November 10 2013
Is God Sub Servant To Mother Nature To You?
John 3:30 (NIV)
He must become greater; I must become less.
When John the Baptist was asked if he was the Messiah, he gave the above response. As a follower of Jesus Christ, John knew his position with regard to Jesus, and John knew that he was not the leader, but instead he was a follower. What about you, where do you put Jesus in your life? Do you allow Jesus to lead and thus, become greater, while you become less? The NLT translation states this verse as “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” So as you can see John understood that he needed to turn more of his life over to Jesus, and allow Jesus to run his life for him.
Where do you place your trust to do the right things in your life? Do you first consult with other people who are close to you, when you feel you need help? After your counselors have given their opinion, and you have tried their ideas, but have not resolved the issue, do you then consult God? Remember, John the Baptist was not a follower of men; he was viewed by many men as their leader, and was so influential that many thought he must be the long awaited Messiah. Does anyone mistake you for the Messiah the Savior of the world? Yet, here John holds Jesus to be his Savior, and John knows he needs salvation.
It seems most people today do not really believe they need a Savior. They believe they are good people and thus they should be saved because they are better than many other human beings. The religion of Islam teaches that you are saved by works, but Jesus never taught that, and the Bible does not teach such a thing. When Jesus walked this earth as the man/God He did not consider himself to be good. How do normal human beings consider themselves to be good enough to be saved by a Holy, Holy, Holy God? To God good enough means you must be PERFECT, not just better than some other humans! Are you perfect? Are you better then John the Baptist and Jesus?
When you die and leave this life you will go to heaven, ONLY if you have taken on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior! There is no other way. When Thomas did not know what Jesus meant when He said you know the way to where I am going, and then Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) Take heed of what Jesus said here, “No-one comes to the Father except through me.” Likely everyone reading this commentary knows this answer Jesus gave to Thomas and to all of Jesus’ followers, but do you really believe it?
Many church leaders of today do not profess this basic belief, because they do not really believe it! If you do believe this statement Jesus made to be true, and you do not profess it to unbelievers, then it appears you do not mind letting those who you come in contact with to go to hell! Most of you reading this would not usually tell people you know to go to hell, but even worse would be that you did not care if they did! Do you have friends and relatives who do not regularly attend a church of their choice? It is my opinion that if you believe in Jesus, and have taken Him on as your Lord and Savior, then you will strongly desire to attend group meeting of other people who share your belief system! What do you believe about regular church attendance? Do you attend regularly, if yes, Why? Do you not attend regularly, Why not?
If you do not attend a church of your choice, then whom will teach your children, and/or family and friends about Jesus? If you do not believe Jesus was who He said He was, then you would not really care if those around you believe in Him or not! If, however, you do believe Jesus is, or may be, who He claimed to be then, how could you not care what other people around you believe? God gave the Israelites instructions about teaching their children about Him. Just one such incident was recorded for us in the book of Joshua.
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel for ever." (Joshua 4:4-7)
Probably none of us have experienced a supernatural event similar to the one the Israelites have just seen in this report from Joshua. The Jordan River was parted so they could cross over it on dry ground. God had just performed this miracle, and they all witnessed it. What supernatural event would it take to convince that God exists, and that Jesus is the Savior of this world? Have you ever seen a seed grow, and produce a plant that bears fruit with seeds in it? Have you ever heard of a sexual act being performed, and the female became pregnant, and then, gave birth to a new life that is similar the parents?
So called common everyday occurrences, are rarely if ever taken as evidence that there is a God! Some highly educated people look at such events as just what they expect from natural events! What do you think about such common events? Paul wrote about this unbelief in his letter to the church in Rome. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:20-23)
Paul ends the above verses with equating man’s denial of God’s creation by assuming that such events are somehow just random occurrences, and thus, can be explained as just natural events, we have even coined the phrase of mother nature as being the replacement for God! When I typed the previous sentence I typed Mother Nature as lower case, and the checking of Microsoft flagged it as an error! Do you ever use that term to really mean god? Yes, I typed God with a lowercase letter, and my system did not flag it as an error or even possible error!
