The Question Is...

The first three chapters of Genesis are packed with powerful and transformative words.  With Genesis being the "beginning", we see many firsts.  The world was created, the sun and the moon, night was separated from day, earth was separated from the sky, the first animals were created...the book moves through the early history of planet earth swiftly.  The first people were created in God's image.  While they did not share His power, the were created with His communicable attributes...his ability to love, to communicate, to think, to reason and to choose.

The ability to choose played a huge role in Eve's rebellion and Adam's compliance.  They had a chance to maintain perfection but gave it up after being coerced into rebellion by the architect of sin, Satan.  Man's sin set a pattern of destruction in motion that continues to this day.  The corruption that we see in the world happens not because of God's absence but because of man's presence and man's propensity to sin.  Evil entered into the world because of Adam and Eve's complicity with the devil.

When evil entered the world, the choice to do evil also entered.  After their sin, Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.  Previously, they knew no shame because of their nakedness...sin brought shame.  They heard God "walking" coming toward them and they sought to hide themselves.  Genesis 3:9 says "God called out to the man and said, "where are you?""

This is a puzzling question considering that God is omniscient and knows everything.  Neither Adam nor Eve could hide from God.  They could not hide their nakedness, their shame or their guilt.  But the question had nothing to do with their locality.  The question is a question that, if answered honestly, will lead any man to repentance!  When God asked "where are you?"  God already knew that Adam had sinned.  Honestly, God knew that Adam would sin before he actually did.  God knew that Eve would disobey before she did.  That's why Christ was slain "from the foundation of the world." (Rev 13:8).  God was asking, where are you?  What they had done had driven a wedge between Creator and the created.  The fellowship was broken because of this act of disobedience.

Adam had the choice to answer honestly and say to God, "God forgive me, I am here but I really messed up."  Instead, Adam said "I was afraid because I was naked and so I hid myself."  Adam's nakedness had not prevented him from communing with God before but sin opened his eyes and made him cognizant of his nakedness.  The question is...where are you?

When the question of "where are you?" is asked, we can't try to play games with God.   answering this question honestly is the first step towards repentance.  "God I am in a place that is bad and I know that it is bad!"  If we are willing to acknowledge a mistake and admit to and accept responsibility for sin, then repentance  (turning from that sin) becomes an inevitable response.  Knowing that we have sinned against God and God alone puts us squarely into His presence and His holiness.  It exposes our nakedness before Him and the proper response is the same one that Isaiah had..."Woe is me!  I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips! (Isaiah 6:5)"

Many throughout history have been used to ask this question for God, "where are you?"  Joshua asked in this way:  "Choose this day whom you will serve (Joshua 24:15)."  Joshua was saying to the Israelites..."where are you?"  Elijah asked it in this way: "How long will you limp between two opinions?  If the Lord be God , follow Him, If Baal is god, follow him."  Elijah was asking the people on Mt. Carmel..."where are you?"  John the Baptist preached his entire ministry with the following statement preceding all of his messages: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 3:2)!  John came preaching a message that asked, "where are you?  Will you be honest and admit that you are sinners that need to repent?"  John's message of repentance was a slap in the face of the religious leaders who thought they had it together and did not need repentance.

"Where are you?" is a call to repentance and honesty before God.  The question is...will we answer it in a way that we lay every burden at the feet of Christ?  Will we answer it in a way that shows that we accept responsibility for our sins and realize that there is no way out except Christ?  Will we answer in a way that is transparent and that says to Jesus, "I need you and I cannot do this without you!"?  Or will we be like Adam, sewing fig leaves together trying to hide and trying to conceal things from God that he already knows about?  This is obviously the wrong approach.  There is nothing hidden from His sight- what God desires is for us to be honest and accountable.  The question is...where are you?  The answer that is given will determine if we live a life of repentance or a life of hiding behind fig leaves.  God's grace and peace be upon you.   

The Anchor Holds

You've heard it said often times that we are "sailing on the seas of life."  Sailing is used as an analogy because of the dynamic conditions of the sea.  The sea can be calm one second and then tumultuous the next.  At times, if you are sailing or boating you will have to drop anchor.  The anchor is dropped with the understanding that your boat is not going to move from the spot where the anchor is.

