Hope - Part 5

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Friday, January 27, 2017

But in spite of this there is still hope for Israel.  Ezra 10:2b^(NLT)

Then the whole assembly raised their voices and answered, “Yes, you are right; we must do as you say!”  Ezra 10:12^(NLT)

In the past four days we’ve covered a great deal of ground about the reality of this nation’s – our nation’s disobedience and need of repentance. 

Today is all about finishing the job.

Notice that when Ezra spoke to the people about repenting, taking ownership of their sinful behavior, they didn’t just whisper an Amen?  They didn't say:  We'll form a committee to study this.  They didn't even play the democracy card and offer to vote on it.  What they said was:  This we MUST DO!

In 1923 Belfast, Ireland had a revival under the preaching of W.P. Nicholson.  His messages always called for the need of restitution whenever something had to be put right with another person.  After one series of meetings, a local shipyard had to build another tool room because workers began returning stolen company tools in such volume, they didn't have room for them.

In order for repentance to be genuine, Godly and effective for true revival, it must include putting that right which can be made so.  I caution you that this is a pathway to two things:

One:  The world will think you've gone mad!

Someone has well said:  The world does not think it strange when people wreck their bodies, destroy their homes, and ruin their lives by running from one sin to another!  But let a drunkard become sober, or an immoral person pure, and the family thinks he has lost his mind!"

Two:  The Lord will know you mean business!

Frankly, in the scheme of things, I'd rather the world think I'm completely bonkers and have the approval of heaven!  Wouldn't you?

What Shall We Do?

Knowledge is responsibility.  There are several things you have heard in these four days which make naiveté and claiming ignorance impossible.  You know that you are responsible for your actions before God.  You know that repentance begins in the heart, and must be followed through with your life or it means nothing.  You also know that there is no person in the room with you, or the world, without sin. 

Where, you say, is the hope in all this?  It is simply in the promise of the Lord that if we will humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, He will heal us – our land, our families, our children.  It is the promise that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  The hope is trust in Christ Jesus.

Beloved, the question is not what to do, but how, and when we should do what we know is right.  The story is told of a famous rabbi who was walking with some of his disciples.  One of them asked:  Rabbi, when should a man repent?  The rabbi calmly replied, You should be sure you repent on the last day of your life. 

But, protested several of the disciples, we can never be sure which day will be the last day of our life." 

The rabbi smiled and said:  So, when should you repent?

Beloved, hear once again the words of Ezra:

...yet NOW is there hope...

For You Today

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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[i]Title image: Russell Brownworth (own work)

Hope - Part 4

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Thursday, January 26, 2017

But in spite of this there is still hope for Israel.  Ezra 10:2b^(NLT)

Then a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all the exiles should come to Jerusalem.⁸ Those who failed to come within three days would, if the leaders and elders so decided, forfeit all their property and be expelled from the assembly of the exiles.  Ezra 10:7-8^(NLT)

We are continuing our look at a nation that got a wakeup call and responded well.  Part of the idea was to come together – to congregate with the sole purpose of honoring God as a nation, to turn their hearts over to their Creator and King.

But, can you imagine the squabble over this bylaw change?  The proclamation was like the church rule that says if you don't come to church we sell your house and car (selling the kids is optional at the discretion of the elders)!  Well, the people did gather!  Amen!

I do not think that it labors the obvious to point out that many of today’s church-gooing people who claim to be born again, and have an affiliation with a church, are simply avoiding the truth that their membership may be on some printed roll somewhere, but that roll is merely a figment of their imagination.  When you manage to make it to the church-house to worship God who is the Sovereign Lord of the universe only on Christmas or Easter because other things are too important…like sleeping-in, going fishing, or because you have to cook for company…well, a reality check reveals that you are more a fan of the idea of being Christian; you’re not really a follower of Jesus.  You are really a visitor, and visitors are welcome at church, but members are expected!

