If Not For Bettering
4/14/19
It is a common goal of humanity to make things better for
our children and for everyone else around us and for the most part we try to
adhere to this structure of living. But
as our eyes open to a new day we find that it seems like while we try to
accomplish this bettering of our lives we are actually pulling away from each
other faster than ever before. There is
a reason for this and that is because we are becoming more idolatrous and egotistical
when it comes to our choices and we flaunt these eras in the face of others as
we curse them for defying our ways. This
conglomeration of beliefs cannot exist but the god that we have chosen to rule
our lives deems otherwise, right over the cliff. Until we return to the true Creator our lives
shall continue to the end of the track and we will have no choice but to roll
to our eternal end. He can stop this
wreck from occurring and when we let Him we can save so many other trains from
falling over as well.
Over the past few years, we have been discussing how the
Church has fallen down on the job when it comes to witnessing correctly,
effectively, and truthfully to the dying world.
It is so sad to me when I see politicians defend God with the idea of
death being at their forefront and defending their actions through the word
“love”. It disturbs me that these people
have fallen for an eternal lie from our enemy and have been fooled for fluently
that they believe that what they are saying and defending actually comes from
God’s own heart. Every time my ears hear
such travesty it breaks my heart and it aches for them to know the truth, the
eternal Truth and not the truth of the world.
Ironically, while these people are defending God through their own means
the world in which they are standing up for is doing its best to silence the
true Love of God and His Ways. The only
way that this could ever occur is if we are out winning the lost for Christ to
be an effective missionary to the lost and not sitting in the pews waiting for
God to work miracles in our lives and for the return of Christ.
As almost every person in the world knows, next year is
the presidential election in this nation.
The “political gurus” have already begun their crusades against the
other parties and it is only a matter of time before our phone lines are
inundated with political opinion polls and questions wanting to know “my
concerns”. The other day I was listening
to one of the Democratic people running for president and me could not help but
sink my head as he made it clear that he loved God and that his way of life
(married homosexual) was acceptable to God and that if a certain person in the
political opposition had any problems with it that it was not him he was to
deal with but “his creator”. Well, the
reason my head sank was that for the entire monologue this person praised how
his husband made him a better person and a better human being. He gushed at the fact that his life with
his husband could not have been defined any better and that every stable thing
in his life was owed to his husband.
Then he made the statement about God and how the opposing person should
take matters up with Him and not him.
This is where my anger flared a bit because in essence, this Christian
person, as he believes he is, was using threats to “witness” to others about his
stance concerning his life. Not once did
this person ever say let us come to the table and talk about God and maybe we
can mend some fences, nor did he once initiate a compassionate witness
statement about Jesus and serving Him, only his denomination. And to be honest, his belief in God and what
he thinks about those who do not agree with his lifestyle is no different than
those people who have been sitting in pews for their entire Christian walk and
have done nothing for the advancement of the TRUE Kingdom of God.
It is true that at one point in the early stages of a
person’s Christian walk, they were on fire for God and properly witnessed for
God and was not a hypocrite. But as time
went along, their enthusiasm began to dwindle and after a while, the wind came
along and easily blew that eternal light to the world out. At first, it bothered us but as more time went
along and seeing the world in another light, it became easier to function
“normally” without God being first in our lives. Yes, we kept up appearances by attending
Sunday School and almost every church service offered but our candle within was
still burnt out with no match in sight to relight that flame. We then came up with the idea that we were
safe in the eternal arms of God because we did get saved on a certain date that
we emphatically remember and that since we live a good life there is no need to
do anything more. Our battle over the
enemy is done for we have accepted God and He has promised to take care of us
when we come to Him; in other words, not completely changing the atmosphere
when it comes to defeating the enemy. We
are standing over him because it is true we have defeated him but by us sitting
and doing nothing we are making a grave error and it shall come back to haunt
us one day. We have a wonderful example
of this in a popular story that almost everyone who attended Sunday school will
recognize, David and Goliath.
1 Samuel 17 covers this great story and it is one of great
victory for God through the simplicity of a shepherd boy who would one day
become king of Israel. The passage that
we are going to be using for this article is 17:48-51 with the main focus being
on verse 50. We have David hitting his
target square on the forehead with a simple stone being slung from his sling,
an event that seems to be totally impossible to play out but it is a true story
and every bit of detail occurred just as the Bible said it did. David did exactly what he was trained to do
when he encountered an enemy that wanted to harm his sheep and the entire
actions of David was ordained and approved by God. It is this action by David also gives us the ideal picture of how Christians are to attack the enemy and how to defeat him
completely, but over our lives as “Christians” we have become soft and
hypocritical over our actions towards the enemy and because of these
disobedient actions of ours we are now witnessing a return of the enemy that
has reversed the setting of 1 Samuel 17 and now he holds the eternal slingshot
and stone.
This passage tells us a lot
about how we as Christians conduct ourselves over our enemy, the issue that God
has with our conduct is that we do not follow His example and thus allow the
enemy to rise up again and take charge over what God has Created. The
word prevailed used here in verse 50 comes from the Hebrew word “wayyechezaq”
which is translated as to be strong, grow firm, resolute, prevail upon and to
harden. This is a state or status which means that the condition of the said person, when faced with a difficulty, rises up to the occasion and takes care of
business with the strength and authority that God has given them. It may
not always look like you have the advantage when you step into the spiritual
ring of battle and you might get laughed at by the enemy when you arrive, but
it is through the eternal strength of our eternal Father that gives us the
stamina and the wisdom to overcome such occupation.
