Behold this was the guilt of your sister Sodom:

she and her daughters had arrogance,

abundant food and careless ease,

but she did not help the poor and needy.

Ezekiel 16:49

Our new house has a garbage disposal. It is the first one I have had since I lived in an apartment for a little over a year almost 15 years ago. As I stood there at the sink washing dishes I looked down at this disposal and grief overtook me.

How on earth did we get to the point of such abundance that someone thought of a way to make a product that’s sole purpose was to aid us in the chore of the disposal of left-over food by grinding it up to the point that we could wash it down the drain? And it was a sought out invention to be commonly found in many American homes… even cheap run-down apartments.

As I have studied through Ezekiel and God’s message to His people… and as I have looked at our American church and at my own life it is the same message we need to hear and heed today.

The sin of Sodom was not homosexuality… it was arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease… these three led to the perversions and sexual sin of city.

Have you ever wondered why God sent Adam and Eve out to toil and eat by the sweat of his face?

Could it possibly be that this was a gift and not a punishment?

Could it possibly be that this was mercy, grace, and direction and not part of the curse?

The business of Adam was to care for the ground, to cultivate it, and to go forth and multiply… obviously Adam and Eve were not hard at work cultivating or multiplying or they would have been to “occupied” to have time for the deception of that serpent of old.

When man is busy about his Father’s business… living in purposeful obedience he doesn’t have time for lies.

However with careless ease, no worries of provision, in plenty… well man gets cocky, arrogant, and lazy. Man gets idle. Man thinks he no longer has to listen to guidance… man gets wide open for lies. How many lies of the serpent do we in the American church listen to daily sitting on our couches in our Christian homes watching a talking box?

How arrogant have we become…

How many professing believers think they “don’t have to go to church”?

How many think they don’t have to “obey the Word”?

How many think they don’t have to “give when someone needs”?

How many think they don’t “have to go work cause someone else will send them a check”?

Arrogance, abundance, and careless ease… the worst part of arrogance is pride and ungratefulness. The worst part of abundance is laziness and losing the sight of the need of others. The worst part of careless ease… I have never known careless ease not to lead to sexual sin in some form or fashion… I have never known sexual sin not to lead to the destruction of a heart, a soul, a marriage, a life…

Look at Sodom… look at Judah… look at Samson… look at David… look at Solomon… look at Herod… look at our nation… look at the church… look at yourself.

In Atlanta alone 129 girls are raped 10 to 15 times a day and on Thursday through Saturday every 54 seconds a girl is raped through forced prostitution. Atlanta is also one of the top 3 cities in the United States for child prostitution… and a couple of weekends ago Atlanta was packed full of believers who had the money and time to show up for Nascar, college football, concerts, etc… but how many times has Atlanta been stormed with believers who are choosing to use their time and money to rescue?

I have attended the Passion conference several times with our college students and every time we go we donate to the Do Something Now fundraisers they hold for many different ministries… and we always pat ourselves on the back and feel so good about ourselves because we “did” something… but then we walk away and are not doing anything but getting back to our daily mundane complaints of woe is me because my current careless ease, abundance, and arrogance is only enough to keep me from feeling guilty about my lack of “doing something” all the time so I need more abundance, more careless ease, and more arrogance so that I don’t even have enough consideration outside myself to have to address this oh so not comfortable feeling of guilt…

So are you busy about your Father’s business?

Are you cultivating the ground of His grace?

Are you working the soil of the hearts around you?

Are you going forth and multiplying the kingdom?

Are you spreading the Seed of the Father over the face of this earth?

Therefore be careful how you walk,

not as unwise men but as wise, 

making the most of your time,

because the days are evil.

 So then do not be foolish,

but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:15-17

So perhaps the cultivating the ground by the sweat of his face… perhaps the pain in childbirth… perhaps the thorn and the thistles were  all for the salvation of Adam and Eve and not their demise… perhaps it was to keep them looking up to their Father seeking His face and holding on to the hope of His eternal life instead of sitting at ease in their sin listening to the serpent’s lies all the way to eternal death…

No pain no gain.

That truth has never changed…

 

And it’s my “most recent failure” post …

At&t is not my friend.

We are actually arch enemies… or maybe frenemies since I am still bound to them through a cellular contract. They have been the thorn in my side, the tormentor of my flesh, the instigator of my fury, the object of my wrath for the past several years and it began it’s climax in March of this year…

I rejoiced the day I cancelled our internet service with them… I thought it was over.

Ummmm no.

After our move I discovered three modems that they had neglected to send me return labels in order to ship their equipment back to them. I wanted to just trash them and wash my hands of them. However after several warnings from family and friend about their come out of nowhere and charge you eventually for them, I called the demons from hell once again…

And I got put on hold.

And I got transferred.

And I got hung up on… three times.

The heat rose in my face and the wrath of the red head was inflamed and unleashed upon this poor answerer of the phone.

Finally an address label was to be sent to our home so that I could return their stuff and be done with the att internet services forever.

And it never came…

We went to the beach… had a wonderful time… I was refreshed, refocused, and ready… right?

Right up until the time we checked the mail when we got back and saw the wonderful little postcard from AT&T threatening to charge us for the unreturned modems that they never sent a label for…

URRRRGGGGG!

The eye twitch began, my head spun around six times,  and green gunk shot out of my mouth as the fury of my tongue lashed the supervisor that I demanded to speak to… and the fury escalated as these people are required by the AT&T policy to start at the beginning of the story every time… really???

Let’s see how mad you can get me while you got me. Is that not what these “files” and “this call is being recorded” are for? (and I use “mad” on purpose because I am sure I was like rabid b***h as I barked and growled my last year of complaints into the ear of this poor man who is just trying to provide for his family).

Why yes…

I am refreshed, refocused, and ready…

Ready for anything but AT&T.

So this “supervisor” sets me up with UPS to go and give them a code number and they will take it from there. So I get my code and head out Monday afternoon a little before 4pm in the pouring rain to deliver these modems to the UPS store to have them shipped out of my life forever in between my mad rush from duties at homeschool co-op (that I left unfinished due to lack of time) and getting my youngest to violin practice by 5pm (that we ended up never making it to).

I have to call my AT&T directory to locate the UPS store as I am driving because it’s not where I thought it was and of course who can get to live person who can help you anymore??? Finally after 15 minutes of press 1, I get a living breathing live person who sends me to the UPS store at our local Staples… that I passed 5 miles back… and did I mention it was poring down rain and my gas tank was sucking air at this time?

So I turn around.

Get to Staples.

Walk up to the UPS counter.

The young girl asks how she can help me. I begin to explain… and the minute I said AT&T gave me this code, she interrupts me and says she can’t help me. AT&T gives them problems and she won’t even let me finish my story and just waves me out with an shoulder shrugging sorry and hands me a card for a UPS store 30 minutes away that she said might work with AT&T.

Did I mention I was wet, rushed, out of gas, delivering something for Satan himself…???

By this time my kids have heard an earful of me yelling at automated recordings (like they can hear me right? my husband laughs and says “Nicole a recording can not detect sarcasm.” well  maybe not but it sure does make me feel better… and here I can be sarcastic and hateful and no one hears me… no one but my husband and kids… ugh) and now they are fixing to get to hear some more… cause guess who calls AT&T back while on my way to put $4.00 a gallon gas in my tank that was spent delivering unwanted AT&T equipment that they were supposed to send me labels to return.

By this time the edges of my red hair is singed as hot lava flesh pours out of my mouth dripping with demonic disdain… it’s happened I have been fully transformed into a hound from hell as I am once again put on hold waiting for the “supervisor”…

The poor man on the other end keeps clicking over to apologize for the wait… I can hear the desperation in his voice as he really does not want to be on the phone with me… I manage to squeak out just enough of Jesus to assure this poor man that I do understand that he is not AT&T but I am beyond irate.

After another 5 minutes of hold and apologies for my wait…. I unleash on this man and inform him that the modems are going in the trash and threaten legal action against AT&T if they dare send me a bill… and I hang up.

