Learning Nothing From History

Learning Nothing From History

Jeremiah 32: 33-34

33 And they have turned to Me the back, and not the face; though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. 

34 But they set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 

   In a nutshell, after the death of Solomon the Kingdom of Israel divided into two kingdoms, the Northern kingdom called Israel, and the Southern kingdom called Judah.  The Northern kingdom quickly fell into idol worship.  They created sacred groves on the hills where people went to engage in idolatrous practices, many of which involved having sex with harlots in the belief that it would bring fertility to families and to farms.  In about 722 B.C. God allowed the Assyrian army to conquer the capitol city of Samaria and ended the existence of the Northern kingdom. 

   Jeremiah began preaching around 626 B.C. and he preached until the Southern kingdom was taken into captivity to Babylon in 587 B.C.  He said many things to try to convince the people that the Southern kingdom would be punished by God just as the Northern kingdom had been.  They knew the story of the sins of the people and the final defeat of the capitol of Samaria.  They knew why God had allowed them to be conquered - they were worshipping idols and not God and practicing evil and not following the Law given to Moses.  The Northern kingdom had been warned by many prophets, and now the Southern kingdom was following the same steps and were worshipping idols and going to the sacred groves and lying with the harlots just as the people of the Northern kingdom had. 

   In this passage Jeremiah was telling them one point that God found especially offensive.  The people were not only worshipping idols but were bringing their evil practices right into the Holy Temple!  God mentions Shiloh to them and told them to go there and see what happened.  Shiloh was where the Tabernacle had been set up after Joshua led the conquest of the land and was where the people came to offer sacrifices and worship God before the Temple was built in Jerusalem.  But at this time Shiloh was a desolate ruin.  God had allowed it to be overrun by the enemy because the sins of people were practiced even there in that holy place.  He is warning them that if He would allow Shiloh to be torn down because of sin, He would allow the Temple to be torn down because of sin.

   So by now some are saying, “So what, Steve!  What has this old story to do with me today?”  Because I see our churches today, places dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, not just allowing sin to rise up in our society with barely a protest or comment but in many cases actually allowing the evil right into the church itself.  And why?  To help those who are living in sin?  In many cases the sin issue is never brought up.  The church feels good that the pews are full and there are many programs on the schedule and people are happy.  So why tell them about the sin they practice?  We just lead them in the sinner’s prayer then send them back to their lives and never tell them they are still sinning. 

   No harsh sermons fall from these pulpits.  No uncomfortable meetings with the pastor warning them to change their lives and begin to live for Christ.  No sir!  We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.  And besides, we might get in trouble with the government.  We won’t be the ones to be on the evening news branded as reactionaries and old-fashioned Bible-thumpers.  We want people to see us as the loving church where everyone is welcome.

   So what you saying, Steve?  “Sinners not welcome here?”  No, I’m not.  Sinners need Jesus and the best place for them to go is to church, as long as the church you go to teaches the whole Bible and teaches you to grow in grace and become more like Christ.  But if you go to a church that has invited evil in and allows it to stay and be comfortable there then you will never be taught to live a holy life. 

   Our churches should be beacons of light for a dark world, not a quiet club that entertains you and sends you home with warm-fuzzy feelings.  We need to proclaim Christ and obey His commands.  He instructed us to go out into the world and proclaim the Gospel.  He told us to minister to the sick and to care for widows and orphans. 

   I wonder what some pastors will say on that day when they appear before Christ and He asks them what they did with their congregations.  “Well, Lord, we entertained hundreds every week with a full band and our worship leader was world-class!  Then I preached, sometimes for as long as fifteen minutes.  Then we kept them busy with many programs.”  And Jesus asks them, “What about the sick and the homeless and the lost?  Did you bring the Gospel out into the streets?  Did you tell them I love them and wanted them to come to Me?  Or did you allow sin into your churches but didn’t invite Me in?

   Dear God, please forgive me for every time I failed to share the Gospel.

Stephen Cram                                                                            October 6, 2013                     

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.  Colossians 2:8

Visit the blog at http://stephencram.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment.

Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

How To Break God’s Heart

How To Break God’s Heart

Jeremiah 2:5

Thus says the LORD:
"What injustice have your fathers found in Me, That they have gone far from Me,
Have followed idols, And have become idolaters?”

   What a bizarre thing for God to ask.  This is asked as a rhetorical question.  A rhetorical question, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is: “a question not intended to elicit an answer but asked for rhetorical effect with an assumption that only one answer is possible.”  As in – “What mother doesn’t love her children?”  Rhetorical is defined as: “A question asked in order to make a statement rather than get an answer.”

