There is nothing like the crackle of a nice warm fire on a cold winters night. There is nothing like the hot glowing embers of charcoal as they turn red indicating they are ready to cook that nice thick T-Bone. Fire is good in the fireplace, red hot charcoal is good in the barbecue. That’s where they belong. I got out my owners manual the other day and was reading it over and I noticed a glaring omission. No where in it does it tell me that I should not take those red hot coals and put them on the ground and walk on them in my bare feet. Shouldn’t there be such a warning? The obvious answer is no. People understand that to walk on hot coals or to take a burning log out of the fireplace and embrace it is to ask for a world of hurt. It would inflict excruciating pain and scars that would last a lifetime. Some truths are indeed self-evident. When it comes to the spiritual realm we find things not quite so cut and dried or self-evident. That is by design, not God’s design but Satan’s. God’s truth is not hard to understand, so Satan has to make us believe either God really doesn’t say what he means or else he didn’t say it in the first place. Remember the Garden of Eden, Satan’s little dig to Eve “Did God really say that?” The attack continues today against the Word of God. The attacks against the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture. The twisting of scripture to make it say what we want it to. Sadly today even in the church few people seem to know what scripture says and of those that do many don’t take it seriously. It gets brushed off with the simple little phrase, “that’s your opinion!” So the Word of God is relegated to the back seat and man takes the wheel and is driving himself to Heartbreak Hotel. Nowhere is this more evident than in the whole matter of morality. Specifically extramarital and premarital sex. Proverbs says can man take fire into his bosom and not be burned, the obvious answer is no. The context is the affair, fornication. Can man violate God’s moral laws and not get burned? NO. We see this in the teen world everywhere. The slogans on and the lifestyles of teens on tv could be summed up like this “say no to drugs and yes to sex”. Satan is destroying our youth not with drugs but with sex. I believe the rampant drug and alcohol abuse we seen in so many teens today and the suicide rates give evidence that the drugs and alcohol are being used to deaden the pain of a guilty conscience. Trying to wipe away the pain of being used and tossed aside like a dirty rag. When man violates God’s laws regarding morality he sins against his own body and something happens inside a person when that happens. Read Proverbs 5-7 and you will see it clearly described. Satan is very clever and he is convincing us the problem is drugs when really drugs is a symptom of the problem. You cannot take fire into your bosom and not be burned. There are a lot of hurting kids out there who have been deceived. But Christ offers forgiveness to those who will come to him. He will wash us and make us clean he will forgive us and set us free. Christ bore our sin , our guilt and our shame on His cross and he says come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. God means what he says in His word. If we ignore it or twist it we are the ones who will pay the price. Satan always takes the wonderful gifts God has given us (sex for example) and tries to get us to believe his ways are better for us than God’s ways. But he is a liar. All those who believe his lies pay a heavy price in this life and unless they repent and turn to Christ they will pay and even greater price when they stand before God one day in judgement. The moral state of the church today not just in youth but across the board is tragic. Divorce, families breaking up, marriages struggling to survive, children confused about morality - why? We have embraced a lie. We have trusted the devil instead of God. We have become wise in or own eyes. I realize books have been written on this and this is a small little paragraph in an ocean of opinions and words. But we need to get back to God’s word and believe it, but even more so we need to obey it. If we know these things happy are we if we do them. Fire is good where it belongs and serves a wonderful purpose but if miss used can bring hurt and pain that can last a lifetime. The same is true of morality. God says sex is for those who are married and in that context it is very good. Misuse it and the hurt can last a lifetime. Examples to support this are to numerous to mention. Take the high road, God’s road, the narrow road when it comes to morality and you will be blessed by God. Yes, the world will mock but they do not know why they stumble, they are the blind leading the blind. So trust and obey and you will know God’s blessing because he always says what he means, and means what he says. This truth needs to once again become self-evident in the church of Jesus Christ.
