We Cannot Thwart God’s Plan

“We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.” (Psalm 44:1-3)

It matters not if we act to serve God or act to work against God, if we believe in God or do not believe in God, if we believe in God and transgress or if we believe in God and do not transgress. Create any scenario you like, at the end of the day, or more precisely, in God’s perfect timing, HIS WILL, will be done! God has a plan and He is going to stick to it, regardless if it’s for the short term or the ‘big’ picture prophetically – God’s orchestrating the entire thing and He always has been.

Consider the ‘blessing debacle’ with Isaac, Jacob, and Rebekah. All three, despite being Godly folks, were operating sinfully, while not realizing that God’s plan (for Jacob in the short term and for mankind in the long term), was going to happen regardless if this trio worked with God righteously or against Him sinfully – the result was always going to be the same. The fact that God allowed the event to occur as it did and then use it to convey the Divine principle to us now, just demonstrates His sovereignty and the unfathomable intricacy of His plan.

I’m not suggesting that as followers of Jesus Christ we might as well sin. That would be so very foolish (as brother Paul confirms in an epistle), as we always want to be working on the side of righteousness. But aren’t you comforted in knowing that if we sin, or if we make mistakes, or if for a moment or a season we ignore the pleadings of the Holy Spirit, that God’s plan is moving forward anyway?

I don’t know about you, but that gives me much peace.

I believe (at least in part), this is what Jesus was talking about when He said His yoke was EASY and His burden is LIGHT. Consider the ‘burden’ that all Christians are called to share (the Gospel) and how so many of us are weighed down by the thought of doing it, so much so that many don’t.

Why?

Because we’ve made what was supposed to light, heavy.

Remember, God’s plan is going forward regardless of what we do, and He is responsible for drawing believers unto Himself. Our ‘very light’ burden is to just start the conversation, a conversation by the way He will equip us for. The bulk of the burden falls on God, not us. More importantly, if God wants a particular person to hear the Gospel and we fail in our obedience, God will make another way for it to happen, but how very foolish we are if we choose to not participate in God’s plan. Our salvation is not threatened, but know we have forfeited the opportunity to bless and please God, and there will be loss of some sort.



As I write this blog, the nation is suffering greatly from a decimating virus, an unrepairable financial deficit, riots, looting, and destruction. The solution is Jesus, and everything He brings to the table. The world’s solution, such as dismantling our police departments, is insanity, especially in light of the knowledge that God’s plan is going to prevail in the long run.

This is the message the Church needs to be bringing, while simultaneously not being burdened with the notion that we carry the weight of saving America (or the world) on our shoulders. We preach it, we teach it, we share the information, and God will take it from there. For us, we just want to be on the right side of it all.

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Learning to Pray

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.” (Romans 8:26)

I remember my first time(s) praying corporately. It was a little unnerving due to a lack of confidence and the awkwardness associated with public speaking. Looking back I see what an amazing and Godly learning experience it was. Not only did I learn how to pray stylistically (by listening to others), but I was simultaneously being taught that my trepidation was steeped in pride and selfishness. Today if somebody says, “Prayer changes the pray-er,” I know where they’re coming from.

Praying privately or corporately is now an easy thing (generally speaking), however that does not mean I fully know how to pray. The Romans 8:26 passage reminds me that learning how to pray, or perhaps more precisely what to pray, is a never-ending process. The key I found is in paying attention to what I prayed for and then how God responded. Did what I specifically pray ‘for or about’ come to fruition, or was there another result?

That’s of course where the Romans verse applies. When I pray amiss, the Holy Spirit steps in and essentially tells God (as I imagine), “Father, this is what Dave meant to say…” and God answers that prayer. It’s still my prayer, but God tweaked it and in so doing made it doable, in that His will and my will were now in harmony, thanks to the Spirit’s interceding. My role as a learner (disciple) is to pay attention to the changes that He made and adjust my future prays accordingly, while submitting myself to Him for the changes in me that need to be made.

“Okay, I prayed for this, but God did this instead. Hmm, what do I need to allow God to change in me so I do not make that same error again? Was my prayer selfish or prideful? Did I not see the bigger picture? What was it?”

God says yes to these prayers.

In fact, God never says no to our prayers when the Holy Spirit prays with us. If we think or believe God has said “No,” it is because we have forgotten, or do not know that the Holy Spirit was interpreting for us, and/or we were not paying attention to what God ultimately did as it relates to our initial prayer. So while it may seem He said no to us, in reality He said yes to the Holy Spirit.

God cannot deny Himself.

And lest we forget, while this is all going on, Jesus is also making speaking on our behalf.

“Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34)

It’s a win-win in regard to prayer, as long as we’re paying attention and willing to learn. If God is for us, He is for us.

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Does This Seem Harsh to You?

“Break the arms of these wicked, evil people! Go after them until the last one is destroyed. The Lord is king forever and ever! The godless nations will vanish from the land. Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them.”(Psalm 10:15-18)

This Psalm is King David’s and it is essentially a prayer. Does it seem harsh to you? That’s because it is harsh, so it deserves an explanation.

First, keep in my mind that God has told us that vengeance is His, not ours, but He is not saying we can seek justice through our legal system when we are wronged. The vengeance being spoken of (and implied in David’s Psalm) is as severe as it can get and the type of punishment only God is able to dispense. It is also eternal.

Second, we don’t know who is deserving of this kind of punishment. We think we know, but only God knows. For example, we look at Hitler and think, “Surely he should go to hell,” but the truth be told we ALL should go to hell; Hitler could have ‘sincerely’ repented and came to believe in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, just as we did. Let us not waste our time in pondering that that was highly unlikely. Accept these 2 facts: we do not know and Jesus does know. Consider the Apostle Paul. The guy was a mini-Hitler. Instead of Jews, he exterminated Christians, but yet he saw the light and repented. Aren’t you glad that some vengeance-minded posse didn’t take him out?

I am.

King David’s prayer reflects his understanding of God’s sovereignty in this regard. And since we cannot inflict our own sort of revenge, and since we don’t know who will be damned (by God) and who will not, our call is to love our enemies, that is to say to love them enough to share the Gospel message with them, wearing our faith and ambassadorship on our sleeves. We surely don’t condone evil behavior, but if given the opportunity (by the Holy Spirit, mind you) we attempt to side-step evil to reach the soul of the one doling it out.

In summary:

1) If you’re wronged, try to settle it in a Biblical manner. If you don’t know what that is, ask your pastor or google it.
2) Protect yourself and others as the law permits.
3) Call the police, a lawyer, etc. if necessary.
4) Vengeance is God’s. Don’t go there. Pray has David did.

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Any Other god

“I know the greatness of the Lord—that our Lord is greater than any other god. The Lord does whatever pleases him throughout all heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths.” (Psalm 135:5-6)

The Psalmist, in comparing our Lord to any other god, is not suggesting that these other gods are legitimate divinity. These gods are only real in the sense that men have created them in their own minds and errantly worship them. Having said that, we should consider Allah for a moment.

Allah, is the Arabic word for God. Christian Arabs have no other word for ‘God’ than ‘Allah’, so in this circumstance, the God of the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, can legitimately be referred to as Allah.

Muslims obviously use the same word, however their Allah is a perversion of the one true and living God. In other words they have taken the God of the Bible and changed His attributes and altered Bible-truth to harmonize with the false, Muslim faith. Therefore, the Allah of the Muslim religion is a false god. I don’t say that maliciously. I surely do not hate Muslims, I am just proclaiming the truth. Their god and their religion is detrimental to their eternal future.

For the record, there are many religions that have hijacked the God of the Bible and perverted His true identity by adding too, or subtracting from God’s Word. Sadly, many of them masquerade as Christian.

Looking at it another way, imagine some one took the likeness of Colonel Sanders (of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame), and began promoting him as a purveyor of hamburgers. We all know the truth, so we could boldly and truthfully say that they are lying; they have perverted the Colonel’s true identity and the person they are presenting, despite the familiar picture, does not exist in real life.

There can only be one God – Jesus made that absolutely clear. You would recall that our Lord and Savior was humiliated, brutally tortured and murdered. His sacrificial death served as sufficient atonement for our sin. God did this to His Son. Jesus asked of His Father if there were some other way. There was not. This was the only way. If there were another way or some other god that could have paved the way for our eternal security, then God allowed His Son to suffer a horrifying death for nothing.

It would all just be a nice story, a myth, or folklore, if Jesus our Messiah had not risen from the grave.

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A Proper Interpretation

“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.” (Proverbs 25:21-22)

Let’s start with what the proverb is not saying: if you do something nice for your enemy, he will become enraged, inflamed if you will, and thus it will serve as a God-approved retaliation.

Do we seriously think God would reward us for that?

Of course not.

Isn’t our ‘Christian kindness’ designed to draw people towards Christ?

Of course it is.

The ‘head’ being spoken of in the Proverb is a term which refers to the barely glowing, seemingly dormant embers of a fire, as in a furnace or an old locomotive, that are intended to go low, but never go out, the rationale being that a blaze can be easily stoked by just adding fuel, without having to start a fire from scratch. 

 

The ‘enemy’ in the proverb is a broad term. It simply could mean those who have done you wrong, but it could also typify the unsaved or back slidden person whose head has gone cold. The niceties of the Christian who blesses this person are likened to hot coals that will serve to restore the flame that has expired or perhaps was never there to begin with. 

This is the type of behavior the Lord rewards.

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Lot, the Ruler, and You

The Ruler asked, “What should I do to inherit eternal life.”

After some back-and-forth, Jesus said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Luke 18:22)

I’ve been studying the life of Lot. You know the story — Lot’s an oppressed, non-influential believer, living in sin-filled Sodom, a city that God is about to reduce to ashes. Two angels stand beside Lot pleading that he leave the city, but Lot hesitates.

Why?

He believes in God and he believes these messengers are angels. I submit to you he was experiencing the same despair as the ‘Rich Young Ruler’ in the Gospel of Luke story. Lot was a ruler of sorts, holding some type of government position in Sodom, and likely had a measurable degree of wealth. Lot was respected in Sodom, that is, as long as he turned a blind eye to sin and corruption, and kept his religion to himself. While Jesus told the Ruler to sell all that he had, in similar fashion two angels told Lot to abandon all that he had. We know what happen to Lot; the angels took him by the hand and plopped him outside the city walls, directing him to walk the rest of the way. We don’t know what the Ruler decided. I’d like to think that he made the proper choice. 

 

We’re a lot like Lot and the Ruler.

 

What if you were told right now to leave it all behind? Don’t consider what you would eventually do, consider what your very first reaction would be. Would there be any hesitation? Would you pause to ask why? Or would you simply turn and start walking, leaving even vehicles behind, carrying only what was on your back? If you’re honest (if I’m honest), we’d probably react just like Lot and the Ruler did: we’d hesitate, seek explanations, and proffer justifications. 

 

Where does that leave all of us?

It’s okay to ask the question; the disciples were wondering the same exact thing. They too were struggling with the notion of being able to walk away from all they had. Could they leave their homes? Their cars? Their cable TV? Well that’s certainly what their question implies. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they ask.

Jesus responds with the most gracious, merciful, and loving answer, and frankly, it’s the bedrock of the entire Gospel message: “What is impossible for people is possible with God.” (Luke 18:22-27)

Absolute repentance and complete submission is a little frightening at first. It speaks to perfection, so we naturally shy away from that which we cannot achieve. Jesus knows this too. It’s why He bluntly said, “It’s impossible!” And that’s the whole point. Are we not made strong in our weaknesses? We cannot save ourselves. We are helpless by design! It is when we recognize our imperfect condition that the Perfect One can do the impossible.

 

The angels brought a vacillating Lot out of bondage and he ultimately walked by faith. Jesus brings us out in the same condition and simply asks we do the same.

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A Lot of Unholiness

I became a police officer in 1981. I came to faith in 1984. Young, stupid, and un-discipled, I eventually fell back into my old, sinful ways. I did not yet understand the spiritual principle regarding holiness — the notion of being set apart for God and endeavoring to make it known, perpetually.

 

I attempted to share my faith, but rapidly succumb to the ridicule of both criminal and coworker. I blame neither for my downward spiral – – the fault was my own. I was like the seed that sprang up quickly and the one that fell among the thorns: shallow roots growing amongst weeds. In other words: I was not growing in my faith and I was not practicing holiness (set-apartness).

 

It reminds me of Lot.

 

Consider one of the most disturbing portions of Scripture:

 

“Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing.” (Genesis 19:8)

 

For centuries scholars have debated why a man would make such a despicable offer. Some have even attempted to defend Lot’s action. The truth be told, the deed is indefensible. We can however surmise that Lot got to this horrendous condition through a lack of spiritual growth and a lack of holiness.

 

Sodom was a vile place, replete with depravity, perversion, and sexual sin. Why Lot chose to live in such a place we may never know, but we can speculate that on day one, week one, or even year one of living in Sodom, Lot would not have offered his daughters up to be raped. However, after 25 years of living there, he was worn down by the continual vice, brutality, and materialism. Two and a half decades of compromise, turning a blind-eye, cowering in fear, and concealing his faith brought Lot to this place. It did not happen overnight. Shallow roots among thorns have little chance.

 

On the other hand, consider Abraham. While not a perfect man, he was a faith-filled man, a man who grew in his knowledge of the Lord and exercised holiness, opting to remain untethered to the world as a nomadic tent dweller. Sodom essentially lay at his doorstep, but he was not of Sodom. He was free to engage with the world on his terms and not on theirs. As a result, he was used mightily by God.

