It’s
pretty near impossible to tune into most TV program, movie or other so-called
entertainment events these days without encountering, in some form or another,
the rot, decay and filth of our deteriorating social fabric. We either seem to
be screaming, ‘I don’t care if this and that violate God’s laws and
principles, as long as it makes money for me!’, or perhaps we genuinely do
not understand and cannot, therefore, appreciate the benefits of these laws and
principles. Maybe it’s a mix.
Numerous
Scriptures affirm God is testing each of us, individually and collectively.
That’s an inescapable fact of life on this plane. For example, see:
Genesis
22:1 Exodus 15:25, 16:4,
20:20 Deuteronomy 8:2
Judges 2:21-22 2 Chronicles 32:31 Job 7:17-18
Acts 17:11 Ecclesiastes 3:18 Psalm 66:10, 81:7
James 1:2 1 Thessalonians 2:4 Hebrews 3:8,17:11
Judges 2:21-22 2 Chronicles 32:31 Job 7:17-18
Acts 17:11 Ecclesiastes 3:18 Psalm 66:10, 81:7
James 1:2 1 Thessalonians 2:4 Hebrews 3:8,17:11
The
tests are structured to uncloak and reveal to us (since God already knows),
both personally and collectively, the contents of our heart/our spirit.
These contents are fed by the continuous, drip, drip thoughts and imaginations
of our mind and heart, and our focus on, and reactions to the evolving circumstances
of life. As in school, passing the tests qualifies us to move onward and upward
into higher levels of blessings for us and through us to others. Moreover,
passing the tests qualifies us for yet unimagined roles and functions in the millennial
age God promised would follow this age. This point is worth some serious
meditation and musing time.
Mass
student test failures in our schools typically trigger social outcries, and may
lead to teacher firings, school board shake-ups, and school shutdowns. Reading
and listening to news reports across our world, it sure seems like there is a
whole lot of mass failures of God’s tests going on, yet no commensurate
outcries!
Failing
God’s tests seems to be socially acceptable and even rewarding on the surface! ‘So
what?’, you ask. ‘Who cares, and why should we care?’ These surface
rewards are only temporary, and the real rewards will be one form or
another of grotesque punishment. Failure not only impacts and determines the
quality of our individual lives; it also influences and shapes the general
context of life on Earth. A pertinent question is what kind of world do you
want to live in, and for your posterity (grand children and their grand
children) to live in? Believe it or not, your personal lifestyle is a tiny,
yet important seed to the kind of world they will someday reap! Ponder that, if
you will.
Currently,
our world is becoming increasingly stinky with the results of sinful pride,
injustice, selfishness, greed, etc. To God, it’s like trash smoke in His (spiritual)
nostrils. (Isaiah 65:5) So here’s a radical idea:
Don’t like the Tester or His
tests?
Let’s turn-the-tables on God!
Let’s ‘Test the Tester!’
What an
empowering thought! Where is it written this testing thing must necessarily be
a one-way street? Since God tests us to uncloak and reveal to us and others the
‘thoughts-fed contents’ of our hearts, let’s flip this same switch. Let’s find
creative ways to reveal back to Him and to others the real contents of His
own heart, and see whether He lives up to them, as He expects us to do. Let’s
dig and dig into His professed ‘Word’, find those so-called ‘promises’ –
explicit and implicit, and put both Him and them to our test! In this, we won’t
necessarily be escaping His own tests, but maybe, in some small way, we will be
leveling the playing field, so to speak.
Do you
find this notion to be radical, and perhaps even a bit empowering? I do, and
sure hope you do, as well.
Upon
reflection, it may not be so radical after all. This God of The Bible, who
claims to be the only true and real God, above all other gods, is so powerful,
yet loving and graceful, so confident in who He is, He actually INVITES us to put
Him to the test! How about that for confidence? In fact, every
promise – explicit and implicit, is a tailor-made invitation to us individually
and collectively, to ‘Try Me; try My way’. So let’s take Him up on His extended
invitation.
Warning: Just like on most of our
processed foods, drugs and medicines, God’s promises to you and me have the
equivalent of both a ‘Manufactured/Effective’ date, and a ‘Use by’
date. Unlike our warnings that are stamped on items manufactured in a ‘lot’,
His warning dates are personalized to us individually, and only one of
these dates is explicitly revealed to us -- our birth date! The ‘Use
by’ date is the date of our physical death, which none of us can know
(unless revealed in a vision). Also, it is worth noting, other people who have
taken up the invitation to ‘Test the Tester’, have discovered how remarkably
TRUE His promises are; and how these promises have dramatically transformed the
quality of their lives and their personal worlds. I, one among many, have made
this discovery for myself. Hence my invitation to you to join me in daily…
Testing the Tester!
