Because its easy to be rude on the internet;
Okay, but I'm more concerned with why and what lesson is in it for me.I want to know why I say the things I say,why I reacted negative to someone, why were they negative or rude, how did I take it, how did it make me feel, how did it make them feel, was I carnal puffed up, angry, disappointed, etc. etc. The questions in my head and heart never stop day and night, and it all leads to basically the same thing. It humbles me to know that all is of God. It makes me stop blaming and judging people out of anger and offense, and expectations, because God is in control. Things and people are as they are for us to learn and be humbled. We are tested over and over and will continue to be tested until God gives us a passing grade.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I've learned from, and see in Rays writing attached below.
Lake of Fire part15
THEY KNEW NOT THAT IS WAS OF THE LORD
This "knowing not" is still the problem with the world and with God’s people and church. If they only "KNEW" what the Lord is doing and why He is doing it, there wouldn’t be a thousand differing denominations in the church today. If they only "KNEW" that their lives are totally in the hands of God they wouldn’t be as spiritually frustrated as many are. If they only "KNEW" that ALL IS OF GOD, they could have a quiet confidence that all will turn out well, not for just those who "are loving God," but eventually for the whole world.
"That they may SEE, and KNOW, and CONSIDER, and UNDERSTAND together, that THE HAND OF THE LORD HAS DONE THIS…" (Isa. 41:20).
Done what? Done only the "context, context, context" of Isaiah chapter 40 only? Or the context of the whole book of Isaiah only? No, the entire Bible is filled with such statements regarding a whole plethora of thoughts, plans, and activities of mankind, in every conceivable context:
"And ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD…" (II Cor. 5:18).
"For OF HIM, and THROUGH HIM, and TO HIM, are ALL THINGS: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Rom. 11:36).
"For it became Him, FOR Whom are all things, and BY Whom are all things…" (Heb. 2:10).
"And He is before ALL things, and by Him ALL things consist" (Col. 1:17).
"In Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who WORKS ALL THINGS AFTER THE COUNSEL OF HIS OWN WILL" (Eph. 1:11).
"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me.
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, MY COUNSEL SHALL STAND, and I WILL DO ALL MY PLEASURE: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes My counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I WILL ALSO BRING IT TO PASS; I HAVE PURPOSED IT, I WILL ALSO DO IT" (Isa. 4 6:9-11).
"The lot is cast into the lap; but the WHOLE DISPOSING THEREOF IS OF THE LORD" (Prov. 16:33).
"For it is GOD which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
"The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, IS FROM THE LORD" (Prov. 16:1). [Regardless of the proper translation of the first half of this verse, the second half is emphatically] "…FROM THE LORD."
"O Lord, I know that the way of man is NOT IN HIMSELF [not in his will or choice] it is not in man that walks to direct his steps [he is not ‘free’ to choice where he will walk]" (Jer. 10:23).
"Man’s goings [steps] are OF THE LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?" (Prov. 20:24).
But of what value are these many Scriptures that I have cited if we don’t believe any of them? Is there even ONE Scripture that I have cited above that you believe to be an ABSOLUTE AND TRUE STATEMENT OF GOD regarding man and his ability to will and choose independently of God? Well if you can agree that even ONE of them is absolutely true, then you must admit that God and the Scriptures allow no place for any reality of man having his OWN WILL that is FREE from the sovereignty of God’s operations of all.
No, it was "the hand of the LORD" that caused Israel to first say they would obey and later decide to not obey. It was "the hand of the LORD" that caused Joseph’s brothers to hate him, sell him into slavery, and then later to bow down to him. It was "the hand of the LORD" that put Samson and the Philistine woman together, but as with these and hundreds of more dealings by "the hand of the Lord" mentioned in Scripture, they "KNEW NOT THAT IT WAS OF THE LORD."
Do you "know NOT" that all that you have said and done today, "was OF THE LORD?"
Most of humanity is born, lives, does evil and good, then dies, and "KNEW NOT THAT IT WAS OF THE LORD."
In Part C of this series, I will show you a statement where God Himself tells us that when He uses someone for His purpose, the one being used thinks that he himself is planning and carrying out the desires of his own heart and is making the choices of his own will; whereas God tells us that it is HE and not the one being used that is in totally control of everything, and that the one being used is totally unaware that he is being used like an inanimate object that doesn’t even have a brain!
Yes, God tells us that this is how He operates in ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH! A few have been aware of God’s operation of all, down through the centuries; most however, have not. I will share these Scriptures with you next time. Robots? Nay, we are but clay (albeit ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ clay, Psalm 139:14) in the hands of the Master Potter.