It is raining this week. Well over 1.5 inches in just a day or two
here in our neck of the woods – since we only get about 12 inches a year, this
is a big deal.
Hopefully the weather forecasted
for later in the week holds true, we are supposed to get a lot of snow in the
Cascades.
Not a whole lot else going on,
Carla has our wedding anniversary off, so might either make a nice steak dinner
or something. Hard to believe that she
has stuck with me for so many years AND raised five great kids!
Galatians
1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do
I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of
Christ.
All scriptures are
KJV
from Biblegateway.com
At what point does acceding to
people’s wishes not to offend them become a detriment to the service of God?
We are given new terms, daily it
seems, to describe people and what they are feeling and to not use those terms
because it ‘offends’ them and the person not using them is deemed a ‘hater’ by
society – or at least a portion of society.
To be sure there are certain
slang terms that are offensive and should not be used, period. The slang used on the ethnicity of people –
which to me includes ‘color’ of skin - is often meant to be derogatory and a
deliberate attempt to belittle them.
Unfortunately, our society has
gone so far not to offend anyone, that it is ridiculous. It is resulting in the demands that young men
be allowed to shower with young women, because they choose to identify
themselves as female.
Public restrooms are not just
male or female, but however you wish to identify yourself, no matter how that
affects others.
Do not call God ‘He’ it offends
certain members of society that say He could actually be a she.....
Do not use the Biblical terms
for sin, it offends those that are ‘born that way’ or have a disease and
therefore it isn’t their fault.
Do not try to explain the love
of God to anyone and to help them overcome the lies of satan within their lives
because we make them feel bad about themselves.
Do not recognize those that are
successful and encourage them, because those that are not successful lose their
self-esteem.
Do not challenge anyone to
strive to reach their full potential – it is unfair to those that just want to
get by and feed off of everyone else.
Christians should do more in the
community – but don’t preach Christ and His Salvation.
Sometime ago an Attorney General
for the State of Oregon spoke at a meeting I attended. He talked about how more people have to be
aware of those in need. He stated that
churches needed to step up and be actively involved in helping the needy –
especially our children.
THEN, he said, that the churches
should NOT preach to these people, just help them.
We talked about that afterwards,
I told him that, as Christians, part of helping the needy was sharing the gospel
of Christ with them. He just smiled and
nodded.
He was voicing a common theme
and becoming even stronger in today’s world, we want your love for “your God” to
be shown in physically helping those in need, but leave Christ at home.
An age old problem that goes
back to Old Testament times. Part of my
devotional reading today included a couple chapters from Daniel. These verses stood out to me as I read the
verse from Galatians.
Daniel 9:11-14 Yea, all Israel have
transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice;
therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law
of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against
him.
12 And he hath confirmed
his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by
bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as
hath been done upon Jerusalem.
13 As it is written in the
law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before
the Lord our God, that we might
turn from our iniquities, and understand thy
truth.
14 Therefore hath the
Lord watched upon the evil,
and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in
all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his
voice.
Change the country of Israel to
America and it perfectly describes America at this time.
Vs 15-17 And now, O
Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a
mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we
have done wickedly.
16 O
Lord, according to all thy
righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from
thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the
iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all
that are about us.
17 Now therefore, O our
God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face
to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's
sake.
Daniel is praying for his
country, praying that God will release them from the terror they were in, that
He would turn away from His wrath.
Israel, as America, was no longer a shining light to the world, but an
example of a depraved people no longer willing to recognize and worship God.
Vs 19-20 O Lord, hear; O Lord,
forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for
thy city and thy people are called by thy
name.
20 And whiles I was
speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel,
and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy
mountain of my God;
whiles I was speaking, and
praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting
my supplication before the Lord my
God
Daniel confessed his sins to God
as a part of requesting forgiveness for Israel.
He then confessed the sins of his people.
There is much more, of course
and Daniel’s book can be hard to understand in places, but he makes it clear
that Israel sinned and that it needed to repent.
His prayers are a good example
of what Christians need to be praying today.
We may not have the same faith or understanding of God as Daniel had, but
it doesn’t matter – we have Christ who can carry our prayers to God.
Our nation is sick. The treatment for that illness is found
between Genesis and Revelations.
Just as those that think they
are fine and don’t listen to the doctor on how they can overcome their ailment,
so America refuses to listen and abide by God’s Word.
Instead of turning to God, far
too many of our countrymen are running from Him in the name of “political
correctness” without regard to what they are doing to the nation as a whole, and
to the people that will and are already suffering from their unwillingness to
confess their sins.
After all, in political speaks,
there is no sin, only what a person feels like doing.
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please
men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of
Christ.
If we are going to make a
difference; if we truly belief our nation is in danger of self-destruction, then
we need to please God, not man.
Later, Art :-)
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