The writer of Hebrews understood this when he penned the 19th verse of the 6th chapter.  He said: "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil..."  Earlier in the chapter, the writer described those that had fallen away and how their hope had not been developed into full confidence.  He (this is just a pronoun here as the writer of Hebrews is unknown and could very well be a woman) urged his readers to take hold of the hope set before them.  God had given them all the incentive they needed in that he made a promise and he sealed that promise with an oath.

The promise God made to Abraham that he would have a Seed that would bless the whole world was partially fulfilled through the birth of Isaac.  It was fully brought to past when Mary and Joseph stopped by a stable in Bethlehem, had a child, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and named Him Jesus.  God made a promise to Abraham and fulfilled that promise, although it took 42 generations to do it.  Ephesians 3 says that God has an eternal purpose, carried out in Christ, that has not changed regardless of how much the world has changed! 

With Jesus, the promise to all believers is eternal life.  He said, "he who believes in me shall not perish but have everlasting life."  He said it with confidence knowing that he was well able to deliver on that promise.  When he was crucified, I am certain that some who came to faith were afraid that Jesus was just another religious figure that angered the Roman government.  However, after three days, Jesus got up from the grave with all power!  His resurrection proved that: a. God the Father was satisfied with the sacrifice of God the Son b. It proved that He was actually God, as He had proclaimed and c. It proved that His promise of eternal life was real.

What is this hope that the Hebrew writer encouraged the readers of his day with and it still encouraging us with today?  First off, hope is from the Greek work elipdos which means an expectation of what is sure.  Hope is always based on a promise.  God makes promises and we can expect, with certainty, that He will deliver.  So the hope that the writer encourages us to hold on to is based on the promise that we will inherit eternal life from Jesus Christ!  The bible says that the hope is sure meaning it is not subject to shifting or wobbling- if you push is, it won't budge.  It also says that it is steadfast, meaning that is is solid enough for one to "walk" on and it will not give way.

That hope is truly an anchor.  The anchor has been dropped in Jesus.  No matter what happens in our lives, no matter how hard the winds blow, the one holding the anchor is heavier than the winds (see Romans 5:3,4).  No matter how dynamic the conditions of the world are, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever- He will not move or change!  That's good news for the believer.  What the writer here is saying is this: we need something certain, and this hope is certain.  1 Peter 1:4 says we have an inheritance stored up for us that is imperishable, undefiled and will not fade away and is reserved in heaven for you!  Peter also says that we have a LIVING hope rooted in the resurrection.  The word living is a verb, that means that it is alive, present tense and it is alive right now! 


If you are reading this, and you have not dropped anchor in Jesus, your boat is going to continue to drift.  If you are reading this and you've pulled up your anchor, please put it back.  Although we cannot see the promise just yet, IF God made it, then it is certain and our expectation of it will not be in vain.  Imitate the faith of the old saints in the hall of faith.  Live by faith and not by sight.  We should let our hope for eternity drive our every day lives.  We should live like we know what to expect if we stay rooted in Jesus.  We can expect heaven, with its gold streets, perpetual praise of God, angelic hosts and perpetual peace.  It is not a fairy tale, it is real, as real as the nose on your face.  Remember this, the anchor holds as long as it has been dropped in the right place.  God's grace and peace be upon you.

The Replacements

Jesus Christ is our High Priest.  He is a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.  These are powerful words because Jesus changed everything.  He changed the priesthood forever.  No longer would the priesthood be based on genealogical pedigree but on grace!  In the Old Testament, the Levites were the priests.  They handled all of the priestly business, but the book of Hebrews eloquently makes the case for why the priesthood was replaced.  It was merely a copy of what was in heaven.  It was a shadow of what Jesus made real.

The priests, the high priest in particular, was responsible for making the atoning sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.   A very elaborate procedure is laid out in Leviticus 16.  Everything had to be done down to the letter.  A bull for the sins of the priest, two goats for the people- one to be slain as a sacrifice, the other to be sent off into the wilderness.  The priest would take the blood into the holy of holies, the inner most part of the tabernacle where God’s presence was, and make atonement for the nation.  This would be done year after year- perpetually.  No one else had the privilege of going behind the veil.  Aaron’s sons were killed because of it- well, actually, they dropped dead in God’s presence because they burned the wrong fire before Him (Leviticus 10).

