Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

Fallen human beings will always try to change who God is, what His will is, what He can do, and what He cannot do. Some see God as a cosmic ATM machine, His use is always dependent on the sinner. Some distort and pervert that because He is a God of infinite love, that means He is now also tolerant of sin and sinful behavior and various fallen lusts of the heart.

Some religions view God as a used salesman, a negotiator, who must agree to disagree when the religion tells him to. Some religions as Roman Catholicism view God as a “cooperator” who dispenses grace and blessings based on the actions of the sinner. Some see God as just another god in the grand scheme of things, a CEO who works as a democracy where He must bow to will of the human being majority. Some think that the old testament God was different than the new testament God in behavior and actions, that somehow He loosened the grip on His holiness and is now tolerant.

In an honest fair reading of Scripture, one will come to realization that God does not change. His promises are immutable. When He decrees something, that action takes place according to His timing to His will. Mankind cannot change Him because God is not learning things. He encompasses ALL knowledge, which means He isn’t reacting to our choices or actions, He knows what each and every action is down to our breath count or our heart rate.

God isn’t some sort of cosmic fortune teller as some cast Him to be, He KNOWS with 110 percent certainty. He knew the exact second by which Jesus was born before His birth, and the exact second in time of His death before His death.

In the Book of Job, Job and his friends struggled to understand God’s sovereignty. They tried to figure out why all these bad things happened to Job and the reasons for them. It was basically punching the air, as they soon discovered that their finite thinking was useless when God educated them. It wasn’t as if God was learning anything as they tried to rationalize, reacting to something by which Job might have did to make God angry. God already possessed the infinite knowledge, so everything which happened according to His perfect will.

I believe when one comes down with a serious disease by which their days are shortened, may come to understand this. I have lost many devout Christians to cancer in recent years for example. Did they do something to provoke their death, or was this just all apart of God’s divine plan. The answer is they did NOT do a thing, their death day down to the second had already been decreed by God. The circumstances of their death many not make sense to the finite mind, but to God it made perfect sense. Things we CANNOT see, He sees. Their experience may have brought just one sinner to the Gospel for example, and they were saved by that power of God.

Don’t get me wrong, somethings are HARD to understand, and we may NEVER understand, but we must TRUST in God and His perfect plan and will for mankind. We could never ask in contempt “what are You doing, God?” because like Job, we need to come realize that He is sovereign.

Personally I always find it odd when one says “so and so is watching down on me from heaven”. If that person is in heaven, there are no more questions! They are in the total peace and rest of God and see His sovereign reign first hand, so I highly doubt they are worried about you and your life here on fallen earth. So stop focusing on them, and start focusing on God alone! Know that He is God, be still, and you will come into His rest and peace!

With the rampant demonic humanism which plagues the earth and even the churches who claim to be following Jesus Christ, what gets lost is the simple but powerful claim of Paul in Romans 1:16-17. He declared  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which the power unto salvation. The message being that Jesus, God incarnate, born of a virgin, the Messiah and Redeemer, died for the forgiveness of sin and rose on the third day, who now sits on the right hand of God, will come again in glory to usher in His eternal Kingdom. There is power in this message as Paul said, the power of God for those who believe! If you don’t believe this, and do not place your faith alone in Jesus, there is no salvation. But the Gospel STILL is the power unto salvation.

This would mean even the most vile wicked evil person on earth could declare this same Gospel message, and it could STILL save any sinner. Because it is the power of God, and is not the power of one who is preaching it. God owns the power, man does not. Jeremiah 17:5, “Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.” So we trust the message NOT the man.

So how do we know a preacher of the Gospel is actually preaching the Gospel and not some false gospel? We do as Paul explained in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” Where does the test go? It goes solely to the revealed written word God has graced us with, Scripture. We listen to the preacher, we then test to see if what he or she said by what Scripture has already taught.

Roman Catholics for example stop with man, they do not test further. The pope declares, the Catholic does not test, they accept and have by this put their entire eternal life into jeopardy. Remember, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.” Just because someone dresses up in religious garb, speaks some foreign language, throws around some “holy” water and incense under religious pomp and circumstance does not make the message of the man truthful!

I have listened to thousands upon thousands of sermons in my life. 43 years of this were by RCC priests and their 5 minutes of teaching from a Gospel message. During that time, I can honestly say I NEVER tested what the priest taught by Scripture. I sat there just as every devout Roman Catholic, and nodded my head. I bought what he was selling because that is what I was indoctrinated to do. When my eyes were opened by God, I was AGHAST at how terribly wrong Roman Catholicism was, and also AGHAST that I bought a false gospel which was leading me to hell. It was Scripture which clearly showed me this, once I had eyes to see and ears to listen.

You see, people can throw the name “Jesus” around like chattel. His name is used to deceive more so than to believe! Look no further to those who use the “what would Jesus do” subjective manipulation for this. The only way we could know what Jesus would actually do, is by listening to His words in Scripture and applying it. And more often than not, those who use this ideology disregard His disdain and complete intolerance for anything or anyone sinful!

It is the Gospel alone which is the power unto salvation. If a donkey or a monkey could conceivable share this Gospel by some miraculous means, it STILL holds the power of God! So don’t be deceived by the fast talking preacher, or the false church who tries to tell you THEY alone hold this power unto your salvation!

The question posed is if one can actually beat the death clock? The answer is no! Sorry to inform you, but we all face a 100 percent chance at death. There is no silly vaccine or thing you can do about it. I am not trying to sound pessimistic, I am being truthful. The most powerful and rich cannot beat it. The most religious and piously “good” will never beat it either. Our death is pending, it is coming.

So with this news, what is the natural common reaction? For the most part, some will say “yes, but not today”. How do you know? Some awoke today, and tomorrow their funeral plans will be made. It happens each and every day! Some will say “not me, I will live to 120 if I take care of myself”, again how do you know? Plenty of people in the utmost physical and mental shape have perished when least expected. You see, the general idea with death is that it only happens to the very weak and ill or the very reckless. I got news for you, or better yet open the obituary column in your local newspaper. You will find that death does NOT discriminate as you believe.

Because I believe in a Creator, an omniscient God, I can tell you that He knows without the slightest guess, the exact time of your death. That time could be today. As Jesus said “you cannot add a minute onto your life”. I think those diagnosed with a terminal disease come to realize this almost immediately, but why aren’t we all realizing this?

And with death comes judgment. There is either heaven or hell which awaits. You will live eternally in torment, or in joy with God. If you think I am wrong? Well, you have nothing to worry about. But if I am right, you have plenty to worry about if you have not repented and believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Your church attendance cannot save you, or the fact that you thought you were a “good” person. The only way is by the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Some buy life insurance policies, but then sadly disregard their eternal life. As if after your death you will be able to control anything which happens. They’ll spend hours speaking with a salesman, gathering the best policy, but spend NO TIME listening to the Gospel. Sadly, many will awake after their death in front of a Holy Almighty God at which time they will see their eternal horrific fate in hell.

So if I have stirred you in any way, PLEASE think on these things today. There might not be a tomorrow for you, indeed again, many awoke today and there is no more tomorrows. Repent of your sins, place your faith alone in Jesus Christ! Seek your Christian friends out to help you study these things more, do not put them off any longer.