It’s Not My Fault

On August 25, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Haggai 1: 10

Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce.

You don’t have to be very attentive to notice the number of occasions when people blame God for what is going on in the world or in their lives. Well, let’s get a revelation today. God is not the one at fault!

In the book of Haggai, It was God who spoke to the people through the prophet. He heard their complaints and saw their plight. His response was as it always is, to try to help them. Sometimes, though, we don’t let God teach us or lead us. We have our own ideas on how to meet the current need. The funny thing about us, though, is that when our ideas don’t work out, we tend to blame God. “God, why aren’t you taking care of this?” or “Why aren’t you helping me?” Then, of course, there is the famous, “God, why did you let this happen?” 

This is the same dilemma the people of Haggai’s time encountered. The rain wouldn’t fall and their fields would not produce. God said, “You have sown much but you harvest little” (v. 6). I imagine the people praying for rain and praying for a bumper crop but they prayed in vain. God wasn’t the problem. They were. God told them, “Consider your ways” (v. 7). In other words, look to your own behaviors. You have sown a lot of seed but are your actions or even lack of actions destroying your crop while it is still in the ground?  Has God given you something to do that you have not yet done? Are you doing something which He has already told you to stop doing?  Or worst of all, perhaps you haven’t gone to Him for advice at all. You may not know what you are supposed to be doing or not doing. 

God always tries to lead us into the paths that will produce a bountiful harvest for us. However, it is up to us to follow Him or not. If things are not going well then it would behoove us to stop and consider our ways. The problem is probably not that God is denying us or ignoring us. It could be there is something about our lives that is preventing our harvest. But fear not! We have a God who is well able and willing to help us. The people of Judah found that to be true. Once they finally turned to God they found their problem and the remedy. 

So, before you blame God for the sorry state of affairs in your life or your country, look around. There may be a problem in your own back yard. If you will seek God, He will help you find it and fix it. That’s what He does.

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The Welcome Mat

On April 27, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ezekiel 33: 11

“Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.’”

God isn’t into punishment. He is into salvation. He desires that none should perish. That is why He sent His Son, so that every person may be saved. 

We get skewed ideas of God sometimes, that He is full of hate and contempt. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is love but there are a lot of people in the world who cannot perceive of love nor accept love so they remake God in their image rather than accepting Him as He is. Because they are unlovely, unworthy to be loved, they make God a hateful, unloving God.

Another problem is that God gets the blame when things go wrong. Satan has done an amazing job of camouflaging himself. He has become almost invisible and intentionally so. There are many people who do not recognize his existence any longer. One person told me that she does not believe in the existence of evil. Look around! How can one truly not understand that there are evil actors in the world? Furthermore, some folks get really nervous when you talk, or even teach, about the devil. This has helped him to run around stealing, killing and destroying with impunity. It is even worse than that. Not only does he get away with it, all too often God gets the blame. Satan scores twice with one swipe. And it is not only the unsaved, the uninitiated who criticize God for Satan’s evil deeds, we Christians are guilty of it too. I ought to know. I blamed God for my sports injuries and troubles. I was helped along by Christians who told me that God was doing these things to me in order to make me strong. What a horrible and wrong teaching. God uses love to strengthen you. He doesn’t blow out your knees in order to make your faith and trust in Him stronger. It only takes a small exercise of logic to figure that one out. 

Another common mistake is to judge Christianity by Christians. We are still flawed and make mistakes all of the time. It isn’t very logical when you think about it to judge God by the behavior of people but it is a pretty natural thing to do. Any human institution is going to suffer from the growing pains of its members but God is perfect and so is His love. We certainly are ambassadors for the kingdom of God whether or not we wish to be. A true seeker, though, should exercise wisdom and seek the face of God. I will promise you this. You will not see the face of God and walk away from Him. When a person seeks God they find love and acceptance. When they look at us they sometimes find judgment and condemnation. That is not God’s way. While we are learning to walk and act like God, the wise person will look to Him rather than to judge Him by what they see in us. Actually, if one really thought about it, the fact that the Father loves us enough to accept us should speak volumes about His love. The unsaved ought to look at Christians and say, “If God can love and accept them, then He will most certainly love me.” And it is true. There is no person on this earth that He does not love and wish to spend eternity with. Think of the most vile person you know. God’s will, His heart’s desire, is to save that person and give him a home in heaven.

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Bad Press

On April 6, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

James 1: 13

Let no on say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
  
God gets a lot of bad press these days. We all know that, but what is disturbing is how much of it comes from Christians. Well-meaning Christians blame God for a myriad of problems. They say God is tempting them in order to test them or that he is bringing this or that challenge to make them strong; grow their faith. That is just blatantly untrue. We have been told lies and we must correct ourselves with the truth. The Word is truth. Jesus said that we would know the truth and the truth would make us free (Matthew 8: 32). The word says that God is love and that he cannot tempt. He does not have evil to tempt us with. God wants good for his kids. Every good thing comes from him. Let’s put the correct party on trial here. It is the devil who comes to “steal, kill and destroy” (Matthew 10: 10). Let’s start giving him the bad press he deserves and give honor to our Father.

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