This is ActiveChristianity’s “Living the Gospel” podcast.
Join us as we explore different aspects of the gospel according to the Bible,
and how we can put this into practice in daily life.
Welcome to another episode of “Living the Gospel!”
I’m Eunice and I’m here with ...
I’m Milenko! Hi!
Hello!
So, Milenko, today I have a big world-changing question for you.
Oh wow!
We asked this on Facebook some time ago, got super many interesting answers.
So, now, I’m going to ask you.
If you could solve one problem facing the world today, what would it be?
Wow! That was a big question.
There are a lot of things you could answer,
but one thing that I think I would address if I had the power to do so would be to eliminate all exploitation,
which is people in a position of authority or power or influence or confidence
that abuse that position and use other people, abuse other people to their own gain.
I mean, that can take a lot of different forms and we see that today, slavery, human trafficking,
exploitation of workers, abuse of children, all kinds of things.
It covers so many areas.
It’s all got to do egotism, people wanting to serve their own lusts and it’s all about “me, me, me”,
and not caring about others.
Putting your own advantage over the others’.
Yeah, and it’s terrible.
It is such … that is the work of the devil and if we could get rid of that, I would do it straight away.
But that is actually what we are working with, when we’re Christian;
that’s what we’re working when we’re fighting against sin or, actually, working
to destroy the works of the devil.
There will be a day when all that will have a big show down where all that will be put into order,
and I’m looking forward to that day.
Me too.
So, today, we are taking up a topic suggested by one of our listeners.
Luise asked us on Instagram if we could do an episode on the laws of life.
There are many of God’s laws written in the Bible.
Actually, there are many of God’s laws also in the natural world around us that we see, right?
Oh, definitely.
Law of physics and so on, that’s laws that God has made.
Laws of gravity for example, something that goes up must come down, if it’s within the zone of gravity.
The apple.
Yeah, exactly.
You can name, like all the things that happen around us all go according to laws,
mathematical laws that people have discovered, but they’ve always been there;
it’s something that God actually created and now, people are discovering it.
Everything that is invented by people, what we call an invention,
is actually people discovering these natural laws that have always existed,
that God actually created, but that they’re learning how to use.
So, it’s not as if people have invented or created something,
it’s just that they’re learning to use something that has been created.
That is something to think about.
Like even the most advanced technology today is just
making use of existing natural laws that God has put in place.
Pretty amazing!
It is, isn’t it?
Just one generation ago, our grandparents, or our parents wouldn’t have thought that
the world will be like it is today, and it progressed so fast.
That also has to do with people finding all bunch of different laws and putting it together.
Yeah.
It makes you wonder what more is out there, you know.
There’s probably lots that we’ve never imagined exists, but God knows about and has always known about.
It’s going to be hailed as this big discovery which it will be, like there’s some brilliant people out there ...
Helps a lot of people.
Oh, definitely, and there’s people doing a lot of hard work discovering these laws,
but it’s also humbling to realize how dependent we are on God.
That it is God who’s behind it all, and He’s put it all in place and there’s a lot more in store,
and I think that’s quite amazing to think about.
It’s also pretty amazing to think about the fact that His laws, they’re unchangeable, unbreakable,
it’s from the beginning of time, till now, you drop an apple, it’s going to fall,
you drop an apple in space, it’s going to float.
These things don’t change, and you get to understand how God is in a way, when you think about these laws.
Exactly.
Then of course, that’s the natural laws, and something that’s even more real than that,
something that’s eternal that’s got eternal value, they are, we can call them “God’s laws of life,”
which is way more than the physical laws; it has got to do with the spiritual side of things.
Because a law is like, if this happens, this will happen, isn’t it?
Yeah, like in physics; if you push here, something will move over there.
There’s a law behind it and these kinds of laws are also in the spiritual life, which are just as certain,
just as established, just as unchanging, or maybe even more so, than the physical laws.
Like for example, “Give and it will be given to you,” like it’s written in Luke 6:38.
Yeah!
Pressed down, shaken, overflowing ... That’s how it goes. - Right,
so that’s actually a law that God has put in place; it’s unchanging,
it’s certain: “Give and it will be given to you!”
What is given back to you, that can,
if you are expecting that you’ll receive the same in worldly goods or whatever, that’s not what it’s about.
That can be the case, but I think it’s even more that you will be given the spiritual blessing.
