I remember several years ago when i was an EPHESIANS believer,
Caught up in the FIRST LOVE, the joy we all have shared i came across Dallas Holme and PRAISE. Songs like HERE WE ARE would fill my spirit and the simple joy of WORSHIP would fill me.
HERE WE ARE, PRAISING JESUS
LIFTING HOLY HANDS TO YOU
HERE WE ARE PRAISING JESUS
FOR ALL THE THINGS HE'S LED US THROUGH.
If you had a Psalm 130 experience where you called out to HIM from the depths, you have lived such lyrics. The problem is that like the believers of Ephesus too many of us lose our FIRST LOVE and settle for something else. At the same time i listened to another song by Dallas where he sang...that his friends called him a "fool" for giving his heart, mind, soul to "something you couldn't see". His answer "i'll be a fool for you Jesus, that's just what i'll be.... CRAZY IN LOVE WITH GOD ABOVE... that's all i want ta be..."
In the minds of the worldly to love THE MOST HIGH is unfathomable.
Ask Karl Marx. Ask Voltaire. Ask Hitler. But they are all dead, ain't they?
And the philosophies they birthed have all floundered.
Yet we remember the songs of a shepherd boy who made good.
We even remember his son who started good and ended poorly.
And then there was THE CARPENTER who said COME UNTO ME.
But even that had a dual PURPOSE. TO BE YOKED WITH HIM.....and TO LEARN OF HIM...FROM HIM.
1 Corinthians 3
18 Let no man deceive himself.
If any man among you seemeth to
be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with
God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the
wise, that they are vain.
I always love to find IT IS WRITTEN in a scripture passage....well just call me crazy. Worldly wisdom in itself is useless. More than that it can destroy that which is of GOD in a believer. Ever ask why the EPHESIANS lost their FIRST LOVE?
As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
Funny that HE puts the two together..."the cares of this world" and the "deceitfulness of riches". To me that speaks of both Ephesus and Laodicea. Not a nice pair of book ends.
Deception and being deceived seems to be around a lot. Especially in places like Matthew 24. Only it is "DO NOT BE DECEIVED". So why are so many falling for the words of men and demons when THE LORD is with us? HE HAS NOT LEFT US...FORESAKEN US. Are we not THE CHILDREN OF THE BLESSING. Equal Receivers of THE MOST HOLY SPIRIT? RECEIVING IN FULL
MEASURE THE GIFTS OF THE FATHER?
Or maybe, just maybe....we are not.
Jeremiah 4
21How
long must I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22"For my people are foolish; they know me not; they are stupid
children; they have no understanding. They are 'wise'--in doing evil!
But how to do good they know not."
23I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
THE MOST HIGH is speaking in Jeremiah 4. So that is why i use red letters. Maybe RED LETTERS should be thought of as RED FLAGS. WARNINGS OF DANGER.... of APPROACHING STORMS. Yet when THE LORD SAID COME UNTO ME... was it a warning of approaching danger?
or was it the answer?
THE REFUGE?
Why do Watchmen blow TRUMPETS....ring Bells....sound ALARMS?
Why does ABBA send HIS SERVANTS to HIS PEOPLE?
7And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods
8and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced.
9And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.
10They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,
11and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger,
12and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this."
13Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by
every prophet and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep
my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded
your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets."
14But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God.
15They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them.They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them.
16And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.
17And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
18Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.
I know that was a long passage of scripture....all 11 verses. But which verse do you cut out for brevity's sake? VERSE13? 14? 15? 16? 17? of course 18!
How about 19....
19Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced.
20And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
Because they did not keep HIS COMMANDMENTS...THE LORD THEIR GOD... REJECTED.... AFFLICTED.... GAVE OVER.... and CAST OUT..... "them".
Some people think that i write these things because i have nothing better to do. That i and others fill the WWW with "doom and gloom" because we are a bunch of panic mongers. Wackos who get their kicks by scaring people. Loonie-Tunes who have lost all sense of reality.
So why do it?
Jeremiah 26
1In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king
of Judah, this word came from the LORD:
2"Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD's house,
and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the LORD all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word.
3It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds.
4You shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you,
5and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened,
6then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.'"
Why would an eternal GOD send HIS SERVANTS...URGENTLY?
For HIS SAKE? the SAKE OF HIS SERVANTS?
Maybe HE DOES NOT WANT TO DO WHAT HE HAS TO DO....
BECAUSE HE IS GOD.
Call it JUSTICE.
We used to say...if you can't do the TIME....don't do the CRIME.
18For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the
wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom
of the world?
21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
22For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according
to worldly standards,[2]
not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
28God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
29so that no human being[3] might boast in the presence of God.
30He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
31Therefore, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Like i said i love it when i read...IT IS WRITTEN....like in...
Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'"
To the worldly, it does seem foolish to worship and to serve.....
To listen and obey........
selah
bob