Only Tow Directions

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” (Pr 24:16 AV)

This one is hard to explain.  The Spirit has spoken to my heart to compare the just man and the wicked man.  The just man falls, but rises again.  The wicked falls, and falls again.  In other words, there is no neutral ground.  When one falls, he will either rise back up and learn from it, or he will continue the downward progression of failure.

To put it in a lighter tone, one cannot help but get a little out of hand this time of year with the sweets that are laying around.  Lisa has this snack table set up in the dinning room.  It has all sorts of baked goods, candy, and other snackable items.  The problem is, once you pass that table and grab a Christmas cookie, it doesn’t stop.  Then comes the buckeyes, the hard tack candy, or the ginger-snaps.  Specially if you’re trying to stay on a healthy diet or not spoil one’s dinner, taking one little bite starts one down a spiral that often ends with an upset stomach.   In short, the just man knows when to stop and turn around.  The wicked just keep going until circumstances require one stop.

There is a little of both in us.  I remember when my brother and I tried out smoking.  We stole a pack of my mom’s cigarettes and hid in the tree house.  We didn’t know that you were only supposed to smoke one at a time and perhaps wait a while.  We chain smoked that pack.  We were sicker than a dog!  Then there was the time I tried out drinking.  This was after I accepted Christ.  The LORD didn’t let that get to far until He almost killed me!  If we desire to walk with God, we need to know when to stop and turn around.  Time to rise out of that which is spiraling and out of control!  If we seek to be that just man, then we have to rise above and apart from our sin!  Only two directions to go.  There is no staying neutral!

No Stress Future!

“Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?” (Pr 20:24 AV)

Precisely!  If the LORD controls all things, including our future, then how are we any more in control of it than He allows?  If my goings are already determined by the immutable counsel of an all-knowing God, then how are we inclined to believe we determine our own destiny?  If a sovereign God whose wisdom is, and always will be, beyond our ability to comprehend can plan and put in place those events He chooses to occur in our lives, how are we even entertaining the possibility that we know where we are going or even how we are going to get there?

Yes, our future is a culmination of our choices.  But thing about this for a moment.  All our choices were within a certain structure of limited possibilities.  For instance, I cannot bare a child so a choice to be with child is not a possible choice.  I am not very athletic, so when I pitched little league (and was relatively successful at that age) a choice to pursue a career in baseball was not a realistic one.  Although I was an above average student in grade school, high school, and college, I was not exceptional.  A career in higher education was not my future.  We have choices.  But those choices are limited by the opportunity God allows.

This should actually be a source of great comfort to us!  The plan of God is one with boundaries.  It is one with constraints.  We can take comfort in knowing that we have the ability to screw up our lives but not the ability to screw them up to the complete destruction of God’s sovereign plan.  We can also take comfort that when there are future choices to be made, if we are walking with the LORD, these choices will be limited and in perfect communion with God’s plan for us.  NO STRESS!  I don’t need to know the future.  I don’t need to understand what the LORD is doing.  Only He does!  And He does!

Complete Obedience With a Heart

“And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.” (Eze 43:7 AV)

There are two factors to consider here.  That is, the means by which perfect obedience will be accomplished.  There are two ways in which a guarantee of perfect obedience can be accomplished.  The first is the promise of a rod of iron.  The book of Revelation as well as other places tell us that when Christ comes, the will rule with a rod of iron.  Absolute rule with no compromise.  However, the Old Testament is replete with the promise of a new heart.  The LORD will take away the stoney heart of the Jewish nation and give them a new heart.  This new heart will hate sin!  This new heart will have the free-will desire to walk in obedience to the law of God.  It is this second means which I wish to consider this morning.

