Copyright
September 4, 2010
Carl Janssen
Everything good we have is a gift from God. Some people think they have earned things or are entitled to things by work or good deeds they have accomplished. For instance they think they are entitled to material things as pay for a job they did. I must point something out. People think they make bread, or cars or other things they assemble which they do out of other components. However everything we get is from the universe and we did not make the universe. We did not create the ground from which the plants grow to make bread, nor the sun that shines on the plants, nor did we create the water that fed the plants. Everything we make, we make by working with what God has created and therefore everything we have has been given to us. So when we work at a job, we are given money which we exchange for goods other people manufactured out of what God gave us to begin with.
Deuteronomy 8:16-18 King James translation states , “Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;
And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.”
God gave us the ability to get wealth. Therefore everything we have is a free gift, yet we are expected by God to use it in the way he wants us to and sometimes required to work with what we have been given. If we do not feel we have much, we should not gripe at God, for he could have given us nothing, furthermore the world and it’s treasures will pass away but he will give us a life that lasts forever (better than the worldly goods we hoped for) if we so choose to have a friendship with him (yet God’s friends are also his slaves.) God has given all of us enough to do what he expects us to do. Also if we have much we should not feel guilty, God has given people extra so that they can use it to love their neighbors. Instead of feeling sad if you have great wealth use it to love others, yet teach them responsibility.
Many people have been destroyed, by themselves when they refused to give God thanks for what he gave them (or more to the heart of the matter had a bad attitude toward God.)
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Romans 1:21 KJV
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Romans 1:26-27
It is interesting to note that Sodom and Gomorrah were prosperous and could have given to others and thanked God yet they did not (perhaps many poor people died because of their ungenerosity.) Many of them were spiritually unfulfilled and many of them turned to becoming men who tried to rape other men (Genesis 18-19.) Many people try to justify man with man homosexuality by saying that it was not man with man homosexuality that was Sodom’s sin but greed. Yet the Bible shows there is a link between greed and man with man homosexuality both stem from a bad attitude toward God. (Romans correlated their un-thankfulness with their man with man homosexuality and a host of other sins including greed or covetousness in Romans 1:29)
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Romans 1;29
Of course man with man homosexuality is not known to be a sin because Sodom did it, but known to be a sin because God has declared it to be sin (See Romans 1:27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, 1 timothy 1:8-11)
" 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen
Ezekiel 16:49-50
God does not want us to destroy ourselves when we are poor or prosperous but to give thanks to him. God wants us to receive the most important gift an eternal life in which we are God’s friends forever thankful for how much he has loved us and how much he has given us. This eternal life is a free gift (as all gifts from God our in a sense) yet has the requirement to be both God’s slave and friend (this requirement is actually a gift in and of itself.) Slavery to God is not a burden but a joy. It is like a wife relating to her husband. Just like a good husband provides for a wife and loves her yet desires her obedience and love, God provides for us and desires our love and obedience. A good husband would not give a wife a grievous/burdensome command he considers bad for her, but a command he considers good for her. We should rejoice at obedience to God, because it is our way of showing thankfulness for his love
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 1 John 5:3
God has given us many things and when we do not obey him, we will be destroyed on the inside, but when we obey him we will be blessed on the inside basking in his love, even in times when the world may treat us harshly for our obedience to God. I am not saying that people are saved by works of righteousness that they have done (see Titus 3:5) but that salvation can not be divorced from a positive relationship with God and that slavery and friendship can not be separated from a positive relationship with God either.
Now this world has many problems, many of these started when Adam disobeyed God and got worse and worse when others followed his example in disobedience. This is what brought death into the world (see Romans 5:12-14) yet the obedience of one man (Jesus), has brought salvation into the whole world (see Romans 5:15-21.) Another problem that came with Adam’s sin is the whole world suffered. I believe that the whole world suffers because of Adam’s sin (and you should not say you should not be punished for it, if you to have sinned, for by sinning you have made a similar choice.)
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
(Genesis 3:17)
The whole world suffers because of Adam’s sin and the sins of others, many people look at the world as it is today and say God has not given me much. These people would be a lot happier if they remember what they would have had if they obeyed, and how much more God could have taken away from them (God’s mercy) and how what they have been given is a free gift (they did not create it.)
I also believe that perhaps Jesus death and resurrection is the reason the earth is still around today (instead of completely destroyed) and is somehow centrally connected with all we have been given and all that is created. I say I believe, instead of I know for I do not want to go beyond what is written. I believe that perhaps Jesus death and resurrection will be the means to somehow one day bring about an earth that is in better condition, but in the meantime people suffer because of what Adam started to do to the world. (If you are concerned about the environment stop sinning or something worse may happen to the earth.)
The Bible teaches in Romans 8 how the creation/creature suffers. It also teaches how Adam brought a curse upon the world (or at least the ground.) But it teaches how Jesus saved us from the curse and brought us into blessings (see Galatians.) I believe the earth will one day be saved fully when a new earth is created I believe that this is somehow related to God saving us from the curse. Again I only say I believe because I do not want to go beyond what is written. If this is the case perhaps all we have has been given through Christ’s death and resurrection as a central means.
18For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Romans 8:18-23
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:13-14
God clearly teaches he will create a new earth.
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Isaiah 65:17
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
Isaiah 66:22
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
Isaiah 65:25
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Revelation 21:1
In Summary
1. People make things out of what God created and we started with at no cost.
2. God has given people the strength to do work to make things.
3. Many sins come out of a bad attitude toward God, unthankulness, greed (covetousness), man with man homosexuality all come from a bad attitude toward God. Those who are unthankful for what they have may find themselves in trouble.
4. God has given salvation as a free gift, yet salvation is intimately connected with slavery and friendship with God the master. Who loves us in many ways similar to how a husband should love his wife. We should thank God for his free gift with obedience.
5. Perhaps everything we have comes from Jesus death and resurrection, perhaps this is somehow connected to creation and the new heavens and earth to come.
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