While I sit here in comfort with a full stomach, typing these words in my heated office, sheltered from the cold and winter weather outside my window, I know that I am blest beyond measure. I look at the globe sitting on my desk and recall the years I spent in Africa, realizing that in many countries of the world they lack the basic necessities of life.
According to Global Issues.org, almost half the world lives on less than $2.50 per day. More than 80% of the world lives on less than $10.00 per day. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation. Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits. Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water. In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood (charcoal and animal dung) to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China. One in eight people suffer chronic undernourishment.
Every year there are 350 to 500 million cases of malaria, with one million deaths. 36 million currently live with AIDS, including over 3 million children ten to nineteen years of age. Many children were infected by their HIV-positive mothers. 1.6 million died of AIDS in 2012.
According to Discovery Health, the fifteen most common causes of death in the world:
1. Ischemic heart disease
2. Cerebrovascular diseases
3. Lower respiratory infections (e.g., pneumonia)
4. HIV/AIDS
5. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
6. Diarrheal diseases
7. Tuberculosis
8. Malaria
9. Cancer of trachea/bronchus/lung
10. Road traffic accidents
11. Childhood diseases
12. Other unintentional injuries
13. Hypertensive heart disease
14. Suicide
15. Stomach cancer
In Columbus, Ohio, it seems that someone dies by gunshot nightly. The Dispatch says there were 92 homicides in 2013, equaling 1.76 per week. Costs related to abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs is costly to our Nation, exacting over $600 billion annually in costs related to crime, lost work productivity, and healthcare. 20 million new STDs occur each year, half of which are among the youth. These cost another 16 billion each year to treat.
There are around 150,000 deaths per day worldwide, offsetting the 360,000 babies born each day. Worldwide, there are 125,000 abortions each day. In the USA, where nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended and 4 in 10 of these are terminated by abortion, there are over 3,000 abortions per day. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies in the USA (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.
Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.
Yahweh created Adam and Eve to have fellowship with Him as He walked with them in the garden in the cool of the evening. Eden was God’s garden, with ample provisions for the safety, security and well-being of Adam and Eve as the children of Yahweh. As in any household, there has to be a few rules; and one rule was not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve were like children in the garden, innocent and naive about the outside world. Yahweh wanted to protect them from that carnal knowledge and keep them safe from a hostile environment. In the garden their spirits were able to communicate directly with God, without the use of their vocal cords; they thought it and God knew, and God thought it and they knew. They were in perfect fellowship with their Father who provided everything they could possibly need and much more.
When they disobeyed their Father, they had to leave their Father’s garden of purity and holiness. On the outside looking in, they soon realized that their bodies were aging and that they could no longer communicate with their Father as they once did inside His garden. In the day that you eat of the tree, you shall die. Adam’s body lived for 930 years, but his spirit man died instantly. There would be no more walks in the garden in the cool of the evening with their Father. The fellowship with a Holy God and innocent children had been broken and required a reconciliation greater than they could provide. Only Christ could provide that type of reconciliation on Calvary’s hill with stripes on His back and nails in His hands and feet, shedding His holy sinless blood to pay for the sins of the first Adam and the rest of sinful mankind. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:16,17. “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” II Corinthians 5:18-21.
Jesus teaches us that in order to enter the garden again, or the Kingdom of God, which consists of peace, joy and right living in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have to be Born Again of the water and of the Spirit. Jesus told His disciples that He was going back to His Father, but that He would not leave them without comfort, nor as orphans. He went on to teach them about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, who would empower them by residing in their human spirits. When the Holy Spirit fell on the Day of Pentecost, Peter, who denied the Lord three times for fear of being crucified with His Lord, now was able to stand boldly and proclaim the Acts 2:38 message with complete understanding that this was fulfilling not only the teachings of Jesus Christ but was also fulfilling prophesy from Joel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zachariah from the Old Testament. Three thousand were baptized by immersion in water and filled with the Holy Spirit on that one day. The Book of Acts details the bold acts of the Apostles; and they fulfilled the great commission of Christ to preach the Good News into all the world. The disciples/apostles were in fellowship with their Father by the Power of His Holy Spirit!
Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight sets before the children of Israel and us two choices. One is to choose to obey our Father and have fellowship with Him and share His blessings; which includes protection, provision, and healing. Or, we can choose to rebel against His teachings, and reap the curses that come from being disfellowshipped with our Father; while we live outside His garden in the devil’s hostile world of suffering.
“And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.” Verse 15 says, “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:”
I saw many sick and dying from leprosy, malnutrition, lack of sanitation, poverty, malaria and dysentery; shortening their lifespans to 35 to 45 years of age. I myself was healed from malaria, after eight weeks on my back. Africans say there are three stages of malaria; 1-You feel like you are dying, 2-you know you are dying, and 3-you just want to hurry up and die. I can attest that this is a fact. Three rocks and a pot is considered wealth in African villages. A hut made from earth and clay blocks and covered with grass and cow dung is their castle. When I was there, they had no televisions, no internet, no cell phones; and most had no cars. They walked many miles barefoot to secure their water and corn meal, and relied on others passing through their villages to relay messages to friends and family.
We have so much more than most of the world; and we make idols of our possessions and blessings. We were born without anything but our breath from our heavenly Father; and we will die without taking anything of this world with us to the grave. Our spirit man shall stand before God to give an account for what we have done in this body, with the blessings and gifts that He has allowed us to be stewards of. How will we answer Him?
America is fast approaching the point where the blessings of Yahweh will be withdrawn; by flaunting her sinful and rebellious lifestyles before His eyes daily. Without His protection and blessings, we are left in the devil’s world of theft, murder, and self-destructive lifestyles.
What will you choose today? Blessing or curses?
