ISBN-13: 9781492305880 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 88 str.
That you are being tested is unavoidable. Is God wrong by testing us? Not at all It is His fatherly concern for Adam and Eve that led to His warning about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God has no time to play around or spring surprises on anybody. He warned Adam and Eve upfront, because He did not want them to lose their holiness and immortality. But because of unbelief, Eve sought an excuse and got one from Satan, through the serpent. Eve got sold to the serpent's suggestion, not because of the serpent's persuasiveness, but because she had doubts in her heart that what God said would happen, would indeed happen. We pick out certain things in the Bible that we would have preferred to see written some other way. And we modify the word of God to suit our lives instead of modifying our lives to conform to the word of God. It is easier for us to deal with life according to the word of God, as it is written in the Bible if we keep in mind that His word is unchangeable. What He said at the time He created the first man is still valid today and will continue to be through eternity. None of us has any say in it. If we do not have the wisdom to understand what He is saying and abide by it, how then can we have the wisdom to make what He said better? If we have the same capacity as God to make things what we want them to be, why would any of us need God? And would our lives really be better that way? Or would we all be at war with one another since our desires all vary? God's word is the only way any of us is going to live a fulfilling life on this earth. All the wisdom we need; and all the ammunitions we need; and all the personal help we need; are already set up for us in the word of God. It is only our strict adherence to it with humility and dedication that would make our lives better. God gave us His word out of His immense love for us. Picking and choosing what to believe and what not to is a clear indication of our mistrust of God, and constitutes unbelief. It is unbelief that made Ananias and Sapphira, husband and wife followers of Jesus Christ, lie to Apostle Peter about how much money they received from selling their own property. They followed the examples of Barnabas and other disciples in selling their properties and giving the proceeds to the apostles for the upkeep of the fast growing Christians in Jerusalem at the first century AD. But because they did not belief that the same God they were following has enough capacity to take care of all their needs, they decided they were going to keep some of the proceed and lie about it. They had more faith in money than in God. They could have kept the whole thing if they chose. After all, it was their property and they were under no obligation to give anything to anybody, except that they had been partaking of other people's generosity before this time. They were part of the growing movement, and as such, had received Christ as their Lord and Savior and had been baptized. Yet they had unbelief, and acted according to it, by choosing to tell a lie when they needed no explanation to anyone as to their decision over their personal property. And because they had already manufactured this evil in their hearts, and were determined to go through with it, apostle Peter was led by the Holy Spirit to confront them, in the hope they would repent and tell the truth, but they held on to their lie, and instantly lost their lives. They had received the grace, but because of unbelief, they lost their lives (just like Lot's wife). And the other followers were terrified by their story. This is exactly why the Bible says: "But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sin he has committed, he will die." (Ezekiel 18:24).