There is nothing new under the sun. No new faults, desires, sins. It all boils down to self, the “I wants”, right now, greed.
Greed, the hardening of the heart to put self before all else is as old as time. “I want”, “I need”, and “me first above all else” is priority. Self leads to all sins because self rules.
People want to be rich, they want success, they want prosperity, they want everything centered around them, they want… want… want. Wants, not needs, is as old as recorded time. Yesterday New York celebrated a “want” for women. High society, highly successful New York, so sophisticated, so highly educated, right? Or, are they just turning back time to archaic and barbaric practices? Did they not just erase centuries of advancement for women?
The Canaanites, circa 1509 BC, practiced a ritual of offering their first born to the fires of Moloch so they would receive riches, prosperity and a successful life. Malkamwas the same for the Ammonites and Melqart for the Tyrian. Placing their first born in a fire, how barbaric people say. How ignorant, how selfish. God thought so.
Leviticus 20:2 “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death.“
Imagine what He thinks now as New York has just turned back time. Women can now offer their first born to the fires of abortion. Yes, fire, saline abortion is toxic and it burns. Essentially it burns soft tissues, even skin in the womb. The baby is burned even from the inside as the child swallows the solution. Such torture. Unthinkable. Unimaginable. How barbaric. A modern woman would never do such a thing.
New York has done the unthinkable. A woman can choose to torture an infant for convenience, for costs, for unwanted, for wrong gender, for any reason. Be careful though, you still cannot disturb a turtle or eagles nest. Those eggs, fertilized or not, are still protected by state and federal laws.
Welcome to 2019 New York. Your women can sacrifice their first born for convenience, career, riches, gender choice …. success and prosperity. Moloch just changed his name to abortion.
A civilized woman would utilize self control over selfishness. A civilized society would fund adoptions, not abortions.
The Great Awakenings, revivals and growth of His Church through the eons has been when churches worshipped the Almighty God. When the word Awesome was reserved only for Him, we worshipped Who He IS, The Author and Finisher of our faith; The Alpha and Omega.
When churches taught God’s Word and truths without adding to or taking away, His Church grew. When His Church teaches what Jesus said, and not fret over what He did not, His Church grows. Too many churches complicate the simple truth of His Word. Theological study is wonderful until we see it as how Biblically intellectual we are.
Back to The Bible, back to His truths. No fanfare, entertainment value or performance needed. The Revivals all over the world today are happening where His gospel is delivered in Word and music. No distractions, No repetitive needed. After all, they can get that every day by turning on a TV, walking in a crowd, or using a computer.
The world is hunget for Truth, His. Why are we distracting them? Why do we allow churches to become stumbling blocks?
We can not entertain them into His Truth. They have a hunger, let us not give them cake. We, nor the churches, are here to replace the work of The Holy Spirit. We are here to deliver His message. Simple Truth, His: Savior, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King.
What did Jesus say? Matthew 18:1-7 NASB
“1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!”
As we come together each week to worship, let us come humbly, as a child, ready to listen and be taught by The Holy Spirit. Be still and know. ~ RBG
Children love fairs and carnivals. The atmosphere is ecstatic. It draws their attention and draws them in like flies. The game area was always an area to be avoided with my mom, she viewed them as scams, hard to win. I always wanted to play. So when my daughter at age five wanted to toss the coin and win the little goldfish I let her play. A few coins later she had her goldfish. We set it up in her bedroom on the dresser. I cautioned her to be careful and not knock it over. She was so proud of her fish. She finally calmed down and I turned off the light for the night.
I always awoke way before everyone and peaked in early to check on my daughter. There on the dresser sat the bowl and the goldfish was belly up and floating. Arrghh, now I had to deal with a dead fish? What would I tell her? I hurriedly dressed and ran down to the 24 hour WalMart, bought a fish and returned fast enough to replace before she awoke. “Whew, escaped that one I thought”, patting myself on the back. Off to school she went. That night we went through the same bedtime routine and finally she told the fish goodnight and we settled in for the night. Next morning, as usual I stuck my head in and THERE WAS THE GOLDFISH, BELLY UP AND FLOATING. “Oh, no, really?” Once again, being the coward I was then, I hurriedly rush to WalMart and returned with yet another goldfish. Whew. Got by again. This was crazy. The fish was okay all day. Looked like things were going to be okay. Off to bed. Early the next morning I hear this loud cry, “MY GOLDFISH!”. I jumped out of bed, dazed that someone awoke before me. Running across the hall into her room there stood my daughter in front of the bowl, staring at the goldfish belly up and floating. I hugged my little girl and tried to comfort her. What I had dreaded I finally had to face. After all the shielding I had tried, I still had to face the inevitable. I tried to explain how everything dies. But, for a small child death is always hard to understand. With tears streaming down her face she looked up to me with the saddest confused eyes and said, “mommy I don’t understand why he had to die. I loved him so much. Every night I took him out and told him so as I petted him.”
