[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Weare here at God's pleasure. As Genesis 1:27 says “So God createdman in his own image,[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]inthe image of God he created him; male and female he created them,”we are called upon with a choice...we can strive to live in thatimage of God, or we can allow ourselves to give in to earthlytemptations of evil and thereby forsake God and His Law.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Thosethat give in to earthly temptations and have gone to follow othergods need not examine themselves, since their fate is clear and thereis nothing to stop it. God does not concern Himself with what suchpeople may think, as long as their thoughts do not involve harmingothers, though He may hold out hope that they see the light throughJesus. Other than that, for such people, who cannot be persuaded tolove God and eachother, the divine sentence will be passed and Satanhas left his light on for them. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Forthe rest of us, who aim to love God and eachother, God will judge interms of whether our pursuit and fulfillment of righteousness hasmade us worthy of entry into His House. Even the most righteous of uscan be lured into acts of evil if we do not consider our actionsbefore we undertake them. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]TheScriptures, therefore, which, according to 2 Timothy 3:16 have beenbreathed out by God, encourage us to self-assess in terms of howrighteous we are. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to thisworld, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that bytesting you may discern what is the will of God, what is good andacceptable and perfect.” Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Lawshall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it dayand night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that iswritten in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and thenyou will have good success.” Make no mistake, it is the same Lawthat Jesus says he has come to fulfill, not changing any part of it.And so, we have the Law to take into consideration when we test oursurroundings, that we may not fall into a pit of evil. It is the sameLaw of which James 2:10 warns that we must abide by all of it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Noone except Jesus among us is perfectly righteous. Romans 3:23 says,“... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...”So we are left with the hope that God will judge us as having beenrighteous on the whole, and that He will forgive whatever sins we didcommit and we ask Him for forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 says, “If weconfess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins andto cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Similarly, Psalm 32:5says, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover myiniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' andyou forgave the iniquity of my sin. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Butin order to get to the point where we ask God to forgive our sins, wemust be aware of the responsibility that has been put on us sinceAdam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, to have an awareness ofwhat may be considered good and evil. That awareness can only comewhen we view ourselves in terms of how we interact with, and are seenby, the rest of the world, and by knowledge of what the Scripturessay. To that end, Colossians 2:8 says “See to it that no one takesyou captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to humantradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and notaccording to Christ.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]inthe image of God he created him; male and female he created them,”we are called upon with a choice...we can strive to live in thatimage of God, or we can allow ourselves to give in to earthlytemptations of evil and thereby forsake God and His Law.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Thosethat give in to earthly temptations and have gone to follow othergods need not examine themselves, since their fate is clear and thereis nothing to stop it. God does not concern Himself with what suchpeople may think, as long as their thoughts do not involve harmingothers, though He may hold out hope that they see the light throughJesus. Other than that, for such people, who cannot be persuaded tolove God and eachother, the divine sentence will be passed and Satanhas left his light on for them. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Forthe rest of us, who aim to love God and eachother, God will judge interms of whether our pursuit and fulfillment of righteousness hasmade us worthy of entry into His House. Even the most righteous of uscan be lured into acts of evil if we do not consider our actionsbefore we undertake them. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]TheScriptures, therefore, which, according to 2 Timothy 3:16 have beenbreathed out by God, encourage us to self-assess in terms of howrighteous we are. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to thisworld, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that bytesting you may discern what is the will of God, what is good andacceptable and perfect.” Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Lawshall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it dayand night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that iswritten in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and thenyou will have good success.” Make no mistake, it is the same Lawthat Jesus says he has come to fulfill, not changing any part of it.And so, we have the Law to take into consideration when we test oursurroundings, that we may not fall into a pit of evil. It is the sameLaw of which James 2:10 warns that we must abide by all of it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Noone except Jesus among us is perfectly righteous. Romans 3:23 says,“... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...”So we are left with the hope that God will judge us as having beenrighteous on the whole, and that He will forgive whatever sins we didcommit and we ask Him for forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 says, “If weconfess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins andto cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Similarly, Psalm 32:5says, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover myiniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' andyou forgave the iniquity of my sin. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Butin order to get to the point where we ask God to forgive our sins, wemust be aware of the responsibility that has been put on us sinceAdam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, to have an awareness ofwhat may be considered good and evil. That awareness can only comewhen we view ourselves in terms of how we interact with, and are seenby, the rest of the world, and by knowledge of what the Scripturessay. To that end, Colossians 2:8 says “See to it that no one takesyou captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to humantradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and notaccording to Christ.”[/FONT]