I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Habakkuk 2:1
The watchman's job was vital. An approaching army left residents of an ancient city precious little time to flee or to prepare for battle. Everyone's life depended on the alert watchman as he peered into the horizon for the earliest glimpse of an approaching threat. It was critical that the people be alerted as soon as possible to what was coming. As a Christian, God places you as a watchman for yourself your friends, your family, and your church family. It is essential that you be attentive to what God is saying. It may be that a friend is in crisis and needs God's Word. As you study your Bible, God may choose to give you words of encouragement to share with your friend. It may be that as your children face difficult challenges, God will speak to you as you pray and reveal how you can help them. If you are spiritually alert, you may receive a warning from God that addresses specific dangers that those around you are facing. If you are careless, on the other hand, your family may be struggling, but the answers God has for them will go unheard. If you are oblivious to God's message, those around you may miss the encouraging promise from God that He wanted to share through you. God holds His watchmen accountable for their diligence (Ezek. 33:6). Strive to be attentive to every word that comes to you from God. Your diligence will benefit you and those around you as you heed God's warnings and follow His commands. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day
I am a stranger with You. Psalm 39:12 NKJV
Yes, Lord, a stranger with you, but not to you. Your grace has removed my natural alienation, and now, in fellowship with you, I walk through this sinful world as a pilgrim in a foreign country. You are a stranger in your own world. Humanity forgets you, dishonors you, and sets up its own laws and customs. People don’t know you. When your dear Son came to His own, His own did not receive Him; He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, but the world didn’t know Him (John 1:10–11). A foreigner was never so obvious among the inhabitants of a land as your beloved Son among His mother’s people. It is no surprise, then, that as I live the life of Jesus, I should be a misunderstood stranger here below. Lord, I don’t want to be a citizen where Jesus was an alien. His pierced hand has loosened the cords that once bound my soul to earth, and I now find myself a stranger in the land. I live among Babylonians, to whom my speech is outlandish, my manners peculiar, and my actions strange. A Siberian would be more at home in the Sahara than I could ever be in the place of sinners. But here is the beauty of my situation: I am a stranger with You. You are my fellow sufferer, my fellow pilgrim. Oh, what a joy to travel in such blessed company! My heart burns within when you speak to me. Though I am only a traveler, I am far more blessed than those who sit on thrones, far more at home than those who live in mansions. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
Wholeheartedness shows itself in perseverance. There may be failure at first, but the earnest worker says, “It is the Lord’s labor, and it must be done. My Lord has called me to do it, and I will accomplish it in His strength.” Christian, are you serving your Master with all your heart? Remember the earnestness of Jesus! Think of His heart-work! He could say, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up” (John 2:17 NKJV). - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
We who are in Christ Jesus do not belong to this world. Yet perhaps our greatest temptation is to conform to it in order to believe we are reaching it for Christ. Conformity to the world, the embracing of its ideology puts us against the cross of Christ. Read the latter part of Deuteronomy, the blessings and the curse. Read it closely. In there you will read of the reality between the Lord Jesus and Israel. You can see just where the Holocaust came from. You can see what results from embracing a sinful world.
A sort of a play on words is A Scribe on the Wall that you are reading. Only in the hands of God am I a writer of any notarity.
In writing for myself of the fiction that my mind ponders it can go nowhere. Working as unto the Lord is what we who are Christians are called to do. We are all watchmen and watchwomen. We are to both be a living example of Christ Jesus and to be watching for His appearing. To go and make Disciples. To be ready to give a reason for the hope we have. Literally to be able to explain our alien behavior in this strange world we now find ourselves.
Giving up isn't always a sudden decision. Giving up can be strewn out over time. Small concessions here and there. Read well what happened to Peter when he denied that he knew Jesus 3 times. Until the 3rd time he hadn't recognized what had just happened. What his words really had meant.
But go one step further, Jesus said He prayed for Peter that his faith might not fail. It didn't. Consider the wrath of Satan had Jesus NOT prayed for Peter. Peter was declared by Jesus to be a foundation stone of the beginning of the Church. He was the biggest prime target of all Satan's minions. Peter just wasn't watching as he should have been. Even in his failure he was saved the worst attack upon a man next to Jesus Himself. Satan was after all the Disciples but especially Peter. Why? Again, because of what Jesus said of him.
If you are a Christian then you too are a stranger, an alien, in this world. Why are you trying so hard to conform to it? Why do you embrace its idolatry? In big and small ways we all have done so. Paul taught of how a soldier does not entangle himself (or herself) in worldly affairs, so as to serve properly the one whom they are in service to.
Honestly the more I let go of the idols of this world the less the pressure is. I gave up embracing science fiction and television, movies, years ago. I am parting myself from many 'things' in order to learn more of the things you read here in this blog. I am decluttering my life in order to serve God better. Should I be wrong about what I have believed all my life, that my generation would see the Rapture of the Church, there's nothing really to be a burden for anyone to get rid of concerning my possessions. Nobody's got a U-haul on a casket.
Serving the one to whom we owe everything is our life. Our service is going to look strange to this world. It's not going to be fully understood. Until one comes to Christ they aren't going to get it. The grand scheme of Satan is to get compromise to happen in the life of Christianity. To gain a toehold or a foothold in any believers life. To get them convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they are doing isn't sin.
A Watchman is supposed to be responsible to tell others what's on the horizon. The curse of the Watchman is if they see and say nothing that they will bear the guilt of being silent. They are only considered blessed if they speak out what God says to say.
Obedience to the cause of Christ is paramount. The blessings and curses mentioned in the Bible are legitimate and very real. It isn't 'for the other guy'.
They are as real as the judgment to come in Revelation.
Are you so cluttered with the world that you are comfortable living in it? Are you justifying the idols in your life? Be careful! Are there people, family, celebrities, etc, that DO hold Jesus's place in your heart? Jesus said if we love ANYONE more tha Him we are not worthy of Him. A believer's life is to have Christ first, family second, the world third, then ourselves.
Do you go around showing off your idols on your clothes? We can disguise it, or choose to not say it, but being fans of teams or of celebrities, is taking our worship of God and giving it to another. It is entangling ourselves in the affairs of this world and not being focused on serving the one whom we have given allegiance to. A soldier of Christ isn't to entangle themselves in affairs of this world.
Are you reading ABOUT the Bible in books rather than reading your Bible? That too can honestly be a distraction tactic of Satan.
Many times Paul, Peter, Jesus, have warned us to BE ON GUARD!
So in this I say the same, fellow Watchman, Be On Guard!
No comments:
Post a Comment