“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Isn't it easier to pay a fine than to change?
When you give a person a "price" for their sin they just look at it as the price tag. The amount that they need to collect to pay for what they desired. Want to cheat on your spouse? Well that is only a couple hundred given to the church and an I'm sorry. What to lie, covet, rage, hate? Throw up a few prayers and maybe a tithe and you can get right back to sinning.
God accepts none of that. Everything you could throw at your sins might as well be rotted filth. He only takes one thing. Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with Him. How is that one thing?
They all mean the same thing ... Follow the LORD with all that you are.
So if you are in sin: Stop, Turn, and Follow God.
As You Walk By The Way ... Nahum 1-3, Habakkuk 1-3
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls.
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.
I find it hard at times to rejoice when I'm getting stronger. To be able to run farther than before you need to ... run farther than before. To be able to lift more weight you need to ... lift more weight. It is hard and tiring. But, to become stronger physically you need to work harder physically. And not everyone rejoices as they work hard.
But, it is a blessing of God's to be able to work hard. It is actually a blessing to live in hard times. Hard emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
So like when you keep your eyes focused down the road on the next mile you have to run. You can endure the places where you feet are striking the road.
Likewise, keep your eyes focused on the LORD. On your eternal salvation. Know that the road you are on is only there to make you the person God has designed you to be ... at the finish.
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
"Do you do well to be angry?" I love this question.
We hate those that hate us. It burns in our stomachs and we pray, in a "good" way, for God to smack them down. For them to suffer as we have suffered. For them to feel the pain that we have felt. We spend so much time, and drag so much emotional baggage along, just focusing on them.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
From the weakest will come the greatest.
It is never a surprise when you see the great athlete win the game. It can only come from God when the weak destroy the strong.
We may focus on the strength and wealth men. On the things that men can do. But, know that through what you never expected ... God will work. For then it is obvious that it is His hand and not yours.
And it is within the hard times of life that you will see this.
When your bank account gets empty, the crops fail, your job is gone, you become ill ...
Looking around it will become obvious that your own hand can do nothing. When we are at our weakest ... God's hand is moving. And by His strength alone will we survive.
The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
How much does it take to break you?
Just consider stealing. When would you break from your sin and confess to God?
When you walk away from the counter even though they gave you too much change?
When you write down too much money on your trip report for your job?
When your dad catches you taking money from his wallet?
When you kids catch you giving less to the church so you can buy something for yourself?
When you go to jail for stealing from your business' customers?
We all fall somewhere along the above path. Whether it is sexual sin, stealing, or worshiping the world; there will come a time when God's words in your heart become forceful. Listen to Him and act now. Not later. Because everything has a breaking point. Just break as soon as possible.
