Category Archives: Sin

Don’t Bow

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Daniel 3

So, King Nebuchadnezzar had a huge statue built, as high as the lighthouse on Saint Simons Island. You couldn’t miss it! Then, the decree went out – you WILL bow down to this idol, or die.

You probably know the story. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. When everyone else hit the ground when the music played, those three young men stood tall. They must have stood out like those brave athletes who refuse to bend a knee during the National Anthem. Kind of hard to miss.

Got me to thinking about other formidable idols being erected today: transgenderism, homosexual marriage, pronouns, abortion, climate change, COVID, socialism, progressive Christianity, wokeness…

Lots of idols there!

In fact, there are so many it seems people are walking on their knees, bowing here, bowing there. They exist in a constant state of surrender to this idol, and to that. Less and less people are standing tall.

The threat of punishment is real. And getting more real every day. So what’s a person to do?

Look at this portion of Scripture. You’ll find the answer. Those brave young men were able to stand strong because they truly trusted God. They trusted God whether they lived or died. They trusted God whether they were heading for hardship, or whether God would deliver them. They trusted God.

The result was, they were thrown into the fire with the intent it would kill them. But the fire didn’t kill them, did it? In fact, the fire didn’t even touch them even though they were walking right in it. And… the most amazing part of it… Jesus was right there walking in the fire with them. The king and his men actually saw Jesus in the fire with them. They saw Jesus.

So many of us don’t let Jesus do that for us. And sadly, we don’t allow Jesus to be seen by those who want us to surrender to their idols.

We surrender to the idol of transgenderism when we call a woman “him” because she mutilates her body and pretends to be male. We bow to the idol of progressive Christianity when we sing the songs that glorify our own feelings, when we accept the downplaying of sin in favor of “love.” We bow at the feet of government when we allow ourselves to be manipulated into closing the doors of our churches, keeping ourselves quarantined and isolated, wearing masks that do nothing but make us fall into line, and putting untested chemicals in our bodies because someone erects the idol of “science.”

We’ve all done it. We bow, and keep bowing to idols unseen, yet as real as Nebuchadnezzar’s giant idol in ancient Babylon where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. Can we join together, support one another, and change that?

Let’s stand on the Truth God has revealed in His Word, exactly as He has revealed it in His Word. Let’s not fear those who would have us bow to the prince of this world, because…

greater is He who is in you than the one who is in the world! (1 John 4:4)

You’ve Got My Attention

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Ezekiel 22

God compares His children to a whore. I know, not a gentle comparison, is it? His wording is graphic and coarse. What He describes is disgusting and crude. It’s hard to imagine these words coming out of the mouth of God.

As shocking as this portion of Scripture is, I have to ask myself why? Why would God be so explicit as He expresses His disgust with the behavior of His children as they adopt the worship of their neighbors’ gods?

Well, for one, He certainly got my attention. And two, I don’t have to guess at what God thinks about my own inclination to put someone or something ahead of Him in my love and adoration. I don’t have to guess what God thinks about my own disobedience. And I don’t have to guess where my rejection of Him is heading.

So today I hear you, Lord. Forgive my whoring. Cleanse me. I don’t want to disgust you, or hurt you. Thank you for grace. Thank you for the cross. I pray that neither Oholah nor Oholibah will describe me ever again.

You’ve got my attention.

Game Called On Account of Darkness

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Ezekiel 17-20

Throughout history people have been trying to get God to accept our idea of what religion looks like. We want Him to accept our rules, play our game. He never does.

He lets us go for awhile running the bases in reverse, but eventually He calls the game and plows up the field. When will we learn that either we play His game or we don’t play at all?

I used to play softball in a church league that played on fields without lights. Very often we would get only five or six innings in before it became too dangerous to continue to play, and the umpire would end the game because of the darkness. I bet you know where I”m going with this.

Playing by our own rules is sin. And sin is darkness. God will only let His creation continue in darkness until He makes the call to stop the madness. Judgment comes. And for some, they wind up in eternal darkness.

