Showing posts with label On Bended Knee. Show all posts

Sorry for the utter lack of posts lately, unfortunately I am still without a computer. I was hoping that after having started my new job, my family would be back on our feet and able to purchase a fancy new laptop so that I could get crackin' on some new blogs, but alas, the bills have piled up substantially high, and it seems as if it will be quite some time before my dreams of a Mac actually sitting on my lap, as to aid me in writing countless, new, and intriguing blogs is still yet far off. Today, my new job has me sitting at a bank as to answer questions about a new ATM that has been installed, since questions have been few and far between, and considering that the bank provided me with a computer to surf the net in my downtown, I figured I would take this opportunity to throw out a quick post...maybe two if I have time.

I often quote 1 Timothy 4:13, to point out the paramount importance of focusing on the Word of God during the gathering of the assembly, because, as I have said countless times, it is by the Word that we grow in wisdom and knowledge pertaining to salvation. It alone is the God ordained instrument by which He calls those whom He has elected to repentance leading to true faith, and it is by His Word alone which He molds, shapes and transforms us into the image of the glorious Christ. Hence, its importance...right?

Well recently I have been contemplating this verse further, and from another perspective. It says, "Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching." (ESV) This verse clearly displays to us that the public reading of Scripture is extremely important to the Almighty. So during my contemplation, I attempted to rack my brain for other instances and in what things the Lord commands us to devote ourselves. Two things quickly popped into my pea brain. One being prayer, and the second, the singing of hymns...

Embarrassingly, it is not an uncommon occurrence to be at a Bible study and upon someone volunteering to read a particular portion of Scripture, the reader drearily, tediously, and dully crawls through the passage.

Now, when God says we are to be devoted to the public reading of Scripture, do you think He merely means that we are to make sure it is common practice, or rather, that not only should it be common practice, but the reader should put as much heart into it as we do our prayers, and our singing of hymns. I would hope that when hymns are being sung by Christ's redeemed, that they are sung with passion, zeal, and with a loud uplifted voice, which is exactly how the Scriptures should be read. However, sadly enough, on numerous occasions I have heard Pastors exhorting the congregation on their lack of joy and fervor during the singing of hymns. The people slouch, shuffle their feet, and barely open their mouths enough for even a murmur to proceed from their lips, as if they are high school students being asked to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance.

Seriously, is this how we honor and glorify our Creator and Redeemer? With a half heart and with an utter lack of enthusiasm? Just as we should be lifting our voice to honor God in hymn, we too should be honoring Him through the public reading of Scripture. If you volunteer to read believer, please...please...please read the Holy Scriptures as if you have actually read them before, and as if you are familiar with them...because shouldn't you have? and shouldn't you be? Please put some actual feeling and emotion into the reading of God's written Word. How someone can sound like Ben Stein in Ferris Buellers Day Off as they read of the Atonement, or of the Resurrection, or of fulfilled prophecy astounds me. Does the deep love of God which Paul describes as unfathomable really mean nothing to you? I would hope not, so why do you read it as if that is the case?

Lastly, I do want to say, if you are not a strong public reader, take the time to read the Scriptures that will be studied prior to the actual study, read them over and over out loud by yourself, so as to become acquainted with them. I mean, really, this should be done regardless, but for the sake of showing the Lord some respect and giving Him His due honor, we all should take more care in how we read His inerrant Word in public, or if you don't want to do that, maybe it would be best that you just don't volunteer to read.

am still in the midst of having technical difficulties, with no hope whatsoever of my computer making any sort of miraculous recovery. It is as dead as a computer could be. So...I am currently at my In-laws house, which is why this blog will be pretty short.

bank that I worked for failed. We were seized by the FDIC, and told we would have to be interviewing with another larger bank, who was obtaining us from the FDIC, to keep our jobs. However, out of the 103 employees, only 40 have a chance of remaining...at best. With the world in economic crisis, and jobs being cut around the country everyday, this type of thing is what stresses people out. I would even think that some of my colleagues may have toyed with the idea of suicide, having lost not only their jobs, but gobs of money in stocks they held within the bank, not to mention those who had retirements based wholly upon the bank's shares lost it all...everything that was tied into the bank is now worthless.

As everyone scrambled to make a good impression in hopes of keeping their jobs, under the ever so watchful eye of the larger banks management, I noticed a few things. Underneath the shallow exterior of fake smiles and seemingly motivated go-getter's lay the base sin nature of man. I would walk the halls of our office building and overhear gossiping, backbiting and the bearing of false witness against another all in an attempt to position oneself to get one of the 40 coveted positions. Things were chaotic, and hectic, and slightly reminded me of the first week at boot camp in which we were processed into the Corps. There were a few people however, who stood out from the rest, because they believed in Christ, and their lives reflected a strong faith in the trustworthiness of His Word.

