Correction Whilst On A Pedestal
11/01/19
For us here in Western society it has become a challenge
to see who can build their personal pedestal higher, a sign that our focus is
on worldly goods instead of the eternal foundations. But when we study
the Bible we find that this type of belief was present in the Garden of Eden
and really has not diminished at all ever since. It is imperative that we
understand that our ambitions should always be directed from God and not human
sources for when our lives are turned toward the world the only result can be
an entire crumbling around us. We tend to put aside the truth about our
foundation and its structure and from the looks of our societies today we
really believe we are sound and secure on our own. God wants the best for
His children at all times not just when certain criteria are met and in order
for this to occur we need to have His Ways first in our lives and live by those
Ways continually. Blessings and fulfillment can only be represented in
such a holy state of living and it is our choice to live in such perfection or
to take our chances with the deathtrap of the world.
Genesis 2:15
“And the Lord God
took the man, and put him into garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”
Genesis 3:23-24
“Therefore the Lord
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he
was taken. So he drove out the man; and
he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword
which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
Genesis 11:1-9
“And the whole
earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they
journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and
they dwelt there. And they said to one another, God to, let us make brick, and burn
them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach
unto heaven; and let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face
of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which
the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and
they have all one language: and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be
restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down,
and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s
speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the
earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called
Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and
from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
It is easy to spar with those who seem to have more
possessions or status than the one complaining about the situation that they
are currently living in, but how often do we complete such an adventure instead
of trying our best to correct the situation? For the most part, we tend to
look toward others and their living conditions instead of directly focusing on
our own, placing ourselves into a minority status without even knowing that we
are created in such a manner to be as glorious as any other. It is true
that there have been many people richer than you or I will ever be, but what
does that status of financial well-being mean to their inner sanctum or their
spiritual harboring condition? I have not really understood the
experience of true starvation yet I know some people in my community who have,
how do they look at me and my status, and is this specific condition the most
important status of all? It breaks my heart to see animals mistreated in
such a way that they do not live to fulfill a child’s dreams, so, yes, anyone
who hungers. However, none of this means much at all if we do not have
God first in our lives and live under the covering of His eternal Covenant
because it is His pedestal of Creation that we should stand upon and not the
one of the world.
If you have read the past few articles that God has given
us, you will understand that His message to us has been to turn back to Him and
to place yourself back under His eternal covering. While this is not a
new subject for God to talk about it does seem more relevant as each day passes
for the tension among nations grows with each leadership session and with
personal details coming forward about each opposing side. Leaders state
that they pray for the top leaders of their respective nations yet live selfish
and worldly lives while “praying” for turnarounds to appear. This type of
behavior comes into light on a personal level as well which makes sense because
it takes 1 to include 2 and it takes two to include four, etc, etc. Our
individual and national actions and appearances say a lot about what we actually
believe and how we believe and giving rise to this conduct almost always
reflects our foundation too.
When we look at some of the people around us it is easy
to figure out that they have elevated themselves onto a higher belief just by
the title they want to claim. It is
common for western societies to define themselves as leaders of the free world,
capitalists, CEOs, CFOs, and numerous amounts of other titles with initials
after their surnames, but what does all of this high class looking words mean
to the human heart, I mean, do they represent an eternal standard that is
better than say someone with just a bachelor's degree? How deep do these initials run and how do
they affect our ways and means when encountered by a force that is
unexplainable? It is this type of
setting that God wants to share with us and for us to think about because God
could care less if you have a Ph.D. or not all He wants is a heart that runs to
Him and seeks His advice for an everyday life standard. Do we understand that when our eyes and
hearts are off of Jesus that we sink just as Peter did when he took his eyes
off Jesus on the water?
The truth is we were Created to be standing on a
pedestal, a holy and eternal one that is focused totally on God. The first passage of Scripture for this
article demonstrates this Truth. God
made our lives perfect, oblivious to pain, suffering, disobedience and the
knowledge of sin yet it was our choice to throw all of that away and follow a
lie in order to satisfy a lust buried in disobedience. It is this original standard that God created
us that Satan loves to show us that we belong up there and that when we are upon this pedestal we do not need anyone or anything to tell us what to do or how
to act. It is this position that Adam
and Eve were told about and then selfishly began to realize it thus allowing
doubt into their hearts about the Truth and the True reason why God placed them
into the Garden of Eden, away from everything else that knew sickness and
disease with no spirit present in their lives.
