Famine Amidst Plenty

Famine Amidst Plenty

Amos 8: 11&12
11 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord.
12 “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east;
They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it.

   About 750 B.C., an obscure farmer and shepherd was called by God to be a prophet.  His mission, when he chose to accept it, turned out to be a real Mission: Impossible.  He was sent to warn Israel of God's coming judgment if they did not repent.  The nation did not heed the call to repent and was eventually conquered by the Assyrian Empire and led away into captivity.
   The Prophet was Amos, and he went to the Northern Kingdom, which consisted of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel, and preached to them about the dangers of not repenting of their many sins.  He also gave a strange prophesy, which we see in chapter 8, about an unusual famine – a famine of God’s Word.  This comes from willfully turning a “deaf ear” to God’s Word and choosing not to listen.  As your heart becomes harder and harder, you cannot hear His words anymore and you find yourself starving (spiritually) in a land filled with God’s Word.
   Today in our society, there is a severe famine of God’s Word, and this modern day famine is different in some ways and yet still similar in some ways.  The result of this famine will be the eternal damnation of millions and the destruction of our society.  The signs are all around us and each year that goes by we see them becoming more and more blatant.
   Today’s famine was not sent by God.  Indeed, He has done so much for us as a nation and has rained blessing after blessing down on us.  He has sent countless preachers who have preached the Word from the poorest neighborhoods up to the White House.  Drug addicted gang members have had a chance to hear the Gospel and the elite of Washington D.C. have had a chance to hear the Gospel.  No one who had ears could have failed to hear the Gospel somewhere and at least once in their lives.  Contrary to a famine of the Word, God has provided a feast for us.  Anyone in the country has access to a Bible in dozens of translations and in a handful of formats: printed on paper, delivered electronically, voice recordings, video acted out by live actors or by cartoon characters – pick a format!  TV, radio, Internet, just open your ears and listen.  It’s truly a feast waiting to be taken by anyone who hungers for God’s Word.  Never before in the history of mankind has the world enjoyed such free access to God's Word.  What does all this mean?  It means that today's famine of God’s Word is self-inflicted.
   This famine is similar to what happened in Israel in some ways.
   The present famine is one result of living in a society that enjoys excessive material luxury.  When you read through the Old Testament prophets, you see that the people and the leaders kept putting off dealing with the warnings they received.  There was no sense of impending doom because they lived in the lap of luxury.  When you have all the food you want to eat and live in nice homes with all the latest amenities of soft living, who would even notice the danger that is looming over their land?
Luke 8:14 NKJV
Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
   The present famine is also a result of a corruption of the morals of the people and the leaders.  Immorality used to be what the Church stood against.  Now, it’s embraced in our churches and the standards have been lowered so low no one can trip over them.  Just step over those pesky standards and live your morally bankrupt lives with hardly a thought for God’s Holiness.  God asks us to take on His holiness, but in today’s churches we hardly ever THINK of His Holiness.  People who read God’s Word today get an uncomfortable feeling from its rigid ideals.  It is seen as out-of-date and too “stiff” for our modern times.  Pastors who dare to preach from the Bible are labeled and word gets around that they’re too reactionary and hardline and people should be wary of going to a church like that.
   People used to look forward to church services.  Now there is a stampede as soon as the Pastor says, “You’re dismissed.”  Most people only want to be entertained in church, and worship times have become weekly music concerts that are choreographed and use a multi-layered presentation to appeal to the senses.  
   Many churches today suffer from severe "spiritual malnutrition," and, I repeat, this condition is self-inflicted.  Is it any wonder so many Christians live lives of discouragement and defeat and depression?
   It must have been terrible for the Israelites when their time ran out.  The fierce Assyrians marched across their land and swept them away into captivity in strange lands.  Imagine being forced to walk from Ohio to Tennessee and being told to move into a house in a city where no one spoke English.  You have no job and no food and there isn’t a church within 200 miles and no one to talk to.  Welcome to your new home.
   Today, we are even more guilty than the people of Israel were.  We not only reject the words of Moses and the Prophets, as it existed in Amos' day, but we reject the writings of the Gospel writers, the apostles and Jesus Himself!  We have had so much more to ignore to get as bad as we have gotten.  Every day we turn aside from the feast He has laid out before us.  We starve in the midst of plenty.


Stephen Cram                            September 15, 2012                Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8

Got Your Ears On?

Got Your ears On?

Matthew 11:15 NKJV
He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Mark 4:9 NKJV
And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

   During the CB radio craze of the 70’s and 80’s you heard this a lot.  “Got your ears on?  Come back.”  The caller was asking if someone was on the air and listening.  Basically, Christ is asking in these verses if the people were listening to what He was saying and paying attention to Him.  This seems like a strange thing to say to people who were there listening to Him speak.  They obviously had ears because they were listening to Him, so what did He mean?
  This is not an occasion where He was referring to deaf people, who have ears but can’t hear.  No one doubts that physical deafness happens, so would you accept that there is also a spiritual deafness people get where some cannot hear spiritual truths at all, or only hear a little bit?  They have ears, but they do not hear.  I’m not talking about a willful deafness, but it does start with willfully not hearing truth.  When a person refuses to hear the truth, they do become more and more “hard of hearing” in a spiritual sense.  Remember what God told Isaiah in Isaiah 6: 9-10, (NKJV)?
And He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.”

God was not being mean to the people of Israel, He was pointing out that they had refused to hear His words for so long that they would not hear them again.
   Paul talks about this in Romans 1:28, (CJB)
“In other words, since they have not considered God worth knowing, God has given them up to worthless ways of thinking; so that they do improper things.”

   God will call to you with great patience and grace, but there is a time when you have turned away from His words so often you will not be able to hear them anymore.  Every time God’s Word is proclaimed it changes all of those within its hearing. No one ever remains unaffected by God’s Word.  To those who hear it and listen to what He says, they grow in grace and in knowledge of God.  To those who reject it or are indifferent to it, they hear less and less and their heart grows colder and colder.  Truly, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
   Our greatest hindrance is that our minds are naturally carnal; our human reasoning is self-serving.   No matter how hard we may try, no matter how hard we may think that we want to try, we cannot understand the Spiritual Truth of God without the help of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to "hear" what God is actually saying.  Without His help, we may read the Bible, and even become great teachers and scholars of the Bible and still not really understand what it says or what is in the heart of God the Father.  This is not what God wants, but this is what He allows to happen to those who will not hear His words.
   God gives all of us "ears to hear."  He gives us His Holy Spirit to be our Helper and Teacher.  If we fail to heed His Words, whose fault is it?  So why did Christ speak in parables so often?  Matthew 13: 10-11 Amplified Bible
10 Then the disciples came to Him and said, Why do You speak to them in parables?
11 And He replied to them, To you it has been given to know the secrets and mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

   I used to think that passage was so unfair.  I passed over this verse many times reading Matthew because I wasn’t sure why Jesus was being so hard on the people.  But as I’ve learned more about Him, I know His heart is love and He would never exclude anyone who did not want to be excluded.  If you do a search of verses that mention Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes, you will see hard hearts and willful attempts to exclude the common person from God’s Presence.  Christ goes into the streets and interacts with the common person.  He walks the highways and brings His teachings to everyone.  So why did He say it was not for “them” to know the secrets of the Kingdom?
   After that big build up, you expect me to give you that answer, don’t you?  But I can’t, I can only give you my opinion.  I feel it comes down to who listens and who doesn’t.  Remember, we think “Disciples” and think “12 guys.”  But remember that in parts of the Gospels we read that there was a large following who heard His teachings.  The Disciples, who traveled with Him step by step, mile by mile and shared meals with Him had such a hard time understanding Him, how hard was it for those who did share that same intimacy with Him?  And then, in my opinion, there were those who may have followed and listened to Him, but never opened their hearts to His words.  I offer Judas, and the above mentioned Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes as proof of that.  It’s not hard to think that there must have been more, many more, which also listened but did not hear.
   So listen and pay attention when reading your Bible.  If you are fortunate to have a Pastor or Bible Teacher who preaches / teaches the Word with truth and boldness, then put your ears on and hear what they say.  The more you listen, the more truth you will hear.  The more you shut out God’s Word, the harder it gets to hear the truth.  “Got your ears on? “

Stephen Cram                           September 9, 2012                          Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8

 
 
 

Stop the World and LET ME OFF!

Stop the World and LET ME OFF!

Psalm 61:1-8 

1 Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I will cry to You,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

3 For You have been a shelter for me,
A strong tower from the enemy.
4 I will abide in Your tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah

   A popular country song a while back was “Stop the world, and let me off.”  The writer said he was tired of going round and round and wanted to stop and get off.  I don’t know if it’s my age or just that the world seems more complex and getting worse by the minute, but I often feel that way.  Stress from family, work, aging body, etc etc etc makes it seem as if I’m on a carnival ride that’s speeding up faster and faster.  And when you think things are crazy and you feel overwhelmed, the enemy comes against you again.

   One of the enemy’s best strategies against us is the constant barrage of temptations and oppositions that we face every day.  He keeps us off balance by sending evil and placing it before our eyes as often as possible.  For example, I was dusting one rainy afternoon recently at the Library where I work.  I was at the magazine rack and was struck by how many magazines had women in provocative poses on the cover.  Not only men’s magazines, but women’s magazines and young women’s magazines and even teen girl’s magazines.  There were famous models, actresses and even cooks in poses that can only be considered “adult.” 

   We are surrounded by temptations constantly and unless you retire to a monastery you can’t escape it.  As you suffer the assaults of a simple trip to the supermarket, where the woman walking the aisle is dropping “F” bombs and the cashier is showing too much cleavage and and and Arrrgh!  Stop the world, I WANT TO GET OFF. 

   Is there an escape?  Can we stop the world and get off for a break?  Yes, God has given us a safety valve.  Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer.  From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; 

He wants us to turn to Him when we need refuge.  He wants us to call on Him when we are being overwhelmed.  He provides stability and rest and strength for our weary souls.   

   The first step is one we overlook, and overlook for many reasons.  Its “old-fashioned,” its “Old Testament,” it’s inconvenient, it’s (fill in your own excuse.) 

Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”  You are given the instruction to relax one day a week, and it’s your own fault if you over-schedule yourself and don’t relax.  Try to give yourself a break.  Take a day off and relax.  It will refresh you in a way nothing else will.  And while you’re not working, it will be a good time to read your Bible and maybe listen to some inspirational worship music.  Focus on Christ and renew your mind.

   Secondly, stop chasing the dream of possessing things that are “better” than the neighbors.  Psalms 37:7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!  When you get to the Judgment Seat and stand before Christ, He won’t ask you the size of your TV screen or the amount of RAM in your laptop.  He won’t ask you how much mileage your car got or where you took your vacations.  Only you care about these things, in the light of eternity they really don’t matter.  You can drive a fancy car and dress in fashion clothing and still be out of fellowship with God and doing nothing for the Kingdom.  He calls to you to come and just be in His Presence and relax in Him.

   Lastly, get away for a season and take a break.  Mark 6:31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”  When you get too weary, you won’t be able to work as effectively.  Studies done over the years have always shown that workers who never take vacations are less productive that ones who do.  Even God expects you to take a vacation once in a while. 

   OK, so maybe you can’t really get the world to stop and let you off, but you can slow yourself down and turn away from the cesspit the world is becoming.  You can step out of the muck and focus on Jesus and let His grace wash your soul clean again.

Stephen Cram                                September 2, 2012                     Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8 

Just As You Are

Just As You Are

Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

   A lady named Miss Charlotte Elliott was vi¬sit¬ing some friends in the West End of Lon¬don to have dinner with them and other guests.  One of those guests was a famous minister named Cé¬sar Ma¬lan.  While seat¬ed around the table, the min¬is¬ter said he hoped that she was a Christ¬ian.  She took of¬fense at this, and re¬plied that she would ra¬ther not dis¬cuss that quest¬ion.  Dr. Ma¬lan said that he was sor¬ry if had of-fend¬ed her, that he al¬ways liked to speak a word for his Mas¬ter, and that he hoped that the young la¬dy would some day be¬come a Christian.  By chance, they met again three weeks later at the home of a mu¬tu¬al friend.  Miss Ell¬i¬ott told the min¬is¬ter that ev¬er since he had spok¬en to her she had been try¬ing to find her Sav¬ior.  Would he tell her how to come to Christ, now?  “Just come to him as you are,” Dr. Ma¬lan said.  She did this and went away re¬joic¬ing.  Shortly af¬ter¬ this, she wrote this hymn about what he told her.
   This hymn is nearly always used as an invitational to come to Christ for salvation.  This song was playing the day I answered an invitation to come forward, but sadly the church elder there to meet me was more concerned with “all my sins” and “giving them to Jesus” than with my coming to a saving knowledge of Christ.  It was more than a year before I actually came to Christ and asked Him into my heart.  The minister who talked to me had a vastly different approach.  We talked for a few hours and then he said he had to go home to get to bed.  He left me sitting in the church office at three in the morning.  I knew I was lost and knew I needed Christ to be in control of my life.  But coming to Him had always been my sticking point.  But the pastor had given me some crucial advice.  His advice was much like Miss Elliot received, “Just come to Christ as you are.”
   I was hurting, angry, willful, confused about life, and a whole lot more.  But when I bowed my head and came to Him humbly I experienced His grace.  All my excuses and all my emotional baggage and all my confusion just dropped off me.  The church elder who told me I needed to do so many things before I would be saved had it so wrong.  Yes, I was guilty in God’s sight but I was guilty of not believing in the saving work Christ had done at the cross.  When I finally figured out I was never going to figure it all out, I brought all my confusion to Him and discovered it wasn’t something I was supposed to understand.  How can an unsaved heart understand the love of God?  All I was sure of was that He was ready to take me flaws, confusion, hurts and all.
   But this song is not just an invitational song to give at an alter call for salvation.  This message is still one I need in my life.  I can make my life so complicated it’s hard to keep up.  I can get myself off on some doctrinal tangent and forget how to find my way back to worshipping Christ.  So many things I can do wrong, but this message is a simple answer I can use in my life.
   “Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy was shed for me.”  When all is said and done, the really important thing in life is that His blood was shed for my sins.  I was not so far gone as to be lost beyond salvation.  His blood could and did wash me clean.  And His blood was never lost its power!  I can still depend on its cleansing power if I fail in life and sin.  And one day I will stand before Him and that blood will be my pass into eternal life with God.
   “and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”  This was all His idea right from the beginning.  He knew I would fail and have needs and be confused and hurt and angry.  He was not surprised that I needed to call on Him and still need to call on Him daily.  I am still prone to failure and confusion and all that, but now I know where to go when it happens.  I know that no matter what I do, He is still waiting for me with open arms.  His love and His grace are still there and will never run out.


Stephen Cram                            August 26, 2012                    Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8