I should feel better right?

I am refreshed, refocused, and ready…

Ready for another trip around Mount AT&T because I haven’t learned a thing.

So the next morning… the modems are still in the car, not in the trash.

I begin my study in Ezekiel 17 and dig into how God expects us to honor all covenants, all oaths, even those made with our oppressors. So I pour a page of confession and repentance into my spiral bound notebook and breathe… I am tired of marching around Mount AT&T… the view is not pretty for me and most definitely is not pretty for anyone else around me.

So yesterday afternoon the modems were delivered to the 30 minutes away UPS store… that also had issues with AT&T I might add… but was willing to work with me anyway.

Freedom feels good.

Repentance is right.

Obedience is not an option and delayed obedience is better than disobedience.

 

 “But what do you think?

A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. 

Which of the two did the will of his father?” 

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

Matthew 21:28-32

 

If I had of trashed these ridiculous things… I would have still been bound to them. There would have been more calls, more on holds, more fleshly ick. I would be packing my bag for another trip around Mount AT&T and I am tired of the trip. Tired and ashamed that these poor faceless people on the other end of the phone will only know the name Nicole Vaughn as that crazy, mad, furious, faceless b***h on the other end of the line.

Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.

Psalm 37:8-9

So AT&T phone answerers… where ever you are, who ever you are… from the depths of my soul I apologize to you and I thank you for enduring my wrath and fury on behalf of your employer with such mercy and grace… you were much more righteous than I in my self-justified anger. May God bless you for your patience and self-control… those very things I refused to use myself as I spewed my ugly flesh out all over you… again and again and again.

A day in Your courts is 
better than a thousand outside.
Psalm 84:10

If the pace and the push, the noise and the crowds are getting to you, it’s time to stop the nonsense and find a place of solace to refresh your spirit.

Deliberately say “no” more often. This will leave room for you to slow down, get alone, pour out your overburdened heart, and admit your desperate need for inner refreshment.

The good news is God will hear and He will help. The bad news is this: If you wait for someone else to bring about a change, things will only deteriorate.

All of us can testify, God does not speak to the hurried, worried mind. It takes time alone with Him and His Word before we can expect our spiritual strength to recover.

~ Swindoll

 

We are currently on the last morning of our family vacation. I was in a tizzy before we left because we really didn’t “have time” for this vacation. Our summer has been crazy and our schedule this month of September is remaining in the crazy…  We left the ground running when we hit the road headed to the beach and we will hit the ground running as soon as we pull back into our garage. That is where our family is at the moment… but this week we have stopped and we have rested and played and just enjoyed the stillness.

I have spent my early mornings this week here…

while the rest of the bunch slept in, me and my God have had our one on one time and it has been sweet…

It has been sweet because I have been still enough to hear Him through out the day. I have felt his whisper in my soul as He would share a new truth with me just because He wanted to…

As I sat there yesterday morning and watched the sun come up

 

I thought how nice it would be to sit here every morning and experience this stillness…

aahhh yes retire at the beach… every morning quiet time here looking out over the beach while I have my coffee and poptart

then take my study time on out to the beach, get hungry and go eat, and go back to the beach for more study, and go eat again, and go for an evening walk on the beach and sing my praises to my LORD… perfect right?

Perfect until I remember that I have just ignored all that God has called me as a believer to do.

How could I face my LORD when I stand before Him and say that I spent my last years of life walking the beach…

My prayer journal entry yesterday morning:

I can feel the temptation to come here and retire and just sit and talk with You and watch and listen to the waves. Yes, the temptation to say I have worked hard and lived full and now I shall rest and wait to die. I will spend each morning, noon, and night praising You for Your glory just as I am now… and I will completely ignore the billions of people around the world who need You and the Gospel of Christ. Oh Father that’s not how I want to leave this world. I want to go out in the heat of battle. I want to die a soldier delivering the gospel with my very last breath. A warrior for the Lord that the world was not worthy of…

It was here that my mind asked the question, Is it sin to covet heavenly treasures?