We can never forget that every move Satan makes against our lives is the
exact opposite of what God meant our lives to be and if he can convince us
enough to wander from God he then has us in his grasp and shall serve as the
source of our troubled future. We are
quick to point fingers at Adam and Eve for all of our problems today, while we should
be pointing at ourselves for following in their footsteps instead of keeping
our eyes and hearts on Jesus.
There can be only one reason why Adam and Eve lost
everything they had and that was that they made the choice to disobey what God
had given them to dress and to keep according to His Ways. We find this fallen stature in Genesis 3 as
God has no opportunity but to force them out into the world that the ways they
chose to believe. No, God did not want
this action to take place but we see that God had put into place a certain
standard and told mankind not to fall from that standard for any reason. God also told Adam at the same time what
would occur if he disobeyed this eternal command. Now, to some this punishment did not fit the
crime and to those who believe such a lie, God wants you to understand just how
important you are to Him and how vital it is for His children to obey His
Ways. God is the only being that is Holy
in every way possible and even Holy in ways our lives, minds, and hearts cannot
comprehend yet. ALL others who wish to
tell you that they are like God are liars and cannot compare to God on any
level. And if we believe that anyone
else is comparable to God then we deserve nothing more than being tossed out of
the Garden of Eden and till the ground from which we came.
When we take a look around and see others committing
disobedience to God, how do we respond?
Do we notice these actions and turn away and allow them to occur
uninhibited or do we try our best to convince those wonderful people that what
they are doing will cost them dearly at some point in time? Just as its holy counterpart, disobedience
never stays idle presenting no growth, which is not how it is created,
established and grown. If that were the
case then Adam and Eve would have died off and that would have been the end of
sin as we know it until another deceptive round with Satan occurred between
another human creation. This type of
setting never occurred for when God made humans He did so in such a manner that
He guaranteed our survival until He said it would be over, not any other
created being, if this type of ending would have been established then God
would not and could not eternally and Truthfully call Himself, God. Therefore, since God took the correct and
appropriate steps in the beginning to create something holy and perfect, having
watched that perfect creation blatantly disobey, He had all the authority to
punish mankind in the manner that followed His definition. In other words, God was True to His Word at
all times and this act from Him should be the true thinking point our hearts
should remember before we do something disobedient.
The last passage for this article proves that sinful
behavior on a self-made pedestal occurs not just on a singular or individual
level. Extraordinarily, we skip over the
collective destruction of the world Scripture passage and incredibly there is a
pattern and a reason why this occurs.
See, in the beginning passage for this article we see that God has
placed into motion the specific instructions for mankind, then in the second
passage we see that mankind had broken this perfect union and state with God
and was sent from the Garden of Eden as a consequence for their decision. Not long after this releasing of humanity
into the world, we find that sin had overgrown the entire world and God had no
choice but to destroy the world due to the growth of sin, which He did but not
until His prized Creations were miraculously saved by the provisional hand of
God. Humanity was once again allowed to
start over and begin again, yet not in perfect conditions as was in the Garden
of Eden but in continued struggles with the world. It would seem logical that humanity would
remember its sinful past and not repeat it again but just as all future histories
of mankind we did not and went our merry ways without God being the center of
our existence and as we notice within a few more chapters in Genesis we come to
the next storied devastation of humanity.
The third reference shows us a triumphant picture of the
brilliance of what occurs when humanity puts their issues together and work
through major obstacles. It is a picture
of desired determination and when looked upon as a superficial achievement, not
much could be finer; however, there is a huge distortion present within the
massed populous, and one that demonstrates the content of the heart through
their own lusts and self-centered ideologies about the rise to equality with
God. We see that in the first portion of
this specific passage the people wanted to build themselves a monument to their
existence one that will remind them who they are so that they would have no
desire to leave the city and go elsewhere; to serve as their origin and
definition. Now, to worldly standards
this would be the definition of a home or home place where one would be born or
to grow up in, nothing wrong with this concept but as we continue reading the
remaining part of the passage we find that there is no mention of God in their
lives which tells us that mankind has once again fallen for the trap of Satan
and believes that all is well without Him as their God.
