Jane Owens Blog

Definitions: Afflict (verb) to distress with continual suffering. Affliction (noun) the state of being afflicted – great distress of the body or mind.  Great suffering. We see an example of affliction in the life of Job.  Job’s response to God after he had gone through his afflictions of “great distress and suffering of his body…

In 1896 Charles Sheldon wrote the book “In His Steps” subtitled “What Would Jesus Do?” This book is about a pastor who challenged his congregation to commit all the decisions they made based on one thought,

Intro: (A Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.) What behavior did David manifest before Abimelech?

God feeds us “manna” (the Word of God) as we experience our journey through a wilderness.  Psalm 78:24 [God] “rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the grain of heaven.”   John 6:31 “Our fathers ate manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 

“How is it that God gives you free will, but everything happens according to his will?” Not everything happens according to God’s will because he has given us free will. We are the ones who rebel and go against His teachings and instructions and all the good that God wants to do for us, with us, and through us. 

“You must be born again.”  Rev. Billy Graham preached this message for over 40 years causing many people to turn their lives over to Jesus Christ.  One of my former pastors was born again at a Billy Graham Crusade. 

“God left him, to try him that he might know all that was in his heart.”  (2 Chronicles 32:31)
This comment is about King Hezekiah.  At the beginning of his reign, he had humbled himself before the LORD, and the country had prospered, and enemies that came up against Israel were defeated. 

The blessed person lives according to the godly principles of life and takes counsel with those who are also godly. The blessed person stands in the assembly of the righteous – those who have accepted the Messiah Yeshua as Savior and have a right standing with God. 

Did God give us the Law to bring us into bondage or did He give us the Law so that we could live as free people? The short answer is to allow us to live as free people.