So God is sub servant to Mother Nature!? Is this correct to you?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
John 3:30 (NIV)
He must become greater; I must become less.
When John the Baptist was asked if he was the Messiah, he gave the above response. As a follower of Jesus Christ, John knew his position with regard to Jesus, and John knew that he was not the leader, but instead he was a follower. What about you, where do you put Jesus in your life? Do you allow Jesus to lead and thus, become greater, while you become less? The NLT translation states this verse as “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” So as you can see John understood that he needed to turn more of his life over to Jesus, and allow Jesus to run his life for him.
Where do you place your trust to do the right things in your life? Do you first consult with other people who are close to you, when you feel you need help? After your counselors have given their opinion, and you have tried their ideas, but have not resolved the issue, do you then consult God? Remember, John the Baptist was not a follower of men; he was viewed by many men as their leader, and was so influential that many thought he must be the long awaited Messiah. Does anyone mistake you for the Messiah the Savior of the world? Yet, here John holds Jesus to be his Savior, and John knows he needs salvation.
It seems most people today do not really believe they need a Savior. They believe they are good people and thus they should be saved because they are better than many other human beings. The religion of Islam teaches that you are saved by works, but Jesus never taught that, and the Bible does not teach such a thing. When Jesus walked this earth as the man/God He did not consider himself to be good. How do normal human beings consider themselves to be good enough to be saved by a Holy, Holy, Holy God? To God good enough means you must be PERFECT, not just better than some other humans! Are you perfect? Are you better then John the Baptist and Jesus?
When you die and leave this life you will go to heaven, ONLY if you have taken on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior! There is no other way. When Thomas did not know what Jesus meant when He said you know the way to where I am going, and then Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) Take heed of what Jesus said here, “No-one comes to the Father except through me.” Likely everyone reading this commentary knows this answer Jesus gave to Thomas and to all of Jesus’ followers, but do you really believe it?
Many church leaders of today do not profess this basic belief, because they do not really believe it! If you do believe this statement Jesus made to be true, and you do not profess it to unbelievers, then it appears you do not mind letting those who you come in contact with to go to hell! Most of you reading this would not usually tell people you know to go to hell, but even worse would be that you did not care if they did! Do you have friends and relatives who do not regularly attend a church of their choice? It is my opinion that if you believe in Jesus, and have taken Him on as your Lord and Savior, then you will strongly desire to attend group meeting of other people who share your belief system! What do you believe about regular church attendance? Do you attend regularly, if yes, Why? Do you not attend regularly, Why not?
If you do not attend a church of your choice, then whom will teach your children, and/or family and friends about Jesus? If you do not believe Jesus was who He said He was, then you would not really care if those around you believe in Him or not! If, however, you do believe Jesus is, or may be, who He claimed to be then, how could you not care what other people around you believe? God gave the Israelites instructions about teaching their children about Him. Just one such incident was recorded for us in the book of Joshua.
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel for ever." (Joshua 4:4-7)
Probably none of us have experienced a supernatural event similar to the one the Israelites have just seen in this report from Joshua. The Jordan River was parted so they could cross over it on dry ground. God had just performed this miracle, and they all witnessed it. What supernatural event would it take to convince that God exists, and that Jesus is the Savior of this world? Have you ever seen a seed grow, and produce a plant that bears fruit with seeds in it? Have you ever heard of a sexual act being performed, and the female became pregnant, and then, gave birth to a new life that is similar the parents?
So called common everyday occurrences, are rarely if ever taken as evidence that there is a God! Some highly educated people look at such events as just what they expect from natural events! What do you think about such common events? Paul wrote about this unbelief in his letter to the church in Rome. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:20-23)
Paul ends the above verses with equating man’s denial of God’s creation by assuming that such events are somehow just random occurrences, and thus, can be explained as just natural events, we have even coined the phrase of mother nature as being the replacement for God! When I typed the previous sentence I typed Mother Nature as lower case, and the checking of Microsoft flagged it as an error! Do you ever use that term to really mean god? Yes, I typed God with a lowercase letter, and my system did not flag it as an error or even possible error!
So God is sub servant to Mother Nature!? Is this correct to you?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
|
|
|