   God is asking what injustice, or sin, or wrong has He done to the Jewish people that made them leave worshipping Him and turn to idol worship.  The answer is, of course, God had not wronged the Jewish people and committed no injustice against them.  The failure was all on the part of the people themselves.  They were delivered from slavery but had not even left Egypt before they began grumbling and accusing God of trying to kill them in the wilderness.  Their whole history had been one of complaining and failure to trust God even though He delivered them from enemies time and time again.  God led them to a good land that was fertile and well watered.  Yet they turned quickly to idol worship and stopped worshipping God despite His many attempts to call them back to Him. 

   After the Northern kingdom fell and was taken into captivity you would think the Southern kingdom would learn the lesson and turned back to God – even if just for protection – as they were surrounded by three powerful enemies, Assyria, Egypt,  and Babylon.  While there were brief revivals, overall the people backslid further and further away from God.  Now, in the last extremity before the Babylonians were used by God to take them into captivity, Jeremiah is told to write to the people one last warning.  And God, with broken heart, asked them why they turned away from Him and went to worship wood and stone instead of Him.  He warns them that when the time of trouble comes upon them, they can call to the gods of wood and stone to come and save them, but not to call on Him.  How frightening this should have been!  God is laying His heart open to them and telling them He will not hear their cries for help!  But they did not listen and the Babylonians came and destroyed their cities and took them captive.  It all happened just as Jeremiah said it would happen.

   I see a parallel in our country today and it frightens me.  God freed us from servitude to Britain.  It’s all in the Declaration of Independence which was not written to King George but written to God. It is a plea for His justice.  He blessed our land and it is fertile and well watered.  We grew and became strong under Godly leaders who prayed and sought His face.  Then we began to turn away from God.  Just in my lifetime I have seen God kicked out of every government agency. 

   We have embraced the idea that we happened by chance and not created for a purpose.  I’ve seen slime floating on ponds, and can’t imagine how anyone can believe we grew from that stuff.  I’ve been to zoos and seen monkeys and feel no relationship to them.  Yet millions of people in our country believe this and teach this and it is the prevailing belief in our country.  When troubles fall on our land, will the monkeys rise up and defend us?  Will slime flow out and overwhelm our enemies?  No!  We will be undefended because these things can’t help us and after abandoning God He will not answer our cries for help. 

   And the question begs to be asked, "What injustice have your fathers found in Me, O America, that you have gone far from Me, have followed idols, and have become idolaters?”  “Whoa!” you say to me. “We don’t set up idols in our homes and don’t have sacred groves on the hills to go to.  We’re not dumb idol worshippers.  We’re too enlightened for that kind of thing.”  If you don’t think we’re an idolatrous people you’re not looking too hard at our society.  Any people who put something else before God are an idolatrous people.  That which you put before God is an idol.  That which keeps you from praying is an idol.  That which keeps you from living a holy life is an idol.  I repeat:  we are an idolatrous nation. 

   What right do we have to call on God to heal our nation?  We reject Him, ridicule His followers, blaspheme His name, and then think He will come to us and solve all our troubles?  Our nation is heading for a crash and God will allow it to teach our leaders humility.  Every people who rejected God have been humbled.  Read all about it in history.  My heart is sick to see it happening to us and I fear it is coming quickly. 

   Our nation has turned away from God and we have crossed a line He has warned us not to cross.  Is it too late for our nation?  I really don’t know, but I fear it is too late.  Too many of our people have developed deaf ears and blind eyes and do not hear His cry to turn back to Him.  Will God punish us?  I don’t think He has to.  He will do as He did to the Southern kingdom; He will take His hands off and allow us to spiral out of control and then an enemy will come and humble us.  Our proud nation will be chastised by another. 

   The Southern kingdom had false prophets telling their leaders all would be well.  We have false preachers today preaching that all will be well.  They dress in nice suits and have big congregations and talk pleasing words and smile a lot but they are still false preachers.  Any preacher telling you we are going to be OK is bearing false witness to you.  This week read the first six chapters of Jeremiah, the Weeping Prophet, and I pray your heart breaks and you weep for our land and for our families. 

Stephen Cram                                               September 29, 2013                      

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.  Colossians 2:8

Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

    

A Burning Fire in the Bones

A Burning In The Bones

Jeremiah 20:9
Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.

