He has laid the ground rules and gives us enough “rope to hang ourselves”, not because He wants to see us fail but like any good father sets parameters for us to operate in for our own protection and provision. We must remember, just like any owner, God wants to have the best in His fields. You can’t have that with some being good and others being bad examples. God has left it up to us to choose which we want to be. Some will say, “how can you bake a cake without breaking a few eggs”. God knows we will fail because that DNA has been passed down through all the ages to today. If Adam and Eve did as God instructed, then the knowledge of evil would not be known and all generations would only do good because that would be the only thing Adam and Eve would have known. I think, if they indeed kept covenant with God, then God would have ensured satan could not interfere with them. Because the more we “submit to God, the devil has to flee from us” - Jm. 4:7.

This integrity demands an example or else you will have chaos and the usurping of everything required to keep and maintain order. God is ensuring that this type of rebellious nature will not disturb the equilibrium that is needed for a prosperous Kingdom. The whole bible sets the tone that eventually there will be a judgment day. Now, God knowing that there are those who chose satan and there are those who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time makes every effort to save the innocent from natural, divine disasters. There have been miracles concerning individuals who having a sense or at the last minute was diverted from fatal incidences. But not all have heeded these “uneasy feelings” and die in many cases horrible deaths. This is why Salvation is not only available at any moment with a simple prayer, but also a free gift, so that despite the physical loss of life; the spirit will live on and once complete transformation takes place, reunite with their bodies. God is compassionate and merciful to keep His covenant with those who chose Him.

Spiritual Awakening

God is doing the same thing He has done for centuries and that is keeping His integrity in everything. The tragedies and loss of life have been a part of living in this world from the start of creation and will continue until all things have come to the knowledge and bow down to recognize and reverent that Jesus is not only Savior but Lord of all. The first thing we have to admit that regardless of one’s belief system, is that we have no real control over our life whether it pertains to provision, protection, prosperity or for that matter our mortality. Sure, we all work and earn and can achieve some level of security but it all can be lost overnight, in a flash by war, disease, and natural disasters. For without commerce, we all come face to face with our very survival and instincts to make sense of basic struggles. We come face to face with the very thing that causes many of us to seek answers and call onto God. Our humanity.

The first struggle for survival started with man’s fall from Grace and his rights as a divine creation. The bible doesn’t speak too much on how did the world switch from a “garden” to a “desert” but says, “Cursed is the ground because of you” - Gen. 3:17-24. It was as if “overnight”, Adam and Eve went to sleep and then woke up to a disaster, just like many across the globe today. What we expect to see and is completely opposite and cause distress, panic and throw us into a fearsome mode. But in all this God remains the same and keeps His perspective on things, that it does not matter what the eye sees or the ear hears and the body feels; His sovereignty will not be affected and will not change. God never panics and scrambles around like a “headless chicken”, crying out, “what are we going to do”. God knows the physical is not the problem but it is the spiritual aspects of life in this world is; and so should we. The story of the Garden starts with a Spirit saying, "and the Spirit of God was moving" - Gen. 1:1 and ends with a spirit, "the serpent was more crafty" - Gen. 3:1. The first gave life and the second gave death. What results from the lack of taking responsibility; blaming others, for their actions is contrary to God's way and is the third sin (not confessing to God) committed by Adam and Eve. The first being not trusting (honoring God), with the second disobeying (breaking His commandment) God. All three speaks to the greatest of all sins and that is not having Faith in God as it is said, "without Faith, we cannot please Him" - Heb. 11:6 and Deut. 7:9, "Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations". Because their faith was more in the agent of death; the world has been in constant turmoil, resulting in fatalities by land, sea, air and wars. Did you notice, God held Adam more accountable than Eve, saying, "because you listened to the woman and the ground is cursed because of you (Adam). Adam being first born as in the leader should have had more integrity, but allowed the "tail" to wag the "head". This is the first principle to walking as a Christian.

God’s pattern in how He administers His will, decrees and especially his Love has no comparison. It is why the more we know His heart is the more we fall in love with Him, His ways, and His thoughts. He resides in a sphere that many of us seek to attain but at times trip over ourselves, but God is always there to give a few words, a helping hand and a pat on the shoulder to encourage all to reach for the higher things; the spirit of life that only He can give and we can receive.

