Back in this topic...
Why did I felt necessary to tell that little... well maybe longish story about me? This is because that story perfectly illustrates not only today's and yesterday's topic, but it also shows what I was talking about in my "The importance of community" Post. This is how a, at the beginning, devout christian (although an immature one), through loosing that community which is so important for all of us, allowed himself to be pulled into sin, little by little, sin by sin. Now, one thing that I failed to mention in my community post is, that community serves also a checks and balances role in the christian's life. If you feel something is good, but then you're called out by fellow Christians, you'll be able to correct your behavior. However, if you were to do the same sinful thing, but you dont have a christian community to call you out, you might not realize its a sin, or that its simply pulling you away from our Lord Jesus Christ. This is also true for God's plan! when we are surrounded by christians its much easier for God to pull us into the right direction, because we are surrounded by people that talk to Him everyday! For example, part of my decision to start this blog, was an american dude, really cool guy, that came here to my country as part of a college assignment. He gave his testimony, and this lit the spark that ultimately led to my decision. Sure, God has never appeared to me in the form of a talking donkey, nor has He set a bush on fire and not allowing it to be consumed, but surely He has guided my, event by event, little by little. That's also the importance of our community.
To begin with then, you might think, sure God has A plan, but I'm sure it doesnt include me. I dont see how my life has become wonderful and amazing since I joined church. And I'm a good christian mind you! This idea is flawed. God, Jesus, Surely have A plan, which includes you, but so do they have a plan FOR you. Why do I think this? Jeremiah 29:11 says it clearly, God has a plan for us. But what is it? that's harder to say for sure. God just does one thing explicitly, He assures us, and promises that if we have faith in Him through Jesus Christ, we will be saved (not a matter of simply saying "sure I believe", but a matter of having such a faith that it transforms you, see more of this topic in my post about Sunday christians). But, Does God keeps his promise? how can we know he hasnt changed his mind? after all, since Abraham's original promise or since Jesus' Reassurance thousands of years have past!
God always kept his promise. Its only logical that God keeps his promises, after all if he's all good, cannot be tempted (James 1:13), and cannot lie (1 Samuel 15:29) and furthermore, God doesn't change his mind, he doesnt back down.. as said in Malachi 3:6, "For I am the Lord, I do not change". So if He doesnt change his mind, lie and cant be tempted, we can be sure that God will, doesnt matter how crazy it sounds, do as He says he would. From this little reasoning we can deduct one thing, God says He will prevail against Evil, He says He will at the end beat Satan. So, if He will do such, why don't we trust him to put us in the right path? I think this comes from the idea of God that westerners tend to have. We often think that God was more God of Abraham than mine, more God of Moses than mine, and more God of the apostles than mine, so, He probably doesnt care about me, he sure loves me, but he's probably busy doing heavenly paperwork (Think your company's paperwork is crazy? Think about running an entire universe!) or something, surely he has to attend mass somwhere that they are calling him or maybe he's chatting with some shepherd somewhere in the world, you know, God has a special affinity with Shepherds.
But all jokes aside, God does love us, he carefully created us and put us in this world to fulfill his plan, whether we follow it or not that's another issue. Thats why I think that from Abraham to Jesus so much time passed, God sure could simply wiped us out, or just make us behave... but He doesnt, He instead puts his plan there, up for grabs... dont you know it? its clearly written, actually its 66 books that he wrote, ring any bell? The Bible.
The Bible is amazing, penned by humans, dictated by the creator of the universe. You might think your favorite writer is amazing, sure Shakespeare has his thing, but my Favorite writer? He created an entire universe. This book of books (Biblos its the greek root, meaning collection of books) Has songs, poems, laws and even God's own name, YHWH, read it Jehovah, Yahweh, or call Him Addonai, Lord, or Jesus Christ. This Book surely is not a road map, Its is not a GPS either. Even though its pretty explicit at times, it does not say "Robert, you'll me a mathematician, Barbara, you'll be a teacher, you Mark, you'll be a plumber..." not it doesnt, neither it tells us what college to go to. Sure, life could be 10 times easier if God appeared to us directly and told us "Hey Federico, whats up man? look, i've been thinking, well I been knowing, I dont think, I know, that you need to be a doctor, you'll go to this school, you'll move to that city on this day. There's this amazing church, in this address... go there, well, I'll send you a text when you are done with that, a'right? take care man, may God bl... I'll bless you!", but this does not happen to most of us, surely it happened to Abraham, and to Micah, and John the baptist latter on to name a few. But those are extremely rare cases, for the most part, we have the Bible, still an amazing guide, this is because we actually are able to read it, read God's holy word, and understand it, and then understand what kind of things are definitely NOT God's will. Being a Thief, Lazy, Dunk, and similar things, are not God's will. If I correctly recall, God has never called out someone to be a drunk on the streets, maybe he called a drunk, but not to be a drunk. That's an important thing to mention, God can and eventually will, use everyone, no matter how broken, sinful, prideful or ashamed we are. And just like He will use us, He will for sure puts us on the path He desires if we surrender ourselves to Him and closely listen to his guide
More than that, God's Will is to restore his relationship with mankind. We broke such relationship (Genesis 3:6), a relationship of intimacy, of close existence with God, God was not far away, nor unseeable by humans, but rather he walked amongst them (Genesis 6:8). We Lived in the very presence of our creator, He was right there, just like we were, and we broke it, we trashed it, and since then, his plan is nothing more than, and nothing less than, restoring such relationship... but we broke it, so we shall fix it, not by God's command, not because God makes us do it, but when and because we choose to do it.
