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Hope for “Christian Deer Hunters”?

Hope for “Christian Deer Hunters”?

This is a study from the scriptures which will give you hope if you’re a Christian deer hunter. It comes from Psalms 119 and should be very helpful. The scripture says in 1John 3:2-3, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” Galatians 6:1says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness: considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”

I am not going to ask you to scout out terrain in advance of the season or make sure you practice with your new rifle, but I am going to ask you to turn to Psalms 119 where we can draw out some really wonderful spiritual answers that will help your entrance into the everlasting Kingdom enlarge speedily to the blessing of the purpose for which God made us. Now read Psalms 119:1 which says, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the precepts of the Lord.” Verse 2, “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek Him with the whole heart.” First of all the blessed way is walking in the precepts of the Lord. Not in your individual concepts.

God will let you get away with many things when you first start your journey and walk with Him, but remember that Galatians 6:7 says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.” In the verses we have read in Psalms 119, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way and those who walk in the precepts of the Lord,” along with “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek Him with the whole heart,” we see how our heart filled with His word should govern our lives.

Perhaps you have heard from Christian Clubs and Rock and Roll leaders that we are still in a dispensation from long ago and that we are free to do whatsoever thing is right in our own eyes including the harming and destroying of God’s creatures, but these are mere men. God’s word does not say anywhere that we can continue to kill animals and enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, even though we are not “under the law.” We are to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ (or good news of Our Lord Jesus Christ). (2Thessalonians 1:8)

Isaiah 66:3 says that if you kill an ox you are a murderer. If you kill a sheep it is a punishable offense. World leaders in the Christian faith say we are at the end of the end of the age. Nothing could be truer and this is the time of transitioning into the new. In Isaiah 65:25 God says through Isaiah, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in my entire holy mountain, says the Lord.” Do you think God would not permit wolfs and lions to destroy on all of His holy mountain (His Kingdom) but permit you to do so? We are in a time when God expects us to be perfect and He has a perfect will for us to follow. (Romans 12:2) He may permit such activity under the old covenant or under His good and acceptable will but He tells us, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) If you are not perfect, when He appears you will resent those who preached the acceptable gospel to you!

If you are hurting and destroying animals you are not a servant of God bringing about the will of Heaven on Earth, for the scripture Revelation 22:3b says, “His Servants shall serve Him.” Romans 8:20-21(NLT) makes it perfectly clear, “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.” How much clearer can that be? It does not say deer shall escape a shower of bullets with only minor injuries. The New American Standard Bible says, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” “The whole creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God,” says Romans 8:19.

Deeper studies will tell you that creation is awaiting our manifestation as God’s sons anxiously and enthusiastically. Hurting fellow beings that are parts of the creation and harming them even destroying them does not help God or as Psalms 119:2 says, “Those who keep His testimonies and that seek Him with the whole heart.” Psalms 119:3 says, “They also do no iniquity: they walk in His ways.” He has already testified that the whole creation is waiting to escape the death and destruction and enter into the freedom of the glory or manifestation of the children of God. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?

Psalms 119:5 says, “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” We must arrive at the point where we desire God’s will and not our own. The Psalmist of 119 continues in Verse 6, “Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments.” It is not just that God says to be baptized in His Spirit or that we are to do all our things with love, but we need to have respect unto all God’s directives. Ninety percent obedience is not obedience. We are set free from the law which is the old covenant. “It is decaying and waxes old and is ready to vanish away,” according to Hebrews 8:13. But, we are not free to do our will unless God’s will and our will are the same thing.

I used to erroneously think we were free from the law of the old covenant to do whatever we felt like doing. God would forgive us. But God has shown me we are to be obedient to God’s Word who became flesh! Soon I will be showing a complete study on the importance of obedience and the foolishness of disobedience. In the interim you will have to trust that the New Testament teaches that we need to obey the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word and that the disobedient to the gospel shall be punished and those who listen to Him shall be rewarded. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) This is not old covenant!

Again, if we want our ways to be directed to keep all of God statutes, the scripture in Psalms 119:6, says “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.” This does not say some of my commandments or most of my commandments it says, “Unto all of Thy commandments.” Because it is considered sport, many animals suffer incredibly when people disobey just this one scripture out of Romans 8. Though it is not considered sport, killing domestic animals is far removed from the way a loving God teaches us to treat His creatures. In Psalms 119:7 it says, “I will praise Thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned Thy righteous judgments.” Is this not what Jesus said in His previous statement from John 14:15?

Stop all killing and injuring God’s creatures. To praise the Lord with uprightness of heart comes only when we have learned His righteous judgments and it is a true blessing. It differs from the sacrifice of praise so the Psalmist comes to this conclusion which we read in Psalms 119:12 instead of the Lord blessing Him, He says, “Blessed art thou O Lord: teach me Thy statutes.” And in verse 15, “I will meditate in Thy precepts and have respect unto all Thy ways.” The gospel we hear today is not the gospel which Paul preached (he wrote much of the New Testament) for his gospel included every creature and all creation. Do you? You will find much help and hope if you will meditate in all God’s precepts and have respect unto His ways. Psalms 119:16 says, “I will delight myself in thy statutes, I will not forget thy word.”

I have experienced three animal resurrections. One of them was a white tailed deer. Jesus directed me by the Holy Spirit to lay my hands on this dead deer and pray for it. It stood up, walked slowly across a highway and bedded down in the snow under some apple trees. In Psalms 119:18, the supplicant prayed, “Open thou my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy precepts and mandates.” (Rarely I have substituted one word for another. It is because in the original text the substituted word is closer to the true meaning.)

There are wondrous things happening in nature, possibly millions of them around the world while you are shooting holes in animals that want nothing but God’s Kingdom. Do you care about only certain parts of God’s Word of your choosing or all of it? For more inspirational information about the changes already begun in the animal kingdom, click on “articles” at the top of the page and read “A Significant Miracle” under the Animal Voices heading. Do not think that the changes will not continue. Psalms 119:138 says, “Thy testimonies that Thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.”

In Psalms 119:152 it says, “Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that Thou hast founded them for ever.” Psalms 119:89 concludes that, “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” Nothing will change God’s intention to give deliverance to all of God’s creatures and the creation. Psalms 96:12-13 says, “Let the field be joyful and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice, before the Lord; for He cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth; he shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with His truth.” Suffering animals do not make a joyful field!! John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them (God’s hearers) through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.”

Be happy, be sanctified, be perfecting holiness in the fear of God, or you won’t miss a deer; you will miss the Lord God Almighty! (2Corinthians 7:1)

 

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