The thing is, God’s game is fun. It’s fair. It’s well organized and everyone playing by His rules always wins. No one loses!

We might try to tell Abner Doubleday how to play baseball. What a joke! He invented the game. And God invented the game of life.

This life is much more serious than a nine inning romp around the bases; the outcome more important than a World Series ring. Hear God say obey Him, follow His rules, play His game, then live blessed in this life and in eternity. If you play it any other way, be prepared for Him to call the game on account of darkness. Then He will add up the score, hold you accountable…

in this life and in eternity.

Just You

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Ezekiel 13-16

Some of us need to hear the bad news. Are you ready?

You are going to be judged.

I’m not talking about the judgments of trolls in social media, or people you know who think differently than you. I’m not talking about that mean girl at work, or the neighbor who complains because your lawn isn’t manicured to his standards. You, my friend, are going to be judged by Holy God.

You will stand before Him, totally exposed, totally vulnerable, totally guilty, and know His verdict will be totally what you deserve.

It won’t matter if you went to church, gave to charity, had a godly mother who prayed for you. It won’t matter if you hung out with Christians and never cheated on your spouse. God won’t compare you to other people. He will compare you to Himself.

God told Ezekiel to tell His people that His judgment was coming, and that even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were right there among them when judgment came, only Noah, Daniel, and Job would be saved. Every person would be judged according to his own righteousness. Every. Single. One.

What did the righteousness of Noah, Daniel, and Job look like? It looked like the righteousness of God! You see, those three had put their faith in God. They weren’t perfect in and of themselves. Read their stories for yourself. But because they had submitted to God, God saw His own righteousness in them, and they were saved.

Same with us. If we think we can stand before God and compare our righteousness to His, we are fooling ourselves. If any of us think we will stand before God and have anything to say in our defense, we are fools.

Your salvation and mine depend solely on the righteousness of God. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

For our sake he (God) made him to be sin who knew no sin (Jesus), so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I don’t know about you, but when I stand before Holy God, I don’t want Him to judge me based on anything I’ve done. Nothing! It would be like me standing before Simone Biles and asking her to compare my gymnastic ability to hers because I did a cartwheel in the backyard once, or putting myself in the same league as Albert Einstein because I got an A on my math quiz in second grade. Ridiculous!

When I stand before God, I want Him to judge me based on what Jesus did when He took my sins upon Himself hanging on the cross. And you know what? That’s exactly what is going to happen, because I have submitted myself to God, accepted Jesus as my Savior. I am saved, not by what I have done, but what Jesus has done on my behalf. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Noah, Daniel, Job, and I will stand before our Judge with no fear. We each have put our faith in God, and He will declare the guilty, NOT GUILTY! I pray you can add your name to the list.

When God Becomes The Enemy

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Lamenations 1-2

A popular view of God makes Him out to be milk toast, a wet noodle, a doting Grandpa, a weak parent who can’t say “No” to His self-centered children. That is NOT the God of the Bible.

Yes, God is love. But not without His holiness. I’m not sure we really get that.

The truth about God is that He loves people. In fact He loves people so much He went to the cross to provide the only way sinful people can be in the presence of Holy God. We can try to figure out our own way to Him, look for a back door or loophole. But if we want to be accepted by God and enjoy the love He has for us, we gotta play by His rules.

He’s not asking us to approve of His plan. He’s demanding we accept it. And honestly, it’s not that hard. Quite the contrary. It’s an amazing plan!

Warning: if you don’t accept His plan, if you reject the Gospel of Jesus, hear Him say He is NOT your friend. He is your enemy. And I’m not sure you are ready for that reality, no matter what you’re telling yourself at the moment.

When God becomes the enemy, we are in serious trouble.

Why Choice?

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Jeremiah 47-49

God pronounced judgment on one nation after another. He wasn’t being unfair. They deserved His punishment because they had broken His rules.

Some people ask, “Why?” Why would God create humans with the ability to choose if He knew we would choose our own way, and He would end up having to punish us? Why didn’t He create us to automatically love and worship Him?