God's plan is eternal, God's plan is better than ours, he knows all the outcomes, He knows every single choice, and His plan is not all about the right college to go, nor about how much money you'll one day make, nor even which relationships we shall enter to. God's plan, although it does contain all of the above, is larger than that, larger than us, it is literally larger than life itself.
So God knows better, He is much, much wiser that we are (actually... much wiser than we can be or that anything can be, he has infinite knowledge) He's much older than we are. And in the end, He is our creator, author of life, the reason for everything. Yet, are you confident enough to ask for God to fulfill your plan?Are you implying you know better than YHWH, Than the creator of everything? Because I was quick to ask for just that. I'm not afraid to say I was wrong and that God was right (what a shock huh?, God was right all along). I left God's presence, and he yanked me from my arm and told me, like we tell annoying little kids, to shut up. I grew rebellious, and so we often all do. I was led astray by false doctrines and by the world, like we often are. I was tempted and I fell for it. I was told the forbidden fruit was sweet, and I was fooled. Yet God was there in the midst of my trouble, and He, even seeing how bad and troubled I were because of it, how confused I grew, He first Forgave me, and later took me out of that situation. Like to the isrealites He first Helped me, then He asked for my worship, not the other way around, otherwise I'd still be in that bad situation. So now I ask you, are you ready to realize how God works in all of our lives? are you ready to stop cursing at God when things dont go your way, and can we start blessing Him that He is leading us on His way? as I sit in my balcony, looking at the ocean, I cant help but to think, Had God not worked on my life a couple months ago, I'd be right now, doing the same thing, sitting, watching the same ocean, with my bible at my side for sure, I would even have my friends at my side, I could even have a good Girlfriend to share that with, but one thing would be different, I would be a mormon, I would be so far removed from God's plan, that I doubt I could ever recover. Dont get me wrong, for me Mormonism is not the devil per se, He used a Latter Day Saints Mormon girl in my life to get me closer to Him, and although I might give them a hard time because I believe the Book of Mormon is false doctrine, I dont believe they are the devil. Just led astray by false prophets (I think this is the kind of things Matthew 24:11 is talking about, not clearly bad guys with a devilish smile and an evil laught in the best 1980s cinematic syle, but rather false prophets that seems to be sent by God, seem to be nice people and deceive millions. I dont believe in so called prophets like John Smith because I believe that Jesus meant it when he said that "It is Finished")
What I do know, is, I know God has called me to this evangelical church, I found in a city I despised the church I absolutely wanted, needed and hoped for, but not at all what I expected. I know God has called me to have a closer relationship with Him. Its not easy, I've already been rejected by some for such living, but I can now hear God's word a little better, faint still, but now I discern it from background noise way better. And I think that's part of His plan. His plan I dont believe its a thin line, that if you deviate from even a tinny bit you are out of it and doomed for eternal Hell, but rather a path, you can go a little to the right, a little to the left, but still remain in His desired path, you can even be treading the grass at the side of his path and still be relatively Good. So, just dont start walking outside His path... stay on it, it'll be hard, and its dangerous you know? the world will hate you, for you are not of this world (John 15:19).
As a quick piece of advice I learnt while playing videogames, If all is going good and there are no enemies on sight... you're going the wrong way, once you find heavy resistance, you know that you're right on target. Satan will try to encourage you to stay out of God's path by making you comfortable, the world will love you, it will be easy (although not fulfilling). But if you find yourself in God's path, Satan will bring forth all the heavy artillery to keep you away from him, away from the great "I AM" (Exodus 3:14 and later a reference to this by Jesus himself saying he's God by saying "before Abraham was born, I am!")
At the end, each time we pray, do we pray for our plan or for God's plan? when we will get to it?... sorry to burst your bubble, no matter how good your plan might seem, God's plan is eternally better.
