DID GOD MAKE A MISTAKE?  GP 35    1/71

         1. DID GOD MAKE A MISTAKE BY PUTTING ADAM & EVE IN THE GARDEN--and they wound up making their own choice, the wrong one! Did God have to confess failure by the Flood, in that He had to wipe out all Mankind for its wickedness? Was the Tower of Babel a total disaster, & was the confusion of tongues a catastrophe?--Or was it necessary to accomplish God's purpose to humble & scatter Man over the face of the Earth?
         2. WAS IT A MISTAKE WHEN MOSES KILLED THE EGYPTIAN & had to flee for his life, & lived 40 years in the wilderness with the sheep & his father-in-law? Wasn't that a terrible setback to the cause & the deliverance of his people?--Or was it necessary that Moses had to go into exile to learn the lessons that God had to teach him, to make him the man he needed to be to deliver his people?--Totally dependent on GOD, not himself!
         3. DID GOD MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN HE LET DAVID FALL FOR BATHSHEBA & FALL FROM GRACE in the eyes of the kingdom, fall from the throne at the hand of his own son, & depart in disgrace & scandal to another country with only a handful of friends? Did David really fall downward, or was this a fall upward? SOMETIMES GOD'S WAY UP IS DOWN.--Usually, in fact!--Just the opposite of what we think! God loves to do things contrary to natural expectation, because THAT takes a miracle & THAT shows it's GOD, & not Man! And David was humbled & the whole kingdom was humbled, & they were reminded that it was only the Lord that made them what they were! From that squeezing & twisting of David's life came forth the sweet honey of the Psalms & the fragrance of his praises to the Lord for His mercy! It was all GOD & all GRACE & none of himself or his own righteousness, a lesson that's been an encouragement to others & other great sinners like me & you ever since!
         4. WAS ELIJAH'S MINISTRY DEFEATED WHEN HE RAN FROM JEZEBEL AFTER HIS GREAT VICTORY ON MT. CARMEL? Was his great bravery there completely scuttled by his cowardice in the wilderness? Here was the Prophet of God afraid of a woman!--Or was God trying to show him something that was going to make him a better Prophet, a humbler Prophet?
         5. AFTER ELIJAH FOUND OUT THAT GOD WAS NOT JUST IN THE FIRE, THE THUNDER & THE EARTHQUAKE, this man of fire & thunder became a meek little man of the still small voice of God. He'd been great on doom & destruction & judgement, now he was learning the slow, patient process of feeding & leading the sheep! It's so much easier, so much more dramatic to be a Prophet of doom than a healer of wounds & a feeder of sheep, a grower of lambs & a teacher of babes!
         6. BUT WHERE'S THE BIG NEWS OF THE TEACHER WHO TRUDGES ALONG DAY AFTER DAY, feeding the sheep as they gradually grow to be productive & fruitful in a lasting, permanent fruit that remains for the everlasting Kingdom of God? And what farmer makes news trudging along through the furrows, labouring with his hands--patiently, tenderly, diligently nurturing little blades of grain that they may grow up, even in a day that he may never see, & bear much fruit!
         7. THIS IS ANOTHER WHOLE SUBJECT IN ITSELF--THE LITTLE PEOPLE, the nobodies, those behind the scenes who make it all possible, the ones who stay behind & keep the home fires burning & care for the babes & feed the children & wash the dishes & cook the food etc. It takes the little people to make the others great, & you have to be "little people" first before you can become great.--Because God only makes great people out of little people to show HIS greatness!
         8. "GOD HATH CHOSEN THE FOOLISH THINGS OF THE WORLD TO CONFOUND THE WISE, & God hath chosen the WEAK things of the World to confound the things which are mighty; & BASE things of the World, & things which are DESPISED, hath God chosen, yea, & things which are not, to bring to nought things which are, that no flesh should glory in His presence."--1Cor.1:27-29.--That He might get all the glory, because then you KNOW it wasn't Man!
         9. THE LIST IS ALMOST ENDLESS OF ALL THE PEOPLE GOD HAD TO HUMBLE BEFORE HE COULD USE THEM--of all the leaders God had to bring down to the depths before they could stand to be exalted--lest they would have taken credit to themselves & not given GOD the glory.--Because, by the time God's ready to make you really great, He makes absolutely nothing out of you, so there's nothing left of you at all, & it's only JESUS! When He can get YOU out of the way, then HE has a chance! When you become nothing but a TOOL & a CHANNEL--nothing but a little diamond of dust, THEN God can really use you! He has to BREAK you & HUMBLE you & MELT you in the fire, PURGE you, PURIFY you, SIFT you, beat out the chaff! He has to beat the hell out of you, till there's none of it left-crucify the flesh till it's dead as a doornail--mortify the mind till it's almost gone.--So that JESUS can live & think & move in you! Did God make a mistake?--Or is all this necessary to make us what we ought to be? Was it a mistake? Couldn't there have been a better, more proper way of doing it?
