Evil – Page 11 – Praying Pint

174. “What shall I do for you?”

2 Kings 4:1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.

Ecclesiastes 8:12    Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.

Psalms 91:2 I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

Malachi 4:2    But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

Acts 13:26    “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

Ecclesiastes 12:13    The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

There are times when all seems too much to bear when trouble and trials seem to stack one on top of another, and we are close to having no hope for tomorrow. When we look at our situation and we compare it with everyone else who does not have the burdens, trials, and troubles it leaves us with questions. In times like this it is natural to question our walk with Jesus and think “did I bring this upon myself,” “is this punishment at the hand of God”, or thought “what have I done to deserve this”. It may be due to one of these or not. It can be a life’s cycle of stuff that happens. We certainly know that stuff happens in this life but we hope it does not happen to us. What are we to do when it does?

Stay in God’s word. Believe in Jesus Christ who is able to do more than we ask and much more than we can imagine. Keep our eyes, heart, mind, trust, hope, faith, and reliance on Jesus Christ. Scripture is full of examples of God working in the lives of those who have put their hope in Him. Scripture is full of His promises of refuge, courage, peace, rest, joy, and strength. Scripture is full of God intervening in the lives of those who fear Him and are at, what appears to be, no hope. In all of this, we are to have steadfast hope in Him and leave room for and trust in His perfect will. This is where we find the peace that passes all understanding, hope that never fails, and strength and courage to face whatever comes our way.

The old hymn says “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full into His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

171. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching

I Kings 22:1 For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.” Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.’” And all the prophets prophesied so and said, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”

And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”

Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, “How did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you?” And Micaiah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.” And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son, and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water, until I come in peace.”’” And Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!”

Isaiah 30:10    who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,

Micah 2:11    If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people!

2Timothy 4:3  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

From the old testament to the new and even now people have an appearance of wanting the the truth but God’s word is far from them. We see a great example of this in the King of Israel and Jehoshaphat having 400 prophets who spoke favorably but they did not want to hear from the one prophet that spoke truth, howbeit unfavorable, to them. The new testament says that people will become hearers only and not doers of the word. James 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Paul says to Timothy “People will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,”

2Ti 3:5 “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” “they are always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth”

Where has the searching scripture for knowledge and understanding and wisdom gone? It used to be the daily bread of life in the heart and mind of Christians but seems to have been replaced with emptiness. God’s word used to be valued, read, and studied every day because it was known to be “profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work”. If His word is not reverenced and valued for each new day how are we to be equipped for what that day brings into our life. When we become lovers of self more than lovers of God we will see a falling away from wanting and desiring to know His word. We will become complacent and neglectful. We will come up with a host of reasons why we do not spend time in His word. Day after day our heart will become harder and harder, our eyes blinded, and our ears deafer to the things of God. When this happens our lives bear no fruit, have no power, and give no honor to God.

How are we to be used by God when His word is not known by us? How are we to be a light to the world when His word is dark to us? How are we to honor and glorify God when we determine we no longer have time to spend in His word? How are we to grow in Christ without His word in our lives each day? How are we to make disciples when His word is not in our heart and mind? How are we to find purpose and meaning in life apart from knowing and being in His word? How are we to fight satan’s lies and attacks on our lives? How are we to find a place of refuge, power, hope, peace, joy, trust, courage, and strength when the very word of God that brings this knowledge to our heart, mind, and soul is neglected and put aside?

Neglecting God’s word and having Itching ears for words of worldly comfort will never bring us closer to Jesus Christ. Now is the time to intentionally commit to a life of being in His word each day for the single purpose of being able to humbly know Him, honor Him, glorify Him, follow Him, obey Him, trust and rely on Him.

130. The LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

2 Samuel 22:7 “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears.

Psalms 116:4    Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”

Psalms 120:1    In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me.

Exodus 3:7    Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

Psalms 34:6     This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

Psalms 34:15-17     The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.  The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

Psalms 18:6     In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

Who has not been in distress? Who has not been beside themselves for the trial that they are having to walk through? It is not as though we go looking for trials and troubles, though at times I think some people do, but more like they find us when we least need to be having it. They come up out of nowhere, They hit us from the blind side. They hit us where we thought we were strong. They can leave us in a very anxious, fearful, wanting, and desperate state. God’s word is full of promises and testimonies of His steadfast and ever-present help. We need only to lay our trials and troubles into His hands and trust His unchanging and unlimited love.