If we are saved, then the LORD gave us this new heart.  This new heart desires to comply to the word of God.  We do not walk in obedience nearly as much as we should, but there still is a new part of us that desires to do so.  Paul wrote of this conflict in Romans chapter seven.  We still have to battle the old man.  It is part of our human experience until the day we die.  It reminds me of a cartoon that I saw years ago.  In fact, the same theme was in several.  It plagued Tom (the cat) in Tom & Jerry.  It pestered Foghorn Leghorn.  It manifested itself in the Sheepdog and Coyote.  The There would be episodes wherein one of the characters would have a battle of the heart.  On one shoulder would be an angelic representation of himself while on the other would be a devilish representation.  Both would speak into the ears attempting to lead the individual character down their perspective paths.  Almost always, the devilish character won out.  It was more natural and amusing.

There will come a time when our wicked hearts will be no longer.  There will be a time when there will be no conflict of conscience.  We will always do the right thing because we want to do the right thing!  Just like Israel who will be permanently transformed, those who have trusted in Christ will enjoy the same liberty!  Liberty from this conflict of conscience.  Rid of the evil, wicked, selfish part of us which Christ slew on Calvary’s cross!  Romans chapter six tells us it is dead.  Yet we keep resurrecting it!  One of these days, it will be dead forever!

There is always hope!

“Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.” (Eze 37:11-12 AV)

Just when one thinks that all things are hopeless, it could get worse.  Yet, as bad as it can get, nothing is beyond the God of ‘possible’.  This vision of Ezekiel is calls the vision of the dry bones.  These bones were dry, without flesh, and bleached by the sun.  Beyond any hope of ever coming to life again.  As Ezekiel was instructed to do, he gazed upon these bones.  The LORD built flesh upon those bones.  When they were fully formed men, He breathed the breath of life into those bones.  These bones represented and will represent, the spiritual condition of the nation of Israel prior to the coming of Christ.  If the LORD is able to spiritually resurrect a dead nation that had rejected Christ the first time around, surely, He can resurrect a nation that once was the center of Christianity!

Our churches have tried promotions and programs.  We have tried one new cutting-edge idea after another.  What we have never consistently used in the furtherance of the gospel is faith!  Ezekiel, and by extension Israel, are asked to do is believe that in the driest and deadest of all conditions, God can and will resurrect His people!  We have to have an enthusiastic faith that shows to the world there is life!  We are not dead!  God can turn around the absolutely impossible!  Think about it!  Science can 3D print inanimate objects.  It can create simulated life.  What it can never do is create life from nothing.  This is and always will be an only God thing!  Several years ago, my son and I came across human remains while hunting in the woods.  There were bleach white.  The poor soul’s clothes including his sneakers were still there.  It was as if he simply laid down to take a nap and expired.  I remember the bleach white condition of his remains.  What a sight it would have been had the LORD resurrected this poor fellow back to a condition better than he ever was before!

If God can do this with Israel, surely, He can do this with a life or a church!  We just have to see the possibility!  We just have to see the God of the impossible doing the impossible!  There is hope as long as the LORD lives!  And He always will!

Private Thoughts are Not Private

“And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, [every one of] them.” (Eze 11:5 AV)

We use the term “private thoughts” in many different ways.  We describe a journal as a record of our private thoughts.  These thoughts are to be honored and not revealed.  Some times we talk to ourselves and when asked what we said, we respond they were just private thoughts.  To discover another’s private thoughts are to violate the individual him or herself.  There is an implied liberty in private thoughts.  The right to have thoughts one probably shouldn’t have yet we feel entitled to express them in a private manner just because we have them.  With the LORD, there are no private thoughts.  Every thought, feeling, and attitude are known to the God who knows all!

As a child, I never really got into the whole ‘journal’ thing.  I may have tried it once.  Perhaps a few pages of a diary.  But after a few weeks, it got to be more of a chore than anything else.  And besides, once the expression was made and there were no more feelings to record, things began to be made up.  Or, worse, we accessed the deepest and darkest part of our heart and manufactured thoughts and feelings that were not there to begin with!  If we would consider that this diary will be found and read by everyone with whom we had an issue, the diary would never have been written.