Because I do… I want heavenly treasures. I want to leave this world empty handed and discover my heavenly home full. I want to present my LORD gifts for His temple of the grandest kind… because He is worthy. I don’t want to leave this world full and stand before my LORD empty, just barely skirting in, having received all my worth on earth. I covet the heavenly treasures… I long to earn those treasures… not my salvation, I know I could never earn that, but I want to be worthy of the treasures that await me in heaven.

I thought how God? How in this place of such prosperity shall I be one of whom this world is not worthy? I do not know poverty, nor martyrdom, nor do I suffer lack of knowledge of Your Word due to government restrictions. My greatest battle is the battle to not conform, to not be caught up in the perversions of this world and choose sin over You… but even then no one will kill me if I choose sin. They will still welcome me in the church and in their homes.

It was here that God took me to Daniel.

Although I really can’t compare to Daniel. I haven’t been taken as youth from from my home and moved to a foreign country to serve a godless king… but the comparison comes in how Daniel served God faithfully in the midst of prosperity. Even when the king lavished riches and power on him he did not change. He remained a man of integrity, a man of high esteem, a man of faith, a man who was righteous. The money and power and position and fame did not make Daniel conform to the world around him.

Perhaps that was Satan’s hope…

Perhaps Satan thought I will make his name great in the land and the power will go to his head and he will fall… and possibly when that didn’t work he raised up jealousy in others to lead to his murder… but even in the face of death and lies and set-ups Daniel would not change who he was before God and God delivered him every time.

Daniel was the first book of the Bible I ever studied inductively. I began it a month after I was saved. I don’t believe that was a coincidence… It was divine planning and purpose.

I live in prosperity. I am not poor. I have a beautiful family and a beautiful home and a wonderful church. I sit under some of the most godly people I have ever known. My circle of friends are people who truly seek the LORD and dig into His Word for truth and direction. I come from a long line of believers… My life is not threatened. My beliefs are not mocked. I have been given the opportunity to feed  not just my kids the Word but at least forty to fifty others from birth to 11yrs old every Sunday morning…

I have absolutely nothing to complain about…

This I am reminded of now as I right this out… I am blessed. This is where God has put me. This is where I shall serve Him as a warrior. I may never die in battle in this land where I live… but these little ones I feed may face the battle fields. I know not what missionaries God has set before me. I know not what future political leaders, teachers, pastors, moms, dads, etc sit before me each Sunday morning… but I do know that if the Lord calls them to salvation and they say, yes LORD I will follow You, they will be soldiers and as the days grow more and more evil the battle ahead will intensify.

This is the gift that God has given me.

To prepare them for battle.

I will not supply them with rubber bullets and plastic swords… but I will give them the double-edged sword of the Word of God. I will teach them how to keep it sharp and ready as a good soldier should.

Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,

and a two-edged sword in their hand.

Psalm 149:6

So I am going home.

I am going refreshed.

I am going refocused.

I am going ready to be about my Father’s business… whatever business He has called me too and I will do it to the best of my ability according to the power of His might and Spirit that works within me.

 

Don’t Waste Your Life – John Piper from sharethemessage on GodTube.

 

I penned this poem this morning during my one on one time with my LORD…

 

Glory To God 

Glory to God

Glory to God

Glory to God forever…

Glory to the One who commands the waves

Glory to the One who commands the sun’s rays

Glory to the One who hangs every star

Eye has not seen and ear has not heard

The true strength and power in just one breathed Word

By the Word of Thy mouth the heavens were formed

By the Word of Thy mouth the universe Thou adorned

Man in His smallness thinks he’s so grand

Even denying his greatness is only because he was formed by Thy hand

In Thine Own image Thou chose us to create

Setting us in the midst of perfection to enjoy Thy display

The beauty of that garden…

The glow of that sky…

The nearness of Thy presence…

With no sin to divide

My heart cries out for that glorious day

When God and man no sin  does separate

To see Thee in Thy glory

Mighty on Thy throne

Beholding Thy majesty…

Knowing I am home

The colors of this sky whose beauty takes my breath

Will not compare to the brilliance of my heavenly rest

The song of the waves as they crash upon the shore

Are just a sweet foreshadowing of the thunder of Thy voice

Oh for the day that upon my face I fall

Oh for the day when I learn my part in Thy song

That heavenly chorus that cries Holy Holy Holy

Worthy is the Lamb

Holy Holy Holy

Thou art the Great I AM

The One who was and is and is to come

I long my Lord for the day Thy bride is called home

To live is Christ

To die is gain

Shake off this tent of corruptible flesh

Stand pure and blameless clothed only in Thy righteousness

Glory to God

Glory to God

Glory to God forever

 

