Following Judah's Lion: Addicted to Earthly Blessings

Following Judah's Lion: Addicted to Earthly Blessings

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Addicted to Earthly Blessings

ADDICTION TO EARTHLY BLESSINGS

Eph.1: 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Have you even walked in a mall or store with your young child or grandchild? Most of us have. And sometimes they ask us incessantly to buy them something. “Can you buy me this? Can I have this? Please, please get me this.” Yes, we all can somewhat relate to that. But is that what we desire to emulate before our Heavenly Father?

Look at those verse in Ephesians. Now I ask you, can earthly riches and rewards compete with these great and precious promises? We have been blessed with ALL spiritual blessings which come part and parcel when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. How often have we thanked and blessed our father in heaven for these? An extra $100 comes in and we leap for joy but these eternal riches are ignored. The church has lost almost all sense of the eternal as she gazes upon the things of this world and longs for what the kingdom of darkness treasures.

The western church has become addicted to earthly blessings and in so doing she is a prisoner of the temporal. And when we seek the temporal we forfeit the eternal. It is a colossal shame to see what has happened to the church as she has been consumed with herself. Christian television is completely for personal aggrandizement. And with a monetary tip, false teachers promise the gullible masses that God will do whatever they want Him to do. And now most of what purports to be Christian is not Christian at all. The west practices a religion constructed and concocted by the lusts of man and not the Spirit of God.

Entire teachings are centered upon how to ask God to provide things for you. Picture some sheep gathered together attempting to figure out how to get the Shepherd to care for them. What a false and diseased picture. We have placed our eternal souls in His hands but we need special incantations and passwords to get the Father to take care of us here? Jesus said the Father already knows what we have need of. And look around you and see how the unsaved fare sumptuously without asking God for anything. It rains on the just and the unjust. Dare we suggest our Father cares not for us? God forbid.

Col.1: 9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Oh look and see what the Apostle Paul prays for his flock in Colossae. His prayers are lofty expressions of a deep spiritual essence. He knows that “my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus”. New cars? New houses? New clothes? The apostle does not lust after things. Peter reiterates the same.

II Pet.1: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Notice the phrase “through the knowledge of Him”. These heretics that suggest God is motivated by money are a disgrace to the cause of Christ. “Learn of Me” beckons our Gracious Lord Jesus. And in these days of pleasure and hedonism it isn’t just material blessings that the church salivates for. We are seeking to be removed from all suffering and unpleasant predicaments. But that is not at all what the New Testament teaches us. No way, no way. We are even to give thanks in the midst of a storm regardless. Now I ask you to pay attention to these next paragraphs since they are the heart of the cross filled life.

I Cor.4: 10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

Please notice how the disciples are treated.

II Cor.4: 8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Again, they are in fellowship with His sufferings.

II Cor.6: 4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;
6 By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
8 By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;
9 As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;
10 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

Who would desire such a life?

II Cor.11: 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
We see another faith than the one that is commonly called “Christianity” today.

II Cor.4: 13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Oh but look! See all the things that Paul and the others were subjected to including hazarding their own lives. Hunger and disease and beatings and imprisonment and shipwreck and all kinds of perils, and yet…wait…can this really be…Paul calls them “our light affliction”???? every time I read those words I am undone and I recoil at how many times I have complained or felt persecuted. And yet the western church gives money to some god to help them out of any kind of sufferings which is nowhere near what Paul experienced. Our light affliction??? Please. Do not attempt to convince me that what now purports to be the faith that Paul taught is anything like that.

Rejoicing in suffering today? No one can even believes that. Millions of dollars are donated so that false teachers can fly around the world in the lap of luxury. And the money is given in hopes that whatever is bothering people will be alleviated. It is a mockery and a blasphemy. And the church is not interested in escaping the lusts and corruptions that are in the world. The church now embraces and enjoys those same lusts. Yes, the walls have been burned with fire and the sanctuary is filled with hollow ministers which speak enticing words of men’s wisdom and not the Words of Almighty God.

But instead of seeking earthly blessings, let us return to seeking the “knowledge of Him”. Looking unto Jesus the Author and the Finisher of our faith must be our passion. The church has long since left seeking His face, so every individual must surrender to a pursuit of Him with little or no companionship with others. If you have a mate or some friends who have a kindred spirit you should thank Christ every day. The time is not coming but is already upon us where each believer must stand alone if necessary.

Is.40: 7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

I Pet.1: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Set your affections upon the King Eternal and His eternal kingdom. You will see Him soon.