You have no idea how much I would love to tell you this is going to be an exhaustive paper detailing everything there is to know about our Father in Heaven. Sadly, there is not enough paper in the world for me to write it and nowhere near enough time, in life, for you to read it. Instead, let’s discuss some things you will want to consider.
YHWH has gifted us with the ability to understand the way He thinks. What I love about the experience is that it has allowed me to boil all of this down into one word you can understand: Respect. You see, it is our lack of respect that has caused us to live in the world we see today. On that note, keep that word in mind as you continue to read on.
When the Earth first began, it was vacant and void; everything seen today was spoken by the Father. There is not a single thing the Father didn’t bring to pass: the grass, trees, oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, animals, people and everything in between. He is brilliant beyond all human understanding. Yahweh, took nothing and created an automated system long before Oliver Evans was even close to being born. You see nothing, not one thing we think of can ever be done without first being created by our Heavenly Father. The sand used to make the microchips and the oil used to make the plastic and fuel cars were all first created by the Father. It is through understanding Him we have the creativity to see the ordinary and turn it into the extraordinary.
Before the flood of Noah’s day, which did happen, the grass was watered by a mist that came up from the ground. Everyday water would come up and water all the vegetation across the planet. After the flood, the system changed and water began to fall from the sky. We call this a subroutine within the original system. For those of you who don’t speak engineering. Rain falling from the sky became the new norm.
Everything we see is automated. The seasons rotate quarterly: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter come and go. The sun always rises in the East and sets in the West. Animals function automatically; rising at their designated time and finding food and moving on with their day or night. Humans function automatically as well. We all have clocks and pre-programmed subroutines, in what we call the brain, that get us up and moving. We wake up in the morning, get ready for work and sleep at night. Some animals are nocturnal and they work all night and sleep all day (as are some humans). The heart beats without being told. Our eyes auto focus without thought to ensure we see clearly. Everything you see was/is automated. God did not feel the need to babysit all things.
The Power of choice
This is the place where most of you make the mistake of blaming God for the things that happen in this world. But God is NOT to blame. Remember he started an automated machine and through choices we’ve made, we brought things to where they are today.
When I was a kid there was a book I read called the “Invaders of Hark”, it was by R.L. Stine and throughout this book you had to make choices as to where you would go next. So you would be in the middle of a story line and you were being chased. You had to decide whether to go left or right or straight. Based on the choice you made there was an outcome. Sometimes you were taken by a group of aliens and destroyed. In other choices you bought yourself more time, and died further down the road. However, there was always one way to make it through the entire book.
The world God designed in no different. Adam chose to eat the fruit his wife offered him, eternal life, as it was originally designed, was no more. To ensure your ability to stand and to be successful in this world, the three decided to shut down the garden and make sure the Tree of Life was not eaten from. By doing that, we all could rest in the fact the horrors of this world were not going to last forever. Most people don’t respect what an act of love this decision was. If Adam and Eve had eaten from the Tree of Life; the world, as we know it today, would have lasted forever. That means Adam and Eve would still be walking around on the Earth with us today. The Father’s choice allowed this craziness we see to only last a short breath of time.
Whether you like it or not God never promised you an easy, breezy, beautiful life. He told you hard times were going to come but that He would be with you as you walked through them. Our problem is when things don’t go our way, we look for people to blame instead of looking for ways to be grateful. There is very little worse than losing a wife or a child. With our children, we often get caught in what could have been. What if that beloved child of yours ended their life caught up in a world of drugs and addiction and they wanted nothing to do with you? What if what could have been was the child becoming a mass murderer. The point, ask yourself, what could God have saved you from?
No, He didn’t need another angel. We don’t become angels. No, it wasn’t for the best. All the trite expressions people come to you with are those people not knowing what to say. The only thing that can be said about a loss is “I am sorry to hear you are hurting.” It’s up to you to move forward and persevere and respect God knew you could make it through to the other side. We are not being heartless, we have all suffered unimaginable loss, but that doesn’t stop life from moving forward and we have to be willing to move with it.
As people, we don’t look at things this way. We expect God to always be doing the worse to us. He should have stopped it. He is terrible BECAUSE HE DIDN’T MAKE IT HAPPEN MY WAY. Your way only takes into account what is best for you and what your finite mind understands. Stop living this way! Our reality is; one time is appointed for man to die.
How about we look at the facts of the situations? How about we look at the fact Adam knew to stay away from the tree of Good and Evil and despite this knowledge he still chose to eat of the fruit. Adam made a CHOICE! He went the way he wanted to and gave no thought to the warning. How many times has God warned us to stay away from something and we went after it any way and then realized; “Oops. Bad choice.” How much time could have been saved it WE just listened?
We are so SELFISH! We want, what we want, when we want it and we don’t care what God says. The choice is ours every day. What confused you to make you think you were actually that smart? Ladies and Gentlemen, the fact is we can only see one direction; right in front of us. We can’t see what is behind us and we can’t see what is to our right or left. Sometimes we think something is one way but in reality it was something completely different. Each of us must walk through adversity and not get stuck in feelings about the adversity. Yes, you lost a loved one. Yes, you hurt. But that is not the end of your life. Mourn but move on. You WILL be ok; your life is not over.
The Love of God
The love of God can be very confusing to the finite mind. The more God loves you, the more He allows you to walk through. It is NEVER for your destruction it is always so you can see how much more YOU are made of.
Two of my favorite movies are: the Ultimate Gift and Apple Mortgage Cake. There is nothing similar about these two movies; except they are movies. Jason Stevens is a spoiled rotten brat loved more for his money than for who he is. His friends liked him because of his possessions and not because of him. When he was in trouble they all walked away, nothing was left to him. No money, no fancy car, and no nights in $25,000 per night hotel suites. Nothing! He was living in a park.
Apple Mortgage Cake was about a single mom of three boys, named Angela Logan, who was facing foreclosure on her home. She owed the bank $4000 and only had ten days to make it happen. In her mind, there was no way she could do it. Despite her fear she went through selling her cakes at $40 per cake.
Both of these movies showed two people in challenging situations. Contrary to popular belief it is significantly harder to go from riches to rags than it is to go from rags to riches. The only thing the two characters have in common is how the adversity changed them. For Angela Logan it made her bolder and for Jason Stevens, a humility grew and the ability to have true lifelong friends. It also led to him finding the love of his life.
God’s providence is undeniable. So many would have asked; why did God let it happen? God didn’t let it happen the greed of men let it happen. Man’s greed is what brought Jason to the place of having friends who were not real and man’s greed put Angela Logan in a place where she couldn’t afford to keep her home (although she is NOT a victim). The point is, forces out of her control made things harder than they needed to be.
Without adversity, neither character would know what they can accomplish. Most importantly, they would never have seen the movement of God’s hand or experienced His deep and abiding love that turned everything around for their good. You have the same abilities to overcome your situations but it means you MUST look for God’s touch in every situation. It is about choices and the willingness to have God give you guidance and direction. We can’t ask for direction at the same time we are telling God He is not qualified to lead our lives. Gotta run for today…see you later, gator!
