CREATURE VERSUS CREATOR

Chapter 16

RUSHING TO AND FRO VERSUS WALKING

 

The Lord God created most all animals as creatures of movement, creating into each animal’s being a God-ordained means of locomotion. When God created man in His Own Image, He also created man as a creature of movement with walking as his God ordained and God created means of locomotion. We are prone to look on the various animals’ locomotion with fascination as they slither, crawl, tunnel, burrow, swim, walk, run, climb, swing, glide, and fly, thus moving themselves in the manner their Creator ordained for each of them. But we are ever so prone to disdain the means of locomotion God ordained for us humans, walking.

The vast number of devices and machines we build and invent to convey ourselves about on land, on and under the water, and thru the air are bold testimonies to our sinful rebellion against our Creator ordaining walking as our means of conveyance. And oh how we come to sinfully love and take such sinful pride in all these beautiful and powerful vehicles (things of the world). All these man-made conveyances clearly proclaim how much we hate, detest, and despise God creating us to walk about. Sinful man is so determined to break free of God’s boring prison farm and to go live in the “exciting” kingdom of the devil, the world. In like manner, rebellious man is just as determined to rise up above the humble means of “walking” that God ordained for our locomotion. So man lustily eats much fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in order to learn to build and invent all kinds of conveyances that are more comfortable, convenient, require less (or no) physical effort, and most important of all, are much faster than walking. That much desired speed also brings a new element of danger into man’s locomotion. But never mind how many precious human souls these worldly, speedy vehicles injure, maim, crush, grind into the hardtop, splatter, or kill. We reprobate sinners are bent on our own destruction, so that death is just a necessary part of our rebellious, sinful life. It is a most high cost we pay for choosing the devil’s world instead of God’s earth.

“Heavenly Father, please teach me the importance of the truth that Thou created us humans with walking as our God created means of locomotion. Teach me the significance of this and help me to do Thy Will concerning walking. Change my heart to cause me to love that which Thou lovest and to hate that which Thou hatest. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

“The Lord God walking in the garden”

Please study carefully what the Holy Scriptures teach us about walking. The first Biblical record of “walking” is not about a creature, but rather about our Creator God Himself. Genesis 1-3 records very little about Adam and Eve’s life in the Garden before they disobeyed their Creator’s single command to them. But upon their disobedience, the Bible immediately records the following. “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8) Always bear in mind that our Creator God is a Being Who walks, and that the first reference in the Bible to “walking” tells of the Lord God walking, not human creatures walking. This is an important “first.” Walking is a God-like act. If you disdain the low and humble act of walking, it is because you have sinfully risen up higher than your Creator God Who set the example for us by walking and ordained that the first record of walking in His Holy Scriptures be that of Almighty God Himself walking.

“Heavenly Father, teach me clearly what Truth is in that last sentence. Teach me the grave importance of it. Save me from the awful sin of rising up higher than my Creator God by disdaining walking. Please humble me and help me to decrease, as I should. Please help me to regard my God ordained, God created means of locomotion, walking, just as highly as Thou doest regard it. I pray this for all other people also. Have mercy on us all and save us all from our rebellion against our Creator God, Lord, I humbly pray. Amen.”

Genesis Chapter 1 gives us the record of the Lord God creating all the animals and Chapter 2 speaks more of the animal world. Consider the important fact that those 2 chapters have absolutely no references to animals walking. Chapter 1 refers to the animals’ movements as “creeping.” It seems a little strange to me that the word “walking” is not mentioned. Could it be because that the Lord God wanted the first reference in His Holy Scriptures to walking to refer to God Himself, in order to strongly impress upon us the importance of Him walking, and to call upon us to meditate on that aspect of our Creator God? “Brother Richard, it sounds like you are letting your imagination run away with you concerning this!” Well, if that be so, I am thoroughly convinced that my imagination is running (or walking) in the right direction concerning that.  

Likely the Lord God had come into the Garden at this time for the purpose of walking in fellowship with Adam and Eve whom He had created in His image for the purpose of them bringing pleasure to Him. After those 7 days of the Lord God creating and then resting, we do not know how many days passed before the human couple disobeyed their Creator and sinned against Him. It could have been at the very beginning of the 2nd week. But if it were a few days later, likely the Lord God had daily come into the Garden in the cool of the evening to walk and fellowship with Adam and Eve. God created them for His pleasure and to fellowship with them. And the Lord God would fellowship with the human pair, while physically walking together with them. Please start thinking on the important connection between fellowshipping with God and walking with Him. These two aspects of our Christian life are practically one and the same, fellowshipping and walking. We Christians commonly talk about our “spiritual” walk with God. The “spiritual” walk and the “physical” walk are most closely related. Please ask God to open your eyes to enable you to see that truth. The relationship of those 2 aspects of walking is direly important for us believers to understand fully and clearly. So please study it seriously, prayerfully, and thoroughly in your Bible.

“Lord God my Creator, please teach me the importance of, and the full meaning of, the Truth that Thou art also a Being Who walks. Please teach me just how closely walking with Thee is connected with fellowshipping with Thee. Please teach me all I need to know about my “spiritual” walk with Thee. Please teach me just how closely related that “spiritual” walk with Thee is to my action of “physically” walking about on this earth of Thine that Thou hast made my dwelling place for some time. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

O how sweet that fellowship must have been for all 3 of them as the Lord God came to the Garden in the cool of the day and took a walk with Adam and Eve. But on this day (Genesis 3:8), how sad and tragic to see that the Lord God is walking Alone in the Garden, because the creatures have sinned against Him. Their sinful disobedience caused them to fear their Creator God and thus to run and hide themselves from Him instead of drawing close to Him for sweet, precious fellowship with Him in His Very Presence. That is the tragic result of sin. But please do not fail to notice the Lord God’s attitude of love, mercy, and grace toward these sinners. He comes walking to them, seeking them in love as they attempt to hide their sinful selves from His Holy Presence. How thankful we should be to our Lord that He loves us sinners, and so desires that restitution be made so that He can continue to fellowship with us and walk with us daily during our earthly lives. May God help each of us to be desirous to remove any and every sinful barrier in our lives that hinders fellowship and walking with our Lord God. May He also help us to be most desirous to daily walk with Him in close fellowship, more than we desire to do anything else.

“Lord God, I praise Thy Holy Name that Thou art rich in love, mercy, and grace toward us sinners, and still desireth to walk with us and to fellowship with us. Please help me to fully submit my life to Thee for Thee to work powerfully in my being to remove any and every hindrance to fellowshipping and walking with Thee. Please help me to desire to daily walk with Thee in close fellowship, more than I desire to do anything else. I pray that all other people will do this also. Guide our feet and steps into a proper walk with Thee, I pray. Amen.”

In Deuteronomy 23:12-13, the Lord God gives the Israelites strict instructions about camp sanitation. Verse 14 gives the reason for it. “For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.” Tho the Israelites could not see the Lord their God with their physical eyes, He was there in their midst, walking. The same is true for us Christian believers today. Our Lord walketh in our presence. He desires that we acknowledge that and that we walk with Him constantly. “Brother Richard, just how do I do that?” Simply by having the desire to do so and telling that desire to your Lord God.

