A Tough Stand
7/23/18
One of the most dreaded things a human being can experience is when they must stand against a concept that other family members disagree, yet it is a setting that sometimes has to be taken and one that probably will result in separation. It is at this time that spiritual tests are presented and it also brings to light the faith in God at the same time. This setting is the definition of division from the world because it is these situations that Jesus was talking about would occur between brothers. It does not matter what the circumstance or issue may be, it is our responsibility to take a stand against such worldly activities but when we do it is just important not to alienate or throw away family members who disagree but to show them love so that God can continue to work in their lives and return them to His Covenant. Both God and Jesus never stated that it would be easy taking a stand for His Covenant and Ways and we must understand this concept for it is being displayed today and will continue to grow since the Church refuses to live under God’s Covenant.
This is going to be an unusual beginning to an article that God wants us to understand for it deals with a former porn actress in that I read recently that she had retired a while back but since has returned to God and has begun to share her testimony with those who will listen. She has promoted so many ugly aspects of the world in her past but now proclaims God to be the center of her life which has transformed her from the inside out as a wife, mother, and server of God and through this change God has completely altered her life. The controversy now is that her opinions about life, conservatism, and the way that President Trump is trying to change the nation has been met with some harsh and ugly statements from those who used to enthusiastically support her professional life. One of the people that read the same message almost immediately responded to her saying that when he was a child that he was thrilled to have this lady be his main source of masturbation practices but now that she agrees with this president on abortion and right to life stance, that she has degraded herself and become a useless piece of garbage that should not have any say in any further matters concerning this nation.
When she pushed him on his statement he firmly agreed with what he contended and said and would not change anything about what he had written for it was his complete belief never relenting or apologizing for the grotesque manner in which he initiated the topic. Now, why would any parent be willing to allow their child – that was the word he used – sits and be allowed to masturbate to porn on a regular basis within the confines of their house? But as we have learned before in the articles that God has given us that not only does this type of activity occur regularly but an uncounted number of other ungodly and sinful acts have not been condoned by the parents but participated in with their children as well on a daily basis. We must take notice of this behavior of those who live and follow the world’s rules for it shall only become more intense as time passes along, it does not matter what profession one chooses to obtain or to retire from for when a person turns to God the enemy will attack.
Probably the most influential example that one can use in this article would be the American Civil War for it still lives in our hearts and minds as the one conflict that represented the furthest of divisions in this nation. Our nation was still considered to be in its infancy in the mid-1860s and even though we had taken many steps in the growth process there were some issues that had been festering within the layers of our national body that we had refused to deal with. Our founding fathers knew about the issues of race and slavery, the conditions and demands of the Southerners versus the Northerners and their respective and collective productivity, then include these issues with a conglomeration of other minor details of division stir them in a pot for a while and you have the recipe for an impending disaster sometime down the road. It took a while but a stand had to be taken concerning these issues along with many others, and when the time came these issues would infect each family of this nation and no one would be left out of this tragic situation.
One of the saddest truths about this devastating conflict came on the personal level for it separated individuals from each other within their families. You would have husbands against wives brother against brother which led to many brothers fighting on opposite sides of the war. One part of the immediate family would support the Confederacy and the other the Union, a devastating condition that still lingers in the hearts of families today. As each side of the war lined up for a skirmish or major fight, no other setting could be more frightening than to watch a family’s livelihood be wiped out in one battle. Furthermore, the majority of the people did not really believe that such a war could not linger for very long nor would it be ugly and brutal as the military leaders projected. Some history reports even state that people took lawn chairs out to see the lines form and then parade around not knowing or recognizing that when the shooting actually started that bloodshed would occur. It was to be the beginning of a long five-year campaign that stripped this nation of many of her young men and women completely and defined a large portion of our history with these markers. But as the time drew closer to the actual fighting portion of this gross disagreement, stands on both sides of the issue took place and thus had to be recognized by the opposite stand.
I wish that this type of ugliness and division would have been learned way back in the mid 1860s but it has not, and if the truth be known with the advancement of modern technology along with the ability of the mind to create and further develop its ideas, these evil and festered divisions are being manufactured and replicated far more common than one wishes to believe. It seems like every day we turn on the news and we hear about another demonstration or protest about _______. It does not matter what the issue may be, but the same type of battle lines are drawn and people are forced to choose a side, what they do not recognize is that these types of skirmishes only produce further divisions but what is the most frightening aspect of these stances taken is the fact that we do not care about the survival of this nation only to our own individual causes. Most of the time the protest lines are of a distant measure but as with all instances of controversy, at some point in time the differences will be raised at the so-called dinner table and addresses will be adhered to. It is this type of personal division that makes the issues of division today seem relevant because just like many other issues that families face, my family is facing one of the more horrific eternal divisions one can imagine.
