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Wrong Seal!

Are You Sealed?

Ezekiel 7-10

Ezekiel and Revelation share a number of images and prophecy.  In today’s reading what really stood out to me was this:

Ezekiel 9:4

“And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.”

Does that passage remind you of any other passage in the Bible?

Take a look at this:

I’ve always been fascinated by end time prophecy.  I remember reading the “Left Behind” series of novels which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Now guys, I’m not sure it is solid theology, but I enjoyed the fictional imagining of the last days.  (The view fictionalized in these novels is pretribulation, premillennial eschatology – if you just understood what I wrote there could you please explain it to me?)

I was particularly moved by the twelfth book of the series, “Glorious Appearing”,  in which Christ returns.  I don’t know that it was necessarily the skill of the authors that moved me as much as simply picturing my Savior’s return.  Can you imagine?  Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord!!!  I am still moved by the thought of it.

Those novels address the issue of the mark of the children of God.  Just as those that follow after the beast will have his mark, the followers of Christ will carry His.  Many have wondered what these marks might look like.  The Left Behind guys had the saints marked with a cross on their forehead that only other Christians could see.

I don’t know if you saw the movie “The Omen”.  It was first released in 1976 and stared Gregory Peck and Lee Remick.  That movie scared the tar out of me!  It was a story about the birth and initial rise of the anti-christ.  At any rate, the beastie boy had three sixes on the back of his head.  We discover this when someone pulls back the child’s hair while he is sleeping.  It didn’t go well for the hair puller after that by the way.

Creepy side bar here.  I remember reading the book “The Omen” back in the early 80’s.  The name of the anti-christ character was Damien Thorn.  Shortly thereafter I was watching the ending credits of a movie, the name of which is now long lost to memory.  Often these credits will include the name of the producing or distributing company.  The name of one of these companies was “Thorn Industries”; only mildly creepy.  Shortly after that, however, I was reading about the head of the European Common Market coming to Canada.

Now many of you may not have followed some of the end time theories out there but at one time it was thought that maybe the anti-christ would be the head of the European Common Market, otherwise known as the EU.  This idea came from the fact that at the time the EU had ten member countries and that Revelation stated the anti-christ would be head of a renewed Rome.  The Roman Empire at one time had 10 administrative divisions.  Get it; ten horns, ten countries?  Yep, it’s a stretch.  Anyway, I was reading in the paper that the head of the EU was to visit Canada.  Can you guess his name?  I promise you this is the truth.  The paper said his name was Damien Thorn!  If I’m lie’n,  I’m die’n!  Gives me the creeps just thinking about it!

Was that guy the anti-christ?  If he was he didn’t make much of a splash.  It is fun to try and figure out how the end times will play out but I think it is important to remember that it isn’t a game and that we won’t know the time until it is upon us.  As I read Ezekiel 9:4 it occurred to me that the mark was for those who sighed and groaned over abominations before God.  The mark was on their forehead.  Guys, is it just possible that the mark we are to receive on our foreheads is a right attitude toward God?

In my moments of being in right attitude toward God, others have come up to me and in various ways basically told me that they could see Jesus in me.  I can never hope for a greater compliment than that.  Is that the mark; the seal?  It certainly seems to be a prerequisite at the least.

Brothers, judgment is coming.  The elect will be drawn to those that reflect the light of Jesus Christ; the lost will be repelled by it.  Let the heart of Christ reign within you so that His light will shine before men and draw them to salvation.  You are indeed sealed with the mind of Christ!

Have a Christ-like day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

Are you a Watchman?

Ezekiel 3-6

Perhaps it’s just me.  Perhaps I am the only one among us, reading through the Bible together, who is hearing God’s call to love the lost; to take His message to His people.  Pastor Jim Cross has been giving a series of sermons on the issue of “election”.  Election is a concept scattered throughout Scripture that states that God has “chosen” those that will be saved.  I’ve put that as coarsely as I could for a reason.

We have a hard time accepting a God who doesn’t intend to save everyone.  For some reason we think that is unfair.  Look at what Paul has to say about this issue:

Romans 9:14-24

“What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!  For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”  But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”  Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?  What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”

Men, since the fall of Adam and Eve, the true desire of every human heart has been to be god.  This means that every one of us deserves destruction.  There is no one who deserves salvation; BUT God, in His mercy, has saved some of the undeserving for Himself.  He made each of us, and He knew before He created us which of us would respond to the light; which of us would be obedient; which of us would be His children.  Jesus is the light of the world and He came to call the children of light home.  The children of darkness will flee before His piercing light; the children of God will be drawn to the light.

Christ has ascended into heaven but having placed His light within the hearts of His followers He has sent them to pass that light to the rest of the elect.  You see, you can be a member of the elect and not know it.  You can be a member of the elect and be angry and hateful toward Christians.  I remind you of Paul himself who was personally responsible for the death of many saints.  You and I cannot know who is a member of the elect and who is not.  We have not been given the luxury of being told beforehand to whom we should take the Gospel; just that we must take it to a lost and dying world.  Whether those that hear the proclamation of the Gospel respond or not is God’s business; ours is to do shine the light.  Listen to this from our reading today:

Ezekiel 3:10-11

“Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.  And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”

Brother, have you received the Word of God in your heart?  Will you not go to your people, the “elect”, to speak to them and say “Thus says the Lord God”?  Will you not go whether they hear or refuse to hear?  No?  It would be a mistake to refuse God.

Ezekiel 3:17-21

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.  If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.  Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.”

Here God is telling Ezekiel to be a watchman, to warn the lost and the back-slider.  He holds the sinner responsible for the sin but Ezekiel for the warning.  Now you may well say to me that God was speaking to a specific person, Ezekiel, about a specific people, Jews, in a specific time and place, about 537 B.C. in Babylon.  All of that is true, of course, but can you really sit there and tell me that this does not apply to you and me today?  If God felt that way about warning the lost and back-slider then, why would He feel differently today?  If you are His child He sent you to be a watchman as well.

Matthew 28:18-20

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

He is speaking to you.  Will you go?  Will you warn the lost?  You do not have to go far.  You are surrounded by the lost.  Will you be a watchman?  All you must do is shine the light of Jesus Christ.  Speak the truth of the Gospel and the elect will be drawn to it; the others will be repelled.  So be it.  He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and compassion on whom He will have compassion.

May the Lord find you faithful!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

Ezekiel, Jeremiah, And Daniel

Lamentations 4 – Ezekiel 2

Sorry guys.  I know I lean on J. Vernon McGee a great deal but I just find his commentary so very helpful.  I’m finding that the case with the introduction to Ezekiel as well.  I feel what he has to say about this book would be of greater interest to you than my comments so, once again, I’m going to hand the post over to him.

McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

“Ezekiel was a priest (Ezek. 1:3), but he never served in that office because he was taken captive to Babylon during the reign of Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:10–16), who was the king of Judah who followed Jehoiakim. It was during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim that the first deportation took place when Daniel was taken captive. Jehoiachin then came to the throne and reigned only three months. In 597 b.c. the second deportation took place, and Ezekiel was taken captive.

Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah and Daniel. Jeremiah was an old man at this time. He had begun his ministry as a young man during the reign of young King Josiah. He had remained with the remnant in the land and then was taken by them down into Egypt. Therefore his ministry at this time was confined to the remnant in Egypt. Daniel had been taken into the court of the king of Babylon and had become his prime minister. Ezekiel, then, was with the captives who had been brought down to the rivers of Babylon. The captives had been placed by the great canal that came off the River Euphrates, which was several miles from Babylon itself. Ezekiel’s ministry was among those people…

…Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel were all prophets, but each had a particular and peculiar ministry to a certain group of people, and apparently they never came into contact with each other. From the record in the Book of Daniel you would not gather that Daniel ever visited his people in Babylon where Ezekiel was; yet he had a great concern for them and he actually defended them. But did Daniel and Jeremiah know each other? Well, we know from his book that Daniel was acquainted with the prophecies of Jeremiah. I have a notion that as a young man in his teens he listened to Jeremiah in Jerusalem. Ezekiel also was a young man when he was taken captive, and he too had probably heard Jeremiah, but had no personal acquaintance with Daniel.

The message of Ezekiel is the most spiritual of all the prophets because he dealt particularly with the Person of God. Someone has said, “Ezekiel is the prophet of the Spirit, as Isaiah is the prophet of the Son, and Jeremiah the prophet of the Father.”

During the first years of the captivity the false prophets were still saying that the people were going to return to Jerusalem and that the city would not be destroyed. The city was not destroyed even at the time of the second deportation. It was not until about 586 b.c., when Nebuchadnezzar came against the city the third time, that he burned and destroyed Jerusalem. Therefore for a period of about ten years, these false prophets were saying that the people would return and the city would not be destroyed. Jeremiah had sent a message to Babylon saying the city would be destroyed, and Ezekiel confirmed his message. He warned the people that they must turn to God before they could return to Jerusalem. When the time came, a very small remnant did turn to God, and they returned to Jerusalem very discouraged.

Ezekiel began his ministry five years after he was taken captive at about the age of thirty. In many ways, he spoke in the darkest days of the nation. He stood at the bottom of a valley in the darkest corner. He had to meet the false hope given by the false prophets and the indifference and despondency begotten in the days of sin and disaster. The people would not listen to his message. Therefore, he resorted to a new method. Instead of speaking in parables, as the Lord Jesus did, he acted out the parables. He actually did some very interesting stunts. We read in Ezekiel 24:24, “Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord God.” The people would not listen to his words, so he would act them out, and he attracted a great deal of attention that way.

We have folk who use this very same method today. We have placard carriers, flagpole sitters, and walkathons. People do these things to attract attention and gain publicity. This, too, was Ezekiel’s method. One time he walked into a house, locked himself in, and then started digging himself out. When he came out, he came out in the middle of the street! Here in Pasadena, California, it is nothing new to be digging in the middle of the street, for the city workers keep digging up the streets all the time. But in Ezekiel’s time, when a man came up out of the middle of the street one day, people naturally gathered around and said, “What’s the big idea?” Ezekiel had a message for them, and he gave it to them (see Ezek. 12:8–16).

Ezekiel is the prophet of the glory of the Lord. There were three prophets of Israel who spoke when they were out of the land. They are Ezekiel, Daniel, and John (who wrote from the island of Patmos). All three of these men wrote what is called an apocalypse. They all used highly symbolic language; yet they saw the brightest light and held the highest hope of all the prophets. Ezekiel saw the Shekinah glory of the Lord leave Solomon’s temple, but he also saw the return of the glory of the Lord which was projected into the future and will come to pass during the kingdom age, or the Millennium.

The meaning of Ezekiel is seen in this coming of the glory during the kingdom age. Ezekiel looked beyond the sufferings of Christ to the glory that should follow. As Peter said of the prophets, they saw the sufferings and they saw the glory that would follow (1 Pet. 1:11). I think Ezekiel saw it better than any of the other prophets.”

