The offer still stands.  Today can be the best day of your life and tomorrow even better.  To those of childlike faith, this marvelous place of utopia is ordained by divine statute.  Consider these marvelous God-given principles:

Romans 8:28:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Proverbs 4:18:

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

I Thessalonians 5:18:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

The toughest of life’s circumstances become the place of God’s greatest deliverances.  Yes, to those of childlike faith, this marvelous place of utopia is ordained by divine statute, but the redeemed of the Lord must say so.  Speak the Word of the Lord over your day, and your life, and all that you put your hands to! 

Have you been born-again?  Are you ready to begin really living?  Are you ready to participate in the excitement of the glorious power of a Christ-central life?  Are you ready to have all your sin, and your shame, and your guilt totally expunged from your history?  Then today is your utopian moment.  Today is your day of salvation.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” right now for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  Now for today’s subject.  

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 28: 1, 2, 8:

1 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:

2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

GOD SAID, Isaiah 48:17-18:

17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

GOD SAID,Habakkuk 1: 13-16:

13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.

GOD SAID, I Timothy 6:10:

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

MAN SAID: Don’t try to stuff your foolish religion down my throat.  If it feels good, I do it.  We want abortion on demand.  We want same-sex marriage.  We’re changing all the rules.  Why not?  There is no God or day of reckoning! 

Now THE RECORD.  When you do the wrong thing, you reap the error of your ways.  God’s Word is true and righteous altogether.  Inherent within His commandment is a blessing or a curse, and it is our choice which.  Obeying God’s commandment produces the blessing of doing the right thing.  Disobeying God’s commandment produces the curse, which is the result of doing the wrong thing.  It’s just that simple.  Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

God is mocked when His Words are ridiculed, rejected, or neglected by the sons of Adam, but there are always negative consequences, and the disobedient will certainly pay. 

Welcome to GodSaidManSaid.  This is feature article 598 that once again proves the full inerrancy of the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.  These features confirm by third party attestation that the God of the Bible is the God of all and that a soon-coming judgment day will place each individual before this God to be judged.  It’s time for all of us to prepare to meet our God. All these features are archived on this site in text and streaming audio for the edification of the children of faith and for ammunition in the battle for the souls of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.  Thank you for coming.  We look forward to your visit. 

The Word of God is our owner’s manual that directs us in the smallest matters of our individual lives to nation-building itself.  He gave explicit instructions to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to Moses and the prophets on how to build a nation of healthy, wealthy, and wise citizenry, but, as usual, man has a “better” way. 

Truth has zero tolerance.  Truth knows no opinion. Two plus two equals four and 3.9 just won’t do.  If God’s Word is inerrant, absolute truth – and it is – then man’s work-arounds will prove destructive and fatal – and they have.  They are simply the result of doing the wrong thing.  For those looking for proof that the God of the Bible exists, they need look no further than the results of disregarding His instructions. 

Last week’s feature in this short series dealt with America’s newly acquired welfare mentality.  A few excerpts of review follow:

During the mid-1960s, US president Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty and began the American welfare state and the unintended consequences have been devastating.  An entire underclass, a new beleaguered culture filled with entitlement mentality, has been created.  Johnson’s anti-Bible politics ended up promoting the very poverty he had declared war on.  The welfare state has created:

• • A constituency that has learned to be dependent upon the government for housing, food, medical, education, and more;
  • It has promoted children out of wedlock;
  • Fatherless households;
  • Drug and alcohol abuse;
  • High school drop outs;
  • Laziness;
  • Incompetence;
  • Bad attitudes;
  • Gluttony, diabetes, and a myriad of other medical maladies.

President Johnson’s plan has proved to be a disaster.  [End of quote]

The financial cost to the U.S. citizenry to support this immoral system is staggering.

For God’s perfect solution to help those who have fallen on hard times, click onto last week’s feature, “When God Builds a Nation (Part 1).”  II Thessalonians 3:10-12 was quoted in last week’s feature and needs repeating here:

10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.

12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.

In the early 1990s in the United States, during the Clinton presidential campaign, a new political slogan arose that drove the Clinton quest for the presidency.  It was “It’s the Economy, Stupid!”  Clinton ran on the purported bad economy, and even though he supported the killing of babies in the mother’s womb, was a bold promoter of homosexuality, and was a known womanizer and adulterer, he was elected and lead America for eight years.  At one time during his tenure, he assigned 22 known homosexuals to prominent positions in the U.S. government.  His attitudes and proclivities moved like a flood over America’s moral landscape. 