May God bless y'all
Why did I felt necessary to tell that little... well maybe longish story about me? This is because that story perfectly illustrates not only today's and yesterday's topic, but it also shows what I was talking about in my "The importance of community" Post. This is how a, at the beginning, devout christian (although an immature one), through loosing that community which is so important for all of us, allowed himself to be pulled into sin, little by little, sin by sin. Now, one thing that I failed to mention in my community post is, that community serves also a checks and balances role in the christian's life. If you feel something is good, but then you're called out by fellow Christians, you'll be able to correct your behavior. However, if you were to do the same sinful thing, but you dont have a christian community to call you out, you might not realize its a sin, or that its simply pulling you away from our Lord Jesus Christ. This is also true for God's plan! when we are surrounded by christians its much easier for God to pull us into the right direction, because we are surrounded by people that talk to Him everyday! For example, part of my decision to start this blog, was an american dude, really cool guy, that came here to my country as part of a college assignment. He gave his testimony, and this lit the spark that ultimately led to my decision. Sure, God has never appeared to me in the form of a talking donkey, nor has He set a bush on fire and not allowing it to be consumed, but surely He has guided my, event by event, little by little. That's also the importance of our community.
To begin with then, you might think, sure God has A plan, but I'm sure it doesnt include me. I dont see how my life has become wonderful and amazing since I joined church. And I'm a good christian mind you! This idea is flawed. God, Jesus, Surely have A plan, which includes you, but so do they have a plan FOR you. Why do I think this? Jeremiah 29:11 says it clearly, God has a plan for us. But what is it? that's harder to say for sure. God just does one thing explicitly, He assures us, and promises that if we have faith in Him through Jesus Christ, we will be saved (not a matter of simply saying "sure I believe", but a matter of having such a faith that it transforms you, see more of this topic in my post about Sunday christians). But, Does God keeps his promise? how can we know he hasnt changed his mind? after all, since Abraham's original promise or since Jesus' Reassurance thousands of years have past!
God always kept his promise. Its only logical that God keeps his promises, after all if he's all good, cannot be tempted (James 1:13), and cannot lie (1 Samuel 15:29) and furthermore, God doesn't change his mind, he doesnt back down.. as said in Malachi 3:6, "For I am the Lord, I do not change". So if He doesnt change his mind, lie and cant be tempted, we can be sure that God will, doesnt matter how crazy it sounds, do as He says he would. From this little reasoning we can deduct one thing, God says He will prevail against Evil, He says He will at the end beat Satan. So, if He will do such, why don't we trust him to put us in the right path? I think this comes from the idea of God that westerners tend to have. We often think that God was more God of Abraham than mine, more God of Moses than mine, and more God of the apostles than mine, so, He probably doesnt care about me, he sure loves me, but he's probably busy doing heavenly paperwork (Think your company's paperwork is crazy? Think about running an entire universe!) or something, surely he has to attend mass somwhere that they are calling him or maybe he's chatting with some shepherd somewhere in the world, you know, God has a special affinity with Shepherds.
But all jokes aside, God does love us, he carefully created us and put us in this world to fulfill his plan, whether we follow it or not that's another issue. Thats why I think that from Abraham to Jesus so much time passed, God sure could simply wiped us out, or just make us behave... but He doesnt, He instead puts his plan there, up for grabs... dont you know it? its clearly written, actually its 66 books that he wrote, ring any bell? The Bible.
The Bible is amazing, penned by humans, dictated by the creator of the universe. You might think your favorite writer is amazing, sure Shakespeare has his thing, but my Favorite writer? He created an entire universe. This book of books (Biblos its the greek root, meaning collection of books) Has songs, poems, laws and even God's own name, YHWH, read it Jehovah, Yahweh, or call Him Addonai, Lord, or Jesus Christ. This Book surely is not a road map, Its is not a GPS either. Even though its pretty explicit at times, it does not say "Robert, you'll me a mathematician, Barbara, you'll be a teacher, you Mark, you'll be a plumber..." not it doesnt, neither it tells us what college to go to. Sure, life could be 10 times easier if God appeared to us directly and told us "Hey Federico, whats up man? look, i've been thinking, well I been knowing, I dont think, I know, that you need to be a doctor, you'll go to this school, you'll move to that city on this day. There's this amazing church, in this address... go there, well, I'll send you a text when you are done with that, a'right? take care man, may God bl... I'll bless you!", but this does not happen to most of us, surely it happened to Abraham, and to Micah, and John the baptist latter on to name a few. But those are extremely rare cases, for the most part, we have the Bible, still an amazing guide, this is because we actually are able to read it, read God's holy word, and understand it, and then understand what kind of things are definitely NOT God's will. Being a Thief, Lazy, Dunk, and similar things, are not God's will. If I correctly recall, God has never called out someone to be a drunk on the streets, maybe he called a drunk, but not to be a drunk. That's an important thing to mention, God can and eventually will, use everyone, no matter how broken, sinful, prideful or ashamed we are. And just like He will use us, He will for sure puts us on the path He desires if we surrender ourselves to Him and closely listen to his guide
More than that, God's Will is to restore his relationship with mankind. We broke such relationship (Genesis 3:6), a relationship of intimacy, of close existence with God, God was not far away, nor unseeable by humans, but rather he walked amongst them (Genesis 6:8). We Lived in the very presence of our creator, He was right there, just like we were, and we broke it, we trashed it, and since then, his plan is nothing more than, and nothing less than, restoring such relationship... but we broke it, so we shall fix it, not by God's command, not because God makes us do it, but when and because we choose to do it.