“Lord God, teach me about walking with Thee. Show me the reality of Thee always walking in my presence while I am here on the earth. Tell me just how desirous Thou art to walk with me daily. Help me to come to desire to walk with Thee constantly and to put that desire into practice to make walking with Thee a constant reality in my life. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”   

Psalms 104:3 says this about our Lord God. “Who walketh upon the wings of the wind.” Tho Almighty God can do anything and can instantly go and be anywhere and everywhere in His whole, vast creation, please keep in mind that He also walks. The act of walking is somewhat humble and lowly by its nature. Therefore our sinful, highly risen flesh tends to despise walking. Many people consider themselves above the lowly act of walking. This is another major way in which we sinfully rise up above our Creator God. Please keep in mind that Almighty God Himself is not above walking. That should help you to realize just how sinfully wrong you are to disdain walking and should make you want to cry out to God to save you from that sinful pride.

“Lord God, please help me to consider the Truth that Thou art not “above” walking, and cause me to realize how wrong I am to disdain the “lowly” act of walking that Thou hast ordained and created as my means of locomotion. Please help me to humble myself, as I should regarding this matter. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”   

“And Enoch walked with God”

The richest blessings you can experience during your life here on earth are found by walking with your Creator God. Let’s look at Bible examples of men walking with God. The first reference I find is in Genesis 5. “And Enoch walked with God.” (Verse 22) “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” (Verse 24) The first man that the Bible tells us walked with God got so close to God that God took him out of this earthly life alive, saving him from tasting physical death. What a blessed reward for walking with God!

“Lord God, teach me everything I should learn about Enoch walking with Thee while he lived here on the earth. How thrilling to know that Enoch walked so close to Thee that Thou didst take him alive from this earth. Help me to be like Enoch in this regard by walking as closely to Thee as I possibly can. Please give me a burning desire to know the blessed fellowship of constantly walking with Thee as I live my life here on the earth. Save me from all things that hinder me from closely walking with Thee, Lord, I earnestly pray. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”  

“And Noah walked with God”

In the very next chapter of Genesis, we read of another great man walking with God. “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9) Enoch, who walked with God, was taken out of this life alive. Noah, who walked with God, was called by God “a just man and perfect.” What great and marvelous things it does for a human creature to walk with his Creator God! Just and perfect Noah, who walked with God, and his 7 family members were the only people God chose to save when He sent the great flood that drowned all the other people on this earth. I believe that Enoch and Noah walked with God both spiritually and physically.

“Lord God, please teach me the fullness of the Truth that it does great and wonderful things for me to walk with Thee. Teach me how to walk with Thee, both spiritually and physically. Show me just how closely related the physical walk and the spiritual walk are. I pray this for all other people also. Teach us all to walk with our God. Amen.”

Glancing quickly at my Bible concordance, Enoch and Noah are the only men I find in the Bible, called by name along with the statement that they walked with God. And think how early in time and how close together these 2 men lived, in Genesis chapters 5 and 6. This is at the very start of the Bible and of the human race. Throughout all the remainder of the Bible, why do we not have any other references to men called by name that the Bible declares that they walked with God? Could it be that so early in time, men ceased to walk so close to God? I believe this is good food for thought. I have an intense desire to be like Enoch and Noah by walking with our Lord God as they did. I can think of nothing more blessed in this life. May God instill in all of us human creatures that desire to walk with Him.

“Lord God, please give me a burning desire to daily, constantly walk, talk, and fellowship with Thee to behold Thy Great Glory and thereby be conformed into Thy Likeness. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

“Walk before me, and be thou perfect”

Look at what God commanded Abram concerning walking. “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” (Genesis 17:1) Let us also desire to walk before God and to be perfect. Now listen to Abraham’s (Abram’s) testimony of obedience in walking before God. “The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way.” (24:40b) Listen to Jacob’s testimony about his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. “And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day.” (48:15) Let these accounts in Genesis call on us to walk with God, walk before God, and to be perfect.

“Lord God, please help me to walk before Thee and help me to be perfect as Thou art perfect. Please guide my footsteps daily. Please lead me perfectly to walk before Thee in paths of righteousness for Thy Name’s sake. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

“Walk in my law”

Shortly before God gave His law to Moses, look at God speaking of proving the Israelites to see if they will walk in His law. “Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” (Exodus 16:4)

As the Israelites are preparing to enter the Promised Land, God admonishes them to walk in all His ways. “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land ye shall possess.” (Deuteronomy 5:33) From there thru chapter 28 of Deuteronomy, several times God commands His people to walk in His ways, to walk in all His ways. Then carefully note His stern warning in 29:19-20a. “And it shall come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: The Lord will not spare him.”

“Lord God, please help me to walk in Thy Law. Help me to walk in all Thy Ways. Please save me from walking in the imagination of my own heart. Help me to know for certain that I cannot have peace if I walk in the imagination of my own heart. Help me to know of a certainty that Thou wilt not spare me if I walk in the imagination of my own heart. I pray this for all other people, also. Amen.”

“I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following”

That Scripture in Luke 13:33 clearly teaches us our Lord’s daily habit of walking to the places He journeyed to while He was here on the earth. We read of our Lord getting into a boat or a ship to cross bodies of water. Other than traveling by ship across water, I am quite sure that all other Biblical references to our Lord journeying clearly indicate that he walked, except for the one time that He rode a donkey into Jerusalem. The Bible gives us NO record of our Lord ever riding in or on a wheeled vehicle. I believe that the reason that the Bible is totally void of any such record is because our Lord never once used a wheeled vehicle. That is our Lord’s Perfect Example to us. Do you have any desire at all to be like your Lord Jesus Christ regarding walking???

“Lord Jesus, please create within my heart a sincere and holy desire to be like Thee regarding walking. Help me to study and to meditate on Thy Perfect Example of walking during Thy Life here on this earth. I pray that all other people will come to desire to be like Thee in regard to walking. Draw us all to Thee, Lord, I humbly pray. Amen.”  

Also, consider the many various miracles our Lord performed while on earth. Those miracles of my Lord cause me to believe that He could have spoken a helicopter into existence any time He wanted to and could have climbed into it with all His disciples any time He was in a hurry to go somewhere to perform His important and busy (full schedule) ministry. But instead of choosing to rush to and fro by the fastest (and most convenient) means available, He chose to give us the Perfect Example of Him and His disciples walking to the places to which He journeyed. May God help us all to truly love that Example.

“Lord Jesus, please create within me a sincere desire to be like Thee in all areas of my life. Help me to truly desire to be completely Christ like in every way. Help me not to mentally discard the act of physical walking as not being important and not being connected to my spiritual walk with Thee. Please save me from rising up above Thy Perfect Example of walking that Thou didst set for me while Thou wast here on the earth. I pray that all other people will also do Thy Divine Will for them regarding the act of physically walking. Help us all, Lord. Amen.”

“Minding himself to go afoot”

That is spoken of Paul in Acts 20:13. Reading thru the New Testament, we see that most of Christ’s followers in the four Gospels and the Christian believers from Acts thru Revelation, mainly walked over land and took man powered and wind powered boats and ships across water, as they journeyed on God’s earth. They too, left that important example for us. “Well, Brother Richard, they just didn’t have much other choice in those old days!” And I believe that is one of the many wise reasons that God closed out the writing of His Holy Bible as early in history as He did. Please honestly answer this next question. Would it not GREATLY detract from God’s Holy Scriptures to have records in it of Christian believers riding trains and buses, driving cars, riding motorbikes, and flying on airplanes as they rush to and fro in their busy schedules of “service to God”???

It would be a most rich and profitable word study for you to take your concordance and look at the many references for the words; walk, walked, walkest, walketh, and walking. For example, read of the churches in Acts 9:31, “walking in the fear of the Lord.” As I now quickly run thru that list of words in my concordance for my King James Bible, I am amazed to see that almost every Biblical reference to the act of “walking” refers to either God walking or to man walking. In Job chapters 1 and 2, we see references to Satan walking. In Lamentations 5:18, we read of foxes walking. In the book of Zechariah, we read of horses walking. (I quickly glanced thru the concordance references for these words, so there may be a few more that speak of Satan or animals walking.) But the vast majority of the Biblical references to the act of walking refer to God and to man. And a lot of those Scriptures speak of God and man walking together.

“Walk in God’s ways”

Let me quote a few more Scriptures about walking. “And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.” (Exodus 18:20) “If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them…” (Leviticus 26:3) “If they shall confess…that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them…” (Verses 40-41) Throughout the Old Testament “walk in God’s ways” is written several times.

Let’s look in the New Testament now. Jesus spoke much of people walking in light or in darkness. “Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” (John 12:35) “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.” (II Corinthians 10:3) “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh…If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:16 & 25)  

“Heavenly Father, please help me to diligently study Thy Scriptures to learn the many important things Thou teachest us concerning both physically walking and spiritually walking. Please teach me just how important in Thy Sight is my God-created means of locomotion. Help me to hold ‘walking’ in high regard as Thou doest. I pray that all other people will come to know the importance of us physically walking with Thee and also spiritually walking with Thee. Amen.”

“For I will restore health unto thee”

Presently, there is a vast amount of knowledge available about the many health benefits that come from walking. Because much has been written and said on that subject by many others, both Christian and non-Christians, I will strive to be somewhat brief as I speak of it here. Likely you are well aware of those benefits, and there is much writing on the subject easily available to you. Lately I have read several “health advisers” who say that if you want to do one thing that will aid and maintain good health, that one thing should be walking. God in Heaven must be chuckling over our vanity. He started us out correctly when He created us to walk. Now, after sinfully falling madly in love with the numerous speedy and deadly conveyances that the devil’s world has steadily added to our lives, and after having been so terribly injured and killed by these enemies of God, some people are finally getting some sense into their thick skulls and are waking up to say; “Hey, walking isn’t such a bad idea after all.” May we all come to realize how highly God regards the act of walking.

“Heavenly Father, please save us from our destructive foolishness and folly. Save us from our sinful love for the things that are in the world. Please cause us all to now think on how beneficial and life sustaining is the act of walking that Thou didst ordain for our locomotion. Bring us to our senses, Lord, I humbly pray. Amen.”  

Personally, I make it a habit to walk much. If at all possible (and practical), I opt for walking instead of riding or driving. I marvel in disbelief as I watch people get into or onto some “powered” vehicle to go only a stone’s throw away, 20 to 50 yards or so. It is my custom that when I start out walking, I ask my Lord and Saviour to walk with me. And in faith, I know without any doubt that He does always walk with me. And we always have the sweetest fellowship as we walk and talk together. I am so glad and thankful that Almighty God is a God Who walketh, and that He will gladly walk with me any time. I talk and pray to my Lord as I walk with Him. I often sing hymns aloud to my Lord as I walk with Him. How blessed those times of walking together with my Creator God always are to me.

He will also gladly walk with you anytime, and He is most desirous to walk much with you in close, sweet fellowship. Do you really not have time to walk with Almighty God Who desires to walk with you? That is such a precious privilege and thus should be a top priority of any human creature. You regularly use various speedy conveyances mainly because of the much time you save by doing so. But then you find that the result is that you have no time for God, no time to walk with Him. Do you not find that most STRANGE??? Something is terribly wrong with our lives here, folks. We lose out on so many blessings that are available to us in this life, if we do not take advantage of the simple act of daily walking (both physically and spiritually) with our Lord God. Cry out to God to save you from the devil’s deceptions and the many traps that his world uses to enslave us to Satan and his world and to separate us from our Lord God! 

“Lord God, I do cry out to Thee, begging Thee to save me from the devil’s sly and cunning deceptions and to save me from the many traps that his deadly world uses to enslave us and to turn our hearts from Thee. Please teach me just how greatly desirous Thou art to physically walk with me in sweet fellowship. I ask Thee to give me a burning desire to physically walk and fellowship with Thee ever so much. I pray that all other people will come to have this desire also. Please open all our blind eyes to see just how terribly we are deceived by Satan and the attractiveness of his deadly world and what barriers the devil’s world throws up between us humans and our God. Please free us all from our much bondage to the devil’s world, Lord, I pray. Please return us to walking and fellowshipping with our Lord God. Amen.”

I am amazed at how walking greatly clears up my mind. It is ordained of God to vent off pent up stress. Mental problems just evaporate as I walk them away. Walking enables you to come up with God-given answers and solutions to the problems of life that are presently troubling you. It is a miraculous aid to clear thinking. I feel like there is a train of cogwheels in my body from the soles of my feet all way to my brain. And when I start walking, the cogs in my feet start turning, setting the entire train of cogwheels turning till that action reaches the cogs in my head. As the cogs in my brain are then set in motion and start turning, what a marvel it is the way new thoughts start forming in my brain. Praise God for the great and marvelous things that the act of walking does for a human creature.

Walking is God’s salvation for preventing a criminal mind from forming in one’s being. There is much “everyday” salvation from God to be found in the act of physically walking. The more that people walk, the better a place this earth will be on which to live. May God bring us all to a full knowledge of this important truth.

“Heavenly Father, if that is true, then please reveal that truth to me. I pray that Thou wouldest reveal it to all other people also. Amen.”

It is so blessed to sing to my Lord, pray to Him, and to meditate on His Scriptures as I walk with Him. The Lord Jesus graciously teaches me ever so much as He and I walk together. He gives me much of my sermon material as He and I frequently walk together. Much of what little I know about our Creator God, I have learned from Him as I meditate on His Holy Scriptures while physically walking with Him. I also find walking in God’s nature so much more blessed and beneficial than walking in the ugly, gloomy, noisy, and depressing artificiality of the devil’s world.   

Walking barefoot on God’s created earth is most beneficial to our physical and mental well-being. I believe that not only did God create man to walk as his primary means of locomotion, but I also believe that He also created man to walk barefoot on God’s earth all of the time or practically all of the time. Thorns and thistles were not in the Garden to prick bare feet. If Eve and Adam had never sinned, winter would have never come to the Garden of Eden, and thus warm footwear would never have been needed. Also, we would not have built the devil’s world onto God’s good earth, hard topping most every place available for walking. The hardtop is most detrimental to our health when we walk and run on it, as it jars and pounds the ankle and knee joints, ruins blood veins in the feet and legs, and does other such horrible damage to our bodies. It is just about unthinkable to consider walking barefoot on concrete, asphalt, and such. That would greatly wear away the skin on the bottom of our feet. And the broken glass and other such small barbs of worldly garbage strewn on most all hardtop surfaces would badly injure our feet. We gladly build the devil’s world that is not conducive to walking at all. It is my custom to seek out God created earth to walk on barefooted when the weather is warm enough to permit it.

