It is a miracle, literally, that any of us as
Christians are saved. Although my parents were far from perfect, I thank God
for putting my spirit into this family. Thank God they were Christians! God
could have put my spirit into any family, in any place, at any time in
history. I could have born into an unsaved family. I could have born into a
Roman Catholic family, led into idolatry and damned to Hell. I could have
been born into slavery with the Hebrews before Moses time.
I could have been born into the time of World
War I or II, being killed on th battle field. I saw the 1998 film “Saving
Private Ryan” recently starring Tom Hanks, and kept thanking God throughout
the movie that I've never had to fight in a bloody war like that. I thank
God that I wasn't there on D-day on that awful beach in Normandy. Historians
are unable to accurately count the total dead, but the number 4,413 is
commonly accepted.[1]
What a horrible place to have been!!!
America's war veterans deserve the best
treatment, but they have been woefully mistreated by the government. I hope
when he takes office in January, that President Donald Trump makes good on
his promise to take good care of our war veterans. I realize that the
ungodly banking cabal are being
every major war since
the American revolutionary War, but the young people who risk and in
many cases give their lives, and come back wounded, sincerely served their
country, and deserve to be cared for. Thank you to our nation's war
veterans!
Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been
entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history.[2]
Satan is ultimately behind all wars. 2nd Corinthians 4:4 identifies
Satan as “the god of this world.” Ephesians 2:2b identifies Satan as
the “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience.” Satan led wicked Herod to murder
thousands of Jewish children, in an attempt to murder the Son of God
(Matthew 2:16). It was Satan who entered into Judas, compelling him to
betray the innocent Savior (John 13:27). Satan is an evil spirit, and demons
(fallen angels) are evil disembodied spirits, who influence man's spirit to
do evil. Satanic attacks always begin as spiritual attacks! War is the fruit
of “spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). War is the
outward physical manifestation of inner spiritual wickedness. Old men start
wars, young men fight wars, and everyone in the middle loses!
The holy Bible teaches to only make war based
upon “good advice.” Proverbs 20:18, “Every purpose is established by
counsel: and with good advice make war.” Most of the wars of the
twentieth century were based upon fraud and lies. For example:
A National Security Agency (NSA) report released in 2007 reveals
unequivocally that the alleged August 4, 1964, attack by North Vietnam on
U.S. destroyers never actually happened. This event became known as the
“Gulf of Tonkin” incident. Yes, the United States was deceitfully dragged
into the Vietnam conflict based upon massive fraud. Tragically, there were
58,000 U.S. soldiers murdered in the Vietnam War—a war based on a big lie!
This is not the “good advice” that Proverbs 20:18 teaches.
I could mention hundreds of thousands of
historical evils, and there are trillions of evils undocumented. Thankfully,
God sees even the smallest infringements of His commandments. Hebrews
4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but
all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with
whom we have to do.” Nothing ever occurs to God. We learn in
the Scriptures that God records everything man does in “BOOKS.”
Revelation 2011b, “AND THE BOOKS WERE OPENED”! Amen! God doesn't use
computers in Heaven. There are no computer crashes or hardrive failures!
God keeps track of “every work”
(Ecclesiastes 12:14) of man with BOOKS:
Revelation 20:11-13, “And I saw a great
white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God; and the books were
opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life:
and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave
up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them: and they were judged every man according to
their works.”
The Word of God teaches that God will bring
EVERY WORK into judgment:
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, “Let us hear the
conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for
this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every
work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good,
or whether it be evil.”
“Works” includes man's thoughts and words as
well as his actions. We see this truth evidenced from Scriptures; such as,
Matthew 12:36, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall
speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” God is
going to hold men accountable for even the idle (wasted) words they speak.
How much more shall God hold men accountable for cursing, blasphemy,
slander, gossip, hate and hurtful words toward others. Our tongue can be
used as a weapon or a tool. Proverbs 24:12, “If thou sayest, Behold, we
knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it?
and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall
not he render to every man according to his works?” No one is
going to get away with anything.
Do you know why we sometimes get angry when
people hurt us? It is because we either think they are going to get away
with it. Or we become frustrated, thinking that we'll likely have to wait 50
years for them to die and face God. I have been deeply hurt, financially
cheated, taken advantage of, abused, lied about, betrayed and done wrong by
hundreds of people throughout my life. At some point in my life, it all
became overwhelming, and I was going to either become overcome by evil or
let it all go into God's hands. I chose to let it all go into God's
omnipotent hands, trusting the Lord's PROMISE to avenge me of all wrongs
against me. Read what the holy Bible says in:
Romans 12:19-21, “Dearly beloved, avenge not
yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance
is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed
him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of
fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome
evil with good.”
There are several important Biblical truths to
glean from this Bible passage:
- GOD'S JOB IS TO AVENGE ALL EVIL.
The Lord said His duty is to get even with others. That's not our area of
jurisdiction. If we seek vengeance, vindication and retaliation, we are
treading on God's side of the wall. Please listen to the excellent MP3
sermon, “Either
Let Me Do It God, Or Do It My Way!” (by Dr. Jack Hyles). This doesn't
mean that we shouldn't allow prosecution of someone who beats us with a
baseball bat, who has broken the law. It does mean that in all areas where
there is nothing that can be done to legally resolve a matter, or it is a
matter that does not involve the law (such as someone hurting our
feelings), we ought not become vindictive and “have it in” for other
people. We ought to continually have the Christlike mindset, “LET GO, LET
GOD!” As born-again believers, God call us to a life of love, peace and
forgiveness toward everyone (Ephesians 4:30-32).
