Your Voice

God’s actions and our expectations

Sometimes, people struggle to acknowledge God’s power. They have difficulty reconciling His actions with their expectations.

A person can acknowledge God’s power without accepting Him as God or submitting to His authority. In doing so, they belittle Him, again based on their own expectations.

People struggling to reconcile God’s actions and their own expectations may ask, “If God is so ___, why does He ___?” The question can take different forms.

The opposite of submitting to God can be trying to shape His actions to fit one’s own expectations and desires. Submission requires embracing God’s will and His desires.

People who reject submission say things like, “If I were God and had His power, I would ____.” They act like they are wiser than God and know better than God what needs to be done.

People who reject submission believe God should follow people’s desires. Basically, they see themselves as God.

God is totally trustworthy. Human expectations are untrustworthy.

Application:

• What happens when God’s activities do not match my expectations? How do I react?
• Do I sometimes think that my decision would be a better choice than God’s decision?
• What parts of God’s activity do I have difficulty accepting?
• How can I practice submission and avoid pretending to be God?

Takeaway:

God chooses His actions without human consultation.

Kevin Parker, Editor
Baptist New Mexican and GoBNM.com

Letter to the Editor

We talk and sing that we are the hands, feet and voice for Jesus. If this is true, and it is, the church needs to be heard and not remain in silence as the biblical truths on which we stand are challenged (Matt. 10:32–33).

• We believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

In Genesis, God created man and woman (2:21–24). God ordained the marriage between man and woman.

• We believe life begins at the first sign of a heartbeat.

The blessings of God start at that point, and that fetus develops into a beautiful baby boy or girl.

The Scripture says, “Thou shall not kill.” When we allow abortion, that is killing/murder. Is there any other honest way to look at it?

• We believe God created male and female to populate the earth.

God creates children, and before each child is born, that child is either female or male. God decided that.

When we try to change God’s creation, we are saying we believe that God didn’t know what He was doing.

God is the creator of this world and all that we are. Therefore, what gives us the right to play God and to say God didn’t know what He was doing?

This is a total rejection of God and His creation.

When we live by the word of God, it is not that we hate people, rather it is the sin that we stand against.

God says, if you love Me, keep My commandments.

We, as believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, are to live our lives in obedience to Him.

Pastor Ray Cobb and members of Haleburg Baptist Church
Shorterville, Ala

“All is fine, thank God.”

Nabil Habashi Salama
Coptic Christian in Egypt, in his final words to his son prior to being executed April 18 by the ISIS affiliate in north Sinai (see story here)

There are a thousand ways to be broken and only one way to be made whole.

Pastor Matt Mason
The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, Ala.

Motivated by greed, countless people have ruined their lives pursuing get rich quick schemes.

Like carnival games at a fair, the system is stacked against the fool hoping Lady Luck will reward his gambling at lotteries and casinos. These places can only survive by consistently removing money from your pocket and placing it in their own.

This is the recipe for poverty, broken homes and neglected children. Payday loan outfits, pyramid scheme marketing plans and the stock tip your friend says is a sure thing are just as risky. The few so-called winners have been known to squander it all before returning to that poisoned well in the hope of a repeat windfall that never comes.

God offers us a better method. Work hard. Spend less than you earn. Gather it little by little over time. Get rich slowly. “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” (Prov. 13:11).

Pastor Rick Patrick
First Baptist Church, Sylacauga, Ala.

Joseph was born into a complicated family, but that didn’t keep God from setting him apart for a great purpose. How has God set you apart to follow Him despite your past or heritage?

Kelly Minter
“Finding God Faithful”

The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him — and of her.

A.W. Tozer
“Knowledge of the Holy”

Are you going to choose comfort, or are you going to choose the cross? What comforts is God calling you to forsake in order to embrace the cross?

David Platt
“Something Needs to Change”

From the Twitterverse

@larrydrobertson
Have you failed God and thus feel like a failure? Sinned beyond what you believe to be redemption? As Judas betrayed Jesus, He called Judas, “Friend” (Matt. 26:50). That doesn’t make what Judas did good or right. But it does show Jesus’ heart toward the sinner. Think on that …

@tmansinho
#truthbomb … “Your life as a Christian should make nonbelievers question their disbelief in God.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

@MarcHodges3
Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Revive us again

@jbwester
Sometimes God gives us the most amazing gifts just because He can. He delights in his children.

@Blackwell_Kevin
We can only live one day at a time, but that one day ought to be lived with eternity in mind.

@MichaelCatt
Between now & the #SBC in Nashville, may I make a suggestion? We need an unprecedented humility, a repentance of doing so much that has nothing to do with the Great Commission, total surrender to Lordship & a oneness that only comes in dying to self.

@jasonkeithallen
I love our convention because I love our churches, and the Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, gospel-sharing people who comprise them.

@drbobterry
Here it is my duty to be as Christ in this world, to do what He would do, to live as He would live, to walk in love and meekness. Then would I have peace in death. —Christ Alone

@SpurgeonBooks
“Jesus is the Leader, not of misers, nor of those who oppress the poor, but of the kind and tender-hearted.” —Charles Spurgeon

@JohnCMaxwell
If you want to be successful tomorrow, then you must be teachable today. What got you to where you are won’t keep you there. And it certainly won’t take you where you want to go.

@jt_english
Extending grace to those who you think deserve grace is, by definition, not grace.

@pastorclint
“While Jesus is representing me in Heaven, may I reflect Him on earth.” —Valley of Vision.