Tuesday, February 2, 2016

God has not Changed



Micah 3:1-4

Could it be that the words of Micah to the priests, prophets and rulers need to ring into the ears of our priests, pastors, teachers and leaders? “And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?” (Micah 3:1 ESV) And if they will not hear does that excuse you and me?  Unfortunately no, God is not going to change because so-called spiritual leaders have compromised God’s message for profit and to fit into the worldly crowd.  So be known as one who loves the ones God loves and you are going to be very surprised it includes those who hate you, those who hate God and yet the hope of the world is Christ in you.

If you read yesterdays “Back Porch” then it looks as if I’m repeating and I confess I put the last paragraph of that paper back into this one.  If for no other reason than I need to be reminded that I can’t use others, even so-called spiritual leaders as an excuse for my sinful life.

Picking up in verse two, these so-called spiritual leaders had so conformed or been molded by the desire of wealth and power that they hated the good and loved the evil.  It has been reported by a person whose job it was to protect President Carter, that he was a phony, his public image was not in keeping with his private image, and he gave many examples in the book he wrote.  That was the image of these leaders, priests, and prophets, and they hated the prophet Micah for he spoke the words God put into his mouth.  It is also the image of many whose message is how to be prosperous and win friends for self and not for God.  Micah compares them in cannibalistic terms, such as; “you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones, who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron.  (Micah 3:2-3 ESV)

These evil men, yes the leaders of the people, the priests, and the prophets were like so many who go by the name “Christian” they live sinful lives in the work place and at home in private, and yet they go to church, sing in the choir, teach and go to Bible Studies, believing God will overlook their counterfeit life.  So many do as these men did and cry out to a holy God when things were out of their control.  And this was God’s reply then and now: “Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.”  (Deuteronomy 31:17-18 ESV)

If you have been deceived, believing God has changed wake-up!  God is the same today as He was yesterday; He is a holy and jealous God, who is patient, kind, loving and forgives anyone who will confess sin.  Confess is best defined as agreeing with God, that He is God and you are not, that He is pure and you are sinful to the core.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

"When your memories are bigger than your dreams, you're headed for the grave" [Author unknown].

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