The book of Hebrews depicts Jesus not only as our High Priest, but as the perfect High Priest.  One that does not need to offer sacrifice for Himself, but one that offered the ultimate sacrifice for the people.  He offered Himself as the atoning sacrifice and then assumed the role as High Priest in that he went behind the veil for all of us.  His sacrifice on Calvary was the finished work of atonement for sins, going behind the veil fulfilled the entire Law in that the high priest, after atonement, made purification for the elements in case they were defiled by sin (see Leviticus 16).  When the song says that Jesus paid it all, He really did pay it all!

Hebrews 6:20 says that Jesus went behind the veil as a forerunner.  The Greek word for forerunner is the word prodrosmas and it literally means one who goes ahead to reach the destination before others.  Totally different from the Levitical high priest, who went behind the veil alone as a representative for the people, Jesus went behind the veil as a pioneer- as one that the people could actually follow into the presence of God!  The bible says that when Jesus was crucified, the veil in the temple was torn in two (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38)!  What Jesus did as our High Priest gave the believer unfettered access into God’s presence!  We can now approach the throne of grace confidently (Hebrews 4:16) because of Jesus and the sacrifice that He made at Calvary.

Here is some good news: because Christ did away with the Levitical priesthood and the genealogical requirements necessary to be a priest, all of His followers are also priests of the Lord.  Not high priests, but priests that serve the living God.  Isaiah 61:6 says you will be called PRIESTS of the LORD!  Under the New Covenant, the one in Jesus’s blood, 1 Peter 2:9 says “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…”  Earlier in the same chapter, Peter expresses this thought again but in a different way: “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Being a part of God’s priesthood with Jesus as our High Priest is an awesome task.  We are to serve God with gladness and minister to each other.  We are to edify one another and encourage each other daily as we see the day approaching.  Let us honor our role in God’s kingdom and offer sacrifices to Him.  Not burnt offerings, sin offerings and the like, but the sacrifice of obedience to His word.  May God bless you and make His face shine upon you.

Restoration

In Joel 2:25,26, God says this:

“Then I will make up to you for the years
That the swarming locust has eaten,
The creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.

 

"You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied
And praise the name of the LORD your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
Then My people will never be put to shame."

 

The prophet Joel prophesied around 830 B.C. during the reign of King Josiah.  He speaks of plagues and locusts and, although there are no historical events to link his prophecy to, it has meaning in that is shows God's judgment and also God's mercy.

 

 

This also has meaning for our own lives.  All of us have gone through things that have subtracted from us.  I can speak for myself that during my wife's bout with cancer, I was in a fog for almost that entire period.  I was at a low point because of the extreme stress that we were under in dealing with the doctor's visits, the care taking, the housekeeping and the brunt of the work falling to me.  I got to a point where my brain would just shut down.  Maybe it was a defense mechanism to keep me from burning out, but I had no real inspiration to write, I couldn't really think clearly and I was just seeking God's mercy to get through the day.  It seemed as if everything that I knew dried up.  My memory seemed shot in that there were scriptures that I had known for a long time that were, all of a sudden, hard to remember.

 

In retrospect, I was in the furnace of life and there were some moments where Satan seized an opportunity to kick me when I was down.  But even those hard things had a purpose as I have seemingly been revived.  I never left God's Word, I didn't lose faith...I was simply in a funk that I now realize was a fire designed to move me somewhere different in God.  I thank God for it.

 

Here is the blessing, no matter what we have dealt with in life, God is a restorer.  In the text, He says that He will restore all of the years that were taken away because of the different pestilences that befell the people.  He will do the same thing for us.  Those of us in hard places, rest assured that as long as our focus remains on Jesus, we will eventually be restored and come forth as pure gold.  Not only does God restore, he does so bountifully.  The scripture says that we will have plenty!  And as a result, we should praise His name because He is truly praiseworthy!  I love the Lord because of his steadfast love and His mercy!  I thank God that restoration is not a fleeting occurrence but one that is perpetual- we lose, God restores.  If you would, in your prayers today, thank God for His restorative power!   

Giftwrapped

Around this time of year, we start hustling and bustling and stressing out over the holiday season.  We start racking up huge debt to "make this Christmas better than the last one."  We flood our children with toys that they won't play with past the first week of January, and spend unnecessary dollars trying to get them to smile on Christmas morning!  We spend so much time trying to fall in line with the commercialized worldly view of Christmas, we sometimes forget what this season is all about.  While we wrap gifts, we should consider the true gift!

