March 23, 2010

Today's reading: I Samuel 5, 6, 7; Psalm 23, 53, 83, 113, 143; Proverbs 23

I Samuel 5:3-4, "And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him." Jesus said in Luke 19:40, "And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." One day we will all bow down and confess Christ is the LORD. It does not matter if we are born again or not. We will all acknowledge who He is.

So many people today have idols in their lives and they are not willing to give them up and trust Christ. In a day of such economic turmoil I would think that people would run to Jesus; but, just the opposite seems to have happened. Why put trust in something that is failing? I think we have been blinded by sin and Satan so badly that people just cannot see the truth. Nobody seems to know what truth is in our day and time. The truth is relative. This should not be. God help us!

People need to realize that God is trying to draw them unto Himself. He allows things into our lives to cause us to look to Him. Look at I Samuel 5:7, "And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god." Even though they acknowledged in this verse that God was more powerful than Dagon they continued to serve him. It is much the same way for you and I as we live in our sin and will not forsake it. God is not sitting in heaven waiting for us to make mistakes and then pound us for it. He is allowing things in our lives to cause us to look to Him. The problem is that we look anywhere else except Him.

We have gone so far in America to try to legislate God out of everything. One day we will regret that. We have done much like the men in I Samuel 5:11, "So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there." This sounds like the cry of people today. They want every bit of God out of their lives and their society. If God is God then they have a sin problem that they refuse to acknowledge and deal with. The Word of God is like a mirror which reveals every little or big flaw in our lives so people do not want to hear it. Christians who live their lives in line with the Scriptures are convicting also and people do not want that either. We are pushing God right out of our lives and this ought not to be!

One day we will look back and regret the fast track that we are on. It might not be until we end up like these men of Bethshemesh and we are judged for our sin. Look at I Samuel 6:19, "And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter." These men knew better than to touch the ark of the Lord and look inside. They paid severe consequences for their sin. Payday someday. It is coming. If you know Christ as your Saviour then you are paid up and do not have to worry about payday. If you have never put your trust in Christ then I would strongly suggest that you do that immediately.

Will you trust Him today?