“DID GOD ACTUALLY SAY?”

Genesis 2:15-18; 3:1                 (ESV)

“[15] The LORD GOD took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. [16] And the LORD GOD commanded the man, saying, “You may SURELY EAT of every tree of the garden, [17] BUT OF THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL you shall NOT EAT, for in the day that you EAT of it YOU SHALL SURELY DIE.”

[18] Then the LORD GOD said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.””

Genesis 3:1                 (ESV)

The Fall

“[1] Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD GOD had made. 

He (the serpent) said TO THE WOMAN, “”DID GOD ACTUALLY SAY”, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?””

Taking NOTE of what ALMIGHTY GOD has said to you is MORE than important to your life, it is IMPERATIVE to those who GOD has given you!  Genesis 2:24 says “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and THEY SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”  

To my knowledge, it isn’t recorded in Scripture that GOD gave instructions to Eve ANYWHERE to NOT eat OF THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL, but Adam was told, and VERY EXPLICITLY!!!  However, Adam must have tried relating to Eve what GOD had said to him about “the forbidden fruit”, for her reply to the serpent was something more than that he was told by ALMIGHTY GOD had said.  

It is MORE THAN IMPORTANT to share PRECISELY what SCRIPTURE says when we share GODS WORD with others, and NOT “the best we can do”!!!  In making an effort to make HIS WORD more plausible and understandable, we MUST NOT alter what HE has said!!!  GOD uses HIS WORD to accomplish HIS PLAN, even when we DO NOT understand it!  We must be FAITHFUL to share HIS WORD as HE makes it known to us!

So when “the enemy” approaches us and says “DID GOD ACTUALLY SAY” this or that”, it imperative to us to use SCRIPTURE, AND PREFERABLY have it memorized!  With FEAR AND TREMBLING, we MUST KNOW “DID GOD ACTUALLY SAY” what HE said and live our lives accordingly!!!

“YOU ARE MINE!”

 

Isaiah 43:1-2                  (ESV)

Israel’s Only Savior

    “[1] But now thus says the LORD,

    HE WHO created you, O Jacob,

        HE WHO formed you, O Israel:

    “FEAR NOT, for I have redeemed you;

        I have called you by name, “YOU ARE MINE”!. 

    [2] When you pass through the waters, I WILL BE WITH YOU;

        and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

    when you walk through fire YOU SHALL NOT BE BURNED,

        and THE FLAME SHALL NOT CONSUME YOU.”

Many years ago I THOUGHT I was in a tremendously trying time!  Things weren’t going as well as I expected at work, so I went to a park near my house and just “got alone” with my CREATOR!  Within a few minutes, HE had me reading Isaiah 43 and my apprehension was swallowed up with FEAR NOT!  

Recently I was “scrolling” on a social media page and I saw a meme that had Isaiah 43:1-2 on it!  My brain damaged mind very quickly returned to the time when I was SEARCHING for an answer to “my problem” so many years ago.  I couldn’t SEE then what GOD was trying to TELL me so long ago.  Or could it be that HIS WORD “alive and active” (Hebrews 4:12) and was QUITE CAPABLE of providing PEACE with the same verses in a TOTALLY DIFFERENT time and place???

GOD was telling me recently that I WILL BE WITH YOU, because “YOU ARE MINE”!!  The MESSAGE I was hearing so long ago was FEAR NOT, and now it is “YOU ARE MINE”!!!  The next verse (Isaiah 43:3) begins with “FOR I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD”!  Since THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES is THE LORD YOUR GOD, my mortal being has NO LIMITS to its capabilities!

The MESSAGE from THE LORD might be ONE THING for a certain period of time, and something TOTALLY DIFFERENT for another period of time!  The MAIN THING for this humble servant RIGHT NOW is that I should FEAR NOT, because I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD lives inside of me and “YOU ARE MINE”!!!

“YOU DO NOT KNOW!”

 

James 4:13-17                 (ESV)

Boasting About Tomorrow

“[13] Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—[14] yet “YOU DO NOT KNOW” what tomorrow will bring. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? For you are a mist that appears for a little time AND THEN VANISHES. [15] Instead you ought to say, “IF THE LORD WILLS, we will live and do this or that.” [16] As it is, you boast in your “arrogance”. ALL SUCH BOASTING IS EVIL.  [17] So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

For someone who has travelled the journey that I have been assigned, “YOU DO NOT KNOW” has a TOTALLY different meaning NOW than it did previously!!  Others probably have a different understanding, but the PATH that has been ASSIGNED to me makes it CLEAR, VERY CLEAR, that I AM NOT in control of anything, much less tomorrow!!!  “

YOU DO NOT KNOW” whether or not you will be alive for your next breath!  Your confidence in your ability to “produce” air isn’t very reliable, as I found out very distinctly a few years ago!!  

To say that I was “arrogant” might be a bit over the top, but I certainly thought that I could “get things done”!!  But a seventeen day coma OPENED my eyes to understand that I had NO ABILITIES outside of the LORD JESUS CHRIST!!!  Yes, my breathing is “reflexive”, but those “reflexes” originate from SOMEWHERE???  Where does the oxygen that is REQUIRED for humanity to exist come from???  Will it EVER run out???

ULTIMATELY, GOD has THE END OF TIME all figured out!  HE had it figured out when HE SAID LET THERE BE anything!!! HE even figured out that HIS servants would ALL go against HIS PLAN!!  One thing I DO KNOW is that “YOU DO NOT KNOW” what tomorrow will bring,  but I DO KNOW WHO IS BRINGING IT!!!

“NINETEEN YEARS AGO!”