“In my distress I called upon the Lord”, “He answered me”, “The Lord heard him”, “The Lord saved him”, “to my God I cried for help”, “The Lord hears and delivered them out of all of their troubles”, “He heard my voice”, “my cry to Him reached His ears”

122. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?

2 Samuel 12:1 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

Isaiah 57:17-18     Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.

Jeremiah 6:13     “For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

Ezekiel 33:31    And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain.

Luke 12:15    And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Colossians 3:5     Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Jeremiah 5:3    O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent.

Sin has a way of blinding us from what we are doing that is not right in the eyes of our God. When sin takes our heart and minds captive it does not let go. It hardens our heart and pridefully sets to convince our mind that what we have done or are doing is right even though God’s word says it is wrong.

How does sin find its way so easily into our Christian lives? Peter says it like this; “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.”

Keep your eyes on Him alone who is worthy. Live to bring honor and glory to His name. Stay in His presence and desire to follow and obey Him.

114. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray.

1 Samuel 25:36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.”

2 Samuel 3:28-29    Afterward, when David heard of it, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever guiltless before the LORD for the blood of Abner the son of Ner.  May it fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father’s house, and may the house of Joab never be without one who has a discharge or who is leprous or who holds a spindle or who falls by the sword or who lacks bread!”

1 Kings 2:44    The king also said to Shimei, “You know in your own heart all the harm that you did to David my father. So the LORD will bring back your harm on your own head.

Psalms 7:16   His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

Psalms 37:12-13   but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.

Isaiah 47:10 You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”  But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing.

Psalms 52:7    “See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!”

Ecclesiastes 8:8    No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death.

W. Alderman – When a person puts his confidence in that which he has, including money, he is doomed to failure./riches trust in their riches only. Unless the word of God speaks into their life there is no hope for them.n is now. The day of commitment is now. The day of forgiveness is now. The day of bringing to live for Jesus is now. Anything that causes us to take our eyes off of Jesus will get us out of focus spiritually. The love of money can certainly do this. When they trust their money and their job for their provisions they are out of focus spiritually and no longer know where they were going. The trusting in riches lays a snare that will trap you suddenly and it will hinder your faith. a snare that will trap you suddenly and it will hinder your faith. The love of money traps many a good person. It happens so suddenly. There are many lusts that will consume the person who follows after riches. Money has a way of causing displaced trust. Instead of trusting God for the needed provisions, those who trust in wealth/riches trust in their riches only.

Unless the word of God speaks into their life there is no hope for them. They become self-centered and consciously or unconsciously make decisions that affect and harm others. Their money/wealth has gone to their head and heart and they trust in this alone. Psalms 52:7 “See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!” They did not obey God. They did not honor God. They do not have reverence for God. In protecting their riches they make decisions that cause harm to others. They are boastful, arrogant, prideful, seekers of pleasure, and give no thought to the day of judgment or their day of death. In their foolish wisdom and knowledge, they have cast God aside. How many people have died thinking they have time to make things right with God? How many have died and not given any thought to the judgment they will face?

The day of salvation is now. The day of forgiveness is now. The day of commitment is now. The day of beginning to live for Jesus is now.

109. The Pursuit of God

1 Samuel 20:1 Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”

Psalms 7:3-5     O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,  if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,  let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust.

Psalms 119:112    I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.

1 John 3:21     Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;

Psalms 18:21-22       For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.  For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me.

2 Corinthians 1:12     For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.

Trials and troubles come into our lives. We can take note of God’s word when He was angered and past judgment on people or nations. Their guilt was evident and the action taken by God was righteous. Other times, people were victims of the consequences of others actions. This is why David is speaking like this. What have I done? What is my guilt? What is my sin? These are very good questions to ask ourselves when trials and troubles come our way. Note the heart of David; “I incline my heart.” “I have kept your ways.” “Your word is before me and I kept it close to me.” “I’m committed to the end.”

Tozer wrote this in his book “The Pursuit of God.” We pursue God because and only because He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. “No man can come to Me,” said our Lord, “except the Father which hath sent me draw him,” and it is by this drawing that God takes from us every drop of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of the impulse is our pursuit (following hard) after Him. All is of God. God is always previous. In practice, where God’s previous working meets our present response, we must pursue God. On our part, there must be positive reciprocation if this secret personal drawing of God is to become an identifiable experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life. David said, As the deer pants after water, so pants my soul after thee.”

