Choose life always
A team of archaeologists found two different cups in Ireland. It was found that such cups were used 200 years before Christ. In the seventh century A.D., the same individuals utilised the other. The first cup was used to worship evil demons as God. The cup has various facets, one of which includes a story about their god engraved into it. An illustration shows a man being thrown upside down into boiling oil by a hungry giant guy (the devil).
Human beings were fed to the gods whenever they were hungry. These gods demanded blood and flesh sacrifices from their people. A man of God from an unbelieving family told me a similar story. His father was a fortune teller. They demanded his blood when his father requested for the ability to predict the future. His father sacrificed blood to the ghosts at midnight by cutting his hand. The blood drops vanished before they touched the ground.
Prior to blessing them, these demonic spirits ask for blood sacrifices.
Those illustrations engraved in that valuable cup are well known to many people.
These same folks used the second cup in the seventh century A.D. It was during this time that those same Irish tribes became followers of Jesus Christ. During their worship, they also used this cup. It was crafted from silver and is a rare and precious antique cup. This cup also featured carvings depicting their God, who had sacrificed himself to redeem them. This cup symbolized Jesus Christ's love. He is a wonderful God. He is not a God who requires your blood and flesh. He does not demand anything from you. He is the God who sacrificed Himself for us.
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Romans 8:32
During my childhood, a common saying in our neighbourhood was "God will pluck your eye."
Throughout our lives, we have been taught that God is bad and punishes people for making mistakes. Some people claim that God punishes them for something they've done in the past when they suffer from something. To ensure that individuals understood the lesson properly, they made them suffer more. Our ears are always filled with stories about people going through all of this. The belief that God is teaching us something in the midst of misfortune or suffering is common to many. God will never turn misery into a lesson for us. It is believed that we are being tested by God when we are tempted.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
James 1:13
This text cautions us not to say God is tempting us. That can only indicate one thing: God is not tempting us. He tempts no one and uses no evil to do so.
The sister of a beloved family recently told how her family had been persecuted by their neighbours. In prayer together, they asked God to break the neighbour's leg. It relieved them to learn that their neighbour had to spend two lakhs on his surgery.
This way of thinking will lead to people blaming God if anything happens to their leg as well. When they suffer a bad outcome, they won't be able to figure out what they did wrong. For everything, they will automatically blame God.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,But now I keep Your word.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted,That I may learn Your statutes.
Psalm 119:67,71
A member of our congregation prayed for more trials and tribulations in her life. Her reasoning was that God's laws could only be learned that way.
Here is what you must do if you want to learn God's laws.
THE BIBLE is a book that God has given to us.
The law of God can only be learned if you open God's Word and read it.
In the 71st verse, David stated that being tormented was beneficial to him. The 67th verse gives an explanation for why he was afflicted. David had gone astray.
Let's say I'm driving hurriedly to Manamadurai for my ministry work. The highway construction is in full swing. If I ignore the roadside sign that says "Take Diversion," I'll end up in a pit.
If I stepped onto the pulpit after having my legs and wrists bound and preached, "It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your statutes". The statute I learnt was - ‘Even though I know the road very well and have been regularly driving it for many years, I need to pay attention to the sign’. If I had paid attention in the first place, I wouldn't have gone astray and become afflicted.
An advertisement for talcum powder featured a girl on a bicycle. A boy stared at a girl till he slammed with a post. It would be foolish for the boy to gaze up and ask God why He permitted this to happen. It is now up to him to use the eyes and senses that God has already given him.
Affliction is not always a good thing, and it does not always lead to learning God's laws. The only reason he was afflicted was that he went astray. Such temptations do not come from God. There have been many questions raised about why God did not stop man from sinning in the Garden of Eden.
God placed man there knowing he was going to trespass. Why did he allow the man to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
In spite of God's revelation of the answer to the question, man still chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Death was one of the consequences of man's choices. All of mankind fell victim to it, not just one person.
There are limits to one's choices. I have the option of touching the fire or not touching the fire. There is no other option after touching the fire. There is no way of knowing whether it will be hot or not.
Not everything is God’s doing. We see in the following verse what God has made his saved covenant people to be like.
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil,
16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.
Deuteronomy 30:15,16
God put life and death before us to choose. He is not holding the choice in heaven. He does not choose to bless only those he likes and curse those he despises. God has placed the decision straight before us. We must make the appropriate choices. You cannot continue to blame God and question why He allows unpleasant things to happen to you. God placed the entire choice ahead of us.
God put life and death before us to choose. He is not holding the choice in heaven. The Lord does not choose to bless only those who are in his favour and curse those who he dislikes. We have been presented with a clear choice by God. It is important for us to make the right choices. There is no point in blaming God and asking why unpleasant things keep happening. It is up to us to make the right choice.
A man in his 80s came to see me one day. At 84, he was diagnosed with diabetes unexpectedly. The doctor asked him to go for screening and he wasn't sure whether he should. Furthermore, he was concerned about why God had allowed diabetes to develop after 84 years. Throughout the conversation, he kept mentioning how he was the first man saved from his village. A number of his children and grandchildren have settled across nations in the medical field. As he was now satisfied with all the blessings his family has received, he began to pray to God to take his life.
2 You are snared by the words of your mouth;You are taken by the words of your mouth.
Proverbs 6:2
The 84-year-old man's prayer was simply a small opening for the devil to enter. It's like lighting a wick on a roof. It is likely that people will notice the large home fire, but ignore the tiny cause, such as a man throwing his cigarette. Each of us has experienced a significant loss in our lives, but understanding why is crucial. Most of the credit goes to our tongue. Choose life over blaming God later. The choice is always yours!
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