Cleaning Up Our House

It has been awhile since my last post.  It may be a while yet before my next.  I am going through a valley right now and covet the prayers of those who know Christ.  Here is a word that was upon my heart today.  May it be food for thought…

For those of us who still long to see a real movement of God, there is a major problem which exists in many churches and amongst Christians in general that is holding back the healing rain of the Spirit we so desire. Sin in the camp. In our present age, we hear people beat the drum within Christian and secular society saying, “We shouldn’t judge!” The problem is that it is almost always taken out of context and is the very thing that has allowed sin to be in our midst amongst churches. In the Old Testament, we are all familiar with how God brought down the walls of Jericho. And some of us may even remember how a man named Achan hid a wedge of gold and a Babylonianish garment under his tent. No one knew except God and Achan. However, when Israel went to defeat the next town, Ai, they lost and many of their men were killed. Joshua began to pray, wondering why God had not been in their midst fighting their battles. “And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.” (Josua 7:10-12) Notice the Lord says “Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.”

 

“Be Ye Therefore…” – Ready

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Luke 12:40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Introduction

This is the fifth in the “Be Ye Therefore…” series.  Christ had just told His followers not to seek after the riches of this world which are temporal but to seek the kingdom first and then says “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  Then the parable starts with blessed are the servants whom, when their lord returns, he finds them watching or ready for him.  (By the way these two thoughts are related, for earthly treasure often keeps us from watching or even loving His appearing)  He goes on to say that if the good man of a house knew exactly what hour the thief would come, he would have prevented him from breaking into the house.  He would have been waiting in that specific hour to catch the thief.

 

“Be Ye Therefore…” – Wise as serpents, and Harmless as doves

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Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Introduction

This is the third in the “Be Ye Therefore…” series. In these last days, a Christian needs spiritual discernment now more than ever.  The Lord is reminding His disciples that as they serve among enemies within and without, they are to combine the wisdom of the serpent and the simplicity and humility of the dove.

We Have Met the Enemy… And He is Us

Christ reminds believers that He is sending us forth as sheep among wolves.  But wolves will also creep into our midst.  The apostle Paul told the Ephesian elders this in his final meeting with them before going to Jerusalem and imprisonment, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29-30  This is why it is particularly important in the last days to heed the advice of our Lord.

 

“…And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.”

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Introduction

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner so I wanted to share a thought on love and one of the most convicting passages in the Bible.  Later this week I will be starting a short series on the phrase ‘Be Ye Therefore…’ which occurs seven times in the Bible and each time it appears it is used to encourage God’s people to do something that will be for His glory and their good.  But for now, let’s talk about love…

The apostle Paul had just been dealing with spiritual gifts in the twelfth chapter in his first epistle to Corinth and he finishes with the following verse.  But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. (1Corinthans 12:31)

The Things We Think Are Important

Paul, according to his own testimony in Philippians 3, had at one time considered works and the outward observance of the Law of God to be profitable unto him and the Lord.  According to the standards of the religious elite of his day, Paul was a great man before Christ found him on the road to Damascus.  He said he was, “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”  Paul had come to realize that all that he used to think was profitable or gain for him was loss for Christ.  His position among the Pharisees, all the keeping of the law, everything that he had at one time considered precious he now saw as dung.  To lose such things was nothing now to Paul for he had gained the excellency of knowledge of Christ.

Friend, we say we love the Lord.  We say we serve Him.  But do we?  Is our works motivated by our love for Jesus?  Or do we do what we do out of some sense of duty?  Remember I mentioned that this is one of the most convicting passages in the Bible.  Well Galatians 5:22-25 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.   And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.   If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”  So we see that love is the first of the fruit of the Spirit that should be born by you.  Love is not a gift but rather evidence of the Spirit within you.  Paul reminds us In the first three verses of I Corinthians 13 that to truly love Christ is to love Him with all our heart, all our mind, and all our will or soul. 

 

Show Me – Jeremiah 6:16

Introduction

I am noticing more and more those in their 40s and up lamenting the changes they are seeing in the workplace, the family and even in church.  The lament will start something like this… “There was a time when I…” “Back in the day we…” “Things just ain’t the way they used to be”.

These laments, normally directed towards the younger generation, detail life as it was 30, 40 or 50 years ago to illustrate just how far we have fallen.  I’ll give you an example: two sentences ago my spell check griped about my use of the word “ain’t”; it didn’t used to do that, ain’t “ain’t” a word anymore?  In the good old days it was a word.

 

And They Rose Up to Play…

I Corinthians 10:7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

This Sunday morning, referred to as the Lord’s day in Revelation 1:10, will unfortunately be a time when many who call Him ‘Lord, Lord’ forsake His altar and instead, like the children of Israel at the base of Sinai, will rise up to worship the golden calf gods of this world ie. the beach, the lake, the ball field. They will, like Paul says here, rise up to play.

Would to God they showed as much devotion to the one they have been known to call ‘Lord’.  Many Christians have supposed in this day and age, possibly due to the humanistic style of gospel preaching and teaching, that their happiness is paramount in God’s eyes and that, as long as they ‘love’ the Lord, they can do what makes them happy.  Faithfulness in their intentions rather than actions is considered sufficient.  They suppose that being faithful to God’s house is not as important as being faithful to tell others they love the Lord and His church.  Many have supposed that being a faithful servant or bearing the disciple’s cross is archaic and no longer required of the modern American Christian.  Why is this?  Why, my friends, would you suppose that when we have scriptural evidence to the contrary?  Take Luke’s gospel for instance:

 

“They feared the LORD, and served their own gods…”

In II Kings 17 we have the record of the ten northern tribes of Israel being carried away captive by Shalmaneser king of Assyria.  It was the Assyrian way to remove a majority of the conquered people and to place Assyrian colonists in the lands they conquered.  When the colonists in this case moved into the land, bad things began to happen to them as the Lord sent lions among them to devour them because they didn’t fear Him.  So the king of Assyria sent one of the priests of Israel back to the land to teach them how they should fear God.  This was basically the blind leading the blind however since when the Israelites had lived there they didn’t live right either.  Before being led away into captivity, the northern tribes had become very idolatrous.  Now this priest has gone back to teach the heathen how to fear God…  Well this passage goes on to indicate that they learned how to ‘fear’ God but they continued to serve their own gods.  The men from Babylon worshiped Succothbenoth, the men of Cuth worshiped Nergal, the men of Hamath served Ashima, the Avites served Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.  This last thing was particularly troubling.  Their worship involved human sacrifice of their own children in order to have a hope of higher status among society ie. “the pride of life”.

“Well what has this got to do with us today?” you might say… My friend here in America we who call ourselves Christians are like these Assyrians.