Move On

"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." - John 6:37 

"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." - Psalm 103:12-14 

Sometimes believers royally mess up their lives through one fault or another, and in shame, confusion, and bewilderment they wonder if God has any mercy left for them. They approach God rather the way that a student might approach a teacher who is difficult and doesn't particularly like them, shying away from the Word and praying without confidence (like slipping a note under that teacher's door and running off rather than risking confrontation). Their walk becomes one of drudgery, overshadowed by a continual sense of condemnation and futility.

The following from 1 Samuel 12 should serve to encourage anyone who is in this condition. Don't let your failures discourage you to the point where you run away from God. He will never despise a heart that seeks Him. He's far more forgiving than we are, and He already knew the worst about you when He invited you to come and follow Him. So take heart, brothers and sisters. If you fall, no matter how much you may despise yourself, pick yourself up, go back to the Lord, take hold of the hem of his garment, and follow in His steps. :

"Samuel said to the people, 'Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile. For the Lord will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for Himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you...'" - 1 Samuel 12:20-24 

It's Time to Make Up Your Mind

"Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it...And Shaphan read it before the king [Josiah]...Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded...'Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.'

"So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess...And they spoke with her. Then she said to them, 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Tell the man who sent you to Me, 'Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read—because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched.’ But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, in this manner you shall speak to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Concerning the words which you have heard—because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,' says the Lord. 'Surely, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place.' So they brought back word to the king." - II Kings 22:8, 10,11-13, 14-20

There are two great lessons for us in this passage.

First, the sins of an entire land may be so great that God loses patience with it and judgment becomes inevitable. At this point, the people as a whole have no interest in repenting, regardless of what their leaders may do for a time:

"Then the Lord said to me, 'Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth.'" -Jeremiah 15:51.

In II Kings 23, we read how king Josiah made war against all of the Canaanite religions that had infected Judah, restoring true worship; and although we also read that the people agreed with him, after his death things quickly reverted to the previous condition. The people as a whole did not want God, so God gave them up to their enemies; and although a remnant later returned to Judah, the kingdom was never the same as before.
     I pray that America has not yet reached this point, but I fear that we have. There are no signs of anything turning around for the better. Just the opposite is true. We have reached a point where we no longer merely tolerate evil in our midst; we celebrate it, and those who speak out against it are hated and vilified. This is a terrifying development. We've not only closed the door against God, as a people we're nailing it shut, signifying to Him in no uncertain terms that we have no intention of letting Him back in. As a nation, we might as well be sealing the door of our own tomb.
     Second, we see some good news: for those whose hearts are touched, and who humble themselves before Him, God is yet full of mercy, just as He was toward Josiah. Sorrow for one's own sins, as well as the for the condition of one's people, is not lost on God. He will deliver those turn to Him, no matter what the culture as a whole does and what fate befalls the nation:

"Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, 'Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand.' And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
"Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; and the Lord said to him, 'Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.'
"To the others He said in my hearing, 'Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.' So they began with the elders who were before the temple. Then He said to them, 'Defile the temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!' And they went out and killed in the city.
"So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said, 'Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?'
"Then He said to me, 'The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see!’ And as for Me also, My eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but I will recompense their deeds on their own head.'” - Ezekiel 9:1-9

Even in the midst of calamity and judgment, God will set a seal on those who mourn over the sins of the land. The question of the hour for us all then is: what will we do? Will we go the way of the rest of our culture and pay the inevitable price, or we will turn to God in sorrow for our own sins and those of our people?
     We don't like to talk about judgment these days, but justice is just as much a part of God's nature as love is, and we do no one any good by sparing them the truth now only for it to come back and bite them later. Let the truth be told - the whole truth - and let men do as they will. Judgment is coming, and only those who draw near to the Lord will be afforded His protection. Those who reject Him now, He will reject then. 
     Don't play games with God. Don't listen to those who teach prosperity and "everything's gonna be all right," who never warn you to examine yourself before God or to repent and get serious about following Christ. Things are far from all right, and those who refuse to teach the whole Word of God (including the warnings about judgment) are not doing you any favors. Where there is danger, the only correct thing to do is to warn people to see to their safety. Whether they listen or not is up to them, but time is fast running out for all of us to decide whether we will be a Josiah and turn to God while there is time.

