The very argument that took
place in Lucifer's mind before he was kicked out of heaven is being used by him today to stir up
rebellion in mankind. "We are being treated unfairly,
unequally! We have every right to do everything everyone else
is doing! We have every right to be as wealthy as everyone
else! We have every right........!"
Whites are superior, Blacks are superior, Hispanics are superior, Asians are superior and every other supposed race of mankind is superior! To what? The other races? I hope not to offend, but I find this rather humorous. Why does having a different shade of skin, hair, eyes, shape of face, etc. make you a different race? Not because we come from different nationalities, but simply because we all desire to be unique and different at the same time. We are all simply the human race (or kind in Biblical terminology). We are confused by the cries of "UNFAIR!" and feel we must do something about them. So we decided that if you speak differently than I, look differently than I, see things differently than I, etc. then you are WRONG!! Sometimes this is true, but not because people are different in their ways than I am, but because they are different in their ways than God desires them to be. This is where we get confused. We make it a me vs. them thing, when in reality it is God's ways vs. the ways of sinful man.
What rights do we truly possess? None but those with which Father God has graced us. We deserve none of them.
As my children grew I gave them more and more authority as they proved they could handle it. It was nothing they deserved, but was something they would need to get through this life. God has done the same with us. As we grow in our faith, He bestows more authority on us to help us be all He desires us to be in life.
There were times in my children's lives where they abused the authority given them. One of my children was caught speeding (only 5 miles over, but it was a $65 ticket). That child came home red-faced and told me the story. I told said child to go immediately to Hillsboro and pay the ticket out of their own pocket or their keys would be taken away until it was done. The ticket was paid that day and another was never received again as long as they lived with us. God is going to react in the same manner with us. As a child, I lied to stay out of trouble. It would plague me until the truth was out. My parents had taught me that lying was wrong and when (no ifs) I got caught I would be in more trouble than if I had told the truth. As an adult and trusting child of God, I know that His Word tells us that He sees our every thought and knows all we do, so now if I tell what would be considered the smallest of lies in today's world, I have to immediately apologize to God and correct things. Once Michael asked if the paper on the table was all the mail, I immediately replied yes, realized my mistake and said, "EXCEPT the junk I put in the recycle bin. It is still there if you'd like to see it." Most people would have told me that was silly, but my Father God knows that if I allow slip ups, they become habit. If I want to keep authority over lying in my life, then I cannot give in to it at all. This is not easy. Do I believe there are times when we have to lie in order to protect others? Yes, and I believe God understands. He knows what kind of world we live in, how dangerous and destructive it can be. So if a child is home alone and someone comes to the door or calls on the phone should they tell the truth that they are alone? No. However, it is mankind's greed that has gotten us to this place. But that's another story.
"As our children will one day understand things we don't try to explain now, so one day, in God's presence, we will have the reference points to understand what now remains a mystery." (pg. 50 If God Is Good)
Being in God's presence is essential to growth. We must spend time with Him on a consistent basis in order to understand what life is really all about, grow in wisdom and understanding and become what He truly desires us to be. I lived with my parents almost 19 years on a daily basis. I learned to take authority over dressing myself, cleaning myself, taking care of my possessions, etc. I learned that their dreams for me were that I come to know the Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord so I could continue to grow and be able to live a happy and blessed life in the Lord, serving Him with my whole heart. Just as I needed those 19 years of daily experience with my parents, I need a lifetime of eternity to spend with Jesus in order to learn, grow and understand all there is to understand, and in all eternity, I will never learn it all, so isn't it best to start now learning all we can? "Satan is not God's opposite, fighting a cosmic duel with an uncertain outcome." (pg 51 If God is Good)
To be honest, I hadn't fully thought about this before. However, I had heard analogies such as "life is like a chess game with God and Satan as opponents." The analogy never seemed quite right, but I didn't have anything spring up in my heart about it, so I didn't really think on it much. I realize, however, that it may have tainted my understanding in some way, as many things, okay - most things, we hear have a tendency to do. When I read these words, however, something new sprang up - "Evil is the opposite of good, but Satan is no where near the opposite of God. There is only one God and He has no opposite. There is nothing with which to compare Him."
The book goes on to explain: "Michael, the righteous archangel would be an opposite to Satan. Satan is finite. God is infinite. God has no equal." And I would go on to say, "no equal opposite or otherwise."
A game or duel implies that either side could be winner, but God has already won through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. On the same page this statement is made: "Their conflict better resembles the undefeated world heavyweight champion (God) taking on a cranky three-year-old (Satan)." Even at that though, I have experienced many a cranky three year old and sometimes they beat you down. God cannot be beaten down, so there you go......
Where we go wrong is assuming that because Satan has already been defeated by God, we have already defeated him as well. We cannot. He has power that we should never sneer at: Jude 9" But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
We can resist him and he will flee from us, but how do we go about that? "Submit yourselves, therefore, to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you." James 4:7 The entire outcome of our lives depends on this. IF we submit ourselves to God - THEN we will be able to resist the devil and he will flee from us. Once again I go back to marriage. When I submit myself to Michael, his desire to do what I ask becomes greater. As I submit, my desires change and conform to become more like his, which makes his desire to fulfill my dreams greater still. What is even lovelier still is that the more I submit to him, the more he submits to me. We become more and more one. Our thoughts, desires, dreams and even our sense of humor become more and more alike.
Sense of humor popped into my head because of an event of last evening. There is supposed to be a law in Jefferson County that people must have their dogs indoors at night or trained not to bark so that they do not interfere with peoples sleeping. Every night the dog on the street behind our house starts barking around 10 pm. He doesn't quit for about an hour. You have to know that there is a valley between our streets, so everything sounds extra loud. I can stand in my back yard and talk in a normal voice to the people over an acre away and they hear me plainly. Anyway, I was exhausted last evening and desperately wanting to sleep by 10. My husband came to bed with me so I could sleep and we turned on the fan because we knew the dog would start barking. Sure enough, a few minutes later, there he was loud as could be. My goofy husband got out of bed, opened the window and started barking and howling and said, "Scoobyoobyroo." There was a time when this would have embarrassed me greatly, but no more. Instead, I started laughing until there were tears. I told him, "I don't know how much good that did as far as the neighbors go, but it sure was funny. Thanks for making me laugh."
What happened? A couple of minutes later the dog quit barking!! I don't know if the neighbors heard Michael and thought they maybe should do something or if God simply shut his mouth, but he quit. Did we resist the devil in the instance? I think so. Instead of getting angry and huffy, we found the humor in it and I think, just maybe, God honored that.
We must remember that to submit to God we have to trust Him enough to do so. I can guarantee that if I did not trust Michael I would not submit to him. I am too stubborn. But over the past 37 1/2 years of knowing him and 36 years of marriage, I have grown to trust him more and more because I have gotten to see and know that he is trustworthy by dwelling with and spending time with him. This is what we must do with God - dwell with Him and Him in us and spend time with Him getting to know Him more fully. I stress this over and over as a reminder to myself to never give up.
Whites are superior, Blacks are superior, Hispanics are superior, Asians are superior and every other supposed race of mankind is superior! To what? The other races? I hope not to offend, but I find this rather humorous. Why does having a different shade of skin, hair, eyes, shape of face, etc. make you a different race? Not because we come from different nationalities, but simply because we all desire to be unique and different at the same time. We are all simply the human race (or kind in Biblical terminology). We are confused by the cries of "UNFAIR!" and feel we must do something about them. So we decided that if you speak differently than I, look differently than I, see things differently than I, etc. then you are WRONG!! Sometimes this is true, but not because people are different in their ways than I am, but because they are different in their ways than God desires them to be. This is where we get confused. We make it a me vs. them thing, when in reality it is God's ways vs. the ways of sinful man.
What rights do we truly possess? None but those with which Father God has graced us. We deserve none of them.
As my children grew I gave them more and more authority as they proved they could handle it. It was nothing they deserved, but was something they would need to get through this life. God has done the same with us. As we grow in our faith, He bestows more authority on us to help us be all He desires us to be in life.
There were times in my children's lives where they abused the authority given them. One of my children was caught speeding (only 5 miles over, but it was a $65 ticket). That child came home red-faced and told me the story. I told said child to go immediately to Hillsboro and pay the ticket out of their own pocket or their keys would be taken away until it was done. The ticket was paid that day and another was never received again as long as they lived with us. God is going to react in the same manner with us. As a child, I lied to stay out of trouble. It would plague me until the truth was out. My parents had taught me that lying was wrong and when (no ifs) I got caught I would be in more trouble than if I had told the truth. As an adult and trusting child of God, I know that His Word tells us that He sees our every thought and knows all we do, so now if I tell what would be considered the smallest of lies in today's world, I have to immediately apologize to God and correct things. Once Michael asked if the paper on the table was all the mail, I immediately replied yes, realized my mistake and said, "EXCEPT the junk I put in the recycle bin. It is still there if you'd like to see it." Most people would have told me that was silly, but my Father God knows that if I allow slip ups, they become habit. If I want to keep authority over lying in my life, then I cannot give in to it at all. This is not easy. Do I believe there are times when we have to lie in order to protect others? Yes, and I believe God understands. He knows what kind of world we live in, how dangerous and destructive it can be. So if a child is home alone and someone comes to the door or calls on the phone should they tell the truth that they are alone? No. However, it is mankind's greed that has gotten us to this place. But that's another story.
