RIGHTEOUSNESS

What does it mean, to be righteous?  There are many scriptures that speak of God's righteousness and there are many scripture that speak about our righteousness.  How can we, as mere human beings, made of dust and dirt, ever be righteous before our Creator who is righteousness himself?  We are fallen creatures with selfish desires and filled with sin. So many times in our lives all we want to do is what we want to do and hardly even look at God, let alone know who He is and how righteous He is.  We seek our "self" most of our lives.  We are very selfish created beings.

 

So why do the scriptures tell us over and over again to be righteous? 

 

Proverbs 21:21 (NLT)

Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor.

 

Ephesians 5:8-10 (NKJV)

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

 

Matthew 5:20 (NKJV)

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

 

Webster Dictionary defines righteous as:

acting in accord with divine or moral law

free from guilt or sin

morally right or justifiable

acting rightly

upright

according to what is right

righteous actions

a sense of what is right

 

Being morally right can be different in the eyes of each person depending on what their convictions are.  One person's idea of what is right many times does not match another persons idea of what is right.  Look at the comparison of what the criminal believes in and what the law abiding citizen believes in.  A criminal may believe that he can take whatever he wants from whomever he wants to take from while the law abiding citizen believes that it is illegal and is a crime and should be punished.  Each person makes a determination of what they believe is right and just for themselves.  Each person has their own idea of what truth is.  We live in a world where truth can be whatever you want it to be regardless of the reality of it.

 

But God is a spiritual being.  He is not a created being. He is the Alpha and the Omega.  He is the Beginning and the End.  He is I AM.  He always was.  He always is.  Our finite minds have a hard time thinking about our Spiritual Father who is infinite.  His righteousness is compete.  It is without flaw.  It is perfect just as He is.  We are not.  So again, how can we be righteous in His eyes?  How can we ever meet that expectation?  How can we ever be like Him in righteousness?

 

Isaiah 55:9 - For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

 

Romans 11:33 - Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!

 

Psalms 113:4 - For the LORD is high above the nations; his glory is higher than the heavens.

 

Being right in the eyes of God is based upon His standards and not man's standards. He has given us teachings on how to be righteousness over and over in the Bible.  He has set the law down in writing and tells us to follow these laws.  His laws are not man's laws.  His ways are not man's ways.  Our conduct in the world is taught in scripture.  Our attitude towards others is taught in scripture.  Our use of words in the world is taught scripture.  Everything on how to go through day by day life on earth is taught in the scriptures.  We chose whether or not to live by those teachings or should I say, His law.  

 

Isaiah 33:22 - For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

 

When we choose to follow Jesus as our Lord, king and savior we choose to follow His laws. 

 

John 10:30 - I and my Father are one.

 

We choose to walk as He walked and talk as He talked.  We choose to do things His way and not the way of the world.  We come to the point where we know we are not of this world and are separated from the ways of this world.  We understand that the prince of this world is the evil one who seeks to steal, kill and destroy all things of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  The devil is filled with rebellion and wants to make us rebel against the laws of God.  We understand the battle is between good and evil and a fight for the souls of the people born into this world.  We understand that the devil wants to lead us away from God and His righteousness.  He wants us to be in rebellion to God so that our souls will be judged against God's law.  He does not want us to have any part of God's righteousness.

 

Every day we make choices to follow God and his righteousness or follow the ways of the world.  We have been given free will to determine the outcome of our lives.  We choose what to pursue in life.

 

Proverbs 21:21 - Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor.

 

Desert and Wilderness

Today is my 69th birthday but instead of feeling excited and happy I feel like I am in a desert and a wilderness.  Alone In unknown territory.  This is the first year in 40 years that Jerry is not here to wish me a happy birthday and make a fuss over me. He always made this day special for me and made me feel special.