"For He says: 'In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." - II Corinthians 6:2



- clock image courtesy of "Sun Ladder" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2010-07-20_Black_windup_alarm_clock_face.jpg

Repentance

Operation Intervention - Praying for the End of Abortion

Genesis 4:10 – “And He [God] said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.”


The Bible is clear that one of the things that God hates most is the shedding of innocent blood, and there is no more innocent blood on earth than that of the unborn.

Since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, millions of unborn babies have been cruelly murdered under the full protection of the law, and we can be sure that this most innocent blood cries out mightily to God. He knows their pain and uncomprehending terror. Their silent screams ring in His ears. Children in particular are dear to His heart, and we can rest assured that, just as He judged the Canaanites and – later – Israel for killing their own children, He will ultimately judge America. It is true that God is patient, not willing that any should perish; but even His divine patience has a limit, and when that limit is reached and He sets His face against a nation, then, as He once explained to the prophet Jeremiah, not even the most righteous of men can dissuade Him from visiting His wrath on that nation (Jeremiah 15:1).

The evidence of recent years suggests that God is already beginning to withdraw His hand of blessing from our country for its many sins, including abortion, but the fact that America is still standing is proof that there may yet be time for us to repent as a people. Christian leaders and laymen are out there fighting the good fight on this issue every day, and the prayers of the saints rise up before God continually on behalf of the unborn and for our wayward country’s repentance; but for all of our efforts, I believe that the Church in general has spent more time trying to wage this battle as a political fight, rather than appealing for God’s own direct intervention.

For my part, I believe that the time has come to do just that: to call upon God to show His hand, to reveal Himself against this modern holocaust; and I believe that if we His saints are willing to call upon Him earnestly and in unity, He will do just that.

To that end, I would like to ask that my fellow brothers and sisters join me in calling upon the Lord to act openly on this matter, and in the following specific ways:

1. Pray that the Spirit of God would move in the hearts and minds of women and young girls who are considering abortions, many of whom are undoubtedly very frightened and under tremendous pressure from friends and loved ones to abort their unborn children. Pray that these women would be filled with love for their unborn little ones, that they would cross paths with godly influences who will give them good counsel and aid, and, most importantly, that they will turn to Christ, providing life for their unborn little ones and finding new life for themselves in the process. As much as we might hate abortion itself, we must act in love toward the women who are caught up the struggle over it and pray that God's mercies will abound toward them.

2. Pray that, in the case of those women who intend to go through with having an abortion no matter what, that God would directly intervene in His great mercy and take the spirits of those unborn children to Himself before they can be killed – all at once sparing those babies a horrible death and getting the attention of the mothers and those in the abortion industry – and, further, that He would close up the wombs of these women until such time as they repent, so that they can shed no more innocent blood. Were this to happen on a large scale, it would be a powerful evidence of the presence of God, which could well lead to nationwide repentance.

3. Pray that the Spirit of God would move in the hearts and minds of those in the abortion industry itself, causing them to turn away from this sin and to come to Christ. Once again, although we despise the practice of abortion, we must act in a Christlike manner to those who are caught up on both sides of it. God is not willing that ANY should perish but that ALL should come to repentance.

4. Pray that, in the case of those in the abortion industry who refuse to turn away from this sin, God would take away their ability to do further harm, according to His own will and justice but in such a way as would be evident to all. This request must be made in a spirit of humility, acknowledging that, but for the grace and kindness of God, we would all be under His wrath. We should not wish nor ask for condemnation to fall upon anyone, but simply desire that God would intervene against the abortion industry in a manner that would show His presence, spur the country to repentance, and deprive the industry of the power to harm any more innocent, unborn children.

5. Pray that, in the case of those women who have had abortions but have since come to Christ, and yet are tormented by the mistake they made, that God would act to heal them through His Spirit and His people, even opening their wombs and blessing them with new life, if He is so willing.

It may seem strange to some that I'm calling upon Christians to pray for God's own direct intervention to end abortion, but the fact of the matter is that God will eventually take direct action on this matter anyway – in vengeance. It is my hope that, by praying in unity along these lines, He will see fit to intervene in mercy instead, sparing more precious little lives and calling many to repentance and salvation in Jesus.

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus said that those who show mercy will be shown mercy, and one way in which we can show mercy is to cry out for those who cannot cry for themselves. Join me in crying out for our God to openly display His power and to bring the tragedy of abortion to an end.