Friday, October 1, 2010
"Playing with Fire"
There is nothing like the crackle of a nice warm fire on a cold winters night. There is nothing like the hot glowing embers of charcoal as they turn red indicating they are ready to cook that nice thick T-Bone. Fire is good in the fireplace, red hot charcoal is good in the barbecue. That’s where they belong. I got out my owners manual the other day and was reading it over and I noticed a glaring omission. No where in it does it tell me that I should not take those red hot coals and put them on the ground and walk on them in my bare feet. Shouldn’t there be such a warning? The obvious answer is no. People understand that to walk on hot coals or to take a burning log out of the fireplace and embrace it is to ask for a world of hurt. It would inflict excruciating pain and scars that would last a lifetime. Some truths are indeed self-evident. When it comes to the spiritual realm we find things not quite so cut and dried or self-evident. That is by design, not God’s design but Satan’s. God’s truth is not hard to understand, so Satan has to make us believe either God really doesn’t say what he means or else he didn’t say it in the first place. Remember the Garden of Eden, Satan’s little dig to Eve “Did God really say that?” The attack continues today against the Word of God. The attacks against the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture. The twisting of scripture to make it say what we want it to. Sadly today even in the church few people seem to know what scripture says and of those that do many don’t take it seriously. It gets brushed off with the simple little phrase, “that’s your opinion!” So the Word of God is relegated to the back seat and man takes the wheel and is driving himself to Heartbreak Hotel. Nowhere is this more evident than in the whole matter of morality. Specifically extramarital and premarital sex. Proverbs says can man take fire into his bosom and not be burned, the obvious answer is no. The context is the affair, fornication. Can man violate God’s moral laws and not get burned? NO. We see this in the teen world everywhere. The slogans on and the lifestyles of teens on tv could be summed up like this “say no to drugs and yes to sex”. Satan is destroying our youth not with drugs but with sex. I believe the rampant drug and alcohol abuse we seen in so many teens today and the suicide rates give evidence that the drugs and alcohol are being used to deaden the pain of a guilty conscience. Trying to wipe away the pain of being used and tossed aside like a dirty rag. When man violates God’s laws regarding morality he sins against his own body and something happens inside a person when that happens. Read Proverbs 5-7 and you will see it clearly described. Satan is very clever and he is convincing us the problem is drugs when really drugs is a symptom of the problem. You cannot take fire into your bosom and not be burned. There are a lot of hurting kids out there who have been deceived. But Christ offers forgiveness to those who will come to him. He will wash us and make us clean he will forgive us and set us free. Christ bore our sin , our guilt and our shame on His cross and he says come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. God means what he says in His word. If we ignore it or twist it we are the ones who will pay the price. Satan always takes the wonderful gifts God has given us (sex for example) and tries to get us to believe his ways are better for us than God’s ways. But he is a liar. All those who believe his lies pay a heavy price in this life and unless they repent and turn to Christ they will pay and even greater price when they stand before God one day in judgement. The moral state of the church today not just in youth but across the board is tragic. Divorce, families breaking up, marriages struggling to survive, children confused about morality - why? We have embraced a lie. We have trusted the devil instead of God. We have become wise in or own eyes. I realize books have been written on this and this is a small little paragraph in an ocean of opinions and words. But we need to get back to God’s word and believe it, but even more so we need to obey it. If we know these things happy are we if we do them. Fire is good where it belongs and serves a wonderful purpose but if miss used can bring hurt and pain that can last a lifetime. The same is true of morality. God says sex is for those who are married and in that context it is very good. Misuse it and the hurt can last a lifetime. Examples to support this are to numerous to mention. Take the high road, God’s road, the narrow road when it comes to morality and you will be blessed by God. Yes, the world will mock but they do not know why they stumble, they are the blind leading the blind. So trust and obey and you will know God’s blessing because he always says what he means, and means what he says. This truth needs to once again become self-evident in the church of Jesus Christ.
"No Oxen, No Problem"
Proverbs 14:4 “where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” This has been a verse that has intrigued me for a long time. It is hard to grasp the meaning at first especially in our industrialized culture where machines do all the work for us. The statement basically says no oxen, no mess. No oxen, no problems. However in that culture it meant far more. No oxen, no food. No oxen, no income. Oxen were used to till the land and prepare crops to eat as well as to sell. Yes, you have a very clean barn but you look like you haven’t eaten in a while. I think this verse is forcing us to ask ourselves a question. What is more important - a clean barn or abundant crops? We have to make a choice because we can’t have both. Maybe another way of saying it might be...
Would you rather have a
Problem free life or a productive life
Easy life or effective life
Safe life or a surrendered life
Fun life or a fulfilled life
Self serving life or serving others life
Loving self life or loving others life
Yes we can live our lives with clean mangers and no oxen. It is a nice, safe, easy, self-serving kind of life with few problems, but it is also a barren life. Something is missing. That something is loving others. Loving others means getting involved, serving others, using the gifts God has given us to touch the lives of other people. Yes, getting involved with people can get messy. It would be far easier just to back off and admire the clean mangers, (avoid all the problems) but that is not the life God calls his people to live. To serve, to roll up our sleeves and get involved in witnessing, helping, using our gifts is going to cost us something. It is going to mean we have to clean out the stalls when we’re done. It means we are going to get hurt sometimes and be frustrated, but it also means we are going to have the joy of seeing abundant crops as God works through us to touch others. When our lives become more and more self-centered, the goal becomes simply to avoid problems and therefore avoid people. “Don’t get involved”, “let someone else do it” is the motto most in our society adhere to but sadly it is even being embraced in churches across North America. Many people take their talent or gift and bury it and then bring it to the Savior to show him how clean it is and wonder why he is not impressed. They were not willing to work, to take risks, to care, they just wanted life to be easy, fun and above all to be safe. How about you? Have you let the oxen go and made your life’s work to just keep the manger clean. I”m not getting involved anymore. When it is all said and done a clean manger means an empty life. So buy some oxen, role up your sleeves and say “Lord, what do you want to do with me?” Abundant crops come by way of the ox. When we learn this we will stop complaining about the mess they make, and start being thankful for opportunities God gives us to show His love to others. So what is more important to you - a clean barn or abundant crops? A problem free life or a productive life? We have to make a choice because we can’t have both.
“And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done WITH them,…” Acts 14:27
God what do You want to do WITH me?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