Luke 12:24-31
Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life's span? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith! And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

Of course, things are always easier said than done. It's easy to come along side someone and tell them to stop worrying, and it's easy to throw some verses at someone in an attempt to exhort them back to biblical thinking. But when it's you going through the trial, and when its your family who has just lost its only source of income...things change. I looked at those who were believers around me, who were going through the exact same trial as myself for strength, but to no avail. I became increasingly upset with myself, over my lack of faith, when God graciously brought something monumentally important to my attention.

2 Corinthians 5:21
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The weight of that truth crushed my fear and my doubt. That truth is so heavy that I found any sort of worry squashed beneath an infinite mass of God's power and absolute greatness. To really ponder the fact that God made Christ, who knew no sin to be sin on my behalf, made everything that I worry about in my day to day life seem so insignificant. I find myself echoing Paul's desperate cry, wailing, O' Wretched man that I am! For I really am the chief of sinners. I honestly know no other person who is a more wicked and depraved sinner than myself, and yet while I was an enemy of God, in the midst of my most heinous sin, He still died for me. I believe God when He says He has washed me white as snow with the blood of Christ. I praise and thank the Almighty when He says He has separated my transgressions from me as far as the east is from the west. I kneel before Christ in adoration because He mercifully took upon Himself my punishment. I believe these things wholeheartedly,  and when I think about how Christ saved me from what I truly deserve, which is an eternity of punishment in hell, how on earth can I allow myself to think that God could do such a miraculous work yet turn His back on my family in our time of need.

Christ is the victorious King of kings. He conquered death and sin, and displayed His majesty through His glorious Resurrection, and I dare doubt He will bring my family our daily provision? How could I think God powerful enough to cleanse me from my sin, yet to weak to help me in my circumstances? This is not some health and wealth teaching,  merely look to the widow who helped Elijah...YHWH did not give her an abundance of food, her cupboards were not overflowing with sustenance, but He did provide just enough for her and her son day by day, and with each passing moment He cared for them as they hid under His gracious sovereign wings. For that we should be content and continually grateful.

e have become too familiar with God. I mean this in the sense that we as a nation and as a people no longer fear Him, as we ought to. From Christian tool sets sanctified with etched Bible verses on them, to fish-shaped breath mints, we have merchandised and trivialized His "image" to the point of nausea. We dare plaster His holy Name or a symbol associated with the Lord of lords on some piece of worthless junk and ignorantly think that we have not kindled His anger toward us? Do we honestly think He is pleased by such irreverence and idolatry...

Jeremiah 5:22
"Do you not fear Me?" declares the LORD, "Do you not tremble in My presence?"

Verse after verse, passage after passage, book after book written by the Prophets of old, warning the nation of Israel of the infinitely real dangers of treating the Lord our God with anything but fear and trembling, which we too in the Church age have recorded for our instruction so that we are also without excuse. Our lack of fear goes beyond the limitless amount of Jesus junk being peddled across our land, to the very words we speak about God in which we humanize Him, making the same mistake as those who think that the Most High can look favorably on sin like one of us. The earth is but a footstool to Him, yet we treat Him with such contempt.

Not only do we show a lack of respect toward God, but also we degrade those great men of faith He has chosen to raise up. This lack of respect shown to God's people is preached from pulpits by men who find humor in the sin of Noah's drunkenness, or laugh at the symbol of sin given by God to Ezekiel. Our land revels and parties in common costumes mocking the Patriarchs, in which the original sin...the fall of man is laughed at and scorned. Christian comedians...is there really such a thing in God's eyes?

O' yes, I take myself far too seriously, I should lighten up. After all, Jeremiah was referred to as the laughing Proph...oh wait no, it was the lamenting Prophet. Well then...Jesus, He was a man of joy...no wait, He was a man of sorrows. I do admit that Proverbs says that there is a time to laugh...but is that time now? Is that time in this day and age? A day in which God Himself in all His holiness is treated as nothing more than a cheap marketing ploy. As I have said over and over, and I will say it again, turn back to the Word of God.

Stop giving your money to those who speak lies in the name of Christ. Turn away from those who teach His Word falsely. The Church is not ours to run as we see fit, but it is Christ's, He is the Head, He is the chief Shepherd, and He has clearly and specifically laid out in His Word the orderly way it should be run. We have become adulteresses, forsaking God, the fountain of living waters, to hew for ourselves broken cisterns that hold no water. We as a people do not have the dread of the Lord God of hosts within us but have pursued the Baals. Exchanging the blessed Trinity for an idol consisting of a black woman, an Asian woman, along with a large nosed Middle Eastern man (A Shack reference for all you out there scratching your heads). This is not a time to laugh or a time to party. This is a time for serious men to man up and preach a serious message to a people who are lost and stampeding down the broad road of destruction. Warn them fervently as Paul did the Ephesians with many tears. Turn them back from their wicked ways and lament the fact that we have stood by and said nothing as it has gotten as bad as it is.

Jeremiah 5:29-31
"Shall I not punish these people?" declares the LORD, "On a nation such as this shall I not avenge Myself? An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?"