2002-01-01
Good Morning Treasured Friends,
As the Spirit continues to reveal why truth matters in our confrontations with the devil and his followers, we begin to see two main lifestyle choices emerging. This illuminates a basic conflict that is going on between God-centered and world-centered belief systems. Of course, there are many variations within each group, but that is the basic picture. From a spiritual point of view, God has addressed himself through Paul in describing the world-centered belief system in EPH 2: 1-2. “In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. At that time you followed the world’s evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God.” Anyone who has taken the time to study the Scriptures knows that these people are led entirely by the appetites of their flesh. In today’s world, that means they are materialistic, gluttonous, greedy, unethical, and so on. These sins are discussed in many places all over the Scriptures, and have caused a great deal of pain, sorrow, and heartache. The old trite cliché, “you can’t buy happiness,” is really true. But the devil would like you to think so and is very eloquent and effective in pulling a person into his evil. If he weren’t, he wouldn’t be the problem to the believing community that he is.
I felt the urging of the Spirit to go back as far as I could in the Torah [first five books of Moses] to look at God’s earliest comments on the problem of idolatry. EX 17: 5, “Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate Me and on their descendants to the third and fourth generation.” That’s part of the Ten Commandments. EX 22: 20, “Condemn to death anyone who offers sacrifices to any god except to Me, the Lord.” Does this seem too harsh? If we consider the consequences of this sin and how easy it is to spread amongst the population, we might rethink our immediate desire to be lenient.
Now let’s look at DT 17: 2-7 to see further discussion of the penalty for this sin. “Suppose you hear that in one of your towns some man or woman has sinned against the Lord and broken his covenant by worshipping and serving other gods or the sun or the moon or the stars, contrary to the Lord’s command. If you hear such a report, then investigate it thoroughly. If it is true that this evil thing has happened in Israel, then take that person outside the town and stone him to death. However, he may be put to death only if two or more witnesses testify against him; he is not to be put to death if there is only one witness. The witnesses are to throw the first stones, and the rest of the people are to stone that person; in this way you will get rid of this evil.” Once again, you may think that this punishment is too harsh. But, remember why God established Israel in the first place. It was to set apart the descendants of Abraham through Isaac to believe in Him and Him alone. How can our Abba be a righteous God, if He allows His most important teaching to not be enforced? Not doing so, makes a hypocrite out of God! We must also remember that Israel, like the Body of Christ, is a covenant people. Any covenant made with God is a sacred and serious matter. Breaking one of the principle tenants of the Covenant of the Law [or the Covenant of Grace] is not to be taken lightly. This same disobedience eventually prompted God to punish Israel in her history with two dyasporas [scattering and temporary loss of nationhood]. Remember how Solomon died, punished for intermarrying with pagans, and what led to Saul’s demise for consulting a medium toward the end of his life [1K 11; 1 SAM 28: 3-19]?
In today’s world, the problem still exists. Reading one’s horoscope each morning in the paper seems like a harmless source of entertainment, and that’s exactly what Satan would want us to think. The same can be said of celebrating Halloween or attending a New Age church service, which on first inspection is more like going to a rock concert. Some people believe that getting their palms read is fun, and Satan is busily sucking them in to believing that what is read can give them a view of the future or help them change the course of their lives. We have all heard of famous people under enormous stress and public scrutiny who consult astrologers in an effort to work out their problems. This is big in Hollywood, and Satan is loving it. Recently, I was watching TV when a famous person did an ad for a psychic phone line, one of those 900 numbers to call. The claim was that the psychic on the other end can tell you things about your life that you want to know. Some even claim to “connect” you with dead relatives or friends for whom you grieve. Harmless fun; I think not! We must be able to have to the courage of faith to see these so-called harmless pastimes for what they are, Satan’s way of luring us into sin, the very sin that God hates the most-idolatry. Our best defense is discernment from daily time in His word and an active prayer life. God makes it so clear for us, if we will only listen to Him and obey His commands.
PRAYER: O Lord, as Isaiah wrote in IS 55: 8-9, “’My thoughts,’ says the Lord, ‘are not like yours and My ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are My ways and thoughts above yours.” We are not omniscient [all-knowing] as You are and must recognize our great and eternal need for Your wisdom and guidance. David wrote a psalm, inspired by You, about how Your voice can be heard over a storm. PS 29: 1-4, 10-11, “Praise the Lord, you heavenly beings; praise His glory and power. Praise the Lord’s glorious name; bow down before the Holy One when He appears. The voice of the Lord is heard on the seas; the glorious God thunders, and His voice echoes over the ocean. The voice of the Lord is heard in all its might and majesty…The Lord rules over the deep waters; He rules as King forever. The Lord gives strength to His people.” In the sense of Satan’s effectiveness in creating smoke screens, traps for us, and noise designed to keep Your wisdom from us, he fails when we endure in our faith. In PHIL 4: 7 & 13, You inspired Paul to tell us that You are the Source of “peace that goes beyond human understanding” and that “we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us.” These messages tell us that with discernment from obeying Your commands, staying in Your word, and prayer, we can drown out any snags and lies that Satan puts in our path-even ones that seem innocuous to us at first sight. Your righteousness, compassion, wisdom, and supremacy are eternal. You and You alone are our God, and we are Your people. We humbly offer You confession of our sins and pledge to worship, adore, glorify, honor, trust, obey, praise and thank You for Who You are and what You do for us. Your agenda is ours, and we will carefully look for Satan’s snares and refuse to be trapped by them. In Christ’s name, amen.
The Holy Spirit leads me to discuss what we can do if we get involved in astrology or other sinful habits in tomorrow’s message. We must remember that God knew all along that Satan would do evil on earth for awhile. Out of His righteousness and love for us, He gave His only Son as the perfect sin-sacrifice on the cross to give us a way out. To help us find that way, He also gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit to direct, correct, encourage, and guide us out of the pitfalls Satan places in our path. The light of Christ shines and won’t ever be extinguished, because our Abba loves us that much. In turn, we must have the willingness to endure in our faith, even if we must suffer at times. Nothing on earth is more worth this effort. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn