Inhabitants of the land

Knowledge is the Answer

/ Tim A. / 1 Comment

The move of our society and culture which we live in is that science is the answer for all our ills, or problems, even our sicknesses.  Is science the answer?  If we are to understand things then we must learn; and learning gains us knowledge, and knowledge is science.  If I am wrong tell me.  Does the word “Science” not mean “Knowledge” or “Know”?

What we need to know, however, is not the intricate workings of the universe, our world; but God; the One who created the universe and all that is in it.

Today we will look at the word of God spoken to and through Hosea, a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  His ministry was during the ministry of Isaiah (Read Isaiah 1:1 and Hosea 1:1).  The Jereboam mentioned is the second Jereboam, not the first king of the Northern Kingdom.  Hear the word of the LORD…

“Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” Hosea 4:1-6 (KJV)

Who among you have a time with God, where you spend time in His word (Not a devotional reading), His word, where He speaks with you, you pray for understanding and knowledge, and you reach an understanding with Him concerning what He says?  It appears to me sometimes that people professing to know God are ignorant of His word.  There are many who profess Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and some who do not, who believe phrases such as “The Lord helps those who help themselves” is a Biblical reference.  It is not.  What about the phrase, “Cleanliness is next to godliness”?  It is not found in Scripture either.

When we hear things such as this it is no wonder that professing Christians, due to ignorance, are relishing a life of sin, just like the rest of the world.

This ignorance is what Hosea is speaking of, and what the LORD is warning us about in His word through the events of the Northern tribes, and that of Judah in Isaiah.  The phrase “Ignorance is bliss” comes to mind as I write.  Ignorance is not bliss.  It is doom for any people who choose to remain ignorant about God, His word, His ways, His Son, and His redemption available because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus His only begotten Son (John 3:16).

Truth, mercy and the knowledge of God are necessities for the child of God. Ignorance is why there “Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood” in any land; including the United States of America.

Get out of your ignorance and get into God and His word.  Knowledge is the Answer through the cross of Jesus Christ.

What Do I Want For Christmas? Day 362

/ Tim A. / 1 Comment

What do I want for Christmas?

For the Christians of the United States of America to know, understand, to see, and recognize the judgment of God when His judgment is here and present with us.

Part of our getting right and being right with Him is recognizing His judgment, and  falling on our knees in repentance, and asking His forgiveness.

“Hear the word of the LORD, You children of Israel, For the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “There is no truth or mercy Or knowledge of God in the land.” Hosea 4:1 (NKJV)

 

 

Dealing With Our Sin; the Enemy Within

/ Tim A. / 4 Comments

“But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.” Numbers 33:55-56 (KJV)

There is a certain ideology of the world today that likens Christianity to extremism of the religious nature. For some reason; fear, shame, or for whatever reason Christians are silent about the things concerning holiness in the life of the Christian; and the major extreme we as individuals must go to to root out, rid ourselves of all that is vile, evil and unholy.

We need to be extremist when it comes to dealing with unholiness. The first place is to begin within ourselves. Put it off. Christ Jesus has given us power and authority to deal with evil in ourselves.

The above verses are verses for Israel to deal with the evil of the land of Canaan they were about to conquer in the name of the LORD. The Canaanites had polluted the land with innocent blood; sacrificing children, and the elderly alike; worshipping unholy deities. God had given them more than 400 years to change their ways; but they did not. Now He was going to purify the land.

For the Christian we are to put off sin, and put on Christ. The apostle Paul speaks of spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10ff); and that warfare deals with fighting sin within, and around us. That warfare does not involve the shedding of innocent blood. That blood has already been shed; the blood of Jesus Christ for our sins.

The warning of verse 56 above is that if we do not drive evil out, and we allow any of it to remain, then that evil will be a torment; just as thorns in our sides, and pricks in our eyes; the evil we let remain will be a vexing of our souls. May God help us.