Luke 2:12 ""This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

 

 

Here, the angel spoke/prophesied to the shepherds that were in the field and told them that there was a baby in Bethlehem that they needed to see.  This was not just any baby though, this was the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, Zecheriah's branch, the branch from the root of Jesse...this was God in the flesh and as a sign, they would find this baby in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes.  How ironic, the God of the universe lying in a place for animals.  How fitting that the coming of the Good Shepherd be revealed to shepherds. 

 

Here, God has condescended and come to earth as a man in order to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.  All of the burnt offerings, sin offerings, festivals, pomp and circumstance was not enough to deal with the problem of sin and the broken fellowship between man and God.  The bible says that in Christ, God was reconciling man to Himself (2 Cor 5:19) and not counting men's sins against them.  That's good news for all and the gift was wrapped up in a manger in Bethlehem.

 

 

The story didn't start in Bethlehem, it started in eternity.  Genesis 3:15, God tells Satan the serpent that there would be enmity between he and the Seed of the woman that he caused to sin and that the Seed of the woman would bruise his head!  This is the same Seed that God spoke to Abraham and said that his Seed would be a blessing to all nations.  1 Peter 1:10-12 says this: "As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look."  Jesus said it plainly in John 8:58, "Before Abraham and Jacob...I AM."  Colossians 1:26 Ephesians 3:9  refer to the coming of Christ and the plan of God through Christ as a mystery that was revealed at the proper time.  So God wrapped the gift up in eternity, sat Him down in time and all who would come in faith to open the gift would be saved!  How awesome is that?

 

As we shop and overindulge, let us remember the true reason for this time of year.  It is not all about the gifts but about the Gift, Jesus Christ.  As long as we keep Him as our focus, there will be no doubt, anxiety or stress as we enter into the most commercialized season known to man.  We will understand that it's not about how much money we spend but the riches of God's grace that were poured out for us when Christ was sent to die at Calvary for our sins.  The people of His time actually got to see that progression as He grew in wisdom and in stature- and as He eventually carried His own cross through the streets of Jerusalem and up the hill to the place called Golgotha.  Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice and for the gift, salvation, that keeps on giving.

Cherrypicking

Atheists like to paint God as a murderer and as evil because of some of the events that took place in biblical times.  They like to discredit God using the bible and especially certain stories in the bible that involve the deaths of people, children etc.  Once, I had a debate with an atheist and his beef with the bible was that God allowed/demanded human sacrifice and that God was somehow a sadist.  He used a story from the book of Judges to make his point. 

The story of Jephthah in Judges 11 is an interesting one.  Jephthah was an outcast from his family.  His brothers ran him off because his mother was a harlot and they did not want him to share in his father's inheritance.  After some time, the people of Gilead came back and asked him to become their military leader and he obliged, only after making a deal with them (Judges 11:9-11).

"So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back to fight against the sons of Ammon and the LORD gives them up to me, will I become your head?” The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is witness between us; surely we will do as you have said.” Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah."

 

Jephthah was militarily skilled and he was a valiant warrior.  He sent the king of Ammon a letter which the king refused.  Then, Jephthah made another deal.  In verse 30:

 

Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, “If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, 31then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

 

The bible says that the Spirit of God was upon Jephthah as he passed through certain areas.  When he made this vow, I believe Jephthah was being overzealous and being a deal-maker.  I don't think that he was in the Spirit when he made this vow knowing that either his wife or his daughter was going to come out to greet him!  It was foolish of him to make such a vow.  This text shows the seriousness of a vow made to God.  Let's see how it ends in verse 34 and we will talk further.

 

"When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter."

 

So, Jephthah makes a vow to God and is bound by it.  When he gets home, his daughter rushes out to greet her father and now, because of his foolish vow, he has to do what he said that he would do.  His daughter is a rather amazing person in that: 1. She understood the seriousness of a vow to God 2. She was willing to die, even for father's mistake 3. She did not complain.  She asks for two months to mourn and Jephthah agrees, after which time, they carried out the vow- with the daughter as a willing participant.

