2013-07-12
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week I was led to write about some of the lessons we should learn from Israel’s past history. The question was raised: Why don’t we learn from these lessons of the past? God has given us plenty of reconnaissance to avoid heartache, but people continue to reject study of the Scriptures, don’t recognize that we should please God by living up to Biblical principles (which should be a major priority), and are blind to the importance of having an active prayer life. These are the things that please God and give us the discernment to avoid this repeated misery from our mistakes. As God’s covenant partners, we need to recognize that we and our Covenant Partner share the same enemies. Let me repeat EZK 6: 9 from last week, so we can pick up where I left off. (God speaking) “Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from Me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices.” Then, the issue was raised about whether or not we worship more modern forms of idols—things like money, power over others, and the like.
Having taught a course on the book of Ezekiel, the picture evoked in EZK 8: 7-10 looms large in my mind while I’ve been writing this devotion. “Then He [the Sovereign Lord] brought me [Ezekiel] to the entrance of the [Jerusalem temple] court. I looked and I saw a hole in the wall. He said to me, ‘Son of man, now dig into the wall.’ So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there. And He said to me, ‘Go in an see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.’ So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.” These were sins of priests charged with the responsibility to leading their nation away from sin! Rationalization of sin, and sin itself are all over this. Only we ourselves can admit to how much sinning as individuals we might be doing right now. God or friends can’t confess it for us. Ezekiel was not alone in being led to write about Israel’s sin. Hosea and others did the same. HO 4: 12-13 is one of God’s prophets who condemns Paganism. “They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God. They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore, your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.” Where are the watchmen; what has happened to them? Is it any wonder that God removed His shekinah glory from the temple? [EZK 10: 18-22].
In sending out the twelve, the Lord Jesus said in reference to more modern towns that reject Him, in MT 10: 15-16, “I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment that for that town. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” There’s important intelligence in this to be sure. Sodom and Gomorrah had less reconnaissance to work with, so they won’t be held as accountable as we would be. Even back in Ezekiel’s day, God was telling us the responsibilities of the watchmen. EZK 33: 12, “Therefore, son of man, say to your countrymen, ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to fall when he turns from it. The righteous man, if he sins, will not be allowed to live because of his former righteousness.” And who are the watchmen today? Every believer in the Lord Jesus! We have been given the advantage of being Christ’s friends and being told all that He knows [JN 15: 13-17]. We have this advice from the Lord through 1 JN 2: 15-17, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father, but from world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
These are uncomfortable words to write-- to think about-- but necessary ones. This writer is included in the audience that needs to read and think about them, just like all of us. As believers in the Lord Jesus, we (like our leaders, teachers, and pastors) are indeed held to a higher standard. That is because God has given us all that we need to gain eternal life, and the ability to make the choices necessary in the face of temptation to gain it, through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. Just as Abraham in the test of his faith didn’t hold back his son, Isaac, as an offering [GN 22: 10], God did not hold back His Son either. God provided Abraham with a substitute offering when the ram was caught by his horns in a thicket [GN 22: 12-13]. And Christ became the perfect sin-sacrifice for all who genuinely profess faith in Him, so we could be justified [RO 4: 3], forgiven [1 JN 1: 9] and gain eternal life.
PRAYER: O Lord, we are here again with heads bowed in utter reverence for You. We recognize the amazing sacrifice You made for us of Your Son, and we don’t want to waste a drop of the blood He shed for us. We stand in awe that You would send Him to hell for three days and then raise Him up to Your side in heaven, so that we could be healed from our sin. What great power and compassion You have! You are our Covenant Partner, Who never lets us down. The consistency and positive goals of Your teaching and that of the Lamb Who was slain for us should not be missed. If we are foolish and still ask why You allow evil to exist, then we will find our answer in GN 50: 20—so early in Your writing through Moses. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” If we think about it, we must recognize that our trials are designed and allowed by you to strengthen our faith. They never go beyond our ability to keep our resolve to be faithful intact [1 COR 10: 13]. During those times, we discover talents and callings to Your service that we didn’t know beforehand we had. And, of course, we develop the strength to carry them out. You, Dearest Abba, are the Center of our lives, our most important Covenant Partner. You deserve our eternal thanks and praise for the love and compassion You show us, for giving our lives purpose, and for Your work in perfecting (purifying) us in preparation for that Day when You will bring us to Your side in heaven. Thank You for giving Your Son on the cross, so that we could access eternal forgiveness for our sins and be involved in the two-way process of sanctification—God’s work and our cooperation with it. We look forward, with eagerness, to that Day when we will be with You eternally [RO 8: 18-19]. These are our heart attitudes and thoughts as we pray, in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m directed next week to write about what sin has done to our present society and what God’s will is for our response to it. In the meanwhile, it is this writer’s hope that each of us will spend time delving (without provoking guilt, which is in itself a sin) into the quality of his faith and the performance of it in his life. The idea here is to uncover subtle sins and overt ones. This is the way we can find ways, with the Lord’s help requested in prayer, to expunge them from our lives. This is indeed the hard work of sanctification—that process in which God directs us in the purification of our souls. There is a goal, reached at the end of this hard, sometimes painful work. It is to do our part in the process that leads to God’s gift of grace to us, our glorification. We can rely on the Lord to do the rest. Making a sanctuary for the Spirit is a part of this process. PS 48: 9, “Our God, here in Your temple we think about Your love.” And yes, God’s temple in each believer is in his body and soul. If the temple isn’t clean or made comfortable for the Holy Spirit, then we should take steps to make it so. PS 63: 1-2, “You, God, are my God. Earnestly I seek You; I thirst for You, my whole being longs for You; in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory.” These utterances are that of a true believer, and they can genuinely be said those of us who are true believers too. And if we will look deeply around us, we will see the Lord’s love and wonderful blessings in our lives. PS 107: 43, “Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.” He gives us hope, inner peace, and love over and over again. And that gives us powerful comfort as our lives are lived on earth with the hope of heaven in God’s perfect time. Praise and thanks be to Him forever!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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