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                                                                    "Humankinds Choices"
    

HUMANKIND’S CHOICES

          So we now know human beings have choices that God allows us to make.  We also understand that God is constantly moving by His Spirit in every moment of every day in order to draw us into a right relationship with Him.  Additionally, God at times can and will move distinctly and directly into a specific circumstance, event, or situation.  But how?  When ?  Where?  Why?  Here is the part we fail to comprehend entirely.  This may be one area where we humans are not capable of fully understanding God’s timing or reasons for acting specifically or refusing to act as we see fit.  But let us attempt to understand as much as possible. 

NAZARETH

          After a period of ministry abroad Jesus returned to His own hometown of Nazareth.  Mark 6:5-6a “Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.  And He marveled because of their unbelief.”  It appears that the Son of God was inhibited from effective ministry because of the unbelief of the people.  So we see here one instance of people preventing God from helping and saving and doing mighty works because of their unbelief in His Son. 

          Please understand though, this does not imply that EVERY solitary adverse situation or problem or catastrophe is due to a specific lack of faith among those involved.  It may indeed need to be considered as one possibility or a contributing factor, but it is not always the sole root cause.  Therefore (and please get this) we cannot make any kind of blanket statement that a person is not healed or delivered or protected or a situation fails to improve due exclusively to his/her lack of faith.  If I catch a cold, it is not automatically due to my lack of faith in God. 

          The rejection of Jesus at His hometown of Nazareth is included in the Scriptures in order (for one reason) to explain why God does not appear to intervene at times we think He should.  Again, God gives us a choice to receive Him or reject Him.  Sometimes He is not welcome.  It is clear that Jesus WANTED to help the people, but they would not receive Him.