 

So, this is one of those stories that atheists love because, to them, it shows the brutality of God.  "He's a savage that accepts human sacrifices." is a common refrain.  They cherrypick this story without understanding the context of the times.  The time of Judges was a very tumultuous time in the history of the Israelites.  The bible commonly states  in this particular book, that "each man did what was right in his own sight."  In other words, people made their own rules and were not trusting in God.  

 

Even God's own Judges rebelled.  Samson was a Nazarite from birth.  A Nazarite is one that takes a vow, in the case of an adult, or whose parents take a vow, in the case of a child, to not cut their hair, not drink strong drink and to never touch anything that is dead.  There are other things but these are the basic requirements.  John the Baptist's parents also received the command to bring him up as a Nazarite.  Well, we know that Samson broke that vow repeatedly.  Not only was he a whoremonger, he killed a lion with his bare hands and then ate honey out of his carcass and he even gave up the secret of his superhuman strength, his hair, to the conniving Delilah.  Although he was ordained by and really belonged to God, he constantly lived in his own will and God's will was an afterthought.  Samson was a judge, God's chosen man to lead the Israelites and even he could not get it together.  Sin was rampant.  Idolatry was rampant.  It was simply a terrible time in the history of the Israelites.

 

Atheists take this story and run with it and blame God for everything that was happening, including this little girl losing her life.  Here are the issues that I have with their argument:

 

1. Jephthah made the vow to God, God did not force him to make a vow nor ask him.  Nowhere in the text do you see God asking for a child sacrifice!  But these guys twist this scripture up really good.

 

2. Faith is nowhere in the equation- Jephthah's painful vow really shows a lack of faith- did he not trust God and therefore try to add a safety net in the form of a vow.  Earlier in the text, Jephthah is said to have made his initial vow in the LORD's hearing.  If that is the case, and God actually orchestrated this situation and sent the elders back to ask Jephthah to lead them, it stands to reason that God would make provision for the victory in battle.  God placed confidence in Jephthah and there was really no need for a second vow!  There was a disconnect in Jephthah's faith.

 

3. God cannot be blamed for the corrupt nature of the people of that day, nor any foolishness as a result of that corruption, considering that the people lived in open rebellion and did what was right in their own sight.  The same holds true to this day.  People want to blame God for the actions of other people when the primary motivation for the actions of man, especially those outside of Christ, is sin.  Period.

 

4. Piggybacking on point 3, the issue of sin is rarely dealt with or commonly brushed aside by atheists, many of whom believe that man is inherently good.  This is in stark opposition to the truth of the Bible which says that we are born into sin (Psalm 51:5).  Sin must be considered if we are to debate seriously on any theological topic concerning God and man.  Atheists always sidestep the issue of sin and how if affects  every facet of human behavior.

 

 

God cannot be blamed here.  Unless we address sin and understand that sin is the root cause of all behavior and the only way to change the behavior is to release man from the yoke of slavery that we call sin, people will always try to find fault with God.  Whether it was Jephthah's pride or his lack of faith that led him to make this vow, he made a very costly mistake.  Was he thinking more about himself than anything else?  If you recall, earlier in the chapter, a military victory would cement his acceptance as leader by the same people that ran him out of Gilead.  This is my take on Jephthah.  He was longing so much to be accepted by his peers that he put everything on the line to ensure it!  That's very dangerous.  The bible says that each man did what was right in their own sight. The fact that God's Spirit had not been fully given meant that one second, Jephthah could be in the Spirit and then out of the Spirit in the same moment of time.  Being filled with the Spirit is not a one time act but there is a constant refilling of the Spirit.  Take this example, you are driving down the interstate listening to your favorite gospel song or your favorite preacher, and you are in the Spirit- then someone cuts in front of you and you go from being in the Spirit to road rage!  That's how it works. 

Jephthah is to blame here, not God.  He made the vow and ended up having to honor it knowing full well that someone of value to him would be coming out of that house to greet him!  Was Jephthah thinking like the pagans, that God would delight in a human sacrifice?  God has never required a human sacrifice in the entire bible!  Isaac was only a test of Abraham's faith and a typology of Christ's sacrifice that would happen thousands of years later.  Human sacrifice was a practice of the pagan religions of the time but not of the Jews.  Not to mention, the bible is very clear, God desires obedience not sacrifice (1 Sam 15:22). 

