Change has become a key word in
American society perhaps more in the past few years than in many
years preceding. People are tired of bloated self-serving
government, the same worn out lies, the same deceptions, the same
lack of hope, the same injustices, the same wickedness and the same
old struggles. In my own humble mind, it's as if America has lost
its' favor with God and as a result, its' people have lost hope. I'm
not necessarily declaring this to be true. But looking at the worlds'
past history, our situation may not be any mystery at all and if so,
neither would the cure be.
History Echoes ...
Not only does history repeat itself,
but it has repeated itself over and over again. The reason? Cause and
effect - our God refuses to change. You might find yourself a little
confused saying "What?". The cause: God's told us (man)
what He'll do if we turn away from Him in an effort to drive us back
to Him and yet we keep focusing on other things and turning away.
Effect: Our God always true to His word does what He's said He'll do.
But not because He's mean spirited and enjoys punishing us. On the
contrary, because He values us so highly and wants us back. Why has
always been something of a mystery to me. But He stubbornly chooses
to continue to love us and desire our love in return. I believe that our nation suffers from a similar fate as that of Israel in the Old Testament and that the answer to correct it's path lies within the reach of His faithful.
I look at us (man) as a whole and have
to wonder why this omnipotent, loving and perfect God chooses to
allow Himself to have patience with such weak, disobedient, and self
centered creatures. That still remains a mystery to me. But the fact
is that He does, and the history of His word shows proof of such
humanly unattainable and purely divine patience. The people of Israel
(Jacob), were chosen by God as a people to be His own special people.
He made Israel an example of how the relationship between our God and
His people worked (I believe an example for all of us).
Israel was given God's law and His
promises of what He would do for them as long as they followed that
law. Now God's ways were in existence before man (God existed before
He created man), so what He gave them was not something new that He
cooked up special for them. The rules were an extension of His own
values, in other words an extension of Himself. Along with those
values, He gave them a method for making atonement when they violated
those rules and offended Him. Violating the rules always cost them
something. But this wasn't because God wanted to get something of
value from them when they broke the rules. It was in the hope that if
breaking the rules resulted in something unpleasant, they wouldn't
continue to break the rules. If their love for Him wasn't enough to
bring about their obedience, then perhaps the cost of disobedience
would. But in either case, He only desired their success in
compliance. But do you understand why?
God gave Israel every inducement and
enticement to follow His commands because He wanted them to succeed.
We having the same God, and as true Christians grafted into the vine,
can easily see that we have the same scenario before us. As long as
Israel followed God's commandments, they prospered and were
successful in everything they did. But when they were unfaithful, God
allowed them to suffer in the hopes that they would come running back
to Him. He would not let creation bless them and they were defeated
and suffered terrible hardships including disease, famine, poverty,
foreign occupation, etc, and their own wickedness was the fruit they
reaped (sounds a little familiar ...).
Our God is righteous, holy and pure and
by His own nature, He detests what is unclean. So He cannot and will
not marry Himself to anything unclean. What He desires from us is a
marriage of spirits, ours with His (why we were created ...). So
however much He loves us, He cannot deny His own nature and align
Himself with something unclean. His commandments in fact are in place
for our benefit to allow us the opportunity to join in relationship
with Him to our awesome benefit. Our noncompliance precludes that
opportunity and defeats our purpose in creation. It also ties our
Lords' hands to bless us. Does a good parent reward their child for
wickedness? Does a lover reward the object of their desire for
unfaithfulness and betrayal? Who is a better Father or a better lover
than our God??? The answer and the cure should be obvious ...
Love Over Duty ...
My heart sinks every time I witness
injustice between men. It breaks my heart when I know that if men
were to follow the heart of our God, things could be so different. I
used to think as I witnessed the world's actions that we must be
living in the most evil times in history. But after deeper
consideration, I realize that there's nothing we could do that hasn't
been done before. For example, our God's temple was desecrated by His
own people while they committed adultery with other gods in the very
house they built to honor Him. Our sins against each other are
horrible enough, but to do these things to a true and loving God in
His own house? I'm not so sure that the evil that exists today is any
worse than what has existed in times past. Man showed his ability to
be wicked early on in history and in fact, what I witness may be only
a greater presence of the same simply because there are more of us in
the world.
Part of the change in my thinking is
due to re-reading the Old Testament with God's heart in mind rather
than with a sense of duty to complete an obligation. Here's the
kicker: the difference in the fruit of this study is very much the
difference between religion and relationship. In religion I read to
merely observe and moreover to complete an obligation of the
practice. But in relationship, I forget about and abandon religion
and I read with a great interest in the experiences and effects of
the worlds' history on my greatest love. I read to learn about Him -
what pleases His heart, what breaks His heart, what He has suffered
and what He rejoices in. These things help me to know how to relate
to Him more intimately and to understand His heart. If I'm truly in
love with Him, these are all things that I need to know. Humans
deeply in love have these aspirations for one another. How much more
should we aspire to know these things of our God?