When God’s Word is rejected, only wrong-headed decisions can be made, and the consequences are extremely costly and lethal.  Consider a few examples:

1.  Fornication: God commands against any sexual relationship outside of the marriage bed – a bed, by the way, shared by a male husband and a female wife. 

The cost of disobedience: Hundreds of millions are dead, and are dying, as a result of sexual promiscuity.  The world is awash in sexually transmitted diseases, with the U.S. alone posting 70,000,000 citizens with sexually acquired genital warts and lesions.  The financial cost to the economy is immeasurable.

2. The penal system: God’s commandments concerning crime placed the price of the crime directly on the shoulders of the criminal.  Review "The Perfect Penal System" on this website.  But man had a better way with dealing with crime.

The cost of disobedience: Today, the cost to the citizens of the United States to house one criminal for one year is $49,000.  The recidivism rate, which is the rate of the return to crime for those who have been punished, exceeds 60%.  The cost includes millions of ruined lives and billions upon billions of dollars to the American people. 

3.  Housing collapse: God speaks to Adam in Genesis 3:19:In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. The principle laid out by God throughout the Word is sweat, work, and personal equity, but man has a “better” way. 

The cost of disobedience: The collapse of the U.S. economy – which is directly affecting the world at large – is the result of multiple issues, but the bursting of the sub-prime housing bubble is central.  American politicians reasoned that every American had a right to the American dream, sweat or no sweat.  As the economy began to slump, the sub-prime borrowers were unable to make their monthly commitments, and the American dream became a nightmare.  When God’s Word is disregarded, the results are devastating.  The cost to the world economy can be measured in the trillions. 

Habakkuk 1:16:

Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.

It’s not “the economy, stupid,” but rather the morality.  It is morality, God’s morality, that builds a nation, and rejecting God's morality comes with a heavy price.  This is August 2012, and the world was shocked to hear that the citizens of the United States, in just three years, had lost 39% of their wealth, and that Canada’s citizens are now richer than their neighbors to the south.  During a recent radio interview, Canada’s leader was asked about that matter.  His response was that Canada didn’t have a politically-generated, sub-prime fiasco.  [Not a quote]

It’s the morality, stupid!  Is morality the issue when you find this report on cleveland.com?

Last fall, as part of the JobsOhio strategy, Rep. Tim Derickson, a Republican from southwest Ohio, held hearings across the state to pick the brains of educators, employers, employees, students, job seekers, and anyone else who could offer insight on building a well prepared and competitive work force.

Derickson learned something unexpected, however: “I had a fellow who owned a coal mine come up to me.  He said 100 people showed up for a job interview and that 90 of them failed the drug test.”

The mine owner wasn’t the only employer to raise that issue. 

“I was shocked to hear the extent of this problem throughout the state,” Derickson said.  “I didn’t hear that 90 percent figure again.  What I heard more often was 40 percent to 50 percent.”

In his report released in January, Derickson wrote: “The committee heard that many employers cannot find workers able to pass a drug test…This is a real problem in Ohio.”

Joe Roman, head of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, says he also is aware of rising business concerns over dirty urine.  But his information, again, is anecdotal.

So is that of Nancy Shafer, president of Shafer Commercial & Industrial Services in Warren, who figures about a third of job candidates for her firm flunk the drug test.  [End of quote]

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, drug abuse costs the American economy about $193 billion a year. 

The U.S. voted their pocketbook and the results have been horrendous.  When God says “yes,” man says “no.”  But remember, God will have the last word.  God’s Word is true and righteous altogether.  It is a place to build a life that will last forever.  Choose life and live.  The world needs to know: "It's the morality, stupid!"

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 28: 1, 2, 8:

1 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:

2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

GOD SAID, Isaiah 48:17-18:

17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

GOD SAID,Habakkuk 1: 13-16:

13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.

GOD SAID, I Timothy 6:10:

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

MAN SAID: Don’t try to stuff your foolish religion down my throat.  If it feels good, I do it.  We want abortion on demand.  We want same-sex marriage.  We’re changing all the rules.  Why not?  There is no God or day of reckoning! 

Now you have THE RECORD.

References:

Authorized King James Version

Evans, C., “Passing Drug Test is Job One,” http://www.blog.cleveland.com

GodSaidManSaid, “When God Builds a Nation (Part 1)”