Romans 3:23

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Why does God allow us to sin? I am not sure, but think about this. One day we will be united with Jesus in heaven and according to the Bible we will be perfect just like Him. In that era, we will be able to praise Him for what He has done for us, because we will remember who we were apart from Him and apart from His sacrifice for us. If we had not been subjected to sin, seen the horrors of it and struggled with it for a season, we would not be able to appreciate fully what He has done, we could only be told about it. We would only know that we were perfect, just as He is perfect and would never know experientially who we would be without Him.

Isaiah 2:12-18

12 For the day of the LORD of hosts
Shall come upon everything proud and lofty,
Upon everything lifted up—
And it shall be brought low—
13 Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up,
And upon all the oaks of Bashan;
14 Upon all the high mountains,
And upon all the hills that are lifted up;
15 Upon every high tower,
And upon every fortified wall;
16 Upon all the ships of Tarshish,
And upon all the beautiful sloops.
17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
The LORD alone will be exalted in that day,
18 But the idols He shall utterly abolish.

Ever notice when we are faced with something so overwhelming, so much bigger than ourselves, that many things in life that have been placed up high and lofty come down immediately? When you get in the car accident, get a bad report from the doctor, get a call from a family member in jail, or wake up with a 103 fever, you think, I can't believe I got so mad yesterday about the mix up with the phone bill. There are so many things that once dominated our thinking that just don't matter anymore when we are in the process of being humbled by something obviously bigger than ourselves. As the passage describes, the idols disappear, pride goes away, and the things that truly matter begin to take their proper place in our lives. The next time you are blind-sided by one of these kind of events try to remember that whatever it is will work for your good in that respect. This is something nobody wants to be told at the time, but it may help you get through it to know you will come out the other side with better priorities and a better outlook on life.

Luke 24:49; Romans 8:16-17; 1 John 3:2

49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem[i] until you are endued with power from on high.”

This verse contains a promise to the disciples that they will receive the Holy Spirit, and also a command to wait for that promise to be fulfilled. It occurs to me that this is how God consistently relates to His people throughout the Bible. He promises something, then makes the person or people who have been promised wait for it for what seems like forever, and then fulfills the promise. He did it with Abraham, Moses, David, the nation of Israel, even with Jesus, with the disciples in this verse, and now us. Over and over in the Bible, God proves Himself faithful to His Word, even if He often waits so long (by our standards) to fulfill it that we must have faith in Him to avoid discouragement. So what are the things that have been promised to us by Him that are currently in the "waiting stage"? Here are a couple of references that should give us cause for great optimism, since we know that even though He asks us to wait, we know of no example where He has ever failed to deliver on a promise He has given to anybody:

Romans 8
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

1 John 3
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Prverbs29:25

The fear of man is a snare,
but the one who trusts in the Lord is protected.

Another snare for us and another way to get out from under God's protection. This one draws us out with the lie that other people have final say in our happiness, well being, fulfillment and purpose. Sure, another person's behavior is able to make us happy or miserable for a brief period, but the God the only one who is able to sustain us without ever wavering. By fearing man we may or may not achieve short term results, but by fearing God we can develop an unshakable source of confidence, hope and optimism that is not dependent upon how the clerk at the department store treats us or even how a close family member treats us. Not only that, we will also have greater success in our relationships with other people if we ultimately fear God rather than them. This takes the pressure off of the other person and also takes away the temptation for them to try to manipulate us using their opinion of us as collateral.

Proverbs 19:23

23 The fear of the LORD leads to life:
Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

And ignoring the Lord leads to death, then one never rests, because they are overwhelmed by their troubles.

This is true of the Lord but also of anything that has authority over us. If one ignores the rules of the government or of the employer or of parents.... very difficult times are obviously going to follow. How much more then, if we ignore the rules that God has set for us? As long as we are following the laws of the state, the purpose of the police force is to keep us safe from those who choose not to do so. If we decide to break the law, the police force assumes a different role for us, they now must protect other people from us. I believe God treats us in a similar way, although I think He goes a step further in protecting us from ourselves too, whereas the law usually allows us to do whatever we want if we are not hurting someone else. Both the path of transgression and the path of obedience direct us to the same place, under His protective umbrella. Get out from under it and we will find the trouble that will make us want to return to Him, stay under and receive His blessings that make us want to stay there.

Proverbs 15:29; Proverbs 16:5; Proverbs 28:10

29 The LORD is far from the wicked
but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart.
Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

10 He who leads the upright along an evil path
will fall into his own trap,
but the blameless will receive a good inheritance.

When I took my first job out of college I would say I was far away from God. At this job I worked along side a guy who was a real gung-ho Christian, over the top with witnessing and writing "I love Jesus" on work documents and things like that. He got on everybody's nerves and it became kind of the uniting force in the office to slander him and by the end basically to hate him. I was not the leader of that movement against him but was at the very least, a willing and enthusiastic participant. He was somewhat socially inept and his behavior was often inappropriate but he was not really judgmental about it and the response to him by the office was definitely disproportionate to his offenses.

So at some point a plan was devised to convince the boss to force this guy to temporarily transfer to another office in another city. The plan worked and the boss made all of the arrangements to ship him off for awhile. Then, about three days before he was to leave, we went a step further and were able to convince the boss to get rid of him altogether-- to fire him. Well the boss said that he took it very graciously-- he said that the Lord never closes a door without opening another and left the company without incident. We accomplished our goal.

But here's where the story get interesting and the subject verses begin to apply. Since my boss had already made the arrangements for someone to go to the other office, he felt he had made a commitment that he needed to keep. So guess who now had to go--- me! This was maybe the most miserable six weeks of my life. The other office really didn't need anyone so there was nothing to do all day, then more nothingness at night, miles away from my family in a strange town. I also got the flu and couldn't sleep and so was physically miserable as well. Th flu caused me to miss several days of work and when I was there I was depressed, and so became even more of an outsider in the new office. I found myself in a very similar situation to the one I had helped put my former coworker in back home! My desperation prompted me to try to pray (which I had not done in years) but found myself completely cut-off, unable to talk to God.

The good news is God did not turn His back on me forever, only while it was good for me for Him to do so. I learned a lot from that period and it comes to mind when:

1. I am tempted to pile on someone who is down
2. I feel that a sense of self-sufficiency is taking the place of my sense of dependence upon God.
3. I find myself beginning to devise a trap for someone, or see that a trap is being set by the group for an outsider
4. I see that I may be basing my self-worth on a comparison with another person
5. A relationship is starting to be established with another person based upon a common dislike for a third party