TELL US NICE THINGS

One of the Elders in our church, Bob, shared some
thoughts with us the other evening. One of the scriptures he mentioned struck a
cord with me. It is several thousand years old, but it speaks clearly to our
society. We live in a world where far too many have dismissed the idea of moral
or ethical values or constraints.

We live in a world where more and more people feel
they have “A RIGHT” to do or say whatever they want, whatever feels good to
them without restraint. They teach, “Have sex with whoever you want, we’ve made
abortion clinics available for everyone”. “Have homosexual relations, we
changed the laws and it’s legal now”. “Cheat just a little on your taxes, or
anywhere you can, it won’t really matter.” “Speak your mind, as crudely and as
loudly as you want, no one can stop you”. “Participate in all of the worldly
things you want… drink just a little, gamble just a little, party just a
little… it’s your right!”

The problem is that the world has tried this before,
(more than once), and it always has the same results. Notice what God says
about this through his spokesman, Isaiah.

“Now go and write down these words. Write them in a
book. They will stand until the end of time as a witness that these people are
stubborn rebels who refuse to pay attention to the Lord’s instructions. They
tell the seers, "Stop seeing visions!" They tell God’s spokesmen:
"Don't tell us what is right. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies. Forget
all this gloom. Get off your narrow path. Stop telling us about your 'Holy One
of Israel.'" 

Notice how God responds to this line of reasoning: This
is the reply of the Holy One of Israel, Jehovah God: "Because you despise
what I tell you and trust instead in oppression and lies, calamity will come
upon you suddenly; like a bulging wall that bursts and falls. In an instant it
will collapse and come crashing down. You will be smashed like a piece of
pottery; shattered so completely that there won't be a piece big enough to
carry coals from a fireplace or a little water from the well." (Isaiah 30:8-14).

I’m convinced that the reason
some of the “Modern churches” are growing today is because they no longer speak
for God. I visited a church awhile back and sadly I never heard the scriptures
read or mentioned during the whole service. The preacher instead gave a book
review of the latest motivational book. Tell us lies the people said, Tells us
only nice things, Forget all this gloom. It’s surprising that so many “Church
Leaders” are listening to people like that. It has become all about numbers and
money, not the truth.

Let me suggest to you that
just because the government approves of something doesn’t make it right. Just
because something is now socially acceptable doesn’t make it right. If we don’t
begin to follow God’s word, “The Holy One, Jehovah God’s” instructions for our
lives we will eventually be broken into pieces just as he did to Israel. Could
it be that you need to make a change, maybe take a stand for what is right in
God’s sight?

Motivate Yourself

As I have become “more mature,” I have found that often I find home
more inviting than something that is “not home,” especially on these cold
winter days. I sometimes find it harder to motivate myself to get out of my
warm comfortable space and do things, even if I know they need to be done. But
of course if we don’t motivate ourselves then perhaps God will allow our
motivation to come from somewhere else.

I’m reminded of an incident that happened when I was about 18 years
old. I was helping build a house with my dad and others in one of the suburbs
of Dayton, Ohio. There was an old stray dog that showed up on the job site. He
was really skittish and afraid to get too close to us, probably he had been
mistreated by someone. Anyway, I kept trying to win his confidence and even
shared some of my lunch with him. He finally seemed to become a little more
trusting and even took some food from my hand. He backed off and sat down and
then surprisingly he yelped loudly, jumped up and took off running. I was
mystified until I went over and looked at where he had sat down. There was an
electrical cord with two frayed wires just where he had sat down. He received
an unexpected shock and a lot motivation to vacate the premises.

What is it that you know you should be doing and are not? I’m
convinced that there are a great many people who don’t begin to use their
talents or God given abilities. They are comfortable and don’t want to get out
of that comfort zone. Sometimes we enjoy the comfort of hearing others teach,
but perhaps we should be teaching ourselves. Isn’t the church always asking
(sometimes begging) for those to help teach? What about serving? Do we ever
really have enough people to do the many things that need to be done within our
church family? That takes a lot of forms such as cooking, cleaning, visiting,
sharing, comforting, encouraging just to name a few.

There is a parable
told by Jesus meant to motivate us to do what we should be doing. It is about
three men who are given talents (in this case money) and told to use them for
their Lord. Two did, but one buried his and gained nothing for his master, (Matthew
25:14-30). In the end Jesus said, “For to everyone who has will more
be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even
what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer
darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
(vs 29-30)

Let’s hope that God doesn’t have to give us this kind of “shocking”
motivation to get us to use our talents. Don’t think you don’t have any, God
gives them to us all, it’s up to you to discover them and develop them.

DEATH IS INCONVENIENT

It seems that our lives are constantly coming into contact
with death and whenever they do it is never convenient. Plans that have been
made suddenly cease, trips that have been planned suddenly seem unimportant.
All of those things on your “to-do” list can wait a little longer while we
focus upon this seeming tragedy in our lives.

Yes, I said, “seeming tragedy”. Death is always a loss, many
times it is a surprise, but it is not always a tragic thing when it happens. You
know that some folks are ready to face death; they have prepared themselves
spiritually and are ready to go and be embraced by their God.

I have been involved in somewhere around 100 funerals in my
preaching career, (and I realize that is not a lot compared to some ministers),
but it is enough to learn some things about people. The simple truth is that
unless it is an immediate family member, death is more of an inconvenience than
anything. It disrupts their plans. It’s not that they are not truly concerned
and sorrowful, but the truth is that often the ones involved in the death are
soon forgotten. Simply because in life, there are goals to meet, plans to
complete, things to do… death is inconvenient.

There is actually a record in the bible of someone who felt
that way. In Luke 12:16-21 Jesus
tells us about it: “And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man
yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no
place to store my crops.'  "Then he
said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones,
and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, "You have
plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be
merry."' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life
will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for
yourself?'  "This is how it will be
with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God."

I believe that the man in this story found death to be very
inconvenient to say the least. He had his plans made, his future planned out,
his retirement prepared and death intervened. What about you? If you knew that
you would be facing death soon, would your priorities suddenly change? Would
your lists and your plans really matter any more? I would think that for many
things would change a great deal. We don’t like to be reminded of it, but death
is a reality and it is the one thing we will never escape in life. All you can
do is prepare in advance for that which is coming to you at sometime whether it
is convenient or not. An old hymn asks, “Are you ready, are you ready, are you
ready for the judgment day?” Are you?