What Provokes You

Acts 17:16

Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?  I did not ask you if you go to a Christian church, nor did I ask if you believe in Jesus, from Scripture we understand that demons believe, James 2:19, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” So believing in Christ may put you in the company of demons, but when we begin to be followers of Christ it goes from empty words to application.  In Romans 2:17-29, the Holy Spirit addresses these truths through Paul’s pen, the foolishness and damage that is done by Jews, in this case, who put great stock in the law of Moses and in circumcision, however they did not obey those laws but still taught others to do so.  This also holds true with people who claim to believe in Jesus; who live their lives in contrast to the teaching of Jesus and the Bible.   This is what the Holy Spirit said through Paul’s lips, “You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2:23-24 ESV)

For years I believed that Jesus tells the truth, I went to church, and at the age of 27 years I ask Jesus Christ to come into my life and He did.  Things began to change, but I was not a follower of Christ, I was a new person and my life began to take on new desires and some of the old Bob began to leave, but I had not come to the place of being offended by the things that were an affront to my Lord.  Now that confession brings me to Acts 17:6, “Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.” Why should idols provoke our spirit?  Often I need to define what something is before I move on, so what is an idol: “When any thing or anybody gets What God Alone Deserves ... Even good things can become idols...” A.W. Tozer:  But, this quote sums it up on how foolish our idols are and how they come from our minds: “When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that-which-is-not-God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.” - A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of The Holy

An now let’s get real, what provokes you; and are the things that incite your anger and that trouble you deep in your spirit, do they also offend God?  If they do not, then you have a higher standard than God, or maybe you have not allowed the word of God to instruct you in what provokes God’s anger?

Let me give you a very current example of what the Democratic National Convention did that provoked me, and I believe angered God: they removed His name from their platform and once they understood that it would cost them votes, they had three voice votes and the not for God won on all three votes, but the leaders knew it was a death nail to their hopes so they ignored the vote and put it back in the platform.  I also believe that God is provoked when anyone says a man can marry a man or a woman a woman, because it goes against what God has said in Geneses 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”  If you are a follower of Christ look at what Jesus said on the subject: “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.” (Mark 10:6-8 ESV)

When we become followers of Christ, we become His ambassadors and ours is the same goal as our leader, to stay on message.  His message should be our only message, what is your message?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice