are you talking to me?

Matthew 21:45

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them....

…and repented of all their sin and placed their faith on Jesus to deliver them from the error of their ways in having been so foolish as to oppose the very One who offered them life.

Right?

Nope.

⁴⁶ And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

How do you respond when you perceive the Bible is talking about you? Not just talking about sin in general or someone else’s bad habits; but what about when it talks to you about your specific sin and your specific bad habits?

All too often we, like the Pharisees, seek to continue down the very path the Bible is warning us to avoid, but we fear the crowds' (family, friends, church) condemnation, so we pretend.

You must confess and repent even of the things you would like to do, but don’t do, simply because you fear men’s reactions.

Numbers 32:23

But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

Father forgive us for we know exactly what we do‏

Leviticus 20:1-5

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,² “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones.³ I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name.⁴ And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death,⁵ then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.

 

 

A quick search through the ESV reveals that worshipping Molech required one to sacrifice their children (seeHERE).

 

Who would join that religion? How could people be so callous as to kill their children in order to get better crops? How could a person worship a god that required them to murder a baby?

 

What was Molech offering that was so valuable as to persuade a parent to trade their own child’s life for it? Rain? Bumper crops? Military victory? Atonement?

 

I don’t know what was in the water back in the day, but I sure am glad we have evolved so much since then, right?

 

Wrong.

 

Molech is alive and well in the hearts of men and women and the promises he makes are merely nuanced versions of what men and women have always wanted.

 

Rights.

Convenience.

Comfort.

Choice.

Success.

Happiness.

 

How does any single person willingly, under no pressure other than their own desire, subject their child to destruction?

 

How do so many people do so enough to even suggest it should be normative?

 

How are so many persuaded as to even propose a legal right to do so?

 

How is a society so duped as to pass a law protecting Molech from our children?

 

How is it that God would even have to command people NOT to kill their children?

 

The battle used to be one of arguing over the proper title of the child: fetus, embryo, baby, etc… This battle was anchored on the reality that no one in naked confession would agree to killing a child. But if it is a fetus or a mass of cells, then I can feel better about killing “that.”

 

But the veil is lifted.

 

We know.

And still, we go.

 

Father, forgive us.

We know exactly what we are doing.

We know exactly what we’ve done.

We know exactly what we’ve planned to do.

 

Bring repentance.

Bring redemption.

Bring forgiveness.

the middle of that water is poisoned‏

My amazing, beautiful, servant-hearted sister Lauren lent me her copy of Quitter to read. I came across this goldmine today over lunch-break at work.

 

“If there’s poison in a glass of water, no one says, ‘Be careful, the middle of that water is poisoned.’” ~ Jon Acuff in Quitter.

 

Sin affects everything.

 

Do not be so silly as to think that sin in one area is an isolated incident.

 

It’s not.

 

You cannot keep sin corralled.

 

Sin cannot be kept as a pet.

 

It must be killed with Christ on the Cross.

 

OR

 

It will rule you.

 

It will migrate faster than you think and into areas you never anticipated.

You cannot fence it in.

 

A bull in a china shop does not stop with the china shop, it busts through the walls to the diner next door and so on and so forth.

do not be dull of hearing, I Begg you‏

While driving home the other night from picking up a salad for my wife, I heard Alistair Begg (see other axe sharpeners down below and to the right) preaching on Hebrews 5:11-6:3. 

You can hear it HERE.

 

The most dangerous place to be on a Sunday morning is in a church paying no attention whatsoever to what is being preached, particularly if you are prone to believe that simply being there merits anything.

 

The second most dangerous place to be on a Sunday morning is in a church listening to the pastor with no intention whatsoever of doing or believing anything that is being preached, particularly if you are prone to believe that by listening to the pastor you are at least better off than the guy next to you who clearly is not even paying attention.

 

Have you grown dull in hearing?

Are you a spiritual baby?

 

Do you constantly require the pastor to “guide the plane into the hangar” to simply get you to eat anything?

 

Grow up!

now and forever‏

2 Peter 3:18 

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

I was listening to the Rizers with my kids this past weekend when my mind adhered to these two words:

 

Now AND forever.

 

I think the problem with much of what passes as Christianity in the Western world suffers from a lack of “now.”

 

We think that we will one day worship Jesus when we get to Heaven or that allusive “better place” that is so often spoken of in reference to a loved one lost.

 

Our plan, in the interim however, is to get as much out of this place as possible.

 

Ya know, really wring it out for all its goodness and then retire to a life of dullness in some better place where we will worship God because there is nothing else left to do.

 

But that is not what the verse says.

 

The verses says He deserves glory now AND forever.

 

Do not plan to worship God someday.

Worship Him today!

 

Hebrews 3:12-15

¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.¹⁴ For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.¹⁵ As it is said,

 

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum‏

“We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum” ~ Aiden Wilson Tozer

 

We are not politicking for polls, we are proclaiming His performance.
We are not posturing for the paparazzi, we are publishing His peace.

We are not prostituting for popularity, we are preaching His propitiation.

We are not persuading for pull, we are promising His prominence.

 

I.am.running.out.of.p’s

 

God, forgive me for compromising and being more diplomatic than I am prophetic.

 

Protect me from the temptation to shortcut and negotiate the terms of Your contract

 

Help me to avoid the pitfall of being piqued by other’s flattery.

 

Protect me from adjusting the climate control of my life when Your Word produces a heat or chill with which I am uncomfortable.

the cost of discipleship‏

Luke 14:25-33

²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

This move to Cedar Falls costs a lot: friends, family, church, job, house, chiropractor, coop and comfort.

But it is worth it.

This move to Cedar Falls requires much deliberation: FSBO, linkedin, resume’, staging, loans, attorneys, moving, etc…

But it is worth it.

It’s not that we have not thought it through or considered how difficult it might be.

We are not now surprised by the trials associated with this decision.

Rather, we are surprised at how weak our faith is to endure that we imagined ahead of time.

We never outgrow our need to be reassured.

If we think we do, we are in the perfect place to be tipped over.

Following Jesus is worth everything.

Knowing this compels us to cast aside these current comforts and take on discomforts.

Discomfort is still discomfort though and we need prayer, friends and fellowship to get through it.

We need to be confident, convicted, confessional, committed and most of all covered in Christ continually.

(yeah, I just one-up’d your 3C’s and went for broke with one a solid half doz. plus one)

 

Hebrews 10:35-39

 

³⁵ Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.³⁷ For,

“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
³⁸ but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Please pray for us to remain rooted and rested in Christ, our Sabbath, as we plow forward.

No one is beyond the need for prayer and protection.