Wednesday, May 16, 2018
At the time
of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes
torn. I fell to my knees and lifted my
hands to the Lord my God. I prayed, “O
my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads,
and our guilt has reached to the heavens.
From the days of our ancestors until now, we have been steeped in sin. That is why we and our kings and our priests
have been at the mercy of the pagan kings of the land. We have been killed, captured, robbed, and
disgraced, just as we are today. “But
now we have been given a brief moment of grace, for the Lord our God has
allowed a few of us to survive as a remnant. He has given us security in this holy place. Our God has brightened our eyes and granted us
some relief from our slavery. For we
were slaves, but in his unfailing love our God did not abandon us in our
slavery. Instead, he caused the kings of
Persia to treat us favorably. He revived
us so we could rebuild the Temple of our God and repair its ruins. He has given us a protective wall in Judah and
Jerusalem. “And now, O our God, what can
we say after all of this? For once again
we have abandoned your commands! Your
servants the prophets warned us when they said, ‘The land you are entering to
possess is totally defiled by the detestable practices of the people living
there. From one end to the other, the
land is filled with corruption. Don’t
let your daughters marry their sons! Don’t
take their daughters as wives for your sons. Don’t ever promote the peace and prosperity of
those nations. If you follow these
instructions, you will be strong and will enjoy the good things the land
produces, and you will leave this prosperity to your children forever.’ Ezra 9:5-12(NLT)
Ezra was
instrumental in rebuilding Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. After hearing reports that the people had
totally disregarded God’s commands to become involved in sinful practices, he
did what we 21st century Christians have seem to lost the ability to
do…Ezra blushed with embarrassment before God. In his priestly prayer Ezra lifted up the
sins of a nation, steeped for generations in spiritual adultery.
Many have misread
this prohibition of inter-marrying as a racial issue. God never forbade inter-racial, or inter-cultural
marriage; God’s issue was inter-spiritual unions…a joining of those with faith
to those without. It is marrying outside
your faith, not outside your race, that brings the judgment of God on your
choices.
The Apostle Paul
made it pretty clear (from just about any perspective…marriage, business partners,
playdates for children), it is spiritual, not racial difference that matters
when it comes to choosing your life partner, friends or associates.
Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a
partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14(NLT)
God’s reasons are
God’s reasons, and we cannot second-guess the Almighty. However, you can see, from a human reasoning
perspective, the logic of Christians choosing those with strong faith in Christ
as friends, and particularly those with whom you will spend a lifetime in
marriage. Faith (or the absence of
faith) influences virtually every desire, ethic, or decision you make. For those who sincerely desire to be
transformed by Christ into the image of Christ, the desires, intentions and direction
of life is going to be 180o from those interested in the world.
Simply put…you
cannot go East and West at the same time!
For You Today
Last words of famous people are often recorded as powerful messages for generations
to come. The successor to Moses, Joshua,
led the people of God in the conquest of the Promised Land. As he said his farewell after decades of
leading, Joshua held up that same principle of obedience with his last words before
the new nation:
But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will
serve. Would you prefer the gods your
ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or
will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the
Lord.” Joshua 24:15(NLT)
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