Greetings,
Well, today I am still in California helping my family in a time of need. We were able to get the new house ready enough to move in yesterday and now we will clean the old house and continue on with all the needed external projects for completion of the new house. Final details, inside and out, will be the agenda for the week. It has been a lot of work, but I am grateful that Amani is recovering well and that we are able to get things done that need to be done.
What can we expect to see in the cultures of the world? When the fruit of men’s decisions exalt selfish agendas in taking what belongs to another, destroying what belongs to another, and despising the boundaries of others the result is death and dysfunction in the cultures of society. It is a fruit of death and not one of life. Words are not merely crafted speech; they are the expressions of our lives that result in life and protection for others. Jesus didn’t set us free from the built in boundaries of life and death hidden within the fabric of creation. He set us free from being separated from the One who can empower us to walk rightly by an internal change of our hearts and minds by the law of life and peace in Christ Jesus. The law of peace in Christ Jesus is the power of God’s love working in our hearts and minds that empowers us to become like our heavenly Father in our character, nature, way, power, and authority. Unless we embrace the path to boldly come to the throne of God’s grace, we are left separated from God in our hearts and minds. It is not a consequence put upon us by God, but one that we embrace by not accepting the justification of true life that has been given to us all through Jesus. It is by Jesus as Lord and Christ that we can become the body of Christ that reaps the rewards of being the people of God in the earth. Those who do not choose this path are left with the testimony of their own doing.
Isaiah 3:9 The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves. 10 “Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. 12 As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.”
James 3:18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Does God judge wickedness? Or is there a judgement upon wickedness that results in a consequence of dysfunction and death for those that embrace it? Those who boast in their own selfish desire and carnality bring evil upon themselves. God does not put it upon them. We often think of God’s judgment as a reaction to something bad, but God has built within the fabric of creation a judgment for good and the judgment for bad. When we don’t trust the judgments of God we thwart the blessings for things that He has judged as good and we embrace the consequence of bad things for choosing things God has judged to be bad. We cannot change what God has created a thing to be. We can only experience the blessings or the curses for such. It is a work of man’s doing and not a reaction of God towards men. We can choose good or we can choose evil, but God is the One who makes a proper judgment of what is good and what is bad. When we reason His decision concerning something to be false, we choose the consequence of our own decisions. It is the fruit of our own deception for not trusting the judgments of God.
Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, 23 who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man!
God doesn’t react to evil with judgment. Evil is the judgment that men put upon themselves when they reject the path preordained by God for blessings in our lives. God is a loving Father who willingly and eagerly invites all to come to Him and know a life of being sons and daughters of His will. When we form God in the likeness and image of creation we fall short of being true to the creation we are meant to be in Christ. We must embrace being new creations in Christ and that means that God is the one who determines who we are, and we do not determine who He is. He is not merely the God of the people; we are called to be people of God.
We are living in a time where God is stripping the forest bare for the sake of the birthing of a new generation of life in the earth. God has put before us blessings and cursing, life and death, and it is time that we all choose life! There is blessing in life. God desires to give us life and good. He wants to bless us, but we must trust His judgments to receive what He desires to give us.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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