 

Tomorrow will be 7 months since he went home to Jesus.  It feels like years but feels like moments have passed since he left.  It's very hard to describe how we become so accustom to a way of life and then when it changes we are at a loss on how to navigate this new life.  I know the saying that "Time heals old wounds" but it is still such a new wound and not one that I really thought about in detail.  I knew for a year before his passing that his health was failing more and more and that the time was coming.  It just came so abrupt.  Not that I wanted him to suffer any longer but I had no idea of all the after effects of him not being here with me.  I had grown to count on him in so many ways for 40 years.  I was 95% thankful for him.  The other 5% was his human selfishness which we all have.  If he were to say the reverse of me I think it would be about 70% to 30% since I am a "high maintenance" woman.  Of course that is how I think of myself and he did not agree with me a lot of the time.  I know these "first's" will be the hardest but I also know without a shadow of doubt the Lord is beside me helping me set one foot in front of the other, day after day, month after month and hopefully year after year as I learn the lessons of this wilderness experience.

 

In these past months I have learned about Elijah's three year wilderness experience.  I have learned about Paul's three year experience.  I am right now learning about Habakkuk and his journey with God.  Habakkuk was filled with dread for what was to come for God's people because of their unbelief.  They were slaves to the Egyptian for centuries and then walked in the desert for 40 years with God supplying all their needs and yet eventually followed after others gods so God sent the Babylonians to take them captive as slaves, again.  The chosen people had turned their backs on Yahweh, again.  It was time for them to go back into the wilderness, again, and this time for 70 years.  After the 70 years they were freed, again, but then centuries passed as they again followed other gods and left their first love, Jehovah the One True God.  So I AM had to send Jesus to stop the repetition.  The people were never going to be free of sin without the one final sacrifice, his son.  His one and only son whom he loved.

 

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

 

Sometime the wilderness experiences are not because we have turned away from our Lord.  It is a wilderness experience of learning and growing.  When Jesus was in his 40 days of wilderness it was for the testing of his faith in the Father who had sent him to proclaim freedom for the captives.  To understand fully that He was here to save the people from their sin once and for all.  To give his life for others as the final sacrificial lamb.  Two thousand years later we have a hard time understanding all animals that had been sacrificed for the sins of the people for them to only continually turn away from Yahweh again and again.  Aren't we the same kind of people today?  Don't we call on God when the trouble comes and then turn away when life is running smoothly again?  Have God's creation changed their hearts to continually walk in his footsteps?  No.  We still think of ourselves first in so many areas of life.  Our time is ours.  Our money is ours. Our possessions are ours.  Everything in life is ours.  Wrong.  Everything is His!

 

I know this in my heart and mind that all I have is his but there are still times I seek my own selfish ways.  I let my tongue lash out.  I accuse other's of not being holy and righteous and then I am not holy and righteous. I point a finger at the sins of others without thinking about the sins I am committing right then and there by grumbling and whining about their sins instead of prayer for them.  This would be why I am in this desert right now.  To learn how to be more like Christ and less like me.  Even after 40 years of walking closely with him I still fall short.  I still need to learn how to curb my tongue.  I still need to hear the Father telling me how I have failed.  I still need Jesus to show me the way to walk rightly before him and others.  My hope today, here on my 69th birthday that it will not take me three years in the wilderness to learn how to be a better servant of Jehovah Elohim who is I AM.  Who is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Purify My Heart

Over and over this morning the old song "Purify my heart" has been on my lips. 

 

Purify My Heart,

Let Me be as Gold and precious Silver.

Purify My Heart,

Let Me be as Gold, pure Gold.

 

Refiner’s Fire,

My Heart’s one desire

Is to be… Holy;

Set apart for You, Lord.

I choose to be… Holy;

Set apart for You, My Master,

Ready to do Your will.

 

I know the reason for this is in the past week I have not been close enough to the Master and fretting over many different things going on in the world and in my life.  I do my best but I continually fall short.  You would like after walking with Jesus for over 40 years I would be able to keep on the straight path but nope.  I fall short.  You would think that being an inch away from being 70 years old I would stay steady and keep all of my thoughts and speech filled with only goodness.  I fall short.  You would think that after experiencing in the past 5 years the removal of a tumor in my head and my husband dying I would be strong enough to show wisdom, mercy, and endurance to those around me.  I fall short.  You would think that with all of my scripture reading and seeking the Lord on a daily basis that I would have everything in place as far as being a shining example of Christian life. I fall short.

