Every individual will choose either God’s Son or God’s wrath.
We are told (1 Corinthians 10:31) when we eat, drink and whatever we do, to do all to the glory of God. Why does this verse specifically mention eating? I think it is because the first sin in human history was eating, wrong eating and the world still suffers from the fallout. Eve saw that it was good for food (Genesis 3:6) but tragically not good for her. She ate and gave some to Adam and he ate also. She allowed herself to be deceived. That is why, from then on, we can use what is good food for bad indulgence of anorexia or gluttony. Adam and Eve were not hungry, they had plenty to eat. Blessings (Genesis 3:17) became curses when much wants more and loses all, so they were expelled (Genesis 3:24) from the Garden of Eden. Earth dwellers still look for a perfect world but sadly God is not considered in their quest.
God pronounced the earth (Genesis 1:31) which He had created to be very good. Perfection was everywhere. But some time later the good became bad when God pronounced (Genesis 6:11) the earth to be depraved, polluted and fit only for destruction. After the Flood God made a pledge with the earth (Genesis 8:21-22, Genesis 9:13) and He signed it with a rainbow.
When we analyze the years, centuries since Eve and Adam ate forbidden fruit, we can see that no sin is actually a little sin, never a small matter. We can also see that our Sovereign God uses (Psalms 76:10) the wrath and wrong of humans and He works it out to His praise and holy purpose. So that out of the BAD, the Lord brings GOOD.
Sight and hearing are good God-given gifts. But if we use our sight to watch things that dishonour God, that sight is bad sight. If we listen to anything that dishonours God, that hearing is bad hearing. The same thing applies to the wonderful gift of speech. We can use our faculties to violate the Scriptural command (1 Peter 1:15) to be holy in all our conduct and manner of living because our God is holy and we are His children. Are you and I good representatives of the family of God?
Shopping for necessities is good but shopping for extravagant self-indulgence or because we covet to always have more is bad. It is bad both in the motive for our purchase and in the disobedient stewardship of God’s resources which have been entrusted to our care.
Sacrificing to God is good, but sacrificing to God (Malachi 1:8) the leftovers we don’t want or to offer to God (2 Samuel 24:24) what costs us nothing is bad, extremely bad because it is (Malachi 3 8:9) robbing and defrauding God and brings a curse. Our tithes and offerings should be very important to us because they are acts of worship and holy to the Lord. It is a holy privilege to bring our tithes, offerings and love-gifts to the Lord.
It is a good and a holy privilege (Romans 12:12) to pray constantly in unbroken communion with the Lord. But prayer to our Holy God with selfish desires for things to be (James 4:3) spent on our fleshly pleasures is bad and insulting to the Lord. A person who prays in that way has never entered into spirit-filled prayer that is kingdom authority, the keys (Matthew 16:19) of the kingdom, which is filled with Sovereign power and authority.
Worship and intercession must go together. Warfare prayer is 90% purity. Prayer plus purity releases God’s power. Our relationship with God makes it possible for Him to bring to our mind some person or need He wants us to pray for at anytime. We must guard ourselves to be so in tune with our precious Master that we can’t ever miss what He wants to share with us. (I call it hug-loving intimacy). We can cause the good to become bad by the way in which we use it. The good can be enhanced and beautified if we use it to glorify the Lord. (Oswald Chambers) “Our one great need is to face Jesus Christ and be spiritually real, watching for His surprise visits with the intense spiritual reality of expecting Him at every turn.”
To-day I received a deeper insight about BAD and GOOD from God’s viewpoint and it increased my wonder-filled worship of our magnificent transcendent Triune God. Sometimes God gives opportunities to unsaved people when He already knows they will reject them. Why?
Why would Jesus offer Judas (John 13:26) the morsel of food, which was always given to the guest of honour, when He already knew what Judas would do? Because Judas didn’t know what he would do. Judas was a closet zealot plotting for the overthrow of Rome. Judas heard what Jesus said and when he took, chewed, swallowed the food he confirmed to himself that he would betray Jesus. Immediately Satan entered into him and Judas went out into the night of eternal midnight in his soul. God offers seemingly wasted opportunities for grace and redemption on the lost, not because He needs information but to declare Justice. No person in hell will be able to say that he didn’t know, didn’t understand, didn’t have enough chances to make up his mind. Never will a voice be raised in the eternal Lake of Fire to accuse God of injustice, of being unfair. Every individual will choose (John 3:36) either God’s Son or God’s wrath. There is no other option. Jesus made a New Covenant with Adam’s descendants and He signed it (Hebrews 9:27) with His own Blood. The Justice and Grace of God shine brightly over the whole world and we worship Him in the magnificent glory of His mercy, and we are lost in wonder love and praise.