Thursday, September
10, 2015, 5:30 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put the song in mind “Myopic.” Speak, Lord, your words to my
heart. I read Isaiah 17 (selected
vv. NASB).
Judgment to Fall (includes
summary of vv. 1-6)
God declared judgment against the city of Damascus, which
was the capital city of Syria, which was then allied with the northern kingdom
of Israel (Ephraim) against the southern kingdom (Judah). At that time Israel
was divided into northern and southern kingdoms. Damascus was to be removed
from being a city, their sovereignty dissipated. The city was to become a
fallen ruin. And, Ephraim, which was allied with Damascus, was also to suffer a
similar fate. For both Syria and Israel, their wealth would be removed, and
many of their people exiled. Yet, it appears that a remnant of both people and
fields would be left in Ephraim, and that not all would be destroyed by the
invading army. They would be humbled, but not obliterated.
Many times the Lord Jesus has used this story to speak to me
about my country and the church here in the USA. The church in America is
largely allied with the US government, by choice, via the 501c3 not-for-profit
corporation status, for tax purposes. This union is an unholy union and is
against the will of God and the teachings of scripture. We are not to be
unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Via this union, the US government
has supplanted Christ as the true head of his church, though in practice only,
for Jesus Christ is completely sovereign and is in absolute control over all
powers and authorities. No ruler on this earth has power over God. Any power given
to any human authority is only theirs as God permits, and only for a time, and
for God’s express purposes. Christ is the head!
Via this union with the government, the government is able
to dictate to the church what they can do or not do; say or not say, and thus
it limits the church’s ability to hear the voice of the Spirit of God and to
walk in obedience and in surrender to the Lord. The church has also invited the
world into the church, rather than the church being a place for the body of
Christ to be strengthened and encouraged in their faith so that they can go out
into the world with the gospel of our salvation. And, thus the church of today
in America has largely conformed to the ways of the world in order to attract
the world to its meetings, and thus it has also diluted the gospel to make it
more attractive and acceptable to the world.
So, in essence, the church, for the most part, here in
America, is like Ephraim, which united with Syria against Judah, the southern
kingdom. The church, via this union with the US government, is either willfully,
or by default, party to opposing Jesus Christ, his gospel and his messengers.
One way in which this is taking place is via the church’s promotion of
government worship via the pledge of allegiance (faithfulness, loyalty) to the
US government, the singing of patriotic songs, and via the lifting up of our
soldiers and the honoring of them as heroes, not even knowing what our
government and military are really doing in these other nations, and how we are
the terrorists, and how we are killing Christians and innocents, and how we are
conquering peoples and nations, and how we are the harlot who rides the beast,
which is busy deceiving people, even the people of God.
The church largely opposes Jesus Christ, his gospel and his
messengers, too, by turning the church into a marketplace, by marketing it like
any other human-based business, by following the business plans of human beings
and humanistic teaching over and above scripture, and by diluting the gospel
and opposing those followers of Christ who are holding to the truths of
scripture, who preach the true gospel of salvation, and who are calling the
church to repentance. We are the outcasts. We are being kicked to the curb.
Yet, God will judge this nation and its government and its adulterous and
idolatrous church.
For Our Nation /
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: we’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
The Church Revived
(vv. 7-8)
In
that day man will have regard for his Maker
And
his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
He
will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,
Nor
will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Even
the Asherim and incense stands.
All throughout Biblical history, God’s main purpose in
judging his people has been to get them to return to him as their only God, and
for them to forsake their idols. And, I believe that is still his purpose in
judging his idolatrous and adulterous church in these last days before Jesus
Christ returns. The letters to the seven churches in the beginning of the book
of Revelation, before the judgments begin to fall, serve as warnings to the
church of today which has forsaken her Lord, forgotten she has been cleansed of
sin, and has gone after to follow the idols of humankind, instead. She is being
warned about impending judgment, is being confronted with her sins of spiritual
adultery, and is being called upon to repent of her sins and to return to
following her Lord in faithful obedience, and in surrender to his will.
Yet, so much of the church here in America is not listening
to these warnings or these calls to repentance. They are convinced that nothing
bad is going to happen to them, and that they will be raptured before things
get really bad. They are also being told that God is pleased with them no
matter what they do, and that he even smiles upon them and is delighted in them
when they are steeped in sinful acts. They are being lied to and told that God
does not require of them that they turn from their sins or that they follow him
in obedience. They also are being told they can sin as much as they want and
still have their ticket into heaven. All these lies make a mockery of what
Jesus Christ went through in dying on the cross so we could die with him to sin
and be raised with him to live to righteousness.
Yet, I believe God intends to revive his church through
judgment, and that he plans to renew and to restore at least a remnant of his
people in these last days, and that through the revived church the gospel will
go forth to the ends of the earth and that many will come to faith in Jesus
Christ before our Lord returns and takes us to be with him forever. Then the true
church, the saints of God, will honor God as their only Lord, and they will
forsake their idols, which will have brought them to ruin and disaster, for
they will be of no use to them. They will have now come to their senses and
will realize the error of their ways, and their desire will now be for the
Lord, to please him in all that they do, are and say. The bride will have made
herself ready to meet her husband, Jesus Christ, when he returns.
Yet, For Now (vv.
9-11)
In
that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest,
Or
like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And
the land will be a desolation.
For
you have forgotten the God of your salvation
And
have not remembered the rock of your refuge.
Therefore
you plant delightful plants
And
set them with vine slips of a strange god.
In
the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And
in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But
the harvest will be a heap
In
a day of sickliness and incurable pain.
The reason this judgment will come is multi-faceted, yet the
bottom line is that God’s people, the church, have largely forgotten their God.
It isn’t that they have forgotten him altogether, but that they are largely
ignoring him, not listening to his counsel, are forsaking his precepts, and
have forgotten that being cleansed of sin is so that we might walk in his
righteousness, and no longer in the flesh. They have listened to lies. Many are
following the path of least resistance, i.e. what is most comfortable. For the
most part, they are not testing what they hear and see in prayer, and in
seeking God’s face, and against the Word of God to see if it is true, so many
are deceived and are being led astray. They have become prey to the enemy of
their souls, and are thus headed to disaster and ruin.
Because so many within the church here in America have been
led astray, and have abandoned their Lord by following after the ways of humans
instead of following God’s ways, that has paved the way for even more
deception. And, the deceiver is hard at work in trying to convince the people
of God to compromise even more with the world, and to abandon the strongholds (foundations)
of the Christian faith in order to embrace an all-inclusive gospel message that
makes everyone on an equal plane, with no one getting in anyone else’s face and
telling them that to be saved, and to have eternal life with God, we must
believe in Jesus Christ as Savior of our lives, we must submit to his Lordship,
we must be crucified with him in death to sin, and we must be resurrected
(reborn) with him to new life in Christ, “created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24).
So, God is calling out to his church today and he is
confronting them with their sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery, he is
warning of impending judgment, and he is calling them to forsake their idols
and to return to their Lord, and to make him truly Lord of their lives.
Myopic
/ An Original Work / August 19, 2013
Based
off 2 Peter 1:3-11
Jesus has given ev’rything
Needed for life and godliness.
His great and precious promises
Free us from our sin and distress.
Add to your faith His goodness;
Knowledge; patience; godliness;
Brotherly love and mutu’l affection;
Kindness and unselfishness.
If you possess these qualities,
Growing in your maturity,
They will keep you from vanity.
You will bear fruit effectually.
Nonetheless, if you lack them;
Forget you’ve been cleansed from sin,
Nearsighted are you; you can’t see Jesus.
You have closed your heart to Him.
Therefore, beloved, confirm, then,
Your calling and your election.
Do this by showing diligence:
Obey your Lord; be repentant.
Practice all these qualities
God provided on a tree.
He died for our sins so we’d be given
Life with Him eternally.
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