Post by Cindy on Jul 22, 2015 11:03:34 GMT -5
Jesus told us that life in our time would like like it did in Noah's time. Evil had gotten so bad then, that he and his family were the only ones left that were righteous and that God could save. While I do believe that there are a great many fewer people on this earth that are truly saved then most seem to think,I do think there are more then just the 8 in Noah's time. I do think things are going to continue to get much worse though.
Evil is contagious, multiplies quickly, and infects everything, contaminating all. Sin accumulates in creation itself, which is one thing that made things so bad in Noah's time and is making them so bad in our time as well. We tend to see an evil act as something that's done and then it's over with, although the effects themselves may last in the victims for awhile. But in truth, every evil act is never "done", "ended" or over with. It lingers in creation for all time until the day comes when God cleanses creation and makes a new earth for us. ( Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; Jer 23:5–7; Jer 33:16; Dan 9:24; Rev 21:1, Rev 21:8, Rev 21:27) That's why God destroyed everything and not just humans with the flood. Evil infects everything. (Romans 8:19–23) I shudder when I think of the affect sin has now that I'm beginning to understand it. It reminds me of Revelation 16:10 which says: “The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony” This darkness is the result of mans sin. Notice that it's not a simple darkness that we'd know if we turned off all the lights either. This darkness causes severe pain! It's the absence of light, of truth, and love and God is light, truth and love. But it's more then just the absence of light, it's the presence of light's opposite, the presence of evil, or darkness. It's all the evil that's built up over all the centuries, and it comes out and shows itself for what it truly is instead of the illusion we generally think it is. That's what our time is building up to. Not a pretty thought or a thought to take to bed at night for sure! But one to reflect on with God's help to help us see the truth about sin, including our own sin and it's consequences.
I wanted to share with you what the Lord says about what our reaction to this time should be. It kind of shocked me to be honest. I'm not sure what I was expecting, it just wasn't this.... “Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil. Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.” (Amos 5:13–15) I had to really think on this one and talk it over with the Lord. We tend to have the opposite reaction these days. We're busy looking for and talking about the evil, aren't we? We look at what our president and other officials do and say and hold them up and talk about how horrible they are and how wrong what they're doing is. We most certainly don't "keep quiet" about it! We cheer those who stand up against the evil by leading protests, writing letters or going to court don't we? I know I often have wished I could "do something" to stand against the tide. Yet here, speaking specifically about these days, God says to keep quiet! This seems to say that instead of getting agitated and impatient against all the evil, that those who are godly will stay humble and live quiet lives, not casting their pearls before swine like it says in Matthew 7:6, but instead will humbly and patiently wait for God to deliver them, for they recognize that this is all God's doing as it says in Psalm 39:9. We see this mentioned again in 1 Thessalonians 4:11–12 where we're told: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
God tells us to "seek good, not evil." To me, that means we should be looking for the good in our life, instead of at all the evil that's happening. It reminded me that God also tells us that we are to be content, and to thank Him for all things, not just the things we especially like. Certainly that doesn't mean that we have to thank him for some tragedy or that evil is happening in our world today. What it means is that we thank Him that He is in control and that knowing Him, we can trust Him to do what's right, and that everything will work out for our good and His glory - regardless of how things look right now. To seek good, doesn't just mean to seek good "things", but to seek the good in people as well. Too often we see the sins of others, and not their pain, sorrow, and the trials they've been through that have brought them to that place. So instead the Lord tells us to seek good and to try and bring the good to the surface instead of focusing on the bad. It reminds me of when I was having problems with one of my children. The doctor calmly told me that I needed to seek the good and praise them instead of the seemingly constant discipline I felt I should be doing. He wasn't telling me not to discipline the child, but to remember and look for the good, because by then, all I was seeing was the bad. And it really was a struggle at first. I gave the doctor an example of their behavior, such as throwing things at their siblings. The doctor said, "surely they have to pick the object up again before they can throw it." I agreed and he suggested that I praise the child for picking it up! I said, "but they're just going to throw it again!" He said, "Yes, that's probably their intention, but if you praise them for picking it up as though you don't realize they're going to throw it, but just think they're being good by picking up the toy, it could change their behavior." So that's exactly what I did, and you know what, I began to see my child differently and they began to act differently! To me that's part of what the Lord is saying here too.
Finally I'm reminded of another scripture which I'll again post in context. “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:17–21) Living at peace with others includes being at peace within our own minds and hearts. Having God's peace rule our thoughts and actions. Knowing again, that even in these evil days that God is in charge. He is on His throne and all is going exactly according to His plan. He will rescue us from His wrath, but there have been and will be evil before that. He will repay all that we must go through and He wants us to have His peace which passes all understanding, knowing that it's all going to be OK. We need to be like the little child who's mother kisses their wound and tells them the hurts all gone now and believes them. Again in this scripture God tells us to live quiet lives, to do good especially to those who are doing evil and let Him work everything out.