Every time that I become judgmental of another (which is often) it is because I’ve forgotten that divine mercy rescued me and am choosing to trust in my own merit.

~ Jeremy McCoy

 

If you follow my blog you know well the season I have been in… the season of judgment as I study the judgments of God on those who profess His name yet dishonored it in Ezekiel and those who refuse His name no matter how often He cries out to them in Revelation… It has been a heavy hearted season.

How thankful I am that God does not keep me there long… I believe I would drown in the sorrow of it all and sink under the burden of only seeing the sin we so often choose over obedience to the law of God.

My God always brings me up out of this season as He lovingly reminds me of His sovereignty.

I read Jeremy’s quote on Facebook and this was my response:

God has to often remind me how far and how long I strayed and how many times He reached out to me to pull me in by His grace before I realized how tightly His anchor could hold me…

After I had this moment I watched a recorded speaking engagement of Ravi Zacharias and during the question answer time he was asked how he came to know Christ in such a non-Christian culture… He shared how he had no Christian friends, was surrounded by either Muslim teaching or Hindu teaching, he personally lived as an atheist… but his grandmother was a believer and his parents “nominal” Christians.

He shared how he could not remember one sermon… because he attended just long enough to please his parents and then he was out the door.

He shared how he had no concern for his studies and he shared how in India the pressure to succeed in school was very strong and you were shamed if you did not perform well. He shared how through his apathy to his studies had led to grades that would bring shame on his father and family and his father told him as much… and he shared how this led to an attempted suicide.

He shared how he was laying in the bed and a Bible was brought to his room and he shared how It was the presence of God seeking him and he shared how he remembered a song from his childhood that was sung at his grandmother’s funeral when he was nine years old, “Abide With Me”… he remembered the melody and a few lines. Then he remembered the word of Christ, the Word of God, “Because I live… you also shall live“.

He said that at that moment he said, Jesus if You are who You say You are then save me and I will spend the rest of my life seeking Your truth…  

He shared how his parents came to know Christ and when his mother died he asked for the verse “Because I live you also shall live” (John 14:19) to be put on her headstone. Then he shared how as a grown married man he and his wife were in India and they decided to go find his grandmother’s headstone… when they found it they read there below his grandmother’s name and date of birth and death the verse “Because I live you also shall live” (John 14:19).

His conclusion to the questioner on how he came to know Christ was that God tracked him like a hound of heaven…

It was through the Word of God and a through a life of total failure that the two met and the Word of God triumphed over me and I met Christ

~ Ravi Zacharias

The Word of God triumphs always… He is sovereign. I can find no greater peace than the assurance of the sovereignty of my God. It is the sovereignty of God that knows our hearts. He knows our hearts just as He knew the heart of Peter…

Jesus knew Peter to the core. He knew Peter would fall, but He prayed for him that he would not remain fallen. Jesus loved Peter—even at his point of deepest weakness.

~ Chuck Swindoll

(Luke 22:31-34)

It is here where mercy triumphs over judgment. It is here where my soul can find rest when my fears of a watching a loved one falling severely into sin can so grip me. It is here where I can in love tell someone that what they are doing is sin against God and sin against heaven. It is here that I can show them kindness without watering down the truth. It is here that I can let go and let God.

 

 

It is here in the sovereignty of my God, that Hound of Heaven, that One whose Word always triumphs… here where grace and mercy and judgment meet… it is here alone that I can find peace. Here alone that I can lay aside judgment and leave it to the only One who has all the needed evidence to judge.

