By Robert Gordon

Father God in the highest of the heavens holy is your name, and holy you are here we are on this earth as daughters and sons of God. You put all things in their place, all the things you've made, were made through Christ my Savior. And all things hold together by the word of his power. 

As I reflect on your goodness, on your mercy, on your love, on your grace, I feel indebted to you for the rest of my life because of how good you are to us. For everything that you have already done for us we should be eternally grateful but you don't stop there and you continue to work and to mold us, and to bless us, and to love us, and to grow us to be more and more like your Son. You also give your Spirit without measure, you give good gifts to your children all of the time, you lavish us with your love through your Holy Spirit.

Who are we to deserve such mercy and grace from the all-powerful God and Creator of the world? Who are we to deserve such attention in our finiteness?  Who are we to deserve such a sacrifice to be made by your Son on the cross who took our shame and took our sin and paid the price for all of those who confess him as their Lord and Savior? Who are we to petition things from you who has already given everything, including his one and only son already, who are we to ask for anymore? But only a God as good as our Father who continues to hear our prayers and to take our requests.  But one thing we do is to make sure that we give you praise, and adoration, and honor, and glory that is due to your holy name Father God we lift up our hands and we close our eyes and we lift up our souls to you God because you are good. You are more than good, you are great. And you are more than great you are superbly awesome God. And we love you. Amen. 

Evil is not tangible, it is in essence the lack of righteousness. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good. Fight evil, do good for those around you. Be the light, eradicate the darkness wherever you are. By your good works, your charity, your kindness, and generosity, the world is made a better, brighter place.

Perhaps it is because I am on a social network called Tsu http://tsu.co/DCBooks where people are often quoting scripture and people and encouraging one another to be better people living happier lives that this is getting my goat. I see it frequently.
I am almost always sick. I have several small medical problems that I cannot get treated and so I am often dealing with symptoms of pain, fatigue or malaise. People pray with me all the time for healing, and for that I am so grateful. But often those same people quote a line of scripture to declare that I will be healed. And if I didn’t know scripture I would be devastated because of it. I would think I was failing my Lord and that He didn’t heal me because I was doing something wrong.

The line they quote is “by His stripes we are healed.” It comes from Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5. The entire verse reads,

“But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.”

He (Jesus) was pierced for our transgressions, our sins. He was crushed for our iniquities, our sins. Upon Him was the chastisement, the punishment, that brought us peace, a restored relationship with God. And with His wounds we are healed, made whole. Why would the rest of the verse speak of removing sins and restoration with God and this one line talk about illness? It doesn’t. It is still in the same sentence of Jesus punishment bringing us to peace with God talking about that relationship. Jesus wounds were made to heal or restore our relationship with God. It is a spiritual healing, not a physical one.

God does heal physical illness, but not all illness. I have seen wonderful and miraculous healings. But He has reasons for letting some people have physical sickness and weakness. Look at Timothy. He suffered some sort of stomach problem. Paul didn’t chastise him and say, “Christians shouldn’t be sick!” He offered advice for alleviating the symptoms. He did this while he told him not to judge harshly the elders, or assume anything based on partiality. Timothy was leading a pure life and that and lend itself to legalism, self-righteousness, and bias. Paul encouraged him not to let that happen by adding some health counsel. 1 Timothy 5:22-23 reads,

“Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.23 (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)”

Paul himself suffered from something, we are not sure what it was but God allowed him to suffer with it in order to keep him from becoming prideful since he had been caught up to the third heaven and seen things no one else had or has. (2 Corinthians 12:1-10).

I hate being sick. But when you take scripture out of context and misuse it to claim promises that do not exist it hurts me. If I didn’t know God, and know scripture, hearing that misguided phrase would make me try to figure out what to do to get on God’s good side. It would make me try and be good enough for God and I would miss the beauty of the truth of Jesus.

Taking scripture out of context and offering it up as encouragement might seems harmless, but it isn’t.

People quote the first part of Psalm 112:7 to one another often it reads,

“He is not afraid of bad news;”

Giving this scripture on its own to an unbeliever or a shaky believer makes them think, God will not allow them to receive bad news if they trust in Him. And when they do receive bad news, they will call the Lord a liar and be angry and think He hates them.

