Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 139:23-24 (GNB)
Hello everyone,
Today I'm going to be looking at what it means, to me, to follow in the way everlasting, or God's way.
I am hoping that, over recent weeks, I have helped answer some questions that you may have had about Christianity as I seek to bring light to subjects that are often misunderstood and as a result can give you the wrong impression about why faith is such an important part of my journey.
First up, I'm going to take a look at what it means to walk in the way everlasting...
People, when they hear about Christianity, often like to think it's a religion that's filled with various rules and regulations about what we are not allowed to do, thus spoiling our fun of enjoying life.
What if I flip that around and say that the "rules" (I don't like using that word because, as a believer myself, I am living under the new covenant of grace) are present to provide safe guidelines that are designed to cause me to live for a higher purpose than myself?
Yeah, but isn't that what philanthropy is? You ask.
That's a whole 'nother subject entirely, but I understand where you are coming from because if I take this definition of philanthropy from Google: -
The desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes.
I can see how that definition would match up to some of Jesus' teachings, but instead of only promoting the welfare of others, the Bible promotes that God is interested in our welfare also. God's plan all along was to bring us to unity with Himself by granting us a new way of living and you only have to look at the account of Genesis to see that.
This "new life", I mention, is indeed the way everlasting.
Law and Lack of Order
You can look at the ten commandments in Exodus 20 and think that it's a list of things that you're not allowed to do. But I'm going to spin that perspective all around by saying that the moment we, as believers, have a deep recognition of what Christ's sacrifice over 2000 years ago actually means for us, we won't want to be treating others with the disdain that these commandments were brought in to address.
You see, back when these commandments were introduced people were living such licentious lives the likes of which hadn't been seen before so, in a sense, you could say that the law was brought in to address the lack of order in human behaviour.
The reason that I've chosen today's verse is simple really; I'm inviting us to go on a journey towards God and away from the world as we seek to understand why so many people believe in Him and why, after all this time, Christianity isn't dead.
It might look dead when a preacher falls into disgrace.
It might look dead when there's murder going on all around.
God sees everything and God will reveal Himself to those who choose His way everlasting. You see, I am not trying to force you into accepting Christianity, simply to provide you with some evidence based upon my journey (which you'll know has been very eventful this past year or so!) to give you the opportunity to make Jesus the Lord and Saviour of your life.
Again, the ten commandments might look like they are enforcing restrictions upon you, but only when you see why they are there in the first place, can you begin to understand that they are there for a reason.
We cannot run our own lives properly.
Now that's a statement that some of you won't agree with and that's okay, I don't have a problem with that. All I'm going to do is explain why I've said that.
How many times, in one day, do you make mistakes? How many times do you find yourself living with a regret of a word or action you wished you'd never said or done? How many times do you wish you could go back and do it all over again only this time get it right?
If you can answer any of those questions in the affirmative, then congratulations, you are realising that you're only human. Therefore, because you are only human, you will make mistakes, you will get things wrong, but God is always there to help you pick up the pieces to the messes made.
But how does that prove we cannot run our own lives properly? Because if we could then wouldn't we get it right first time around?
Next time, I'm going to look at the way everlasting and how it can help improve our sense of wellbeing and give us a far greater, and better, standard to be living for than ourselves.
Until then,
===TLP===
The reason that I've chosen today's verse is simple really; I'm inviting us to go on a journey towards God and away from the world as we seek to understand why so many people believe in Him and why, after all this time, Christianity isn't dead.
It might look dead when a preacher falls into disgrace.
It might look dead when there's murder going on all around.
God sees everything and God will reveal Himself to those who choose His way everlasting. You see, I am not trying to force you into accepting Christianity, simply to provide you with some evidence based upon my journey (which you'll know has been very eventful this past year or so!) to give you the opportunity to make Jesus the Lord and Saviour of your life.
Again, the ten commandments might look like they are enforcing restrictions upon you, but only when you see why they are there in the first place, can you begin to understand that they are there for a reason.
We cannot run our own lives properly.
Now that's a statement that some of you won't agree with and that's okay, I don't have a problem with that. All I'm going to do is explain why I've said that.
How many times, in one day, do you make mistakes? How many times do you find yourself living with a regret of a word or action you wished you'd never said or done? How many times do you wish you could go back and do it all over again only this time get it right?
If you can answer any of those questions in the affirmative, then congratulations, you are realising that you're only human. Therefore, because you are only human, you will make mistakes, you will get things wrong, but God is always there to help you pick up the pieces to the messes made.
But how does that prove we cannot run our own lives properly? Because if we could then wouldn't we get it right first time around?
Final Thought
Next time, I'm going to look at the way everlasting and how it can help improve our sense of wellbeing and give us a far greater, and better, standard to be living for than ourselves.
Until then,
===TLP===
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