 

Nineteen years ago (July 29, 2007) the world was celebrating for the 77th time the birth of my mom!  She would never experience another birthday, as on February 27, 2008 cancer would claim her earthly life. 

But, it was another day of celebration for me as I was being brought out of a 17 day coma following a “massive brain hemorrhage” on July 09, 2007.  On Friday, July 27, 2007, I was scheduled to have a tracheotomy, but the ENT doctor was “too busy” and when he came to my ICU room they told him that plans were being made to bring me out of the coma in a couple of days?!?  The ENT said that the tracheotomy procedure “could wait” a couple of days!!!  That was nineteen years ago Monday evening!!!  There has been STILL NO TRACHEOTOMY for me!!!!

They DID bring me out to the coma on my mom’s birthday, and I was never returned to that condition!!  My mom stated “that’s the best birthday present I ever received”!!!  It took a couple of weeks to get me released to the rehabilitation hospital, and then a week or so to get my bearings back, but on August 29, 2007 I walked out of rehab (with the assistance of a walker), something that I only used a couple of months (or so) after I was “let go”!!!  The insurance agency that I had sold in 2006 was available to repurchase in 2009, so I bought it back and ran it until my retirement in 2024.  

The medical records from my initial office appointment with my physician following my release from the rehabilitation hospital was on September 25, 2007.  His notes say “However, he has had a remarkable recovery that could only be defined as a miracle from GOD”!  I asked my “same” doctor about these comments in a recent visit and he replied, “ABSOLUTELY!”  

A Bible verse came to my recollection shortly afterwards, “I AM THE LORD; THAT IS MY NAME; MY GLORY I GIVE TO NO OTHER, NOR MY PRAISE TO CARVED IDOLS.”!!!  ALL of my doctors and nurses and rehabilitation staff deserve recognition for their work and dedication in my recovery!  But GOD GETS ALL OF THE GLORY for EVERY BREATH that I will EVER take……until HE CALLS me to Heaven!!!

“BE STILL, AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD!”

The more that everything continues to get “out of control”, the more that “BE STILL, and KNOW that I AM GOD” seems like our best option?!?!?

“I WILL!”

 

Leviticus 26:11-13                 (ESV)

“[11] “I WILL” make MY DWELLING among you, and MY SOUL shall not abhor you. [12] And “I WILL” walk among you and WILL be your GOD, and YOU SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. [13] I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, WHO brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should NOT BE THEIR SLAVES. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.”

THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES doesn’t just do ANYTHING without a purpose and a reason behind it!  GOD didn’t give us BLESSINGS or CURSES without HIS PLAN being fulfilled.  I’m not smart enough to understand “why” sometimes, but as HIS PLAN is revealed to me I am humbled to SEE HIS HAND ALL OVER it!!!

Being just a small part of HIS PLAN for my life is a HUGE BLESSING that I am so grateful to have a part in.  To UNDERSTAND that the same “I WILL” WHO CREATED THE UNIVERSES makes HIS DWELLING INSIDE of my heart is a mystery that is above my current pay grade, but HE is working ALL THINGS (Romans 8:28) for HIS GLORY!!! I simply have to WAIT FOR THE LORD (Psalm 27:14) and HIS PLAN to come to fruition in my life!!

ALMIGHTY GOD didn’t “require” me to do ANYTHING to make it through the Brain Hemorrhage in 2007!  Just like HE didn’t need my assistance in securing my beautiful wife in my younger years.  HE DID require me to WAIT for HIS PLAN to unfold in BOTH scenarios though!  HIS PLAN had my wife and I getting married on February 17, and HIS PLAN had me in a coma for 17 days before HE WOULD GET GLORY for the restoration of my brain activity.  HIS PLAN IS BEST, however it needs to be WAITED on, FOR HIS GLORY!!!

WAITING FOR THE LORD can be a very uncomfortable, even debilitating, experience?  But when one backs away and SEES from where HIS PLAN is leading us, it all becomes VERY CLEAR!!!  “”I WILL” walk among you and WILL be your GOD, and YOU SHALL BE MY PEOPLE” isn’t something that we should EVER forget!!!  I can TESTIFY that it is TRUE!!!

“SET YOUR MINDS!”

 

Colossians 3:1-2                 (ESV)

“[1] If then you have been raised with CHRIST, seek the things that are ABOVE, where CHRIST is, seated at the right hand of GOD. [2] “SET YOUR MINDS” on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

A dear friend of mine passed away earlier this week.  He was older than I, and was used in my life to get me through my rough developing teen years.  I was a “handful” back then, and I a challenge to most who GOD used to mature me.  He used to take me fishing, teaching me to SET THE HOOK at a.body of water near where he lived!  

When I saw “SET YOUR MINDS” recently, my mind was taken back to my friend’s words of SETTING THE HOOK, which assured that your “catch” would not get away.  The Apostle Paul was instructing us to FIX OUR THOUGHTS on THINGS ABOVE, trying to get us to focus on us not letting our Spiritual endeavors get away from us.  Far too often we tend to be so busy that we don’t “SET YOUR MINDS” on the PERMANENCY of HEAVEN, even when WE KNOW that is what we should be looking towards!!!

This humble servant doesn’t do a very good job of making sure that I “SET YOUR MINDS” on things that are ABOVE!  Making certain that I “don’t let the big one” get away should be FOREMOST in our lives?!?!  

Missing a big fish is not an enjoyable experience!   But missing out on GODS BLESSINGS is FAR MORE IMPORTANT!!!  “SET YOUR MINDS” on things that are ABOVE!!!