In corporate terminology a CEO is the “Chief Executive Officer.” In other words, he’s the boss. Now let’s imagine a massive corporation that has been built from the ground up by the genius of one man. He’s constructed his corporation according to a well thought out plan and skillfully engineered his operation into a highly successful, productive empire. To work for his company means a dream job, with a more than generous salary and out-of-this-world benefits.
     You apply for employment and are thrilled to learn that you have been accepted.

     You are given a complete set of mandates on how your CEO wants you to operate within this corporation. There’s only one problem – you don’t quite agree with all of those rules. So you begin to “wing it” in certain areas that you don’t agree with. You are positive your way is better, even though your boss has proven that his business operates the best way according to the plan he has designed.
     Slowly, over the course of time, things that you have implemented start going wrong. Only you don’t quite see it that way. In your mind the changes you have made are starting to turn the corporation in a different direction, one that suits you, even though your employer does not see it the same way you do.

     Fortunately, your boss is a very kind and patient man. Over and over again he has tried to make you see that your ways are not his ways, and even though you may not agree with him, to abide by his course of action is what he requires.
     In spite of a series of warnings, you blatantly refuse to “repent” so to speak, from doing things your own way and you are subsequently fired from your dream job.
     You are angry and disappointed. But you still have to realize the one thing that has gotten you into this mess in the first place – you are not the boss. And your boss has every right in the world to fire you for not operating according to the rules of his organization. In other words, you deserved to be fired.

     Now let’s apply this scenario to God. He is the CEO of the universe. He has created everything according to His liking and everything runs in perfect order as a result. The sun arrives on the horizon at the proper time every morning and goes down in the evening when it is supposed to. The oceans have their proper boundaries; the seasons come and go precisely as programmed by their Creator. Mankind has been given a perfect, absolutely gorgeous planet to live in.
     In order to help us abide by the Creator’s specifications and maintain what He has created according to His will, He has given us a set of rules to live by. He has promised that if we live by His word, things will go well for us and there will be many blessings and company perks along the way. But mankind has other ideas. He sees God’s way as too confining. Sin is more fun than obedience and so the employees decide to take things into their own hands. Suddenly things start happening that are not part of the Creator’s design for the project. People are being murdered, kidnapped, robbed and sold into slavery. They fall victim to horrendous diseases and poverty. There are wars and bloodshed, chaos and riots. Yet the employees still believe that their way is better even though the creation around them is groaning with earthquakes, floods, fires and violent storms.

     But the Creator is very patient with them. He continually sends other faithful employees to try and turn the rebellious ones back to Him and His ways. He even sent His Son to die for them so He can forgive them and give them the bonus of eternal life with Him. Those who respond are guaranteed a secure position for life and beyond. But the others however, refuse to admit they have been wrong in their approach to management and blatantly continue on in willful, deliberate rebellion against God’s authority.

     The result is that things keep getting worse and worse until the unmanageable employees reach the inevitable end of their employment and they are fired – literally.

     And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire – Revelation 20:15.

     Mankind failed to recognize the one thing that has gotten them into this mess in the first place – they are not the Boss. And their Boss has every right in the world to fire them for not operating according to the rules of His organization. In other words, they deserved to be fired.

     It’s a sad ending for those who could have reached the pinnacle of their careers on this planet. The outcome for these ones might have been a whole lot different. Yet they would not repent “of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” – Revelation 9:20, 21.

     They had a clause in their contract that would have changed the horrendous world they had created back to their Boss’s original wonderful plan for all of them. It’s too bad they refused to read it.

     “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them” – Jeremiah 18: 7,8.

Copyright 2012 by H.D. Shively

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