Articles
Behold I Thought
Do you remember when you used to plan for a long trip, you would get out your Rand McNally atlas and start mapping the roads and highways that you were going to take to your destination? Then AAA came along with the idea of trip tickets that you could order. They would come in a packet with everything laid out for you. You would sit down and go over the maps and packets to make sure that you knew the right directions and then put them in the car for the trip. Now all you do is program a GPS (Global Positioning System) and you are given every direction possible to get to your destination. A lot of times the GPS knows of accidents that might be on the route you are taking and so it will reroute you. I often thought the first route was better, never thinking that the GPS knew what was ahead. When that happened, I would just ignore the new directions and con-tinue on the route only to find out I should have listened to the direction from the GPS. Behold I thought my ways were better. Two or three weeks ago we went to the Byers. We used the GPS to get there. However, on the way home we could not get the GPS to work I told Barb that I could do it without the GPS but within 2 miles of leaving their house I made the wrong turn and was going in the
wrong direction. We finally got it to work and got back on track and made it home safely. It reminded me how easy it is for us to ignore the directions that God has given us.
In the scriptures we read of a lot of individuals who thought their ways were better than God’s ways. Jeremiah 10:23 says, “O Lord, I know the ways of man is not himself, It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”
Naaman thought the rivers of Abanah and Pharpar in Damascus were better than the river Jordan. I have been able to see the river Jordan and what I saw was a pretty place. The command was to dip in the river Jordan seven times and his leprosy would be cleansed. When he obeyed, he was healed. In the King James Version, Naaman becomes furious because Elisha would not come out. That is when he said, “Behold I thought”. Adam and Eve thought it was okay to eat from the tree of life. Nadab and Abihu thought it was okay to offer strange fire to God. Jonah thought he could run away from God and not go to Nineveh. David thought it was okay to transport the ark of the covenant by cart instead of the poles carried by the priests. Lot’s wife had no idea she would turn into a pillar of salt when she looked back to see the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed. God dealt out retribution to those who disobeyed and rewarded those who listen.
We read in John where Jesus said, “if you love me keep my com-mandments”. He also said that we are His friends if we keep his commandments. Paul writes in 2 Tim. 3:16-17, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Paul also tells us that we need to study to make ourselves approved to God. Men today will not look into the scriptures to make sure they
are doing what God has said. He told the apostles to teach all that He had commanded. Jesus taught in Matthew 7 that not everyone who said Lord, Lord would enter the kingdom of heaven. There would be those who would claim that they had done many wonderful works in His name. However, Jesus said that they worked lawlessness and that He did not know them.
Consider what James wrote in James 1:21-25, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natu-ral face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away and forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of lib-erty and continues in it, ad is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work , this one will blessed in his deeds.”
God has designed this GPS (Godly Positioning System) the BIBLE to help us know what to do and not to do. God has shown us how to make it to Heaven. Do we ignore it? Do we pay more attention to the physical things and get involved in the worldly things than we do the word of God that will lead us to heaven? It is sad to see those who profess to be Christians who are not willing to forgive others of wrongs even the person asks for forgiveness and those who want to add things to scrip-tures that are not authorized by God.
In the day of Judgment what is going to happen? Are you going to be one who said, “behold I thought” only to realize it did matter that you didn’t obey God. Or is it going to be said to you, “Enter into the king-dom of heaven”?