Outline

I. Glory of the Lord; Commission of the Prophets, Chapters 1–7

A.  Display of the Glory, Chapter 1

B.  Prophet’s Call and Endowment with Power for the Office, Chapter 2

C.  Prophet’s Preparation; Office as Watchman, Chapter 3

D.  Judgment of Jerusalem, Chapter 4

E.   Sign of Prophet Shaving Hair, Chapter 5

F.   Sword to Fall Upon Jerusalem; Remnant to be Saved, Chapter 6

G.  Prophecy of Final Destruction of Jerusalem, Chapter 7

II.  Glory of the Lord; Complete Captivity of Jerusalem and Israel; Departure of the Glory, Chapters 8–24

A.  Vision of the Glory; Temple Defilement by Idolatry Explains its Destruction, Chapter 8

B.  Shekinah Glory Prepares to Leave Temple, Chapter 9

C.  Shekinah Glory Fills Holy Place; Leaves the Temple, Chapter 10

D.  Prophecy Against Rulers of Jerusalem, Chapter 11

E.   Ezekiel Enacts Destruction of Jerusalem, Chapter 12

F.   Prophecy Against Pseudo Prophets and Prophetesses, Chapter 13

G.  Prophecy Against Idolatry of Elders; Certain Destruction of Jerusalem, Chapter 14

H.  Vision of the Vine, Chapter 15

I.    Jerusalem Likened to Abandoned Baby Adopted by God, Chapter 16

J.   Riddle of Two Eagles, Chapter 17

K.  Wages of Sin is Death, Chapter 18

L.   Elegy of Jehovah over Princes of Israel, Chapter 19

M. Review of Sins of Nation; Future Judgment and Restoration, Chapter 20

N.  King of Babylon to Remove Last King of Davidic Line Until Messiah Comes, Chapter 21

O.  Review of Abominations of Jerusalem, Chapter 22

P.   Parable of Two Sisters (Samaria and Jerusalem), Chapter 23

Q.  Parable of Boiling Pot, Chapter 24

III.  Glory of the Lord; Judgment of Nations, Chapters 25–32

A.  Against Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia, Chapter 25

B.  Against Tyre, Chapters 26–28

C.  Against Egypt, Chapters 29–32

IV.  Glory of the Lord and the Coming Kingdom, Chapters 33–48

A.  Recommission of the Prophet, Chapters 33–34

B.  Restoration of Israel, Chapters 35–36

C.  Resurrection of Israel, Chapter 37

D.  Repudiation of Gog and Magog, Chapters 38–39

E.   Rebuilt Temple, Chapters 40–42

F.   Return of the Glory of the Lord, Chapters 43–48

Even though God would punish the people of Judah, He never stopped calling for them to repent and return to Him; not before punishment and not after.  His love never fails!  That’s what I have taken from the writings of these prophets.  What are you getting from them?

Have a blessed day brothers.

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

Do You Care?

Lamentations 1-3

Okay now, don’t blink!  We will do Lamentations today and part of tomorrow.  That’s it.  If you think that is fast, however, just wait until we get to some of the books toward the end of the New Testament!

Do you wonder whose lamentations we are reading?  They are Jeremiah’s.  That is why Lamentations is placed after Jeremiah in our Bible.  I read what old J. Vernon McGee had to say about this book and I liked it so much I’ve decided to let him provide our post today.

McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

“Jeremiah began his ministry during the reign of Josiah. Both he and Josiah were young men, and they were evidently friends. It was Josiah who led the last revival in Judah. It was a revival in which a great many hearts were touched, but on the whole it proved to be largely a surface movement. Josiah met his untimely death in the battle at Megiddo against Pharaoh-nechoh, a battle that Josiah never should have been in. Jeremiah, however, continued his prophetic ministry during the reigns of the four wretched kings who followed Josiah: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. His was a harsh message as he attempted to call his people and his nation back to God, but he was never able to deter the downward course of Judah. He witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem; and as he saw it burn, he sat down in the warm ashes, hot tears coursing down his cheeks.

The Book of Lamentations is composed of five chapters, and each chapter is an elegy, almost a funeral dirge. These elegies are sad beyond description. In them we see Jeremiah as he stood over Jerusalem weeping. This book is filled with tears and sorrow. It is a paean of pain, a poem of pity, a proverb of pathos. It is a hymn of heartbreak, a psalm of sadness, a symphony of sorrow, and a story of sifting. Lamentations is the wailing wall of the Bible.

