The Right to Eat in Paradise

 

The Right to Eat in Paradise

Your “Right” to eat is a choice

Adam and Eve had the right to eat from any of the trees

Including the Tree of Life until they chose the forbidden fruit

God told the people of Moses’ time

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life,

Revelation 2:7 reminds us to make a committed choice

 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

The “Right” to eat of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God comes

To the “Overcomer”  

 

 

The Right to Eat in Paradise

 

We talk about rights all the time.

 

Rights are…

 

 legal, social, or ethical principles

of freedom or entitlement; that is,

rights are the fundamental normative rules

 about what is allowed of people or owed

to people according to some legal system,

social convention, or ethical theory.

 

It is justice that gives you rights.

 

Justice is a concept on ethics and law that

means that people behave in a way that is fair,

equal and balanced for everyone.

 

Early on in American history, 1791,

 Congress gave to every American

“The Bill of Rights”.

 

On December 10, 1948 the United

Nations accepted a milestone document

in history of human rights the

General Assembly Resolution 217A

Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

 

Human rights are important and

every case brought to a court room is

there because of some human right.

 

Our courts don’t always get it right.

 

And sometimes people don’t get it right.

 

Have you ever heard someone say…

 

 “What Gives you the Right?”

 

Or, maybe you were asked that question.

 

It seems there is not a day that goes by with-

out some protest about some group’s rights.

 

There are rights that we should

accept for every person.

 

Then there are rights that are earned.

 

The 2021 Summer Olympics are going on as I write.

 

Every athletic earned the right to be in those games.

 

Everyone has the right to become an Olympian,

 but those who become Olympians earned

the right by competing and becoming the best.

 

Everyone has the right to eat,

but there is a good saying that says…

 

 “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”

 

As an American, I love these words

in the Declaration of Independence…

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator

 with certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are Life, Liberty

and the pursuit of Happiness.  

 

These rights are to give every American

 the right to pursue the opportunities of life.

 

We talk about the “American Dream”.

 

 It is the equal opportunity to achieve upward mobility.

 

We find in the letter to the Ephesian church,

Revelation 2, God gives a right.

 

God says He gives a right…

 

I will give the right to eat from the Tree of Life.

 

This Tree of Life with 12 fruits.

 

Not only is healthy food (for the leaves

 are for the healing of the nations)

Revelation 22:2

 

But the place to eat this fruit

is in the Paradise of God.

 

Now there is a catch, not

 everyone will eat of this Tree of Life…

 

Only those who “overcome”.

 

To him who overcomes,

I will give the right to eat from the tree of life,

which is in the paradise of God.

 

God gives all of us the opportunity for “LIFE”.

 

Our right is a right to choose.

 

God spoke these words in Deuteronomy 30:19-20…

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

Sadly, there are many of us who cry out

for our right as if we are owed something.

 

But we all are given the right to choose.

 

Your choice will either bring…

 

 Life or it will bring death, blessings and curses.

 

Be an overcomer and with your rights choose Life.

 

Just like Adam and Eve,

 you have to choose what you will eat.

 

 

 

Scripture Reading

 

Revelation 2:7 NIV

 

7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.