There is a genuine Contriteness in Repentance which God expects of His children:

Within three days, all the people of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. This took place on December 19, and all the people were sitting in the square before the Temple of God.  They were trembling both because of the seriousness of the matter and because it was raining.  Then Ezra the priest stood and said to them:  “You have committed a terrible sin.  By marrying pagan women, you have increased Israel’s guilt.  So now confess your sin to the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do what he demands.  Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from these pagan women.”  Ezra 10:9-11^(NLT)

The word "trembling" means a violent shuddering.  This wasn't all because it was cold and raining; the first and foremost reason was the fear of God.  These people had begun to recognize how badly they'd failed the Lord.  This is like being found with your hand in the cookie jar.

When Ezra urged the people to confess your sin to the Lord, the word confess means to raise the hand.  In essence this is one more way of saying, take responsibility for your actions. 

Beloved, spiritual deadness comes as a result of disobedience to God.  It doesn't have to be actions we do – it may be actions left undone.  It may be attitudes buried deep within.  John wrote to the early believers and told them:

If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.  1 John 1.10^(NLT)

If the church is to be revived, resuscitated from spiritual deadness, it will be our confession before God and man that we are indeed sinners, in need every day of the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

For You Today

If you have hung-in with us sofar, in the past four days we’ve hit some pretty touchy reality checks about our faithfulness.  Tomorrow’s final chapter will be the hardest yet. 

Before you lay your head on the pillow tonight it would be a good thing to pray for an open mind and heart.

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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[i]Title image: Russell Brownworth (own work)

Hope - Part 3

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Wednesday, January 24, 2017

But in spite of this there is still hope for Israel.  Ezra 10:2b^(NLT)

Get up, for it is your duty to tell us how to proceed in setting things straight. We are behind you, so be strong and take action.  So Ezra stood up and demanded that the leaders of the priests and the Levites and all the people of Israel swear that they would do as Shecaniah had said.  And they all swore a solemn oath.  Then Ezra left the front of the Temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib.  He spent the night there without eating or drinking anything.  He was still in mourning because of the unfaithfulness of the returned exiles.  Ezra 10:4-6^(NLT)

So far this week we have seen the failed spiritual condition of Israel, and how the only recourse they had short of God’s hand of judgment was to repent and return to their covenant vows with God.  We in America have also gotten ourselves behind that 8-ball!

Notice that Ezra the leader lost his appetite over the sin of his people.  Fasting is not a practice talked about much any more.  Perhaps it is because we are not a people that deal well with self-denial.  We do not deny ourselves much in this country.  Perhaps that is why God is not blessing America and America's churches.  Over 80% of American churches are plateaued or declining in membership. 

I'm certain you could think of at least as many excuses as I can as to why fasting is old fashioned and outdated.  I only leave you with the thought that perhaps if we put aside our fascination and dependence on material things, even for a little while, God might once again send the showers of blessing – who knows? 

But, somehow the message of repentance got through to the people.  Shechaniah urged Ezra to follow through with helping the people to know how to repent.  The fact is, beloved, it is not enough for us to look at the terrible conditions in America, conditions of our own sinfulness, and shake our heads, cluck our tongues, even shed some tears. 

It isn't enough. 

There comes a time when we must get up.  There must be a time of arising from the ashes of our spiritual nonsense and get busy doing repentance.

Years ago I served a church that used to be known as Phoenix Baptist Church because it was located on Phoenix Ave.  Part of our prayers often were that we would be like the ancient mythical bird, the phoenix, that arose out of its own ashes to a new life.  It is corporate repentance and corporate returning to the covenant with God that can make a person, or a church, or a nation spiritually alive again. 

Together, hand in hand we must weep for our own sins, and the sins of our nation, and the blindness of this generation. 

Together we ought to fill altars with knees and tears. 

Together we ought to cry out to Almighty God for forgiveness. 

Together we must repent and confess our sins one to another, if we expect God to do anything with this sin-sick land in which we dwell.

For You Today

When is the last time you saw an altar filled with church members praying?

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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[i]Title image: Russell Brownworth (own work)

Hope - Part 1

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Monday, January 23, 2017

But in spite of this there is still hope for Israel.  Ezra 10:2b^(NLT)

I couldn’t begin to estimate the number of times I’ve watched a TV episode where a person on a gurney in a hospital, or at an accident scene, ceased to breathe, and the doctor or the heroic EMS calls for the paddles, yells Charging, bellows Clear, then takes the paddle-like electrodes, places them on the patient's chest, pulls the trigger, and POW! – the body lifts off the table like a space shuttle.  In a moment you hear:  got a heartbeat.  A life is restored; death is cheated; they call it revival!

