Going Forward

Habakkuk 3:2 (NLT)
"I have heard all about you, LORD . I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy."

I've been occupied with a thought for some time that was magnified even greater by a message I heard from our pastor recently, and it troubles me for those who don't share it.

We see things as we've become accustomed and not necessarily as they are. We exist in a state of "normalcy" in this world that doesn't seem to understand just how corrupt and broken that it really is. The world's standard for comparison to determine it's current state is based on a moving and ever changing platform of acceptable ideas, values and practices,... 

         ...but the standard that will judge the world has never changed.

Even those who work to follow Christ are susceptible to an outlook that's flawed if the standard that they view anything by is different than that of The Ancient Of Days. 

                               How corrupted is our view? 

It's a question well worth asking and one that can only be answered by comparing that view against an ancient, unchanging standard. Even modern Christian theology and doctrine in some cases has a tendency to be kind to itself and to the gradual slide of human behavior and values. But the God who created and established humans will not likely be so understanding. In the end, after all of men's talk and self mediated compromise, God's not likely to accept anything other than what He Himself established as true. There could be a horrific price to pay for man's temporary and fleeting self comfort when the actual day of accounting comes. But yet there are those audacious enough to bet their very lives and even worse, the lives of others, on their own modified, "modern" view of His standards. Our God however doesn't, hasn't and won't ever change and neither will His standards or direction. 

God has said what He's said and nothing changes that, regardless of how many times it's stirred different ways and man attempts to mix other things in. Oil and water do not mix, but the societal standards of mankind's lust and depravity have even infected the standards held by The Church in some places and areas and thwarted the necessary act of repentance. We live in a very dangerous day of self deception if we allow ourselves to judge or allow anything different than what God has said. 

The lack of knowing what God has actually said and a lack of holy, reverent fear of Him seems to be part of the reason that it's so easy for the truth to become perverted in the minds of men. Too many people are willing to rely solely on the words of other imperfect human beings to tell them what God has said allowing for imperfect interpretations and deception. Be also continually mindful that the enemy and his accomplices are feverishly hard at work, while watching their time run out. 

I was about fifteen years old when a wise man of God gave me some advice that has led me until now. In essence it was this - Never let another man tell you what God has said without searching it out for yourself in His Word and asking the Holy Spirit for interpretation. I've attempted to live diligently by his advice and have a reverent fear of being misled - the consequences of which could be more than horrific one day.  

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the days ahead will only be darker. The way forward will be full of potential pitfalls and possible deception. Our best guide to get though it successfully has been handed to us by grace - the record of what our God has truly said and His Spirit to lead us forward. Our grasp and understanding of them both is paramount to our successful navigation of these end days going forward. But we can't use or be protected and comforted by what we don't have - what we neglect and don't utilize. Our only excuse when we stand before the Lord might be that we didn't take and use what He offered and instructed for our safe travel... and what a sad and inexcusable excuse that might be. 

Acts 17:24-31 (NLT) 24“He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.

27“His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.


30“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”

Lord, in your mercy, help us going forward...