When I was a little girl I played with dolls. Baby dolls, Barbie dolls, paper dolls. Hours and hours of my childhood were spent dressing, undressing, combing hair, positioning arms and legs, and going on adventures with my little plastic people who only said what I wanted them to say, and only did what I forced them to do. I loved playing with dolls. But they couldn’t love me back.

What if I could make them love me? What if, instead of looking into cold, plastic, fixed eyes I would see adoration programmed into them?

Have you seen the advances in AI? It’s both fascinating and frightening. If you could program love into an AI robot – would it BE love? Or would it be just another command controlled by someone pushing the buttons?

What is love? And is it important?

If you have read your Bible, you have read that God IS love. It’s not only that He feels love. His very existence is love. So when He created humans in His image, He created us with the capacity to love and be loved.

Are you loved by your spouse, your children, your friends? Is that relationship voluntary or forced? Is it a relationship that is any different from the ones you have with your co-workers, or the guy down the street you wave “Hi” to every morning? Isn’t the love you share with those with whom you are intimate more precious and more important to you than the relationships you have with others? I sure hope it is!

I hope it brings you joy, a sense of belongingness, security, hope, peace, and a closeness that you find fulfilling. I hope it is a love that you carry with you every moment of every day. I hope the fact that someone has chosen to love you, makes all the difference.

So why would I condemn God for enjoying the same? Why would I question Him about wanting that two way loving relationship with us… and for us? Especially when I look at what it cost Jesus so that we can share that love relationship with Holy God?

I choose love. I choose God. And He has chosen me. He has chosen anyone who believes. You have that choice. Don’t mess it up.

Kindling For The Fire

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Jeremiah 36-39

Does it shock you that King Zedekiah could cut off a portion of God’s Word and throw it into the fire? He cut off one section at a time until the whole scroll was destroyed. Can you believe this man’s audacity? His blatant disrespect for God’s word is astounding.

When I was in pre-school our Sunday School teachers, Aunt Minnie and Aunt Rose taught us to never set anything on top of our Bibles. They had us practice stacking books so we would learn to place the Bible above all others. Aunt Minnie and Aunt Rose would not be happy with Zedekiah!

But, as always, God asks me to dig a little deeper. I am right to be appalled at Zedekiah’s unbelievable rejection of God’s Word. But am I as appalled at my own?

You don’t reject God’s Word, Connie. You read it every day. You write what you’ve learned about what you’ve read every day. You even throw it out into cyber-space, praying someone will be drawn closer to God through your blog. You teach Sunday School, for crying out loud. You haven’t rejected God’s Word. You proclaim it every day.

Ain’t I special?

But God doesn’t let us pat ourselves on the back very long before He slaps us in the face:

What about those thoughts you have that dishonor me? Did you cut out Philippians 4:8 and throw it into the fire? How about Matthew 10:37-39? Aren’t you more concerned about offending your family than you are about being true to Me? That’s a hard verse. Maybe it’s just easier to cut it out of Scripture and throw it into the fire.

Ouch.

I can condemn old Zedekiah all I want. But I don’t think God included this account in His Word so we could point fingers at some guy who’s been dead for thousands of years.

I hear God asking me today: How chopped up is your own Bible, Connie?

If we are cutting out portions of God’s Word because we don’t want to deal with the Truth and we don’t like what it’s telling us about ourselves, we might be preparing the kindling to start the very fire that will torture us in eternity.

How Far Does It Go?

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Jeremiah 33-35

Are you as convicted as I when you read the testimony of the Rechabites in chapter 35? They had been invited to an exclusive party held in an inner chamber of the house of the Lord. I’m thinking that would be like a black-tie dinner with Billy Graham, John MacArthur, and Matthew Henry. A bit intimidating.

But when offered some wine, the Rechabite men respectfully declined.