This type of setting is one of the most dreaded events a family could imagine, and even though the American Civil War or any other militaristic environment poses an ugly threat to our lives, personal division through domestic, moral, and spiritual beliefs can pose the longer lasting consequences in families. The Bible addresses such divisions and stances between families and the examples give do not matter which level of society is involved either. The example God is giving us today comes from the highest level one person can obtain and that is on the kingship level. Our example comes from 1 Kings 15:9-15 and will serve as the biblical reference to the article. God gives us a prime example here of how to take a stand even if the stand occurs with our family members, for God knows that we will not stand for anything unless we stand at all times and be faithful to what directs our hearts; in this case it is Who directs our hearts as it should be no matter what the circumstances may be. It is tough enough to take a stand when one’s friends are involved but in this case, a direct family member is mentioned and it places the stakes a bit higher while initiating this stance, a stance that had to be made in the eyes of the king and of the King.
In this passage, we are referring to King Asa of Judah and it is during this period of Israel that there are two portions of Israel, Israel, and Judah which had split from each other some point in time before. Both kingships were intact and in functioning order. King Asa was a good king of Judah and noted as such by the Word of God but that does not mean that he did not face difficult challenges at times and in 1 Kings 15 one of those times faced him and it was an important one too. Verse 11 gives us an introduction to how Asa ruled and he did so as his father David ruled which was right in the eyes of the Lord. Verse 12 begins to dive into a bit more about what the people of Judah responded to and where their hearts lay, for it says that Asa had to drive away the sodomites from the land and removed the many idols that were scattered about in their land as well. This verse gives us an idea of how the people were previously ruled and what was allowed to occur and to be built without any denial from the previous king. It is a matter of fact that the people of the land shall always follow the ruler of the land especially when the ruler of the nation follows the ways of the world in which Abijam did for the Word of God states that he walked in all the sins of his fathers before him. This verse also gives us a clue of exactly what the previous kings of Judah allowed to flourish within their realms, settings in which God did not care for at all yet gave the people of Judah time to voluntarily change their minds before true ugliness occurred.
Now, we all understand that it is difficult to have to fire someone or ask them to leave when the person who is asking for a resignation is a close friend to the one being asked to leave. But to have the person being removed is a family member there can be nothing good about this situation and to be honest, many people would not perform this act, and in order to accomplish what needed to be done would have someone else do the so-called dirty work. However, Asa took matters into his own hands and lived up to the role of king that had been given to him by God. This verse tells us that he removed Maachah from being Queen, a huge authority play all because she was practicing an act that was previously accepted as law within the kingdom. But this passage also states that Asa did right in the eyes of God and kept the commands that He gave to David which means that the ways of God did not accept any other idol worship, heavily contrary to what the previous kings of Judah allowed. It is this type of activity that we are discussing here in this passage and more specifically in verse 13, for the queen made an idol for her own worship and pleasure and then tried to hide it amongst a group of trees so that no one would know that it was there. Verse 13 states that Asa found the idol that the queen had purposefully hidden and when he did so immediately removed her from being queen of Judah stripping her of her title and all that went with her status. Asa then took the grotesque figure, the word idol used here means a grotesque figure, and took it to the brook Kidron and burned it.
It is this example of taking a stand for God that must have caused severe heartburn within the ranks of the family and since humans are involved in this setting there must have been some pretty ugly words and threats that occurred as soon as Asa’s performance was made known. What gives him the authority to remove the Queen must have been stated a few times among the familial ranks and amongst the civilian population as well. I can only guess at how many personal threats were made in his name and how many statements of other atrocities that were made against him during those initial days after the sacking, but even with all of this anger towards Asa he never wavered from what God had commanded Israel to live by and under and he performed his duties as God had instructed him to do. Yes, it must have been very tough for him to complete such an act and the suffering must have been almost unbearable, but the stand was gladly taken and thus God was honored and God honored Asa.
The parallel comparisons to today’s societies are strikingly common with each other for there cannot be any question that Queen Maachah knew the Ways of God and what she was supposed to do in the representation of the royal lineage. But her heart was not with God and she had strayed far from God and the proof thereof was in the fact she had an idol that she secretly went to worship on a regular basis. It is for this reason alone that God made it very clear not only to the Israelites but to all of His children that we should not have any idols before God for instead of seeking God in our private times we will seek others and Maachah is a great example of this truth. God cannot play second fiddle to our whims and wants He must be first in our lives for that is the only way He can live and be honest with His Creations, to place us first in His heart. Remember God is a consistent God and if He says something that means He shall do it and if He says this then He must abide by the reciprocal as well.