It is here alone that I can make the hard decisions in obedience to the Word trusting in the Word.

It is here where I can let the Peter’s in my life deny their Christ… without the sheer fear of their coming consequences overtaking me with sorrow…

Remembering how strongly those cords of love drew me into His embrace…

Remembering how that Hound of Heaven tracked me down as well…

Remembering how only God’s divine mercy can rescue any soul…

Remembering that my Sovereign Savior said:

 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice,

and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 

When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them,

and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 

A stranger they simply will not follow,

but will flee from him,

because they do not know the voice of strangers.

John 10:3-5

and

This is the will of Him who sent Me,

that of all that He has given Me

I lose nothing,

but raise it up on the last day.

John 6:39

So I proclaim.

I prepare the soil.

I plant.

I pray…

I feed the Word to all who will hear it or read it.

I will shove it down your throats as often as I see an opportunity.

I will not water down the truth of the judgment of God on sin, but at the same time I will not withhold His mercy, kindness, love, and grace in my own weak and sad attempt to force repentance.

Repentance and Salvation and Obedience can only come as a response to the conviction and call of the Holy Spirit of God. The power of salvation is in the gospel not me… I am to abide in Him and as I abide in Him and His Word abides in me… I pray and I trust that when He says “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7), He means it.

 

 

So I am thankful for that Hound of Heaven and I am thankful that God takes me through those seasons of judgment and I am thankful that He pulls me through them by reminding me of His sovereignty…

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, what is this proverb you peoplehave concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The days are long and every vision fails’? Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “I will make this proverb cease so that they will no longer use it as a proverb in Israel.” But tell them, “The days draw near as well as the fulfillment of every vision. For there will no longer be any false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel.For I the Lord will speak, and whatever word I speak will be performed. It will no longer be delayed, for in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it,” declares the Lord God.’”

Ezekiel 12:22-25

 

Here we are in Ezekiel. God has warned Jerusalem through the captivity of the northern kingdom. He has warned Jerusalem through the captivity of the ten thousand which included Ezekiel. He has warned them through countless prophets and He has warned them through His recorded word by Moses. He has even warned them in a song (Deuteronomy 32:1-43).

After years of acting right then acting wrong and then getting slapped on the wrist and God getting them out of trouble. After years of having a bad king who let them act a fool and then having a good king come in and demand they act right again… The people of Jerusalem, the children that God redeemed have mistaken God’s kindness, His grace, His patience, as weakness. They have gone so far as to think that all these mountain quaking, earth shaking, water out of rocks talking, Moses face glowing, was just a bunch of stories to scare them into doing as they were told. They have actually convinced themselves that the God of Israel is no different than the gods of the other nations…

They actually think that this judgment thing that they have heard about is not really going to happen… the prophets warn them that sin   against God and His laws will bring judgment upon them and their whole land, but their response is “Yeh, right… whatever”

This “Yeh, right… whatever” even came from the priest… it came from those who were supposed to be teaching the others how to obey their God… it came from those who were supposed to be the example of righteousness… the one’s that were set apart, sanctified, clothed in the holy robes of priesthood… serving in the work of the temple.

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”  2 Peter 3:3-4

It’s no different today. Is it?

If those who profess to know Christ, who profess to be set apart, sanctified, clothed in the holy robes… those serving in the church don’t live as though God will indeed judge sin… then why on earth should those who know Christ not?

Precious one, have you lived with your sin so long that you actually have convinced yourself that no judgment will come?

Have watched it supposedly “turn out alright” for others that you think that you can just live however you want and God’s kindness, grace, and patience will endure it? Are you mistaking God’s goodness for weakness?

I have seen it over and over and it breaks my heart.

Children taught what is right and what is wrong and believing it when they are children, but then as they grow they watch those around them doing the things they have been taught were wrong, things they believed were wrong, and they watch them seem to have no consequences for their actions… so now instead of choosing to hold firm to truth they choose the lie.

 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!

Genesis 3:4

 

Why do we so easily doubt that judgment will come? Why do we so easily believe that God will just keep allowing us more time to repent? Why do we so often mistake calmness for patience? Why do we mistake God’s delay as not ever showing up?

