Thus says the LORD: “Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’" Jeremiah 6:16

Watch out what you ask for. You might just get it, but if it's not in the will of God, you won't like it. In the passage below, the Israelites insisted that they wanted a king over them even though God warned them that they wouldn't end up liking it in the end. If the wisdom in the minds of people and the desires in their hearts were good and perfect, then this world would look a lot different than it does now.

People say God is love and He understands. What does He understand? That our ways are higher than His ways? Definitely not. Does He appreciate the fact that we don't want to obey Him, but would rather go our own way? No, He doesn't. Love does not mean getting your own way all of the time, or "never having to say you're sorry." That is not in the Bible. What does it actually say? It says to do the will of God if you want to be happy and live a long, prosperous life. Trust Him and He will guide you. It says the way of men is wicked to the core and we need a Savior if we want to be allowed to go live with God when our time here is up.

So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” 1 Samuel 8:11-18

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, the sort of error that arises from a ruler: Fools are put in many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones. Ecclesiastes 10:5-6

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:9-10

The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. Genesis 6:5-6

You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? Isaiah 29:16

Behold, God is exalted in His power;
Who is a teacher like Him?
“Who has appointed Him His way,
And who has said, ‘You have done wrong’?
Job 36:22-23

“Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
Job 38:1-7

Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. Ecclesiastes 5:2

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:25

"You simple people, use good judgment. You foolish people, show some understanding. Listen to me! For I have important things to tell you. Everything I say is right, for I speak the truth and detest every kind of deception. My advice is wholesome. There is nothing devious or crooked in it. My words are plain to anyone with understanding, clear to those with knowledge." Proverbs 8:5-9

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Psalm 40:4

Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord. Proverbs 16:20

Meanwhile His disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Then His disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought Him food?”
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” John 4:31-34

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The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I [Jesus] came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10

Remember, the following statements are LIES of Satan. Don’t believe them!

10 Lies of Satan:

1.  Your life is meaningless. You have no purpose.

2.  God could love everyone except you. You are not lovable. God hates you.

3.  God doesn't even know you exist. He doesn't have time to be concerned about you.

4.  You are worthless. The world would be better off without you.

5.  God expects you to manage your own life and not bother Him with your problems.

6.  God is mean. He waits for you to mess up so He can punish you.

7.  God is either dead or has given up on humanity.

8.  God can't be good and still allow bad things to happen.

9.  There is nothing after this life, so you may as well have fun and do whatever you please while you can.

10. There is no God and there never was. Somehow order was created from chaos and statistically impossible events occurred at random to make everything in the universe, including us.

This last lie is one of Satan's best lies and so this article will focus on it, because everything God made shows us something about what God is like. Nature shows us God's character. We don't even need to be able to read to understand that God made everything. (Romans 1:20, Heb. 11:3) Each of us can see His attributes by looking at what He created (keeping in mind that the entire world is corrupted by sin and so nothing is perfect as He made it anymore, including animals, etc.)

Whatever nature reminds you of when you look at it shows an aspect of God's nature. Mountains remind us of greatness, strength, never-ending existence, majesty... The sun, moon and stars display similar things as mountains, but in a different way. Glowing with light–more vast, more numerous, even more amazing. Sunsets, sunrises and cloud-scapes give us of a glimpse of His glory. Babies, both human and animal, bring to mind gentleness, tenderness, sweetness, promise of the future... Plants, flowers and trees display an absolutely unlimited amount of creativity in the variety, beauty, ingenuity... Wildlife, including animals, birds and fish portray similar things as flowers, except they have "personalities" because they have intelligence and behaviors. Wind, snow, hail, rain, floods, waves, volcanoes and earthquakes remind us of His great power and our lack of it—how fragile we are. “Natural” disasters are a result of the fall of all creation into sin.

People who don't believe in God think that the preservation of the planet is entirely in their hands and their responsibility. (This is not to suggest that pollution is a good thing, but that we shouldn’t exalt nature over people, who were made in His image.) They don't realize that the One who created it all is perfectly able to handle it. It is impossible to believe in the Big Bang Theory and still believe God. Is God a liar, and to anyone who thinks that, at what point do they think He starts telling the truth? Think about it! That's absolutely ridiculous! We can trust Him because He never lies! (Num. 23:19) He said He created everything. Period. When we live in fear, we leave ourselves open to being manipulated by the godless agendas of others who are more often than not exploiting us for profit.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, because it is so absolutely obvious that anyone who claims not to be able to see it is deceiving themselves. (God despises dishonesty–those who deceive others and lead them astray will be punished severely.) God made nature in such a way to demonstrate the concept of male and female, marriage, reproduction and families according to His plan. If we really understood the utter and absolute control God holds, we would not mess with Him by lying, arguing and rebelling against His ways in general. One day everyone will experience His power first hand, but I pray that each one will be on the positive side of it and not the wrath. He's slow to anger. He loves those who belong to Him, and the offer to become His children is open to everyone. (John 1:12-13) We need to soften our stubborn hearts and submit to Him now while we still have time. (Heb. 3:12-15)

