Hmmm???

Ok, what would it mean if someone was told by God that they were going to die in a car wreck in the next four weeks. Because they had always wanted to smoke, but didn't because of health reasons, they went ahead and took it up. Three weeks later, they crash into a guardrail and die because some cigarette ashes had fallen in their lap. Hmm?

Well, I think that's the way we are a lot of times. We live our life in a "binary system." For those that remember a binary system in computers has only two options: 1 or 0. We know that ultimately, we can only either go to heaven or hell. If we have that assurance that we are going to heaven, we tend to stop working on stuff because our decision is made. We forget that the Holy Spirit was sent to us, not only to call us to salvation, but to guide us in our everyday lives.

I believe that "God's control" is not as much control as we think. Think about it, if God was really in control, would there be so much sin in the world? Would the world be rapidly decaying as it is? I know he can have as much control as he wants, but I believe, for the most part, he sets things in motion (such as nature...and our birth), and after that he reliquishes that control until we truly come before him and ask for it. I believe that the power we have through the Holy Spirit has to be claimed.

I particularly believe that, we as baptists, shy away from that. I discussed in my Bible study last night, what if someone could fly? Would they do it? Of course they would. If I could fly, it would be next to impossible to keep me from it. There's so much I could do for good, for fun, and for myself. So then, if we have so much power through the Holy Spirit, why do we not use it? Well, to begin with, my analogy is a poor one for this reason: If I could fly, I would do so because I see the benefit and know it would be great, but I would be in control. Would I be so quick to fly if it meant someone else would be controling me? I don't think so. We do have power through the Holy Spirit...power to heal through prayer, power to win souls for Christ, power to be an important part of miracles performed, power to be a mouthpiece of the gospel...but that power is only found by giving up control to the Holy Spirit.

My prayer is that we, as a body of believers...both my church and beyond, relinquish more and more of that control as we truct God with our lives. We've already given him eternity, so why do we hang on to our lives in pathetic world?