Instruction From Abba To Direct Us!!!

1 John 3

We are walking in today:  Instruction From Abba To Direct Us!!!

Witness correct throughout the Bible:   H3256 yacar--to chasten, discipline, instruct, admonish, to teach, correct

Psalm 94:10 He that chastiseth H3256 the heathen, shall not he correct?  he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?

The Torah testifies...............
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The prophets proclaim..................
 Jeremiah 10:24 O LORD, correct H3256 me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

The writings bear witness...........................
 Proverbs 29:17 Correct H3256 thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.

Jeremiah 46:28 Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct H3256 thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.

Understand and Obey the Laws of Limitation

Freedom without law is anarchy. Liberty without responsibility is irresponsibility.

The morning sun shimmered brightly on the choppy waves of the bay as a small motor boat moved slowly over the water. Perhaps 200 yards away, 14 swimmers plied through the chilly waters. Twenty men and women had begun the race that morning, but six had been pulled from the water into one of the many boats that lined the course. Exhaustion, muscle cramps, or some other malady had taken them from the race even before the swimmers had reached the mid-way point.

Just now the swimmers were bunched more closely than they had been for some time. As the far shore came into sight the competitors appeared to reach into their resources and pull with greater power and precision. Between them and the beach lay their greatest test, an area of swift-moving currents that had carried many a swimmer far toward the sea before he had been rescued or finally had given up and drowned.

Of the 14 swimmers in the water, 13 had swum the bay before. They knew from experience the dangers of the currents. Although those who watched from the boats kept an eye on the veterans, it was the one rookie swimmer they watched most closely. Just now he was in the lead, several hundred yards ahead of the pack.

Would he heed the warnings and follow the instructions he had been given to swim up the coast a piece before attempting to cross the swift-moving channel? If he did, he would win the race easily. If he did not, thinking that he didn’t want to waste the time to swim parallel to the shore, or that he was strong enough to meet the currents head on, they were ready to move quickly to rescue him. All watched anxiously to see what he would do.

As the rookie neared the buoys that marked the swift-running water, it appeared for a moment that he would stay within the marked course and swim upstream. He had not moved more than 20 yards, however, when he turned and swam directly toward the shore. Instantly, motors sprang to life and two boats sped across the water to the now-struggling swimmer. These were Coast Guard boats manned by experienced rescuers.

Later that afternoon when all the swimmers had reached the beach—including the rookie, who had been brought in by a Coast Guard cutter—the winner of the race approached the young man who had nearly drowned. “Why did you change your mind?” he asked. “The officials told me that you started to follow the path marked out for us, but then you suddenly veered toward the shore.”

“Those 20 yards that I swam upstream against the current were so easy that I thought all the fuss about that channel was just so much hype. So I decided to cut through it to win the race by a large margin. I soon realized that not only wouldn’t I win the race, I wouldn’t even finish it. For an instant I felt so dumb for throwing away the race, but then I realized that I had jeopardized my life as well. I’ll never try this again.”

Oh, I think you should enter the race again next year,” said the veteran racer. “You’re a magnificent distance swimmer. Just follow the rules the next time and you’ll find that the crossing point determined by the race organizers is challenging, but not life-threatening. Each year that point is different because the currents constantly change, so we all have to follow the prescribed course. One year we didn’t race at all because the officials couldn’t find a safe place to cross the channel. I wanted to talk them into sponsoring the race anyway, but I knew that would be foolish. Most likely no one would have finished anyway. Well, I hope to see you next year. It’s about time someone beat me. For a while I thought this would be the year.”

How sad! Although the rookie swimmer had the potential to beat the veteran, he lost the race, and nearly his life, because he chose to veer from the assigned course. He exercised his freedom to go his own way. This grasping for freedom is a universal tendency. To maximize your potential, you must understand the concept of freedom and the principle of law.

We Want to Be Free

The cry “We want to be free!” has swept our world in remarkable and frightening ways within the past decades. Particularly in Eastern Europe, the desire for freedom has brought sweeping revolutions, toppling governments and power structures that have repressed and oppressed many peoples. This same yearning for freedom prompts pregnant women to abort their babies, children to take their parents to court, and students to seek greater control over the measures of discipline used in their schools.

Freedom! It sounds so good. Everybody wants freedom. Ethnic groups, social groups, religious groups. Children, youth, adults. All want the right to determine their own lives and to make their decisions without guidance or interference from anyone else.

It should not surprise us, then, that many common phrases express this craving for freedom: Freedom of the press, Freedom of choice, Freedom of religion, Freedom of speech. All reveal the universal longing to be unencumbered by the dictates and the decisions of others.

Nothing Is Free

Is this truly possible? Can we be entirely free? No, I don’t think so. Nothing is free. Although advertising tries to convince us that we are getting something for nothing—buy one, get one free—we are still paying for the product the advertiser claims is free. In a similar manner, the cost of sweepstakes and prizes given to entice consumers to buy a particular product or to subscribe to a certain periodical is built into the company’s price structure somewhere along the way. We cannot get something for nothing. Nothing is free. We cannot get something for nothing.

This axiom is also true in relationships. We cannot be entirely free to do what we want, when we want, where we want, how we want, and with whom we want. Freedom always has a price because the actions of one person restricts and influences the freedom of another. The woman who aborts her baby takes away the baby’s freedom to live, and the student who slaps the teacher who reprimands her takes away the teacher’s freedom to keep order in his classroom. Freedom without responsibility cannot be freedom for all who are involved.