         10. TO HELL WITH THE PROPER WAY! THE PROPER WAY IS OF MAN! The unexpected & the improper, the unconventional & the untraditional, the unorthodox & unceremonious, contrary to Man's natural expectation--this is the way God usually works! "For MY thoughts are NOT your thoughts, neither are your ways MY ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways & My thoughts than your thoughts!"--Isa.55:8,9. Who can know the mind of the Lord & who can show HIM anything?
         11. WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, anyway, to tell God what to do & how to do it? God knows His business & it's none of your business how He does it!
         12. SO QUIT TRYING TO TELL HIM HOW HE OUGHT TO DO IT! "Now Lord, You must do it this way or that way, so we'll be accepted & people will understand." To hell with the people who don't understand! Your friends don't NEED an explanation & your enemies would never believe it anyhow! So why explain? Just trust God that He knows what He's doing! "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart: & lean NOT unto thy OWN understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge HIM & HE shall direct thy paths."--Prov.3:5,6.
         13. THE MINUTE YOU TRY TO FIGURE IT OUT IN THE FLESH, YOU MIGHT AS WELL QUIT, 'cause it will probably never work out that way anyhow! "Lest Israel say, 'Mine own arm hath saved me'!" God loves to do things contrary to the way we think He ought to do them! Is this a mistake? Is God wrong?
         14. DO WE HAVE TO BE SO COMPLETELY DENOUNCED BY THE SYSTEM, in order to keep us separate & uncompromising & from drifting back into it? Do they have to reject us entirely to drive us to You? Must we utterly burn our bridges behind us so that it's impossible for us to go back?
         15. ISN'T THIS ASKING A LITTLE TOO MUCH, LORD, to make us such an offscouring of society as Paul was, as he said the Apostles were--such dregs of humanity as Your early followers were, Lord!--Such misfits & queer characters & fanatics & peculiar people, Lord! If we go this far, we'll never be able to go back! The System will never accept us again. Some of our own people might even leave us because of it! It might bring division & betrayal by those who are not loyal--like Judas did to You! It might offend so many weaker brethren, we'd have very few left & would be able to persuade very few to follow such extremes of loyalty, dedication & doctrine!-Like happened to You after that "blood & flesh sermon"!
         16. EVEN YOUR OWN DISCIPLES FORSOOK YOU OVER SOME OF YOUR HARD SAYINGS! What do you expect US to do over these extremes of OUR leaders? It's just too much, Lord, You'll never get a very big army THAT way! We'll never be very popular, practicing such extremes as this! We'll never be generally accepted if we preach & practice EVERYTHING in the Bible! You surely wouldn't expect that of US!
         17. IT'S JUST TOO MUCH! IT MUST BE A MISTAKE! Please don't ask that of us! Do WE have to be so different? Aren't You making a mistake, Lord? Isn't there some other way?
         18. "I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH & THE LIFE; & NO MAN COMETH UNTO THE FATHER, BUT BY ME." STRAIT is the gate & NARROW is the way, which leadeth unto life & FEW there be that find it." "Many are called, but few are chosen!" "Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise; & the weak things to confound the things which are mighty." "And many of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, 'This is an hard saying: who can bear it?'" "And the disciples forsook Him & fled." "Let us go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach." For He "made Himself of no reputation & took upon Him the form of a servant. " "He is despised & rejected of men, a man of sorrows & acquainted with grief. He was taken from prison & from judgement...& He made His grave with the wicked & with the rich in His death." ... "And ye shall be hated of all nations for My Name's sake ... & then shall the end come." "Because ye are not of the World, but I have chosen you out of the World, therefore the World hateth you. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." "He that receiveth you, receiveth Me & he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me." "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord."
         19. GOD DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES & even the "foolishness of God is wiser than men; & the weakness of God is stronger than men." There is no better way than God's way: Hear ye Him! "And He saith unto them, Follow Me, & I will make you fishers of men. And they IMMEDIATELY left ALL & followed Him...even unto the death of the Cross." "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me & My Words in this adulterous & sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels." "Beware when all men speak well of you!"--John 14:6; Mat.7:14; Mat.20:16; 1Cor.1:26,27; Jn.6:60,66,67; Mat.26:56; Heb.13:13; Phil.2:7; Isa.53; Mat.24:9,14; Jn.15:19,20; 1Cor.1:25; Mat.4:19, Mk.8:38; Mat.10:40,24.