A Prophet's clothes Zechariah 13

No one will be boasting then of a prophetic gift! No one will wear prophet's clothes to try to fool the people. Zechariah 13:4

There have always been false prophets. I can't tell you how many people predicted the second coming happening before the turn of the millennium when I was a child...how many called for economic doom and gloom by certain dates and times...how many named Gorbachev or others as the anti-Christ. It is no small thing to speak for God as a prophet, and not be a prophet from God! The verse before this one states that those who would prophesy lies in the name of the Lord should be stabbed by their parents! Other passages say that false prophets should be stoned. Those who don't have their predictions come true are not to be feared...we have touched on that in a previous post.

But who should wear a prophet's clothes? And why?

Most of those who prophecy in this day and age do it for 3 reasons: power, money, or panic. How many tv preachers do we see, how many mega churches or cults raise up because men are power hungry? We watch people follow these men to the grave because they bewitch them into thinking they are the only ones who hear from God. They distort the scriptures, call themselves Christians when Christ is NO PART of their lives, and get their psyches fed by having control over people. They will be cursed of God.

Then there are those who seek to profit from being a prophet. I will tell you fearful things, and you will send me money so I can continue to tell you fearful things...or promise you blessings of God because you support me and my ministry. I have seen few instances in scripture where prophets were worshiped and adored by the masses. Few had money, and many were tortured for their faith and words. If a large following of people is being promised ANYTHING besides hearing the Word of the Lord, you can bet the motives of the speaker are not pure. Not that men of God can't have a ministry following...but if it is not based on the feeding of the flock from the Word itself in Spirit and in Truth, RUN LIKE THE WIND in the other direction! God does not bless such a one with His Word. He knows their hearts are full of greed and desire to make a living, not a life, off the gospel.

Panic and fear usually send men into a tizzy. The worst case scenarios that fly around are amazing to me. God lets us know that He is coming back, that there will be crazy things like marks, signs, and wars, etc., but until they happen, we can't put dates and times on them. Christ Himself said He didn't know when these things would come to pass, but to be ready. For 2 millennium people have lived thinking their generation wouldn't make it through. The signs are closer...Israel exists again, the means to get the gospel to every nation exists now more than any other time, but for me to say it's going to happen in my lifetime is presumptuous. We just know we are one day closer, and the signs are coming faster than we care to imagine some days, but it could still be centuries before the second coming. But the call to be ready, to be on our guards against the false teachers of the day, to live pure and holy lives dedicated to God and lived through His Spirit never cease. That we can count on, and the panic of man will not change God's timeline.

There is a LOT of debate going on now about “Strange Fire” and other issues of teachers of the Word (or not) making stuff up or misinterpreting scriptures and therefore prophesying falsely. We MUST be careful to study the scriptures in light of the teachings of ANY man, seemingly reputable or not. Any preacher that doesn't call us to be Bereans and search the scriptures to see if these things are so should not be given a hearing. Any one scripture can be distorted into a LIE. Jesus scolded and condemned the Pharasees because “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about ME, and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you many have life.” John 5:39-40 If the teachings of any man do not point us to life in Christ, they are a false prophet. Keeping the law, even the rules of the New Testament, are not the point of salvation...the blood of Christ is. So any man can use the Scriptures and still be a false prophet. All of the Scriptures hold together, and if we do not look at them as a whole that point to the Savior, we can deceive and be deceived.

The call of God on a man to be a prophet is HIS call, not our desire to be one. Those who most desire this gift are most likely the ones who shouldn't have it...and those who He tended to call were those who wanted no part of it (see Moses, Jeremiah, and others who said WHO AM I to do this?). So beware of those who don a prophet's clothes...for your own soul's sake. Watch carefully any man's life, his ideas, and his use of the scriptures. If they don't line up, just turn around and run. Read the Word yourself, hear those who stick with the gospel of Christ, and don't heed new “revelations” that some speaker claims God gave him. When in doubt, read Galatians over and over and over. And 2 Peter. God loves you too much to let you be deceived. Stand on the truth of Scripture and don't try to make it say what it doesn't. And God will guard your heart.

