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Something came up recently, and these words, “I want to do things right before the Lord,” sparked these thoughts:
Those words sound like if we please the Lord, things will go well for us. While that is true, it could also be false, depending on the understanding and motive. We aren’t here to be sycophants or pleasers. We are so prone to please, this being a very selfish thing indeed. Primarily, we seek to please people, so we’ll be accepted by them or benefitted somehow.
We then presume to do the same with God, like Cain did. He was a pleaser! And where did it get him? Abel didn’t bring a sacrifice to please God. He brought it because he knew it was right. Had his sacrifice been rejected, he wouldn’t have felt badly, as did Cain. He would have sought for the right way (of course, the reason his sacrifice was accepted was because his heart was right, and therefore he could not but be accepted). However, Cain was offended: “Well, if that’s the thanks I get, phooey on God! I won’t believe in Him anymore!” We have heard that many times.
We are called to do right because it is right, whether pleasing to anyone or not. We are here to choose the successful and true right, the one and only kind of right there is, and not what we ignorantly and foolishly imagine and choose to be right, in that it is selfishly advantageous. Choosing right, things will go well for us. Choosing to please, we destroy those we pretend to please (not that we can destroy God, of course, but we grieve Him), and we destroy ourselves.
God isn’t asking us to please Him. Where in the Bible does one find God wanting us to please Him? It isn’t there! Did you know? He isn’t primarily interested in His own welfare and feelings. He wants to see things go well for us, and He has shown, and is showing, us how that can and must be because He cares for us.
God is called “Love” because He cares about us over Himself. That is the nature of true love. When we do right and things go well for us, then He’ll be pleased. He’ll be satisfied because we are fulfilled and satisfied in reality, by His satisfaction and not by the destructive, blind-alley kind of satisfaction that comes out of self-serving lack of knowledge and understanding.
Victor Hafichuk
– April 17, 2011
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What was different about Cain and Abel's offerings to the Lord? It was that God had called on Abel to make his offering while Cain presumptuously offered to God.
From: Lee To: Victor Hafichuk and Paul Cohen Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2016 5:13 PM Subject: The Path of Truth - feedback Dear Mr Hafichuk/Cohen, My name is Lee. I am a son of God, born of the Holy Spirit. (I might have called myself a 'Christian' but that would have very little meaning since there seem to be a lot of them around.) Today I came across your website for the first time, and found it interesting. I have now read/scanned a large number of your articles. I wanted to share a few thoughts, and let me say straight off that I do not want or need a reply. Firstly, it must be said that we seem to have much in common. Like you, I denounce 'church religion', pagan festivals, Sunday Christianity, 'once saved always saved', 'eternal torment', Calvinism, and so on. We also seem to share the view that most of the so-called 'church' is false, and I was glad to read many of the names and ministries you rightly reject. For example, you denounce the GotQuestions website. I had once thought they were a sound ministry, but a few years ago, I wrote to them asking a question and received an answer from a woman who presumed to teach me! I was quite startled. After asking further questions, it transpired that many of their articles are in fact written by women (and only checked by men)! I warned them that not only they were directly disobeying the Lord, but by allowing women to teach their ministry would inevitably fall foul of Satan's deceptions. But they didn't se...
In nominal Christendom, we see women everywhere presuming to be pastors, priests, evangelists, and apostles. Are they of God?