 

Rather than cherrypicking scriptures, read the bible in its proper context.  In context, it is hard to distort scriptures because you have to consider every factor that surrounds the scripture in question.  Out of context, you can make a scripture mean whatever you want it to mean.  Here is the beauty that gets lost on those that use this argument and this scripture to make a case against God, Jephthah's daughter never blinked.  Even she, at her tender age, understood God's sovereignty and God's integrity.  A vow to God couldn't be broken.  Deuteronomy 23:21 says it very clearly, ""When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the LORD your God will surely require it of you."  On a different level, God's rulership of the universe and His omniscience means that He knew exactly what was going to happen and who was going to come out of the house.  Could he have stopped it, yes.  Why didn't He stop her from walking out of the house?  I don't know, but that does not negate His goodness!  There is far more good in the bible and we should not allow this one story to detract from it.

 

A hard sacrifice is something that God understands, considering John 3:16.  God loved the world and He gave Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, as proof of His love for us.  He sacrificed the life of Jesus in lieu of taking the lives of those that actually deserve death...mankind!  Jesus died for the atheist as well as the one that has accepted Him-- difference is, the atheist refuses to acknowledge it and subsequently rejects salvation in favor of humanism.  It is my prayer that anyone that tries to debunk the bible would come to realize that it is a futile effort.  The seamlessness with which the Old Testament is woven into the New Testament is a beautiful sight to behold, if you are willing to see it.  The promises of God are all there for anyone that, by faith, is saved and seeking a deeper relationship with Christ!  If ever in a debate with someone that cherrypicks scriptures to support their atheism, find out why they are rebelling.  Ask them what event changed their thinking about God.  Seek not to win the argument but to win the person which is what we should  always try to do.  Help them to realize that the ENTIRE bible is there for them to take, the entire bounty of cherries, handpicked by Christ, and free of charge.  Why pick one single cherry when you can get the whole tree- which would in turn allow for a better understanding of the scriptures erroneously taken out of context?  The tree is there for the taking if you are humble enough to seek it and the tree gives life.  God's blessings be upon you. 

 

 

A Covering

You know, it's funny what some people think about God.  A.W. Tozer said something that I totally agree with.  He said, "The most important thing about a person is how they think about God."  Whether folks think highly of God will determine how they live their lives.  It is really simple, if we understand God's holiness and God's sovereignty, then we understand that we cannot bring trash to God and expect Him to validate it.

Yesterday in church, after the sermon, a woman came to the altar and asked for a covering.  It seemed innocent enough.  She was someone that did not look familiar to me and my initial thought was that she was from out of town and wanted to be under watchcare at our church.  This all changed when she asked our pastor if she could say something.  She began talking about her life and how she wanted to make a change.  She talked about being shot at and stabbed.  Then she dropped a bomb, she said that some of the people in the church should know her because she "worked" on that side of town.  She talked about "continuing to live her life because it was the only way that she could take care of herself."  She proceeded to ask the women of the church not to be angry at her if she had been with their men because, "they came to me, I didn't come to them."  This is the point where our pastor stopped her dead in her tracks.

He immediately picked up on this unclean spirit.  This woman was basically asking us to pray for her that she would be covered while continuing in her sin.  This was bold and he immediately rebuked the spirit and we came down from the pulpit and joined him and prayed for this lady.  It was amazing that she would actually stand there and ask for the church to condone her sin and pray for her/cover her while she wilfully lived in rebellion against God.  She didn't ask for us to pray that she would turn from her sin, but rather that she would be kept alive as she continues her sin.  That says a lot about what she actually thinks about God and what she thinks God desires. I would even go so far as to call that absolute lunacy.  I'm not judging her, we have all had issues in life, but coming to God without repenting or even the desire to repent is like modeling a fur coat in the store but walking away without it.  There is no exchange because repentance is a requirement if we are truly going to be transformed.  If we come asking for forgiveness, repentance is implicit. 

God is holy and will not sanction sin.  Habakkuk 1:13 "Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?"  God's holiness will not let Him accept sin.  His holiness will not let him accept anything less than holiness.  That's why it is so important to have a relationship with Jesus because every Christian's holiness and righteousness comes from Jesus.  Will you join me in prayer for this sister, that she would come to her right mind?  God's grace and peace be upon you.