Turning Away

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Friday, December 21, 2018

Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ.  Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering.  Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things.  You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy.  You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.  So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord.  Remember the great reward it brings you!  Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will.  Then you will receive all that he has promised.  “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.  And my righteous ones will live by faith.  But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”  But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction.  We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved,  Hebrews 10:32-39(NLT)

Covenant-breaking, the act of starting-out in faith, and then turning away from that faith, is not a light subject.  Nor is it a subject you will find lacking in the Scriptures:

Moses warned God’s covenant people Israel:

…and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, I will punish you.  I will bring sudden terrors upon you—wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away.  You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them.  I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies.  Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!  “And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins.  I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze.  All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit.  Leviticus 26:15-19(NLT)

Jesus warned his followers about being shallow seed (Luke 8:13), and gets really specific a few chapters later about people who profess faith, and then, through spiritual laziness allow unbelief to take over:

“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.  “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest.  But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’  So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order.  Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there.  And so that person is worse off than before.”  Luke 11:23-26(NLT)

In his debate with the chief priests and elders at the temple (Matthew 21) Jesus warned them that the kingdom would be taken from them because of their turning-away from God.  The same about his Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:24), where those who took the position of disciples later got disillusioned and just quit due to unbelief.  Jesus’ teaching at this point can be summed-up in one simple, but chilling statement:

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.  Luke 16:13(NLT)

Timothy was warned by Paul about the shipwreck of faith (1 Timothy 1:19), even naming Hymenaeus and Alexander, two disciples who turned away.  He also warned the young pastor (1 Timothy 4:1ff) about disciples getting overwhelmed by seducing spirits, dwelling on one obscure or interesting sideline kind of issue (like somebody else’s sin), and getting lost by taking your eye off the priority of serving. 

Peter, the impetuous disciple, became quite a leader, warning the flock about (of all things) a lack of patience:

You already know these things, dear friends.  So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing.  Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  2 Peter 3:17-18(NLT)

Turning the leaf back over from unbelief to faith, trusting in God, staying the course in and out of season, remember the great reward Hebrews offers to faithful servants.  God’s choice for His servants isn’t wrath, punishment and pain.  Rather, God wants to bless us – but we’ll never see it if we turn away!

For You Today

Have you been walking through a rough patch?  Is it getting so you only dwell on the sins and failures of others, and the loneliness that accompanies serving Christ? 

Take heart as we give the Apostle Paul the last word today:

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.  Galatians 6:9(NLT)

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

Broken Covenant

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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

“O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?” asks the Lord.  “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight.  I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces—to slaughter you with my words, with judgments as inescapable as light.  I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.  I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.  But like Adam, you broke my covenant and betrayed my trust.   Hosea 6:4-7^(NLT)

This year has been particularly disturbing in the denomination to which I belong.  Officially the church has orthodox (traditional) doctrine and polity.  Recently that has meant nothing to a segment of leaders within the denomination.   Preacher groups on Facebook, as well as watchdog parachurch organizations have just blown-up with outrage over flagrant violations of our Book of Discipline (the rules, bylaws that govern behavior and consequences of members and clergy alike).

Here’s the most recent straw threatening to break the camel’s back:  A few weeks ago the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church elected as a new bishop a clergywoman, Dr. Karen Oliveto, a practicing lesbian, and married for more than two years to another woman.[ii]

Now, the first question many would ask is, why would the church do that?  Well, the reality is the church didn’t do that.  It was a small, tightly-run group of activists engineering an election outcome to push the door open on this Pandora’s Box of legitimizing homosexuality.  The other bishops are largely powerless to address the issue, at least formally. 

Some complaints have already been filed, and it will be up to the denomination’s Judicial Council (the United Methodist version of a Supreme Court) to decide on the validity of this new “bishop’s” election.  That will take some time.

In the meantime a small percentage of UMC clergy have been performing same-sex marriage ceremonies (also strictly forbidden by church policy) and relatively little is being done to remedy this renegade heresy.

Most of those who are participating in this practice have flatly stated they will continue to do so, despite the vows they took to uphold our covenantal relationship of a connection in Christ. 

To say this flaunts the very limits of ethical behavior would be akin to suggesting that the Pope may be slightly Catholic.  It is, as God laments through the prophet Hosea, a breaking of covenant and betrayal of trust.

One UMC Preacher (who recently ran for bishop in that same election process) posted a treatise on how the church needs to stay together; a posted response to that idea was something like this:

Suppose you are married, and your husband cheats?  Then he cheats again.  The two of you go to counselling to see about fixing this rift and he offers no remorse, no apology, and flatly states that he will continue to jump into bed with others at his own discretion.  He doesn’t care what vows you made together when you got married.  This feels right, so he will do it.

That is broken covenant.  It is spiritual adultery.  It is the same kind of thing Israel and Judah did when they ignored their God and did their own thing.  In reading Israel’s history you would have to admit, God was not pleased…and Israel suffered because of God’s judgment.

UMC leaders would do well to go back to seminary and learn this basic lesson of obedience.

For You Today

In light of my airing the dirty laundry of my denomination here, it seems this would be a good day to take a good look at those areas of our own lives that may need a rinse-out!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

[i] Title Image: By Pink Sherbet Photography from Utah, USA, via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Married lesbian consecrated United Methodist bishop