 

I get tired of falling short and then feeling like I am not good enough and I am not pure enough.  I get tired period.  I whine and cry out to the Lord asking why I can't keep on the narrow path?  I want to do better but then I do not do better.  These are the times I know I have no choice but to endure myself and my inadequacies.  I have to persevere on a daily basis to hear the Lord and to walk with him.  The cross is heavy on me some days and only because pile a bunch of cement blocks of my attitude and doubts on top of it.

 

I full well know the scriptures;

 

Matthew 11:30 (NKJV) - For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

 

1 Peter 5:7 (NIV) - Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

 

Psalms 55:22 (NIV) - Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.

 

Matthew 11:28 (NKJV) - Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

 

I also know these scriptures;

 

Romans 3:23 (NIV) - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

 

Hebrews 12:15 (NKJV) - looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.

 

Psalm 43:5 (NKJV) - 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: For I shall yet praise him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God.'

 

I know that getting discouraged some days is bound to happen in this cruel world we live in.  Like I said, I am almost 70 years old and I have seen a lot of darkness and the darkness increases.  I also understand I am still standing on this earth because the Father has seen fit to keep me planted where I am.  Some days I don't see the path clearly because of the tears and my eyes are red from the sorrows.  I also know so many others are on paths that are far, far deeper and harder than my own.  Then I feel the guilt creep in for my whining and pouting. My woe is me attitude.  My words of discouragement not encouragement.  I fall short.

 

So as I move through this day with a song asking God to purify my heart I will watch and listen closely as He removes more of me, creates in me a clean heart, and removes more of the impurities from within me.  I fall short and I am still a work in progress.  I am still a cracked pot in the hands of the Potter.

 

SALT AND LIGHT

Today I am being prompted to write about salt and light.  This is something I have struggled with many times in my life.  How do we find a happy balance between being salty and being the light?  What does being salty mean?  As we walk for years with the Lord we know what it means to be his light but how are we to be his salt and how much of it do we use?

 

Mark 9:49 (NIV) - ' Everyone will be salted with fire. '

 

Mark 9:50 (NIV) - “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

 

Leviticus 2:13 (NIV) - Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.

 

Colossians 4:6 (NIV) - Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

 

Ezekiel 43:24 (NIV) - You are to offer them before the LORD, and the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the LORD.

 

2 Chronicles 13:5 (NIV) - Don’t you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?

 

We know that salt is a preservative and extends the usefulness and life of food when it is salted.  Without salt these foods decay in time.  We also know that salt is used a flavoring.  Do we completely stop using salt as a flavoring or do we use it in moderation?  Does everyone need to use salt or just those who can discern the appropriate amount to use?

 

I will admit that throughout the years the salty words that come out of my mouth are not always what the Lord would have me say.  I know that I let my emotions and feelings spout out of my mouth without thinking of their effect on the ears that hear my words.  I sway this way and that way depending on what is happening in the world and in my world.  I am a mess at times but the Lord always brings me back into his way of thinking and acting. I know he wants me to do better and be better in how I spread salt for him.  There should always be a happy balance of salt and light for spreading his word.

 

We live in a world today much like the times of Noah and the times of Sodom.  The world has lost it's way and the people are dying and decaying right before us.  We can see that the wickedness of the world is taking the people farther and father away from God.  Even in the Christian world the foundations are cracking and breaking because the storms are battering them.  They no longer bend and sway in the storms because their foundations were not strongly built in the Lord.  Many are breaking and falling into the stormy waters and are drowning.

 

In Old Testament times Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others did their best to tell the people to come back to the Lord.  They told of the terrible things to come if the people did not change their ways and stop worshipping false idols.  They stood before the Temple gates and cried out to the people but the people would not listen.  This happened over and over again even up to the time the Messiah came and they were unable to see and recognize him.  They killed him and moved on in their lives.  The prophets did not want to antagonize the people with their words of salt. They did not want to hear and see the anger of the people towards their words.  They did not want to feel the wrath of the people but they did fear the wrath of God far more.  They did what the Lord called them to do, to warn the people of their impending doom if they did not mend their ways and stop following false gods.

