Wanting Benefits without the Work

          First, I want to say that the title was the title of the sermon yesterday at church so I didn't make it up but when you look into it, it is true in the world today. I will try to explain it how I see it in my own life right now and if I can, a little bit of the way I see it in the world today.  The verses were Jeremiah 21:1-14. The title of the chapter in the Bible is "God Rejects Zedekiah's Request". I will tell you some of the verses that touched my heart and what they mean to me and so on.
          The first verse I liked was verse 2b. It says: "Perhaps the Lord will perform wonders for us in times past so that he  (the king) will withdraw from us." This verse means to me and the way I understood the pastor preach it was: "Just because you ask and work, doesn't mean it is going to happen. You have to believe and follow God as well." I also like verse 8 because it says: "Furthermore, tell the people, This is what the Lord said, "See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death." That verse is kind of harsh if you think about it but when you think about it really hard God shouldn't have done that to the people or to us.
           God is giving His people two choices. Do you want life or do you want death? It is as simple as that. It is funny when I think about it because choices work best with little children. You can give them two choices and they can pick. You do that so they can feel powerful and like they did it by themselves but they didn't. Do you think that God wants us to feel that way? Then when and if we noticed that it was really God all along we are thankful. It is just funny that God even those that to us all our life and we don't even know or think about it that way.
           God gives us those two choices because He loves us so much and He doesn't want to get angry at or throw His Wrath down on us. God whether give us 100+ choices before He uses His Wrath against us. I really shouldn't say wrath, I should say teach us a lesson because it could be something as simple as losing you job because you were becoming too focused on that and not Him. I do have a question though about God's Wrath? What do you think God's Wrath would look like? I have two answers for you. The real and only answer is: God sent His wrath on His Son, Jesus when he was dieing on the cross for our sins. The way I like to look at it here on earth and still nothing can compare to God's wrath but I have worked with some children that will throw the longest, hardest, and loudest fits known to man and that's not as bad as God's wrath.
            All God asks of us is to "Love Him with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our heart." It's not that far from us, we can do it. We must act on it. When God tells us to do something, we must go do it. When God tells us to say something, we must say it.  When God tells us to pray for something, then we must pray for it. Prayers can move mountains, even overseas. We must be listening to God and doing what the Bible says because the ways are in the Bible. We try to go to people who aren't Christians or who can't give Godly advice and we get lost. When we do go, most of us will just turn our backs and get mad at them while we are leaving because we don't want to do what they said. Well, guess what it is in the Bible. God said it, not them.

I love this saying that the pastor said and it will stick with me for a long time:

"God set two roads before you: life or death. Choose one."

            I know none of this is easy because we are all humans and there is sin in this world. We should try our best, though, to follow God and win people for Him. Now I'm sharing this because I need help with it too. I'm not perfect by far at all. I probably need help more then anyone reading this but that is the sweet thing about Christian community. We can all work on it together and hold each other accountable for it.

All this to say (in my words): "If you want the benefit of life, then you need to work for God. If you want the benefit of death, you know what to do or it is more like 'not to do'." 

"You don't get paid and special benefits if you don't do the work at your earthly job and this is God's job for you, so what would the difference be?"