Changing from our mourning clothes

So David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.” So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he came into the the house of the Lord and worshiped. 2 Samuel 12:19b-20A.

Tears come to my eyes whenever I read or hear this passage. It is the story of human tragedy. David and Bathsheba lose the child they have born because of the sins of adultery and murder. This passage was read yesterday morning by David Jeremiah in his sermon on heaven, and children going there. It is a blessing, really, to know that God has mercy on that child...but it is also heart-rending to know that God LOVED David, and still took severe measures to sanctify him. This was not the only time people died for David's sin. The census cost them thousands of people. Going to the temple for refuge cost the priests their lives (though that one was not a sin). His sons killed many, including each other, because he didn't see the problems they had or deal with them. We are sinners, and the woes of this world are brought on by the hundreds of sins we all perform, think, or contemplate daily times 6 billion. Sin is an awful thing, and we truly in our heart of hearts wish God would just overlook it. We do a David. When we recognize it when confronted by our Nathans, we get mad, then get sad, and then fear for our lives or the lives of those we love. Am I an unusual parent? Does anyone else out their watch their children (small or grown) sin and wonder just how much we contributed to it? Are they suffering because I set a bad example? Is God taking His wrath out on me or them by letting us fall flat on our faces? Was there a sin I could have confessed, a prayer I could have prayed, a fast I could have taken, that would have removed the consequences of our sin? Our brokenness makes us vulnerable to the attacks of Satan. We really don't know sometimes what we suffer because of our own sin, the sin of others, or the love or righteousness of God. We can torture ourselves over these things. Sometimes it is plain...as in this instance with David.

David fasted for a week, laid on the ground, and pleaded with God for the child. His servants begged him to get up, to eat, to wash, to do SOMETHING other than lay there. They thought he was suicidal! But he knew his sin, and he knew he deserved it, but he didn't want the consequences to be placed on the baby. And for all practical purposes, though the baby died, he came out best in this whole scenario. Unlike his brothers, he would never sin, not be slain by his brothers, not hate of his father or turn against God to idols. But we grieve for that child. Innocent himself, but the result of much guilt. How do we handle these things?

We pray. We weep. We fast. We mourn.

And we trust God.

SAY WHAT?

David knew that God was God. It is a hard place for us to be, and we fight that with all our humanness. We think God has made some sort of mistake when trials come, when consequences mount, and results of our sin come in. There have been instances with each of my children where I marvel at God's goodness one minute and wonder if He will smite them the next. When I finally learned that my sin was wretched enough as it was, the sins of my children seemed to compound it, to multiply the awfulness of it. I didn't want them to lie, cheat, steal, drink, party, or abandon the God who loves them. But at some point these things have happened...some when they were young and dumb, and some when they were willful and rebellious, or reacting to the sinfulness of their parents. Sometimes they have repented, and sometimes they have continued on, but God knows what He wants to work in their lives. When I wonder what is taking so long for people to turn from their sin, I only need to look at my own heart, and the answer is obvious...we don't see it for what it is. We justify, we make excuses and blame, we tell God He expects too much. We let Satan whisper sweet nothings in our ear and are drawn away from the one who will cleanse us, open our eyes and hearts, and give us more joy than we can hold, if only we didn't fight Him.

David knew and trusted God. He changed his clothes from mourning and pleading to those of worship, even in the case of death. Maybe God would change His mind, he thought. And when He didn't, he worshiped, knowing that God was right in His judgments. He got on with life, humbled, corrected, and in awe of the God who loved him. He entrusted that babe into the arms of a loving, but just, God.

