Friday, October 21, 2016
“A time is
coming,” says the Lord, “when I will punish all those who are circumcised
in body but not in spirit—the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the
people who live in the desert in remote places, and yes, even the people
of Judah. And like all these pagan
nations, the people of Israel also have uncircumcised hearts.” Jeremiah 9:25-26(NLT)
For each of
us who tread the hallowed halls of church buildings each Sunday, these words of
Jeremiah ought to provoke an uneasy awareness; to wit: people who call
themselves followers of Christ are no less subject to judgment than those who
are pagan deniers of even God’s existence. In fact, the uncircumcised heart
is in far more danger of condemnation than those who reject the religious
systems altogether.
Israel railed
at the pagan nations around them, Egypt, Edom, etc. But God said through Jeremiah that Judah
(Israel) were worse – they’d made a sticking point of circumcision, the
physical mark of being God’s covenant people, but they were far from living it.
Years ago,
when Elizabeth and I first moved to Florida, we joined a local church and began
worshipping there regularly. As a Baptist
that meant Sunday School and Worship, evening worship, Wednesday prayer
meeting, and every other time they opened the doors. A few years later, I was talking with a
business acquaintance and found out he was a member of our church. He hadn’t been to a service in a dozen years
or so, but fiercely held that was his church.
He had his baptismal certificate, but his heart couldn’t remember the
location of the church door!
God prefers a
heart bent towards Him rather than a hundred baptismal certificates. This was the evidence against Judah; they claimed
to be God’s people, but their actions proved they paid more attention to the
ways of the pagans surrounding them.
They had paid attention to keeping the physical ritual of circumcising
their male children, but neglected the weightier matter of keeping their hearts
and lives circumcised in spirit.
Centuries
after Jeremiah, Jesus would warn the Pharisees who wanted to debate everything
that they were careful to measure out their tithe on even the little spices
they sprinkle on food, but their hearts were cold and business-bent…they had
little to offer the kingdom of God but their own lust and greed for power.
Now, not
everything is about the election process or candidates…it’s just that every day’s
political wrangling in this season seems to provide highlight to Scripture’s
admonitions against this warning of political keeping of the law
instead of keeping the spirit of Christ. We are good at straining out gnats and
swallowing camels.
Watching the final
presidential debate on Wednesday I could not help but think constantly how the stark
absence of dignity or noble servanthood in the major party’s candidates have
left us without a choice between better and best, but rather a decision on
which kind of poison we prefer.
And the
kicker – the thought that awakened in me that uneasy awareness of just how far
away we have drifted from an ideal of a community of peace and neighborly
respect was most of the ideology presented in the debate centered on organizational
budgets, controlling regimes around the globe, and Congressional seats.
These are, as
I see it, the steps to nowhere; America is selling her birthright of
freedom, peace and good will for a mess of budgetary pottage!
We need
better than tainted emails and sexual abuse accusations; we need humble
leadership. That’s what a circumcised
heart would look like!
For You Today
If you are a
Christian you can’t hide from the election in a few weeks. It will happen! Some will celebrate the outcome; some will
call for the mourners.
When you cast
a vote for your candidate, will it be with an uncircumcised heart following the
money or a circumcised heart for the Master?
Go to VIDEO
NOTES
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