Exodus 32
This shows the 3rd problem in Hosea 4:1 that is destroying us! Lack of faithfulness! Faith is assurance of things hoped for, in what we can’t see. Hebrews 11:1-2 If we can see it, no hope or faith needed. Romans 8:24 We create idols so we have something we can see and touch from an image we see regularly. Something we can create through our own strength. Deuteronomy 4:15-28 This is a total lack of faith in the God that saved us from the bondage of sin. Too often though, the second we can’t see far enough down the road, we are out of here! This is the first commandment and God actually calls it whoring after other Gods. Does that paint a strong enough picture for you? It is as much adultery as idolatry when dealing with God. Both mean you gave up on loving God just like we do with each other.
Also, look at how much God used Moses to teaching us about Jesus.
1When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, "Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." “Make us Gods” is one not enough? Now we just had to talk about assembling together at church in the Genesis, but the second we feel forgotten or asked to be patient, we sure gather ourselves quickly to turn against him. All about us. No faithfulness! 2So Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." 3So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. Jacob started the first revival with something that sounded simple “get up and go”. One act of obedience that grew into a revival of all. This second revival is needed because of something just as simple “go”. One act of disobedience grew into all turning away from God. Aaron followed the World instead of God and can sure go down hill fast after sin creeps in. Something is always growing! What struck me about the response of the people was that I never gave that easily when God asked. Much like them, I would blow every dime to support my idols. Sound Familiar? 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. I sure went to some effort in the past to make my sin look nice. If I tried that hard to please God I might not feel like Cain all the time? And they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" 5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." This is the part that makes God the angriest! They used his words and actions to make their idols sound acceptable. Sad thing is it worked. All of them worshipped it. Still works today! Bible says to be careful of people preaching a different Jesus. Sounds like Jesus, but not the one God sent. We can do that with money and anything else too. Well, doesn’t God want me to be happy and have fun? Not if it means cheating on him he doesn’t. He wants you to have JOY in what he gives you. 6And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. I remember getting up and it was still dark out to go play golf or stay up all night doing something bad, but I couldn’t get up on Sunday and make church by 10ish or early to pray or read? Pitiful! Loved my idols more at that time! Don’t get me wrong, you can have things you like to do, but they can’t ever take away from God in any way or they are an idol! Listen, I love horses, but God first, family next and then horses. Any other order is wrong!
7And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" 9And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you." I am glad Moses accepted his role as intercessor as Jesus does now. I am afraid, God the father has had about enough though. He will start over again with his chosen people if we do not turn back. The Gentiles are grafted in to makes the Jews jealous and return. The awesome part is God has compassion. He asked Moses to “let him alone” so he may consume them. He knew how much Moses cared for his people and would plead for them. God also knew he loved them even more. God forgives so quickly if we would just humble ourselves and ask.
11But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Unbelievers are watching. The lack of knowledge of God would lead them to believe he destroys unjustly. Like God sets people up to be destroyed. Way off, but he does have to punish sin. Moses was more worried about glorifying God first. We are the ones that make him have to destroy by choosing to disobey. If we will repent then unbelievers can see the power of his Grace! Somewhere it says God is feared because he forgives. Deep down we know that we would not forgive like he does. His mercy changes lives! Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.'" 14And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. Moses prayed and God did not destroy them. Moses begged and God changed his mind. God must feel tremendous compassion on simple sinners like me. The way we have been acting I sure am glad Jesus is way better than Moses at interceding for us! If we will repent and change, he will turn his anger away because God is faithful with his promises. Like the promise he made to Abraham, Isaac and Israel. This also shows the power of prayer! He does hear us and it can change his mind! That is simply what the prayer of salvation does. We all deserved death, but if anyone believes and asks he changes the sentence to life.
15Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. This is something I remember hearing debated in college and people keep taking it farther. The Bible is the word of God!!!! These are his words!!!!! Says it very plainly right here. He wrote them!!! New Testament says every word is God breathed and all of them for our instruction. I do not care who copied it for him originally, but Paul did not write all those books. God did! Makes it easier to not obey if you can talk yourself into “Paul is just a man”, huh? If all the words are not perfect the whole book is useless. That is why he promises all the plagues of this book on anyone who adds or subtracts from it in the last chapter! He says his word is pure. That means without blemish! People say there were some cool books that got left out. That is because they were flawed and sinful! Period! People wish they were in there to defend their sin. That is why God left those out! What kind of God do people think they serve if he can speak the universe into existence and raise people from the dead, but can’t get his own book published correctly? One more thing, if we needed to know Greek and Hebrew to understand it we would still speak them. Pharisees!! If you want to understand it more you beg like David did in the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalms 119 Hey, I started looking up the Greek and Hebrew too. Figured all the preachers do it. Guess what? There are ten possible means to most of the words! You can twist the words in those languages the same as ours! I understand we want it to be easier. It is hard though. It is supposed to be. The disciples had to go back and ask him to explain most things again. Ask God to teach it and keep reading it. The only thing that explains this book is the Holy Spirit and the rest of this book! He says his word is alive! It teaches itself. I started realizing I could not say much about it not making sense if I had not really read it and never asked God to teach me. That was foolishness!! 17When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a noise of war in the camp." 18But he said, "It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear." I am getting the point God, we enjoy our sin too much. Many of our churches only sound like they are worshipping? Make it look nice like the calf though. 19And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it. You think Moses really understood how angry God gets until right then? He had just begged for their lives! Only then, when he was given a taste of what God feels he burned hot too! Jesus turned over the tables in the temple. What he did always seemed weird though. I understood burning the idol, but what is up with making them drink it? I finally was shown this. This is the test later for adultery in Numbers 5:11-29 and sums up this chapter. There is nothing more dangerous than a jealous God. Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy? Proverbs 27:4, Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? 1 Corinthians 10:22 If a man was concerned that his wife had been unfaithful he took her to the priest and he made this drink (a grain offering of remembrance and of jealousy to remember iniquity) and she was placed before the Lord and forced to drink it. If she was innocent nothing happened. If she wasn’t, it turned to bitter pain, swells up in her womb and caused her thigh to fall away. What just happened is her sin, that she thought she got away with and was hoping she could just forget about, was forced out into the open. She was forced to admit and deal with what she had done. We have been cheating on God for far too long and he has had enough! You have two options. Drink that bitter drink now and allow him to forgive and restore fellowship for the wrath of the Lamb is near. This is why God hates all unfaithfulness and is so serious about marriage. It is a fact we all usually love the world more than him. Therefore deep down we love our spouses and families more than God. He knows if we will not be faithful to each other on Earth we will never be faithful to him. Jesus is coming back – we are his bride - we will all give an account before him for our faithfulness! 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." James 4:4-6 This is talking about the church! He is jealous of the spirit he made to dwell in us! Until we deal with our past unfaithfulness, no peace! I promise it is better if you will. Swallow your pride and put away your fear and drink that bitter drink. Ask God to show you what you need forgiveness for. Get ready, he will show you a lot of things you wished he didn’t. (lol) Not much pride left when he shows you how awful you are and I have never been more excited about that! Guess what? We are all awful, but he always forgives! Do we not believe this?
