119:129 Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them.
119:130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.
119:131 With open mouth I pant, because I long for your commandments.
119:132 Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your custom toward those who love your name.
119:133 Keep my steps steady according to your promise, and never let iniquity have dominion over me.
119:134 Redeem me from human oppression, that I may keep your precepts.
119:135 Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.
119:136 My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not kept.
Since the time I retired from serving a brick and mortar church, my wife and I have visited many churches in our area, looking for the sacrificial love within the church we once knew. We have found many excellent preachers, loving and caring people, among the various denominations. But it just has not been quite the same.
I should explain that the denomination I once served has a rule that when a pastor retires, he may not return and become a member of the congregation he once served. The practical reason is the possibility that people's loyalty and allegiance to the former pastor will cause problems for the new pastor. I believe that having experienced the love of God and the guiding of the Holy Spirit in the pastoral role, a pastor would be able to further support the new pastor through association with longtime church friends, and not allow himself to be a problem for the new pastor. However, the denomination does not agree with that line of thought. So, we had to leave our friends and seek out another church. That has been our wandering and eventful journey, our odyssey.
This wandering, comparing, searching has left me with several thoughts about the Bride of Christ, if not in America, at least where I have joined in worship. My first thought is that, were I granted the opportunity to begin again, it would not be with a denomination, and secondly, the church would pay its taxes and speak freely, openly, about the society in which we find ourselves in this age.
Let me say quickly that we never "did-not-stay" with a church because of the people. Nashville, Tennessee, is filled with people who love God and search to find ways to be the hand of Christ to others, to love, to care for, to cheer other brothers and sisters in Christ.
While attending one church we were visiting, my wife became ill during the week, and learning of this the women of the church arranged a steady stream of home-cooked meals which they delivered to our home. The food was so good I thought perhaps word had leaked out about my poor culinary arts talents. We were not members of that church, but that was not the criteria by which they reached out to those in need, and we were blessed by their kindness in a mighty way.
No, it was not the people that kept us visiting around, but the church management in terms of what that denomination stood for, what they supported within the society within which we all live, how they dealt with the issue of sin.
I don't hesitate to admit there are many -- not a few, but many -- who will tell you I am too demanding of the church, that I am too "hardnosed" when it comes to what the Bible calls sin. Having been called on the carpet by many who would follow Christ regarding this issue of sin, I would explain that Ed Evans doesn't decide what is sinful, i go by what my God says in the inspired word of God. And I don't go around pointing fingers at people over sin, I introduce them to Jesus Christ and they convict themselves. But I am a discerning person, which God's word tells me to be.
In today's scripture from the Psalms, they speak of God's decrees, commandments and His expectations for us. Of those we need to be discerning, loving even the unlovable as those decrees call for, but being discerning of right and wrong, good and evil, fallen and resurrected.
In 1st Kings 2, Solomon, new to the throne of Israel, is asked of God what He should give him, and Solomon asks for a discerning heart that he might know right from wrong. Like the wisest of all men, we are to be discerning, not judging others unfairly, but discerning right from wrong. And this is the element I find lacking in many churches today. No one is willing to tell their congregation that there is flat out right, and absolute wrong. Black and white have become dark gray and gray. Every action, every plan, every desire is judged according to how it will seem in accordance with the interpreted mores and ethics of today's society. I cannot tell you how dangerous that is, to allow yourself to be guided by the changing ethics of this world, even as Satan is the god of this world.
The holy, inspired word of God is clear and true, even though what we read today was written more than 2,000 years ago. The natural sinfulness of mankind has not changed, and what was wrong in God's eyes in the time of the prophet Samuel is wrong for mankind today.
Now there are those who would muddy the water by throwing in such things as dietary laws, but that's just Satan tickling your ears repeating the lie He told Eve in the Garden of Eden, "God didn't really mean that." Yes, God did, and God does, "really mean that."
Today's scripture begins with the acknowledgment, "Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of Your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple."
All can understand what God wants from us. It's not complicated. His sacrificial love, demonstrated for us through Jesus Christ, makes it easy to understand. We make it difficult by playing to our own human desires, trying to find a way around what God warns us away from, weasel-wording what He says, and what He wants from us.
I observe that churches today are setting aside the sharp edges of what God has demanded of us, and play instead to what human society says is good and okay. We tarnish His Word by overlaying it with "What God meant to say was...." No, God said what He meant to say. But we walk all over his precepts and commands for us meant to draw us close and protect us from ourselves. Instead of learning more about what the Word of God says, delving deeply into His intentions and purposes for us, we get lectures on improving ourselves so that we are successful in business and society, so that we can fatten our bank accounts and share with the church.
And if it's not that, we are treated to horror stories and scare tactics about the eventual coming of Christ, about Armageddon and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. But instead of being concerned about when Christ is coming, we need to get into the meat of His word and be more concerned about what kind of people we are when He gets here. Will He push through the hungry, homeless, needy to get to us in our glitzy churches and beautiful homes?
The issue of what kind of people we will be when He comes is more serious than many want to think about. For we claiming to be worshippers of the one and only God, the great I Am of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, have wandered far afield from the Christ who unreservedly declares, "No one comes to the Father but through Me." Believe it or not that very claim is an embarrassment to some so-called Christians. But Christ knew already that would be a problem, and He sent an answer to us across the ages, in both Mark 8:38 and Luke 9:26, that whoever was ashamed of Him and His words, "...the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." A frightening thought.
But many of the "best" churches, the largest denominations don't want to go there. They are busy conforming to the latest changes in human society, placing those who sin blatantly, contrary to God's Word, in positions of leadership and authority. They do this, they explain, that the Word of God be served, and justice be done.
But the Word of God is not served. Justice is not done. And yes, for that I weep. And those who do not love God in the way Jesus said in John 14:15 may not understand why, as it says in Psalm 119:136, "My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not kept." Some are incensed when they see sin rampant. Some are perplexed, not knowing what they should do. Some fall in with those in error so as not to stand out and be ridiculed or set apart. I weep. Many who love Him weep. My heart aches for the separation from God that I see and I weep for I have a deep sense of the consequences. And that is worth weeping over. Yes, a grown man weeps. An old man cries. If only my tears had the power to share with them the deep, abiding, sacrificial love they are throwing back in the face of a patient, loving God.
Lord God, as it says in Your precious Word, "Turn to us and be gracious to us, to each one reading this, as is Your custom toward those who love Your name. Keep our steps steady according to Your promise, and never let iniquity have dominion over us. Redeem us from human oppression, that we may keep Your precepts. Make Your face shine upon Your servants, and teach us Your statutes." Amen.
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