After the "T" Has Been Decided

After the “T” Has Been Decided

10/23/18

It is not uncommon that people ignore warning signs and have to face certain consequences of their ignorance sometime in their future.  It is also understood that hindsight is extraordinarily clear when it comes to such decisions, but the main questions afterward are how much is left of our lives and what can be salvaged if anything.  We take for granted the issue of choices and have rallied to the point where only a certain path is acceptable in the name of choices, a condition that has grave consequences not only for the individual but for a nation as well.  God still wants us to choose Him and His Ways for it this path that is the only one that can lead to peace, happiness, and restoration.  God calls us to repentance and it is His desire not for us to be witnesses to certain devastation both physically and spiritually.  We can avoid such calamity if we only return to God and act like we trust only Him and not the world.

There comes a time in every person’s life when the manifestations of their choices come to fruition and present themselves in a very specific manner.  When this time arrives, it becomes very visible to others through the words and actions that the demonstrating people conduct.  For the most part, their actions speak volumes for what they have accepted as the truth, so much so that they become advocates of such decisions and stick by those choices whenever challenged.  What the concerning issue is that when the world is chosen it gives the ones who have chosen this way of life a distinct advantage and for those who reject such teachings must understand how to spiritually combat such dealings for the division between the two eternal kingdoms is being displayed and will continue the fight for one’s eternal possession.  A worldly choice and the one, who accepts it cannot live with those who choose God and His Kingdom, look around you today and this type of setting is very apparent.  Sadly, unless we effectively witness to these beautiful people and through the power of God they change their lives, our world shall continue to sink in its own muck and mire and drag those who truly believe in God and wish to advance His Kingdom down with it.

It has always amazed me that many people who work in the medical profession practice terrible health habits while congruently providing tests on other people who face horrific possibilities of having serious issues in the near future.  One of the most intriguing settings concerning this is the respiratory techs who smoke.  Over the decades that I have worked in this profession, I have noticed that many of these techs smoke and have smoked for a very long time.  One would think that it would be this section of the medical profession that would be the staunchest advocates of clean breathing with absolutely no mention of smoking in their lives.  But as time has passed, I have not witnessed any type of decline in the percentages of respiratory techs that smoke only a head-shaking increase in that number.  Why would anyone who has watched people suffocate at a later portion of their life or witnessed them drown in their own bodily fluids all due to the history of smoking?  Yet, many hospital personnel do choose to smoke and do so with no conviction at all.  I am not just picking on this department, for many hospital personnel practice this nasty habit and fall into the same category as their patients.  Smoking is not the only ill practice of self-indulgence that will lead to major problems in people’s lives either.  There are countless other factors that we voluntarily bring into our lives that darken our physical hearts enough to warrant such activities, a process that is a direct reflection of how our spiritual lives are being led as well.

I must include myself in this category because for a long period of time in my life I knew that my genetic makeup was not of good stock and that I needed to keep in shape in order to maintain a healthy heart.  I studied these disease processes for decades even when I was a young boy growing up my nose was always in some type of medical textbook.  So, when the time came for my heart to say enough and to tell me that something was wrong, I knew that it was all my personal fault but still considered myself, on a certain level, exempt of such healthy teachings even though I was given another chance to change my life before it was over.  Over the next fifteen years my heart continued its genetic charge towards clogging up and this early fall it came to a head when I found myself in a hospital with a nice little scar on my chest with tubes running out of my body.  Yes, I had made the choice to change my eating and exercise patterns and to be honest did a fairly decent job, but it was the initial damage so long ago that sealed my fate a few weeks ago.  I knew what was eventually coming to my life but I was not completely dedicated to completely follow through with the changes that needed to be made.  It was these relaxed choices of mine that produced the consequences which now keeps me from the work that I so adamantly love.

Every time I read the passage that God wants us to hear again I cannot help but to think just how parallel our nation is compared to the people of the passage and I also cannot help but to read further and to see the consequences of such tragic choices that Israel made because when you put the two nation’s hearts next to each other, one cannot deny the fact that both look identical.  We will return to 1 Samuel 8 and once again take a deeper look at what occurs when choices to accept the world enter our lives and what effects it has on our lives when we make such a choice.  The processing of knowing both sides of the kingdom realm does not make things any easier; in fact, it makes all issues increasingly difficult to walk through because we will continually have a spiritual battle inside while we destructively walk through standards that we know we could be avoiding.   

Our official text is 1 Samuel 8:1-7 and we see that the children of Israel have made a fateful choice in who they want to rule over them even though they know their past and who Created them as a nation.  It is this detail of knowledge that might seem a bit frustrating to us and cause us to ask why they would do such an act but when we apply the first few paragraphs of this article to our own lives it becomes clear as to why such decisions were made.  It is of the most important of items for us to remember that the children of Israel were humans, just like us and since this is a fact we can and probably will be subject to the same choice decisions that they faced.  What is frightening about this passage is that we have reached the same position that Israel did and we have made the exact same choice as they did.

In verse 3 we see that the sons of Samuel were made judges over Israel and that they had not followed in the ways of God as Samuel had shown them.  This is not an uncommon pattern when the hearts of a nation have become weary with what they believe God should be doing in their lives and in their nation for they did not understand that while they made this choice officially they had already come to this conclusion privately earlier.  There was no question that the sons of Samuel did not know God and the teachings of His Ways but on the other hand, they chose not to follow such ways and instead took from the people in such a manner in which the world can only teach.  In what ways do we read here that is not different from the way that our government leaders act and draw from today?  When a mediocre salary produces such lavish bank accounts over time that one cannot deny that some type of corruption has been issued during their tenure, and how many deals are struck while laws are being made in order to get fellow colleagues to vote for such outrageous and meaningless legislatures that will advance personal gain instead of national interests?  How many of these so-called godly leaders have achieved their statuses through shady bargaining or through stepping on others and using others to achieve this level of leadership?  More importantly, why are we as a nation falling for such ridiculous ideas we pursue as being hidden yet are blinded by the light of what direction we are heading, and why are we not asking God for help to correct such heart rendering decisions?

In verse 4 we find that the elders of Israel came together and made a consensus decision to go and talk to Samuel about such wicked dealings that his sons were handing down including direct perversions of judgments that everyone had to deal with and could not ignore.  Notice that these accusations against the sons of Samuel were not rebuked by the leaders of the people which mean that they themselves knew what was occurring yet did not wish to change judges and keep the ways of God this type of action can only come from the heart folks.  This meeting of elders gives us the consensus of how the people felt and how they were fed up with the leadership that was placed before them but instead of changing leaders and ensuring that God continues to rule their lives they take a different path and it is this path that they took that is evident in our society today.  As we see our nation’s congressional, business, entertainment, and countless other leaders fall for scandalous accusation and call out everyone else but themselves, one cannot help but worry for the status of this nation especially since we continually look at humans for encouragement and guidance.  We have become so obsessed with becoming like other nations that we fail to see that we are living out this passage of Scripture, and most troubling is that our nation shall walk in the same results as she did.  Are we really that stupid and dumb to believe that “our” way is any different than Israel’s?

It is this setting and words from the elders in verse 5 that verbally admit what was already in their hearts as a nation.  Now, I cannot believe that every single person within the nation of Israel wanted this choice to be their ruling but the majority of the people, due to the agreement of the elders, was in order to separate themselves from their Creator and join the world’s gathering.  So, one can ask these questions: where was God in their lives and how come they had fallen so far away that they no longer wanted to have anything to do with God?  To some it may be a baffling set of questions but to others they may be ones that are easily identified and answered but for whatever the detailed history of such unruly behavior and corruption that had been presented it was present long enough by those who were supposed to be led of God that the majority of the people did not want anything to do with God.  They had been blinded enough with their hearts that they could no longer know and feel the need for God in their lives, in other words, they rose above the truth about their Creation and establishment by God enough that they fully denied His existence in their lives.  It was this choice and change within their hearts that eventually led to the reasoning that they should look toward other nations for their improvements rather than God.

When I was a younger lad, I found it funny that people would place so much trust in a system instead of God but as I grew in age that “funniness” waned and I understood why people chose this path of self-governance for a good portion of me accepted such reliance.  Israel wanted this self-reliance as well for their eyes had been witness of the differences that other nations had and it must have been frustrating to not be able to participate in the same activities as they, for I know that some of the choices that my wife and I made for our girls went contrary to what the world preached and I know at some point they had to wonder why we were different.  The people that defined Israel wanted to control what they did or did not do and through this self-nation building conceptual belief they grew in separation from God until their identity was stolen from them right before their eyes.

