This weeks subject references a question I had when I was an unbeliever and then again when I became a new believer. I received answers to my question from my personal time with God. Now, when I have questions and I do not want a religious or christianese answer, I get alone with God. I go to Him as my Father and ask these hard questions, that only He can answer. This post is based on my one on one intimate times with God.
Before I became a follower of Jesus, I was a heathens heathen. I started drinking, drugging and having sex between the ages of 9-11. I grew up hard on the streets of Pennsylvania. I learned how to party, fight and steal. As I grew up, my taste for the wilder side of life grew. Between the ages of 16 through 20, I became a chronic alcoholic and a drug addict. I do not believe I drew many sober breaths in those days. By the time I came to Christ at the age of 23 I was wild and crazy. I slept with over 30 women and almost killed two people in two very violent fights. I had my first child at 17. I also managed to kill myself by the age of 17. I was pronounced dead in the Emergency Room. I remained dead for over 6 minutes.
During that time I went to what the Bible calls, “Outer darkness.” I heard the Lord during those six minutes, (although I did not know it was Him at the time). He gave me the will to live by showing me my unborn son and asked “If I wanted to be there for Him.” I came back without medical assistance and scared my future sister-in-law half to death. Two years later, after being kicked out of the Army and deported from Germany, I found myself divorced. This started me on the road to recovery in the “12 step program”. Then in 1986 I received Jesus as my Savior at a revival meeting. I have been sober ever since.
Why did I share all that about my old days? To glorify, relive and brag about my wild past? No, I shared that for my readers, who do not follow Christ. I wanted them to know that I am not some religious preacher, who never has been in the real world. I want people to know, that I know what it is like to live life without God. I also want you to know what is like today to have Him as my Father and what He has done in my life.
So now let’s answer this question.
Why God, Do you take all the fun out of life?
Why so many rules and regulations? Why is sin so fun and being good so boring? These were questions I had in the beginning. I loved the church I was born-again in. But they had one problem, they were very dogmatic and legalistic. When I asked questions, I would just get a bible verse thrown at me. It never satisfied my questions. So when I met God and found out that He likes to have conversations with me I went to Him on a regular basis. He is a great Father and He loves these questions. He loves to teach His children by His Word (The Bible). He also loves to teach His children through one on one time where He alone talks to us.
The answer to me now is obvious. Back then it was not clear until He opened my eyes and I looked at this world through His eyes.
So I asked God these questions. His answers surprised me! I thought His answer would be; “It offends my Holy Nature,” or the reason I use to get from my natural father; “because I told you so!” His answer was plain and simple; “I hate sin because it kills my children.” Think about that! God hates sin because we are his children. He is no different then we are. I also have children and if anyone or anything would threaten or harm them, I would be there to protect them and or eliminate that threat.
What lengths would you go to or how would you feel if someone or something wanted to kill your children?
Why do we think God is different?
Roman 6:23; For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Genesis 2:18; “but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Once again sin kills! God is life and anything other than God’s ways are death; physically and spiritually.
I have heard this question asked many times by unbelievers; So if I do not do what God says, He will kill me or punish me? The answer is no.
Have you ever been told not to put your hands on a hot stove? My parents told me all the time. So once accidentally I touched the hot stove and I got burned! Did I get burned because my parents were angry or punishing me? This is not rocket science. It is because, if you touch a flame with your bare hand you will get burned! If you live in sin and continue in it, it will kill you or anything else you enter it into! Your marriage, work finances. That is what sin does, it kills everything it touches. Sometimes fast but most of the time slowly. It becomes a slow painful process like cancer.
Here are two examples of why we sin. First, God gave us free-will. He did not make us like robots. As His children, we can live our lives as we please. But like that hot flame there are consequences to our actions. If we touch that hot stove, we will get burned! So the first way is through our free-will – our choices. Secondly, there is a fallen Angel who decided to live outside of God. His name was Lucifer, today we know him as Satan, which means deceiver! That is what he does to us, he constantly deceives us. He did it in the Garden of Eden and he does the same today. He deceives, he lies, and tells us that life is better outside of God’s ways. He will attempt to get you, to destroy yourself, your family and your future. Remember, God is life and anything other than that is the opposite (death). That is why God hates sin! It kills his babies.
LET US LOOK AT THE REAL WORLD!
Today nothing has changed. The devil or our own self-will gets us to do what we want to do. Here we are now in 2014 and the world is a mess. The skeptic says, if there is a God, then why does He allow this to happen?
The answer is this. God gave man dominion (management) over this world and his own life. Who runs planet earth? Who is in charge in Washington, Moscow or any government in this world? Who is in charge of your life? The answer is man!
