Called to love not Judge

Micah 7:7-10

Often in the middle of sorrow, temptation, or even trials it seems God is not listening?  Micah is experiencing the spiritual and moral collapse of the people chosen by God to be His people, and they had bought into a lie from the thief, the one Jesus tells us has come to kill, steal, and destroy.  If only they would have listened, if only they would have obeyed the words of God’s prophets.  In Psalms 50:21, God has this warning; "These things you have done and I kept silent; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.”

Our Father in heaven is holy, merciful, all knowing, all-powerful, ever-present and He is just.  His holiness requires Him to be both merciful and just, and that is why the apostle Peter states the following; “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”  (1 Peter 4:17)  As a follower of Christ, as one who desires to be known as a true disciple of Jesus, should I not prepare my house, should I not remove all that keeps me from meeting the requirements found in Micah 6:8, to act justly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with my God? 

If we do so we are walking in the path of the prophet Micah, listen and take to heart these words: “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.  Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.  I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.  He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.  Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”  My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.”

A note from the Back Porch, my only claim to fame is “Christ in me the hope of glory” and yet the Lord has put into me the desire to share insights, things I have experienced and often defeats of my 45 years in Christ and He in me.  As I write this paper, I am observing that we as a nation and as a church are more like the people of Micah’s time.  As a nation and as a people we are arrogant, self-absorbed, full of greed, oppose authority, and as I was listing these 2 Timothy 3:1-5 came into my mind. 

Ponder this; “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”  (2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV)  And it is my opinion that the Church, you and I have tried to apply this to those outside of the church and that was never God’s directions. 

Listen to the apostle Paul, “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler-- not even to eat with such a one.”  We are called to love not judge those who are in the world.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice