Restore Your Wealth

Restore Your Worth

5/12/20

Many of us probably have at some time in our life felt like we have no value or worth then question why we were ever born.  Whatever the case might have been this feeling is one of pure degradation and demoralization that some never shake.  The world will have its own answers to this issue and those answers usually bring about more turmoil instead of healing.  Also, the world shall always dismiss the one True answer that will give us the restoration that we all desire and that is God and His Covering.  Throughout His Word, He has given us the instruction plan with the detailed patterns to follow in order to reclaim our rightful worth.  The world cannot provide such worth for it has nothing to give in the first place, but the Creator of everything does and He is in the restoration business and all we have to do is to obey His Word and listen to what He says.

From experience, both recent and distant I have come home from a good day at work, happy children loving wife with good news about how well our house has increased in value, taxes are low, and the retirement plan has almost doubled over a short period of time.  On the other hand, I have come home with the bad news that we lost a few of my patients over the weekend lost a family member, the retirement plan lost half of what it was this time last year, along with anything else that could mean some type of disaster.  In each scenario it does not matter if good or bad exists sometimes I have such a failed demeanor that envelopes me and it bugs me even when the highs should override all else.  This failing attitude and presence has always amazed me to watch and to feel develop and it takes me a while to figure out what is going on and who exactly is responsible for this feeling and belief.  Have we noticed that it is a whole lot easier to lose your confidence and sense of value than it is to gain it or to regain it?  There is a reason for this, and our enemy loves to exploit this fact and unless we understand the true fight for our worth there is no way to win this all-important battle.

Also, many times my mind begins to try and fix these issues and temptations based upon worldly reasoning and for the immediate moment, it seems to work.  Quickly I find out that instead of problems solved I have actually opened more doors for my enemy to walk through and to manipulate me with.  It is at this point that something pops into my head and I return to the source that has continually helped me through these sorry and tense times.  Every time these settings occurred there was a simple process that had to be reignited in order for me to remember what was going on.  It is this reigniting process that should be first and foremost in my mind and heart, not the last resort or even second on my list of answers.  Each time I remembered this process, the first thing that came back to me was just how much God loved me and how much I was worth to Him.  I have done some pretty stupid things in my life but each time the world has drug me down God has always been faithful and raised me up and showed me exactly what I mean to Him.  It is this process of restoration that God wants us to remember to live under and through this process, He has given us an excellent example to demonstrate what our worth is and it deals with sacrifice.  In order for this study to begin, we must return to the Garden of Eden as Adam and Eve are being told to leave because of the acceptance of sin into their lives.

In a time where our lives are required to live differently, then we have been used to, it is never been more vital that our hearts be right with God and if they are not then it is our responsibility to have the knowhow to ask for God to clean our hearts so that we may function properly when the time comes for normalcy to return, if it ever arrives again.  I have no idea if our world shall return to its normal condition again, and to be honest I do not know if things should turn back to the way they were; however, if we do not change our ways from the inside out then it does not matter anyway for our lives shall only continue in the path of selfishness and unrighteousness.  Unfortunately, with what has been occurring with our attitudes during this period of isolation I have a feeling that we have intentions of mending fences not only with our friends and family but with ourselves either.  But if we decide to change our ways and return to the Way of God this article topic shall give us a true direction and wisdom enough to proceed with God and His plan for our lives.

Genesis 3:21-24

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: 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.”

Hebrew Genesis 3:21

“The Lord God made garments of skin and clothed Adam and his wife.”

This short passage contains a bunch of information that will be expanded upon in the near future but the entire passage must be read here in order to keep the context of what God is saying to us about restoration and who actually has the pattern of eternal life through this example.  Earlier in Genesis, we see that as soon as Adam and Eve allowed sin into their lives that they immediately tried to cover themselves with clothing.  This is a natural pattern for when humans do anything that they realize is wrong they do their best to try and cover it up and to hide their actions from others.  It does not matter how small and detailed this wrong maybe either but when found out the cover-up process is usually far greater in stature than what the original issue was; however, in the case of Adam and Eve, this instance proves eternally devastating and is the initial setup plan for our lives today.

There is no question that both Adam and Eve understood the meaning of life for they had spent a certain amount of time cultivating and keeping it from the day they were commanded to do such a task.  When Adam named the animals, God told him to do so in order for him to understand the meaning of other existences of life and how to care for them that are different from his, this is all part of the togetherness part of God and His Way of existence.  So, when sin was chosen over God, the entire setting of mankind had to be changed but it was not going to occur without God showing Adam and Eve that it was still His Way of restoration and not through mankind.  Nowhere else in Genesis Chapters 1-3 does it mention that any type of sacrifice had to be made; only life was given in this setting until humans chose to alter the conditions with their own choices of lifestyle. 

But God did not allow sin to win and once again He proved Himself pure, true, and holy by showing Adam and Eve that He still loved them and still wanted to be with them even though they had chosen a different path for their existence.  Some may contend that this act of God is harsh and should not have been taken, that Adam and Eve should have been allowed to stay in their living conditions no matter what.  Honestly, this thought while it may seem like an easy explanation to argue could not have been allowed because God has a standard that He commands to be lived up to and if that standard is violated in any manner the violators must change, not Him.  It is the perfect condition of living and when obedience is taken for granted and sloughed off whenever one feels like it, God cannot have a part in this activity for He still provides only one type of standard of living and in order for this type of living to be restored the highest price must be made in order to return.  It is this example that proves just how valuable life is and what the procedure must include restoring such high standard.

Clearly, we see that Adam and Eve knew that their covering had been compromised for if they did not then they would have remained naked before God.  But God took care of the sacrificial covering through the act of sacrificing at least one animal for both of them.  It is evident that blood was shed in order for this covering from God to occur and in order for them to be covered in such a manner; it was an animal that lost its life and not the human.  The human was not perfect and could not justify our actions any further as being under a perfect covering which proves that the fig leaves mentioned earlier in Genesis 3 were not sufficient or important enough to make correct this process.  Adam and Eve received directly that the covering of their lives with blood is the only process and procedure that was adequate to live in such a manner.  During their tenure in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve did not need any type of sacrificial covering process for God was their covering but when mixing of sin became apparent the tide had changed and it was now necessary for a new concept to be introduced.  How important was this concept?  It is so important that an animal had to lose its life in order for humanity to continue to live in separation from the world and its eternal death march.

There is no mention at all that animals have the authority to make human sacrifices to God in order for their lives to live under the same covering as we, so this means that we are considered to be more valuable than they.  God loves animals very much, do not get me wrong but animals do not represent the heart of God and the expansion and advancement of His Kingdom to the dark and dying kingdom of the world.  This is not a game of works and appearances but a war for eternal life and survival against the one being who hates God and our presence more than we can ever physically understand.  It is through this process of eternal hate that Satan uses his cunning tactics against humans so that we demean or devalue the presence of their lives thus invalidating the sacrificial process of God’s covering over our lives.  This passage of Scripture provides us with a single act that gives us the right to stand up against this enemy of ours and to fight him with the correct weapons.  God showed us ONE way, not two, three, or forty ways to fight and to be restored.

Sadly, with almost immediate effect, we see that humanity quickly lost its manner of true and moral reasoning when it came to God and the importance of blood sacrifice.  Once again we see from Adam and Eve’s child, Cain, that selfish had become the means of covering that ruled his heart but this time a certain and specific growth pattern was conceived and fulfilled, in that this selfishness nature had grown enough to take a life and to 100% nullify the human heart against eternal life.  Adam and Eve lost the importance of remembering and living under God’s protection in the Garden of Eden and they continued and carried that trait with them into the confines of the world outside of Eden.  Death had now encompassed family members not just the original “owners” of such devastation.  God had never intended for Adam and Eve to die or anyone to die for that matter, God represents everything life and cannot tolerate any other condition or setting.  God’s plan of restoration was still present in Chapter 4 of Genesis and it was present all throughout the Old Testament for its content continued to represent the way back to God; it had not changed from the beginning and it was still the same when the Old Testament came to an end.

Also, we see, that even though the entire Old Testament provides us with encounter after encounter with God through sacrifice the people of Israel continued to sin and to place God on a back burner and not believe in what God said about living in holiness and purity.  They made the act of sacrifice a procedure and a ritualistic policy that became a cold program that their heart did not engage in.  It became a service and not a personal meeting with God with precious restoration moments that would remind them of just how much they needed God.  Instead, their status grew in physicality which overtook their spiritual aspects of living which over time crowded out the truth about the meaning of True Sacrifice.  The sacrificial process was designed by God not just to remind us that we need Him to live under and experience restoration but also to show us just how much God loves us.  If God was a controlling or sadistic God then He would make people beg for His forgiveness or tell them to do absurd things in order to prove that they were worthy of being back into His fold or good graces.  Sacrifice is a communication between God and humanity for when completed in a holy setting, it brings both parties into line with each other in mutual respect and on the level of love and unity that was present in the Garden of Eden.

God did not have to bring us into unity with Him in the Garden of Eden, yes we are not God or even like a god, but we are His children and His prized Creations and it was/is His desire that we live in perfection once again; this means without sin.  This is why God had the ultimate plan already in motion when Adam and Eve fell, Jesus knew that He would have to be the eternal Sacrifice for if mankind would fall with a simple set of temptation that it would be necessary to give them the eternal option, a Holy one that would not go away until the Father said.  Prophetically and yet sadly, we proved this knowledge by God about our behavior true a long time ago and Jesus voluntarily came to the earth lived, died, and rose again to give everyone the opportunity to live separate from the world.  Jesus did this so that we would not be fearful of God but to know that God loves us, just as John 3:16 gives us the reason why God sent His Son.  God deemed humanity worthy of His protection after sin entered into our lives and He continues to build upon this worth in our lives today.  Sacrifice represents our worth and how much it means to God, look at this process in God’s heart and there is no way that we cannot understand the restoration process a bit deeper.

Where have we gone wrong Church?  Why have we become so soft on this truth concerning the eternal Sacrifice?  Why have we shied away from teaching the meaning of sacrifice and why it was so important back before Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, after the Garden of Eden, after the flood, in the wilderness, all throughout the days of Israel and even after its demise?  More importantly, why have we refused to teach and to preach the Gospel of Christ to those who do not understand what His Sacrifice means and why it is vital to live under His blood?  Let’s be honest, do we even fathom the true and detailed importance of this eternal meaning regarding sacrifice?  Or do we skip over the importance of it and just accept the rewards of it?  Don’t you know that this belief is such sin?!?  How selfish we must be in God’s heart’s eyes for believing His Sacrifice in this manner, and yes, we believe in this way if we demean the act of Old Testament sacrificial meaning yet try and explain the meaning of Jesus’ Sacrifice.  For when we put the meaning of sacrifice in our own terms then we become as the people of Israel and deserve nothing better than what occurred to their existence.

Church, it is repentance time and we need to repent and begin to offer ourselves up to God as a living sacrifice just as Jesus did because if we do not live in this manner and reject the world, we deserve no place in Heaven.  Sacrifice is a restoration process and a gift from God that places us under the eternal Sacrifice.  In no way am I suggesting anyone kill themselves and do it in a manner according to what God says in His Word.  God IS telling us to live for Him every day and to present ourselves to others as a living sacrifice so that they may know and understand how important is that everyone lives against the world.  This type of living is a relationship with God and one that shall grow when lived under correctly and willingly.  It is this example we should be living and not one that displays religious activities.  I urge you to find as many as possible the passages of Scripture where people made altars before God to sacrifice and find the yearly sacrificial offerings and what they stood for in the Old Testament.  Finally, read the Sacrificial process that Jesus went through and tie all of them together and you will find out an entirely new meaning of sacrifice and what it should mean to our lives.  Then, and only then, will we truly have the volunteer spirit of fulfilling the command of Jesus to go into all the world.

DLB