Ethernet Evangelism

God's love includes you

ISA 1:18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

This text is often given out of its context and interpreted as an unconditional promise of forgiveness, but God's forgiveness of sin is conditioned on our repentance for sin.1JO 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Our Lord God loves us with an unending love and this is unconditional, no matter who or what we are His love never fails. From mass murderer to gossip He loves us. Some understand this to mean that there will be no punishment therefore no reason to change. They go on in their sin thinking that God has given them immunity, or they repent and ask forgiveness and expect not to suffer any consequence. Sometimes there has been so little consequence that we may think there was none but, that is up to God. Parents love the child who misbehaves just as much as the one who is obedient but, spankings or discipline are still a reality if the child continues, and even when the child owns up and says he's sorry perhaps some prized activity has been put on the back burner for a time. When I do wrong and then tell God I am sorry I will be forgiven but may still have to pay a consequence due to my slip up. Wrongs can still carry a price tag even after an apology. When I was a child there was always the statement, " this is going to hurt me worse than it will you", prior to a spanking. Saying that tells me that the person bent on spanking me loved me so much that they suffered as much or worse for having to use the switch. At the time you couldn't make me believe that. When we force God's hand I believe it bothers Him to have to scold us. God, the One Who created us should certainly know what is best for us. Even more so than the manufacturer of a fine car knows how to treat that car. God knows every part of our being before we come into this world. PSA 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. As God had made man, God told the man not to eat of one particular tree, " for when you do you will die". "Man you are strong but I want you to have help and companionship. As I bring the beasts Into being , look them over and while you do that, give them a name". The man did as he was asked. When man went to sleep God created a gift for him, because there was nothing found in the animals that would be suitable for him.. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." God did this to fulfill His plan in the marriage between the two. God always looks ahead and knows us for what we are. It is foolish to think that God has been fooled about homosexuality and what would be said today. "Man, is not whole for she is part of him. Man will leave parents and become united to the woman causing the two of them to become One flesh." Uniting in the sexual realm brings about a spiritual and psychological interrelationship in which the participants establish a bond that is more than physical. To bring two of the same sex together is to corrupt this high ordinance of God. For, Woman was not taken from woman nor man from man. What one has in the homosexual perversion of this amounts to having two left feet, or two right feet. When we see unusual things occur to the sexual parts of a new born such as two sexes in one child this is due to the changes that took place at the fall. Satan has stricken the entire world with death and strange occurrences. This is not any more different than being born with any other anomaly. Lucifer once an anointed Cherub that covered the throne of God was stripped of his anointing along with others of the heavenly beings who had decided to use their freedom of choice. Desiring to be higher than God they were banished and fell to the earthly plane. This evil one is still permitted to visit the heavenlies to accuse the righteous. This is all to the glorifying of God. "God did not surely say...ssssssss......" Just slithering there in the garden, twisting every word and using lies to tempt. Poor woman Eve, she tries to sound so knowledgeable, isn't that just like us? She adds to what God has told the man, or maybe Adam had said to her, "God said don't eat of it or we will die, but I say, Don't even touch it ok"? But, the sneaky snake gives her seeds of doubt, " sssssssssurely you will not die". "He knows that when you eat of it you will become like Him and know what He knows because your eyes will be opened knowing what good and evil issssssssssss". The woman now births the greatest weaknesses of mankind, Self gratification, and Knowledge. Of these we never have enough.. " Here honey, have some of this fruit, I ate and didn't die", The two eat of the fruit and their eyes are opened. . Knowledge of good and evil: Not Right and Wrong. They already knew right from wrong. It's likened to the Law of God. Some think this Law was meant to save them if kept. That was impossible. The Law was given to show us our sins, not to clean us up and cannot save. As we awaken in the morning we look into a mirror. That mirror shows us what is out of place and we don't take the mirror down to wash our faces with it. Like the Law can do nothing toward bringing things back in place or cleaning up what is soiled. In order for us to have sin cleaned up we need the blood of the Lamb. Knowledge of good and evil belongs to God, He determines what is good and what is evil. This Disobedience was a deliberate usurping of God's sovereign place to define the difference. The disobedience in the Garden did not surprise God. Our God's character is love, enough love to give man the right to make choices. I can just hear the Trinity, " As we had known all along, the two have chosen to do what they thought was good. Lucifer is up to his nasty tricks again. Had he not tempted them this would not have happened. Good thing our plan is in motion" God was there immediately to offer salvation, He asked, "What have you done"? As if He did not know. Instead of repentance though they placed blame and refused His offer. Just like us. He calls all sinners to Himself. Adam told God, "It was her fault". The woman said, "the serpent made me do it". Again God's Word has gone forth, "cursed be the serpent who will crawl on the ground and eat the dust. All that you bear will be an enemy to the woman and her offspring. The seed of a woman shall crush your head and you will bruise his heel". GAL 4:4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law. Its good news is that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent-tempter. The principle of this verse is messianic, and gives us a picture of the conflict which climaxed on the cross. "The woman will have more pain in child birth. You will desire your husband (possibly meaning the position of the husband) subordination is introduced into the one-flesh relationship that previously had been one of shared authority over the physical world. Since the woman had refused to obey God's instructions given through Adam, he was to rule over her. Such subordination was not in the original purpose of God for marriage but is a consequence of her failure to obey God. The three conditions here are not specifically discussed in the remainder of the Old Testament. God told Adam, "Since you listened to your wife, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." Adam now named his wife Eve, meaning life giver or mother of all living. God dressed them in skins of animals He had to kill. With this fall God had many things to do. The tree of life had to be protected from the two or they would take and eat then they would live forever in that evil condition. This would've also tainted the entire of eternal life. So, they were banned from the garden and a very foreboding guard was placed east side of garden and at the tree of life. We have great hope because of Christ and the work on the cross. No matter how far God takes us from a place of comfort we need desperately to remember, He never drives us or lets us go too far for his concern and care to reach us. He is always just a prayer away.