Some people love what they see in nature so much that they start worshiping nature itself. They think that nature (both animals and plants, water, etc.) is more important than people. "For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." (Romans 1:25) If nature worshipers believe in a god at all, they think that it's in everything, everywhere. Or some believe that if there is such a thing as "the image of god," that animals were also made in that way. They don't realize that people are special because God said so. Just because an animal does something (like homosexuality), that doesn't mean it's natural and we should do it also--God gave us morals, intellect and a conscience to know better.

ALL of God's creation is affected by sin, including animals. There was no violence, illness or death in the Garden of Eden. Those are all a result of sin. God is going to re-make the heavens and earth. Those who put their trust in Him alone will find out how much more amazing what He created was before it was ruined by sin. It's amazing how beautiful so much of it still is after thousands of years. People build things, but they don't last. They break down and disappear eventually. The passage of great lengths of time results in decay, not improvement—in less order, not more. A really wonderful Designer made all of creation and He is maintaining it all.

Because we were designed by a loving Creator, we automatically have value. Something that is just a random coincidence does not. The idea that there is no Designer is a tool Satan uses to convince people they are worthless because they evolved from slime. That did not happen and it is statistically impossible. How can anyone believe that the universe came into being from nothing? There can be no “combination of just the right matter” after many billions of years, because there was NOTHING before that, right? Nothing combined with nothing equals nothing. Even if there was chaos and we don’t care how it got there (?) that would result in further chaos, not organization. That is like saying that if we leave materials sitting around and wait long enough, a structure will build itself. Talk about fairy tales! No one would believe that could happen and yet they claim to believe that the complexity of creation (so complicated we barely understand a small portion of how it even works) came into being that way? (And again, where did the building materials came from?) Make no mistake–these “beliefs” are rebellion against God.

Besides being carefully designed by an unimaginably great Creator, we each have an unbelievably great value because God sent His only begotten Son to pay the penalty for our sins so that we could live with Him in eternity. If you were not aware of this, humble yourself and admit that you are far from perfect or holy (as God is perfect and holy). Ask Him to forgive you of your sins, repent of (turn from) them, and accept Jesus' amazing sacrifice of LOVE on your behalf. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and He rose from the dead, and you will be saved. We are saved by faith, not by deserving it or trying to earn it.

Jesus said we should also be baptized with water (to represent the death of our old self and the resurrection into new life in, with and through Him) and was baptized Himself (by immersion) even though He never sinned. (Jesus' baptism fulfilled the requirements of beginning His ministry as our High Priest.) Read your Bible and ask God to help you know Him and to live in a way that pleases Him. He speaks to us primarily through His Word (so seek Him there–be cautious of dreams and visions that lead many astray.) I have only included a few Bible references in this article, but you can read my other articles to get the bigger picture, complete with a multitude of supporting Bible passages. (Click on the label "messages" in the sidebar on the right to see more articles.)

When you truly believe in your heart (not merely confessing with your mouth–He knows the difference), God sends His Holy Spirit to live inside of you and guide and transform you so that you can become more and more like Jesus–meek, humble, obedient, loving, compassionate, steadfast, tireless, selfless, faithful, perfected, holy, and the list of His beautiful attributes could go on and on. (Did you know that meek means power under control and not weak at all? Meek is a very good thing. It takes a wise, strong person to restrain themselves. Jam. 1:21)

God rightly expects us to live according to His ways once we have been born again into His family. This should be no surprise, since He created the family–we’re accustomed to having expectations from our loved ones. We would fail if we were to try to change ourselves, but all we have to do is read the Word, then yield and submit to His Spirit within us. (This can be hard for many because of how our society exalts things God hates, such as pride and selfishness.) The rewards are great and eternal for those who give their entire lives over to Him–He is SO worth it! Who could ever love you like that–to lay down their life for you despite all the wrong things you’ve done or right things you’ve failed to do? Wow.

God loves you. He has a plan for your life. There has never been anyone else on the earth exactly like you. You are special. You are not a mere animal, but were made in God's own image. (Gen. 1:26, 9:6, 1Cor. 15:49—this promise is to believers only—also see 1John 3:2, 1Cor. 15:22-23, 39-56.) Whose report will you believe? (Isa. 53) The one submitted by the father of lies or the one from the Author of the universe, Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life—the report written by the One Who IS Love? (John 14:6, 1John 4:10, 16) I hope to see you praising God in heaven one glorious day!

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