However, when we decide to live life outside of our Father’s ways, we usher in death. We hate the consequences of our actions and decisions. We hate what we see in the world we are living in. Why is that? Sin, like fire does what it does best, it kills. Fire will burn you and sin will kill you if you play with it.
There has only been one who was born and has overcome death, Jesus. He died for the payment of our sins! But then he rose again for He was God and He never committed sin! So He was not obligated to die! He died in our place to pay a ransom for our life, so you do not have to die eternally. So, we can choose to live with our Father for all eternity or we can choose to live this life without Him.
One Real World Example
For sake of time , let us take one example: Sex
This is an easy example to show in our modern world. When used outside the plan of God, sex can be so destructive. Since the “Sexual Revolution” of the 60’s, we have seen some of its results.
According to the Word of God, sex was designed for marriage in the context of one women and one man for all their lives. It was designed for reproduction of our species and also for intimacy and joy among the husband and wife.
Since the sexual revolution here are some of the results that are destroying our American Culture and are helping to destroy Africa.
- Divorce rates: through 1900 (7%), through 1950 (26%), today over 50% of marriages end in divorce and that is only for those who choose to get married. This does not include all those who choose to live together , or separate, with or without children.
- Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD): it is stated that over 1/2 the people in the United States have had an STD!
- Since the sexual revolution we have seen the disease of HIV/AIDS. This disease has infected over 75 million people world wide and 36 million have already died according to statistics from the World Health organization. (By the way, God did not send this disease. This is not a judgement from God. This is what happens when we live outside of God’s will. Sin kills and God knows this. This is why He said not to have sex outside of marriage, to have sex only with your spouse.)
- Since 1973, 50 million unborn children have lost their lives due to abortions. Here are the top 3 reason for abortions;
- not convenient for the women.
- financial instability
- relationship problems/unwillingness to be a single mom
At the very bottom of the list, only 1% of all abortions are for rape and health reasons.
- In the United States alone, there are 683,000 rapes a year, 56,916 a month, 1,871 per day, & 78 per hour.
- Today in the United States alone there are more then 39 million adults who have survived child sexual abuse.
- Pornography is a 5 billion dollar a year industry. One statistic says that in the U.S., for every second of the day, over 28,000 people are looking at porn online.
I know this is not what you want to read over your morning coffee and donut.
God has been getting a bad rap for far too long. Too many blame God for what happens in their lives, when all this time it has been man alone who wants to live his or her life on their own terms.
Do you see how ugly this is? Remember, I only gave you one sin and 7 statistics for that one sin! Now consider all the other sins in this world and start reflecting on all the destruction these sins cause like I did above. You probably would not be able to ever sleep again. Now can you imagine what it is like for God? He sees it all and all the destruction, we create on this planet. How this must wreck God’s heart, when He looks at the planet He created, and looks at the children He loves so much who reject not only His ways but have also rejected Him. Can you now see why God hates sin, and why He works so hard to save his children.
2 Peter 3:9: The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (eternal life)
“I created Intimacy (Sex)”
At the start of this blog I told you that I used to ask God a lot of questions. This is how God chose to answer. The Lord came to me one day as I was watching Television. I love watching Animal Planet and nature shows. As I was watching a show on the ocean and its creatures, it showed the reproduction of a certain fish. As I watched, this female fish came along and layed her eggs. Then shortly after the male came along and fertilized the eggs. He did this by basically tinkling on the eggs.
I had the thought; this is really a boring way to reproduce!
Then I heard the Lord say to me. I could have made you any way I wanted. I could have made mankind just like those fish. Nothing intimate, nothing personal. Just have a women drop her egg and then the man comes after and fertilizes it. But I wanted to bless mankind.
The Lord wanted us to feel the love and the intimacy that comes from being human. All the emotion, the pleasure and the love that comes when a married couple come together as God planned it. God wanted us to feel love because He is Love. God designed sex to bless us. But, as we have seen above with just with one example, man is destroying God’s creation. Man has made it perverted and dangerous. And always for one reason:
Man wants to live life on his own terms in his own way apart from God the Creator of everything.
So I want you to see, that God is no KILL-JOY! He sets up guide-lines to protect us and others around us so we can enjoy all He has created. God does not want to kill our fun. Remember this the next time you think God is out to kill your fun. I hope you you can sit back for a moment or two and look through God’s eyes and see what he has created and how we have perverted it. Reflect on how much destruction it causes when we choose to live life outside of God’s will.
Edited by and most grateful for: Gary Green
Written by Dennis Stauffer
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