A fearful thing

 

Hebrews 10:26-31

If you read these verses, they address a people who have lost their way and go on deliberately sinning after receiving the knowledge of truth.  I do not know if they received Christ into their lives, but they did receive the knowledge of truth.  And the writer asks this question: “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?”  (Hebrews 10: 29)  The writer did not seem to wait for us to ponder his question, in the next two verses he gave this answer, “For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”  And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Today I broke one of my rules; it is a very good rule and not one that should be broken very often. I looked to see what others had said on the subject before I wrote anything.  What I did not do was begin to write or look before asking the Holy Spirit to guide my mind and my thoughts to lead me into truth.  I did a search for “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” And came across a commentary by J. D. Longstreet.  He had watched the telecast of the Restoring Honor Rally in Washington D.C. given by Glenn Beck.  In the introduction to this commentary Mr. Longstreet had these words about Glenn, “Allow me to say, right up front, that Mr. Glenn Beck does not need me to defend him.  I don’t know, for sure, what motivates Mr. Beck.  I’d like to think it is love of God and country.  But I don’t know that.”  He then goes on to tell about his upbringing in the South and how tent meetings and revivals had impacted his life, not so much the messenger, some were very good, and others try to play on your emotions.  Now back to a very small part of his commentary: “So – what did I learn? I learned an extremely important truth.  It does not matter who the messenger is, what matters is – the message. The power is not in the messenger.  The power is in the message. And if that message is truth, then believe me when I tell you, freedom is close behind.

Our nation is in dire straits.  In my seventy years of life, I have seen America go from a God-fearing nation to a “fearing” nation.  Of all those hell fire and brimstone preachers I was exposed to as a child, not a single one of them wore a bulletproof vest, as I believe Mr. Beck did last Saturday.  (A faint outline of the vest was visible through Mr. Beck’s shirt.  At least, that is what I took it to be.)   That, alone, speaks volumes about the state of our country.

Another thing I learned as a youth was this truth:  God uses people who are broken, who have failed, who have buckled under the stress of their lives, who are physically imperfect, and who are reluctant to stand out from the crowd, even for a moment, even to work great wonders.”

Mr. Longstreet is 70, and I’m not far behind, I also remember those “Hell fire and Damnation sermons, and like him, I’ve seen our Nation go from God-fearing to just fearful, but it is worst than that, I’ve seen the Church, as a whole, forget to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; many are building a kingdom of self-centeredness and that kingdom will not stand.  Let me state that I do not have a clear understanding of “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  But this I know, if you are in Christ, he is not referring to heaven, but it is what is happening in the now on planet earth.

From the Back Porch

Bob Rice