Lamentations moves us into the very heart of Jeremiah. He gave a message from God that actually broke his heart. How tragic and wretched he was. If you were to pour his tears into a test tube to analyze them from a scientific viewpoint and determine how much sodium chloride, or salt, they contained, you still would not know the sorrow and the heartbreak of this man. He has been called the prophet of the broken heart. His was a life filled with pathos and pity. His sobbing was a solo. Ella Wheeler Wilcox has written a piece of doggerel that goes like this:

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone:
For this sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But it has trouble enough of its own.”Tears are generally conceded to be a sign of weakness, crying is effeminate, and bawling is for babies. Years ago when I was pastor of a church here in Pasadena where I still live, the playground for our summer Bible school was right outside my study window. One little boy brought his even younger sister, and it was interesting to watch how he hovered over her and watched after her. Neither one of them was very big. But one day she fell on the asphalt and scratched up her knee. She began to cry, as a little child would. He tried to give her a sales talk in order to quiet her down. Oh, she shouldn’t cry, he said, only women cry. Well, I don’t know what he thought she was, but nevertheless it worked, and she stopped crying.

This man Jeremiah had a woman’s heart. He was sensitive. He was sincere. He was sympathetic. He was as tender as a mother. Yet he gave the strongest and harshest message in the Bible: he announced the destruction of Jerusalem, and he pronounced judgment, counseling the people to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar. His message did nothing but get him into all kinds of trouble.

Now what kind of a man would you have chosen to deliver such a rough, brutal, tough message as that? Would you have wanted Attila the Hun or a Hitler or a Mussolini? Of one thing I am sure: none of us would send Casper Milquetoast to give the message! But God did choose such a man, a man with a tender heart.

Dr. G. Campbell Morgan tells the story about Dr. Dale of Birmingham who used to say that Dwight L. Moody was the only man who seemed to him to have the right to preach about hell. When someone asked Dr. Dale why he said that, he replied, “Because he always preaches it with tears in his voice.” That is the type of man God wants today. We have too many who are not moved by the message they give.

David Garrick, one of the great Shakespearean actors of the past, told about the day he was walking down the street in London and found a man standing on the corner just yearning over the people. Garrick said, “I stood on the outside of the crowd, but I found myself imperceptibly working myself in, until I stood right under that man, and there came down from his breast hot tears.” He went on to say that there was a woman there, pointing her shaking, withered finger at the man who spoke, and she said, “Sir, I have followed you since you preached this morning at seven o’clock and I have heard you preach five times in the streets of this city, and five times I have been wet with your tears. Why do you weep?” That preacher was George Whitefield, a cross-eyed man who was burlesqued on the English stage and denounced from almost every pulpit in the country. David Garrick went on to say, “I listened to George Whitefield, and as I listened to him I saw his passion and his earnestness. I knew that he meant that without Christ men would die. As I listened to him, he came to the place where he could say nothing more. He reached up those mighty arms, his voice seemed almost like a thunderstorm as he said one final word: ‘Oh!’” Why, he could break an audience with that word! When George Whitefield said “Oh!” men bowed before the Holy Spirit like corn bows under the wind. Garrick went on, “I would give my hand full of golden sovereigns if I could say ‘Oh!’ like George Whitefield. I would be the greatest actor that the world has ever known.” The only difference was that George Whitefield was sincere—he was not acting. Jeremiah was that kind of a preacher also.

I am afraid that we have developed a generation in our day that has no feeling, no compassion for this lost world. There is little concern for getting out the Word of God. There is little attention given to moral fiber or a high sense of duty.

Several years ago in a Reader’s Digest article, young people were counseled that their highest chances of success in life would be found “by engaging in work you most enjoy doing, and which gives fullest expression to your abilities and personality.” If Jeremiah had read that article and heeded its advice, he probably would have gone into some other kind of business. But Jeremiah could say that it was the Word of God that he rejoiced in: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts” (Jer. 15:16). How wonderful this man was!

The young people today who have been trained—even many in Christian work—are simply looking for a job where they can punch a clock, go home to watch TV, and forget all about it. They hold their feelings and emotions in reserve and are unwilling to become really involved in getting out the Word of God.”

I read all of that and I had to ask myself one question.  “Do you care?”  Do I care about the destruction coming the way of the lost?  Do I care enough to show sincere compassion?  Do I care enough to deny myself, take up my cross and follow Christ?  How about you?  Do you care?

Have a care-full day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

For The Love Of People

Jeremiah 51-52

Today’s reading continues the prophecies of punishment God would visit upon the nations.  As I read of the destruction that would come upon Babylon I was reminded that for those outside of Christ there is no escape from destruction.  Both Judah and Babylon were punished by God; His children and those who were not His children.  The difference was that His children would be redeemed.  This led me to think about the nation of which I am a citizen, America.  In which category does America belong?  Is it more like Judah or more like Babylon?

You and I are Christians but we live in a lost world.  While Judah was redeemed, the road to this redemption progressed through the destruction of Babylon, the society in which they lived.  Earlier God had told the Babylonian exiles to pray for the Babylonian society since they lived within it (Jeremiah 29:4-7).  It must have been hard to receive ones freedom while watching the destruction of that for which you prayed.  I imagine that if they had really set down roots, as God told them to do, some of them might have fought to preserve Babylon even though God had foretold of its destruction.

In that I see parallels with America.  No, God has not foretold of America specifically being destroyed, but He has foretold of the destruction of all that are not His.  You see, it isn’t really about nations; it’s about people.  America was a country formed by people, most of which had a strong Christian foundation.  Christian values were consistently displayed throughout America’s founding documents, principles and the personal writings of its founders.  I am not simply speaking about the concept of democracy.  That concept pre-dates this republic.  I am speaking of the notion that all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.  It is the idea that God is the dispenser of rights not man.  Never before in the history of human kind has such an argument been made in a founding document of a nation.

When our founders acknowledged that men had rights that came from God they were saying that the new nation would be about people.  Our current president said earlier in his career that the U.S. Constitution was a document of “negative rights”, that it said what the government could not do to you.  His remarks suggested that the document was deficient because it didn’t enumerate what the government could do for you.  Whereas the founders viewed the constitution as reserving all rights for the people, many modern politicians lament that it does not reserve some, if not all, rights for the government (Or should I say politicians ?).

What is my point?  When one acknowledges God, one acknowledges that He is all about people; not nations or stuff, but people.  I bring this up because I was struck by the verses in Jeremiah 52 that described the sacking of the temple in Jerusalem.  The nation of Israel was God’s.  The temple was His abode among His children.  How could He allow it to be destroyed?  How could He allow His dwelling to be destroyed and the various items of worship broken down and carted off as just so much booty?  We don’t know when the Ark of the Covenant was lost but at some point after Solomon the Ark itself, the very presence of God, was lost.

How can God allow this to happen to that which belongs to Him?  It is because God is about the people not the “stuff”.  Everything is His but His priority is redemption.  He loves His people.  He wants His people to be restored to Him, and He is willing to see His temple destroyed and the accoutrement of worship defiled and carried off, if in the process the lost are redeemed.

Brothers, as Christians we often get wrapped up in the stuff of religion.  We get enamored of the building in which we accepted Christ, or saw our children baptized or married.  We can get so wrapped up in the place and stuff or worship that we have little attention left for the lost; the people for whom God is working to redeem, and for whom He is willing to sacrifice all, even His own son.

Do you have the mind of Christ?  Do you have the heart of Christ?  Do you have His Holy Spirit residing in you?  Then you too are willing to sacrifice the trappings of worship for the sake of the lost.  Our focus as followers of Christ is not on America, it isn’t on the church building or style of worship; it is on people, the lost.  For some reason the Lord has put the following verses on my heart:

Philippians 3:7-14

“For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.  But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Let us each consider as loss the “stuff” of worship.  Let our hearts reflect the love of Christ.  Let us focus on people rather than politics.  Let us focus on people rather than the trappings of worship.  While Christ went to the synagogue, His ministry was out amongst the people.  Let us follow Christ.  Let us love people!