The one scripture that I think will really help me live as the Lord wants me to is this one: “I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.” (Psalm 39:9)
Evil is contagious, multiplies quickly, and infects everything, contaminating all. Sin accumulates in creation itself, which is one thing that made things so bad in Noah's time and is making them so bad in our time as well. We tend to see an evil act as something that's done and then it's over with, although the effects themselves may last in the victims for awhile. But in truth, every evil act is never "done", "ended" or over with. It lingers in creation for all time until the day comes when God cleanses creation and makes a new earth for us. ( Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; Jer 23:5–7; Jer 33:16; Dan 9:24; Rev 21:1, Rev 21:8, Rev 21:27) That's why God destroyed everything and not just humans with the flood. Evil infects everything. (Romans 8:19–23) I shudder when I think of the affect sin has now that I'm beginning to understand it. It reminds me of Revelation 16:10 which says: “The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony” This darkness is the result of mans sin. Notice that it's not a simple darkness that we'd know if we turned off all the lights either. This darkness causes severe pain! It's the absence of light, of truth, and love and God is light, truth and love. But it's more then just the absence of light, it's the presence of light's opposite, the presence of evil, or darkness. It's all the evil that's built up over all the centuries, and it comes out and shows itself for what it truly is instead of the illusion we generally think it is. That's what our time is building up to. Not a pretty thought or a thought to take to bed at night for sure! But one to reflect on with God's help to help us see the truth about sin, including our own sin and it's consequences.
I wanted to share with you what the Lord says about what our reaction to this time should be. It kind of shocked me to be honest. I'm not sure what I was expecting, it just wasn't this.... “Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil. Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.” (Amos 5:13–15) I had to really think on this one and talk it over with the Lord. We tend to have the opposite reaction these days. We're busy looking for and talking about the evil, aren't we? We look at what our president and other officials do and say and hold them up and talk about how horrible they are and how wrong what they're doing is. We most certainly don't "keep quiet" about it! We cheer those who stand up against the evil by leading protests, writing letters or going to court don't we? I know I often have wished I could "do something" to stand against the tide. Yet here, speaking specifically about these days, God says to keep quiet! This seems to say that instead of getting agitated and impatient against all the evil, that those who are godly will stay humble and live quiet lives, not casting their pearls before swine like it says in Matthew 7:6, but instead will humbly and patiently wait for God to deliver them, for they recognize that this is all God's doing as it says in Psalm 39:9. We see this mentioned again in 1 Thessalonians 4:11–12 where we're told: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
God tells us to "seek good, not evil." To me, that means we should be looking for the good in our life, instead of at all the evil that's happening. It reminded me that God also tells us that we are to be content, and to thank Him for all things, not just the things we especially like. Certainly that doesn't mean that we have to thank him for some tragedy or that evil is happening in our world today. What it means is that we thank Him that He is in control and that knowing Him, we can trust Him to do what's right, and that everything will work out for our good and His glory - regardless of how things look right now. To seek good, doesn't just mean to seek good "things", but to seek the good in people as well. Too often we see the sins of others, and not their pain, sorrow, and the trials they've been through that have brought them to that place. So instead the Lord tells us to seek good and to try and bring the good to the surface instead of focusing on the bad. It reminds me of when I was having problems with one of my children. The doctor calmly told me that I needed to seek the good and praise them instead of the seemingly constant discipline I felt I should be doing. He wasn't telling me not to discipline the child, but to remember and look for the good, because by then, all I was seeing was the bad. And it really was a struggle at first. I gave the doctor an example of their behavior, such as throwing things at their siblings. The doctor said, "surely they have to pick the object up again before they can throw it." I agreed and he suggested that I praise the child for picking it up! I said, "but they're just going to throw it again!" He said, "Yes, that's probably their intention, but if you praise them for picking it up as though you don't realize they're going to throw it, but just think they're being good by picking up the toy, it could change their behavior." So that's exactly what I did, and you know what, I began to see my child differently and they began to act differently! To me that's part of what the Lord is saying here too.
Finally I'm reminded of another scripture which I'll again post in context. “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:17–21) Living at peace with others includes being at peace within our own minds and hearts. Having God's peace rule our thoughts and actions. Knowing again, that even in these evil days that God is in charge. He is on His throne and all is going exactly according to His plan. He will rescue us from His wrath, but there have been and will be evil before that. He will repay all that we must go through and He wants us to have His peace which passes all understanding, knowing that it's all going to be OK. We need to be like the little child who's mother kisses their wound and tells them the hurts all gone now and believes them. Again in this scripture God tells us to live quiet lives, to do good especially to those who are doing evil and let Him work everything out.
The one scripture that I think will really help me live as the Lord wants me to is this one: “I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.” (Psalm 39:9)