Christian Living
HUMANITIES GREATEST PROBLEM: NOT KNOWING THEIR CREATOR AND GOD
(This is also the ROOT of all their other problems!)
What is the greatest problem facing man kind? We live in a world where we face problems on every hand:
• Babies face:
o abortion, miscarriage, birth defects
o being born into a family where they will not be loved and wanted
o being born healthy into a loving family that will take care of them.
• Children face:
o possible child abuse (mental, physical, or sexual)
o poverty and hunger
o rejection by their parents and being orphaned
o child hood disease, injury and accidental disablement.
• Teenagers face problems such as:
o conflicts with parents as they approach adult hood,
o conflicts with members of the opposite sex.
Then just to make matters worse the developing adolescents:
o face conflict in establishing pecking order within their associations.
o face problems with assuming higher levels of responsibility brought on by maturity
• These things do not care if the teenager is ready or not.
• Then there is the problem of:
o being your own person
o knowing who you are
o Being able to pilot your own ship.
o Teenagers face temptations to smoke
Drink
use drugs
be promiscuous.
• Adults face problems:
o Finding a life long love, and being able to nurture and manage that relationship.
o Along with love they face marriage, divorce, alimony, child support and the like.
o Adults need to find jobs and means for providing food, clothing, and shelter for themselves and their families.
o They face sickness, disease, disability, loss of family members to death.
o The longer they live the more rejection they face
o The more rejection they face the more they feel hopeless and lost.
o Age brings on loss of virility, loss of youth, loss of many hopes and dreams, and eventually loss of life.
The Bible tells us in the book of JOB:
Job 14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
This truth is indisputable. All of humanity can bear witness that this is true. It matters not whether you are rich or poor all are of few days and all are full of trouble. It does not matter whether you are red, yellow, black or white: all are of few days and all are full of trouble. It does not matter what country you are born in or reside in: all are of few days and all are full of trouble.
Paul tells Timothy and Us that in The Last days PERILOUS TIMES SHALL COME! (2 Timothy 3:1)
So back to our original question:
What is the greatest problem facing man kind?
The problem with looking at the brevity and troublesome life of mankind is that this knowledge does not explain WHY!
How many people live every day trying to understand why? What is the purpose of my actions? How does my life fit in the scheme of things? What is the meaning of my life? Is everything in life vain? When this life ends is it all over or is their something beyond this short earthly existence?
Every thing has a cause. Nothing just happens!
Man has been able to determine and explain so many mysteries about life.
o We know that sexual relations produce children.
o We know that the earth does not yield its fruits without some labor to practice the agricultural arts that improve the earth’s bounty.
o We know that the mind does not produce knowledge of its self; it must be learned by a diligent study of those things that we are exposed to.
o Men have learned many things by diligent study and they now can benefit from electricity and its many appliances,
o Men are able to traverse lands, oceans and skies by the knowledge of what they have learned.
The increase knowledge of science and technology made by man is amazing. We could exhaust ourselves in just summing up all this knowledge. Yet there remains a great wonder in that with all men have learned and mastered they have not diminished their problems. Even with all the knowledge that men have attained the world’s population is more threatened than ever and their problems are greater than ever. We have wars and rumors of wars!
Peace is more uncertain than ever and our very existence is so uncertain.
Why? Why? Why?
The Bible Tells us: Ecclesiastes 1:18. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
Do we know where we came from and do we know where we are going? The Bible says that we are lost? LOST surely seems to describe our existence!
I may know my mother and my father. They are mortals, but I still do not know where I came from? My mother and father may have given me a body, but there is something about me that is beyond my mother and my father. What is it? I am lost because I do not know what it is? I may have seen my mother and father die: where did they go? Their bodies returned to the dust but there was something about them that can not be put in to the grave. Where did it go? Until I can figure it out I am lost in a cloud of confusion.
I speak as a man who has no faith in the Word of God because I have been a man who lived without faith in God’s Word. Now; having faith in God’s word gives me great hope: but FAITH REMAINS THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR AND THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN: therefore the reality is future and with patience I must wait for it until it comes. When the reality has come to pass then all doubt and fear will have faded away, but until then I must hide away in Jesus. Jesus is my shelter from the storm of doubt and fear.
It may be that of all the problems man kind is facing; there is no greater problem than the IGNORANCE WE HAVE OF OUR ORGIN AND OUR DESTINY! I believe that all our problems we face in this life are result of being out of harmony with our origin and our journey to our destiny?
Just as it is with electricity which provides so many benefits when it is used properly and allowed to work in harmony with its appliances. Electricity allowed to get out of hand can kill and do great harm. It seems to me that the greatest problem we have is that we try to serve some purpose that we were never meant to serve; we are out of harmony with our purpose.
Isaiah had this revelation: Isaiah Chapter 1:
1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
5. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
7. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Some still have great confidence that man can solve his own problems:
• They trust in their governments.
• They believe their political processes will resolve their problems.
• Some look to the next election thinking a leader will arise to solve humanities problems.
• Some trust in religion.
• Some believe that given enough money to throw at the problem that it will be resolved.
• Some believe that given enough time: the problem will work it’s self out.
• Some believe education will give men the ability to solve their problems.
• Some just deny the problems exist and believe they will go away.
• Some have arisen to believe that if the world could be rid of Jesus the Son of God the other world religions could get along and that our problems will cease!
With all of man’s confidence in his own ability to solve humanities problems the escalation of problems does not diminish. Will man ever learn that he cannot get along with out his creator? All God has to do is let us go our own way and we will plunge head long down the road to destruction.
Isaiah described Israel’s plight as they rejected and rebelled against God:
• The whole head was sick
• The whole heart was faint
• Their country was desolate
• Their cities were burned with fire
• Strangers devoured their lands in their very presence
• Their land was desolate as overthrown by strangers
The daughter of Zion ( )
• Is left as a cottage in a vineyard (shrouded in vines)
• As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers (shrouded in vines)
• As a besieged city (in bondage)
Listen to what Isaiah says in Chapter 1 and verse 9: Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Sodom and Gomorrah were totally destroyed.
Israel; God’s very own chosen people would have destroyed themselves had God not intervened and left them a small remnant.
Nothing has changed; unless God intervenes in human affairs and saves a remnant man is going to destroy himself. If you do not believe me and you have children then just leave them to direct their own way and see which way they go. Every child left to himself will go the way of destruction.
=====================================================
Proverbs 29: 15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
God the Father will not leave his children to themselves:
Hebrews 12th Chapter
8. But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
(Conclusion: The only way that we will be partakers of His Holiness is through The Fathers Chastening. If we are not partakers of His Chastening, then we are bastards and not sons. Any Father that wants his children to avoid the snares of the devil and escape the pit of Hell must not spare the rod of correction. Any child that wants the blessings of his father must submit to the Fathers chastening.
What does it mean to be “a partaker of His Holiness”: This word HOLINESS defies interpretation! Who do you know that can explain this word and provide you with understanding of it? I may not be able to find a dictionary which can document this meaning, but I am persuaded that the One who said that I would need no man to teach me anything for His spirit would teach me all things and bring all things to my remembrance is the one from whom I have received this understanding. So here it is: To be a partaker of His Holiness; I must be separated from sinfulness and joined to Him Holy (or fully, or completely. So as here on earth we dwell; his chastening is to deliver us from sin and make us more and more like He is until we are safe in His arms.)
Sinful men ascribe to themselves qualities much like God’s Holiness.
They recon themselves to be wholly righteous and reject all other standards of righteousness even God’s.
They deny God exists and they deny Him any right and authority to correct them.
The more they reject His chastening the more they alienate themselves from His Holiness.
Instead of being made partakers of his divine Nature and Holiness they are being exercised by a spirit of antichrist that is fitting them for an eternity of separation from God in God’s Jail house: Hell!
Just as the word of God instructs parents in Proverbs 23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Hell: God the Father chastens to deliver His children from Hell.
It may be human to tell those we care for; that we love them so we cannot discipline them, but it is demonic to see those we care for practicing such evil as will surely damn them to Hell and yet refuse to correct them.
What good is our comforting our loved ones living in wickedness for the present if our comforting them in their evil ways will only lead to their destruction in Hell?
It is surely divine and God is not a man that He would only tells us that He loves us but that He cannot bear to discipline us for our eternal good. God will not allow HIS Children to wander down the road that leads to Hell and remain silent and discipline indifferent. He will chastise those whom He loves.
Man’s greatest problem is that they do not know Him who has created them and loved them with so great a love.
Why do we as a people not know God? Furthermore, How can we know anyone and not know the law they live by? The law a person lives by says more about that person than all the speculations we can make. The law a person lives by tells us more about that person than all the intelligence we can obtain from those who do not even have casual relations with that person.
A gracious compliment to pay some one is to report that to know them is to love them. So we can reason that we cannot love someone unless we know them. MANY SAY THEY LOVE GOD; BUT DO THEY KNOW HIM. He says if you love me you will keep my commandments; and if you say you love me and keep not my commandments then you are a liar and the truth is not in you.
1 John 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
AND WE WONDER: WHY THE HEATHEN RAGES?
Psa 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
The Word of God does not avoid the Dark side of Man’s ungodliness: JOB Chapter 24
1. Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?
2. Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.
3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4. They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
5. Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.
6. They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
7. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.
8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
9. They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.
10. They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
11. Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
12. Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: Yet God layeth not folly to them.
13. They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
14. The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. (A thief in the NIGHT!)
15. The eye also of the adulterer waitheth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face.
16. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.
17. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
18. He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.
19. Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.
20. The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
21. He evil entreated the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow.
22. He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
23. Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways.
24. They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
25. And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
Chapter 25:
1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
(Bildad declares his perception of God in verses 2&3)
2. Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.
3. Is there any number of his armies? And upon whom doth not his light arise?
4. How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
5. Behold ( look ) even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. (There is no light outside of God that can make to know and understand his purpose and be at peace with himself and his world.)
6. How much less man, that is a worm? And the son of man, which is a worm?
Proverbs 27:21
As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.
What do you praise?
What do you worship?
What do you hold in high honor?
What do you seek after?
What is it that has captured the affection of your heart?
What is it that has captivated your thoughts?
What is it that has become the topic of your most enjoyable conversations?
What is it that your heart pants after like the hart pants after the water brooks?
As the fining pot for silver so is a man to his praise.
As the furnace for gold so is a man to his praise.
Whatever a man praises (or worships) he is consumed by it. He becomes like unto it. He is molded by it. He is shaped by it. He is identified by it. He is transformed by it.
The things men love separate them into all sorts of categories such as football teams, baseball teams etc. Nations begin as men who have a common creed or love. Religions begin as men who have a common purpose or object to love. Because nothing of this physical world can unify all men this characteristic of man destines him to struggle in a world against all such as who would oppose that which he loves and praises. If there is no ultimate supreme Object or thing that can command all men’s praise and devotion; then humanity is damned to a never ending struggle between men that are consumed by a passion to praise different opposing objects and things. So spreads the seeds of downfall in every society. So spreads the seeds of corruption and destruction of every nation. So spreads the seeds of corruption and disintegration.
So every individual man is as a “FINING POT”! who will be tested by the affections of his heart.
Not only will a “FURNACE” separate gold from it’s impurities; the fire will cause the gold to separate from the silver!
The fire will separate the sum total of whatever is put into it in to the individual elements according to what ever they are. So it is with man that is consumed by a love of the corrupt things of this world that cannot endure the fire. The fire will try every man’s work. Our God (Our creator ) is a consuming fire.
Like a fining pot for silver and like a furnace for gold! The fire liquefies the metal allowing the impurities to separate from the element being purified. The fire will consume any impurities which are flammable and reduce other impurities to worthless dross.
Every mortal human being has an obligation to seek their God and Creator, but no man can rest until he has found the One True and living God. Until men the world over come to terms with the fact that they cannot just conjure up a god to suit their own desires and that they must give account of them selves to their creator they will never solve their problems and they will never have peace. Jesus is the prince of peace and there is no peace for the wicked; thus saith the Lord. God will never leave his children to themselves to wander undisciplined and down the road to destruction. Nor will God save the children of wickedness from the destruction that awaits them down the road they have chosen as they reject Him.
Now, let me conclude with this: If you still have hope in humanitarian means of resolving our problems, then you do not realize the horrible state of man’s ruin by sin. Sin has so ruined man that he can never solve his own problems. Sin has damned man to destruction. Sin has so alienated man from his God and creator that in his sin cursed state he is the enemy of God and has no hope of reconciliation on his own. God cannot allow man to continue on in man’s folly of believing man can solve sin’s problems without God. The actuality of God’s dealings with man is to run us all through HIS WINEPRESS, with the purpose of completely breaking the rebellious will of man by bringing man to a state of complete humiliation over any confidence he may have in the flesh. Without God’s divine intervention all man kind will be destroyed. God has intervened in human affairs at Calvary, and offered man a solution. Now God is taking note of what man is doing with his offer. It only remains to be seen what God is going to do with those who reject his offer! What are you going to do with God’s offer for peace? Have you surrendered to Jesus as Lord? Are you still in rebellion? Is it not plain to see that the more the world rejects Jesus the less peace they have? Don’t fool your self and continue down the broad road to destruction, just because the majority of the world is headed in that direction! He loved us while we were yet sinners and Christ died for us.