May your day be filled with Christ-like love for the lost!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

What Would Jesus Do

Jeremiah 49-50

I’m reading a little book right now given to me by Joy and David Cate entitled “In His Steps” by Charles M. Sheldon.  I believe he wrote this story in 1896.  It evidently has a subtitle which is actually a question and a challenge discussed throughout the book.  That subtitle is “What would Jesus do?”  We’ve heard that question before haven’t we?  It was, for a time in recent history, a rather ubiquitous theme.  Many of us have probably had at one time the bracelet or bumper sticker or t-shirt emblazoned with that question.  The really crazy thing going on in this book however is that some Christians actually take a pledge to live for one year bound by that one question.  They agreed to address every situation, act, and decision based on that question.  Pretty crazy huh?

The author foresaw that living in such a way would cause turmoil in the lives of those that honestly made the attempt.  There is the newspaper man who won’t accept advertising for products like alcohol or print stories that go into ghoulish or unseemly detail; he won’t publish a Sunday edition.  There is the railroad employee who has to turn his company in to the authorities and resign his position because he discovers that his company was breaking the law.  There is the wonderful singer who must decide to turn down a lucrative concert offer because it would put her in an inappropriate position from time to time.

Can you imagine what changes you would have to make in your life if you actually dealt with every issue, act, and decision this way?  I wonder if I would still allow cable television into my home.  That’s just the first thought that jumped into my head.  I’m worried about thinking about his more.  What else might have to go?  Could I end up losing my job?  Could I end up being estranged from people I love?  It is a life changing decision to take such a pledge.

Wait a minute!  Didn’t we already make this decision?  When we accepted Christ didn’t we say that He was now Lord of our life?  Didn’t we make a commitment to follow Him?  How can we follow Him if we don’t make decisions in our life based on what He would do?  Uh oh, this line of thinking is getting out of hand!

Do you know what got me thinking about all of this?  It wasn’t the book “In His Steps” actually.  It was the following verse from today’s reading.

Jeremiah 49:12

“For thus says the Lord: “If those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, will you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you must drink.”

Now this verse is a prophecy against Edom, the descendants of Esau.  It comes in the midst of all the prophecies God is speaking through Jeremiah concerning the punishment of the various kingdoms in the Middle East.  No one is spared.  I looked up this saying, “drink the cup”, in my Logos Bible software and it mentioned the following:

Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1997). The Nelson study Bible : New King James Version. Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.

“In the Old Testament prophetic books, the word [cup] is usually associated with imagery of God’s wrath, such as “the wine cup of fury” or “the cup of horror”.

It goes on to talk about how the cup can also have positive significance but that usage wouldn’t be in keeping with the context of the verse above.  God’s wrath was being poured out on the various kingdoms of the world and Edom would not escape punishment.  What struck me about this verse, however, is my memory of another cup.

Matthew 26:39

“And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

What cup?  The cup of God’s wrath.  Jeremiah 49:12 mentions that some drank of the cup that did not deserve to.  I’m not sure to whom God is speaking in the context of that verse but it sure reminds me of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  You and I deserve the same cup of wrath God promised Edom.  Shall we go unpunished?  We must drink.  Oh, wait a minute.  I forgot someone already drank for us.  That cup Jesus drank was your cup and my cup.  He didn’t deserve it but He drank it for us.  He drank it because it was His Fathers will.

What is God’s will for you?  You were saved by the grace of God; by the self-sacrificing act of Jesus Christ.  Now you say you follow Him.  Do you?  How is that reflected in your life?  I don’t know about you but I know that I will need to take that catchy little tag line “What would Jesus do?” and make it more than a slogan.  I’m going to have to start living it.  I’m going to have to start submitting every thought, word, deed, and decision to that standard.  What about you?

Have a Christ-like day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!