Wholly owned and operated by God

I’ve seen advertisements for businesses that were wholly owned and operated locally. These are generally smaller, independent, family-run businesses that, although they make all the decisions based on the best interests of their customers and employees and bear all the risks of profit and loss, they also rely on a network of suppliers from elsewhere to provide their goods and services locally.

Tucumcari has many such businesses, most of which successfully navigated and survived the COVID-19 pandemic.

The whole world is wholly-owned and operated by God [Psalm 24:1-2; Hebrews 1:1-3; 11:3; Matthew 6:25-33; Acts 17:24-25; read every Scripture cited in my articles to verify the statements I make (Acts 17:11)]. In regard to operating the world — keeping it running — God will do that until HE decides to bring it to an end (Acts 17:30-31; 2 Peter 3:3-13).

There’s no doubt the world is wearing out as we consume its limited natural resources, but God has instilled his creative nature in humankind so we can continue exploring and gaining dominion over the world finding alternative resources put there by God that sustain us (Isaiah 51:6; Romans 8:18-25; Genesis 1:26-28; 2:4-25; https://www.gotquestions.org/image-of-God.html). We cannot make something out of nothing like God did, but perhaps even space exploration could eventually lead to the discovery of new energy sources or food production techniques and processes.

Did you notice when you read Romans 8:18-25 that some people have the Spirit? This is God’s Holy Spirit God gives to his people — those who obey him (Romans 8:9-17; Acts 5:32; 2:38-39; 1 Peter 1:22-25). That makes Christians holy-owned and operated. It’s not that we don’t have free will to follow God or not, but we’ve made the choice to follow him, which gives us a life that’s abundantly blessed (John 10:10; Ephesians 1:3-14).

Remembering that God owns everything, we only have two choices in who owns us while on earth — either God, who gives life, or Satan, who steals it (Romans 6:16-23; Luke 8:11; John 8:42-47). Those belonging to God have the obligation of honoring him by living as he pleases and serving him (Hebrews 9:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 2:8-10; 5:8-18; Romans 12:1-2; 8:5-8). If we don’t live to please God in this life, we’ll be living to please the devil, but because God still owns us, we’ll face the same fate as the devil (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7; Ezekiel 18:4; Matthew 10:28; 25:31-46).

Since God owns you and decides your eternal fate based on how you live on earth, who will you choose to serve (Joshua 24:14-15; Matthew 6:24; 12:30; Revelation 3:14-22)? Serving God is the only realistic option, but only a few will make that choice (Matthew 7:13-14). We won’t be going it alone, though, because, in addition to his indwelling Spirit and inspired word, God uses the others taking that narrow road to encourage us along the way (Hebrews 3:6-15; Galatians 6:1-5; 5:22-25; 3:26-29; 4:6-7; Romans 6:3-7; 8:26-27; James 1:21-25; John 14:15-21; 15:14-15; 2 Timothy 3:14-17). That’s the Christians’ network for surviving the pandemic of sin!

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan who writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected].