The Times in Which We Live

Today during our family Bible reading we read  II Timothy 4:1-5 CJB

" I solemnly charge you before God and the Messiah Yeshua, who will judge the living and the dead when he appears and establishes his Kingdom: 2 proclaim the Word! Be on hand with it whether the time seems right or not. Convict, censure and exhort with unfailing patience and with teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not have patience for sound teaching, but will cater to their passions and gather around themselves teachers who say whatever their ears itch to hear. 4 Yes, they will stop listening to the truth, but will turn aside to follow myths. 5 But you, remain steady in every situation, endure suffering, do the work that a proclaimer of the Good News should, and do everything your service to God requires."

 Then while at the library reading my favorite blogs, linked on the side here, I came across one that really spoke to me.  I don't want to become desensitized to the world, even if people don't agree with my convictions.  Recently in our Bible study, we read that to have the "fear of God" is to hate what is evil.  This makes it really hard to function in this world that we live in.  For one, everyone is on their own spiritual journey and it is not often we find others who are in the same spot at the same time as us!  This is where grace comes in....I ask YHVH for this grace on a daily basis.  Not only do I NEED grace in my own life, but I also need to EXTEND grace to others, especially my family whom I am with every day.  Showing my children grace and mercy as I correct bad attitudes/behaviours and apologize for my own!  Anyhow, without further ado, please enjoy the following blog by Gail!

 

The Times In Which We Live

We live in 'difficult' times, among 'difficult' people, of that there is no question. The question becomes then, what should be our response to these things and these people? I'm writing, of course on a blog geared toward those who profess a relationship with the Holy One, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So the question is addressed to 'the church', to those who call upon the Name of the Lord.

Timothy describes the times in which we now find ourselves this way:"In the last days perilous times shall come.
 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

We have a few choices in how to respond; in how to live our lives at this time and among these people.

#1.We can surely become like them, little by little, perhaps, and maybe due to the influence we allow them to have on us as we minister among them. You know the story, it's played out again and again. The pastor, himself with a checkered past that involved the abuse of alcohol before he 'got saved', decided that God called him to minister to the down and out in the places they frequent. So, at night, under the cover of darkness, which he fools himself into believing is a spiritual covering; a blessing on his activities by God, he goes to the bars to 'minister'. Before long it is he who is changed and he returns to his old habits....his old nature and to the old ways of bondage that God so desires him to be set free of, if he is just willing. Instead, he becomes like them. We choose to become like 'them' when we long again for that which we said we left on that Old Rugged Cross at our first profession of faith. Do we really think the Israelites in the wilderness were any more at fault for this? They forgot the bondage they left and just remembered "the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic". How easy it is to forget the bondage and only remember the pleasure.

#2. We can become paralyzed with fear because of these perilous times, where the sinner seems to be sinning more and everywhere we turn, we see fellow Travelers falling by the wayside and returning to the lives they led before 'getting saved'. In the midst of this kind of fear, we can stop trusting the small still voice in our Spirit (Y'shua promises "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—  the Spirit of truth) and seen on the pages of those holy scriptures we so desperately want to believe in. In a last ditch effort to pull ourselves out (there is a clue as to why the failure) of the mire, we go looking for eloquent speakers and 'anointed ministers' who will seek God for us and just please PLEASE tell us how to live! We can dull our spiritual ears to the Voice of the Father as we become more accustomed to the new voice of those spiritual leaders we appoint for ourselves and set upon pedestals or allow them to set themselves there. And before we know it, He is not there and we are left with the deafening silence amid the loudness of man made rules.

But there is a better way.

#3. We can choose LIFE. We can choose to Sh'ma (listen to and change our lives according to what was just said) the Holy One and no other. We can recognize that our past is one of sin and rebellion and following false gods and false ways that lead to death. We can do what Lot's wife was unable to do, not look back with longing and we can be overcomers. We can recognize that HE is enough. He is what our souls cry out for and it is good that He speaks to us. We can recognize that the competing voices shouting for our attention even if they 'speak for God' are at best, second best - that He's the real deal and we can approach Him. And we can return to Him and His ways. Again and again if need be. Back to Him. To His covenant.

Remember Joshua, that servant of the Most High, chosen BY GOD and not appointed by men with itching who are prone to turning those ears away from the truth and toward myths. He led the new generation into the Promised Land at the end of the Wilderness Wandering, after the unfaithful generation died out exactly according to the prophesy. May his words of Covenant RENEWAL and REDEDICATION speak to us today with the same freshness as it did for that generation of Israelites in the desert, the children of those who came out of the Great Exodus so ready to follow God but ending up calling Him a liar, believing instead the bad report of 10 faithless ones, rather than His Promise to give them the Good Land as an inheritance. It is to those who were CHOSEN to be the generation that reaches the Promised Land, who were under 20 years old at the time of the SIN OF THE SPIES, all grown up now, that Joshua speaks. May we be able to say with Joshua: as for me and my house, I will serve YHWH!

Here is Joshua 24:

24 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.

² Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. ³ But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, ⁴ and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.

⁵ “‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. ⁶ When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen^[a] as far as the Red Sea.^{[b] 7} But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.

⁸ “‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. ⁹ When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. ¹⁰ But I would not listen to Balaam again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.

¹¹ “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. ¹² I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. ¹³ So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’

¹⁴ “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

¹⁶ Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! ¹⁷ It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. ¹⁸ And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God. ”

¹⁹ Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

²¹ But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”

²² Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”
“Yes, we are witnesses, ” they replied.

²³ “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

²⁴ And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”

²⁵ On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. ²⁶ And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord.

²⁷ “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.”

²⁸ Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance.

******

blessings,

Gail