Flush it Out! - God is Sovereign!

The tree of knowledge becomes a testing ground for those who are put in charge, where the thief does not have to break in and steal but through coercion and craftiness, compromises the caretaker's charge. In effect, it is better to steal with an inside accomplice. What did satan steal? He stole Adam's and Eve's Faith in God. Now, God is not an absent owner as some profess, but is constantly watching over His processions as it is stated, “I am watching over My word to perform it” - Jer. 1:11. So, why doesn't God prevent the crime that will affect thousands of people lives for centuries to come? Just like any natural disaster that destroys’s property, infrastructure, and lives; thousands are affected and continue to be affected even years after the destruction. Many live through the pain, lost and are disillusioned, including those born after. God is doing what He does best. He is maintaining His integrity.

Could not God have started all over as if nothing happened and ensure the same mistakes were not repeated? If you ever run a business or have responsibility for others, especially within a business environment. The one lesson that sticks out is you can never control the actions of your subordinates, and replacing them, even frequently does not guarantee a better caretaker of your business. The best solution and what is practiced especially today in these types of environments is nothing new for God as He was the first to implement it. It’s called “ongoing training”. That it is better to work with the persons you have and seek to improve them with the expectation that eventually, they will act, do and be as you yourself would do in having an ownership mentality. This is God maintaining His integrity and having vision. As a father, especially with a son who fails constantly. God is more concerned with the son’s confidence level to not only do as He would but even better. For we learn and perfect by doing and the more we see failure as one more step closer to succeeding; then our confidence increases and at times we exceed even our own expectations. God knows the outcome He wants.

Whenever something goes wrong many look to God, asking why and what has happened and where was God during such tragedies. It is heartfelt, as these individuals have or are facing situations that are beyond their control and many times are so futile that nothing but for the Hand of God is needed to intervene and save the day. These scenarios test Faith and bring into question, “is there really a God?” or “Why did God allow this to happen? and "Why did innocent people suffer”? We at times question our God as to His love for us and the purposes of such disasters. It can be difficult to comprehend that Our God, who is Love, would allow these distresses in the lives of peoples and cultures all over the world.

God wants His people to be capable of any task placed before them and this can’t be done if the man or woman is not built up. Adam’s and Eve’s failure was just the start of many failures for which God takes responsibility to use everything available to Him to build up all of their descendants. Do we really think that God, the Father of His creation would abandon them, just because they disobeyed Him? The bible cuts off Adam’s and Eve’s remembrance after the birth of their sons. This is an indication that despite all efforts Adam and Eve could not or did not adjust their ways of doing but rather condemned themselves to repeat the same failures until death. Their last son, Seth is born and Adam dies approximately one hundred and thirty years later. In his nine hundred and thirty years; there is no record of Adam specifically seeking God as a man ought to. Now, we can only read the script and conclude that Adam was not living what he was telling others to do. The bible records Eve, Abel and Cain having a level of relationship with God, - Gen. 4:1-4.

​Sept. 28, 2016.

 
The Pattern of God.

It is never easy to see thousands suffer regardless of our indifference or personal biases and as Christian's we ought to know that God started with perfection and there is no reason that He should not expect perfection with our responsibility to be caretakers of each other and the world we live in. Adam made wrong decisions, but Jesus made the right ones and demonstrated once and for all that we can have the same authority over the land, sea, air and the spirits in the heavenly places - Eph. 6:12. as He did. Only when we take full responsibility and act as God directed and Jesus did to give life, with Righteousness and Godly integrity towards the good and evil of this world, then God will show His Faithfulness and be revealed across every dimension of life, just as an owner would, rewarding his joint workers for an abundant harvest.

God demonstrated that He is a creative being and call things as if they were, by setting the firmaments in place, bringing different forms of life into existence and appointing man as His caretaker saying, “fill the earth, and subdue it” - Gen. 1:26. God is like any other owner who wants to see things flourish and puts His creation into hands that He knows have the ability to expand His garden. And just like any owner maintains His integrity and confidence by not interfering in His caretaker's appointment, unless he has no other choice because he needs to protect His investment. Adam was to subdue, control, dominate, have authority over it. How could this be? It's not like he had workers with him or heavy equipment. He was to do as God showed and instilled in him.