Verse 6 tells us that Samuel was very upset with what Israel had decided to ask for and since the elders were the ones that brought this proposal to Samuel it had already been decided by the people to leave the confines of God and His Creative Covenant.  Now, Samuel took this proclamation personally and was very displeased with what his ears had heard.  Samuel prayed to God for guidance and to basically tell on the children of Israel a typical reaction when something goes wrong and the human takes the next step.  It is interesting to me that Samuel did not address the fact that his sons were part of the reason that Israel was not happy with God and that it was their actions that played a major role in the tribes wishing for secular peace instead of eternal protection from God.

Verse 7 gives us the condition of Israel’s heart and just how far down the road they had gone from God.  God tells Samuel that it is not because of the actions or Samuel that Israel had turned but because their hearts had turned from Him.  This is a process and a desire that people must choose to take and not one that comes overnight.  When eyes and hearts are focused on the human aspect of life alone they cannot understand the difference between righteousness and sin for sin becomes the norm and God is looked upon as the outsider.  Verses 6-8 reiterate the fact that Israel had no intentions of replacing the corrupted officials and keep their ways with God, but that they wanted to go their own way and do their own way instead.  In other words, they had accepted the fact that what the judges were doing was wrong but at the same time accepted the fact that they could follow in their footsteps and grab a piece of the pie as well which could prove to be more lucrative than what their present situation was.  Does this way of thinking sound familiar to anyone?  It should for it is exactly what this nation, western societies, and the Church all believe and function within today.

The lingering question was if Israel understood what their actions were doing to them and if they knew that they were legally violating the eternal Covenant that God established their nation under.  Had they grown so far away from God that they flat refused to recognize their history and the reason why they were created in the first place?  It seems like this is the case for God speaks directly about this setting in verse 8 when He makes the statement that they have rejected Him and not Samuel.  God did not forget the origins of His Covenant and still stayed in faithfulness to Israel even after this passage took hold in their land.  This is also a pattern of God that we need to remember that He shall never violate His Covenant for Covenant is His definition; therefore, it is us that can only violate this Covenant setting which legally places us in a very dangerous breach of Covenant and thus subject to countless attacks from the enemy.  Israel had made up their minds about the direction they wanted to live and to whom they wanted to serve and even though God did not like this decision of theirs He allowed it which is another detail about Covenant that we need to remember, God shall allow us to leave but if we do He cannot protect us as if we were under Covenant.  The heart of Israel had become so darkened that it had infiltrated the interior layers of their spirit enough that they willingly chose the world as a solution to their anger, spiritual torture, and pain.

While this passage is one of human’s own admission it is one that proclaims what the heart sees as just and truth.  In this case and many like it, the heart has made the decision that it can survive quite nicely without its Creator’s guidance or any influence from Him on any and all levels.  It breaks God’s heart to hear such words flow from our mouths but He allows such words to protrude and thus commend our actions to our own will.  Even though God allows us to go at things on our own it does not mean that He gives up on us returning to Him.  God understands what shall occur to our lives when we make such a worldly acceptance for just as God cannot change the world cannot change either and when we choose the world we accept what it has to offer us with open arms and doors.  This is not the Covenant that God wants us to live under for when we do He cannot protect us according to His Definition and since we are born into this world and born into sin it is an eternal fight for us every day.  How can we not compare ourselves today with the attitude in which Israel demonstrated to God in this passage?  It is impossible for one to draw any other conclusion that by our own admissions we are following in the exact same path as Israel did so long ago, another example of how we as humans fail to recognize our own history.

I can imagine some of you do not want to believe in this article’s content, and there are a few out there that may not even understand that the direction that this nation is heading in a bad direction.  I must ask you to examine this passage closely and to think about the words and actions that are presented here and then compare these words and actions in this passage to the words and actions that we hear on a daily basis today.  Are they different at all?  The only difference is that many more people see what is transpiring in our nation because there are many more of us than those that lived in Israel so long ago.  Both sets of hearts have changed and are making their contents known without holding back, see when the heart has changed its course or has accepted a directional path it becomes compliant with that direction’s beliefs then you throw the spiritual additions into play and you have an eternal battle that spills over into both realms and is characteristically demonstrated without any hindrance to the darkening process of our hearts.

When we accept the world we cannot help but to further darken our hearts which means that when this color begins to grow it has only one direction to flow and that is around to the surrounding tissues.  The other day I watched a mob surround a supporter of President Trump.  They backed her up against a glass door and began to hit her with eggs and other debris it became so bad that the owners of the store opened the door of their store and pulled her inside.  As if this was not bad enough, as the scenario unfolded one could see about ten people filming the altercation on their phones and the evil looks (grins) that they had on their faces while doing the filming was strictly out of a horror film.  They were enjoying what they were doing and what they were seeing transpire to someone that had different opinions than they did.  It is this type of action that we need to understand comes straight from Satan himself for it is exactly how he feels about God and you.  Let that statement sink into your head real deep for it is this process in which Satan uses in order to gain control of those who accept the world.

Even worse, Satan has convinced the Church to operate in the exact same manner and thus has had a great deal of influx into the downfall of the Church.  Through this obvious fallout, one cannot deny that she is only being rewarded with what she has allowed into her heart.  The Church is supposed to stand opposite of the world and to be representative of God’s holy Covenant to those who wish to escape from the world’s vulgar presence, not to accept that vile vulgarity into the walls of her sacred chambers (heart).  I am not saying that we should stand on the corner of streets and scream at those walking by and shunning them as those who do not know God, but in order for us to bring in those that are lost we must be willing to have conversations with them long enough to build a trust that might open the doors of their hearts to God.  In no way do we have to compromise our godly standards when we are performing this mission of ours for it is necessary for us to stay holy throughout this process for if we do not then we have personally succumbed to the world as well and have defeated what Jesus wants us to complete.

The days of the world shall not become any easier, for the ruler of the world understands that his physical time is running out, and in order for him to keep as many people away from God as possible he must inject further and deeper conflict between humans.  Its bad enough to be at odds with the world but to add the Church into the mess only deepen the wounds that Satan can inflict and then pour worldly salt into.  We can no longer afford to take worldly responsibility for our actions but we must take on the full armor of God in order to shed the world and to fight it on all sides.  God is searching our hearts for a way for Him to get it through our heads and then into our hearts that this is serious business, an eternal business that shall end ugly for countless amounts of people if they do not turn and return to God.  This includes the Church for she has fallen asleep to God and has allowed the world to sit right next to her and distract her as the Word of God is taught.  How many of us did not pay attention to what the preacher or Sunday School teacher taught us when we were younger, or do we still do that today as well?

We have no clearer example of what occurs to a nation when they reject God and turn to the world than the passage that God has once again given us to understand.  When the hearts of people totally lose faith in God and place that faith in the world, that brand of equality is a deadly sort because we are doomed to die and the world cannot offer anything but death because it is from the same lot.  So, why do we choose the world again?  It is time for repentance Church.  It is time that we place our hearts back into the Word of God and allow God to cover our hearts with His eternal Covenant and to give Jesus’ blood an opportunity to stop our darkened hearts from corrupting the remainder of our spirits and our bodies. 

Why do we have to face adversity for us to become “reacquainted” with God?  And do we not understand that when we live in this type of belief in God that it means we have no clue about who He is or what He has done for us all of these years?  Why do we look at the breach that is over us and pick up rocks to see if we can throw them through the breach or worse look up at this breach and consider it a part of the normal sky?  A few years ago God showed us and gave us an article that stated that we were approaching the “T” and that a decision had to be made and that decision would affect our nation from then onward.  Israel faced that “T” and they made their choice and passed that “T” with their decision and from what I can tell, this nation along with its relational Church status with God has also made that choice and has moved onward without God as well.

The blessings of Israel were countless when God created her and His promises concerning His blessings on those who blessed her and vice versa concerning the cursing against her all added up to God’s perfect plan for His chosen nation.  There has been only one nation that ever existed since that early biblical nation of Israel that has been utterly blessed in such manner, and that nation is the United States of America.  There is no question that the way this country was founded that it was founded on the principles that God desired for true freedom, especially in worship to Him.  Yes, we have stepped in it many times over our history but up until a short time ago we have kept and dressed the commands of God in this nation.  But now we have short-sided God and His ways and wish nothing further to do with Him so in turn, we have the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in our mouths and are turning to give it to others.  This path can only lead to one result and that is the same result as any other example we can find in God’s Word.  But as of this moment, we have the opportunity to repent and to turn back to God and allow Him to cover our hearts with His Son’s blood before it is too late.  God urges us to come back to Him for times are going to become tough real soon and this nation shall endure some major notices that will sting tremendously and if our hearts are not under the blood Covenant of God we shall turn against each other during this calamity and will never be able to recover.

DLB