Our societies today have clung to the worship of idols both in public and in private. This is evident in that if one publically announces something then it is safe to justify that they proclaim it in private as well. The circumstances may vary but the truth remains and it is that truth that our hearts display and therefore it tells everyone what lies within our hearts. As we all know, if humans do anything according to God and His Ways there will be backlash from the world and its community, it is a sad truth but one that cannot be hidden either for we must remember that what lies within our hearts shall always be publically presented when challenged it is the way of the spirit realm. It will not be easy and in many cases, the people that have taken a stand will be shunned by those who are offended by the stance. As stated above our family is currently experiencing a setting such as this where one side of the family has called out the sin and the other side of the family has embraced it. The conditions of such setting have eternal consequences and the person involved knows and understands this fact yet chooses to live in sin by choice justifying their actions with the Satanic and worldly lie that God loves them enough to overlook their heart’s sin. The dangers of worldly love are that it promotes the concept that one does not need to demonstrate obedience to God, thus living a lie and not true love.
Asa demonstrates this obedience through true love by the example he set and then delivered when the time arrived and it is this same type of stance that the Church needs to take against the plight of the world and its leader. But we have decided to pacify this lie and to allow it to grow within our church building walls thus allowing it to infiltrate our hearts as well. We have become worldly leaders without an eternal figure to lead us into God’s Kingdom promoting what the world says is a part of its accomplishments instead of eradicating them from our hearts. If we truly love people and proclaim this love to them then we have an obligation to call them out, gently and lovingly, concerning their sin. The act of destructing sin is an aggressive one and there can be no mistake about this truth, but if we do not truly love and care for the person before, during, and after the cleansing process we are liars within ourselves and thus no good at all to the sinner. I have watched so many people try and validate the truth through angry words and actions, and that only divides and steps away from the truth from those that need God.
Not much is mentioned about Maachah after this incident and correction and with any doubt, it was a difficult time in the Kingdom of Judah for the work of the world had been great and King Asa had a bunch of work to complete. I pray that the setting in my family does not bear any further mention as in the fact that complete separation ensues but that total deliverance and complete restoration come within their lives. We cannot control what others place into their hearts and believe is true about another, but we can control how we display our lives to them and if we cave in and accept their worldly ways as our own then our dominion will be invaded by our enemy, do not believe me ask Adam and Eve. With the total devastation and destruction of Judah it is evident that they did not heed to the ways of God and thus God allowed their destruction to occur. As stated above and in many previous articles from God, He is a consistent God and if He has performed such an act before He can and will if provoked at some point down the human road.
This nation was founded and established by God for a reason and ever since that first blessing back in the 1600s we have done our best to further that blessing by our own hands and not through God’s. These selfish fruits are now being exposed for the world to see and the dangerous part is that we are in the continual blaming mode instead of admitting to our lies and fornications then repenting to God. I cannot rule out the Church in this eternal struggle either, for she has committed some horrendous atrocities over our glorious history and she needs to turn her heart around or stand and be corrected as the nations shall be as well. God wants us to stand up and account for the sins that inhabit our dominion and then burn them before Him so that we can be free of the bondage of worldly slavery that it can only give, only God offers complete and true eternal freedom and we cannot obtain this truth unless we obey His Ways and His definition. The idol that Maachah made was by Hebrew definition a grotesque image and if the physicality of such an image is worshipped then only one image within the spirit can be presented too. The physical cannot be eternally good-looking and the spiritual not have the same looks, it just cannot operate in such a manner. The heart determines what our lives are witness to and what we witness to others as well and if the things we worship occur with worldly standards then there is no way we can continue to live within the Garden of Eden.
This truth of resemblance will always shine forth no matter if you are a queen, CEO, or just a common block walking the streets living a normal life. As we have read above it really does not matter what area of life we may profess in our lives but when it comes to turning our lives around and then demonstrating a heart for God we shall have to take a stand at some time. It is tough to take this stand against the world for it is known that there will be harsh worldly consequences to face when public notice is given, but taking a stand for what God says is correct shows the world and the surrounding home court advantage that we have a backbone and that we have confidence in our eternal truth that we believe and that through this stance our resemblance of what we believe is strong and cannot be taken away. A detail to remember is that the world will always stand up for its beliefs and protrude them through their voices which is why it is vital that we stand up and take the higher Authority in order to spread the eternal truth to those who are lost. God challenges us today to take that tough stand with Him in order to shed light on the ones who are promoting and thus accepting the kingdom of the world into their lives, God created our hearts for His praise and His inhabitance and we need to be prepared to stand for what is correct and righteous and to destroy the work of the devil.
DLB
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