And so must we. We plead for our kids, our churches, our world because we see the consequences of sin in each of them. We should never stop pleading, but when the end comes and no more can be done, we put ourselves and those we love into the hand of the merciful Savior. It's our human place for now. But NOT forever. And for that we can also be ETERNALLY GRATEFUL! As David knew, “I will go to him (the child), but he will not return to me.” The end will be good, though the pain is real for now.

From sackcloth to joy...through the bitter day

I will turn your festivals into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and the end of it will be like a bitter day. Amos 8:10

Well, it's been a while, but here we go. And not exactly where I wanted to go, but here we are.

Since the last post we are at a stand-off with Russia post-Olympics, with Crimea being overtaken. The thoughts of war breaking out are real. And I have an only son whose wife has left him and filed for divorce, and the mourning in my heart several times a day for him, and for her, as she has not left only him, but the church and all Christian friends, is severe. Life is tense right now for me. And yet I look to the Lord, from whence comes my help.

Amos watched the people of Israel live as if there was no God. They lived self-centered lives, didn't take God's Word seriously, and worshiped earthly things. It sounds like America these days. I picture the selfie taken at the Oscars...rich, arrogant people making tv programs and movies that feed the flesh and lead generations into feeling relaxed in the presence of sin. There is no mourning over the presence of sin, the absence of godliness, and no fear of God's judgment to come for ignoring Him. Even Lot was troubled in his righteous soul by the activity of the people around him in Sodom and Gomorrah.

2 Peter 2. It is when we are not tormented in our souls over the sin that swirls around us that we should worry about our own spiritual state. It is one thing to love the sinners around us...it is another altogether to accept the sin they participate in as “normal” or “acceptable”.

I used to wonder about the verse that says, Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! Who to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink. Who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!”” Isaiah 5:20-23 Doesn't it seem that people would rather have good, light, and sweet than evil, darkness, and bitter? But it has happened. We look at marriage, and church, and God, and sexual purity, and hard work, and generosity, and fiscal restraint, all deemed GOOD in my childhood, and they are all mocked, distorted, and legislated against by a generation that has substituted evil...sexual obsession, adultery, homosexuality, free lunch, leisure, cursing, and gimme, gimme...and then try to legislate their way out of the consequences of such behavior. STDs, suicide, poverty (not all in poverty cause their poverty, but in our country, having kids out of wedlock, divorce, and welfare have created an unnecessary lifestyle of poverty), family break-down, and drug use and drinking binges...the bitter, have taken over our society. We were warned in the verses above that the result of God's hand will be a bitter day. Amos tells us in the following verses that there will be a drought of hearing the Word of the Lord. It is all around us, but few hear. There is much distortion of the Word, and few who will stand up for God's holiness and coddle those in sin instead of correcting them, for fear of appearing judgmental. All because we are redefining sin and God and good and evil.

I do mourn for my son, for my children living in a world turned upside down, and for my country that was not this way a couple of generations ago. It is hard for this generation to picture anything else, but my generation sees the downhill slide and sees the crash that is coming. God will not hold his hand forever. Scary stuff.

Fortunately, God never leaves us. The judgment will come, but so will the redemption. The can may get drunk dry, but the can itself gets redeemed...the nickel is paid, so to speak, to get it back, melt it down, and make something new of it. God does that with we cans...we may spill out good or evil, but we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, as we are worth more than a nickel, and only He can pay the worth that God puts on our souls. We are promised to be placed forever in His kingdom, rebuilt in such a way that we will never pour all of our contents out again, except in praise and adoration for the one who bought us back and didn't just send us to the landfill or ditch us on a roadside. We may go through times of extreme trial, pain, and rejection, but the Lord will redeem and restore the years that “the locusts have eaten.” I don't know who or what your locusts are, but God does. Placing ourselves in His hands, we can trust that only good will come from all that we live through. (Romans 8:28) New festivals of joy and celebration will happen in the place of praise. No matter where we start in scripture, the end is that every knee will bow to the Son, and those who love Him will live on in joy. And there lies my hope, and I hope, yours.