Ok. So I picture myself sitting at a table with these three giants of the Church. Matthew Henry picks up a bottle of wine and fills four glasses. He, Rev. Graham, and Rev. MacArthur pick up their glasses, ready to offer a toast. (Now I have no idea whether or not any of these men drank wine. This is purely my imagination. I digress.)

They pause and wait for me to pick up my glass. I know there is nothing wrong with a little wine now and then. Paul recommended it to Timothy, if I recall. But I’ve promised God I will refrain from drinking wine as a visible sign of my submission to Him. What do I do?

The Rechabites’ decision to refuse the wine had nothing to do with the wine. This passage in Scripture is not about declaring that good Christians shouldn’t drink alcohol. What those men did had everything to do with obedience, submission, and commitment.

And that’s what convicts me. If you read further in chapter 35 you will see that these men were obeying their dad who probably wasn’t even there at the time. Yet God’s own children couldn’t obey Him even when His presence was so obvious among them. The Recabites honored their father in a way the Jews did not honer their Heavenly Father. They obeyed a human. The Jews wouldn’t obey their Creator.

God is asking me today how committed I am. How determined am I to obey His Word, even when it would be easier to compromise, to taste just a bit of sin so I don’t offend someone, or so that I fit in, or so I won’t be labeled a buzz kill.

I have committed my life to the Lord. I want to represent Him well. I tell Him I’m willing to suffer for the Name. But I sit here this morning and wonder how far I’m willing to take that commitment.

Pray for me. I’m praying for you.

It’s Not Just History

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Jeremiah 26-29

It’s so important to read and re-read the whole Bible. God speaks on every page! If we don’t learn from history, we will repeat the mistakes that were made in the past. So what can we learn from Jeremiah?

The Jews didn’t like what Jeremiah was saying so they decided to cancel him. Well actually, it was a bit worse than shutting down his Twitter account. They decided to kill him to silence him.

Now some of the elders stood up and spoke truth. Taking from their history, they reminded their fellow Jews that in the past when God pronounced judgment on disobedient Israel, He relented when they repented and obediently served and worshiped Him again. But when others prophesied about God’s judgment, and their forefathers rejected the warning, judgment came as it had been prophesied.

This time they let Jeremiah live, and he continued to warn them. He didn’t back down due to fear for his life.

So many lessons here in these chapters! Here are a couple God has pointed out to me this morning:

  1. God is talking to His children. That’s you and I who call ourselves Christians. It’s the Church in 2023. And I believe God is telling us it’s our responsibility for what happens in this world. Obedience=Blessing. Disobedience=Judgment. It was that way in the past, and God has not changed.
  2. But here’s the beauty: God has a plan. And it’s a good one!

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

Yes, I am aware God is specifically speaking about the seventy year Jewish exile. But in that bit of history is a theme that is repeated throughout Scripture, and a lesson that is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

Obey and be blessed. Disobey and suffer the consequences.

Do you want things to change in your personal life, in your church, our nation, the world? Then here’s the answer:

Seek God with all your heart.

Yeah. It’s that simple. If we, the Church, God’s chosen people in this time in history would actually do that, really be like Christ in love and in truth, I believe God would hear us. I believe the trajectory of this world would change dramatically. And I believe people who are searching for truth would find it in the Savior we serve and worship.

If you don’t believe me, read God’s Word for yourself. Ask God to reveal the Truth. He will! This Book is not just history. It’s alive and active and powerful enough to change you and change our world, if we would just learn and live what it says.

How Much Clearer?

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Jeremiah 18-22

If you turn from wickedness. If you obey. If you humble yourselves. All of these “ifs” are followed by God’s promise to bless and not curse, to restore and not destroy.

If you continue to sin. If you turn your back on God and refuse to repent. If you insist on being your own god, then brace yourselves. God’s judgment will come without mercy.

How much clearer does God have to be?

Come on, Christian. What is it going to be? The choice you make today will bless or curse your life both now and in eternity. But it will also impact your family, your church, and collectively our communities, nation, and the world. Your decision, my decision, the decision of all of us who call ourselves Christians is that important.

How much clearer does God have to be?