This relationship would develop more after Seth is born, as "people began to call on the name of the Lord" - Gen. 4:26. This may have been due to Seth having a visible strong relationship with God. Seth's lineage would father generations later with descendants like Enoch - Gen. 5:24 and then Noah - Gen. 5:29. All strong men of God. Adam, Eve and others “moved on” so that God then could continue His plan to “build up” the man that was lost in the garden. Adam and those after him died naturally because of one reason; they did not apply the principles of life but applied more the principles of death. After falling from Grace, God states, "he might stretch out his hand, and live forever” - Gen. 3:22. Adam and those following did not understand how to live forever or how to die, but eventually got to the point where death would cause them to die, with an average age of 120 years - Gen. 6:3. It is all due to the tree of knowledge being used like a test. Some may argue that God would never do such a thing but the bible shows that He does test all mankind towards His purposes, saying, "The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart" - Deut. 13:3. Others say, "Then He is an unfair God". No, He is not. He is just sovereign and like parents or in charge of others; we do the same thing. Because more than having “good individuals” is that we want those that can be trusted when no one is looking. It’s the same with God where trust is a major factor in leaving your processions with, especially after past offenses.

God is not moved by our intents but by our actions. He has laid out before us the “banquet” and watches and takes notes of how we deal with and do things. This is why there is a judgment seat after going to Heaven - Rm. 14:10. Every owner will judge his workers. The bible is filled with many analogues like this and is a testament to the results of one’s man’s offense. Especially, in the New Testament, this example is repeated several times as, “you reap what you sow”; “the five talents” and “God is not mocked”. What is happening here is God through Jesus is laying down the rules once again because through religion the intent became lost. God said, “it is witnessed; chose life or death” - Deut. 30:19. From that time God has been monitoring every choice, the man makes on his journey through this life. Is God looking for a reason to “strike down the offenders”? Absolutely not! But when you have several workers in your field, then integrity becomes the only boundary to any compassion or empathy. God is only doing what we force him to do, because He is, "respecter of no one" - Acts 10:34.

Well, back to reality, we have to contend and make right all that was lost. Jesus came because man was just not learning and God foresaw this would be the case. Just like anyone who leads others, we wait for the opportune time to set as an example the kind of following we desire and with God it is equal partaking in the Kingdom's business. Jesus came to ensure our failures would not hinder us from succeeding. God is using someone who we can relate to and see that all God is asking for is attainable. God never discards anything of His creation unless He has no choice.

Many wonder why thousands die due to wars, natural events, and calamities. Even saying God orchestrated and commanded these deaths. On the surface, this would seem to be the case as recorded throughout the Old Testament. The challenge is the writers of the bible “being inspired” probably left out information that would be pertinent to much of God’s reluctance to allow such mass killings and deaths. It is only by meditation, prayer and revelation do we come to the truth of such things. What is clear though is that God had to single out a set of people to re-build His purpose and could not afford any detrimental interference by those who did not want Him to achieve. Every owner understands this as the end goals at times are more important than the cost. God’s plans were derailed as few times and played out with God already having a mitigation plan in place to keep His timetable towards redemption at the cross. God will not allow what is essential the responsibility of others stop or delay His goals for a harvest. It can be assumed that in these disasters there are innocent people as well as those deserving of such death. How can we say that, knowing that no one would want such disasters and even want to see it happen to their worst enemy? This is because we fail to have the mind of God.

Sure God is for life and is compassionate and merciful, but He is not the one causing such pain and suffering. How did we reach here, where the “whole earth groans for the Sons and Daughters of God to be revealed” - Rm. 8:19. It all starts back with the heavenly rebellion and then the earthy one. No matter what we may conceive God to be, there is only one sure thing and the very foundation to all; and that is God, and that is His integrity. What is integrity? It is the state of upholding a set of principles, ethics, righteousness, unification and solidarity regardless of any other factors. Without it, He can’t be God!