DO GOOD; RUN FROM EVIL

Amos 5:14  Do what is good and run from evil—that you may live!  The LORD God Almighty will truly be your helper, just as you have claimed he is.  NLT

       It’s not very hard to understand at all.  If we want to live in Christ we must do good and run from evil.  If we do this, then the Lord will help us do it. 

      We cannot do good if we aren’t good.  What makes us good is the shed blood of Christ applied to our hearts.  No one is good in the Biblical sense except for God and no one can be good apart from a relationship with Him.  Just because we do good things doesn’t mean we are good people.  It’s not too hard to be good before man while not being good before God.  We often confuse the two and think that our standing with man makes us in good standing with God.  It doesn’t.  Only Christ can make us good before God.

       If we are good before God we will run from evil.  Now, we can’t avoid evil; it’s the norm for the world in which we live.  But, we can choose to not participate in the evil that surrounds us.  We can choose to run from tempting situations.  We can choose to not be entertained by evil.  We can choose to not get too close to evil and avoid it rubbing off on us.  Godly people have a distaste in their mouths for evil and seek instead the things of God.  They seek to let the Lord build them up instead of letting Satan tear them down.

      The Lord promises to help us when we set our hearts and minds on Him.  He wants to see us become a holy people, a people after His own heart.  He wants to make us heaven ready.  He wants to teach us His ways.  He wants to help us get rid of all the baggage that hinders us.  He wants to help us live in victory and not defeat.  He wants to help us, but He won’t do it unless we let Him have control of our hearts and minds.  

GOD WARNS US

 

Amos 3:7  “But always, first of all, I warn you through my servants the prophets.  I, the Sovereign LORD, have now done this.”  NLT

     God does not act in judgment without first warning us.  God makes it very clear why He judges us.  He has over and over again made known to us the life we need to live before Him.  He demands of us holy living.  He clearly has told us what sin is and how we need to avoid it.  He makes a clear distinction between sin and godly living.  He created us with the ability to choose between good and evil and right from the beginning made it clear what was good and what was evil.

     No one can claim innocence or injustice when it comes to sin.  God gave us His Word to clearly show us the way to holy living.  He has told us about coming judgment on the world.  Although most ignore God’s warnings and warning signs, it is going to happen just as He proclaimed it would.  Knowing that God does take sin seriously and judges it ought to cause us to be careful how we live.  All sin will be exposed by His holiness and judged on Judgment Day.

       In order to know what God says about sin and judgment, we must dig deep into God’s Word.  A consistent reading of the Word exposes sin that is around us and in us.  We who have the Word at our disposal will be held more accountable for our knowledge of our sin for all we have to do is to open it up and read it.  A closed Bible does the soul no good.  We need to read what sin is under the law and under grace.  We need to read about the consequences of sin.  We need to read about how God has dealt with sin in the past, how He deals with it now, and how He will deal with it in the future.

      You are warned.  God judges sin and will have no mercy on those who insist on living in it.

RETURN TO GOD NOW

Joel 2:12-13  That is why the LORD says, “Turn to me now, while there is time!  Give me your hearts.  Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.  Don’t tear your clothing in your grief; instead, tear your hearts” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful.  He is not easily angered.  He is filled with kindness and is eager not to punish you.  NLT

       If you have turned away from the Lord, hear what He is saying to you today.  Turn to Him while there is still time!  You don’t know what is ahead of you.  You may not even finish reading this today.  Right now is the time to turn to Him and give Him your heart.  Don’t let pride get in your way.  Humble yourself before God and seek His face.  Admit your sins, confess them before Him, and ask Him to forgive you right now while you can.

     The Lord is gracious and merciful; He will not turn you away.  He will not reject you just because you have rejected Him.  He is gracious and merciful and not easily angered.  He has open arms to all who would turn to Him and repent.  He longs to have fellowship with you.  He longs to pour out His love and blessings on you.  The only one who can stop Him from doing it is you. 

      The Lord is full of kindness and is eager to not punish you.  He takes no delight in punishing anyone for sin, but He must if they don’t repent.  God is holy and will never let sin go.  He patiently waits for the soul to return to Him, but there always comes a point in which His patience runs out.  He knows the soul and will continue to try to woo us back to Him while we are still able to return.  Don’t let sin harden your heart to the point where God can no longer penetrate it.  Return to Him now while you can. 

       If you have not forsaken the Lord but find yourself not as close to Him as you once were, now is the time to turn back to the Lord before you drift further away.  Today is the day of salvation.  You may never have another chance to get back right with God.  Do it now while you can.  If all is well with your soul, praise the Lord for it and pray for those who need to return to Him.

TRUE REPENTANCE

Joel 2:12-13 That is why the LORD says, “Turn to me now, while there is time! Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief; instead, tear your hearts.  Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered. He is filled with kindness and is eager not to punish you.”   NLT

      True repentance comes from the inside out and not the outside in. We can do nothing to change our heart and make it right before God. No religious exercise or deed will ever make you right with God. No strict adherence to any laws or regulations will make you right with God. God wants your heart. He wants your will, your love, your commitment to obedience and service. God wants you to sincerely want Him to change the way you think and feel about sin, yourself, and Him. He wants you to give Him the motives why you do, think, and say what you do. God wants you to let Him control what goes in and out of your heart.

