Mar 28, 2007 - A path not taken

Mar 28, 2007

Yesterday we looked at the jealous nature of God. And while that is true, He is not one sided any more than you or I am. Moses has a lot to say about the nature of God.

Deu 4:28-31 BBE
(28) There you will be the servants of gods, made by men's hands, of wood and stone, having no power of seeing or hearing or taking food or smelling.
(29) But if in those lands you are turned again to the Lord your God, searching for him with all your heart and soul, he will not keep himself from you.
(30) When you are in trouble and all these things have come on you, if, in the future, you are turned again to the Lord your God, and give ear to his voice:
(31) Because the Lord your God is a God of mercy, he will not take away his help from you or let destruction overtake you, or be false to the agreement which he made by an oath with your fathers.

God is a God of Mercy. I can say that not only because the Word says it, but because I have experienced it in my life. I once strayed very far from God but at one point, I started searching for Him with my heart and soul. He did not keep Himself from me, He opened Himself up and said welcome home.

Years ago, before I ran from God, I went to a denominational church whose affiliation I will not mention here. One of their teachings I found a little bit quirky. They taught that when we become a Christian, we start down a straight path to God. As we take that path, there are paths that branch out from it. These are things that tempt us away from God. It was the receiving of the Holy Spirit at various times in our life when we were on those paths, that would turn us back towards the main path. As we went along we never could get back to the straight path, but we got less further away from it each time.

While I still do not agree with its teaching, I see that it is a reality in our lives. We will stumble off track as we move towards God. I personally think that if we want to we can get back on the path. Does that mean I will not stray a little bit off the path in the future? As long as I am a living breathing human being I will. Does that give me a right to stray off the main path? As long as I have Jesus as Lord of my life, the answer is no. When I do, and those gods of my life have me off track, if I turn back to Him, he will forgive me. People in my life do not need to forgive me, but God does, it is His nature. All I need to do is search for Him for He is a God of Mercy.

Scriptures from the Bible in Basic English. The Bible In Basic English was printed in 1965 by Cambridge Press in England. Published without any copyright notice and distributed in America, this work fell immediately and irretrievably into the Public Domain in the United States according to the UCC convention of that time.