 

As with Lot, God did not abandon me, He rescued me. Like Lot, my salvation was secure because by faith I believed. But in those days, I was not of much use to God. Thankfully our Lord is both gracious and merciful, and remains faithful when we are not. He restores what the locust devours, that is if we allow Him to.

 

Study the word, be in prayer, and be ye holy.

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Perfect Love

In order to define ‘perfect love‘ we need to ask the right questions, but If we’re starting off with, “What is perfect love?” rather than, “Who is perfect love?” we are on the wrong track and may come to an errant conclusion.

 

“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but PERFECT LOVE casts out fear: because fear hath torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:15-18, emphasis mine)

 

Perfect Love

 

Perfect love is Jesus. When we grasp this, the burden is no longer upon the Christian to reject fear, but rather to yield to the only One who can cast fear out, Jesus Christ. Our passage also says ‘fear has torment,’ in other words, those living in fear are tortured by it. Think about that: there are Christians in our midst being tortured not by men, but by emotion.

 

In contrast we see the images of Christians actually being tortured; heads being violently removed, bodies drowned in cages, tossed off building tops, or burned alive. These videos often show us characteristics that one would not typically associate with fear, but reveal a calm and peace that surpasses all natural understanding that can only be attributed to God’s indwelling presence. There is no doubt a burden involved with these horrific events, but I submit to you it is a light burden because of Jesus, the Perfect Love that casts out tormenting fear.

 

“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)

 

Christianity is Hard

 

There are of course Christians who struggle with the notion of yielding to Jesus in order that He can cast out fear. Perhaps many of us wrestle with it to one degree or the other, myself included. However, those who struggle with the doctrine, but then pronounce, “Being a Christian is hard!” have crossed a triple line: they’re distrusting God, adding to the Bible, and calling God a liar. In a word, it is blasphemy.  This sort of blasphemy won’t keep you out of Heaven, but it will make your Christian walk miserable.

 

“All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son.” (1 John 5:10)

 

Choose to Trust

 

Rather than making the erroneous and discouraging remark [that] being a Christian is hard, choose to take God at his word.

 

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

 

If you are tempted to fear, or are facing any temptation, trust God that He will show up at the precise moment of your need and reveal to you the way to escape, remembering that your ability lies not in your flesh, but in the Perfect Love, Jesus Christ, who dwells within you.

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Our Days Are Numbered

Job 14:1-6 and Psalm 139:16 teach us that God has determined and numbered our days before we were born. In other words, God knows exactly when we’re going to die, which begs the question, “Is there anything we can do to change or prolong that date?”

 

I believe there is and I’m slightly dogmatic about it because God has said that if we walk in obedience and keep His decrees and commands, He will give us a long life (1 Kings 3:14) and if we honor our parents, we may live long in the land (Ex 20:12). When we consider that God is omniscient, knowing the beginning from the end, we can trust that He has factored in our obedience, or lack thereof, before He chiseled our obit day in stone.

 

Taking it a step further I believe we can prolong our lives if we stop smoking, doing drugs, and abusing alcohol, and start exercising, eating right, and taking care of our bodies, because God, again knowing all future events, has factored in both our harmful and beneficial behaviors, before we were born. That is to say, our favorable activities and obedience to God are not merely things that may improve the quality of life in the time we have been allotted, but rather things that God has considered in determining the length of our lives.

Of course we must also remember that God considers things we know nothing about that may result in a long or short life, and Godly obedience and healthy living are not the sole factors that decide how long we live.

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Don’t Be Law-less

When we are sharing the Gospel we must include the Law in our conversations. Our listeners need to see their guilt, their helplessness, their depth of sin, their opposition to God, and their only solution in Christ Jesus. They also need to know the consequences of their sin, but we will leave that for another post.

 

The Law and it’s Purpose

 

1) GUILT: “The law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.” (Romans 3:19)

 

2) HELPLESSNESS: “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” (Romans 3:20)

 

3) ANTI-GOD: “Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.” (1 John 3:4)

 

4) SIN-FILLED: “Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin.”(Romans 7:7a)

 

5) SOLUTION: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24)

 

Do not make the mistake of sharing a squeaky-clean Gospel – merely saying that Jesus died for our sin is not enough. People need to know what sin is, accept their guilt, learn the consequences, recognize their inability to do anything about it, and acknowledge that Jesus is their only solution for their sin problem. I have seen data that shows that when we omit this information, 80% to 90% of people who received Jesus eventually reject Him and return to their sinful ways.

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