If you have read the above and still think this is a joke; then consider this invitation: Would you be interested in joining up to fight against God?
YES; you heard right: The question is would you (YOU) be interested in joining up to fight against God?
I have ask a lot of people this question and so far I have not found anyone interested in fighting against God. Some I have gone back to and ask over and over again just to see if they might be so persuaded and yet no one is willing to step right up and take on God.
What makes that strange is this: If no one is fighting against God; then why do we have all the trouble that we have in this world?
Either the trouble we have is directly caused by God because it is his nature to do so: which defies any concept of God I can come up with; or the trouble we have in our world is the result of men fighting against God.
I really believe that the strife and problems all societies face are the result of men fighting against God. It would be pure insanity to believe God would create a world with such madness where that if we lived in harmony with him we would be plagued with such problems.
But, let us get back to the proposition of joining forces to fight against and whip
God.
If you could whip / defeat the world champion then think what reward and honor you could possess. If you are in contention for the world championship then that means that some day you will have to climb in the arena and face the champion. You will have to stand toe to toe with God and face to face with him and you will have to defeat him or you lose.
If a man here on earth fights against God then that means there is coming a time when he will have to go head to head and toe to toe with God; now you tell me who you think will win.
Yes; go ahead and laugh your self silly; but know this either you are carnally minded or you are spiritual minded. The only way to be spiritually minded is to get in God’s word until God’s word gets in you. Then your mind will think like the word and you will act like the word. You will treat others like the word and all of your actions and dealings will be rooted and grounded in God’s word.
You may sit in church regularly and you may confess to be a Christian, but if your mind is carnal: you are deceived and you are God’s enemy and you are fighting against Him. If when the Word of God is read or quoted: you say well I believe it like this or I believe it like that and you have to add your own twist to it to be comfortable with it you are carnal minded. You are under the curse of adding to or taking away from the word of God. If you neglect the Word of God and simply choose to allow nature to run its course you are carnal minded and you are in trouble.
Paul says to be carnal minded is to be at enmity with God. The carnal mind makes you the enemy of God. Carnal minded people are fighting against God. Carnal minded people do not know that they are fighting against God, but it makes no difference; any part of creation that acts contrary to the will of the creator is defying God and that means that for God to remain God: He cannot let his creation get out of Control He must exercise his Devine Sovereignty and His creation must submit unto Him and that is what makes Him God. God needs no sanction from the religious infidels of this world to Be God. God is not intimidated or threatened by any one man or by the lot of all men being against Him; He is God and just as easily as He created us He can destroy us. But for the present:
Acts 17: He has made all men, of all nations, of one blood and hath set the bounds of our habitations that if by chance we might happily seek after Him though He be not far from any one of us.
So how many times has God crossed your path? How many close encounters have you had with the God who is near to every one of us? How many times have you heard the Gospel of how God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son to die on Calvary; that whosoever believeth in Him might have eternal life, and yet you still choose to reject Him!
The Greatest Problem you have and the whole world has is they do not know God! And they only have themselves to blame for not seeing Him who is so near and seeking Him who has set the bounds of our habitation and created us to seek after Him. Where will you be when you wake up in eternity?
Now; do not think there is any relationship between joining any religious or social group and “KNOWING GOD”. Many religious groups claim that they know God; and for certain there are those in these religious groups that are zealous even to the point of killing themselves and others in the name of their cause; but knowing God means experiencing His Divine Nature. God is LOVE; that is His Divine Nature. This perfect Love casts out all fear. The Man that really knows God his creator is free from all fear. Men that really know God their creator can face any man, any trial, any enemy, and anything without fear because they know God their creator. The man that is consumed with zeal and gives his all for his cause but is driven by fear does not know God his creator and will never find God his creator; but will be consumed by his fears and false idol gods and spend eternity separated from God his creator and the peace and joys of God.
The End
Written by:
Larry S. Gooden updated Dec. 29, 2007
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