Saying So doesn't make it so...

We are losing our minds. Actually, it's worse than that. We are giving our minds away. We are simply declaring things to be so that are not so, because we want it to be. It doesn't matter what the Bible says, all that matters is what we want. There's a great danger in doing that which is right in our own eyes. If we do what we want based on our fleshly desire, it will destroy us. That's what the Word of God says. Well, that's what it says before we get ahold of it and mangle it to fit our design.

Born a male? Born a female? Not happy with a gender being imposed upon you by an authoritarian demagoguery? Then just say you don't identify with what you are. Everyone will have to support your false narrative. Who are we to question what someone wants, right? Don't like being told by your boss that you have to perform a task to accomplish their desired result? Then quit, you don't have to be controlled by anybody. Don't like the fact that your spouse wants you to live within the parameters of a closed relationship? Then kick that negativity to the curb, you have got to go and live your best life. Someone told you that you can't spend more than you make or borrow more than you can pay back? Good night, you know that God will just give you what you need to pay for it all. Besides, He wants us to be happy. That's His only concern, right?

Wrong. God alone knows what is true and right. He alone knows what is dangerous to us. He alone knows the schemes of our enemy. He knows our weaknesses, He knows where we are weak. He gave us His eternal Word to guide us in this life. He says no when we are going to engage in something that will cause us harm. It is not to keep us from something that will bring us joy. It may appear that way at first, but He sees the end from the beginning. In the Garden, satan's offer made perfect sense to Adam and Eve. It pleased their flesh, it appealed to their pride. It relegated God to a cosmic killjoy, a deity determined to keep them from true happiness. The enemy made it appear that God was keeping them from their best life. In actuality, He was keeping them from their worst death. When they sinned against the command of God, in the ultimate act of mercy and grace, God provided for them a sacrifice to cover their sin until the day that God would provide His promised sacrifice, His Son. 

Nothing has changed since the very beginning. The devil still walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. How does he do it? The same way he did in the Garden. He tells you it's alright to reject the commands of God because you have a valid excuse. Past hurts? Live in anger. Bad parents? Reject authority. Mistakes? Live in depression. Hypocrisy in the Church? Deny God. Basically, if you don't like something that God instructs us to do, don't obey it. Use an excuse, do it your way, and then demand God and everyone get over it if they don't like it. The problem with that logic is that it doesn't help you in the long run. For a time you may seem to be getting along just fine. Freedom from judgement, peace from the fight, and the euphoria of finding your true self only last a short time. When the high resides, you find that the devil lied. You are not only not any better off, you are now worse. 

To cover your eyes and say that someone can't see you does not make you invisible. To say you are not miserable does not make it so. If you want to change your circumstances, you must change your situation. You will never heal if you refuse the Healer. You will never know peace if you reject the Prince of Peace. You will never create a new life for yourself by refusing God's offer of being born again. Doing it your way got you nowhere in the process of finding joy. God made us. He formed us as we are. In this life we feel the effects of the curse of sin and death. Bad things happen. Parents fail. Sickness befalls us. Spouses are unfaithful. People don't always keep up their end of the bargain. This is not God's fault. He has provided us with His Word, the answer to all. We reject it and suffer the consequences. That's on us, not Him. 

Stop living a lie. Trust that the Lord of heaven and Earth loves you, that He wants what is best for you. If you wanted to walk into a store to get something you wanted, but the security guard knew there was a dangerous person inside and he stopped you at the door and said not to go in, would you tell him to stop trying to control you and deny you your happiness? That is unfortunately what many do every day when the Lord tries to want them of the danger that awaits them if they travel down a path laid out by their enemy. We have traded the Truth of God for a lie. We have called evil good and good evil. We have denied the Creator and His natural order, and worshipped the creation and reject, even seek to create a new order. What is this new order? It is the vision of a world completely free of any sovereign God. A world where we live according to the desire of the flesh. A world where human emotion rules, love reigns supreme, and no one is forced into some theocratic system. A brave, new, liberated world. 

It sounds so good, so right to our flesh, but it is all the same old lie told by satan from the beginning. We don't need a new way, we need to follow the only Way. We don't need a new truth, we need to follow the only Truth. We don't need a new life, we need to follow the only Life. You will never be able to liberate yourself from the burdens of this world, the consequences of sin. The devil cannot drive out the devil. Only Jesus can set us free. He doesn't set us free to live in the flesh. He sets us free and gives us His Spirit to lead us way from the filth and garbage of this world, to give us power over the flesh. We don't need to find new path to happiness, we need to travel the only path their is to happiness, the Word of God. We don't need a new light to come, we need to surrender to the Light of the World.

Today, your friends may encourage you to just be you. Your family may support your decision to be who you want to be. Society may celebrate your decision with you. If your decision is to walk in any way contrary to what the unadulterated Word of God commands, you are simply being led to destruction. God is able to heal, restore, renew, set free, truly liberate you. You don't need to be set free from the Word of God, you need to be set free by it. Stop running from the conviction of God and run to it. It is not a mean, austere, and non-compassionate divinity that is waiting to crush you and drain the joy out of your life. It is a loving, merciful, and compassionate Father that wants to give you new life in this world and eternal life to come. 

Yield to His conviction. It is not His hate you will experience, it is HIs love. To remain in sin and continue to practice immorality will lead to death and hell. Choose life today. Receive His Word. Be changed by it. Stop trying to kick against Him. You may resist His offer of grace to be born again, but you will not be able to resist the eternal judgement that will follow this life. Their is no utopia that man can build. It is fabricated by illusions, built upon lies. You are not happy living against the will of God. Be honest. Come home. Come home to the Lord. People will fail you but He never will. You will fail Him, but He will not cast you out. Live His way, according to His Word, and know life. Life more abundantly. ​​