THE UNIVERSE!
The whole thing is as bizarre as it can be.
Think about space, if you took God away, what is left?
Is there anything out there left?
Is there space?
Is it dark?
Is it light?
What is it then?
We think if we take away the creation you have black, cold, space. Three things in space, it’s black, dark and very cold, absolute zero and not a lot of room to do it in.
It’s interesting that most scientist don’t believe that space is eternal. They believe it came into existence with a big bang and time. Hence we have the space, time and matter continuum. All started at the same time.
So I say that God is perfect, that’s why He doesn’t change now and Christ doesn’t change. But did He ever? Because I have to answer a question. Where did God get patience?
[Someone ask the question: where did He learn obedience?]
I think He learned obedience before He was born and reduced down to a man and so on and so forth.
Left to His own we know what He could accomplish.....nothing. He said so, “I can of mine own self do nothing:”(John 5:30). Because He had the Spirit without measure, He could not sin. Now Christ had to sweat bullets to do it, but it was still God doing it.
God puts us in the same situation, we have to live our lives. You may say, well I’ll just kill myself. Not unless God wants you to, you can’t kill yourself if God doesn’t want you to. Everybody that ever killed themselves, it was after God said, ok, now you are going to kill yourself.
He is in control of EVERYTHING, through circumstances. He doesn’t make anyone kill themselves against their will, no. But He puts them into situations where they can’t tolerate life anymore and their own will becomes, I want to kill myself.
[Someone ask the question: is that why Christ was always in prayer?]
Well yes, it’s like the old saying; act like it all depends on you and pray like it all depends on God. That’s the way you should live your life. He could not help but pray.
What appears to be contradictions are not contradictions, when you have a higher spiritual understanding of what it’s talking about.
Let me show you a perfect example and it sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not.
Phi 2:12 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
Doesn’t that contradict this whole thing, we’re saved by grace and not of works? And now we’re to work out our own salvation? What is that? How do you explain that? “ Of Myself I can do nothing…” (John 5:30), and he said YOU can do nothing, He said to the apostles. Then Paul says “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Well it does sound like a contradiction. Read the next verse, He tells us why. ‘For,’ now that word always means ‘because,’ it’s another word for because.
Phi 2:13 “For(because) it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Some of you probably still don’t get the answer, but it is there. Work out your own salvation, is not the gist of that saying, He is not saying, work out your own salvation. No, he’s saying “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, that’s where the emphases is, on fear and trembling, not on work out your own salvation. You work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, why? Because it all depends on God. If God doesn’t do it, it won’t happen, IT WON’T HAPPEN. So we live in fear and trepidation.
I can not drive down the street, being the safest driver I can, and know that I will avoid an accident, if God has already determined I’m going to have one. What it doesn’t mean is you can drive down the road foolishly or you don’t need to wear a seat belt or close your eyes for a while or something like that.
But you do act it out. Why? You have to, He makes you. He made you come out of your mother’s womb, and He made you cry. Not that He forced you, but circumstances, He brought about all the circumstances. He made you cry, makes you grow and makes you fight with your kid brother. You do all these things and people reach a place where they get tired of it. So we have plays ‘Stop the world I want to get off,’ I’ve had enough….I’m at the end of my rope…. it’s the end of the line. Well it’s only the end of the line if God has determined it’s the end of the line. If say you came to that conclusion at 8:30, and He knows you won’t die until your 77 1/2, your not going to end it.
That’s where the fear and trepidation come in, it all depends on God, there’s nothing you can do. But YOU have to work it out. YOU have to get up and go to work. And YOU have to do all this stuff. And then you say I don’t want to, well circumstances make you.
So you think, I’ll just end it all, then your child comes up and says ‘Mommie.’ Now you say, oh gosh I have a child, I can’t kill myself I’ve got to live for my child. You see? And so God makes you live this life. He makes you do all this, HE MAKES YOU DO IT. But not against your will. He puts you in circumstances and that’s the only way you can go. The ONLY way!
You think, I shouldn’t have done this or that. That’s right you shouldn’t think that way. You should think, that I shouldn’t have done that, because then you are learning. And when you learn, you will then put that into practice. Because God doesn’t have you learn things so you can’t put them into practice. He has you learn things so you CAN put them into practice. But the only way you will learn them, is if you see how stupid it was, and you say if I had it to do over, I wouldn’t have done that. So you had to do them, because that led to a lot of trouble and pain and sorrow. But did you learn your lesson? Well yeah. Then don’t do it again, Ok, now they're back on track.
But the whole human race does not comprehend, they do not have free-will. They have a will based on everything, that everything makes them do. That’s their free-will.
When you think about this you can go crazy, because the whole thing is bizarre.
Indeed it is!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again Kat for making all these audios available in print, your tireless efforts are a blessing to all that access these pages.
Also, I wanted to add a few scriptures that I believe underline what Ray has written here;
Exo 34:10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
Deu 8:15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;
Num 20:5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.
Isa 28:21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
His Peace and Wisdom to all my Brothers and Sisters,
Joe