21And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?" 22And Aaron said, "Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23For they said to me, 'Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' 24So I said to them, 'Let any who have gold take it off.' So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." 1st thing, Moses said Aaron had brought a great sin upon them. Aaron was in charge and he is held accountable. Aaron’s reply is awfully familiar! Blamed the people for asking, blamed Moses for leaving them too long and then just flat lied about the calf. He said he just threw the gold in and the calf just came out like that. Verse 4 says he fashioned it with a graving tool. Actually took pride in his sin! Sure wanted to do a good job at that instead of leading. Eve blamed the devil. Cain said God was unfair and then lied about knowing where Abel was. This stuff is old! Every one of us does this same junk today when confronted with our sins. Bottom line was Aaron was held accountable for leading his sheep. Listen up, leaders. Your job is not to tell everyone what they want to hear or give them whatever they ask for. Your job is to make disciples and lead only with truth! So if you are not truly called to lead it is time to get out of God’s way! If you are actually called then you are held to a greater standard. Are you ready to stand before Christ and answer for his sheep?
25And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), People are running wild, but If Aaron had done his job he would have had the help of God to stop them. No excuses. Instead he led them to shame before their enemies. You think unbelievers want our Jesus when they are whispering about our lack of faith in him? Sure, we all mess up, but it should not be so often and whether you like it or not, it does affect the belief of others. 26then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, "Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. Repent and live! Don’t and die! This is the only question in this whole Bible and they were all given a chance. I can hear Satan now, he did not kill Adam and Eve. He doesn’t really kill people? Many forms of death, but only one that is eternal. Never promised a million chances. This is why he is to be feared! Man can’t serve two masters and there is no middle ground in my Bible. You are obeying and loving God, or disobeying and hating him! God is about sick of us calling him a liar and trying to make everyone happy. You will pick a side soon! 27And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.'" Jesus said he did not come to bring peace but to bring a sword and put brother against brother. When he returns again he will cut down all that oppose forever. 28And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. People get upset when God kills people. God did not kill them. We kill ourselves! In the garden they were given the tree of life (Jesus) and the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the law). They had no sin yet so they could have chosen life in the garden (heaven) with God forever. They chose the wrong tree – we are still desiring the tree of knowledge too often. Woe you Pharisees! God asked them to choose Christ and to not choose themselves. Where is our faith? Jesus has always been and always will be, the only way to God and it is free and all you have to do is believe and ask. After they both blew it they did allow God to clothe them through a sacrifice. Jesus is the way back through the blood of the cross, but get this straight right now, we turned that tree into a cross! That same tree of life is in the New Jerusalem! Listen, all our souls live forever. You get to pick where. After salvation we still have to choose to obey. It is time to pick a side and act like it! He never promises he will keep asking though. Are you happy with which side you have picked so far? 29And Moses said, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day." It will cost you to truly follow. If so, it is because others choose against Christ! Says they can’t hate you but they hate me because I tell them what they do is evil. Pride is the only thing ever in the way of forgiveness though.
30The next day Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." JESUS! 31So Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written." Willing to give his life for theirs. 33But the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. We have only the most chosen of his people left at this point. They just seemed to take a stand, but God says he is the only one that knows their true hearts. If you’ve just been playing church, God knows your heart. If you are still breathing it is never too late.
If you have never asked Jesus to save you, it is as simple as this and you need no one’s help, but his! You must understand and accept that we all sin, which separates us from God and the penalty is eternal death (Hell) Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23. He sent his son Jesus to die a horrible death on a shameful cross to pay for our sins. John 3:16 He was buried and three days later he rose and conquered death! Forever! So that we may have eternal life in heaven with God. All you must do is believe this in your heart and ask him to save you. Romans 10:9 There is no other way. John 14:6 and this is God’s desire for all. 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Please ask if you have questions though. I would not go to this trouble if it were not so important.
34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them." 35Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made. After repenting and getting back to serving only God their reward was an angel to go before and help clear the path, but no sin goes unpunished so they got a plague for the calf worshipping. If these revivals show you anything is that God will keep increasing the pressure until we repent or are destroyed. Up to us! We have not repented as a people yet. Surely I am not the only one feeling these plagues?
Listen, this lesson has been a real fight with me this week. I will be honest it still is. I have always gotten mad and quit. I truly wanted to give up Monday. I even told a couple people I was going to. I can’t explain how after allowing him to change me so much and all this work, I felt he left me more alone than ever in my life. I felt like no one cares anymore or ever listens. I know that is not true, but I sure understand how my pastor must feel too often. Nevertheless, I was ready to give up on God and everyone else. He told me if I ever really loved him like I claimed that I will never quit! He proved he loves by his actions. It is my turn now! The perfect example is God so loved he gave his son (a selfless action) and no greater love than a brother giving his life for another (a selfless action). God sent the most important thing he had and Jesus died willingly for us not for himself. Loved regardless of our response. I still don’t know much, but if he says don’t quit I just can’t ever quit again. How can I quit on the one saved my life? I am sure glad Jesus did not quit on us! He also showed me by sending some people out of the blue Monday that each just said God asked them to check on me and see if they could pray. I am still amazed he loves me as terrible as I can be! He is trying to show us every day if we will let him. No matter how we feel we need to show him our love!
Look, I ain’t married or never have been, but if you are and you really love that person, you should never quit showing them same as with God. If we give up on God or our families we just simply don’t love them the way we claim, do we? It is a deception to believe we do not need others. Once we believe we can handle everything on our own we are close to not needing God’s help either! I will fix that tomorrow is your next hurdle. Once again, you are not promised tomorrow! Everyone has bad days, but ask for forgiveness and keep working at improving. That truly shows you love someone! I read this and could not find quitting anywhere.
1 Corinthians 13 The Way of Love
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I love you cause Jesus loves us both and there is absolutely nothing you can do about that!
BEZ
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Genesis 35 The first revival!
Most times the first example is the best. This is the first revival in the Bible. The rest of them all have the same structure, but teach different things we have forgotten or have messed up that have caused this struggle that God is putting on us so we will come back to him. He always answers if we truly obey. I believe the size and power is all about the number of people that will agree, obey and how serious we really are. All these start with one, or a few hearts that give in with everything and it can turn into all and then it will start reaching outside of the original group. Our reward could be something like Pentecost! Thousands of people saved in our community! One is worth it though. I believe our only limit to this is our love for God/obedience, and our desire to disciple others in this/loving your neighbor. We will see if everyone really cares most for the two greatest commands of the Bible. God really enjoys using normal people! We are all normal to God! So no excuses! Anyone can choose to obey!
1God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau." As we ended Genesis 34, Jacob’s sons had withheld mercy and forgiveness on a people trying to conform to God. Is there any greater sin that this? Christ said, better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around your neck than keep someone from him! Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2 The solution started with “arise and go”! Everything with God starts with us obeying. If we choose to obey he is helping. If we choose to disobey he is not. When we choose to disobey he is always trying to restore fellowship thru loving discipline which can be as tough as HE chooses. This is how he can be with us always, but against us at the same time. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? 1 Cor 4:21 It took losing the most important thing ever, before I finally understood this! God is hoping you are not as slow to feel the rod that we are getting right now! There should be our only two concerns in life with every breath we take. Am I choosing to obey God or am I choosing to do this my way/disobey. He begs us, but never forces us to obey him! We first choose to obey Christ and are saved! After that, if we choose to break fellowship, it is only restored when we repent and start obeying again. These two choices are the basics for all revival and the basics for every single story in the bible.
Second thing is where he told Jacob to go. Bethel means “House of God”. Yep, God said the first revival would start when Jacob got his tail back to God’s house (church) where he first appeared/spoke to him and DWELL there. 4 times a year because your Mom made you feel guilty does not count! Ain’t your Mom making you feel guilty anyway! Better than zero times a year though! It does not get much simpler than this does it? I fought seriously getting back in church for much longer than most would believe possible. I made every excuse I could to people that cared enough to invite me to go back. After making enough excuses why I quit visiting God’s house, I even started to believe I didn’t need to go back. As someone that has really made a ton of excuses, I would like to address some you are already running thru your head.
I needed to get back in church because my best example, Jesus, was always there. Jesus is the head of the church. Why be head of something people don’t need? When his parents were looking for him he said they should have known where he was. Now this one hits me hard. If someone asked where I was two years ago, church would have been there last guess! Where would people guess you are? It is a lie of the devil that I was not supposed to be in church, and often, but was my fault for believing it.
Most of the New Testament are letters written to the churches to instruct them. God sure wasted his time if church is not vital? I am to be taught about these letters at church. Moses read and taught the law that God wrote to everyone during their assemblies. Deut 4:13-14 Church is for helping to stir up love and good works by encouraging each other, not forsaking the assembling together, as is the habit of some, and even more often as time goes by. Hebrews 10:24-25 That is a command, meaning not a debatable topic, but once I started going and actually serving I wanted more! I’ve already thought about Jesus spent time by himself too, that was only for short times to focus more on God. “I have Christ in me”, I do not need to be in church? If you have that good of a relationship, God would like you to come and teach some of us people that struggle. The need for more teachers is actually in the other revivals. If you got it down come help make disciples!
Sabbath is holy and is a commandment also. Anything you do that keeps you from his assembly or forsakes his Sabbath is an idol! Work, play, tired, lazy, stubborn, drunk, all the same. You have made it more important and placed it higher. God the Father created a house for us to come and worship at (make an alter). He is the one to be feared! It is time we remember this! We meet together to worship our savior! For where two or three are gathered in his name, there am I among them. Matthew 18:20 Surely this is not a hard one? If you are not sure how important this is the other 12 revivals talk about his house too. God never ever says come after you do what you need to do either!
If you have been harmed in some way you can’t expect God to forgive you, if you won’t come back home and forgive those that harmed you. He loves them too and you would be teaching big time forgiveness then! Be a teacher!
