Sunday, August 19, 2012

Yielding Rights

Recently, my daughter, has been talking to me about folks that have had the right to feel or do certain things. She is trying to justify in her mind why people have done what they have done. Being autistic, it is hard for her to understand "cause and effect". So, she was talking to me and trying to figure it out. I admit that most times I don't know why we do what we do, other than we just choose to do it and make our excuses later. All I can do is look at the facts of what has happened and usually don't even try to figure out why it happened. But my daughter has always been one to ask "why" questions. I think that is her way of trying to make sense of the world around her.
So, when I noticed that she was trying to rationalize everything by saying that folks had every right to do what they do, it made me realize that I had neglected to teach her the Biblical lesson of yielding rights. Well, I got right on that lesson. And I thought I would do the same in this posting.
Nowhere in the Bible do we see that we are to demand our rights. Nowhere in the Bible will you even find that we have rights. We do have blessings that are available to us. Many of those blessings are contingent on us doing something correct before we will receive those blessings. And many of those blessings are reserved for those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour. For example: John 11:25, "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:" A promise of life after death for those who believe in Jesus. That is a conditional promise. You will have eternal life if you believe on Jesus. (Which means that the opposite is also true...you will NOT have eternal life if you do NOT believe on Jesus.) Now for an unconditional promise made to those who have already believed on Jesus and have accepted Him as their Saviour...Romans 8:38-39," For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Guess what? There are also some promises for those who do not accept Jesus. They are found in Revelation 20:12-15," And I saw the dead (unsaved), small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened (you get to stand before God Almighty): and another book was opened, which was the book of life (if your name is not written in this book, then you are not saved from the judgment of God): and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works (yep, you will be judged for what you did while you were here on planet earth).
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them (guess where you get to go after you die if you do not accept Jesus as Saviour?!): and they were judged every man (and woman) according to their works (nope, this judgment is not to figure out if you were good enough to go to heaven; we already know that you don't).
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (That is the promise of where you will spend eternity if you don't receive Jesus.)
So, you see that there are promises in the Bible for all people. Nowhere, I repeat NOWHERE in the Bible will you find that you have any rights. Instead, we have responsibilities. Those that are specifically for this day and age can be found throughout the books of Romans to Philemon. They are written by the Apostle Paul to the church. And if you have received Jesus, then you are a part of the church. It is our God-given duty to yield to and obey the Bible. If you want to demand something, demand that your self does what it is suppose to do according to God's Word. Here is one such responsibility that I think covers all of the other responsibilities that we have, because it goes to the very heart of the matter..."the why". Colossians 3:17, "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."
The yielding of our rights (which we don't have anyways) and the taking up our responsibilities (of which we have many)...that is what a true christian should strive to do daily. It is the truth and it will bring God's blessings.