We laugh about it now. But, isn’t that the way we all are? We put our life in a glass bowl and we love it with tender loving care. We want it all perfect and comfortable. We pet it and even sometimes smother it … causing what we love the most to die. There are those around us that will even try to fix all our problems like I tried with my daughter.
Life has ups and downs; life has good times and bad times. God wants to teach us and sometimes He does in the good times and other times in the bad. Everything is a lesson that will make us more like Him. When you become a Christian you change.
2 Corinthians 5:1(NLT) “17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
To change you have to learn about Him. You have to go through things in life to grow physically and you must go through things to change spiritually. Do not avoid these times, do not try to pad and protect yourself from the lessons. Do not whine and ask “why?” Instead, ask Him “why am I here in this place Lord? What do you want me to learn?”
Psalm 25:4-5(HCSB)“4 Make Your ways known to me, Lord; teach me Your paths.5 Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation;I wait for You all day long.”
Psalm 86:11(ESV) “11 Teach me Your way, O Lord,that I may walk in Your truth;unite my heart to fear Your name.”
Proverbs 3:5-6(NASB)“5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Instead of avoiding look to Him and say, “here am I Lord, teach me.”
A two-year old fell on the floor in the grocery store kicking and screaming when her mom told her, "no, you cannot have that candy". Much to the surprise of the two-year old, the cashier and other shoppers, the mom* promptly fell to the floor kicking and screaming. The two-year old jumped up and stomped her foot, "stop, you 'm-bare-us-in me!" That two-year old never threw another tantrum in public.
Where did the child get such an idea? She had seen it at a day care she went to only two days a week. And an adult had given in to a child’s tantrum. The adult wanted it to stop and took the easy way out.
Two teens bickering in the amusement park are stunned by their mom* stopping and disco dancing right in the fairway. "STOP MOM, that is so embarrassing". Mom: "YOU TWO are embarrassing me, turn about is fair play!"
Oh, that is so embarrassing. Are your kids embarrassing you? Are you ashamed of them? They know better, you taught them better, right from wrong. Do they not realize they are a reflection on the family. Do you take the easy way out? Boys will be boys? You know girls these days? Or, do you stop them? Where do they get these ideas? Everywhere. You are on 24/7 watch and correct.
Sometimes you want to just deny they are yours. Maybe they are trying to be disassociated from the family, they do not want to 'belong'. It is not right, they do not know what they are disclaiming. Hopefully, one day they look back and realize how good their family was and is, and they start to reflect good on the family and not be an embarrassment. Every parent wants to point to their child with pride. you cannot give up. You keep pointing them in the right direction. Ask God to help you choose the right words.
Matthew 26:34 HCSB “I assure you,” Jesus said to him, “tonight, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times!””
Peter was afraid if they knew he was with Jesus, they would take him too. Jesus knew Peter would deny Him. It took Peter those three crows to figure out what he was doing. There was a price to being in the family with Jesus. He had to wake up to that and decide if he was going to pay the price. Jesus chose the right words, “three crows, three denials”. Look at your child’s path, tell them where they are headed. Make sure your path is straight as well. Maybe you are giving them the ideas.
Sometimes, we too need “three crows” to realize and wake up to the fact we are denying Christ everyday, in little ways. Jesus is pointing them out. Are you listening for the crows?
There is a price for belonging to the family, His family. We have to walk, talk and ‘look’ like Him. People have to see Christ in us. Sometimes, we are the only Christ a person will see. What are you doing today that will reflect on Him?
Will you be willing to pay the price, or will you be an embarrassment to God?
*Yes, you got me. I was that mom (and grandmom if needed).
Have you heard those words … from one of your kids? How about from your spouse? Maybe, you said them. It’s a cry of , “I don’t want to deal with it.” Sometimes we think ignoring something will make it go away. Sometimes dealing with an issue is worse than the issue. Kind of like the old saying, “the cure is worse than the illness.”
Matthew 8:33-34 NASB “The herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region.”
They were comfortable with their lives. They did not want them interrupted. Some people will not hear the Lord, because they are afraid of what they’ll have to give up to live for Him. Many accept Him and then hold back parts of their lives, not willing to give up what is “theirs”. Truth is, it’s all His … holding back just keeps you from getting what He has for you.
Are you comfortable with your sin? Do you want God to leave you alone? Deal with it now, because until you do God will keep nudging you. He chastens you much like you do your children to clean up their room, do their homework. You do so because it is good for them and because you love them. God will keep after His children to mold them as they “grow up” as well.
Hebrews 12:6 NLT “For the LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
He loves each and every one of us. He never stops loving you and will never stop loving you. It is safe to turn over everything to Him, every little corner. If you do not, you still have a toehold on your life, and so does satan*. You will never be satisfied with your life as long as you are in control, and neither will He.
Is God satisfied with you?
*satan, devil – I know people capitalize the “S” or “D” but, I don’t. I refuse to give him any status of importance. He’s a snake, so satan, devil, etc. are lower case, as he is one.
Lights in the Storm 