You will be hated by all because of My name, 

but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.

Matthew 10:22

Here in Matthew 12 Jesus says you must endure to the end… you must believe until the end… not just one moment, but until the end.

Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. 

But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

Matthew 24:12-13

Here again in Matthew 24… endure until the end. Believe until the end. Just because sin abounds, just because lawlessness has increased even in the church… don’t let you own love grow cold for the One who redeemed you…

 

 

Because bottom line that’s it. It all comes down to love. We want God to love us enough to forgive anything we do or have done… but we don’t want to love Him enough to choose not to do it in the first place.

And we don’t want to believe that judgment will come because it seems to be working out just fine for so-and-so and so-and-so…

For we have become partakers of Christ,

if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,  

Hebrews 3:14 

As I watch others, and as I struggle with my own choices, I beg of you and I beg of myself to not be conformed to this world… to the culture of our present day society but to be conformed to the image of our Saviour. Let us make our choices out of our love for Christ not out of our love for our own lives. Let us truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, with our soul, with our mind, with all our strength. Let us cling to Him and not to anyone or anything else… Let us hold fast to our assurance, our assurance of His salvation and our assurance that He will indeed judge sin.

 

 

Ezekiel chapter 8 breaks my heart every time I read it…

I studied through this chapter last March as I planned a lesson for the Names of God series that I teach in chapel at our homeschool co-op. It broke my heart then… and it breaks it still.

It breaks my heart because I feel the pain in my God’s heart and experience the grief of the Spirit within as I read through that chapter. How it must have broken God’s heart to see the people that He had redeemed mocking Him in such a way. They were committing these abominations in the temple… right under the Holy of Holies… right outside the temple gates… even inside the temple walls.

And He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, 

the great abominations which the house of Israel are committing here, 

so that I would be far from My sanctuary?

But yet you will see still greater abominations.”

Ezekiel 8:6

 

Ezekiel is there looking through a hole in the wall right into the heart of the temple and all that he sees is people dressed in priests clothing but practicing things that God has said were wrong and detestable… and they don’t care if it hurts Him… they are going to do it anyway.

This breaks my heart because if Ezekiel were to come to the entrance of the majority of our American churches what would he see at the entrance gate? What would he see as God took him past the entrance gate into the very depths of the hearts of those sitting in the seats of the sanctuary…

Or do you not know

that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,

whom you have from God,

and that you are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:19

Would He say again…”Look, look and see why I am so far away from My sanctuary… look and see why My Spirit is not moving in this place and see why they do not feel My presence in their individual lives.”?

 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness,

we lie and do not practice the truth;

1 John 1:6

So Ezekiel 8 breaks my heart because the things that our God calls abominations are so very prevalent in our American society today and they have even been welcomed in our sanctuaries and as a whole we don’t abhor them… we barely even acknowledge them. And please know that I am not one who limits the “abomination” to homosexuality… just scroll through the pages of the Proverbs and underline abomination and you will clearly see that we are very shallow and prejudiced if we actually think that as long as we don’t struggle with this sin then we have not committed any great sin before the heart of our God.

I see it… I see it everywhere. Most no longer care what God has to say about many things… they will agree that He says it is wrong, but then they will do it any way. We choose our abominations over God. We provoke Him to jealousy and then many even blame Him when they experience the consequences of their choice.

We sit in the sanctuary in our church clothes with our church face and then we walk out the door and then in the walls of our homes and schools and offices and among our “friends” we do everything God abhors… we do the things we have been taught clearly are wrong…

                  and we break His heart… the very heart of the One who redeemed us… the very heart that poured water and blood out after being pierced through by a spear.

We just keep jabbing the spear in a little bit deeper and twisting it around and grace will cover it… right?

For I am afraid that perhaps when I come

I may find you to be not what I wish

and may be found by you to be not what you wish;

that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, 

disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances; 

I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you,

and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past

and not repented

of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.

