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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In this very important month of October 2020, as the world contemplates the Presidency of the USA and the future of the world, we are looking into God’s Word to gain fresh perspective on this historic moment… God’s perspective!
Today, please consider with me 5 fundamental pillars GOD has put in place, as Divine order for the human race, and consider how each of these is viewed in this election season:
First… FREEDOM. Genesis 1 gives us the creation story from God’s perspective. Mankind was designed and created by God in HIS image, unlike anything else in all creation. That means many things, but in part it means God gave us the ability to think, reason, understand and distinguish between truth and false, moral right and wrong, and the FREEDOM to make decisions.
God gave to mankind two fundamental, functional, freedom principles… reproduce and rule over all creation RESPONSIBLY! “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, and let them rule over…all the creatures…’ So God created male and female in His own image… God blessed them and said ‘Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over…every living creature…” (Gen. 1:26-30) As you know, in the subsequent verses, God explained that all else He had made on earth was to sustain human life, and Adam and Eve had FULL FREEDOM to do anything…except one thing. Remember the tree of ‘the knowledge of good and evil’ in the garden? (Genesis 2:16,17) My friends, do you see “Freedom with Responsibility & Accountability to God”?
As you know it didn’t take long and the serpent, Satan, came into that garden and tempted Eve and Adam, and they ate of that tree, and everything unraveled from there, as sin entered the perfect world God had created. How did it happen? They used their God given FREEDOM to reject God, reject responsibility, reject accountability!
Second… RELATIONSHIP with God! Beginning in Genesis 1 and throughout all the Bible, it is clearly God’s design for humanity that we, each human being, would desire and pursue an honest, life sustaining, God honoring relationship, with our Creator!
From the days of Adam and Eve to this day EVERY human being created by God has had this God implanted potential deep within them. In every generation that potential is distorted and people seek to fulfill that God designed desire with every conceivable thing or relationship. Here is a key place where the battle for the existence of humanity is waged, for only a relationship with God through Jesus Christ will satisfy this God given desire, and provide an immortal relationship with God, and heaven as our destiny. God said “Turn to ME and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22)
Third… God honoring MARRIAGE! God’s first act with Adam and Eve, the first two human beings, was to bring them together as perfect, God designed partners. (Gen. 2:18-25) They were uniquely committed to doing every aspect of life together in a mutually beneficial way, and reproducing the human race by God’s design.
God’s design for human marriage was that HE would be an essential part of the relationship, and God met with them regularly. (Genesis 3:8) We understand God’s clear design for marriage is a vital reality of one God created man, and one God created woman, united by and with God and each other, for their entire lifetime.
Fourth… God honoring FAMILY! God’s design was that as God designed marriages functioned properly, babies would be conceived and born and raised to adulthood within the great love of parenting and family. Parenting was designed by God to be three important things…
* ‘Coaching’… parents helping each of their children to develop their God given uniqueness for God’s glory. Never abandonment or abuse of the children. (Deut. 6:5-9)
* ‘Mentoring’… parents teaching their children how to live every aspect of their lives in a God honoring manner, so they will one day, be able to build a God honoring family, and teach their children to do the same. (Ps. 78:1-8; Ps. 145:5; Ps. 71:17,18)
* ‘Eternal Perspective’… parents teach their children to live their lives, every day, in view of eternity. This means teaching their children to know God and understand how God’s design for how life is to be lived, every aspect of life! It also means living in a redeemed, (saved from sin condemnation) and reconciled relationship with God, which assures eternity with Him in heaven. (John 3:16-19; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 2 Corinthians 5:17,18; Colossians 1:21,22)
Fifth… Nationalism! That’s right my friends. God has designed the human race to live in organized communities. We human beings are designed by God to live in mutually beneficial relationships, NEVER isolation!
It began with the tower of Babel, (Genesis 11:1-9) when God divided the entire human population into ‘people groups’ according to language! If you haven’t read that story lately, take a few moments now. It’s a remarkable strategy of God to disperse the peoples around the world, and draw them into mutually beneficial communities, which grew to become nations along the lines of language.
Of course in each of these groups, God gave the people themselves the freedom to decide HOW to live in safety, mutual respect and mutual benefit as they lived life. Yesterday, you may recall, I gave you briefly, the remarkable story of God’s design for a unique ‘people of God’. Humanly they would be like all other humans, but as a community, a nation of people, they would live under the protection, guidance, provision and if needed discipline of God Himself! It was a “theocracy”, a nation of people truly living as “one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”!! Now think about that!
Now, I’ve shared with you many times, my friends, that there is a great enemy of God, God’s plans & purposes, and God’s people… Satan. God has allowed the devil to have great power and great influence leading a kingdom of evil which is bent on opposing God at all times, in all places, by all means possible.
Until Genesis 3, Satan had NO authority, NO influence here on earth. . .but then Eve and Adam believed his temptation, rejected their trust in and relationship with God, and ate of that fruit of the one and only restricted tree in the garden. That act pushed God away and invited Satan to have authority in the garden and in their lives. From that day to this 1 John 5:19 has been true, permitted by Sovereign God… “The whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
Now, in closing today, I want to ask you to give serious contemplation to HOW these five fundamental, God given pillars of human existence have each and all been opposed by the devil down through history, but especially right now, in our world, and especially in America. What do you see as Satan’s strategies to lead humanity to use our God given freedom for self-destruction and the destruction of all that God has designed and intended for the good of humanity?
How has Satan been working to prevent or distort every human being’s potential relationship with God, everywhere in the world, in every generation? And remember… when successful and a person dies without a relationship with God, they will end up in hell with Satan and his demons forever!
How has Satan been scheming to confuse and undermine the God designed sacred miracle of marriage? How much terrible human pain has resulted in millions of broken marriages and families down through the generations?
How has Satan been working to destroy God’s design for the nuclear, safe, loving, God honoring family into which children can be born or adopted for a wonderful life, and then having learned well, those children will grow up to reproduce a similar family!
And finally, how has Satan been scheming to destroy wholesome, mutually beneficial, safe, God honoring communities, societies, cultures all around the world?
Now finally… do you see how Satan working, specifically to destroy the unique leadership structure the founders of the United States established 244 years ago? How has Satan worked to destroy America’s potential for good and God glorifying influence and help all around the world?
Oh my friends… please give this serious, prayerful contemplation over these next weeks, and remember this promise from God to king Solomon “If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, THEN will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
I think it’s time to pray…and here’s a song of reflection:
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: Genesis 2:18-25; Genesis 11:1-9. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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