Media - Answers in Genesis

It feels that i usually think, "I should be thanking God rather than just telling Him what all I would like Him to fix (someday in the vague future, without expecting any immediate results.)"  I say this belittling myself, not Him.  I'll say thanks for a bunch of stuff, but it just seems to me that i'm only saying that phrase, "Thank you," over and over, and I have no idea if i'm actually thanking Him sincerely.

This isn't the first time in my life that i've been like this.  What helped last time was asking Him for me to be truly thankful.  It worked.  I knew it worked when i, not trying to manufacture anything in myself, caught myself saying to God, "Thanks for thanks!"  And then, I was so happy, because I realized that God had answered my prayer.

I guess it just goes to show that every goodness must come from His spiritual blessing.  I think it's time i restore myself by petitioning Him for goodness in myself.  Xangans, i pray me sharing this, blesses you or builds you up somehow.  God bless.

Galatians 5:16 (ESV), "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh."

James 1:17-18 (NKJV), "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures."

You've thought that before; haven't you?  Well, maybe you haven't been so blasphemous.  You can still admit that there are shocking things in the Bible, to an Atheistic-ly Humanistic, American point of view.  Christians in America are influenced into having Atheistic-ly Humanistic points of view also.  Even homeschooled Christians.  After all, my parents who taught me went to public school.  For entertainment, we watched T.V. and movies.  And, of course, i had friends who were not only influenced by such Humanism, but also crime-infested, sex-sin-infested, rap.  Yes the Bible is offensive to some degree to absolutely every one of us, because all humans to some degree think the way Satan wants us to.

To say what i want to say in this blog, i'll need to go over the Bible-book Job (pronounced with a long "o", like in "pro" or "dough").  There's a teaching out there that's pretty good.  It says that the overarching lesson of Job completely undoes ideas of the Word of Faith Cult or of Prosperity Doctrine.  Of course, we have King Solomon's life to show us how empty and empty and empty and empty with the emptiness of emptiness a prosperous life is.  And by "prosperous" i mean materially prosperous.  Of course The Holy Spirit through James in the New Testament is right when He says that "Every good and perfect gift comes from above."  We also avoid following those The Holy Spirit mentions in Romans 1:25 who "worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator".  Having the Giver is better than having His gifts which are perfectly fine to have, and even better to give to the needy.

What more is there to Job?  Only that Job, did in fact, before the book ended, say something bad.  *Gasp*.  Now, he didn't do so by our usual standards.  If everything that Job said was in a movie, i would think it were a Jewish or Christian movie.  But, what does the Holy Spirit say in the narrative in Job 32:2?  Job (tried to) justify himself rather than God!  But, yes, you're still right.  Job did not sin as big as the multiple calamities that fell on him from Satan with God's permission.  Nowhere in The Torah (or The Pentateuch) does God say, "If someone is known for smarting off a bit about Me not rewarding people for doing good things, then steal all of his stuff, burn his properties, smash his children with a house, and then later give him the worst rash he has ever had."  God never says that.  Job was (as it says) blameless, but he wasn't sinless.  Job exaggerated about how righteous he lived.

After Job and his 3 friends duke it out arguing, a new person finally speaks up.  God never corrects this Elihu in the book.  Now, Elihu was a sinner like any other human, but this is the guy (not Job) who spoke inerrant words of Scripture.  As for Job and the 3 friends, the Bible inerrant-ly records what they said.  That's a big difference.  Now Job did say some Biblically inerrant things, but not in the middle during the big argument.

"So these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.  Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was aroused against Job; his wrath was aroused because he justified himself rather than God.  Also against his three friends his wrath was aroused, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job." --Job 32:1-3.

What does Job sinning a little bit have anything to do with the major, multiple catastrophes that happened to him?  Well, after Elihu finishes pointing out that Job has sinned (though not in any big way proportionate to his disasters), Another Person enters the debate ---well actually at this point it's a lesson and barely a debate if one at all.

"Then YHVH answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:  'Who is this who conceals counsel by words without knowledge?  Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.  Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell Me, if you have understanding.' " --Job 38:1-4

Let me tie my thoughts together now.  When we disapprove of God's actions, the first thing to do is correct, not so much what we know about ancient Hebrew definitions and culture, but how we think.  Our reasoning needs to be based on the premise that we are death-deserving-sinners as The Holy Spirit challenged through Elihu.  Also, we need to realize that God is completely The Boss, because He is The Creator, as God Himself pointed out from the whirlwind.

Do you think this an Old Testament principle alone?  Oh, but the Holy Spirit through Paul in the Bible-book Romans goes through the same pattern.  But, this time the topic is incredibly more severe!  In Romans, we're no longer talking about a Hellish time for someone going to Heaven anyway.  Romans discusses the eternal salvation of the majority of a very special people group in history --in The Old Testament --in The Bible --The people from whom we get all but one of the writers of the Bible.  Job's temporary life being miserable for part of it, or Israelites going to Hell forever --now there's your nice, nice, separate, New Testament God for you!

Some Elihu-like parts, in Romans:
1:18 "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,"
3:23 "all have sinned...,"
5:7-8, "scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
7:8 "sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire..." (yes, even in Paul the Apostle).
  If you don't know that you're in trouble for the slightest wrongdoing (sin), not to mention all of those other wrong doings, you'll be completely lost when reading the first half of Romans.

Romans 9:15-16, "For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.' So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." vs.20 "...But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?  Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?'  Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?"

Even if we weren't sinners in need of a Savior to get us out of everlasting trouble with God, we would still owe our Creator our entire existence.  What else is left after our existence?  Being called children of God is not only an honor; it's an extreme honor.  Us compared to our Creator is like figurines compared to us.  If you made a little play-dough-man from your own play-dough, it would be no more wrong of you to have the right to smash him than God has every right to smash me or you.  Now that is not His desire, silly.  Calm down.  Having a right is different than having a desire.  It's simply His right.  Not only that, we have no right to demand anything from Him.  Now, that doesn't say anything against His generosity.  In fact, since He is not required to be generous, His generosity counts as even more generous.  Does it not?

Now, though God predestines, He is not random with human kind (Acts 17:26-27), but acts off of foreknowledge (1 Peter 1:2).  There is an explanation as to why Unsaved people, especially Unsaved Israelites, are Unsaved.  But, you are messed up in the head if you think you need that explanation.  For you to even be open minded enough to accept the reasonableness of it, you need to be made humble in your mind and heart underneath the unstoppable, almighty, God Who may do whatever He pleases and Who doesn't owe anybody anything (anything that's good), Who also had and has had every right to separate you and me from life forever.  Then(!) it becomes humbling to know that He is so merciful (especially when compared to us) that not only did He decline to everlastingly punish us (those of faith), but that He made a sacrifice to do so.  Not only that, He sacrificed Him Who was most dear to Him.  If He can be that humble then how humble can we be?  How thankful can we be?

Now if you are humble and thankful before your Creator and Judge, it is alright for you to read the rest of Romans 9 to find the explanation as to why He chose you to allow Him to be your Savior.  If you're having trouble getting through to someone that God of the Bible is not only true but also good and merciful, then the intellectualism must stop.  The first thing to do is humbly humble him/her through The Holy Spirit.  You may need a tiny bit of Creationism, but it will not be for showing them how stupid their version of science is.  That's not intelligent; it's intellectualism.