Deuteronomy 28:1
IF thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
IF is a word used 1,595 times in the KJV
/if/
conjunction (introducing a conditional clause)
God is sovereign, but most just leave it at that and refuse all other responsibility. Kind of a cop out if you ask me, I know, I was there once in my life. The truth is that God created absolutely everything that ever was, both visible and invisible, and can do whatever He feels like doing. If we do what He tells us to do, all is well. If we don’t, we’ll have problems, in this life and the life to come.
I remember my uncle was really skilled with his hands. His only flaw was that he didn’t like engineers, especially those who write assembly instructions. He was convinced that those guys never used even a screw driver in their entire lives. He bought a coffee table from Walmart that had to be assembled. Within an hour he was so frustrated with the instructions that he broke up the coffee table into pieces and burned it in the fire place. My aunt yelled at him for it, and he said “it’s my coffee table, I can do what I want with it!” My uncle had sovereign control over the coffee table like God has sovereign control over us, and everything else that exists. Good thing He’s more patient than my uncle. If the coffee table came with better assembly instructions it would still be in someone’s home to this day. You own something and take care of it If you like it.
In the verse above, notice the word ‘IF’. That’s for us. God is sovereign and He wants to bless us. However, because He doesn’t want robots with artificial intelligence worshipping Him, He puts the ball in our court. If we listen to God, and obey Him, He will bless us. Deuteronomy 28 1-14 talks about all the ways our sovereign God wants to bless us if we let Him. Likewise verse 15 and on talks about what happens if we don’t.
‘If’ is the ‘conditional clause ‘in the contract. You have to listen to God, hear from Him and obey Him. He will bless you if you do. People tell me they are concerned about people who hear from God. I get concerned about people who don’t hear from God. I am not talking about audible voices. We hear from God through His Word, prayer and messages, both in spiritual lectures or from just talking to other people.
In the dump I am concerned for the kids that just go through the motions, acting like they pray and love God but really don’t. They obey us only because they think we won’t feed them if we don’t. (That would never happen by the way, but thats the way they think). They are there, they hear our words and prayers but really aren’t invested in it. It’s hard to impact their lives for Jesus if they aren’t really listening to what we are saying. They feel our love by osmosis and maybe a song or something that they’ll remember down the road. Most drunks and street people in Managua call me their pastor. I wish I could help them more than just by being their friend and buying them something to eat, but they won’t let me. Honestly I would do anything for them if I felt that they would listen to me. But because they refuse, I can’t help them. If they would, I could do so much for them. I think that’s God’s stand as well. He yearns to bless us, if we let Him. God is just, and has set just rules to live by that even He won’t break. God gave Adam and Eve control of the world. He is sovereign, so He could do it. If my uncle built the coffee table he could give it to anyone he wanted to. God built the world and He gave it to Adam. With one condition! Do not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The world was theirs if they followed God’s rule.
Genesis 2:17 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die
We are in a fallen world because Adam failed in the one conditional if word. He lent ‘my uncle’s coffee table’ (the world) to Satan for a while at the moment he obeyed Satan. You serve who you obey. Sovereign God can destroy the world and start all over again if He wants to, but He doesn’t. He’s not mad at us, He’s mad about us. Because it’s a fallen world though He can only do so much until He comes again, and takes it’s control back from Satan. In the meantime, Satan is the one who is the cause for all the problems of this world.
Sovereign God is coming soon and we will be rewarded even more than what we are being rewarded now if we hearken to Him. That is if we walk with Him and are saved by Him.
1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Revelation 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward iswith me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Dean and Winnie Peters
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Joyfully serving the ‘least of these’ in Nicaragua for the glory of God
If