I can keep this up, but it is simply a sin to avoid church! The bottom line was I knew I would be spoken to in his house and I did not want to hear from him right then! I was busy figuring all this out on my own and I would do anything to not feel convicted of my sinful lifestyle. If I ignore him maybe he will go away? I pray you lose this fight! It is time to get all our tails back in church and serve and worship the one true God that saved our life! No church is perfect. It can’t be, it is full of sinners! I do know of a few that do their best to accomplish the role of the church as Paul stated in Hebrews 10 so no excuses. I can suggest some if you would like. I do this to take any doubt away that not going is wrong and if you don’t start back you are choosing to ignore God not me. That means broken fellowship with God! Your call. Last thing, I started asking myself, where is a better place to be than in God’s house? I can’t figure out a logical debate for that one. There is not a better place!
2So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Listen up men, as the head of the household you are responsible for this! If Dad ain’t in church or making me be there, why should I go? That is what our children are thinking. If you love your kids you will make them go to church WITH you! Lady’s you are still responsible too, but as the head of the household I apologize, we have let God and you down! It is going to change! After his household he shares with all. God’s word is same for all! We need to conform to it, not make it conform to us. Bible is very clear about teaching and being fruitful. If the seed isn’t growing, we are doing something wrong. Put away all other gods – this is the first commandment for a reason. If we can’t get this one right we don’t have a chance. He has to be most important. Love him first and with everything -- If something else is stopping you, fix it.
Clean/Purify yourselves – ask for forgiveness and accept it, repent and stop sinning. Once saved you did not get a pass on not asking every day to be forgiven for that day’s sin. And yes, we sin every day. This is actually being obedient. God knows you will mess up and just wants you fess up. When you don’t, human guilt builds and broken fellowship with God.
Change garments – Be different than the world. Allow him to change you. Adam and Eve tried to cloth themselves but God has to do that thru a blood sacrifice Genesis 3:21 – clothes, name whatever it takes, the changed garments is the spirit filled life that people can see and the example Christ left us – still begging us for this in Rev. 3. Listen up, if people can’t see this change you are doing something wrong!
This is a heart issue. I have tried to half do this and it never works. He knows. You know. Everyone else knows too. It is a waste of time and we are lying to God. That is a poor plan. Putting it off is just as bad. This may hurt a bit, but not as bad as us not doing it and you can’t image the joy after. John 16:16-24 explains this.
3Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone." Let “US” arise and go, seed spreading, build and alter to the God who answers in our distress and is always there! We are hurting. All of us or we see people that are. Jesus is the only solution. We have run God off. If we will cry out with all our heart he always answers. At this point in our separation we have to really mean it. And that goes for all of us. Genesis 28:10-22 is actually when God first revealed himself in a dream to Jacob.
4So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. All obeyed and gave up foreign gods and materialistic stuff, hid it under/at the base of a tree. Sinful items under a tree – the cross – pretty cool how often he speaks of his son taking our sins whenever we will give them to him.
5And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. After obeying and repenting and allowing God to change his garments his greatest worry was resolved. A lot of obeying before he fixes some of our biggest concerns. Not only did the other nations “not” destroy him, but they were terrified of him! Not because he was special, but because he had God with him because he simply obeyed. He went before them to protect so they didn’t have to fight. It’s about time we learn to fear him again, this is the only way we will ever obey him and that is for our own good. Deut 6:24
6And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, This is another cool name change. Luz = almond tree. It would have already been a beautiful and important place, but was nothing and useless to God until changed to Bethel (House of God). No matter how great the world thinks something is, it’s nothing without being useful to God!
7and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. God sent Jacob back to where he had revealed himself to him before – we can’t be afraid of going back to be able to move forward – we have forgot so much or more shamefully never learned it to start with -- we need to allow his spirit to teach us as children again.
8And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth. Following/obeying God is tough! He never said it wasn’t, but promises it is worth it! This is where many would just quit. God says that easy love is worthless! Anyone can do that!
9God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. Crazy how when I returned to his house and started obeying more often, he appeared/spoke again. Thing is, he was always saying get back in church! I just was ignoring him. Why would he say anything else if I would not do the first one? Would you bless someone that never did anything you asked? If Jacob had refused he would not have kept helping. Glad he did!
10And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." So he called his name Israel. God appeared to him again and blessed him. How did he bless him? Changed his name to Israel – gave him a new start – once we get back in fellowship thru repenting and obeying he will continue to reveal more of himself to us thru his spirit. I still have tons of things to improve on, but I feel these changes and it is not changes we can do on our own!
11And God said to him, "I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. Sure, this is talking of physically multiplying on earth, like most in my Sunday school class are blessed at. lol God is more concerned with multiplying his kingdom though.
12 The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you." God will give them the promise land and even to their children. If we get right with God our children benefit greatly for this. They learn from us, we have let them down and we will be held accountable for this. Never too late to correct our mistakes!
13Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. 14And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. Jacob poured out a drink offering and poured oil on it. Finished it and gave all. The spirit is described this way many times. The spirit is our ultimate reward. Jesus said he had to leave so something greater could come. The spirit now lives in us, do not be mistaken though, we can break fellowship with him too. Flesh and spirit war against each other, we must listen to the spirit and do opposite of our human nature.
15So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel. If you haven’t ever been spoken to in God’s house you ain’t listen!
16Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. 17And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, "Do not fear, for you have another son." 18And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), 20and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day. This is the second person to die on the trip God sent him on, but Jacob never stopped obeying. Listen, obeying God does not equal easy. Awfully easy to question him when it gets hard, huh? This does show that if you are willing to do anything he will finish what he promises. This was the 12th tribe, the completion of the nation of Israel. God finished what he promised Abraham! Bottom line is when it gets tough, and it will, do you really love enough to love even when it hurts? All this struggle and still showing future glory with first reference to Bethlehem.
21Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. I like how his name change to Israel makes me think of an entire nation when heard. One man’s obedience fathered an entire nation. Jesus did something like that, huh? Would be nice if people thought of God when they heard of America as when founded?
22While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. 23The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 24The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 25The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant: Dan and Naphtali. 26The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
27And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. All this and finally back to his father’s fellowship! :)
28Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. 29And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
This is pretty simple. Get back in church and if you are there go tell everyone that isn’t. I keep hearing people complain about the state of this world. Well it is our fault that it is getting worse! Evil does not win on this kind of scale if God’s people are obeying. This is what God said to do for his first revival. Jesus is our only solution to any problem and we better start acting like we really believe that! God is awesome! :)
I love you cause Jesus loves us both and there is absolutely nothing you can do about that!
BEZ
1God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau." As we ended Genesis 34, Jacob’s sons had withheld mercy and forgiveness on a people trying to conform to God. Is there any greater sin that this? Christ said, better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around your neck than keep someone from him! Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2 The solution started with “arise and go”! Everything with God starts with us obeying. If we choose to obey he is helping. If we choose to disobey he is not. When we choose to disobey he is always trying to restore fellowship thru loving discipline which can be as tough as HE chooses. This is how he can be with us always, but against us at the same time. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? 1 Cor 4:21 It took losing the most important thing ever, before I finally understood this! God is hoping you are not as slow to feel the rod that we are getting right now! There should be our only two concerns in life with every breath we take. Am I choosing to obey God or am I choosing to do this my way/disobey. He begs us, but never forces us to obey him! We first choose to obey Christ and are saved! After that, if we choose to break fellowship, it is only restored when we repent and start obeying again. These two choices are the basics for all revival and the basics for every single story in the bible.
Second thing is where he told Jacob to go. Bethel means “House of God”. Yep, God said the first revival would start when Jacob got his tail back to God’s house (church) where he first appeared/spoke to him and DWELL there. 4 times a year because your Mom made you feel guilty does not count! Ain’t your Mom making you feel guilty anyway! Better than zero times a year though! It does not get much simpler than this does it? I fought seriously getting back in church for much longer than most would believe possible. I made every excuse I could to people that cared enough to invite me to go back. After making enough excuses why I quit visiting God’s house, I even started to believe I didn’t need to go back. As someone that has really made a ton of excuses, I would like to address some you are already running thru your head.
I needed to get back in church because my best example, Jesus, was always there. Jesus is the head of the church. Why be head of something people don’t need? When his parents were looking for him he said they should have known where he was. Now this one hits me hard. If someone asked where I was two years ago, church would have been there last guess! Where would people guess you are? It is a lie of the devil that I was not supposed to be in church, and often, but was my fault for believing it.
Most of the New Testament are letters written to the churches to instruct them. God sure wasted his time if church is not vital? I am to be taught about these letters at church. Moses read and taught the law that God wrote to everyone during their assemblies. Deut 4:13-14 Church is for helping to stir up love and good works by encouraging each other, not forsaking the assembling together, as is the habit of some, and even more often as time goes by. Hebrews 10:24-25 That is a command, meaning not a debatable topic, but once I started going and actually serving I wanted more! I’ve already thought about Jesus spent time by himself too, that was only for short times to focus more on God. “I have Christ in me”, I do not need to be in church? If you have that good of a relationship, God would like you to come and teach some of us people that struggle. The need for more teachers is actually in the other revivals. If you got it down come help make disciples!
Sabbath is holy and is a commandment also. Anything you do that keeps you from his assembly or forsakes his Sabbath is an idol! Work, play, tired, lazy, stubborn, drunk, all the same. You have made it more important and placed it higher. God the Father created a house for us to come and worship at (make an alter). He is the one to be feared! It is time we remember this! We meet together to worship our savior! For where two or three are gathered in his name, there am I among them. Matthew 18:20 Surely this is not a hard one? If you are not sure how important this is the other 12 revivals talk about his house too. God never ever says come after you do what you need to do either!
If you have been harmed in some way you can’t expect God to forgive you, if you won’t come back home and forgive those that harmed you. He loves them too and you would be teaching big time forgiveness then! Be a teacher!
I can keep this up, but it is simply a sin to avoid church! The bottom line was I knew I would be spoken to in his house and I did not want to hear from him right then! I was busy figuring all this out on my own and I would do anything to not feel convicted of my sinful lifestyle. If I ignore him maybe he will go away? I pray you lose this fight! It is time to get all our tails back in church and serve and worship the one true God that saved our life! No church is perfect. It can’t be, it is full of sinners! I do know of a few that do their best to accomplish the role of the church as Paul stated in Hebrews 10 so no excuses. I can suggest some if you would like. I do this to take any doubt away that not going is wrong and if you don’t start back you are choosing to ignore God not me. That means broken fellowship with God! Your call. Last thing, I started asking myself, where is a better place to be than in God’s house? I can’t figure out a logical debate for that one. There is not a better place!
2So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Listen up men, as the head of the household you are responsible for this! If Dad ain’t in church or making me be there, why should I go? That is what our children are thinking. If you love your kids you will make them go to church WITH you! Lady’s you are still responsible too, but as the head of the household I apologize, we have let God and you down! It is going to change! After his household he shares with all. God’s word is same for all! We need to conform to it, not make it conform to us. Bible is very clear about teaching and being fruitful. If the seed isn’t growing, we are doing something wrong. Put away all other gods – this is the first commandment for a reason. If we can’t get this one right we don’t have a chance. He has to be most important. Love him first and with everything -- If something else is stopping you, fix it.