O how good it feels both physically and mentally to walk barefoot on carpet grass, a freshly plowed field, or on a sandy beach. How I rejoice to dig my toes and feet into the wet sand of a beach. My physical being just comes alive anew with the rejuvenating power that God has created into that act. (Those cogs really start turning in my brain). It seldom fails to cause me to break forth singing aloud to God. When I walk on a beach, I like to “stray” out into the water up to knee deep or so, as I enthusicially praise and worship God for the wonderful benefits He is bestowing upon me as I do so.

Down thru several decades as I frequently walk barefoot, I always feel the rejuvenating power that comes from it and I am careful to give God the thanks and the glory for it. I don’t have detailed knowledge of just why walking barefoot on God’s earth benefits my being so greatly. (And I don’t need that knowledge.) But recently I have read that man’s studies and research show that when we walk barefoot on God’s created earth, that an electrical charge comes up out of that earth and enters our bodies thru our feet. That electricity coming out of God’s earth charges our body with new energy similar to the way we recharge a battery using electrical current. The marvelous feeling I derive from walking barefoot on God’s earth certainly makes me believe that report. Also, the mental benefits are almost unbelievable, as walking barefoot on God’s earth always soothes and refreshes my tired mind. Need a physical and mental recharge? Then take a barefoot walk on God’s earth, from whence thou wast created.

“Lord God, please teach us everything that sustains our life. Also, please warn us of and save us from all things that harm and destroy our lives. Amen.”

Tilling the ground with manpower and animal power, as God ordained we do to earn our livelihood, is a walking job. In bygone days, farmers often did that walking barefoot in the warm seasons. Typically they made fewer visits to the doctor than modern day people make. Teachers of hand and foot reflexology instruct us to massage the soles of our feet and the palms of our hands for many great health benefits. Again, God in Heaven looks down and chuckles at us, because He ordained that we walk barefoot to massage the souls of our feet and do farm work that involves gripping and holding various rough surfaced materials, tools, and objects to massage the palms of our hands. There is much daily salvation in returning to the life that God ordained for us while we are here on this earth. God ordained walking for your benefit and as salvation from much destruction. How blessed it would be for all of us to do God’s Will concerning walking.

“Heavenly Father, please help me to carefully read this preaching while also carefully listening to what Thy Holy Spirit speaks to my heart regarding it. Please guide me into Thy Perfect Divine Will for me concerning walking. Please teach me of all the ways that Thou ordained for walking to benefit my entire created being, body, soul, and spirit. I pray these things for all other people also. Lord, please help all people to regard walking just as highly as Thou doest. Amen.”

“Many shall run to and fro”

That end time prophecy, of many running to and fro, is recorded in Daniel 12:4. Ever since the Lord God turned Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, mankind has gone to and fro all over God’s earth. (And down thru the ages, much of man’s going to and fro was accomplished by physically walking.) But never before in all of man’s history, have many run to and fro as we now do in this end time age, simply because we have never before had the ability to race madly to and fro at great speeds as we do now, thanks to all the fast and deadly conveyances out there in the devil’s world, available for us to use them and to come to love them for the way they elevate us, causing us to increase to unbelievably higher status in life. We openly and frankly (and even proudly??) call our modern day life “madness,” “insanity,” a “rat race,” and such, due to the fact that we are always madly rushing to and fro in the insanity that the devil’s destructive world has made of our life here on God’s earth. I have no doubt that all this mad rushing to and fro literally drives many people crazy. Know of a surety that it is NOT from our Creator God. It is ALL a part of the devil’s deadly, destructive world that God forbids us to love.

“Lord God, please help us to obey all Thy Commands to us. Please save us from loving the devil’s world and the things of the world. Help us to love that which Thou lovest. Help us to love walking. Amen.”

Fast vehicles’ abilities to rush us to and fro thoroughly destroy the virtue of patience, turning us into impatient, raging monsters that must move fast, now, adding the horrible words of road rage, air rage, and such to our vocabularies. God’s cure for all that sinful raging by mankind is the walking that He ordained for our locomotion. Is anyone on God’s Side? Does anyone love God and the things of God instead of loving the devil’s world and the things of the world?

Your vehicle’s odometer is a testimony to the great distance you run to and fro monthly or annually. In the 1940’s and 50’s, when a rural dweller occasionally drove to town, his car was often packed full of family members and neighbors who needed a ride to town. Nowadays, the HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane being mostly empty of traffic while the several other lanes are crowded, testifies to each person running to and fro to a different place, necessitating one vehicle per rushing person. The devil has easily destroyed the God-created family by having each family member get into his or her own vehicle at the start of the day and then separately zoom away from their dwelling to their individual destinations in the devil’s world. “Many shall run to and fro.”

As a small farm lad in the 1950’s, I often walked grassy paths, dirt trails, and dirt roads thru fields, pastures, forests, and meadows with Dad or Mom (and then alone as I got older), going to a neighbor’s house or someplace up to a mile or more away. How refreshing was that walk thru God’s nature, compared to small children now being captives to seat belts, child seats (often facing backwards), and such. 

“Heavenly Father, as I read these sharp barbs, my heart is fully open to Thy Holy Spirit in order for Thee to teach me exactly what Thou wouldest have me to know regarding these weighty matters. Help me not to be deceived by anything that Bro. Richard may be mistaken about. But also help me not to turn a deaf ear to anything that is from Thee. Please speak to me, my Lord, for I am listening. I pray that all other people will also listen to this preaching. Amen.”

“His wheels as burning fire”

 That is not a reference to a drag racer. That speaks of Almighty God in Daniel 7:9. I conclude from that Scripture, that God has wheels in His Own Being. The book of Ezekiel, especially chapters 1 and 10, speak much of other creatures that have wheels in their being, apparently created into them by their Creator God. Thus, wheels are quite significant objects. I am convinced God ordained that we human creatures leave wheels alone, not invent them or use them. I mainly conclude that by the Bible being void of any record of the Lord Jesus Christ using a wheel in any way while He was here on the earth. Also, in the Old Testament, the Ark of God was to be carried by poles on the shoulders of men who walked. It was not to be transported by any other means, and God killed a man when they once transported the Ark on an ox cart, a wheeled vehicle (II Samuel 6). I perceive that we are to imitate God in His Act of Walking, but that we should have left wheels alone. I believe that we gained the knowledge of the wheel by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

In II Samuel and I Kings, we read of kings and some of their family members riding on mules. I believed that riding of mules was ordained of God, the mule being a lowlier creature than a horse. In general, the Bible teaches us that we are to be most temperate in our going to and fro. While living on this earth, our Lord left us no record of Him using a wheeled vehicle. Also, during His ministry of 3 years or so, He never traveled any far distance, just a few miles. May we all love His Example of walking.

“Heavenly Father, please guide us all to do Thy Will concerning our movement while we are here on this earth. Lord Jesus, please stir up all our hearts to truly love Thy Example of walking while Thou wast here on the earth. Amen.”

“The things that are in the world”

The steady evolution (“progress”) of the devil’s world first gave us vehicles with which to convey our physical bodies, enabling us to forsake walking and instead run to and fro to our great delight (and also to the devil’s delight). With the world’s evolution, these vehicles not only steadily become faster. But they also become more luxurious, comfortable, and become filled with all kinds of conveniences such as phones, video, TV, fridges for food and drink, sleeping space, and such. The list is unending and is growing every day.

“Well, just what is wrong with that, Brother Richard?”