"As our children will one day understand things we don't try to explain now, so one day, in God's presence, we will have the reference points to understand what now remains a mystery." (pg. 50 If God Is Good)
Being in God's presence is essential to growth. We must spend time with Him on a consistent basis in order to understand what life is really all about, grow in wisdom and understanding and become what He truly desires us to be. I lived with my parents almost 19 years on a daily basis. I learned to take authority over dressing myself, cleaning myself, taking care of my possessions, etc. I learned that their dreams for me were that I come to know the Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord so I could continue to grow and be able to live a happy and blessed life in the Lord, serving Him with my whole heart. Just as I needed those 19 years of daily experience with my parents, I need a lifetime of eternity to spend with Jesus in order to learn, grow and understand all there is to understand, and in all eternity, I will never learn it all, so isn't it best to start now learning all we can? "Satan is not God's opposite, fighting a cosmic duel with an uncertain outcome." (pg 51 If God is Good)
To be honest, I hadn't fully thought about this before. However, I had heard analogies such as "life is like a chess game with God and Satan as opponents." The analogy never seemed quite right, but I didn't have anything spring up in my heart about it, so I didn't really think on it much. I realize, however, that it may have tainted my understanding in some way, as many things, okay - most things, we hear have a tendency to do. When I read these words, however, something new sprang up - "Evil is the opposite of good, but Satan is no where near the opposite of God. There is only one God and He has no opposite. There is nothing with which to compare Him."
The book goes on to explain: "Michael, the righteous archangel would be an opposite to Satan. Satan is finite. God is infinite. God has no equal." And I would go on to say, "no equal opposite or otherwise."
A game or duel implies that either side could be winner, but God has already won through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. On the same page this statement is made: "Their conflict better resembles the undefeated world heavyweight champion (God) taking on a cranky three-year-old (Satan)." Even at that though, I have experienced many a cranky three year old and sometimes they beat you down. God cannot be beaten down, so there you go......
Where we go wrong is assuming that because Satan has already been defeated by God, we have already defeated him as well. We cannot. He has power that we should never sneer at: Jude 9" But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
We can resist him and he will flee from us, but how do we go about that? "Submit yourselves, therefore, to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you." James 4:7 The entire outcome of our lives depends on this. IF we submit ourselves to God - THEN we will be able to resist the devil and he will flee from us. Once again I go back to marriage. When I submit myself to Michael, his desire to do what I ask becomes greater. As I submit, my desires change and conform to become more like his, which makes his desire to fulfill my dreams greater still. What is even lovelier still is that the more I submit to him, the more he submits to me. We become more and more one. Our thoughts, desires, dreams and even our sense of humor become more and more alike.
Sense of humor popped into my head because of an event of last evening. There is supposed to be a law in Jefferson County that people must have their dogs indoors at night or trained not to bark so that they do not interfere with peoples sleeping. Every night the dog on the street behind our house starts barking around 10 pm. He doesn't quit for about an hour. You have to know that there is a valley between our streets, so everything sounds extra loud. I can stand in my back yard and talk in a normal voice to the people over an acre away and they hear me plainly. Anyway, I was exhausted last evening and desperately wanting to sleep by 10. My husband came to bed with me so I could sleep and we turned on the fan because we knew the dog would start barking. Sure enough, a few minutes later, there he was loud as could be. My goofy husband got out of bed, opened the window and started barking and howling and said, "Scoobyoobyroo." There was a time when this would have embarrassed me greatly, but no more. Instead, I started laughing until there were tears. I told him, "I don't know how much good that did as far as the neighbors go, but it sure was funny. Thanks for making me laugh."
What happened? A couple of minutes later the dog quit barking!! I don't know if the neighbors heard Michael and thought they maybe should do something or if God simply shut his mouth, but he quit. Did we resist the devil in the instance? I think so. Instead of getting angry and huffy, we found the humor in it and I think, just maybe, God honored that.
We must remember that to submit to God we have to trust Him enough to do so. I can guarantee that if I did not trust Michael I would not submit to him. I am too stubborn. But over the past 37 1/2 years of knowing him and 36 years of marriage, I have grown to trust him more and more because I have gotten to see and know that he is trustworthy by dwelling with and spending time with him. This is what we must do with God - dwell with Him and Him in us and spend time with Him getting to know Him more fully. I stress this over and over as a reminder to myself to never give up.
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