Tuesday, June 21, 2011

I Can Do Anything I Want!

If I want to go my parents house there is a road I have to travel if I want to get there. I may like another road better, maybe it's less winding than the right road, maybe it has fewer potholes or more scenery, but it won't lead me to where I want to go. That's what maps are for: to show you the right way to get where you want to go. We can be like petulant children and say 'I don't want to do things that way' or 'I don't want to do that', but if we do we won't have the result we want. 


Our choices and actions always have a result or reaction that is inevitable. There is no avoiding it. I love chocolate and fried foods and ice cream and pastries and if I said I will only eat these things because vegetables are gross and healthy foods are yucky, well I guess you know what the result of my choices would be. I would be overweight, (more than I am now) and very unhealthy. (I happen to like veggies too, I'm just making a point.) Sometimes we have to go against our nature and choose wisely, not just with food but with life choices as well.


Always demanding our own way will end us up in trouble because in our rebellion against what we know is right and what we are told is right, we will make poor choices. There is a movement out there right now that has been around since the beginning of time. It started in the Garden of Eden when Satan convinced Eve that she knew better than God. That she could make choices that affected her life better than God could. He convinced her that God's way wasn't the only way. And ever since then people have been buying into that lie because it makes them feel good. 


Some people see 'rules' like wearing a new pair of shoes: they're tight and restrictive. Others see rules as a security to keep them safe. It's all in your perspective. Eve saw God's one rule, not to eat of that one tree, as something that didn't need to be obeyed. It was tight and restrictive to her so she chose not to obey and changed the course of history forever. 


There are people who say that God is a God of grace and understanding, a God of love. And yes, He is, but He is so much more than that. They will say these things because they want God to pat them on the head and say that it's okay that they do things anyway they want, they don't have to follow His rules, His commandments. They say that because God is a God of love He doesn't judge their lifestyle or their choices. I have heard it said that God doesn't give us a list of do's and don't's that they only come from 'religion' and 'man', that as long as you are at peace with your choices then God must approve of them. These are lies and from Satan himself. 


I don't need 'religion' or 'man' to tell me that God has do's and don't's, I know He does because I read His Word, His love letter to me, the Bible and it tells me what pleases the Father and how I am to live if I want to live wisely and have the reward for doing things God's way. We are living in a day where people say 'I can do anything I want and God will still take me to Heaven because I am a good person.' That's baloney and just as silly as expecting to end up at Disney World by taking the TransCanada Highway instead of the I-75 to Florida. If you take the wrong road you won't end up where you want to go. 


God says in His Word:


“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
Matthew 7:13-14


The people who are doing things their own way, instead of God's way, and still expecting Him to bless them are leaving out huge portions of Scripture. Yes, we serve an understanding and full of grace God but He will not contradict His Word. He will not excuse a lifestyle that is in direct opposition to His Word. God loves you, but He hates the sin that is in the world. He is holy and to see Him we must be holy and we must strive to do things His way and stop being petulant children demanding things done our way. Because He loves us He gives us rules or guidelines to live by to keep us safe and free from harm, but when we choose to do things our way we step out from under His protection.


 "He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust; His truth shall be thy shield and buckler". Psalm 91:4

 If I decide that I don't want to obey the traffic laws and I choose to drive any way I want to, I will soon find myself having to pay a fine or something worse. There are consequences to our actions. Many people feel that there are many roads that lead to Heaven. Some feel that by being a good person it will ensure us a place there. Some feel that they can follow their own rules and ignore God's way of doing things and that because He is full of love and grace He will say 'your way was a better plan than mine' and let them into Heaven and give them eternal life. 


God does not bow to us, we bow to Him. Otherwise He is not God, we set ourselves up as being god. This is a very New Age way of thinking and it has permeated our culture and blurred the lines of Christianity. When we are confused in our thinking or when we need an answer or direction for the path we are to follow, we need to go to the Word of God and see what He has to say. Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man comes to the Father, but by Me." John 14:6. There is no other way, no pathway that leads to God and eternal life except by following after Christ. 


So we can stomp our feet and demand our own way and God will give it to us but the result will not be what we would like to have. We will not have eternal life with God if we don't follow Christ. That's plain and simple. It's not complicated. It boils down to this: God's way is the only way. He doesn't give us rules to make our lives miserable but to protect us and show His love towards us. So yes, you can do anything you want but if it doesn't line up with God's Word, then you can't expect Him to pat you on the  head and say your way is better than His.  







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