In life, there is but one divided highway, with two directions on which you can travel. One direction is on the path where you choose to listen to the voice of the Lord and do all that he has commanded. For simplicity sakes, let us call this direction north. The other direction is on the path where one chooses not to listen to the voice of the Lord and not do all that he has commanded. Let us call this direction south. Along this divided highway, there be many median crossings that allow you to change directions any time you choose.
Now to understand the concept of something coming upon you and overtaking you, image yourself traveling north on this highway. You look in the rear-view mirror and see this tractor-trailer coming up the highway. As you drive further up the highway, you notice that this tractor-trailer has now come upon you and is about to overtake you. As the tractor-trailer overtakes you, the rear doors of the trailer open up and all of these blessings begin to pour out upon you. And as long as you drive on this road in this direction, these blessings will continue to pour out upon you. You see the only way for this tractor-trailer, these blessings, to come upon you and overtake you is for you to be going in the same direction as it is going. If you are going in the other direction, this particular tractor-trailer will never come upon you and overtake you.
Please understand that you can cut through the median and change directions any time that you choose. This is totally up to you. God allows you to make that decision, that choice. But keep this in mind that once you start traveling south on this highway, the only tractor-trailer that can come upon you now is the one that that is traveling in that direction, which is the one that contains the curses and you know what happens when it overtakes you. As long as you drive on this road in this direction, the curses will continue to pour out upon you. The direction that you go will always be yours to choose and yours alone. Now that you have this knowledge, we pray that you will choose your direction wisely.
For every decision you make in life there is some type of consequence (cause and effect) that will occur. It can be good or bad, a blessing or a curse, but something will result from the choices you make.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither he any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust (desires), and enticed. Then when lust (desires) hath conceived, it bringeth forth (gives birth to) sin, and sin, when it is finished (full-grown), bringeth for death. Do not err (be deceived), my beloved brethren (James 1:13-16).
When someone wants to do wrong it is never God who is tempting them, because God never wants to do wrong and never tempts anyone else to do wrong either. Temptation is the pull of man’s own evil thoughts and wishes. These evil thoughts and wishes lead to evil actions and afterwards, to the death. We are given a warning, that is, we are told not to be deceived, but we have to wonder what is it that we are not to be deceived about?
Could the deception pertain to what we as Christian believe about the God we claim to serve? Could the deception pertain to our belief that God actually uses such things as physical pain, sicknesses, accidents, deaths, and other tragedies just to chasten his children? The Old Testament scriptures are more likely to be used to support this argument because the New Testament portrays God as a very willing healer and life giver. So, if God does not put cancer on your body to teach you long-suffering and faithfulness and if he does not use some type of tragedy to teach you to have more patience, then who is the one behind these things?
Physical pain, sicknesses, accidents, death, and other tragedies come from the curse and are used very effectively by Satan. He is the one who comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy us (John 10:10). Because of the decisions we make, the path we choose to travel upon dictates what things happen to us. Because we make the choice, God has to allow these things to happen in our life, but he is not the one who causes them nor does he use them. Think about this, if God is the cause of all of these things, then he is working against all that Jesus came to do, which is to give us life and to give us that life, more abundantly (John 10:10). Therefore, if someone is stricken with cancer, Aids, or any other major disease, then it is Satan, who is using these things to steal their health from them and to destroy their body. He slowly and painfully takes their life from them. This is the work of the thief, not the work of God. We really need to stop blaming God for the things that are done by the choices that we make and used so effectively by Satan.
We are warned not to be misled into believing that these things are from God. Remember that old cliché; God will not put more on you than you can bear? Well it should read, God will not allow / permit more on you than you can bear.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (I Corinthians 10:13).
God, who is faithful, will not allow / permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. This passage reveals the permissive nature of God and not the causative nature. Just because God allows or permits a thing to happen does not mean he has decreed a thing to happen. God will not allow / permit you to be tempted, tried, or tested beyond what you are able to bear because he will make a way for you to escape. He will provide a way to escape.
Why would God put something on you to test you, then provide a way to escape? God does not control these temptations, trials, or test. You do. God makes the way of escape, but you have to find it and take advantage of it. It does not matter what the situation is that comes into your life, God will make a way out of it, even though you might not see it. Sometimes you get so consumed in the problem, so overwhelmed with the temptation, trials, and test that you lose your sense of reality. You may think that there is no way out, but this is not true. God, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2), says that he will make a way of escape but you have to be wise enough to look for the escape route and to take advantage of it.
If you do not take advantage of the route, then there is nothing further God will do to help you. He did his part; he made the way of escape, the rest is up to you. The thing that he cannot do is make you take the escape route. When that temptation, trial, or test comes, look for and expect to find the way of escape. The escape route may cost you a price that you may not be willing to pay but the way out will be there. Satan is the one who uses the temptations, trials, and tests but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (John 10:10). God is not evil, he is good and his mercy endures forever (I Chronicles 16:34), therefore, do not mix up good and evil or permissive and causative, for God is good. Do not continue to be misled into believing that these things are from God.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness (variation), neither shadow of turning (James 1:17).
Whatever is good and whatever is perfect comes to us from God and shines forever without change or the possibility of turning. Every good and every perfect gift comes to us from God and the thief, our great enemy, is the one who comes to kill, steal, and destroy. He is the one who prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8). He is the one who uses such things for his purpose and has convinced many that it is God who does these things to his children.
In conclusion, we would like to review those things that we have discovered. We know that God allows disastrous things to happen as opposed to being the cause of them. We found that God allows these things to happen in our lives because we allow these things to happen in our lives, which is a direct result of choices we make. The choices that we make or should we say the direction we choose to travel will place us on the path where one of two things will come upon us and overtake us. We discovered that every good and every perfect gift comes from the Father above and that we have a great enemy who effectively uses the disastrous things that exists in the world against us.
We also found that God is not trying to give his children some kind of How-to lessons to draw them closer to him. Next, we discussed the meaning of uncial, the permissive verb form, and the causative verb form. From this, we learned that the original manuscripts were written in all capital letters with no punctuation of any kind and in two different languages that used the permissive verb form. When theses manuscripts were translated into English, punctuation marks, chapter-verse designations, capitalizations, and even the sub-titles were added to a language that uses the causative verb form. We noted that some of these might have been placed in error.
We trust that this information will minister to you as it has ministered to us. We pray that this information will play a key role in how you view the Bible and in your interpretation of the scriptures. We also pray that this information will help alleviate many of those contradictions that seem to appear in the Bible. The scriptures tell us that God changes not (Malachi 3:6), which means it is safe to conclude that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. Therefore, do not continue to mix up good and evil or permissive and causative, for God is good, not evil. We have been warned not to be deceived and not to be misled into believing that God is the cause of things. Truth be told, it is all in understanding the verb tense form used in the translation of the original text of the Bible.
Enjoy your blessings and remember to be a blessing to others – KW
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