     When we approach God in this way, we then find true repentance. He is merciful and gracious and will not turn anyone away who sincerely seeks Him. The issue we must deal with today is, “Have I sincerely given the Lord my heart, my life? Do I know that He has changed me from the inside out, or am I still trying to change from the outside in?”

THE PATHS OF THE LORD

Hosea 14:9  Let those who are wise understand these things.  Let those who are discerning listen carefully.  The paths of the LORD are true and right, and righteous people live by walking in them.  But sinners stumble and fall along the way.  NLT

     Wise are those who know the paths of the Lord and walk on them.  Wise are those who know the ways of the Lord are always true and right and when we follow them we will make it to heaven.  The Lord has never led one soul astray and, He never will.

      The paths of the Lord are whatever it is that leads us to God.  God makes himself known to us clearly and in a wide variety of ways.  When we follow the path that leads to God, we will find Him.  God makes himself abundantly clear in the Scriptures.  You cannot read the Scriptures without encountering God.  When we pray with sincere hearts seeking God, we find Him.  God hears the prayers of those who sincerely seek Him and answers them.  God is found in the fellowship of the church.  You may have to look hard in some churches in order to find Him, but in most churches, He is there.  God is found in the lives of those committed to Him.  Getting to know godly people helps us to find Him.  God is found in creation; all we have to do is to look honestly and humbly at creation and we can only conclude that God is.  God is found in music, books, movies and we will find Him if we are sincerely looking for Him.

      Righteous are those who are sincerely seeking God.  They want to see God.  They are observant in life and attribute to God the things that flow from God.  They pursue those things that lead them to God.  They strive to avoid those things where God cannot be found.  The passion of the righteous is being in the presence of God. 

       Righteous are those who put their faith in Christ, who alone makes us righteous.  They come to Christ with their sins, confess them, and ask Him for His forgiveness.  They then strive to live like they are forgiven.

       Sinners stumble over the paths that lead to God.  They are so blinded by sin that they have a very hard time seeing the paths that lead to God, let alone follow them.  The desire of the sinner’s heart is not for God so they don’t pursue Him.  They stumble and fall over the witness of God all around them.  Sinners who are content in their sin will not find God. 

      “Lord, help us to understand that we must always walk only on the paths that lead us to you and to not be content with the life of sin we are prone to drift into.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.”

PLANT, PLOW, PRODUCE

Hosea 10:12  Plant the good seeds of righteousness and you will harvest a crop of my love.  Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness on you.  NLT

     When you live in righteousness you will naturally be a loving person.  You cannot be right with God and not inherit His love nature.  No matter how well you may be able to live righteously by man’s standards, if you are not loving, you are not living righteously by God’s standards.

      Hosea spoke to a people who based their righteousness on how well they were able to live by God’s law.  God made it very clear what they must do in order to be right with Him.  What ended up happening was that when they lived by the law they failed to love one another and legalism without love creates a hard heart.  Hosea’s admonition was for them to plow up the hardness of their hearts.  Obedience to God must be done for the right reason.  What we do must flow from hearts of love, not duty.

       If you are not motivated by love for the Lord in what you do, now is the time to do something about it.  Continuing on without love makes the heart hard towards God.  No matter how much good you are doing, if love is not behind it, you do it in vain.  God knows your heart and whether or not your motivation in doing what is right is love and He will hold you accountable for your motivation.  If you want to be sure your heart is right with God, take a bath in His love.  He will shower you in His righteousness and all will be well with your soul.

       Loving God overshadows everything we do.  It affects not only our standing with God, it affects our relationships with others.  We cannot love God without loving people.  We cannot live righteously with uncaring souls. 

      Now is the time to examine your soul.  Now is the time to seek the Lord.  Now is the time to make sure that loving God is the driving force in your life.  Now is the time to live righteously before God.  Tomorrow may never come and if you don’t do it now, it may be too late.

DON'T DOUBT GOD'S LOVE

Dan. 9:4  I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed, “ O Lord, you are a great and awesome God!  You always fulfill your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and keep your commands.”  NLT

      Do you really believe it?  Do you believe that God always fulfills His promises of unfailing love to those who love Him and obey Him?  Think about how you think about God when circumstances overwhelm you and He seems to not care.  Be honest.  Do you consider God loving you when things are going bad for you?  Don’t you question the love of God for you when nothing seems to change for the better?  After all, if God really loves, He would make sure everything went well for us, wouldn’t He?

      We doubt God’s love because we can’t see the forest because of the trees.  All we can see is the moment we are in, not the broader picture of our lives.  We don’t see how the moment can be good for us in any way.  We don’t see how God is going to use us the rest of our life journey and how our present circumstances are a part of our preparation. 

      We don’t see the good in the bad because we fail to remember what God says about himself.  He is holy love and is incapable of acting in a non-loving way.  Everything God does, or allows to happen in our lives, flows from love.  He is incapable of doing anything wrong.  We may not understand it at all, but it is true.  In order to deal with life we must accept as absolute truth everything God says.  All of God’s promises come to pass but, there is a condition if we are going to personally experience them.

       We must love the Lord and obey Him.  When we love the Lord we trust Him.  We rest in the knowledge that what we are going through is noticed by God and is being used by Him for our good.  We do not speak negatively of Him; instead we acknowledge Him, thank Him, and praise Him regardless of what we are experiencing.  We continue to faithfully obey Him regardless of how we feel.  God never fails us, but we do fail Him. God will see you through whatever you are going through if you love Him and obey Him.