WITHOUT GOD
God knows and He Loves like no other,
Understands when we’re misunderstood.
His all-seeing eye knows every reason why,
That we’re bad when we should do good.
God is no respecter of persons,
There is room in His Loving heart for all.
He’s what no one else can be, and is number one with me.
If I follow Him, I know I’ll never fall.
Without God, we’re as leaves in a strong wind,
Or raindrops the clouds release to fall,
Or the mourner who has lost his last friend,
And the stranger, who has no friend at all.
And, it’s not in man that walketh,
To direct his own steps for his good,
But to bridle his tongue, when he talketh,
And to do the good things as he should.
Without God, we must face death alone,
Find our way through the valley so dark.
When my time comes to leave for my long home,
May my Lord meet me, as I embark.
The poem above, written by O.D. Wilson, my Father-in-Law in the early 1980’s. In this poem, he expressed ideas about which all should stop and think. In this world today there are countless numbers of people who have ignored God, forgotten about Him and have refused to receive or accept His Word.
This is not a new thing in the existence of man. In Genesis 6:5-6 we can read how that man forgot God and lived their lives accordingly. God who sees all and knows all was fully aware of how man had forsaken Him. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Because of this, God destroyed the world with the great flood and all those not on the ark God had Noah build perished without God.
Even following the flood and the “cleansing” of the world, God made Himself known to Noah and His Sons, and in Genesis 9:8-13, made a perpetual covenant with them and their seed that followed them, as well as with all living things. And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. Without God, there would have been no salvation from the flood, nor would there have been a world to be flooded.
But God was there, and He still is. God provided deliverance from the flood so man, God’s crowning creation would still exist and so that God’s great plan for the Salvation of souls could come to fruition. God formulated that plan even before creation, and all of God’s Promises are carried out. Even after God’s Great rescue of Noah’s family, when Noah had been obedient to the directions God gave about the ark, it was not long before sin again raised its ugly head. James 1:14 tells where temptation originates, and verse 15 informs as to the end of those who ignore God and try to make it through this world without God. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
In the carrying out of the plan of God to bring Salvation to man, He separated out a people, the Jews. It was through them that God’s Son, Jesus was to be born and He would live His life under the Law God gave to those people, to bring them to Christ. When that was accomplished, and the church was begun, God directed that His Word be preached to all men everywhere. Those who would receive and accept it would not be “without God”. In Ephesians 2:11-12 the Spirit had Paul write: Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Don’t be like the Ephesians before their conversion. Don’t be without hope and without God in the world. Obey the gospel today. We can help you!
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