 

Throughout time there have been those standing on the street corners with signs saying, "Repent or Die" and they were scoffed at and ridiculed.  Twice in Luke 13 Jesus told the people,

 

Luke 13:3 (NIV) - I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

 

Luke 13:5 (NIV) -  I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

 

I believe when Jesus says something more than once he is truly trying to get the ears to hear exactly what he is saying.  Read those two verses again then read them in the context of the chapter.  This is a call to repentance and then speaks of the destruction that comes from lack of repentance. Jesus gives the grower one more year to help the tree produce fruit.  He gives the tree one more chance to not be thrown into the fire and burned.  He will not continually disregard our sins and disobedience.  A price will be paid for those who do not repent.

 

We live is a world today that cares very little for the light of God and cares very little for the salt of God.  Their hearts are hardened.  Their eyes are blind.  Their ears cannot hear.  So do we, who do still hear the Lord speaking, give up and quit being salt and light stop also?  Of course, we do not!  Not if the Lord is speaking into our own hearts and minds about the impending doom of the people.  It's no fun being that person on the street corner holding the sign of God to "Repent or Die".  It's no fun being ridiculed and rebuked for not being a light for the Lord.  Salt in an open wound hurts painfully.

 

For me it is hard finding the proper balance of how to warn the people and how to encourage the people. I have not been trained properly in speaking out effectively and honestly in a good balance.  I will be damned by some for doing it one way and be damned by others doing it another way.  It is so much easier to only be the light sharer than it is being the salt spreader but some are called to do both.  We are told that every joint supplies in Ephesians 4.  It also says,

 

Ephesians 4:15 (NIV) - Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

 

How do we, as his voice crying in the wilderness, maturely speak truth in love?

How do we tell the people that unless they repent from their sins they will die?  No one wants to hear the truth about their sins and their eternal death because of their sinful ways.  No one wants to speak out with the saltiness of this truth.  It's a hard truth. I would so much rather only be the light of Jesus but for some reason he has decided I also have to be salty in my words.  I need to make sure to find the correct balance the Lord would have as I speak out to a world that needs to repent or die.  This part of my walk with Jesus is very hard as many do not understand that each journey he takes us on are individual journeys.  Each one of us who are followers of Jesus have a different ministry on earth.  Some are called to be one thing and others are called for other things but all are part of the kingdom of God when they are called according to his purpose. 

 

Romans 8:28 (NIV) - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

 

Ephesians 1:11 (NIV) - In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.

 

1 Corinthians 3:8 (NIV) - The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.

 

Each one of us are called in different ways and for different purposes but all are called to Jesus, the savior of our souls.  Some are called to only shine light in a dark and dying world.  Some are called to spread the salt to preserve the word of God to repent from their sins or they will die.  All of Jesus' followers are called to do both but as human beings we sometimes do not have the proper balance of how to do this.  Only he can show us the way to be effective in our world today. 

 

My prayer for myself is to find the best balance of salt and light and then to go out into the world spreading his word of salvation which only comes to those who surrender to him and confess their sins and sin no more.

SEARCHING

I believe that every single person who has a working mind and is old enough to understand that they are a human being here on planet earth, will ask either themselves or others why they were born.  At one point in time they will seek an answer as to why they are here, why they are alive and breathing, and what is the reason for being them being here.  Some will search many years for the answer year after year, sometimes until they die.  Some will find the answer.  Some will hear.  Some will not.  Some will quit asking.  Some will lead others by their own truth of this question.  Some answers will be the correct answer and some will not.

 

Human beings are very strange beings.  Most of want their needs met.  They want what they want and they will kill others to get it.  Some humans are more passive souls and will not hurt others to get what they want.  They might lie and cheat and steal but they will not intentionally harm another human being.  Some will find their answers in a substance that will numb their mind so they do not have to think about life especially the terrible parts of life caused by other human beings or the elements of this globe spinning in the universe that can bring about natural destruction. 

 

Today we live in a world where a majority of the people think they have the right to anything and everything they want.  Whether is be a need, a right, or an opinion it is theirs and no one can tell them otherwise.  If you do not agree with this than you are the one in the wrong.  They will tell you that you have no right to judge them.  You have no right to speak anything other than what they believe.  They will rise up against anyone and everyone who tries to deny them of their beliefs and their morals.  They will not bend or admit there could be another way or that others even matter. They will fight for every single thing in their life.  Fighting in life is not what any of us should want to do.