Blessing that is eternal, that maybe we can’t see it but it’s there.
In the same vein, it’s like “It’s more blessed to give than to receive …
Right.
That’s also one of those laws.
Blessedness is happiness.
Exactly, yeah.
A lot of these go in that direction, like, “the generous shall be made rich,” I think it says in Proverbs.
“He who waters will be watered himself.”
Also in Proverbs.
And “the merciful will be shown mercy.”
All these things that:
Do something, and something will happen in return, and there’s a blessing in all those things.
It also goes the other way:
if you exalt yourself, you will be humbled, just as much as if you humble yourself, you will be exalted.
That is a really important law.
Right, so, the laws aren’t all about blessing: it’s also about what happens when you go against God’s will,
go against His order of things.
Then there is also a reaction against that.
Yeah, like what it says in Galatians 6,
“God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
If he sows to the flesh, he reaps corruption.
If he sows to the spirit, he reaps everlasting life.
It’s like how it is in the natural too, you can’t expect to sow potatoes and get tomatoes;
it’s kind of common sense but how often do we think of that?
Because that’s also a law, isn’t it?
It is!
It’s a law of vegetables!
But you know, how often do we think of that when we’re standing on a crossroads trying to make a choice?
If I make a bad choice, I’m going to have to reap, that’s God’s law, I can’t change it, I can’t change His mind.
But then it also says at the end of the verse, “Let us not grow weary while doing good,
for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
That’s really hopeful.
That is a very uplifting note
and that also shows that we have to be faithful even if we don’t see results right away.
Wait for it, it’s going to come!
Do not grow weary in doing good.
Because you shall reap, it will happen.
That example too, you sow potatoes, doesn’t mean that you can go and harvest them the same day.
You have to wait for it.
But we know that, that’s a law, and it’s going to work that way.
But it’s the same in the spiritual.
It’s a matter of faith.
It is a matter of faith.
It goes both ways, it’s part of God’s nature, you know, that if …
He is a faithful God.
And that’s a quote from the Bible that gets used quite often,
that God is faithful; if we are faithless, He remains faithful.
It’s very easy to think then that, “Oh, God is faithful.
No matter what I do, He’s going to bless me.
I can fall, I can live according to my lusts, but God is a faithful God and nothing will pluck me from His hand.”
You know, that kind of thought.
But what does it actually say?
That God is faithful; if we are faithless, He’s faithful.
He has to stick to His laws.
He can’t support me if I’m disobedient.
He can’t bless me if I exalt myself, for example.
He’s faithful to His laws.
That’s very sobering, it’s also very helpful and very, very hopeful.
If you take it in the right way.
If we take it in the right way.
Think the boundless opportunities that we have!
You see … this being patient to see God’s blessing.
And I think we’ll see that.
We were talking about exploitation right at the start,
and you think, “OK, how can all these people get away with it?”
And it really looks like there’s ungodly people that get away with it.
This dark world.
In this dark world.
And there’s so much unhappiness and so on, and you think, “OK, maybe Satan is actually winning the war.”
But this is when we need patience and we need faith.
There will be a time, where that harvest comes in.
There will be a reaping,
where these powers will be struck down, and those that have served God will be exalted.
And then we can be part of that!
If we are faithful in doing the good, do not grow weary, “We will reap,” it says.
Part of that reaping, part of that enormous blessing we get, that we can be along in putting things in order.
That we can be along in drying tears.
Think what comfort that brings.
What something to look forward to, that we can be part of that, we can put an end to that evil.
Those God’s laws will be carried out.
We have to believe that.
That is a part of that harvest that we can have here.
For me, on my part, that is very inspiring and very motivating, that this is something I can be part of.
And it’s in the time now on earth that it says that the bride makes herself ready,
and this is now on the time of grace when I can find these laws and also test these laws.
Maybe it’s not so easy to believe but I can just do it and see that it really works.
In science, they do all their hypotheses and they test and things like that;
the same thing works with God’s laws.
It says, “Ask and it will be given to you.”
I can ask in faith and see the result.
This law will always work for every person in every situation because God is not a respecter of persons.
And we see also on earth, people find different laws and you see that God blesses them.
Yeah, because God is not a respecter of persons, as you said and,
it doesn’t matter what you believe basically, because God’s laws will work anyway.