- HARBORING HATRED, SEEKING REVENGE AND
HOLDING A GRUDGE DESTROYS ONE'S SPIRITUAL LIFE. The most miserable
person is someone who holds onto bitterness against another person. I have
learned from experience that you cannot simply “let it go” when someone
hurts you. You MUST fill your mind with Scriptural principles to guide
your thoughts. You need a basis to “let it go,” otherwise you're relying
completely on emotions, and not God's promises. It is much easier to “let
it go” when you have a Scriptural basis to do so. What better basis can
there be, than a divine PROMISE from God to hold others fully accountable
who defraud, hurt and/or mistreat us? And unlike men, who don't take
trifle matters seriously, God takes even the smallest matter very
seriously. God is omniscient. That is, He knows all the facts. God KNOWS
the very number of hairs upon our head. He does not need to count them,
for He already KNOWS everything about all things. Matthew 10:30, “But
the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Man is still trying to
count the stars, but the number keeps going up; yet, God already KNOWS the
total number of stars, and He calls them all by name. Psalms 147:4, “He
telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.”
If you have faith in the Word of God, and you grasp Romans 12:19, then you
can “let it go” much more easily than a lost person who has no basis to do
so. Thank God for our caring God!!!
-
EITHER WE OVERCOME THE EVIL
DONE UNTO US WITH GOODNESS, OR WE BECOME OVERCOME BY EVIL. This is
one of the most important truths that you will ever learn. Bitterness has
destroyed more believers than lust, greed or pride. Most people don't know
how to handle hurt feelings. In particular, teenagers struggle in this area.
Blessed is the teenager who has wise parents, or a wise spiritual counselor
to teach them how to handle criticism, jealousy and mean words from peers.
I've known young people to become bitter and quit church, because of
pressure from worldly peers who mistreat them. This is why young people must
be taught to serve God, to look to Jesus, no matter what others do to them.
At some point, anyone who ever grows to become a mature Christian, learns to
keep their eyes on the Lord Jesus apart from all else. If you watch people,
you'll fail every time! People will hurt you. Family will betray you and let
you down. Friends will disappoint you. You cannot even watch yourself, lest
you become discouraged and feel inferior, like a failure. If we always focus
upon the Lord, then it matters not what we think, nor what others think, nor
what we think others are thinking. God's opinion is the only opinion that
matter!!!
- BY BEING GOOD AND KIND TO OUR ENEMIES,
WE ARE HEAPING COALS OF FIRE UPON THEIR HEAD. I love the way God
thinks, I really do. Jesus is the author of the entire Bible, not just
the words that appear in red in the New Testament. Jesus' very name is
called THE WORD OF GOD in Revelation 19:13. Dr. John R. Rice used to
call Jesus and the Bible "twins." I like that. Jesus is the Living Word,
incarnate (John 1:1-3, 14). And the Holy Bible is the Written Word given
by inspiration of God (2nd Timothy 3:16-17). When we are good and loving
toward our enemies in the ministry, those who hurt our feelings,
ostracize us and have very bad attitudes, we are obeying the Lord. Even
God is kind the Bible says to the evil and unthankful (Luke 6:35).
Likewise, God commands us as His adopted children to do the same. We
ought to love everyone, including our bitterest enemies. We can do this
because we have God's unconditional love shed abroad in our soul by the
indwelling Holy Spirit, if we choose to walk in the Spirit (Galatians
5:25). Doing good to our enemies sets them up for a time of reckoning on
Judgment Day. God sees and records everything (Hebrews 4:13).
The ungodly world is going to pay for their
abuse toward believers. Mark 9:42, “And whosoever shall offend one of
these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone
were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.” Certainly
God has a special place in His heart for little children, but that is not
whom this passage of Scripture is speaking. Jesus here is speaking about all
believers. The Bible warns that it would be BETTER for someone to have a
millstone (a large shaped stone which weighs hundreds of pounds that is used
to mill grain) chained around their neck, and then to be cast thousands of
feet down to the depths of the sea. I was surprised to learn that the Red
Sea in Egypt goes as deep as 10,000 feet. Wow! Where the Israelites
crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground (a miracle of God) was likely at
least a few hundred feet high. Can you imagine? The Hebrews walked through
the Red Sea on DRY GROUND, beholding the mighty power of God withholding
millions of tones of water from crashing down on the people. God is more
than amazing!
Dear reader, God watches over His children. God
is not an absent parent. At 10 o'clock, God knows exactly where His children
are at. You'd be well advised to never mess with a Christian! And that goes
for Christians committing offenses toward other Christians too, because God
promises to avenge them (1st Thessalonians 4:6). Even though our sins have
been paid for, so there is no risk of condemnation with the unsaved wicked,
we as believers will still be held accountable by God at the Judgment Seat
of Christ for our behavior since the time we got saved. We must be held
accountable for the good and the bad (2nd Corinthians 5:10-11). I don't know
about you, but that compels me to humbly try to stay out of trouble.
Remember, we don't live the Christian life, Jesus lives it through us
(Galatians 2:20).
I often think about this Scripture. The Word of God teaches that God is
going to punish the world for their evil and wickedness. 1st John 5:19,
“And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth
in wickedness.” The heathen world has always been a wicked
place. 