God's plan is eternal, God's plan is better than ours, he knows all the outcomes, He knows every single choice, and His plan is not all about the right college to go, nor about how much money you'll one day make, nor even which relationships we shall enter to. God's plan, although it does contain all of the above, is larger than that, larger than us, it is literally larger than life itself.
So God knows better, He is much, much wiser that we are (actually... much wiser than we can be or that anything can be, he has infinite knowledge) He's much older than we are. And in the end, He is our creator, author of life, the reason for everything. Yet, are you confident enough to ask for God to fulfill your plan?Are you implying you know better than YHWH, Than the creator of everything? Because I was quick to ask for just that. I'm not afraid to say I was wrong and that God was right (what a shock huh?, God was right all along). I left God's presence, and he yanked me from my arm and told me, like we tell annoying little kids, to shut up. I grew rebellious, and so we often all do. I was led astray by false doctrines and by the world, like we often are. I was tempted and I fell for it. I was told the forbidden fruit was sweet, and I was fooled. Yet God was there in the midst of my trouble, and He, even seeing how bad and troubled I were because of it, how confused I grew, He first Forgave me, and later took me out of that situation. Like to the isrealites He first Helped me, then He asked for my worship, not the other way around, otherwise I'd still be in that bad situation. So now I ask you, are you ready to realize how God works in all of our lives? are you ready to stop cursing at God when things dont go your way, and can we start blessing Him that He is leading us on His way? as I sit in my balcony, looking at the ocean, I cant help but to think, Had God not worked on my life a couple months ago, I'd be right now, doing the same thing, sitting, watching the same ocean, with my bible at my side for sure, I would even have my friends at my side, I could even have a good Girlfriend to share that with, but one thing would be different, I would be a mormon, I would be so far removed from God's plan, that I doubt I could ever recover. Dont get me wrong, for me Mormonism is not the devil per se, He used a Latter Day Saints Mormon girl in my life to get me closer to Him, and although I might give them a hard time because I believe the Book of Mormon is false doctrine, I dont believe they are the devil. Just led astray by false prophets (I think this is the kind of things Matthew 24:11 is talking about, not clearly bad guys with a devilish smile and an evil laught in the best 1980s cinematic syle, but rather false prophets that seems to be sent by God, seem to be nice people and deceive millions. I dont believe in so called prophets like John Smith because I believe that Jesus meant it when he said that "It is Finished")
What I do know, is, I know God has called me to this evangelical church, I found in a city I despised the church I absolutely wanted, needed and hoped for, but not at all what I expected. I know God has called me to have a closer relationship with Him. Its not easy, I've already been rejected by some for such living, but I can now hear God's word a little better, faint still, but now I discern it from background noise way better. And I think that's part of His plan. His plan I dont believe its a thin line, that if you deviate from even a tinny bit you are out of it and doomed for eternal Hell, but rather a path, you can go a little to the right, a little to the left, but still remain in His desired path, you can even be treading the grass at the side of his path and still be relatively Good. So, just dont start walking outside His path... stay on it, it'll be hard, and its dangerous you know? the world will hate you, for you are not of this world (John 15:19).
As a quick piece of advice I learnt while playing videogames, If all is going good and there are no enemies on sight... you're going the wrong way, once you find heavy resistance, you know that you're right on target. Satan will try to encourage you to stay out of God's path by making you comfortable, the world will love you, it will be easy (although not fulfilling). But if you find yourself in God's path, Satan will bring forth all the heavy artillery to keep you away from him, away from the great "I AM" (Exodus 3:14 and later a reference to this by Jesus himself saying he's God by saying "before Abraham was born, I am!")
At the end, each time we pray, do we pray for our plan or for God's plan? when we will get to it?... sorry to burst your bubble, no matter how good your plan might seem, God's plan is eternally better.
May God bless y'all
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