn’t you?

Church, you have no room to talk or to even make a whimper for you have fallen into the same trap.  God shared with us a few years back about us Approaching the “T”.  We reached that “T” and made our choice just as the children of Israel did in 1 Samuel 8, and we still have not recognized what choices we made, on what path we are on and what it shall bring to us.  God is beckoning us to return to His Ways before it is too late and He must take matters into His holy hands.  What will be our words when the projected prophecies for this nation unfold since we have told so many not to judge us because we are not God?  We will not even recognize that what shall occur to us will come from God but blame it on some human thought up worldly condition, oh, I hear clapping again.  There is only one way to avoid such disaster now and in the future and that is to turn our hearts back to God and to submit our ENTIRE life to Him for if we do not we automatically choose to accept the public demands and will receive our due inheritance.

DLB