Clean/Purify yourselves – ask for forgiveness and accept it, repent and stop sinning. Once saved you did not get a pass on not asking every day to be forgiven for that day’s sin. And yes, we sin every day. This is actually being obedient. God knows you will mess up and just wants you fess up. When you don’t, human guilt builds and broken fellowship with God.
Change garments – Be different than the world. Allow him to change you. Adam and Eve tried to cloth themselves but God has to do that thru a blood sacrifice Genesis 3:21 – clothes, name whatever it takes, the changed garments is the spirit filled life that people can see and the example Christ left us – still begging us for this in Rev. 3. Listen up, if people can’t see this change you are doing something wrong!
This is a heart issue. I have tried to half do this and it never works. He knows. You know. Everyone else knows too. It is a waste of time and we are lying to God. That is a poor plan. Putting it off is just as bad. This may hurt a bit, but not as bad as us not doing it and you can’t image the joy after. John 16:16-24 explains this.
3Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone." Let “US” arise and go, seed spreading, build and alter to the God who answers in our distress and is always there! We are hurting. All of us or we see people that are. Jesus is the only solution. We have run God off. If we will cry out with all our heart he always answers. At this point in our separation we have to really mean it. And that goes for all of us. Genesis 28:10-22 is actually when God first revealed himself in a dream to Jacob.
4So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. All obeyed and gave up foreign gods and materialistic stuff, hid it under/at the base of a tree. Sinful items under a tree – the cross – pretty cool how often he speaks of his son taking our sins whenever we will give them to him.
5And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. After obeying and repenting and allowing God to change his garments his greatest worry was resolved. A lot of obeying before he fixes some of our biggest concerns. Not only did the other nations “not” destroy him, but they were terrified of him! Not because he was special, but because he had God with him because he simply obeyed. He went before them to protect so they didn’t have to fight. It’s about time we learn to fear him again, this is the only way we will ever obey him and that is for our own good. Deut 6:24
6And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, This is another cool name change. Luz = almond tree. It would have already been a beautiful and important place, but was nothing and useless to God until changed to Bethel (House of God). No matter how great the world thinks something is, it’s nothing without being useful to God!
7and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. God sent Jacob back to where he had revealed himself to him before – we can’t be afraid of going back to be able to move forward – we have forgot so much or more shamefully never learned it to start with -- we need to allow his spirit to teach us as children again.
8And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth. Following/obeying God is tough! He never said it wasn’t, but promises it is worth it! This is where many would just quit. God says that easy love is worthless! Anyone can do that!
9God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. Crazy how when I returned to his house and started obeying more often, he appeared/spoke again. Thing is, he was always saying get back in church! I just was ignoring him. Why would he say anything else if I would not do the first one? Would you bless someone that never did anything you asked? If Jacob had refused he would not have kept helping. Glad he did!
10And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." So he called his name Israel. God appeared to him again and blessed him. How did he bless him? Changed his name to Israel – gave him a new start – once we get back in fellowship thru repenting and obeying he will continue to reveal more of himself to us thru his spirit. I still have tons of things to improve on, but I feel these changes and it is not changes we can do on our own!
11And God said to him, "I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. Sure, this is talking of physically multiplying on earth, like most in my Sunday school class are blessed at. lol God is more concerned with multiplying his kingdom though.
12 The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you." God will give them the promise land and even to their children. If we get right with God our children benefit greatly for this. They learn from us, we have let them down and we will be held accountable for this. Never too late to correct our mistakes!
13Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. 14And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. Jacob poured out a drink offering and poured oil on it. Finished it and gave all. The spirit is described this way many times. The spirit is our ultimate reward. Jesus said he had to leave so something greater could come. The spirit now lives in us, do not be mistaken though, we can break fellowship with him too. Flesh and spirit war against each other, we must listen to the spirit and do opposite of our human nature.
15So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel. If you haven’t ever been spoken to in God’s house you ain’t listen!
16Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. 17And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, "Do not fear, for you have another son." 18And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), 20and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day. This is the second person to die on the trip God sent him on, but Jacob never stopped obeying. Listen, obeying God does not equal easy. Awfully easy to question him when it gets hard, huh? This does show that if you are willing to do anything he will finish what he promises. This was the 12th tribe, the completion of the nation of Israel. God finished what he promised Abraham! Bottom line is when it gets tough, and it will, do you really love enough to love even when it hurts? All this struggle and still showing future glory with first reference to Bethlehem.
21Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. I like how his name change to Israel makes me think of an entire nation when heard. One man’s obedience fathered an entire nation. Jesus did something like that, huh? Would be nice if people thought of God when they heard of America as when founded?
22While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. 23The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 24The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 25The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant: Dan and Naphtali. 26The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
27And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. All this and finally back to his father’s fellowship! :)
28Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. 29And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
This is pretty simple. Get back in church and if you are there go tell everyone that isn’t. I keep hearing people complain about the state of this world. Well it is our fault that it is getting worse! Evil does not win on this kind of scale if God’s people are obeying. This is what God said to do for his first revival. Jesus is our only solution to any problem and we better start acting like we really believe that! God is awesome! :)
I love you cause Jesus loves us both and there is absolutely nothing you can do about that!
BEZ
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Lack of Mercy
Hosea 4:1 tells us that three things are destroying us. Lack of knowledge of God was what we looked at first. Mercy is actually the 2nd problem listed in verse 1. This is the problem leading into the first revival in the Bible. We haven’t even gotten out of the first book and God has had to destroy the entire earth with a flood except for Noah and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire except for Lot all due to our problems with obeying. You would think we would learn faster. This shows the problem and chapter 35 goes thru the solution. This is the first revival in the Bible.
Genesis 34
1Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. 2And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. 3And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this girl for my wife." 5Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. 6And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing must not be done. They were angry. That is ok. We are not to take our own vengeance tho. 8But Hamor spoke with them, saying, "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife.
9Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it." Sounds good but wrong. You shall dwell with us – devil told Jesus he would give him all he saw – land will be open to you – it is all God’s anyway – anyone outside the fellowship of God wants anyone inside fellowship to conform to them because they do not want to obey and conform to God 11Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. 12Ask me for as great a bride price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife." The world is always looking for acceptance. They will pay anything to feel accepted. To not feel guilty for what they know are wrong actions. If they truly did not care to be they would not try so hard to talk everyone in to saying there sin is ok. They will do anything to get what they want.
13The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. 14They said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Response starts good. 15Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. We can not conform to you, but if you will conform to God we can become ONE people of ONE God. 16Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. Division kills. If they conform then they should be treated as all the same. 17But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone." Even if they did not agree this would have been the correct response. We are not to get even.
18Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. 19And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his father’s house. They were excited to be accepted by God’s people even when they had to do the conforming. 20So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, 21"These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. 22Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people—when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. 23Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us." 24And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. They were so excited they went and shared and all obeyed and were accepted. They obeyed immediately and with joy! The seed is growing!
Here is where is goes wrong. 25On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. 26They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. 3 days later instead of welcoming their new brothers they brought death. Opposite of 3 days later Jesus bringing life. 27The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. 29All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered. Started with two brothers and spread to all. If these people were so bad they should not have needed all their stuff? We will never turn down what seems to be a prize even when we killed to get it. Something is always growing. Awfully quick how the thorns can grow and kill the seed.
30Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household." Jacob brings judgment, “you have brought trouble on me”. Their sins affected more than just them. Romans 5:18-19, Genesis 3:7-19 and 2 Samuel 12:10-12 also show this. They now stink to unbelievers because they said one thing and did the total opposite. NO MERCY. Nothing different from the rest of the world. Jacob worried the world would see their weakness and strike. He understood that they are many and without help from God they would be destroyed. With God’s help there is never too many. 2 Kings 6:15-19
31But they said, "Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?" The two son’s response is far too familiar. Should I not strike back because someone wronged me? All about me feeling vindicated. If I had any real love and mercy I would always swallow my pride and accept and teach anyone God has brought. No matter if I felt wronged or not. This is the sole purpose of the church. Make disciples! They acted like Jonah, like the prodigal son’s brother. Angry that what they looked down on was accepted/forgiven so easily. They acted opposite of how Christ did. Christ never fought back! Most anger he ever showed was against the so-called church. He always loved the lost. His mercy and forgiveness in the worst wronging in history saved the thief beside him. Luke 23:42-43 All because he did not fight back like everyone else before. Exodus 22:21-24 and 23:9, Proverbs 4:16, Jeremiah 32 and Acts 16:25-34 are other places were fighting was not the answer.
Here is my personal experience with this. I have a bit of a temper. Many of you that know me are laughing at my gross understating of this. As I grew and learned about fighting and my temper I realized I must control this. That was fine until I got in high school and boys like to try each other, but I always stayed away from the opportunities to fight. After a few times of feeling picked on and God not doing anything about it, I guess I decided to fix this on my own. By the time college started I was sick of people thinking they could pick on the nice guy. I started fighting back. Always! I justified most of them, but if you wronged me I got even. If you talked back I verbally assaulted you worse. If you were a guy and stood up to me or talked back too much I figured I would teach you to listen to me. I quickly realized what I feared as a child. I was extremely talented at inflicting pain. The fights were mostly when drunk, which is yet another reason to not drink, but it didn’t really matter anymore. I was going to be listened to one way or the other. What I see now is most people just ended up scared or hating how violent I could be, not coming to the crazy mean guy for advise and help. The last fight I ever picked was when some total stranger had talked back to me in a bar and when he left I followed him out. He ended up having a friend, but that wasn’t a big deal. I do not remember much of this, but a friend told me this story about a year ago. I remember picking a fight with the two guys and winning and then all the sudden they had a lot more friends that I saw when we started. I got my hiney kicked. Lol. My friend said the problem came when one of their girlfriends jumped in and hit me too. I do not remember, but he said I hit her back pretty hard and that is when this guy’s entire crew jumped in. My friend said he even got beat up because of what I started and did. There are to lessons that I want to talk about. First is easy. Violence and anger are sins and are not to be messed with. Like all other sin if not controlled it will grow into something you would swear could never happen. I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles I would never hit a girl and I did. That shows me I am capable of any evil whether saved or not. We all must control our thorns.
Second lesson is I only stopped the physical fighting when that happened. I never really gave all that anger to God. I just started verbally and emotionally fighting back next. I believe this is a major problem with the church today. NO FORGIVENESS. The first failure these two brothers had was not forgiving and not accepting. Sure we do not physically kill as much as the Old Testament, but I believe our lack of acceptance is a much more painful death that we are placing on people. I want this real clear. The Bible is for everyone. Any that believe and ask are saved and are equal heirs. Our limiting of Christ’s mercy is what this chapter is all about. Those two brothers took away the opportunity to know God. They executed their own judgment because they were wronged and they will answer for that one day! Think about that when you want to get even. We are to never repay evil for evil. Eye for an eye is not an option. We are not acting like our example! Our sole purpose is to love God and then each other and make disciple. If we run everyone off, these are hard to accomplish. Then everyone is wrong. They are still held accountable for run away and we are for running them off. See how easy it is for everyone to be out of fellowship. Lets forgive a little quicker!
This old quote from a DC talk album has always stuck with me. “The single largest cause of atheism today is when Christians say they believe one thing and then walk out the door and do another. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable!”
I love you cause Jesus loves us both and there is absolutely nothing you can do about that!
