“Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions.” Read Romans 1:21-26. Once God gives up a person to his passions there is an end of enjoying life. At first a person can enjoy his lusts, but afterwards he is enslaved by them and has to suffer much. That is how it goes when a person loves the creature rather than the Creator. Almost all people seek God for their own gain. Israel suffered during their time of slavery in Egypt; they very much wanted to go to a land that flowed with milk and honey. They praised God when He saved them out of danger; but when they came into the land, they were so occupied with all of God’s blessings that they forgot God. Then God delivered them into the hand of their enemies; but when they came into need again, they sought God. Nearly everyone who calls on God acts in the same way. They cry out to God in their earthly tribulations, and God is found by them and He blesses them. We can also see that many people keep close to God while they are sick or poor; but if they are well again or if they receive a sizable increase in pay, so many opportunities open up to them that the plans of the flesh completely displace fellowship with God. Their life in God dies out. They worship the creature; they do not honor and praise God so that God has to deliver them up to tribulations again. “Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.” Prov. 3:9-10. God had promised that if they kept His commandments, He would turn away sickness and bless their coming in and going out. They would not need to borrow, but rather lend, etc. God has not changed. If people would honor God and praise Him as God with the firstfruits of all their produce, they could live in this world like Adam in Paradise, and a few people do experience this truth. Such people can really enjoy life. Ungodly people with a bad conscience and sinful habits cannot enjoy life even though they might have money, a home, and good health. There is no peace for the ungodly. However, the person who honors and praises God and believes that God will bless him has a good conscience and peace in the home. He can enjoy life in his well-ordered circumstances, and one can say: Behold what great things God has done for him. Perhaps he has led a miserable life before. It is great to see God’s works in this manner, and yet such a person has not sought God for any other reason but earthly gain. He is an earthly paradise-man. 1 Cor. 15:47. Being a disciple of Jesus—being spiritual—is something completely different. Jesus fulfilled the law, so He should have had the greatest earthly glory. But He was a man of sorrows and had no place where He could lay His head. The apostle says, “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.” Heb. 3:1. And Jesus says that if anyone wants to be His disciple, he must forsake everything and even hate his own life. Behold, this is what it means to give yourself to God. Oh, how few people there are who have given themselves to God, but He can do great things in the ones who do give themselves to Him. They are conformed to the image of His Son, and all things work together for their good. Rom. 8:28-29. You have to sacrifice your carnal desires to be a paradise-man, but you have to sacrifice the paradise-man to be conformed to the Son. Then you come to the testimony of the blood and become Jesus’ bride. 1 John 5:6-8. We can say that the paradise-man has—by God’s grace— found his life in this world. He can enjoy a life of God’s blessings but he does not have a promise of being along in the millennium. He has nothing coming to him. He will be among those who do not live again until the thousand years are finished. Rev. 20:5. He will be on the new earth. Rev. 21:1-4. But Jesus says that he who loses his life for His sake shall keep it. This is what it means to follow Jesus. This is the bride, the New Jerusalem. They will be saved from the great tribulation; they will be along in the Millennium and rule together with Jesus. They were disciples, and were trained. This training has cost them fire and sufferings, even their own life. “It is for your training that you endure sufferings.” Heb. 12:7—Swedish Tr. He chastens every son whom He receives. Therefore we should not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, as though some strange thing happened to us. 1 Pet. 4:12-13. These trials can be sickness, poverty, accidents, etc., but there is a great difference between coming into such trials because you honor the creature rather than the Creator, and coming into them to be molded into the image of the Son. 1 Pet. 4:15. It is not easy for others to discern the cause of your trials, but you have to prove yourself. Eccl. 9:1-2. Many people go around whining and complaining about their situation. They do not understand God’s work with them because they are seeking the glory of Paradise. But it is different with the disciples, those who are to be trained. They rejoice not only in hope of the glory of God, but they also glory in tribulations because they know what they produce. Rom. 5:2-3. They also know that all things work together for their good. We have Abraham as an example. He went out in faith, and it really took faith because he did not know where he was going. However, we can see that it was only to his advantage. He became richer and richer. He believed God for a son—this was the faith that is much spoken of—but it was still only to his advantage for his life in this world. But then God said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” There could have been a danger that Abraham would love Isaac (God’s blessing) more than God. Now he had to sacrifice Isaac—the blessing. There he came to the testimony of the blood, and only then could God say, “For now I know that you fear God.” Gen. 22:12. The resurrection becomes a reality only when the grain of wheat dies. Abraham’s hope was in the resurrection of the dead. Heb. 11:19. He was not satisfied with his paradise-glory; he lived as a stranger in the Promised Land, waiting for a city whose builder and maker is God. Only after Abraham had sacrificed the blessing he had received—after he had come to the testimony of the blood—did God say, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” This also applies to us. There are those whose faith is much spoken about, when they relate how God intervened in their lives with salvation from evil habits, sickness, and poverty; but if they are to be a blessing to the others, they have to forsake everything. They must not only have the testimony of the water, but also of the blood. They are the ones who are always full of the Holy Spirit because the Spirit bears witness together with the water and the blood. 1 John 5:5-8. They enter into the dying of Christ and no longer live for themselves. Gal. 2:20. This is the bride—the one who is like Jesus. They will be along in the rapture and when Jesus establishes the Millennium, and then for all eternity. Phil. 3:10-14. Therefore you must not seek God just to receive an earthly blessing. You must give yourself as clay in the potter’s hand! Then you will have a future and a hope.Sigurd Bratlie