The Judgment Coming

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Judgment is in fact already here.  Judgment has come.  As Christians we must learn to live righteously in a godless nation, godless generation, and within a lukewarm church.

For the nation of Judah it seems that the North was the direction from which judgment would come. I think it interesting to note a Psalm that directs our attention to the North without naming the North. It is Psalm 75, and it says, “Do not lift up your horn on high; do not speak with a stiff neck.’ For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another.” (vv.5-7). You notice the silence concerning North? Does Judgment come from the North? In the case of Israel and Judah it does.

Hear what the LORD spoke to Jeremiah:

“And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, ‘What seest thou?’ And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.  Then the LORD said unto me, ‘Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. And I will utter My judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.'”  Jeremiah 1:13-16 (KJV)

The judgment of which Jeremiah warned was coming on all the inhabitants of the land. It seems that the noble people, those of notable birth, or those who have great wealth sometimes think, “Oh, that won’t happen to us” or “We can become a part of the upper society people, and we can just fit in”, but the prophet’s message from the LORD is judgment on “all the inhabitants of the land”. Judgment is not a pleasant thing to talk about, but when the LORD calls you and gives you a message to proclaim, and tells you not to withhold a word, then you better obey.

Every preacher, and especially pastors would love to spend all their preaching, preaching of the goodness, love, grace, mercy of God. We would be thrilled just to always be preaching about the good we see in our fellow human beings, because there are good things done, there are good lives lived, and people saving physical lives; and encouraging others. The preacher, the pastor is not the man of God he should be, if he preaches not that we are sinners; condemned, dying and that our only hope of salvation is through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. To preach the cross of Jesus you must tell why He died on the cross, that means talking about our darkness of sin. We must tell why the Father had to judge His own perfect, sinless Son, turn His back on Him; and why Jesus went through that horrible three hours of total darkness while He was stretched between heaven and hell. We must preach that God made Him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

The judgment coming on Judah was coming from the north. It was in fact, coming from God. It was the plan of Jeremiah’s father, his family, and Jeremiah that he would be a priest in Jerusalem. That was a ministry that was much respected in Jeremiah’s day, and that of his family. Jeremiah even had plans of marriage, but that was not to come about. We will see that in a later word from God to the prophet. Prophets of God do not choose to be prophets; they are called by God to be prophets. That is the prophet Jeremiah. Prophets who call themselves serve themselves, lead others astray, and despise God’s prophets.

The judgment coming to Jerusalem was like all the kingdoms of the north were coming to set up quarters, homes, or shop right in the gates of the city. They would be encamping all around. The people of Judah would no longer be free. Not only is this against the city of Jerusalem but all the cities of Judah. This would include Bethlehem and Bethel.

The coming of these people of the kingdoms of the north was God’s utterance against their forsaking the LORD. There were those who were worshipping the LORD, but few and far between. Those who were worshipping were probably remaining silent. The priests who were praising God in their hearts and worshipping him, must have been silent concerning the condition of the hearts and lives of the people; thus were allowing them to continue to live in their sin and rebellion. Therefore, they were not the priests of God that they should have been. Take the offering the people bring no matter the true condition of their heart, or that they had been to the temple of Baal, and participated in those rituals. They will be okay as long as they are faithful to the temple of God. LIES, LIES, LIES. God is not glorified except with total devotion, commitment, and worship to Him and to Him alone.

Even though a man and/or woman may attend worship on Sunday morning, evening, Wednesday evening, and anytime the church house door is open, but they live for themselves the other days of the week, the rest of the time, and glorify not God with their life and living; they worship not, and love not the LORD with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. They have, in fact, forsaken the Lord, and “worship the works of their own hands”.

I want no man, woman, boy or girl to be without hope.   I do, however, want you to have meaningful hope.  Hope that will come to pass.  Meaningful hope endures the times we face.  Meaningful  hope looks to the death, burial and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ; and His promise of returning to earth to reclaim.  That is the Christian’s hope.  We look forward to seeing Jesus the Christ, Son of the Living GOD.