Wednesday Bible Study: God Wants

God wants....

Have you ever heard those words? You know like, "God wants us to be good", or
"God wants us to believe in Him". Then there is also the even more used, God doesn't want. such as "God doesn't want us to suffer", or "God doesn't want us to lust, smoke, lie,"  you fill in the blank. I hear tell that there is as much that God doesn't want as God wants.

I have heard those words about or against one thing or another thousands of times in my life, usually from the pulpit. Nearly every time I hear that expression in almost every form, to be blunt, it makes me want to puke. Especially when it is coming from "a man of God"

Excuse me Mr Minister, if God wants something and he can't have it, why do you worship Him? I mean He is the Creator of a billion galaxies of trillions of stars and everything in them visible and invisible. He is the author of the laws of physics and nature and every other law that controls everything in existence both seen and unseen both known by us and far more that we do not know.

And yet God wants?

Is He going to cry if He doesn't get it?

Remember this, fix it in your mind, take it to heart you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me. I declare the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please,  (Isaiah 46: 8-20)

Well it seems that God, speaking through His prophet Isaiah knows precisely what he wants and He is fully capable of getting it. It is not like the omnipotence (Almighty) nature of God is hidden in the scriptures, it is like...well...everywhere.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1: 17-18)

A poetic way of saying that God doesn't change his mind. But the part that has caused Christians to go through theological gyrations for centuries is "his own will begat he us," or in plain English, God is responsible for spiritual birth. . That too is all throughout the Bible, not hidden at all. Or as Jesus said "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him..." or one that really befudles the theologians and those who just can't let God be in charge.

We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)

Well Paul's "We know" was obviously premature since there are not too many Christian ministers, preachers, pastors or teachers who seem to know what Paul said in plain English. Well actually it was in Greek but he obviously had a different view of God's plans for salvation than most of Christianity that has followed him.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians: 22-26)

What God doesn't just want us all to be reunited with Him, He has a plan? Hey, don't tell the Christians this, it might turn their world upside down.

Wherefore the Lord said, Foreasmuch as this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips they do honor me, but have removed their heart from me, and their fear of me is taught by the  precepts of men: Therefore I will do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work among this people: for the wisdom of their wisemen shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? and who knows us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as a potters clay: for shall the work say of the one that made it , He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding? (Isaiah 29:13-16)

You see God is not one of want for anything, even a plan for us. Each of us. We don't change ourselves, He changes us,  for His purpose then being human we take the credit. But like all else humanity is just a temporary condition, eternity is our destiny.

For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephisians 2:8-10)

Always a plan. That is what the Bible is, God's Plan, God's Gospel.

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, Which he had promised before by his prophets in the holy scriptures, Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the descendants of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. (Romans 1: 1-4)

Or as Peter explained and prophesied:

And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable twist, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

The Bible is not about what God wants or doesn't want as modern Christianity has marginalized it into,.It is actually nothing less than a very detailed explanation  of God's plan, God's Gospel (good news) for us.

All of us

If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many what does that do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him or what does he receive from your hand? (Job 35: 6-7)

God wants....nothing, He is everything.

For in him we live and move and have our being.’