Do We Really Know What We Are Doing?

DO WE REALLY KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING?
There is a way any person can know what he is doing and why. To begin with, he must understand that when his biologically formed body emerged from his mother's womb, God breathed soul-life into that body, and at that very moment he became a living soul ... physically alive, having a sinful nature inherited from Adam, but spiritually dead.

In eternity past. God decreed that all events that ever have or ever will happen are absolutely certain ... past, present and future. JESUS CHRIST CONTROLS HISTORY!
God designed a plan and purpose for every one of us, but He also gave us a free-will to choose to seek God's will for our lives or to go our own way. When a person reaches a time in his life known as God-consciousness he is faced with a choice to follow one of two roads ... "the broad road that leads to destruction, or the narrow road that leads to eternal life with God," (Matthew 7:13,14) Jesus said that comparatively few individuals will choose the narrow road.

The broad way is the way of darkness where man mentally lives in the cosmic system that is controlled by Satan and his demonic forces all around us. Some people will come to the conclusion that there is no God, because they are programmed to embrace the false teaching presented by those who promote the theory of evolution. King David said In Psalm 14:1 and in Psalm 53:1: "The fool has said in his heart, (the thinking part of the mind), there is no God. They are corrupt; they have done abominable works; there is none that does good." Solomon said in Proverbs 12:15, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who pays attention to the counsel of God is wise."

If you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, by FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST ALONE ... adding nothing, you are a brand new spiritual species who can enjoy traveling on that narrow road, and you have the potential to live a life that is pleasing to God.

What is faith? In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews faith is defined as the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things that had not been seen by great men and women who lived many hundreds of years ago. By believing and resting in the promises of God, those Old Testament believers obtained a good report.

In the Church Age in which we now live, believers are told to walk by faith ... just as they received eternal life by simple faithin the Son of God who became a man in order to die on a cross and pay the penalty of sin for all mankind. (Colossians 2:6) We cannot earn salvation by any good works we may accomplish, because our human good works come from our sinful nature and are not acceptable to God. Some very sincere people may say you must "clean up your act" before you can please the Lord, that is, get rid of our bad habits and old ways of doing things, but the Bible tells us that we can DO nothing that will please Him, because our ways and thoughts are contrary to God's thoughts and ways. (Isaiah 55:8,9) Only God the Holy Spirit can make good changes in our lives, and He makes those changes by way of our thought pattern as we learn Bible Doctrine (teaching) on a daily basis ... He will do it all if we don't get in His way by trying to change ourselves!

A new believer in the Lord Jesus Christ must develop a desire for the 'pure milk of the Word' so that he may eventually grow up. (1 Peter 2:1) Every believer must also learn to not walk by sight but by faith in the more than 7,000 promises that are found throughout the scriptures and not live by the world's viewpoint, which surrounds us everywhere and every day by way of every kind of written and audio media at our disposal. (Colossians 2:6,7 and 2 Corinthians 5:7) In some cases, the believer may be satisfied to follow the traditions that were accepted and taught for many years by a particular group or denomination because he has been influenced by friends or family, but the majority of denominations have rejected and do not teach what God's Word says about His perfect plan for mankind throughout all ages. The apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 2:8: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy or empty deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ."

God has established what theologians call 'DISPENSATIONS', which are periods of time expressed in terms of Divine revelation. They are God's way of communicating thought to help believers find and hold the right mental attitude toward the specific time in history in which he lives so that he can orient to God's will, plan and purpose for his life.

Between each dispensation there is a period of adjustment before God deals with the next one. The first dispensation began when Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden so they would not eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their sinful state. The Lord God promised a solution for their sin ... He would provide a Savior who would be the seed of the woman and would eventually come into the world to die for their sin. (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-35)

Adam lived 930 years and became the father of many children. As time went on, there was a tremendous population explosion. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

God saw that all flesh had become corrupt, and His attitude changed toward all but eight people ... Noah and his family. God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh is come before Me, for the earth is filled with corruption and violence. I will destroy them with the earth." (Genesis 6:11-13) God instructed Noah to build an ark in which his family and designated animals would stay during a worldwide flood that He would bring upon the earth. While Noah was building the ark, the Lord gave the people 120 years to turn from their wicked ways, but they would not, so the Lord sent waters from above and from beneath the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, and they remained for 150 days.

After the waters were dried up, Noah, his wife, their three sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth, and their wives along with the animals that were with them in the ark came out of the ark. God instructed them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. From the three sons of Noah came all the nations of the earth. From Ham would come the dark-skinned people; from Shem would come the Jews and the Arabs; from Japheth would come all the rest of the Gentile nations.