It makes us come to love those things of the world with all our hearts instead of loving our Creator God with all our hearts, as He commands that we do. And that is sinful disobedience to our God’s command in I John 2:15. Also, please think on how that just by using them, we become enslaved to these things of the world, quickly arriving at the place where we can’t do without them.

“Heavenly Father, please send Thy Holy Spirit to show us the true condition of our hearts. Reveal to us clearly where our love and affections truly lie. Open our eyes to cause us to see just how terribly we are becoming dependent upon and enslaved to the devil’s world. Save us from the world and turn our hearts to Thee, Lord, I pray. We so desperately need Thy daily salvation from the devil’s world. Have mercy on us and save us all, Lord, I pray please. Amen.”

After bringing us into a life of physically running to and fro, the devil’s world next brings on more destruction by bringing us into a life of mentally rushing to and fro, by the evolution of electricity, electronics, and high tech. Your world is now crammed full of recorded and artificial sounds that bombard your mind thru your ears. Your eyes constantly behold moving images, not only of moving numbers, letters, and words; but also every imaginable kind of images and pictures that move before your eyes and mind with increasing speed as their hi tech broadcasting steadily evolves. All this is purposely and most methodically planned out by the devil with a main goal of driving you crazy. I mean literally causing one to lose one’s mind. And the devil’s world will certainly do that to you, if only you will let it. Not only are masses of precious human souls presently letting the devil’s dangerous world do that to them, but they are also madly loving the world all the time it is destroying them for loving it. What a nice reward, in return for that fervent love so many people have for the world. “Many shall run to and fro.”

“Almighty God, have mercy on us all and save us from our folly, I humbly pray. Turn all our hearts to Thee and to right, Lord. Amen.”

“Be still, and know that I am God”

That is a most important command from your Creator God. It greatly behooves each of us to obey that command. “Be still.” One important requirement for any human creature to know God is to periodically cease all other activity, both physical and mental, for the purpose of communicating with God and meditating upon His words. “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10)

“Heavenly Father, please create within my heart a truly genuine and sincere desire to fully know Thee. I now completely yield myself to Thee for Thee to work that work within me. Please reveal to me the necessity of regularly becoming still, being still, ceasing all other physical and mental activity for the purpose of worshipping Thee, communicating with Thee, and meditating upon Thy words, in order to learn of Thee and to come to know Thee to the fullest extent possible in this life. I pray these things for all other people also. How desperately this human race needs a deep knowledge of its Creator God. Turn all our hearts to Thee, Lord God, I pray. Amen.”

“Stand thou still a while, that I may show thee the word of God.”

God’s prophet, Samuel, spoke those weighty words to young Saul in I Samuel 9:27, just before Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel in the Old Testament. Again, it is a command to be still. If we are to have the precious word of God shown to us, we must stand still for a while in order to learn of God. Look again at the prophet Samuel shortly after, calling on the Israelites to stand still in order to hear of and learn of God. “And Samuel said unto the people, It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers.” (I Samuel 12:6-7)

Look at other times God commanded His people to be still. “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” (Exodus 14:13-14) “Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. (II Chronicles 20:17)

“Lord God, help us to always be ever so sensitive to Thy Holy Spirit’s Voice in order to know when to be still and let Thee fight our battles for us and thus give us miraculous victories. Amen.”

Look at one of Job’s miserable comforters getting in on this act by admonishing perfect and upright Job to stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. “Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.” (Job 37:14) Please look in your concordance to study other times Almighty God called on people to stand still, to be still.

“Heavenly Father, please teach me the importance of this command of Thine, for us human creatures to be still at times in order to learn of Thee and to come to know Thee. Please teach me the full meaning of ‘standing still’ before Thee. Guide me and instruct me as to how to cease all other physical and mental activity regularly for the express purpose of communicating with Thee and learning of Thee in order to come to know Thee fully. I pray this for all other people also. Please save us all from the insane and destructive, constant running to and fro of the devil’s deadly world. Amen.”

“Be still.” “Stand thou still a while.” I believe those 2 commands clearly command us to cease all physical activity (including walking) at times, in order to know God and in order to be shown God’s word. That entails laying aside absolutely every physical and mental action and then tuning our minds (hearts) to God in order to hear from Him and thus come to know Him. Listen carefully now to something most important. God is Life. God’s words are Life. You are an eternal living being who needs God’s Life. Fellow preacher, you must have God’s Living Power upon your preaching. Preaching dead doctrine is of little value to anyone, no matter how straight that dead doctrine is.

When I started out as a missionary in 1975, God so graciously taught me the dire importance of receiving His Life (His Anointing Power) into my spirit to have that Holy Power upon and flowing out from my being to those around me, Life flowing from my preaching, teaching, and all my ministering in God’s Name. Otherwise, all my efforts to serve God would be dead, lifeless, and therefore futile, accomplishing nothing.

“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”

God’s Holy Spirit so graciously brought the above Scripture in John 6:63 to my attention when I started out as a missionary. God clearly taught me that I must touch the Living God; I must touch God’s Life in order to accomplish anything for Him during my short life here on this earth. Thus I made it a personal custom to regularly sit alone with God on an uninhabited mountainside or some other such “private” natural setting. Laying aside all other actions and thoughts, I would cry out to God, “I want to know Thee! I must know Thee! I must touch Thee! I must touch God’s spiritual reality! I must have Thy Living Waters flowing from me.” I praise God for enabling me to spend many hours like that, standing still and being still in order to know God and to be shown and taught His words. In addition to being still to seek God, I would also walk up and down those mountainsides (and other uninhabited natural settings) crying out for God to put His Anointing Power upon me and to please let His Abundant Life flow thru me and out from me, imparting that Life to many others who so desperately need it. I also fasted many of those days I set apart to be with the Lord only and to seek His Face. You too, must have that Life from God and His Holy Spirit’s Anointing Power upon you if you are to accomplish anything at all for your God in this life.

“Heavenly Father, I realize the necessity of having Thy Power upon me and Thy Life within me if I am to be of any use to Thee in this life. As I read what is written here, please help me to carefully listen to Thy Holy Spirit teaching me exactly what I am to do in relation to it and please give me a will and a strong, fiery desire to do that. I pray that all other people will also earnestly seek Thy Abundant Life and Power. Let us hear the thunder of Thy Power, Lord, I pray. Amen.”

Likely, every one of us, who has regularly sat under Bible preaching and teaching, has on occasion, sat under lifeless, dead speech that bored us terribly. Any human creature can open up a Holy Bible and speak much from the Bible’s contents without saying any thing from God. May God save all us Christians, especially us preachers from such tragic failure. “Christian” universities and colleges exist that teach only cold, dead “doctrine” and history and geography from the Bible (usually because their professors are spiritually dead). Students who are so unfortunate to have the awful fate of studying at those schools typically then fill church pulpits and speak to congregations that which has no Life and Power upon it. And Christ’s church suffers great loss due to that. You must know the living God and His living word in order to minister to others. So please regularly stand still alone with Him. Please also regularly walk alone with God while crying out desperately for Him to make Himself known to you and to pour His Life and Living Power into your spirit for that Life to flow out from you to all who are around you.