I have heard some people during my lifetime say that what
God did was of His own selfish nature and that He never gave mankind the chance
to thrive together as one society. While
this is a valid point on the worldly level it does not provide any truth in the
fact that mankind would survive this type of learned behavior simply because at
some point their focus would be adjusted from togetherness to selfish rule. Even though God changed the course of the
earth through the flood, He did not change the course of mankind by altering
any part of the gift of choice, it was still present and alive. It is this aspect that we have the purpose
of what God allowed to occur in the lives of man during this time. Why would mankind have any desire to follow
Truth when they would eventually, and according to this passage already began
to unify themselves under one authority, and it was not God? They had created and established themselves
on a pedestal that did not include God as the builder and while this city and
tower were to be magnificent in stature there was no focus on God or His
Ways. God saw the pattern of sinful and
selfish desires popping up again which would have led to another annihilation
of mankind through their mortal ways and God did not wish for that to occur
again. So, we see a correction occurring
before God reaches the point of having to admit that mankind was a complete
failure again, so He confounded the language of the people and sent them on
their way in total confusion. Can you
imagine how difficult it had become to try and communicate with a family member
who could not now understand your skills who moments before easily figured out
what you wanted?
God in His brilliant and Holy manner once again
demonstrated and reminded that mankind that there is no way possible that we
can do things or accomplish things on our own.
No matter how equal we may try to become without God and His Principles
it shall never occur and at some point, God will have to remind us again. Each time we believe that we can do things on
our own what usually happens? Some type
of problem or issue presents itself to us that tell us that our accomplishments
are nothing more than dirt and that everything we do should glorify God through
our hearts and because of His Wisdom residing within us. This truth goes totally against the world and
its ruler and when we allow the world to govern our actions destruction shall
inevitably occur because those actions are built on sinking sand and not the
perfect foundation. Over the course of
His Word, God shows us that He will step in when He deems it necessary to
correct us. Oh, how I wish we could recognize our fallings before God has to
wake us up and correct us on our own pedestal.
We can never forget that when God corrects us on our pedestals that He
does so in such a manner that we shall not be able to stand on that pedestal
again, a Truth we need to seriously study and change quickly. I really do not want a similar repeat of
Genesis 11, do you? I know God does not
wish to harm His people either, so why challenge Him on such an idea? God is not wanting to show His hand against
His people, but while we fail to see the spiritual devastation that we folly
upon ourselves, He does see and warns us before we totally destroy ourselves.
Which pedestal are you representing today Church? Is it the pedestal that you have created for
yourself or is it the true pedestal that you have allowed God to build? We have been blinded so deeply that we fail
to even recognize this selfish building plan of ours is man-made and not of
God. Ironically, we have scattered
ourselves so far away from God that we no longer can admit there is a
difference in our foundation; we believe that we are doing things adequately
and efficiently under the blessings of God.
Furthermore, why should we believe otherwise because God has blessed us
with enormous prosperity with no signs of this status changing, so why should
we change is the logical perspective that the world would ask. If this question ever pops up in our minds it
should be a signal that we need to rethink things through and see if our
projects mimic the world or do they serve the eternal and Holy Creator. It is obvious that the ways of the Church
have voluntarily fallen short of God’s direction for the Church and that they
have purposefully moved off the eternal Rock of Salvation and chosen the soft
underbelly of the sands of the world instead.
So much so, that many condemn the actions of those who are still on that
Rock and doing their best to fulfill the command of Christ. We all know about the story of the fall, the
single path back to God, and the consequences of earthly unity yet we continue
to strive to reach God on our own foundations and terms.
Why do we continue to reject holiness and purity and
build ourselves on a foundation that cannot stand when storms arrive? God has given us plenty of warnings and
examples of how our physical and infrastructure structures are inadequate and
will certainly fall when tested, why do we still fall for this selfish
instinct? As of this moment, we have the
opportunity to stop our scattered lives and return to God and live under His
Covenant protection and stand on a solid foundation. Church, God is strongly calling to us to
return to Him for times are about to change for the worse and if we are not
standing on His Foundation our lives shall be destroyed. Are you tired of the doom and gloom? Then let’s change our course of heart
function, return to God and allow Him to heal our land. Following God is the only thing that shall
show us that the pedestal we are standing on is eternally inadequate and will
prevent us from falling from our manmade pedestal by climbing down it and
allowing Him to build a solid foundation for our survival.
DLB
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