After many hundreds of years, there was a tremendous population explosion. It was God's will that the people should be scattered abroad into various places on the earth, but the people wanted to stay together in one area. They all spoke the same language and decided to build a city and a tower within it that would reach up into heaven in which they could hide from God and not be scattered. However the Lord came down and caused them to speak many different languages, so they had to stop building the city and the tower, and then the Lord scattered them abroad all over the earth. In that way, the nations were divided in the earth. God's purpose has always been Nationalism ... not Internationalism.

The next dispensation is called the Age of the Jews. It began when the Lord called a Chaldean by the name of Abraham to leave his homeland and follow Him, and promised to make of him a new race that would be a blessing to the entire world. (Genesis 12:1-3) That dispensation continued until the death, burial and resurrection of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. The Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, and that dispensation was interrupted until after the next dispensation, the Church Age in which we now live, has ended.

After Jesus had risen from the dead. He spent 40 days on the earth in His resurrection body, instructing His disciples about the things that were going to happen after He would ascend into heaven. Ten days later they saw Him being taken up from the earth, into the clouds of heaven, and the Church Age officially began. God the Holy Spirit came to indwell the eleven apostles and gave them the power to evangelize thousands of Jews who had come to Jerusalem from various parts of the world to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. Those pilgrims were amazed to hear the apostles speak the message of salvation in their own languages, and about 3,000 believed in the Lord Jesus Christ that very day.

Many other temporary spiritual gifts were given to the apostles such as healing, removing evil spirits and even raising the dead. The purpose for those miracle gifts was to get the attention of people so that the Good News of the Gospel could be presented to them. There is much confusion among believers in this dispensation concerning those spectacular gifts, but they ceased to be legitimate after 96 AD, because the Bible was complete. Now God speaks to man in just one way ... THROUGH HIS INFALLIBLE WORD, THE BIBLE.

The Old Testament prophets knew nothing about the Church Age. They saw two mountain peaks of prophecy ... the cross and the crown. The Lord gave to the apostle Paul the mysteries of the Church age, and they are recorded in his epistles.


Some of the things that are presented to believers in this dispensation make believers stand in two places at once ... with one foot in Old Testament Law, keeping the 10 Commandments, and the other foot in the New Testament epistles under Grace. In this age, the Law is to act as our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. (Galatians 3:24) Also in Romans 3:20, Paul tells us that no one is able to keep the Law to be justified in God's sight ... the Law reveals our sinful nature. During Jesus' 3-year ministry, He only was able to keep those commandments, because he had no sin nature. In this Church Age we have been given many commands, such as: pray without ceasing; walk by faith and not by sight, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

Tithing is another subject that is misunderstood in the Church Age. Tithing was commanded by the Lord for the purpose of income taxes in the Jewish Age. Spiritual giving today should be, "Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:7)

Sabbath observance was for the Jews ... not the Church. Our worship day is Sunday, the first day of the week. In Exodus 31:13, God spoke to Moses saying, "Speak unto the Children of Israel and tell them, 'Surely my Sabbaths shall you keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sets you apart.'" Then in Exodus 31:17a, God said that the Sabbath is a sign between Himself and the Children of Israel forever.

Israel had a specialized Priesthood by which the people were instructed in the Word of God. The priests also were designated to intercede for the people before God. The apostle Peter tells us that every believer in this dispensation is a holy priest who represents himself before God. (1 Peter 2:5)

This present Church Age will continue until an appointed time known only by God the Father. When it does end, Jesus will come back in the clouds of the air to take His bride, the Church, to heaven, as recorded for us in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 and also in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Once the Church is removed from the earth, the Jewish Age will resume and continue for seven more years during a dispensation known as The Tribulation. For the first years, there will be a time of false peace with Satan ruling the world. The last years will be the worst time in all human history, and will end when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the Mount of Olives from which He ascended, and He will set up His Kingdom called the Millennium. During those 1,000 years, Satan and his angels will be bound in prison, and there will be perfect environment on the earth.(Acts 1:9-11 and Revelation 19:11-16)

At the end of man's history, all human good will be judged. The sins of the world were all judged on the cross, but human good, which is part of man's sinful nature, has not yet been judged; therefore, unbelievers of all the ages will be resurrected to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment to be judged for their human good deeds... NOT THEIR SINS! On the basis of their rejection of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, they will be cast into the Lake of Fire with the devil and his angels, where they will be tormented day and night throughout eternity. (Revelation 20:10-15)

Written by Lois Delnay 10/09

links to Lois Delnay's Children Bible Study
http://gettoknowyourbible.org/
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