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

“Lord Jesus, please help me to touch Thee. Help me to touch Life. Help me to touch Almighty God’s Living Reality, which is the spiritual life that Thou hast ordained for me. Save me from living and broadcasting cold, dead, lifeless ‘Christian doctrine’ that benefits no one. Save me from the awful tragedy of boring people when I speak to them of Thee. I cry out for Thy Living Waters to always overflow abundantly from my being. I pray especially for Thy Preachers. Please draw all of them into close, intimate fellowship with Thee in order for them to always have rich manna from Heaven to feed Thy flock that Thou didst purchase with Thy Own Blood. Set our souls afire, Lord, I humbly pray, please, all for Thy Great Glory. Amen.”        

“For the Lord loveth judgment”

“The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth.” (Psalm 9:16) And as I pen these words in May 2008, the whole human race is staring in shocked unbelief and awe as Almighty God judges us for loving the devil’s world and for loving to run to and fro instead of desiring to be still and to thus know God. Think of how you are presently constantly worrying over the steady rising prices of all fuels with no apparent end in sight regarding how high those fuel prices will rise. Look at the growing number of problems and the growing intensity of the various problems at the world’s airports, where masses begin and end their most speedy journeys as they madly and frequently rush to and fro (literally flying) all over God’s created earth. What we are seeing is The Judge of The Universe working out His Judgment against our sins of loving the world, loving the things of the world, and loving running to and fro instead of loving to walk and to be still in order to learn of and to come to know our Creator God ever so well.

Man invented the steam engine in the 1830’s, as best I remember. I suppose that was the first invention that gave man the ability to travel faster (and with less effort) than manpower, animal power, and wind power send a body along on his way. From the advent of the steam engine, we watched mankind steadily (more or less unimpeded) increase his ability to run to and fro, for more than 130 years. O how man came to love his increasingly ease, comfort, and speed of travel and thus came to sinfully worship it, giving little or no thanks to God for it. Instead, man bragged and boasted of his own greatness in bringing that “progress” about. And in general, much of mankind ceased to walk, but instead began to madly run to and fro, just as Daniel prophesied of our end time generation.

In the book of Deuteronomy, Jehovah God gave Moses much instruction for the Israelites to follow when they soon entered the Promised Land. God had no desire for them to set a human king over them, because He was to be their King. But He knew their hearts far in advance, knowing they would later cry out for a human king as they see the heathen nations around them with their kings. Thus God gives these commands. “When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.” (Deuteronomy 17:14-15) These are God’s first commands concerning a human king for Israel. Now carefully note the very next command concerning that future king. “But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses.” (verse 16) This command coming at the start of this “talk” about Israeli kings shows the importance of the command. Previously in this chapter, I mentioned the custom of the Israelite kings to ride lowly looking mules instead of majestic looking horses. God ordained that as an aid to keeping humble the leaders who rose to the high estate of king.

Now I said everything in that last paragraph to say this to you. Just look around you at how majestic our self-powered vehicles of transportation have become. Most people harbor in their hearts a love for those grand machines that God is jealous and angry about. God forbade the Israeli kings to multiply horses. But just look at how greatly most present day families have multiplied their vehicles. Their love for and pride in those vehicles is quite apparent. Freely running to and fro with the greatest of ease anywhere we desire to go in our vehicles of splendor has become one of our greatest known joys. I do not think a jealous God Who commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind, is pleased with the matter at all.

“Heavenly Father, please show us just how far we have gone astray in failing to love Thee, and instead coming to love the things of the world that Thou doest forbid us to love. Have mercy on us. Amen.”

From the steam engine of the 1830’s, self-powered vehicles of locomotion steadily increased in grandeur and the ease, convenience, and speed of running to and fro steadily increased, more or less unimpeded, for about 130 years. It appears to me that then, Almighty God in Heaven decreed, “It is time to start judgment against this sinful rising and sinful running to and fro by rebellious mankind.” So in late 1973, vehicle gasoline left its long-standing benchmark price of 30 something cents a gallon in much of the USA and started its steady climb.

Since the 1970’s, complex problems involving travel keep cropping up and keep increasing in intensity and frequency in spite of the many futile efforts of society and government to solve those problems. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” (Psalm 2:4) Man will NOT be able to solve these increasing problems concerning travel, simply because with those efforts, the human creature is fighting against his Creator’s Judgment against our sinful, rebellious running to and fro. We can always count on God to win and sinful mankind to lose in the human creature’s war against his Creator God.

“Almighty God, please have mercy on us all and save us from fighting against Thee, I most humbly pray. Amen.”  

Look at everyone trying to cut back on their running to and fro as fuel prices steadily climb and the wearying problems at the airports steadily increase. Those are the results that God’s judgment is bringing. Glory to God for His judgment! The Judge of the Universe is most jealous of us madly running to and fro and thus ceasing to have any time at all to walk with Him in close fellowship. Also we no longer have any time to stand still in order to know that He is God and in order for Almighty God to teach us of Himself.

So, please keep your eyes open to keenly observe as our Just and Holy Jehovah God increasingly pours out heavy punishment and wrath against our running to and fro. Likely we are going to see Him put us all into “PARK,” shut off our engines, thus making us all become ever so very still and also cause us to return to old fashioned walking. Glory to God for that! “Be still, and know that I am God.”

If and when that happens, likely horribly violence will result as masses of people explode in deadly anger over one of their most beloved and most fervently worshipped idol gods being taken away from them; that false god being the ability to run to and fro over all the earth, water, and sky with such economy, ease, comfort, convenience, and most of all deadly SPEED. Relearning the wonderful virtue of patience and the blessed act of walking appears to be on the horizon for much of God’s human race. Glory to God! His ways are perfect.

“All Glory be to Almighty God in the Highest. Praise God for being jealous over us. Praise God for His Most Righteous Judgment in judging us ever so harshly for sinfully loving the things of the devil’s world and for loving to sinfully and madly, insanely run to and fro to our own destruction. All Glory be to Thee, Lord God, for loving Judgment. Help us all to love Judgment in the exact same manner as Thou doest. Help us rebellious sinners to come to fervently worship Thee for the Judgment that Thou art now pouring out upon our wicked rebellion. Amen and amen!”

Recent newscasts speak of people cutting back on their travel. Glory to God that He is judging our insane running to and fro. News tells of people relearning to walk. A man speaking on a newscast declared that instead of driving 4 blocks, he now walks. What a wonderful thing the high cost of gasoline has taught him to do. Bicycle sales are climbing, so the news says. How I rejoice to hear such news! Some people come up with the idea of praying at the gas pumps. Praying is a most wonderful thing to do, but proper prayers are necessary for receiving good answers. We should pray for God to make our hearts truly repentant of loving the devil’s world. We should pray for God to save us from loving the devil’s world and the things that are in the world, save us out of the devil’s world, save us from running to and fro, and help us to get back on God’s earth, and to walking, and to being still in order to know God.

“Heavenly Father, please turn our hearts in the right direction. Also, please help us to turn our bodies in the right direction also to go where Thou wouldst have us to go, to do what Thou wouldst have us to do, and to be where Thou wouldst have us to be. Please teach us to walk. Please teach us to be still in order to know that Thou art God. Have mercy on us all and save us out of the devil’s world, Lord, I earnestly pray. Amen.”

At this point in time, which do you find yourself in love with, God and His Righteous Judgment or the devil’s world??? Does joy or sorrow well up in your heart as you observe God judging and destroying the devil’s world and putting the squeeze on man’s (your) running to and fro? Who is on the Lord’s Side??

