Is God Vengeful? Our Creator may be all Love and compassion but make no mistake about it; God is also wrathful, jealous, hateful and judging; man, in his foolishness, can bring about the wrath of God. One consolation is, good or bad, God knows what we go through every day in our pursuit of life. He knows how weak we are and how easily our heads are turned. He puts up with our foolishness and shortcomings and when his tolerance is challenged, he can become angered and brutal.

Could he then bring wrath upon himself? No, but he could wipe all of creation if he so desired.

The power of choice We note, that from the day when God gave man the power of self-choice, He let man alone in those choices. God has patiently waited on man's progression. It is true that during all this time He has carried on the automatic functions of the body and has even silently prompted man in what to do; but He has let man alone in all other ways. God may hold man as a perfect created being, but He also allows man to discover this fact for himself. And so it would seem that life is no more than a succession of discoveries . . . first in which is Thyself. People must discover themselves first before attempting to engage the world. Perhaps I should say, "rediscover" themselves because discovery lies in the hands of the seeker.

Created In his likeness To suppose that God created an Intelligent being in His likeness and in His image, then placed him in bondage would be to dishonor God and negate the sacrifice of Christ. All of history's great prophets would have no meaning On the other hand, to suppose that God could make man in His image and likeness as a creative being, without the ability to discover himself, would be to suppose an impossibility because man was born of the breath of God. The consciousness of man, must be spontaneous and unquestionable yet reasonable and consistent. Man is a seeking being whose inner self taunts the senses but has the ability to sort out the good from the bad.

The seed of reality is all but hidden within the shell of mankind. But, unlike the irresponsible men of the past, modern man strives to make great discoveries within himself. This journey toward greatness is the essence of man's drive and purpose. The journey may at times seem difficult and the burden too great to bear but man still harbors a subtle sense within, a drawing toward a spiritual presence, a divine Reality. Thus, the inherent nature of man is forever seeking to express itself in terms of freedom. We would do well to pay attention to this inner voice, this spirit connected center, because it tells us of a life wonderful in its scope, of a love beyond our wildest dreams, of a freedom which only the soul can crave.

As God establishes the laws of His own Being, we must find life force principles through the law.

But . . . wait a minute, didn't Darwin say everything evolves through natural selection?

Random Selection? Could order come from random selection? The very thought of random suggest confusion. Why did some animals change while others didn't? Why aren't they still evolving? Why aren't all animals able to cross breed? I can't get a handle on the concept of random selection. There's to much inconsistency - no stability. Everything would be spinning off in different directions, continually evolving, continually changing.

This, then, is the teaching, The Principles of Life Lay In His Laws. As the love of God is perfect, so also are the laws of God perfect. The Laws of God were created especially and exclusively for the experience of people because people are the only living creatures who are able to decipher and enact God's laws. People must understand and distinguish the different between love and law. Law is the probability while love is the unbiased pouring out of abundance. "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Again I reiterate, Make no mistake about it; God is also wrathful, jealous, hateful and judging and man, in his foolishness, can bring about the wrath of God. Good or bad, God knows what we go through every day in our pursuit of life. He knows how weak we are and how easily our heads are turned. He puts up with our foolishness and shortcomings yet can become angered and brutal.

Self orientated People In our self made world, God silently, patiently awaits for us to discover His real meaning as He is always ready to respond to His exactness. It is true as we progress, our awareness of God becomes more heightened. For instance, think about the discovery of any of nature's forces; we know that they must have always existed; but, so far as our experience is concerned they exist in our reality only after they were brought to light, and we learned how to make use of them. Electricity was a reality in the universe when Moses led the Children of Israel from the land of Egypt, but neither Moses nor any of his followers knew anything about it, and so they did not receive any benefits from its use. This is true of any and all of the natural laws; they have always existed, and always will exist. It is only when we understand them that we can benefit from them. We can only benefit from the laws of God which we understand, the depth and width of which are insurmountable. We cannot gauge the full extent of God, to do so we would have to be God.

God awaits our discovery of the natural laws and our discovery of ourselves in relationship to Him for He knows the more we discover, the more we realize our reliance on Him. Everything hinges on our perception of God and our ability to embrace that perception as true.

Ge 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil

Happy Trails

Donald Yates, Former Director of Leadership and Development for the First Baptist Church of Crossville, and Business Development coordinator for Imperial Research , is now retired but continues to engage life through self discovery. SAVE GAS!Run Your Car On WATER! - - Join Other Successful Women