Psalm 78: 32-43
July 27, 2022
In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe. So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror. When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.
He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.
As I read this and prayed to our mighty warrior and compassionate Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ these two questions came into my mind. When you assemble as the body of Christ each Sunday do you expect God to show up? Is what happens in your local body of believers, more than singing a few songs and hearing a sermon you do not recall, or is it something you can talk about how God showed up and your life and others were changed?
As a baby in Christ, over 40 years ago I was given a book written by Buell H. Kazee, titled "Faith is the Victory," have you read this book? Buell was a Bible teacher at Lexington Baptist College in Lexington, Kentucky.
I believe it is a timeless book because its message is about faith versus flesh, and it is from a pastor’s heart to the church. I do not believe it is any longer in print, but I got a copy from Amazon.
I will give you a taste of his writing from chapter 1, pages 16-17, “So without discussing the details, we would say that the wilderness wanderings represent the life of the carnal Christian, the babe in Christ, delayed and stinted in his growth. When we follow the direction of this course we find that they just wandered around, here and there, without any direct objective. Once again, it seems, they came to Kadesh Barnea and looked with weary longing into the Promised Land. Yea, they even tried to take it in the strength of the flesh, but were defeated. Their experiences with heathen nations involved them time and again, and in nearly every case they become despised rather than glorified. It is always true with those who try to play with the world and belong to God at the same time. They have just enough religion to keep them miserable, to make them despised by the world and pitied by the righteous.
Carnal living is the poorest of all kinds of living. “Wishy-washy” is the common coinage for it. Babes are in a fretful mood, always crying out for something for themselves, complaining that they do not get any joy out of their religion! Not only do they become cares and burdens to pastors and spiritual leaders, demanding to be wheeled about in baby carriages and fed on sugar-stick diets, but at last they get big enough to lust for the fleshpots of Egypt and are easily led astray by the mixed multitudes in the world about them. They want the church fashioned after their tastes and built after a world order. They want to indulge in worship that will produce a mystic spell over their fleshy religious nature and make it “feel good.”
Out of this carnality has grown much of the busy life of the modern church. The flesh is terribly religious, and through it Satan works his greatest deception, making the carnal one feel that he is deeply religious while working in the energy of the flesh.
I would title this the dangerous games we play with God, thinking we can con Him.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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