Jeremiah was one of the prophets in Israel just before the Babylonian invasion.  God gave him a message telling the people that because of their sins He would allow the Babylonians to destroy their city and their nation.  The people hated Jeremiah for his prophesy and they ridiculed him and imprisoned him.  During this time, he said he was not going to preach anymore.  He was not going to even mention God’s name anymore.  But he did because, as he said, he could not continue to hold the message back.  It was like a fire inside him burning even the insides of his bones.  He found he had a calling from God and he had to speak his prophesies and he could not stop telling the people the message.  He said it made him weary to try to stop telling them God’s Word.
   We read in the book of Acts where Peter and John faced the same thing.  They were preaching the Gospel of Jesus and the priests and Sadducees became very angry at them.  They were thrown into prison and the next day were threatened and told not to preach any more in the name of Jesus.  “But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye: for we cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).  In other words, they couldn’t stop talking about Jesus and could not keep His Gospel bottled up inside themselves.
   Jeremiah had the same thing Peter and John had, a fire burning inside of them that would not let them keep quiet.  When you read the book of Acts you see this fire evident in the lives of the early church.  They were compelled to speak out and warn people of their sins.  They were desperate to tell people about the Hope of the Gospel.  Paul wrote of this in Romans 1:16 - “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation…”
   Reading that it makes me wonder where that fire has gone to?  Shouldn’t that fire be burning in us today?  We make our churches as comfortable and as entertaining as possible, but is this fire missing?  Have we covered it up with political correctness?  After all, the Gospel will be offensive to many, so do we shy away from confrontations?  Oh Lord, we want to tell others about you, as long as we don’t hurt their feelings while we are doing it.  We’ll march in the streets to have clean air and better water, but won’t speak out about abortions and gay marriages.  We’ll stand in the church foyer and tell all who will listen about the evils in our world but won’t talk to our friends and co-workers about their sins.  Instead of fire in our bones we have marshmallow in our spines.
   Jeremiah and Peter and John and Paul had a fire burning within because they cared for the lost souls of men.  They cared about their eternal destiny.   How concerned are we about the lost souls of men?  Does it hurt your heart to think about people dying without the Gospel?

Stephen Cram                                                              September 22, 2013                  

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.  Colossians 2:8


Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

Dem Dry Bones

Dem Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37: 1-3
1 The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. 
2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. 
3 And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

   I don’t know what your beliefs about dreams are, so if you don’t accept the idea of God communicating through dreams, you probably want to stop reading now and come back next week.
   Still with me?  Let me tell you of a dream I had recently and what the Lord has been impressing on me.  I was walking into the small church I currently attend and saw the church empty but the floor was scattered with bones.  And then I saw the message displayed for me that Ezekiel received in the valley – “can these bones live?”  I was about to answer when I woke up.  My first feeling was that it was about the church and how it was all but closed last year and now the Spirit of God has been bringing life back to the church.  We have a pastor who loves the Lord and loves people and is preaching the Word.  So I felt that was the end of the meaning of the dream.  And while I do believe what I saw does have meaning in our church’s situation, I also believe there is more meaning to the dream.
   As I have been reading this week I’ve found references of revivals and the background behind some of them.  The more I read, the more I’m reminded of the valley of the dry bones in Ezekiel.  The first application of the vision was to tell Ezekiel his people, Israel, would have a national revival.  Their nation would be overthrown and the people scattered but they would be brought back and restored as a nation.  There was also a spiritual aspect to the vision, a promise that the people would experience a spiritual restoration.  This last has still not come to pass, but will in the future.  The nation of Israel will call upon God once again.
   I believe strongly that churches can and should pray for revival.  I believe that if you humble yourselves and pray that God will pour out His Spirit on your church you will experience revival.  But is there more to this?  Yes, there is a personal aspect to this as well.  In my dream I saw dry bones in the church and feel God is asking if we believe the church can be revived.  And I say, “O Lord God, You know!”  I’m willing to have revival in the church and wish all churches would experience revival.  Lord God you know how desperately wicked our nation is and how much we need You to pour out Your Spirit.
   But also I feel God was calling to me and asking if my life can be revived.  Can my dry bones be brought back to life?  In other words, am I ready to ask for revival in myself?  No church can experience revival until its members experience personal revival.  Personal revival can upset your life.  Jesus wants your life, and not just a little, but all the way.  Am I willing to do that?  I’ve been making a list and, frankly, I find it frightening and not a little intimidating.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin in my life.
Refuse to obey my carnal (worldly) nature.
Seek forgiveness from any I have offended, and forgive any who have hurt me.
Ask the Holy Spirit to guard my walk against complacency and mediocrity.
Examine my motives in every word and deed.
Ask the Lord to search and cleanse my heart daily.
Praise and give thanks to God continually in all ways regardless of circumstances.
Read, study, meditate on, and memorize God's Word.
Pray without ceasing.
Fast and pray.
Hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Love God with all of my heart, soul, and mind.
Seek to share Christ daily to at least one person.
Develop utter dependence on Him and submit to Him in humility.
Determine to live a holy, Godly life of faith.

And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”
And He does know.  But am I willing?


Stephen Cram                                                                  September 15, 2013                  

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.  Colossians 2:8


Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.