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Introduction
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Life And DeathTo all who have never enjoyed God's abundant life. The thing to know is that God is the Spirit of life. In Him, there is no death. Satan is the spirit of death, and in him, there is
no life. God has given temporal life, and all are partakers who are born into this world. We breathe and enjoy the precious breath of
life. Oh, how beautiful life can be for them who do not have conflicting thoughts of doubt and despondency. Just to walk along the streets or to ride along a country road, to see the beautiful meadows and the flowers, all living and very
much alive with their fragrance, and the personal ambitions imparted unto them by the hand of God. Health flowing through your body
with no conflicting thoughts of doubt present, with no thoughts of worry, with no feelings of sickness moving through your body. Your
thoughts racing through your spirit with great joy. Truly, it is well said of the writer that we draw waters out of the wells of
salvation with joy. To enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. The Bible tells us He that is of a merry heart
hath a continual feast, and a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones. We are told by the writer
that sorrow worketh death. Anyone can readily see the reason the Bible says serving God is joy, peace, and righteousness in the Holy
Ghost. This is why faith in His written promises, in His unwavering, never failing Word, which is from everlasting to everlasting,
which never changes, brings eternal life. They are all words of inspiration and life, promises of hope, promises of tender forgiveness, to let whosoever will come. Promises
of healing to all. According to your faith, so be it unto you, with no respect of persons, but regarding all men as being the creation
of God. We decide our own destiny. As we choose the one that we will serve, we also choose the reward we will receive here and in the world to come. The omnipotent
God, who is omnipresent, who is omniscient, foreknew from the foundation of the world all things. Our actions, our lives, though we
are free to do as we will, we only fall into the place that God, by foreknowledge, knew would happen. We only follow the plan outlined from the foundation of the world. If we take one road of life or another, He knew before hand that
we would do it, for what we did yesterday and what we do today, and what we chance to do tomorrow, the past and future is known by
God. Them that he foreknew, the book of Romans tells us, He predestinated, justified, and glorified. But we as individuals as of yet
have to travel the path that His foreknowledge traveled in the beginning. As links that fit into a chain, we shall all come to the
place that He foresaw us in by foreknowledge. He has not forced us in any place, but what He foreknew we would be by our own doings, having looked down through the telescope of
time, beholding our actions, brings about a predestination of God's foreknowledge. In other words, we are elect, as Peter said,
according to foreknowledge, but we are commanded to make our calling and election sure by living a righteous life. This is the only
way we have to know that He foresaw us in His grace, for you can tell the tree by the fruit it bears; also, what God knew would be,
having forseen it, going into the future, beholding man's future before man performs it. That is to say, how can that be lost which He
saw saved, or how could that be saved which He saw would be lost? With all these precious things in mind, we still must stir our
ambitions in God, to make our election sure. To do righteousness, we will never fall. We cannot do but that which He has already seen, nor did He see anything but what we will do. He knows what we will do. Let us
come, whosoever will, and partake of the waters of life freely. Though it be known unto all, they who reject it only did what He knew
they would do, and, because He knew they would do it, they could do no more. So, let all who will come, for all that will, He knew
they would. If we would have an abundant life with God, all we have to do is believe. By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. |
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