“Lord God, help me to truly be on Thy Side. Help me to cease my efforts of trying to escape the Judgment that Thou art presently pouring out upon our sinful running to and fro. Help me to fully submit myself to Thee for Thee to guide me into Thy Perfect Will concerning my movement. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

Rushing to and fro tends to cause the human creature to become ever so complacent regarding sinning against God. People rush on away from the “one night stand” and many other sins, the quickly gained distancing aiding the sinner in convincing himself that the deed had been put completely behind him and is no longer of any concern to him because he is able to distance himself from that sinful act so easily. Countless times during the 20th century, people mockingly laughed as they literally spun their vehicle’s tires, racing away from the scene of some bad deed they did. “Catch me if you can, ha ha ha!” Such convenience in the devil’s world aids the sinner in assuring himself that he will never hear anything more about that sin in the future. Forget about that sin, put it behind you with the distance, and try to convince yourself that it is completely forgotten by everyone. But God will of a certainty bring every deed to light and into judgment. Which do you love, God’s Judgment or the world?

“Heavenly Father, help me to sincerely love that which Thou lovest. Save me from loving the world that Thou commandest me not to love. Thou art a God that lovest Judgment. Help me to love the Judgment that Thou art presently pouring out upon the devil’s destructive kingdom, the world. Please help me to learn to love walking, as we see Thee bringing the human race back to walking. Help me to love being still in order to know that Thou art God. I pray this for all other people also. Have mercy on us all, Lord, I pray. Amen.”

“Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin”

We have grievous sinned against Almighty God by disobeying His command to “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world”. Therefore it should come as no surprise to us as we now wake up to the reality that we have brought ourselves into deep and heavy bondage to the world and can see no apparent way of escape out of it. The common men and women are crying out, “All my money is going into my gas tank!” As I write this in 2008, it is estimated that the population of the US is spending over $1 billion a day on vehicle gasoline and fuel. (That is an expensive habit, addiction) And people see no salvation from spending so much of their money on gasoline, because they have become enslaved to the devil’s kingdom, the world, by sinfully loving it ever so dearly. We have forsaken God’s earth, which required NO money for us to take our living from it, and we see no way of returning to it. 

The common populace is emptying out their small pockets, each laying his and her little money at the feet of large oil company executives whose present annual salaries are being reported on the news as being in the 10’s of millions of dollars. While your little money (along with the little money of many other common people) is being piled ever so highly (in an act of worship???) at the feet of such highly risen, wealthy, worldly executives, it is driving you (and masses like you) to poverty. And in general, all of us common people are void of any solution to this ever-tightening noose of a problem that is strangling our “life”. The simple reason is that we have so gladly chosen to leave the “dull, boring” life on God’s earth for the “never a dull moment, exciting, thrilling” life in the devil’s world. We ever so gladly put ourselves into bondage to the devil’s deadly world in return for all the fun, fame, and fortune that it heaped upon us. But now the time has come to pay the piper. And pay, we must. Big money. And oh how that enables the devil to build his kingdom to greater power and magnifigance. Oh, how Satan is laughing at us sinful suckers!

How it thrilled the human race to leave the drudgery of the God ordained life of walking behind an animal drawn plowshare and move to town to enjoy the devil’s world. Oh how the human race grew to madly love the devil’s modern world during all the 20th century as that devil’s world explosively developed into such great splendor that it took our breath from us. But now, a large payday is being exacted. Payday someday! The time has come to pay the piper. And pay dearly, we must! And we sure are having a hard time finding any way at all of escaping from that payday. There is only one way of possibly finding any relief. Cry out to a merciful God to have mercy on you for sinfully loving the devil’s world and the things of the devil’s world!

“Almighty God, please grant us all a repentant heart and enable us all to truly repent of loving the devil’s world and the things that are in the world. Have mercy on us and turn us to Thee, Lord. Amen.”

We gladly forsook the God-ordained old fashioned farming method of using animal and man power to till the ground, for the “devil’s world’s” method of farming with modern, worldly equipment so that 98% of the nation’s population could leave the farm to move to Sodom and Gomorrah to enjoy the sin and worldly things that abound there. And what a great relief it was for the few remaining farmers to trade the sweat of the brow and the toil of God ordained manual farm work for the ease of just sitting on a tractor that accomplished much more tilling of the soil. And it was ever so pleasant when those tractors evolved to air-conditioned cabs with music and such. Look at us! We can even make tilling the ground from whence we were taken a life of ease, enjoying worldly music as we do so! Aren’t we great!

But now, watch it becoming increasingly difficult to fuel the farm machinery. Everyone is watching (in unbelief and despair) the cost of their daily, life-sustaining bread (and all foods) steadily rise and climb with no ceiling in sight because of the rising cost of fuels now used in practically all food production (instead of human and animal power). Even with the much higher prices you are presently paying for your daily bread, more and more of the few farmers are operating at a loss. Some of them are going bankrupt. Some farmers are quitting farming before they do go bankrupt. You are watching your food supply turn into a nightmare famine because the human race has sinfully disobeyed our Creator’s command to “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” We tragically opted to run to and fro to our own destruction instead of farming and walking as God ordained that we do.

“There shall be famines.” Looking around me makes me believe that prophecy of my Lord concerning the end time is starting to develop into reality. Poor people in the world are starting to riot and kill because they can no longer pay the higher prices for food. Starvation motivates murder like nothing else motivates murder. Starving people will most readily slice your throat to get your last slice of bread. O how I glory in God’s ordained plan for each and every person who came from Adam’s loins to personally take their food from God’s created nature. Nowadays, as food supplies dwindle here in Japan, the Japanese government is earnestly calling on everyone in the nation to produce what food they possibly can, no matter how small the amount. People sure are getting smart! Why, that is exactly what our God ordained when He first created us, each family till the ground to get their needed food. After the human race has run a 6,000-year mad, destructive circle of rebellion against our Creator God, just look at Him putting hooks in our jaws and bringing us back to the basics. Now ain’t that ever so refreshing to see??!!

“Glory to Almighty God in Heaven for Thy Judgment! All praise, honour, and glory be to Thee because that Thou lovest Judgment! All Glory be to God for Thy Most Severe Judgment against our wicked sins of rebellion against Thee! Thou art Just and Righteous. Thou hast done all things well. Glory to God! Please have mercy on us, turn us, and cause us to love that which Thou lovest. Help all of us to love Judgment just as Thou doest. Instill within all of us a Holy hatred for the devil’s world and the things of the world. Please have mercy on us, and turn our hearts to Thee, Lord, I humbly pray. Amen.”

 Just think. Until the late 1800’s, no one on God’s glorious earth needed (nor used) gasoline and such fuels. Now, just over a short 100 years later, it looks like many human souls are soon to perish because of the high cost (and shortage?) of such fuels. First we loved running to and fro because of the much lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life that it brought to us. But now we find ourselves enslaved to running to and fro with no visible way out as the cost of it now sucks all our money out of our pockets. Truly, we’ve come a long way, baby, right to our own destruction. “And the world passeth away, and the lusts thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” (Consider the wisdom of investing in a heavy duty, durable bicycle with large baskets, so you can pedal it to the grocery store, praying all the way there that the grocery shelves will not be bare.)