The Consequences of Freedom Without Responsibility
Lawlessness is the freedom to do whatever we want, when we want, with whom we want, with no one telling us to stop. In essence, we defy the standards that govern society to become a law unto ourselves with no sense of responsibility toward anything or anyone. For example, you may choose the freedom to smoke marijuana behind your house at three o’clock in the morning. You know you are breaking the law, but you choose to disregard the law and to exercise your freedom to do as you please. Lawlessness always results in slavery, death, and the loss of preexisting freedoms. Adam and Eve’s experience in the garden verifies this truth. Freedom without law is bondage.

The Loss of Freedom
When The Most High created the man and the woman and placed them in the garden, He gave them the following instructions:
You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis 2:16-17).
They were free to eat from any tree in the garden, but one.

When the serpent convinced the man and the woman to eat from this one tree, The Most High put them out of the garden and they lost the freedom to eat from the garden’s other trees. Their desire to be freed from The Most High’s restrictions cost them the freedom He had given them to eat from the other trees in the garden. Thus, the first penalty of freedom without responsibility is the loss of existing freedoms.

This proves to be true in all life. The teenager who stays out past his curfew loses his privilege to use the family car. The mechanic who charges exorbitant rates loses the customers he is in business to serve. The worker who takes 30 minutes for a 10-minute break loses the freedom to leave her desk without punching the time clock. The politician who forgets his campaign promises and breaks faith with the people who put him in office loses his reelection bid and the opportunity to serve his constituents.

Slavery
Slavery is a second consequence of freedom without responsibility. When the man and the woman disobeyed The Most High and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they became slaves to evil.

Before their rebellion against The Most High, Adam and Eve knew only good because their knowledge came from their relationship with The Most High, who is good. In the moment of sin, their spirits became separated from The Most High’s Spirit and they became slaves of rebellion, the root of all sin. They could no longer see and do what The Most High requires. This loss of the ability to see and do what is right is always a result of choosing to place oneself above the law.

Thus, the teenager who regularly stays out past his curfew comes to expect that this is his right, the mechanic who charges exorbitant rates loses sight of fairness, the worker who takes an extended break assumes the company owes her this, and the politician who breaks faith with

those who elected him fails to see the error of his ways. Each becomes so enmeshed in his rebellious attitudes and actions that he can no longer see the wrong of his actions. Death inevitably follows.

Death
The third consequence of freedom without responsibility is death. Notice that The Most High connected the violation of the boundary around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil with death: “...for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16). Disobedience to law always results in death.

The teenager who indulges in late hours will eventually see the death of his parents’ trust. The mechanic who takes whatever he can get will soon experience bankruptcy and the death of his business.

Likewise, the worker who extends her break and the politician who neglects to fulfill his promises will suffer the death of their dreams for advancement and recognition. Death is the inevitable result of freedom grasped at the expense of obedience to law.

Death is the inevitable result of freedom grasped at the expense of obedience to law.

The Nature of Law, Commands, and Demands
Merriam Webster’s dictionary (10th Collegiate, 1994) defines law as “a binding custom or practice of a community: a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority; a rule or order that is advisable or obligatory to observe.” It further observes that law “implies imposition by a sovereign authority and the obligation of obedience on the part of all subject to that authority.” Thus, a law regulates and governs the behavior of someone or something.

A command is an “order given” or an authoritative directive. It “stresses the official exercise of authority” and expresses the will of the authority based upon the established rules and regulations that govern the group. Thus, a commandment specifies behavior relative to a law.

A demand is “the act of asking with authority.” It is based on the recognized authority of the one who asks, and it builds upon a previous command or commandment. Thus, a demand assumes that the requester has the right to make the request, and it specifies behavior in a specific instance or circumstance.

Let’s use family life to illustrate these principles. As the head of the home, the father may establish the law that the privacy of each individual is ensured. This is a given within the structure of the family.

Then he may issue the command that all members of the family should knock on a closed bedroom door and wait for the bidding “come in” before entering that room. This is his mandate or commandment relative to the principle of ensuring the privacy of each individual. Finally, when a daughter in the household is upset because her brother constantly enters her room when she is on the phone, the father may demand that the son knock on his sister’s door and wait for her response.

Law Provides Direction for Daily Life
The Most High has established many laws that influence our lives. Some of these govern the physical world in which we live; others control our relationships within the human family and with The Most High Himself. For example, The Most High has established marriage as the structure in which sexual relationships should be enjoyed and children should be raised. That is His law. “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14) is one of His commandments built on that law. Hence, when

The Most High demands that you should not gratify your physical desires by engaging in intercourse outside the marriage relationship, He is applying to daily life the law He established at creation and the commandment He gave at Mount Sinai. He is specifying how we should behave in a given situation.

The Most High’s demands are always based on His laws and commandments. He is not capricious, nor is He out to destroy our pleasure. He knows that we cannot fulfill our potential outside His laws, so He gives us commandments relative to those laws and He makes demands on us that apply His commandments to our situation. If we resist His demands, we bring upon ourselves the natural consequences of His laws. The law of love is a good example of this principle.

The Most High created us to be loved by Him and to love Him and others in return. Love is an innate quality of His nature and of ours. The commandments “Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12), and “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44b) direct our efforts to understand and apply that law of love to our lives. When we disregard this law, we bear the consequences of loneliness, alienation, and internal turmoil that naturally come to those who fail to love.

We cannot choose whether or not these consequences will come to us, since they are inseparable from the law. Our only choice is whether or not we will love. Thus, we see that The Most High’s commandment to love, like all His commandments, is given for our good. Those who obey it are spared the pain that irrevocably assails those who fail to love. The Most High’s commandments are given for our good.

The effects of The Most High’s laws cannot be avoided. They are constant and unchangeable, even as He is. Yet, you control the impact of The Most High’s laws on your life because the decision to obey or disobey The Most High’s commandments and demands is wholly yours. In this manner, you control your destiny.

Shema selah we have to use our freedom to choose the realm of life the Most High intended for us from the beginning and to walk in love!!