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Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014


Has God Said?

"Now the serpent [Satan, the devil] was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"' And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"1

Some churches today, or at least some church leaders—wanting to be politically correct—are approving of ordaining homosexual pastors. In so doing, they are totally ignoring God's Word that indeed has said: "Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin."2

What these church leaders are doing is no different than what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden when God allowed them to be tested to see if they would willingly follow Him or choose to go their own way.

God made it very clear to Adam and Eve that they could eat of every tree in the entire Garden of Eden except for just one tree. Enter Satan. Wanting to gravely harm the apex of God's creation, Satan sought to sow doubt into Eve's mind by saying, "Has God said?" Tragically, Eve, then Adam, bought into Satan's deceit and ate of the forbidden fruit. What Adam and Eve did was set themselves up above God—usurping His authority—making themselves the judge between God and Satan and chose to believe     and follow Satan. This is when sin and evil entered the human race.

What these "politically correct" church leaders are doing today is exactly the same as what Adam and Eve did. They, too, are placing themselves above God and usurping His authority. God HAS indeed said that homosexuality is a detestable sin and the reason it is detestable to God is because it is damaging to those whom he loves. To ignore God's Word and go against it is to put one's self above God—usurping His authority—believing that you know better than He does. This is an extremely dangerous path to follow because it will, in the end, reap extremely damaging results.

Remember, too, regarding any sin, God HAS also said, "For the wages of sin is death3 [which means spiritual death that is eternal separation from a Holy God in the place God's Word calls Hell]. Fortunately, however, as God is a loving God, He also said, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."3

We ignore God's Word to our peril. However, the good news is that God can freely give you and me the gift of forgiveness and eternal life because in His eternal love for us, He gave His very own Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cruel Roman cross to pay the just penalty for all of our sins. All we need to do is genuinely confess to God that we are sinners, believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died to pay the just penalty for our sins, ask God for His forgiveness, and accept Jesus Christ as one's Lord and Savior.

For help to do this be sure to read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian—without having to be religious" at: www.actsweb.org/christian. Be sure and do this today.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for your Word, the Holy Bible, with its instructions not only for this life, but also for life after life. Help me never to usurp Your authority by disregarding Your Word and going my own way. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus's name, amen."

1. Genesis 3:1-3 (NKJV).
2. Leviticus 18:22.
3. Romans 6:23 (NKJV).

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