“All my money is going into my gas tank!” the masses of common people desperately cry as they watch that money pile up at the feet of wealthy oil executives, making those worldly controllers and the devil’s kingdom all the more powerful. So please think on the important Truth that God ordained that you contribute NOTHING to the devil’s kingdom. That is accomplished by doing what God ordained that we do with our lives. You and your family living on the land, together working it to obtain all your needs, daily walking out to your fields from your abode to work them, growing your food there. God provided for the production (by all your family members) of all your food, clothing, shelter, firewood, and such right there on the land. Self sufficient and contributing absolutely nothing to the glory of the devil’s kingdom. All the efforts of one’s entire workday went to providing family needs instead of being poured into a gas tank to make rich, powerful oil executives more rich and more powerful. And throughout each workday, it was easy to walk with God, fellowship with Him, sing praises aloud to God and to meditate on His Scriptures.

“The pain at the pump is becoming unbearable!” Then cry out to God to deliver you from the gas pump. God can deliver you from going to the gas pumps and show you the joy of walking and riding a bicycle. As a little boy in 1950, I witnessed the end of the era in which some men daily walked 2 to 3 miles (one way) to a place of work.

“Lord God, please have mercy on us and save us. Please show us the old paths. Guide us to those old paths and cause us to walk in them instead of madly rushing to and fro on the wide boulevards of the devil’s world. How we desperately need Thy Salvation. Amen.”

“How are we supposed to get to work?” Such cries of common people are now heard on the daily news. Cry out to God to put you on the farm (as He ordained for us from Adam). There, you can daily walk out to your fields (your workplace), to produce your family’s needs.   

It is far past time for us to repent of the terrible sins of hating the wonderful lifestyle God ordained for us and instead loving and building the devil’s powerful kingdom (the world) while we still have breath with which to repent. Throughout the 20th century, loving, building, and living for the devil’s world was so much fun that I guess we all just thought that the Judge of the universe was smiling down on us, joyful that His created human race was getting so much fun out of life. How tragically mistaken we were. “Be not deceived.” “Let no man deceive you by any means.” “Let no man deceive himself.”   

“Heavenly Father, please reveal to me the vast extent to which we Christian believers have come to love the devil’s ever growing world that Thou commandest us not to love. Show us the truth that we are now reaping a most costly and deadly payday for our blatant sin because the devil’s world is now putting a strangle hold on our life. Help us all to truly acknowledge our sins and to repent to Thee of our sins. Please turn our hearts to Thee, O Lord, for forgiveness of and salvation from our many, blatant, proud sins, I humbly pray. Amen.”

Born in 1946, as a very small tike on an old-fashioned farm, I observed the tail end of an era; that of the lowly and poor farmer (often along with some or all family members) walking out to his nearby fields each morning leading a horse or two, or riding out to his fields on a horse drawn wagon to work those fields for his family’s livelihood. He used few or no things of the world to produce his family’s food and his livestock’s feed. Contrast that to this present day. Nowadays, most every food grower depends on (is enslaved to) machines that produce that food. And the escalating cost of fuel for those farm machines is bringing disaster to food production. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” (Psalm 2:4)

“All Glory be to Almighty God for laughing at our foolish sins. Thou art Holy, Just, and Righteous. We have grievously sinned. God is Perfect, and ever so Good. We more than deserve our harsh punishment. Glory to God! Amen.”

Shortly after the turn of the 21st century (2001), as fuel prices steadily rose, a nationwide cry arose in the USA. “We must produce bio fuels to break our dependence on (slavery to) expensive petroleum!” So big money was poured into building expensive plants to make bio fuels. The result? Immediately the cost of corn, livestock feed, and groceries started escalating, bringing on starvation conditions in poor countries like Haiti. The result? Much of the world cries out, “Stop production of bio fuels! We must have that corn (and other grains) for livestock and people to eat!”

“Back paddle! Back paddle!”

“Rethink it! Rethink it!”

“Try something different! What else can we try? Hurry up and think! We are running out of time!” 

“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” GLORY TO ALMIGHTY GOD IN THE HIGHEST! His Ways are Perfect. Our ways are wrong and sinful.

“I also will laugh at your calamity”

For 6,000 years, our Creator God has pled in mercy and grace to a stiff necked, rebellious, sinful human race, pleading for us to return to Him and to His Ways and to His Old Paths. Sadly, few have heeded His pleas. Our longstanding rebellion is now bringing much calamity and fear upon us. Just what might God’s Attitude toward us be at this point? “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD. They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” (Proverbs 1:24-33)

“Heavenly Father, please have mercy on us and save us from our soon coming destruction. We have rebelled against Thee, and thus we are soon to be destroyed. Turn us and save us, Lord, for Thy Great Mercies Sake, I humbly pray. Amen.”

Fellow Christian, as you watch God’s severe Judgment destroying most everything you have come to live for (the devil’s world and the things that are in the world), it is NOT time for you to despair. It is time to truly repent of your sins. And it is time to truly rejoice in God’s Just Judgment. It is time to bow down and worship Almighty God for His Perfect Ways. It is time to genuinely acknowledge that God is Absolutely Right and we are absolutely wrong. And it is time to joyfully worship and praise God for His Great Acts of Judgment.

“Heavenly Father, please reveal all of my sins unto me. Help me to sincerely repent of them. Please help me to love Thy Judgment and rejoice greatly as I observe Thee judging the devil’s world. I pray these things for all other people also. Help us all, Lord, I pray. Amen.”   

“Yea, tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”

Ever so soon, you are going to walk thru the valley of the shadow of death when you depart this life here on this earth. You will not run thru it. Neither will you drive thru it on or in some fancy, manmade machine. Of a certainty, you will soon walk thru the valley of the shadow of death. And as for us Christian believers, we have our Lord’s wonderful promise of hope, that He will be with us, walking with us thru that deep, dark vale. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” What blessed hope that is. Praise God for that. Praise God that our Creator God is a Being Who walks! Praise God that He walks with us believers at all times.

The very first Biblical record of walking, speaks of the Lord God Himself walking. He created us human beings to walk barefoot on the soil from whence He created us. The Lord God created us to walk, both physically and spiritually with Him in close, sweet fellowship during our life on earth, throughout all of our life from the beginning to the end. Then when our life here on earth ends in death, our very last act will be that of walking thru the valley of the shadow of death. Our gracious Creator God promises to walk with us believers thru the valley of the shadow of death and to walk us into His Bright and Glorious Heaven where there will never be any darkness or night. May our Loving God help all of us human creatures to regard His ordained act of walking just as highly as He regards it. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

“Lord God, please help me to regard the glorious act of walking just as highly as Thou doest regard it. Please bring me to a full realization of the extent of the importance of us human creatures walking. Help me to always bear in mind that Thou didst ordain walking as my means of locomotion. Please help me to hold walking in high regard for that important reason alone. Please give me a full understanding of all the wonderful benefits Thou hast created into the act of walking by us human beings. Please teach me to experience the fullness of the blessings received by walking with Thee, both spiritually and physically in close, sweet, intimate fellowship. Please guide my life to be a continual, unbroken, close walk with Thee, both physically and spiritually, for the remainder of my life here on earth. Thank Thee; Lord, for Thy precious Promise to walk with me thru the valley of the shadow of death. Because of that, I will fear no evil. How glorious it is to walk with Thee, Lord. Please save me from rushing to and fro during my life here on earth. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”  

(This is the end of Chapter 16 of Creature Versus Creator)

 

Chapter 17

 

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