Posted on 09/15/2014 2:23:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
God has always existed, and He was perfectly fine without man. He always was, is and will always be. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were already having a good time together. Everything they do is good and fulfilling, and so they didn't need man in order to be complete. Nevertheless, God chose to create man and, through worship, allow him to get in on the joy.
Man tends to think in wrong ways about this entire arrangement. Man is prone to assume that it's all about him. How foolish of man. It's always been about God, and His glory, and His purposes. God doesn't need man in order to be complete, and God certainly doesn't exist to make man happy. God exists because He has always existed. God exists for His own glory and His own purposes.
God could have decided to not even give man a shot at happiness. But because of God's mercy, man has been given the privilege to seek God and know God. This is not something God owed to man. But God decided to give man this opportunity anyway.
Happiness in the deepest sense is experienced as joy within your soul, and it only comes from the Lord. Without this gift from his Creator, man would never experience true joy or any lasting happiness. Man owes everything to his Creator, while God owes man nothing. And yet, God has chosen to extend grace and mercy to man in a divine display of love and compassion.
While God doesn't exist to make man happy, man exists to bring pleasure to God. This is the purpose for which we were created. We were made to worship God, and serve God, and bring pleasure to our Creator. So you can either live as God's servant, or as His enemy. You get to choose which of those two missions you want for yourself. But either way, God does not exist to make you happy.
The wife of a well-known television personality recently told her husband's followers that worship in church is not really for God, but rather, is done to make man happy. Hmm. This misguided philosophy attempts to make man the center of the universe. In reality, God is the center, the beginning, the end, and the all in all. He is a personal God, and so when man chooses to worship himself rather than his Creator, God takes it personally.
You see, it's not about you, and it's not about me. It's about God. And it always has been.
When Adam and Eve sinned, even their wickedness couldn't prevent the love of God from reaching down to save man. That's why Christ left heaven and came here to die on the cross for us. God obviously didn't owe that to us, but He gave us His Son anyway.
"God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
And if you will repent of your sin of unbelief, as well as your other sins, and graciously accept God's free pardon for your sins through faith in Christ, you will most definitely be happy in paradise forever. True happiness. Deep joy. Never-ending peace.
At the end of the day, God exists for His own sake, and His own name, and His own glory. You and I are created beings. We are not little gods. We are not divine. We are simply human beings who were given life from our Creator. And while God does receive pleasure when His children walk in the light of His truth, God was perfectly content before man was ever brought into the picture. If it wasn't for God, you and I wouldn't even be here.
But it wouldn't change a thing about God, and His glory, and His eternal contentment if we weren't ever here. He was just fine without us, and He will be just fine forever in heaven even if you refuse to accept His grace while you chart your own course in the opposite direction. God would much rather have you enter His family by being born again spiritually, but He won't force you to come to heaven if you insist on being your own savior. In that case, you will find out for yourself that life does not revolve around you. It never has, and it never will.
God will always be at the center of everything. That's the way He designed it. Nothing will change that fact. Your acceptance of Christ or your rejection of Christ won't change God's nature, and it won't diminish His glory. But it will certainly lead to your eternal joy or your eternal misery.
Jesus laid it all out there in the words He spoke while here on earth. God and man. Sin and grace. Heaven and hell. Time and eternity. These are not merely religious terms. They are facts, certainties, reality, and absolute truth.
So are you ready to embrace the real world where God is the center of the universe? Or would you rather persist in denial as you exist in spiritual darkness?
I guess what I am really asking is this: Are you willing to have the one true God fill your soul with joy today and forever, even though He doesn't owe it to you? It's the ultimate question, but it's a question only you can answer for yourself.
-- Dan Delzell is the pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Neb.
She’s actually quite the foul-mouthed whore.
You mean she curses and swears?
Was it ever captured on tape or camera?
She gets drunk on airplanes and cusses out the “help”.
Unlike muslims who are only happy when they murder, rape & pillage infidels for their god.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-06-211200623_x.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5586434
It’s about both God and man. God created man to be a companion. To have a relationship with Him. God is Supreme and man should always remember that. But God is also Holy, and that means God is trustworthy.
Well, the final verdict cleared Mrs. Osteen, so it’s unclear whether the one who filed the lawsuit is telling the truth or not...
As may be.
She’s a self-absorbed bitch and I hope she falls in a hole.
People never get their Benjamin Franklin quotes right. BEER exist because God WANTS us to be happy. but you’ve still gotta go buy your own.
God is and You are not.
LOL
An interesting way to refer to those who adhere to Osteen's teachings. I notice that he didn't call them Christians or followers of Jesus.
While it sounds like Brown was indeed an opportunist and likely exaggerated the consequences of the incident, I’m inclined to believe that the report of the incident is accurate.
I could easily see a high profile figure like Osteen pitching a fit because people didn’t cater to her in the manner in which she is accustomed.
The right thing for Osteen to do would have been to wipe up the spill herself and not said a word about it to anyone. She needs to grow up in a serious way.
BTW, I looked at the pictures on the first link of Osteen during the trial, and the look on her face in a couple of those pictures where she’s turned around and appears to be looking over at her opponent, is VERY telling. There’s evil there.
“God has always existed, and He was perfectly fine without man. He always was, is and will always be. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were already having a good time together. Everything they do is good and fulfilling, and so they didn’t need man in order to be complete.”
Exactly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.