Now, consider the LORD!  He knows all our thoughts!  Whatever enters our minds, He is aware of!  Every thought of impurity, guile, envy, jealousy, malice, or unholiness; God knows it all!  Even if we entertain sin, yet never act upon it, God still knows.  That diary is open as it is being written!  This is why Paul tells us to bring every thought into captivity!  Just remember, God knows!  And, God remembers!

God's Simple Gifts

“Better [is] little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.” (Pr 15:16 AV)

An important verse at this time of year!  It amazes me the transformation of Christmas from a sacred holiday to a material one!  It used to be the Charlie Brown Christmas was the Christmas special everyone watched.  Now, Santa Claus is the focus of every house.  Even in those professing their love for Christ!  Go figure!

We were watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” last night and the opening five or ten minutes perfectly illustrates what we have all become.  Christ is not even mentioned in that whole film!  Growing up, we didn’t have much.  My parents did a saintly job of providing all they could for their large family.  We may not have had all that we wanted.  But there was no lack of all that we needed.  And is come ways, I think we were more blessed and content because of it.  When it came to Christmas, my parents went out of their way to remind us of the sacredness of the holiday.  Many believe the advent wreath is a Catholic tradition, but it actually started in the 15^th century among German Lutherans.  There are four weeks of lighting candles and scripture readings.  These readings emphasized the sinful condition of man and the need of a redeemer.  Interspersed was other passages regarding the promises and prophesies of the coming of Christ and the actual Christmas event as recorded in Luke.  For four weeks, our minds were not on toys and gifts, but on Jesus Christ as our redeemer.  Our practice was that church came first.  On Christmas morning, we would all get dressed and got off to church.   Then, after we uncovered Baby Jesus in the manger scene and Dad said a prayer, we got to the gifts.

What we have done is made Christ of less value than any item we may ever receive.  As a child, we would get come chocolate and apples in our stockings.  Today, some stocking stuffers are more than what is under the tree.  When we did get to the tree, we would have three gifts.  One from each grandparent and one for our parents.  That was it.  Those were the good times.  What we did have was ten brothers and sisters to play with and share gifts.  What we did have is imagination.  What we did have is a thankful heart that God was the center of our tradition and holiday and not some gift that would eventually be discarded.  We are truly blessed no matter what is under the tree!

Turn Aside To See

“Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.” (La 2:11 AV)

What Jeremiah saw in the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion disturbed him greatly.  It affected him physically.  It made him sick to see the result of chastisement from the LORD.  Surely, we would think that placed in the same set of circumstances, we would react the same way.  Yet, it might not be the case.  Let me explain.

We are inundated with news of tragedy.  No matter how large or how small, the news attempts to tug at our heart strings over misfortune.  We feed off it.  We want to feel what others are feeling.  The problem with a constant exposer to tragedy is we become a little calloused towards it.  We see images of war from fields afar with all the blood and gore allowed by the FCC.  We learn of a terrorist taking advantage of a situation where others are hurt or a mass shooting in a state halfway around the nation.  We read of impaired drivers losing control of their vehicles only to take another’s life.  There are police reports which appear weekly telling us of substance abuse, theft, and worse of all, child neglect or abuse.  There is tragedy upon tragedy.  It is the new norm.  So, when we see our own saints go down with life altering choices, how stirred are we at their situation?  Yes, there is little we can do if they do not want our help.  But there is prayer!  There is a kind word or a text that might encourage.  There is a simple touch that lets them know they are not forgotten and they are loved.

Our tear ducts have dried up.  We can hold our meal down.  We are more interested in the score of our favorite sports team then we are the unfortunate situation of our fellow believer who has fallen off the grid.  We are so preoccupied with our own family we forget the situation of another’s all it takes is what the good Samaritan did.  He turned aside to see!  He stopped and looked!  He allowed it to bother him!