Quotes:
“Everyone has inside them a piece of good news. The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is.” -Anne Frank
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Oscar Wilde
“Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” ― Judy Garland
“All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.” - Havelock Ellis
“It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture.” - Benjamin Franklin
“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” -James A. Michener
“When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up.”
-Les Brown
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” –Unknown
Galatians 2:16-21 (20)
Not OK, That’s OK:
Adam and Eve failed the test of Obedience in the Garden of Eden; As they partook of the forbidden fruit.
I Timothy 2:13-14 “13-For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14- And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” –Adam willfully chose to do wrong.
Genesis 3:5 “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Their understanding was opened that very day.
The same wording is used in Genesis chapter 2:
Genesis 2:17 “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
They both died spiritually that very day.
Young’s literal Translation of the Bible renders it this way:
Genesis 2:17 “and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it -- dying thou dost die.”
Eating of the forbidden fruit was Not OK.
However, “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.” John 3:16.
Isaiah 28:18 “And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand…”
Ephesians 4:8 “Wherefore he [Jesus] saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”
Here in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse the writer is quoting from Psalm 68:18 “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.”
Adam and Eve received these promises in Genesis chapter 3:
Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity [extreme hatred] between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
--Death on Calvary was a bruising our savior’s heel; Resurrection was the crushing of his head.
That’s OK.
The Ancient Roots Translinear Bible has an interesting rendering of this verse:
Genesis 3:15 “I establish enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. She will tromp your head and tromp you with her heel.”
Jacob was deceiver. Not OK.
(Genesis 25:19-34, Genesis 27:1-36, Genesis 32)
God still loved.
To clarify: Sin is not ok. Paul said in Romans 6:1-2 “1- What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2- God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
Romans 5:19-21 “19- For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 20- Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21- That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Jacob wrestled with God and struggled to find his way.
God loved him anyway.
God gave him a prophetic dream:
Genesis 28:12 “And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.”
John 1:51 “…Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”
That’s OK.
David… Lion and Bear slayer, Giant Killer; King Saul replacer because Saul failed to stay the course that the LORD had put him on. Even so David fell prey to his own imperfections. He who gave us so many wonderful words of wisdom, fell headlong into lust and a torrid affair. David lied and had her husband killed.
Not OK.
God still loved David and called him a “man after His own heart”;
Because David was a repented-man.
That’s OK. (2 Samuel 11-12)
Peter denied Jesus three times; Paul got into his face for his ill behavior:
Galatians 2:11 “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.”
Not OK.
Isaiah 33:7 “Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.”
Luke 22:61-62 “61- And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 62- And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.”
The Lord loved him.
Peter had the keys to the kingdom. It was he who opened the door of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the Jews at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, Samaritans in Acts chapter 8 and the Gentiles in Acts chapter 10.
That’s OK. (Mark 14:72)
Thomas doubted.
Not OK.
Yet Jesus offered Thomas His hands as proof:
John 20:27-28 “27-Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28-And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.”
That’s OK. (John 20:26-28)
Paul struggled with the war that rages in all of us between our flesh (which “is weak”) and our spirit (that “is willing”).
Romans 7:14-24 “14- For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15- For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16- If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17- Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18- For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19- For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20- Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21- I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22- For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23- But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24- O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Not OK.
Paul was beloved, a great man of God was he. He was human.
Romans 7:25 answers the question from verse 24: “25- I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
That’s OK.
We are not perfect. We aren’t ok. We have failings and weakness.
We make mistakes. Not OK.
The hairs of our head are numbered.
Jesus went to the cross knowing what you I have would do right and do wrong.
Knowing the good, bad and ugly of it all; He went all the way for all of us while know all of it. That’s OK.
Isaiah 53:1-7 “1- Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2- For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3- He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4- Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5- But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6- All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7- He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
I’m Not Ok, That’s OK.
You are Not Ok, That’s OK
I’m Not perfect, That’s Ok.
You are Not Perfect, That’s OK.
For we are going on to PERFECTION!
