For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
For those of you who believe in the saved by grace doctrine, this verse tells you a different story than what the Lord showed me this morning. It actually is the same message as the past few days, except with a different twist. And that twist is for the people who are upset with God because of something really tough in your life. Or those people who claim there is not God, because how can a god allow so many problems in the world.
When you believe the lie about grace, thinking you do not need to do any works, it keeps you in sin. The Lord made it clear in a few different ways, like “you reap what you sow” and “you will know them by their fruit.”
It is so obvious to a truly born again believer how these verses tell the story not only of living a good life, but also working out of your salvation. The simple answer to both is hearing and obeying the lord so the works you do are righteous in him and result in bearing good fruit. Fruit worthy of repentance. You can never bear good fruit with doing your own works, they must be done in Yeshua. You cannot remain on the narrow path without the guidance of the Holy Spirit nor can you even enter into the Kingdom unless you allow the Holy Spirit to convict you of sin, that is show you how you are living and what is wrong with it so you can make the changes necessary to do them right.
So back to the thing of why God allows problems. It has everything to do with your free will. Your right to live your life how you want to live it. Most religions teach some trash that you can live however you want and God still loves you and will bring you to heaven. But it is not true at all. We must be born again and then do the good works we were created to do.
God sees it all, and he does not come and make you see the truth and live in what he shows you. You have to make the decision to seek him and then live in his truth he shows you. So all of us make big mistakes, some of us worse than others. But we are bearing fruit according to our works, what we sow. As said yesterday, if you plant orange seeds you will not get an apple tree. Nor can an orange tree grow in a place like Iowa, it is too cold in the winter and will kill the tree.
But in essence this is what we do, we sow bad seeds in how we live, then expecting the works to turn out good.
As an example, a man I know told how much he did for his kids by working overseas, making good money and sending them to expensive schools. And how his kids really want nothing to do with him. He also cheated on his wife (their mother) and they got divorced. To many people the schooling thing sounds like what a great dad to make a sacrifice like that. But the list of things this man did is much larger than this and destroyed his family. Kids do not need you to go and make a lot of money, they need you there for them and not stuck in daycare, then school for other people to raise them for you. This man also did not pay his income taxes for the years overseas and owed a few 100’s of thousands of dollars in back taxes, and a few more stories.
Same with your wife, if he stayed in the US with his wife, they would maybe have a better relationship and still be married.
So the point is when I met this man, he could barely talk, he stuttered a lot just wondering why him? He did not see the part that it was a result of his decisions. And the majority of the people blame God for their mess instead of letting God show them what they did wrong and how to do things right.
So instead of God ignoring the sinful and dysfunctional stuff you do, pretending like he does not see your sin, like they teach these days. God does see it and allows the results to be what they will be because you deserve it. This is the majority of the cases.
There are times where something happens to you beyond your decisions. Like maybe you are driving along and a drunk driver hits you, causing serious harm. Or like the girls we adopted, who were born into dysfunction with drug addict parents who were more concerned about the next fix than their kids. And many of these kids end up in a different bad situation.
A simple example I think of often is with my dog of 12 years. She has been with us since the beginning, her life is easy. Always has food and water and love. And I see these dogs in the street, skinny and many times without hair because of bugs. Many times they are also very reluctant to come up to you because they have been abused so often.
Those things are beyond God also, because he is not the one who chooses for your mother to do drugs and sleep around. But you are the one who has to pay the price for the seed they sow. However, you also do not have to stay there. I look at my wife and where she came from and where she is now. Truly an amazing story of overcoming. From alcohol abuse, physical and sexual and mental abuse at home. Dirt poor, searching the streets to find food to eat. No bathroom… Anyone coming from a life like that has a reason to be upset with life. My calamity came because of my stupid choices, as my family upbringing was good for the most part. Her calamity had nothing to do with her choices. But her life now at 50 is totally dependent on her choices or the seed she sows. And she knows this. Most people do not know this and continue to sow bad seeds expecting different results which never come. She knows her past has nothing to do with her future, it happened, it is over and she is a better person for having lived through it and overcoming.
The man I mentioned above had some bad things from childhood, but nothing like my wife. And he is 70 now and keeps doing t=sutpid things, sowing bad seeds and reaping the bad results. Some of which affect me, but I let them fall off me and allow the Lord to take care of him for me. After all “vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay.”
So this is the message from today, similar to the others about sowing good seeds, doing good works in Yeshua. Instead of following the men teachers who tell you that you do not need to change, or maybe the tell you that you need to change according to the bible, but you will still sin and it is OK. Then feel sorry for you when you get cancer or your child does and dies. Or you get divorced, or you child runs away from home, or???
We must understand this relationship of you reap what you sow, so that we start sowing good seed based on what Yeshua is telling us to do. And that there is a righteous God who sees it all and rewards us according to our works. But he also allows the problems to come to those who continue to do bad works, his hope is that in the bad works you repent and seek truth and do things the right way going forward. And this is what faith is, and this is what God means when Paul wrote the above verse about works. This is exactly what he meant when he said it is your “faith” and that not of yourself. YOur faith must be in Yeshua not your religious beliefs and then your works must be in Yeshua, not of yourself or your own works which will NEVER be good enough in the eyes of God.
As a reminder to the example I used yesterday about street preachers and Jehovah Witness. They think by going out and trying to bring more people into their church system, they are saving souls and giving a better life. But in the eyes of God these are bad works because their message keeps the people in the sin and makes them a member of their religion and ways and not the way of God. This is what Paul was saying with your works are never going to be good, lest you boost. You are kicking against the goads as Paul was before his conversion.