David uses a sling and a stone
as his weapons against the massive giant that faced him. The word for a sling in Hebrew is “baqqela” and it means a simple drape, curtain, or
sling. It is simple in nature and structure and would not be considered
to most warriors as a threat when it is used as a single instrument but when
driven by God it becomes a different type of seizure and one that shall always
hit its target dead center. The word for stone in Hebrew that is used
here is “ubaeben” which is just a simple common stone. Again, if a person
picked up a stone and threw it at someone it may hit them and hurt for a while,
but it would not inflict major damage or even death but as stated above, when
God has His hand on the day and the situation nothing can stop the Truth from
being conducted no matter what the situation presents.
What David does here is a good
example of the Church being on fire for God and living through His Ways and
obedience. However, it is also this position of ours where we stop and
put down our holy weapons and return to the spiritual pew and believe that we
have completed the job that God wanted us to do. It is this action of
ours or lack of continued action that explains our eternal mistake and serves
as the basis of our downfall. For Jesus said to go into the entire world and
preach the gospel, He said nothing to do it and then return back to our safe
houses. This passage that God uses in this article explains this position
of ours and it really defines our condition more than we think for it also
gives us an extra step here that many of us do not do and probably most of us
do not even understand. Prevailing over our enemy is the foundation of
what Jesus commanded us to do and it served as the Living example of how He
lived when He was on earth. But prevailing was not and is not good enough
we must take the authority that God and Jesus gave us and do one more thing,
cut off the head of our downed enemy.
Do you know what the
Philistines would have done if they had witnessed David drop Goliath with the
stone, just stood over him, and then nothing to finalize the victory?
When you have an opponent down and to all eyes, it looks like the competition is
over it is a gross mistake not to finish the opponent off until there is
absolutely no life available again. How many times have we been at a sporting
event and the highly favored team does not rise up fully and just put the
opposing team away just to have them come back and beat the favored team in the
end? The same eternal and spiritual opponent that we face everyday lives
under this concept as well and if we do not cut the spiritual head off of our
enemy his army shall see this fault and incompletion of ours and shall rise up
again and take spiritual revenge against us down the line. This is not a
maybe or might occur it is a guarantee for Jesus addresses this subject in
Matthew 12:44 when He teaches about the demons returning from a cleaned house
that is still empty.
Church, for too long we have
stood over our enemy and claimed victory over him without finalizing the act on
the level that our enemy truly lives by and understands. It is truly a
victory for God when His children follow through and defeat the enemy and when
a person is saved that is exactly what occurs; however, it does not stop there
nor is the process at its end. Taking a stand against the enemy is the
first step, you are prevailing and then you down the enemy dead with the
weapons that God gives you, not mankind’s weapons. All who live and
proclaim Jesus as their Savior have been at this position over the enemy but
when we are in this position many of us find ourselves gloating over the enemy
and then walking away from the position like the battle has been won.
That is far from the truth because our enemy shall rise up again and will
remember what occurred and come after you and your surroundings with a
spiritual vengeance that might just eternally separate you from God.
What is demonstrated here is a
person sitting and not bettering themselves through the Word of God and through
the command of Jesus. Remember that Jesus said He
came to give us life abundantly; one cannot receive such a gift if we are not
actively accomplishing His command. Sitting around and doing nothing is
not going out to the world and preaching the gospel, it is not continually
setting the example of what Christ did, nor does it represent why Jesus gave
His life as a living sacrifice for all mankind. How many times have we
read in the Old Testament about how God told Israel to complete a certain job
in a specific manner, then have Israel turn around and not complete the task at
hand according to what God said to do? This disobedient action cost
Israel many lives in the future but it also cost them a few kings and great
leaders as well. How much are we willing to give up because of our stubborn
and prideful actions instead of completing the job as God has directed
us? What we do not realize is that through this action of ours and not
cutting off the head of our defeated enemy we are setting up one of the most
incredible slaughters ever known.
It is true that God’s Word
cannot be changed in any way, shape, or form but at least we can delay some of
its conclusions if we turn our hearts back to His Ways before things get out of
hand. God is a proactive God and One that is alive and in constant motion.
His Word says that He is the lamp to our feet and a light unto our path.
This means that the light and lamp can only be effective if we are moving for
both do not mean much when one is standing still. This is why Jesus said
for us to go into the entire world because if we just sit around and do nothing
for His Kingdom not only will we miss His glory, but we will also fail to see
His Kingdom work as it was created to live.
Oh how one can imagine if Adam and Eve had not allowed God’s completely
defeated enemy into their lives and thus our lives; we can only imagine how our
existence would be today.
Oh, Church, it is time that we
get off our duffs and go into the world and complete the work that God has told
us to do. We need to be bettering ourselves through the command of
Jesus. 1 Samuel 17:50 is a victorious verse but we can no longer afford
to stop at this verse and leave David (the Church) standing over Goliath
(Satan) and completing what God has told us to do. Living in a victorious
life under God is just as His Life is, complete and continuous not half way
done or wishy-washy. From what God’s Word tells us if we live in such a
half manner lifestyle then it will be certain that we shall fall at some point
in time during our lives, but if we live completely in Him defeating His and
our enemy fully, we shall live abundantly under the eternal Sacrificial Lamb’s
blood along with the ones that have come to Christ through our obedience to His
command.
DLB
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