VictoryinJesus
Well-Known Member
- Jan 26, 2017
- 10,580
- 8,428
- 113
- Faith
- Christian
- Country
- United States
The whole picture that God sees is what we need to be approaching. How good is our vision? Before we know God at all we are effectively blind. Some people who do come to God then get stuck on a dead end street or miss a turn they needed to take. The to approach God and to see more clearly what He sees is first through faith [necessary for one with no or poor vision] and then through humility. The highmindedness is of course another pathway which unbelievers walk. Unfortunately believers when they move on without God follow a similar prideful pathway. We should not want to be like them, but rather like Jesus who was selfless as he walked planet Earth as a man 2000 years ago.
People see the apparent differences is what verses of scripture say to them and sometimes not being really open or that interested go ahead and decide against God in whom they do not believe or trust because they cannot understand. Of course God will help them... if they really want help. Many people like their little places in hell... this being hell for them.
As I already said we need to see the whole thing as God sees it. People often reject or ignore the OT having decided that it applies little or not at all toward them. The natural children of Israel escaped from Egypt following the man of God Moses, but in the wilderness they repeatedly seem to forget what God had already done for them. They repeatedly murmured against Moses and thereby against God. They repented and He accepted their repentance repeatedly until He would no longer accept their attempts to repent... no more room as perhaps with Esau?
Their escape from the wilderness into the Promised Land was cut off. Forty years they were to wander eating their manna and drinking the water God provided... but never to enter in... That is a picture, a type or a shadow of the reality which God promises to those who walk with Him all of the Way to the end of the road. But... on the road there are pitfalls and thorns and enemies attacking seemingly at times, continuously. After their ten rebellions against God the way into the Promised Land was closed. They had their 40 years or less, but after that, nothing but death.
Death of their flesh was the end for the natural children of Israel, who rebelled against God too much.
Death of the flesh is the end for those today who remain in the unbelief. Perhaps they will get a little satisfaction in their spouses and/or children and friends today or some fun if they have the opportunity to enjoy sports or entertainment parks or whatever temporal things may be available to some... but that is all. Many have much less fortunate than that.
Who has to be or to remain wicked today? There is a better Way, but how many can see it or are really interested if they ever look that way at all? So they "eat, drink and be merry" today if they can. As the pain and anguish of this life alone catches up with them in the lonely empty place without God, their hope is found in dying to get away from the pain of it all.
Jesus had more and those who really trust in Him have more. They have not less than Hope.
Some will refuse the idea that this place of our flesh is our trial, or way to move closer to Him if we really love Him. Too many are too selfish in wanting to receive the blessings of God but unwilling to admit the need to drink a cup that is very bitter indeed. In pursuing and desiring the 'good' things of the flesh here and now, with their words, 'I am saved' lose sight of how much God loves us. Did He love His Son Jesus enough to 'save' him from the horrible suffering and death which were part of his cup? What is in our cup, which is ours to drink?
How many of us will be blessed as young Stephen was blessed...? Do we love God so much that as they stone us to a painful physical death, we will be focused on Jesus and God in spite of what he had not would not receive in this temporal world of flesh.
But the ungodly are who? Has anyone who knew and saw God been blinded because he took his eyes off of God? Consider the case of Samson, who was richly blessed, but following his own flesh away from God had his eyes put out.
Or consider the prophet [I Kings 13] sent out of Judah to King Jeroboam the first king of the separated northern 10 tribes. That prophet of God prophesied about the not yet born good king Josiah of Judah, but then the prophet lost his focus looking to what men offered instead of holding to God. A lion killed him and he never made it home again...
People want to say that they cannot so displease God once they have repented and been 'saved' but they ignore the scriptures that say otherwise and they effectively call our unchanging God a liar by saying that He treats them better than He did those who lived as men in the OT...
Help us dear Lord!
Amadeus, I do value your taking time to respond above and considering your experience and maturity I would say you know something I don’t know and have seen something I have not. But that leaves me questioning if I know Him then. As I hear things which are not true which means I follow after a fantasy I created in my own mind. struggle with the message of how much God loves us and yet how okay we are with those in our lives, our families, our friends who refuse Him to burn in hell. heard so often how it was their choice. Get some say “not burn in hell” they just cease to be, dead in the grave to soften the blow. Same thing someone told me... “when you die. That is it...there is nothing.” and that is okay for the majority? Take this topic. Seen this member post time and time again encouragement and edifying threads where no one responds or comments ...yet when it comes to spitting some out now this is a worthy and fascinating topic. Jonah 4:5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
starting to feel like another member who posed the question “what is the point?” It goes no where. “A few” safe, while “the majority” are what...Waste. Another member which I value their insight also: once softened it as those which don’t make it to heaven are not really people but an image ...like a simulator so God doesn’t really destroy people. Only some are real or valuable and that is who it is for...those and not the others. All of it is beginning to feel like a mind-trip of “the few” and “the majority” where the few set up booths to watch what happens to the majority because they deserve it. And this is the message meaning I’m chasing after some fantasy, a figment of my imagination. Sorry for the gloom and doom but it is where I am right now...which may mean I’m one of those who doesn't continue till the end.