 

I am a believer that Jesus of Nazareth was God in human form who came to earth to save people from themselves.  I believe he walked the earth for approximately 33 years and told of a way to live life on earth in a peaceful, hope filled way.  I believe he was the Christ, the Messiah spoken of in the books of the Old Testament.  I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God for a world that is evil and sinful.  A world that does not show the peace, love and hope of a Creator that made human beings in the likeness of him.  I believe the books of the New Testament fully show that Jesus was God and that his followers were, and still are, inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  At this point in my life I have no doubt of who Jesus is and he is who he said he was.

The Dream and The Word

I woke up about 3:30 am and decided to look up information about a small church we were planning to attend in Redmond.  There were more than a half of a dozen churches in downtown Redmond so I was looking at the website information about each church professing Jesus Christ as savior and professed to follow the ways of Jesus.  I went back to sleep after an hour and woke up a few hours later with parts of a dream still in my head.

 

In my dream I had been visiting the different churches, all within walkable distances.  Each church welcomed me but then someone would come up to me and begin telling me about a dead body and that they could not find the killer.  It was repeated over and over in each church, with different faces and different voices, it was the same story of a dead body and no one could find the killer.  As I listened there were people who actually wanted to find the killer.  But in each church I noticed there were those who hung back and those who told me it was none of my business and that I should leave.  As I left the churches I could feel my feet sinking and I looked down to see the carpet where I stood and I could  see it was  mud and goo under my feet and it was blood red.  I walked out into the yards of the churches where it was also filled with the blood red mud and goo.  I continued to talk with many different people about the death, the dead body and who the killer could be but nothing was ever determined and no one knew how to find the killer.

 

I woke up from my dream.

 

Waking from sleep I tried to understand what the meaning of the dream was and what the Lord wanted me to understand. 

 

I was lead to Deuteronomy 28: 15-68

 

“However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you. You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. The sights you see will drive you mad. The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you. You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land. The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail. All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you. Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities. If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God— the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

 

Reading this scripture in Deuteronomy, which I do not remember reading before,  I could hear the wrath of the Father for a people that would not repent.  They would not stop following false gods and false idols.  I prayed asking for more clarity and the following is what I wrote.

 

The Church has failed.  It is time for rebuke. The definition of rebuke is to express sharp disapproval or criticism of someone because of their behavior or actions. The people have covered the carpets of the churches with the blood of Jesus. They continue in sin all the while knowing they continue in sin. These sins keep the blood he shed on the cross continually flowing but without the power of repentance and the saving grace and mercy of forgiveness. They take this unrepentant attitude with them as they leave the churches and go into the outside world leaving His power of forgiveness looking like nothing more than mud and goo.  They are stuck in this because of their unwillingness to repent of their sin.

 

Lord, I want to be an encourager not one who speaks hard truth to the church. These are my brothers and sisters not my enemy.

 

The Lord says, “They need to hear hard truth.”

 

“The people think nothing of spending thousands of dollars on themselves and think so little of the needs of others. They look at themselves first. Others in need barely matter and are the responsibility of someone else, so they believe, but they are wrong.”

 

“The church is to serves me if they follow me. They speak love but fail, as they are selfish and value themselves above all others. They sin in their selfish ways and therefore I hang on the cross bleeding freely without my blood covering them but flowing to the floor with no power. Repentance is not in their hearts. Many come again and again, over and over. Many say they want to be free of sin but in their hearts they desire and choose their sin over me. They are selfish. They lie to themselves. Even their shepherds live like this.”

 

Isaiah 29:13

“The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”

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Proverbs 27:5

“Better is open rebuke than hidden love.”

 

Matthew 5:13

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

 

John 12:35-36‭‭

“Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.”

 

Everyone wants to be the light. No one wants to be the salt. Encouragement is good for all who are seeking the Lord by serving him. But those who are called to serve him and are only serving themselves need to hear the real hard truth of their ways and hear rebuke. The church has failed. The church leaders have failed.  We have failed.  I have failed.

 

Lord Jesus, I ask that you give me strength and wisdom to be able to be salt and be light.  To be able to rebuke and to be able to encourage.  To be able to speak your hard truth to others as well as speak your love into others.  Help me Lord to be your servant with a willing spirit for what you need not what I think I should be doing but that I actually do your will.  ‭Help me with my words and your wisdom.  Amen.