So, if you give, you will be blessed.
And if you humble yourself, for example in a relationship,
then you will be blessed in that relationship.
God’s laws will work both ways.
If you can find these laws by accident – which many people do,
like you see people all over the world that have found these laws and lived according to them,
also in other religions where they’ve used these laws as part of that religion because they exist there …
But you can find it by accident, as it were, or you can be interested,
really interested in trying to find and learn God’s law.
Think that we have been given the word of God – this is such a blessing, because in God’s word,
there is all His counsel, all His wisdom, all His laws!
We can find everything we need for every facet of life in His word.
So now, it’s a matter of not just finding these laws by accident,
but to be interested in discovering and learning God’s laws because we love Him,
we want to serve Him and, as Christians, this is the life we want to live.
This should be our main interest.
And if we are serious about this, if we really want to serve God, we love Him with all of our heart,
then we actively look for His laws and learn from that.
So, we are so blessed that we have the word of God.
Let’s really do that, be active and interested in finding God’s word.
What is the benefit in finding these laws of life?
We’ve talked about being blessed, as a Christian, what is the benefit of me finding these laws of life?
Does it have to do with my eternity?
Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely an advantage if we think of laws of nature, that we understand them,
because then we can use them to our advantage.
And you see, that’s also being done, that the laws of nature,
the physics laws and so on have been used for the benefit of mankind.
They can also be used the other way obviously,
and it’s good to know when things can go wrong too, so you avoid that, or you prevent that from happening.
And it’s also used as a tremendous benefit for this life here.
But with the advantage with God’s laws, the laws of life, the laws of the Spirit,
they are that they have benefit here on earth, in our life here, and for eternity.
If we follow God’s laws here, we get that blessing we’ve talked about – in our spirit,
maybe also earthly blessings, but foremostly in our spirit.
But the other thing is that it gives us eternal life,
because if we are obedient to God’s laws, then we get eternal life and that advantage there, that is incredible.
And what eternal life is, we’ve talked a lot about this in recent episodes too, eternal life,
that is that communion with God in eternity, that you have fellowship with Him,
that it’s an open relationship with God, that you’ve learned to know Him through His laws,
you’ve learned to know His nature, how He thinks in both directions,
you’ve learned to hate what is evil and love what it good, love righteousness.
Then, in that way, you get this eternal fellowship with Jesus,
who is our forerunner who went this way first and lived all those laws, and fellowship with God,
the Father through the Holy Spirit that’s been given to us, that teaches us these laws.
So, we can find those laws in the word of God and the Holy Spirit teaches them to us,
reminds us in situations what we should do now.
And if we follow those laws, there is that blessing.
Think, there is nothing better than that, to get to know God and be with Him in eternity.
So, we should be interested in finding these laws, really, to be like scientists,
not head-knowledge but really to understand and come into these laws and live these laws,
that these laws become part of our life.
And then, God can do exactly what He’s planned to do: use me as one of His instruments to carry out His law.
Because that was His intention from the beginning, right?
Before Adam and Eve and the fall, they could talk with Him.
We are His creation that He loves and that He wants to have communion with;
He wants to have fellowship with us.
That got broken through disobedience, through the fall,
but now, through Jesus, we can come back to that, that we can have fellowship with God
through these laws of life that we find and obey.
What a tremendous blessing that is!
We named a few of them here, but there’s so many more and we can begin with what we understand,
and as life goes by, God shows us more.
That’s exactly the thing.
If we begin with what we understand, we show that we’re interested.
And God, He gives us the Holy Spirit who’s a teacher who will teach us all these things.
The Spirit of truth who teaches us all things that we need.
He’s our Helper, and that’s where we really get insight into God and His nature –
and can become part of that, as it’s written, part of the divine nature, that that can really take place in us.
So, I think we’ll end here.
Thank you for listening so far, and keep writing your suggestions for topics.
You can write us DMs on Instagram or Facebook or you can leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
Let us know how we are doing!
You can also find the podcast episodes on YouTube now, if you prefer listening there.
That’s a new development.
So, have a look there.
That’s right! We’ll put a link in the description.
I hope you have been inspired by this episode to be interested in finding God’s laws.
Have a good week, and see you next week!
Yeah, let’s really use this week to find God’s laws and get fellowship with Him.
I think it’s going to be a good week.
Bye!