BEZ
Genesis 34
1Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. 2And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. 3And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this girl for my wife." 5Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. 6And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing must not be done. They were angry. That is ok. We are not to take our own vengeance tho. 8But Hamor spoke with them, saying, "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife.
9Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it." Sounds good but wrong. You shall dwell with us – devil told Jesus he would give him all he saw – land will be open to you – it is all God’s anyway – anyone outside the fellowship of God wants anyone inside fellowship to conform to them because they do not want to obey and conform to God 11Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. 12Ask me for as great a bride price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife." The world is always looking for acceptance. They will pay anything to feel accepted. To not feel guilty for what they know are wrong actions. If they truly did not care to be they would not try so hard to talk everyone in to saying there sin is ok. They will do anything to get what they want.
13The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. 14They said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Response starts good. 15Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. We can not conform to you, but if you will conform to God we can become ONE people of ONE God. 16Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. Division kills. If they conform then they should be treated as all the same. 17But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone." Even if they did not agree this would have been the correct response. We are not to get even.
18Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. 19And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his father’s house. They were excited to be accepted by God’s people even when they had to do the conforming. 20So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, 21"These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. 22Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people—when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. 23Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us." 24And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. They were so excited they went and shared and all obeyed and were accepted. They obeyed immediately and with joy! The seed is growing!
Here is where is goes wrong. 25On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. 26They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. 3 days later instead of welcoming their new brothers they brought death. Opposite of 3 days later Jesus bringing life. 27The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. 29All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered. Started with two brothers and spread to all. If these people were so bad they should not have needed all their stuff? We will never turn down what seems to be a prize even when we killed to get it. Something is always growing. Awfully quick how the thorns can grow and kill the seed.
30Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household." Jacob brings judgment, “you have brought trouble on me”. Their sins affected more than just them. Romans 5:18-19, Genesis 3:7-19 and 2 Samuel 12:10-12 also show this. They now stink to unbelievers because they said one thing and did the total opposite. NO MERCY. Nothing different from the rest of the world. Jacob worried the world would see their weakness and strike. He understood that they are many and without help from God they would be destroyed. With God’s help there is never too many. 2 Kings 6:15-19
31But they said, "Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?" The two son’s response is far too familiar. Should I not strike back because someone wronged me? All about me feeling vindicated. If I had any real love and mercy I would always swallow my pride and accept and teach anyone God has brought. No matter if I felt wronged or not. This is the sole purpose of the church. Make disciples! They acted like Jonah, like the prodigal son’s brother. Angry that what they looked down on was accepted/forgiven so easily. They acted opposite of how Christ did. Christ never fought back! Most anger he ever showed was against the so-called church. He always loved the lost. His mercy and forgiveness in the worst wronging in history saved the thief beside him. Luke 23:42-43 All because he did not fight back like everyone else before. Exodus 22:21-24 and 23:9, Proverbs 4:16, Jeremiah 32 and Acts 16:25-34 are other places were fighting was not the answer.
Here is my personal experience with this. I have a bit of a temper. Many of you that know me are laughing at my gross understating of this. As I grew and learned about fighting and my temper I realized I must control this. That was fine until I got in high school and boys like to try each other, but I always stayed away from the opportunities to fight. After a few times of feeling picked on and God not doing anything about it, I guess I decided to fix this on my own. By the time college started I was sick of people thinking they could pick on the nice guy. I started fighting back. Always! I justified most of them, but if you wronged me I got even. If you talked back I verbally assaulted you worse. If you were a guy and stood up to me or talked back too much I figured I would teach you to listen to me. I quickly realized what I feared as a child. I was extremely talented at inflicting pain. The fights were mostly when drunk, which is yet another reason to not drink, but it didn’t really matter anymore. I was going to be listened to one way or the other. What I see now is most people just ended up scared or hating how violent I could be, not coming to the crazy mean guy for advise and help. The last fight I ever picked was when some total stranger had talked back to me in a bar and when he left I followed him out. He ended up having a friend, but that wasn’t a big deal. I do not remember much of this, but a friend told me this story about a year ago. I remember picking a fight with the two guys and winning and then all the sudden they had a lot more friends that I saw when we started. I got my hiney kicked. Lol. My friend said the problem came when one of their girlfriends jumped in and hit me too. I do not remember, but he said I hit her back pretty hard and that is when this guy’s entire crew jumped in. My friend said he even got beat up because of what I started and did. There are to lessons that I want to talk about. First is easy. Violence and anger are sins and are not to be messed with. Like all other sin if not controlled it will grow into something you would swear could never happen. I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles I would never hit a girl and I did. That shows me I am capable of any evil whether saved or not. We all must control our thorns.
Second lesson is I only stopped the physical fighting when that happened. I never really gave all that anger to God. I just started verbally and emotionally fighting back next. I believe this is a major problem with the church today. NO FORGIVENESS. The first failure these two brothers had was not forgiving and not accepting. Sure we do not physically kill as much as the Old Testament, but I believe our lack of acceptance is a much more painful death that we are placing on people. I want this real clear. The Bible is for everyone. Any that believe and ask are saved and are equal heirs. Our limiting of Christ’s mercy is what this chapter is all about. Those two brothers took away the opportunity to know God. They executed their own judgment because they were wronged and they will answer for that one day! Think about that when you want to get even. We are to never repay evil for evil. Eye for an eye is not an option. We are not acting like our example! Our sole purpose is to love God and then each other and make disciple. If we run everyone off, these are hard to accomplish. Then everyone is wrong. They are still held accountable for run away and we are for running them off. See how easy it is for everyone to be out of fellowship. Lets forgive a little quicker!
This old quote from a DC talk album has always stuck with me. “The single largest cause of atheism today is when Christians say they believe one thing and then walk out the door and do another. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable!”
I love you cause Jesus loves us both and there is absolutely nothing you can do about that!
BEZ
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