Little children understand the concept of ownership better
than adults do. If a child colors a picture, that is his picture; if he buys a toy with his allowance money, that is his toy; if he is given a birthday
present, that is his present.
Adults understand this to a degree, but we forget that it
also applies to God. We will “amen!” the notion of God being our Creator, but
we easily forget that He must also be our owner. Listen to how missionary John
R. Cross describes his time in Papua New Guinea:
“Every item I asked
about—‘Whose paddle is this?’ ‘Whose canoe is that?’—elicited a response that
designated an owner. When I inquired how they knew who the owner was, they
looked at me in disbelief. Apparently I had asked a foolish question. To them
it was obvious. The owner was the one who made it![1]”
If God is the one who made us, which the Bible emphatically
teaches, then He is every bit our owner. And as such God has every right to lay
out the “thou shalt’s” and the “thou shalt not’s” that govern our lives.
For the record, God’s rules are not in place to make us
miserable, but for our benefit, but that’s another message for another day.
Romans 14:8 concludes with “…whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.” Christian,
acknowledge the fact that you belong to God, and your life must be lived in
accordance with that concept.
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