It would seem we have watered down and diluted the conversion of becoming a child of God. Has it become mechanical and spiritless? Has faith been diluted to the point where there is no shake-up to our moral life and no embarrassment to our self-centered, non-hungering and non-thirsting pursuit of God? Are we in danger of losing God because of our lack of hunger and thirst for His word? Have we lost sight of what it means to be a humble servant? Does the lack of time set aside for His word and subsequent lack of knowledge and understanding give any indication of how non-existent our pursuit of God is?

Now is the time to assess your heart. Do you hunger and thirst for His word, or are you eating and drinking the way of the world.

105. For you have rejected the word of the Lord

5:1 And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

The word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.” And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” And Samuel said,

Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.” And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

Over and over, the Bible tells us that God blesses and rewards obedience. James 1:22–25 says it perfectly: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.“

Obedience enables us to live a life of joy, power, courage, and faith rooted deeply in the Lord and confident in our eternal hope. We can be rewarded by God in a myriad of ways. “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart”.

For all true followers of Christ, obedience is never peripheral. At the heart of what it means to be a disciple of our Lord is living in loving devotion to God. But if such love is real, the acid test is obedience. Following Christ does not allow for selective obedience. Selective obedience comes out of neglect of His word in our daily lives. Selective obedience falsely allows us to think we are obedient in all things because we have chosen to live without heart and mind deep daily desire to intentionally live and breath in the depth of His word. Daily time in His word will grow our understanding and knowledge of God which grows our devotion and desire to obedience for His honor and glory.

95. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge

1 Samuel 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.” And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish,” he would say, “No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.” Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.

Hosea 4:6-9     My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.  The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame.  They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity.  And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

Romans 1:21    For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Romans 1:28-30    And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

R.C. Sproul You see the crisis in both the church and the world. Our leaders lack a moral compass. A new barbarism ricochets through pop culture. An entrenched post-Christian secularism and statism dominate Europe where the Reformation once reigned. People around the world have forgotten who God is, so they’ve forgotten who they are and how they must live.

People look for solutions in a crisis. They turn to politics, programs, or gimmicks. They may retreat, or, crumbling before the challenge, they live compromised lives. Such is the way of the world we live in and should not be the way of those who believe.

s it possible that our seeking, desiring, and wanting to humbly honor and serve God has stopped? Is it possible that we have become seekers of self-interests, self-satisfaction, self-sufficiency, self-helped, self-loved, self-made, and self-serving? As Christians is it possible to stop seeking God and have growth in our life? Is it possible that in our seeking and receiving forgiveness, new birth in Jesus Christ, finding peace and rest for our soul we have come to a place in our life where seeking to know Jesus more has stopped other than to find resolve to some trial or trouble facing us?

Life will always offer something to fill our lives apart from giving our whole heart, mind, and soul to honoring, serving, following, and obeying Jesus. Stay in His word. Desire His word. Seek to know and serve Him each minute of each day.

83. They cried out to the Lord for help.

Judges 6:1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

The Israelites were told not to do something, specifically not to turn from God and become like the people in the land they were living in. God gave them promises of blessings and warnings. Blessings if they gave their whole heart to humbly serve, rely on, and obey Him. Warnings/curses if they did not. We can see what happens when God’s word is neglected and complacency is the norm. Drifting, sliding, and falling away from the truth of God’s word occurs when our heart and mind are filled with more and more of cultural norms than God’s word.

Why is it that we must fall away and find ourselves in trouble before we realize how far we have drifted from God. It is so easy to set aside His word and commitment to rely on Him and to obey Him. At first, His word is set aside for just one day and then one day becomes a week, and soon neglect is the norm. Reliance and obedience so easily fall in line with self-interests, wants and satisfaction. We find ourselves in a trial or troubling circumstance and wonder where God is, only to be reminded that we had left Him to go our own way.

Intentionally stay in His word. Covet it. Desire it, Learn from it. Cling to it. Seek to understand it. Learn to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey Him.

78. I have broken the bars of your yoke

Joshua 23:14 “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you.

Exodus 23:27-30 I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.

Leviticus 26:3-13 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

There is peace when our heart, mind, and soul, cling to, rely on, and trust in Jesus Christ. There is strength for today and hope tomorrow. There is courage to face each and every trial. Our heart, mind, and soul expect to see the work of Jesus Christ in our lives and through the trials and troubles common to all. There is fruit in our lives because of Jesus. There is discernment in our thoughts. Our eyes and ears are opened to see truth and as well that which is false. There is purpose and meaning to our life.

Stay in His word each day. Fight against neglect, busyness, and complacency. Be intentional with your walk with Jesus.