Born To Run

Today's post is so feature rich :-D... you're going to really enjoy it... God's DEDICATED Apostle... Paul... had been preaching real good all around Cyprus... on his first missionary journey round about 49AD... people were being saved all over the Island... the miraculous power of God confirming Paul's preaching with healings, deliverances... the governor of Cyprus at the time, under the Roman dominion, Sergius Paulus, an INTELLIGENT man, not easily taken in by charlatans, began to get really interested in the things of God... he invited Paul and Barnabas in, wanting to hear the Word of God first-hand from them... he genuinely desiredto know how he could get in contact with God through prayer... and how he could become a child of God... but there was a witch in his employ... who had managedto warm his way into his confidence with his enchantments... this witch thought he was strong enough to oppose God's Apostle... feeling threatened... not wantingto be made redundant, he exercised every form of witchcraft available in opposition to the Lord's Apostle to no avail... Paul and Barnabas were inaccessibleto all that trash (Psalm 91 Promise)... so in trying to hinder the governor from faith, he then began speaking out to contradict everything the Apostle was saying... thinking, "...let's put an end to all of this!" ....what he didn't realise was that God had not killed him yet because of love... God was giving him some time torepent of his wickedness BUT HE MISINTERPRETED THAT AS A SIGN OF WEAKNESS TO HIS NEAR FATAL ERROR... well since God can open blind eyes, HE CAN ALSO CLOSE THEM... and this witch was struck BLIND! ....for daring tooppose the move of God... you can read about the account yourself in the 13th chapter of the book of Acts, a detailed record of Paul's first missionary journey... this witch was smart enough to back down after this because the Axe of God's Angel was raised... ready to chop off his head, if he continued persecuting God's servants, and Sergius Paulus became born again and began to enjoy Jesus' love and wisdom's prosperity, health, joy, peace, all benefits of eternal life... Paul himself knows how deadly it is to push God too far... he himself had been STRUCK BLIND FOR 3 WHOLE DAYS!!! ....thrown off from his horse by a BRIGHT LIGHT... when he had been on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians and cast them off to prison... and if you notice Jesus said, "...why are you persecuting ME!!!!" ....He took it personally pally... this wasn't God thinking, ok, I'm going to strike him blind... then... he would go into Damascus... then... I will send Ananias to lead him in the sinner's prayer so he can be saved... this was GOD'S FIRST STAGE PHYSICAL WARNING!!! ....THIS WAS GOD PREPARING TO TAKE HIM OUT!!!!!!! .....if he didn't repent.... God knew Paul (Saul) was a very stubborn man... that verse that Paul quoted in Romans about Christians being killed in cold blood, and picked off one by one was actually written by the sons of Korah in Psalm 44, and if you notice this Psalm is titled A PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE... they were begging God for help in this Psalm... Paul's motivation for quoting that verse was not GO AHEAD AND KILL US... pick us off one by one, and you can get away with it scotfree, without any consequences... or that we are powerless before such persecution... if you notice, he wrote, NONE OF THIS FAZES US, BECAUSE JESUS LOVES US... Paul was not talking about the nice sweet melty chocolatey love that is our current mindset... Paul understood this love... deeper... pally... JESUS' LOVE IS DEADLY!!!!!!!!! .....AND EXTREMELY PASSIONATE!!!!!!! ......about the objects of this love.... US.... and if the wicked knew what they had coming, they would RUN!!!!! ....IN TEARS... to a church to cry for God's forgiveness, so they can be safe in His care, and cease being tools in the devil's hands to work wickedness... Asaph... one of King David's worship leaders was also trying tounderstand why IT SEEMED as if God allowed wicked people go on in their wickedness in this world... hurting good people... good people suffering... this was the gnawing question on his heart... until God helped him understand their end... and he recorded it in the 73rd Psalm... God helped him understand how THE WICKED ARE SET IN SLIPPERY PLACES... GOD... IS EXTREMELY LONGSUFFERING!!!! .....He gives wicked people a VERY LONG rope..... but a lot of them end up hanging themselves with it... but there are some times partner... when God has simply had enough.... when He gets that way HE CLEANS HOUSE PALLY!!!!! .....AND I MEAN "HOUSE" literally... THE FACT THAT YOU ARE CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH CHRISTIANS BUT STILL HARBOUR AND NURSE WCKEDNESS IN YOUR HEART DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE SAFE........ look at what happened toJacob's grandsons...... Er.... and Onan.... IN THE COVENANT!!!! ....SONS OF JUDAH... the beginning and end of the account of Er's life consisted in ONE solitary verse recorded by Moses in the 7th verse of the 38th chapter of Genesis... and it was simply this, "....Er, Judah's firstborn, WAS WICKED IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, AND THE LORD KILLED HIM..." end of story... it was the practice in those times that when a brother died without any children from his wife, a brother had to redeem her, and marry her to raise up children in his brother's name... so Tamar... Er's wife, was given to Onan, the immediate younger brother... meanwhile, Onan just wanted to enjoy a good shagg at the woman's expense, and not HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CHILDREN... not interested in giving Tamar children, he withdrew before orgasm and spilled his sperm on the ground.... and God killed him also... just like that... he was wicked... and God killed him... end of story... all recorded in that 38th chapter of Genesis...