Revival is only needed when death is detected.  It is so in the spiritual world, as the natural world – deadness is the opposite of life.  Ezra detected the spiritual deadness of God's people.  Years before Jeremiah and Ezekiel had pleaded with God's people to get right with the Lord.  All the pleading was to no avail.  The people fell in deadness spiritually; they were carried away physically into Babylon (Iraq).  Later it happened again with the Persians (Iran). 

In every case it was a matter of spiritual deadness.  The people of God paid only cursory attention to serving their God.  They kept the rituals going, but the sap of vital worship had long ago dried up in God's vineyard.  Later Jesus encountered the same conditions and remembered the prophet Ezekiel when he mourned a wayward people:

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Matthew 15:8^(NLT)

The captivities had the desired effect.  With the loosening of political ties, the reform of Nehemiah made it easier for some of the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of the city, and the temple of God. 

Under Nehemiah's leadership the people responded with enthusiasm in the rebuilding of Zion’s walls.  However, the work stopped; they could go no further because spiritual deadness had (once again) set-in. 

Ezra was of the priestly line of Aaron. When he arrived on the scene, he surveyed what had happened during the reclaiming of the land.  As an expediency, the men had taken wives of the pagan cultures.  It was easier to get the land back when you were married into the family.  In their desire to hasten along the project of reclamation, the people of God had adopted the world's ways.  In their hope of returning to greatness as the people of God, they had sinned greatly against the very One they were supposed to serve.

There is a parallel today in the land of one nation under God.  Having been birthed in the cradle of Christian righteousness, our beloved America has become Godless.  We've gone from one nation under the blessing of God, to the politically correct, atheist-acknowledging nation under the judgment of God.  We are no better than ancient Israel.  They married women to gain back the lands they thought was their spiritual heritage.  We've sold our spiritual heritage to be at one with the world.  They (at least) thought they were doing right – we know, and don’t seem to care, that what we're doing is wrong! 

The church in America is becoming little more than a collection of social clubs where people can gather in support groups, where our lack of responsibility for sin can be affirmed, and we can all claim victim status.  Lost is the weeping, genuine mourning and confessing of sin.  And as a result of our sin, we are reaping an incredible whirlwind of death. 

Like the patient who died on the gurney there is a resuscitation needed in America's churches – a revival from the deadness of religion that comes no closer to the hem of God's garment than a child with a crayon competes with a computer.

How shall we be revived from the spiritual deadness?  Look to the revival of Ezra:

But in spite of this there is still hope for Israel.  Ezra 10:2b^(NLT)

The hope for America starts with the church, AND the repentance God calls for in any age.  What is repentance?  It is more than just the weeping of Ezra and the people.  It is in turning from our sins ^{(2 Chronicles 7.14)}.  Donald Grey Barnhouse tells of the Sunday School teacher who asked her class what was meant by the word repentance.  A little boy put up his hand and said, It is being sorry for your sins.  A little girl also raised her hand and said, It is being sorry enough to quit.

In our understanding, repentance is simply taking responsibility for your own actions.  Repentance is like the two electrodes of the defibrillator machine the doctor uses to shock the heart back to life.  One paddle is your Godly sorrow for sin; the other paddle is your promise to God to quit those sins with His help.

Is it too late for America? 

Have we gone too far?  Is there hope?  Yes, there is definitely hope, and that hope has a name - Jesus! 

While there is life and breath there is hope.  A visitor at a fishing dock asked an old fisherman who was sitting there:  If I were to fall into this water, would I drown?  The old salt sighed a bit then replied: 

Nope – fallin' in the water don't drown nobody; it's stayin' there what drowns ya.

For You Today

Over the next week or so we will look at using the resuscitation paddles on what’s left of the corpse of America’s churches.  Now that may be a graphic and not-too-pretty thought this morning, but it’s better than the alternative of what comes after a few nights in the hospital morgue! 

There is yet hope for America, and it lies within the churches’ response to her Lord to bring that hope to the surface.

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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[i] Title image: Russell Brownworth (own work)