Put the verse back in context and you find out that per verse 1 of the Psalm it is describing a man who fears the Lord and delights in His commands. Verse 1 reads,

“Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
    who greatly delights in his commandments!”

Keep reading and you find out the reason he is not afraid of bad news is because,

“He is not afraid of bad news;
    his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
    until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.” (Psalm 112:7-8).

Stop taking scripture out of context. Stop giving just half the truth. Stop taking the salt out of the Gospel and twisting scripture into tasty little bites of feel good sayings. You may make a person feel good now, but maybe they needed to deal with a broken heart in order to turn to God. Rather than being rescued from weakness, pain, and persecution, maybe they needed to hear that going through those things bring about spiritual growth.

Twisting the Word of God, is what Satan does. He did it in the garden of Eden, he did it when he tempted Jesus, he does it when he tempts us. Do not join in the work of Satan by doing the same thing. When you share a verse, or a good work, make sure it is the whole truth. Because half a truth is called a lie.

There is a difference between listening to your heart and listening to the Spirit. It is a mark of maturity to understand the distinction. The more like Christ one becomes, the more the two will mesh.
Your heart may tell you to fear but the Spirit tells you to be courageous and bold. Your heart may tell you to criticize but the Spirit tells you, "Do not Judge the world" and "There is no condemnation in Christ."

Nothing ever changes for victims.

Things keep happening to them.

People keep hurting them.

It is when one takes responsibility and acts

that she changes her life.

Stop blaming other people.

Live as an overcomer.

Change your life.

Be the difference, you want to see in the world.

Believer, do you love the way God loves? Do you love others as Jesus loved you? Jesus loved you by laying down His life and paying the price for you to have eternal life. Revelation 21:6-7 tells us what He did.

“And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

But for those who do not believe and accept that awesome gift, there is another end. Revelation 20:15 says,

 “And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

If you seek God’s will and love people are you really going to be okay with them running toward eternal damnation? 

You may not be called to fight for children.

You may not be called to rescue prostitutes.

You may not be called to help the homeless.

But you are called to do something.

What is it?

Are you doing it?

Do something.

I read a post the other day that said, “All paths lead to the light.” The post had several likes and comments all positive. Seriously? That can only be true in a world where there is no right or wrong. In that world, a person can do whatever he chooses and reach “the light”, whatever that is. He can feed the poor, kidnap and rape a little boy or burn books and he will reach the light because whatever he chooses to do is okay. In that world Mahatma Gandi, Mother Theresa, and Adolf Hitler all reached the light.

In many people’s thinking reaching enlightenment, a better self, or goodness comes from making good choices, doing good things etc. They feel there are many paths to the light. But what makes good good enough? How many good acts does it take to undo a bad one? Is there a score keeper, a balance? Does writing a check to charity cancel a lie? Does it take 30 hours of community service to negate stealing?

I couldn’t live in a world like either of the ones described.

Everyone has done wrong. That doesn’t make it okay. Wrong is wrong. Harm is harm.

What is the light? Is it Heaven? Is it enlightenment of truth? Is it peace? Whatever your definition of the light, it sounds like God to me. He is the Light, revelation of truth. He created the Heavens and the Earth. Because He is the Light, he cannot have any darkness in Him. In order to have a relationship with Him we can’t have any wrongs. But it is impossible to be perfect. And you can’t ever do enough good to reverse an iota of bad.

God loves you! He really deeply loves you and He wants a relationship with you. He doesn’t love you more if you are good or less if you are bad. He just loves you. He wants to reveal the truth to you. He wants you to see the supernatural world around you. He wants you to experience the greatness of His Spirit.

God sent His only Son Jesus to you. Jesus is the exact representation of God and the manifestation of God’s will, which is to have a relationship with you! Jesus did what only He could do, He lived without sin. He died. He rose again. He forgives every sin and makes it possible for you to know God in a deep and lovely way.

Not all roads lead to God. There are not many paths to God. There is one way and only way to God, Jesus Christ His Son.