2 Corinthians 12:20-21

So how many of us have the twig to our nose? How many of us sit in church on Sunday or Wednesday and we walk out the doors and we turn our backs to everything we have heard and everything we know to be true and right and fall prostate before the things of this world with our rear-end to God and basically tell Him to kiss it while we live however we want?

 

Yes, I am still in Ezekiel… and will be for a while.

In my reading and study today my focus was on Ezekiel 6. God is still in the process of giving Ezekiel the instructions he needs to let the people of Israel know why the bad stuff is happening and that it’s going to get worse. That’s the way our God works. He is always perfectly clear with us before He judges us.

He will meet us face to face and eye to why through His Word, through our parents, through our teachers, through our friends, through our circumstance, even through complete strangers, via random conversations, blogs, books, songs, etc. When God’s judgment comes on us it never comes before He is perfectly sure that we perfectly should understand that it is our own disobedience that brought it.

I can tell you that has always been true in my own life…

I am always amazed at how much God will take until He finally has enough. Even with me… and especially with our world. I can think of the times when my heart has been broken or my spirit so angered by the lack of concern of Christ and for the truth and from the wave of sin that can seem to crash upon us at times that a tsunami would look small in comparison… and I can remember crying out that God would send Christ, that He would come now and just show everybody the truth, that He is real, that He will judge, and that they will be left here to deal with the consequences of their actions for choosing the world, flesh, and sin over Him…

but then a slight panic will rush through my veins as for a moment I wonder… wait I have messed up here a lot lately… maybe I’m not saved… maybe I would be left here… and what about that person that my heart is aching over and my prayers are crying out over… Okay God, never mind, don’t listen to me… I’ll wait. Thank you for Your patience and long-suffering with us…

As I read this morning and pondered my own sin, my own pursuit of holiness, and my own desire to live obedient to my God… I got to Ezekiel 6:9-10 and my heart stopped…

Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations. Then they will know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster on them.

We are such a selfish people. How many times have you experienced the consequences of your sin and had a pity party over it. Only concerned about the way your sin has affected your life… and your heart… and your end of the fellowship with God. I know that can describe my attitude many times…

How often do we stop and remember that our actions have hurt our Father?

Our actions have hurt our Savior.

Our God stands there with open arms, His heart wide open to be broken by us. He stands there and says, “here I am, take it, take another piece of my heart if it makes you feel that good… and when you are done taking… my arms are still here open to love you and draw you back into my embrace”  

 

How long would we allow someone to use us in such a way… I think of myself with my parents and me with my children and we do the same thing… we love in a similar way… but the truth is their always comes a point when enough is enough.

Here in the book of Ezekiel God has had enough.

In the book of Revelation God has had enough.

Sometimes in our own individual lives God has had enough.

I for one am thankful that God reaches a point that He has had enough. The point of enough is when I, like Israel, remember. When I remember I also loathe myself, because I know that what I am enduring is fully deserved and brought on by my very own choices and God in His mercy and grace has said

Enough, you will no longer walk this path and continue to break my heart as I watch you fall deeper and deeper into this pit that you have dug with your own two hands… I am laying a foundation of rock under you and you will hit it, you will hit it hard, you will think you are dying, but in truth I am giving you one more opportunity for life. When you get up on your feet and stand at the bottom of your pit and look up… then you will know that I am the Lord; you will know that this fall was not random and without purpose, but is indeed to save you and those watching you…

Our sin hurts our God.

If it didn’t Satan wouldn’t care if we sinned or not.

He’s really not after your heart… he just wants to use you to break God’s…

Satan can’t trample on the blood of Christ, or put under foot the Son of God, or insult the Spirit of grace… only we can do that.

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony oftwo or three witnesses.  How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?  

Hebrews 10:26-29

 

Oh Father,

Let not my adulterous heart hurt You… I know that I am prone to wander and my heart and flesh fail You so often, Oh God keep me on a short leash, let me not get to far out of Your sight before You have jerked me back into the safety of Your arms… It is not Your judgments that I fear, but Your heart that I do not ever want to break.

My Jesus it is in Your name I pray,

Amen