With my heart tied to His in honest and
true love, I try to understand what He must feel and experience
through the events of His life as revealed to me in the history that
He's made available in His word. As His spirit abides with my own, He
shares His heart with my heart ... and suddenly things begin to make
sense. I begin to feel perhaps only a glimmer of what my God feels,
but the closer I draw to Him the greater the effect as my own heart
bonds more closely to His.
I've become a great believer in the
parallels that exist between this life and the greater truths of
what exists, or should exist, between us and our God. I believe that
He's given these things as examples to us. In marriage between godly
men and women with good hearts, fondness, affection, and love in
general cement increasing bonds between them. In some cases, one can
know what the other is thinking without a word spoken between them
because they've come to know each other so well. This is a parallel
of what God intended to exist between us and Himself. It's an
example, a clue to something much much greater that can exist if we
surrender to it. It's a glimmer of what He desires to share with us -
and the reason He created us. But if our God is the object of our
desire (we know that we are surely His by His word), how much greater
could the pleasure of that relationship be over that between two
humans?
But in a true loving relationship, one
lover feels the pains and the joys of the other and they react
together to these things - they're sharing between them - in
relationship together. While in relationship with our God, reading
the history of the Old Testament with His heart in mind, attempting
to imagine what He feels and desires, can be a heart breaking
experience. There has never been a greater courtship attempted in all
of the worlds' history. There has never ever been a heart so crushed,
so mistreated, so hurt and so abused as His. In spite of it all ...
and still ... He loves us. If your knowledge of what He's suffered
doesn't absolutely break your heart for Him, then I will tell you
that you have a long way to go to know Him and your relationship with
Him suffers because of the ignorance.
Seeing The Forest In Spite Of The Trees
...
If we as a nation, or even as
individuals are out of favor with our Lord as Israel was at times,
then we're already suffering because we've tied the hands of our
desirously benevolent God from releasing His favor on us. But then,
while the hands of Love are tied, destruction may come calling to
pour salt in our open wounds. The hands that bless us are the same
hands that protect us and the enemy of our souls who even defies our
right to exist (he hates us you know), may find us to make matters
worse.
I'm struck by the conviction that like
Israel in the past, the body of Christ is under attack by an outside
enemy. If we want to be victorious, we need to do what the good Kings
of Israel and Judea did and seek Gods face, the source of our
strength for His victory on our behalf. I've watched locally as
various leaders of Christ's Church have been struck along with others
of His body by illness and other afflictions at an increased rate
over the past couple of years. Perhaps it's only that our Lord has
brought it more to my attention. But I see it and I know where it
comes from. I don't claim to have a handle on the reason. Please
don't misunderstand me, I make no assertions as to the reasons why
our Lord would allow it, but I know where it comes from. I've also
become increasingly aware of the demands placed on our time -
requirements, things we must do - distractions. These things
together along with other things that are happening make me
increasingly certain that we need to be paying attention.
I've watched as the faithful go to
their knees in prayer on behalf of their brothers and sisters as we
should do. Our Father is our source for every truly good thing and
for every hope of relief. But seeing the distractions, the demands on
our time and the number and frequency of our troubles, I can't help
but know in my heart that it's by design - a plan, and it's not for
our benefit. So many are in prayer for so many others - and this is
as it should be. But while many are using prayer to seek the Lord's
help to treat the symptoms, we all need to be on our faces before Him honestly willing to follow His direction seeking to remove the source of disease as a whole and our
Lord God holds the answer to our success. We, the body of Christ are
and have been under attack and it's not something we have to put up with. If we
continue to put up with it, it's because we've chosen to accept it
instead of accepting our identity in Christ and rising up to seek
Gods' face with a passion for corrective action to remove the source. We need to be asking the One Who Knows what we must do to remove the oppression of His people and be prepared to deal honestly and wholeheartedly with the answers.
Divide and conquer is the strategy that
comes to mind as part of the plan employed against us and it's
something we surely need to defend against. If we, the members of
Christ's body around the world truly unite in the
spirit of our God and seek His face in sincerity, we'll find the
answers we need to walk in His favor. Not only that, but the world
will see our unity under our God and will come to see Him through His
favor, His ways and His power through our lives as we live to please
Him. We as Christians can unite as a Holy nation of God's people regardless of what countries we live in on earth. We are more than conquerors through Christ and we need to be
walking in that reality. Not in the hopeless and powerless reality of
this world. We are the children of the Living God - the One Power over
all that exists - and He's not of this world ... neither are we. So
don't resign to accepting the identity the world would put on you.
Cling instead to the royal and eternal identity your God has given
you and walk like the holy warriors under Him that you are! One
solitary child of God on their knees seeking His face with a willingness to obediently follow His direction completely has brought defeat to
tens of thousands of armed warriors in the past. Will you be His next
hero?
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