"Let Not God Speak With Us"

     In Exodus 19, God tells Moses to tell the children of Israel to clean and sanctify themselves, because they were going to be in the presence of God.  Then, three days later, God came down to speak to His people.  In chapter 20, we read of God giving the Ten Commandments to Israel.  Verses 18 and 19 tell us "And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.  And they said unto Moses, 'Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.'"
     I can't imagine what it would have been like to be there.  No doubt, seeing the thunder, the lightning, the smoke and fire, and hearing God's voice like a trumpet would have been a frightening sight.  But I hope I wouldn't want to hear God speak.  I hope I wouldn't be so afraid that I would want someone else to tell me what He said.  Yet, that is what we see the children of Israel do.  And that is exactly what we see people doing today.
     People today are not reading their bibles like they once did.  There are many ways we can read the bible.  We can read an actual book, we can read it on our computers, we can read it on our phones, and we can read it on an e-reader or a tablet.  There are, also, many translations we can read the bible in (although some are better than others).  The bottom line is there is no excuse for not reading the bible today.  But people are just not taking the time to read it.
     If you ask most people why they believe what they believe about God or the bible, they'll tell you it's because of what their pastor or reverend or minister tells them.  People don't want to listen to God anymore.  They, like the children of Israel, are saying, "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us".  People are willing to listen to someone tell them what God says instead of doing the work themselves.  When people do this, they are placing their souls into the hands of someone else, by believing that person is right and obeying what they say.  The question I want to ask these people, but never do, is "What if your pastor or reverend or minister is wrong?  Then what?"
     The bible tells us we are responsible for our own souls - "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12).  Not only are we responsible for our souls, we are responsible to know and understand everything that we believe - "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (I Peter 3:15).
     God didn't want people to just listen to what someone else had to say, because He knew that false teachers would come in and distort the truth or lie to people and give them a message that they wanted to hear, instead of the TRUE message they NEEDED to hear.  "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of" (II Peter 2: 1-2).  "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (II Timothy 4: 3-4).
     God inspired men to write the bible so that it could understood by all and read by all.  Whenever we decide to stop reading and studying the bible and allow another person to tell us what he thinks the bible says, we are not doing what God wants us to, and we are placing our souls in jeopardy by listening and obeying men instead of God.  Our souls are the most important things in the world (Matthew 16:26).  Why would anyone treat it so carelessly?
     In Exodus 20, Moses does exactly what the people want.  He is brave enough to listen to God and obey His commandments.  Today, we need people who will do the same.  We need people to be like the Bereans who "...were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11).  God wants everyone to listen to Him and His word, instead of what man says.  So, the question I want to leave with you is this:  Will you be like the children of Israel and listen to what man says, or will you be like the Bereans and listen to what God says?  The choice is yours.

"After Everything He Has Done For You"

     The title for this blog post comes from an actual coversation I heard in college.  I was living in a house with some of my friends at the time.  It was a Saturday night, and two of my roommates had just come home from Saturday evening Mass.  As soon as they came in the door, they were complaining about how the priest had gone over the scheduled time by about 5 minutes.  After hearing them complain for a few minutes, another of my roommates had enough and said to the two roommates, "After everything He has done for you, you can't give God a few more minutes of your time."  As soon as he said this, my two roommates ceased their complaining.
     People today want religion to be easy and simple.  They want to go to church services for an hour, and only an hour, have the preacher speak for 30 minutes or less, and be out the building and onto their lives.  That's about as much commitment that people make to God these days.  And it's truly saddening to see people who proclaim to be Christians act this way "after everything He has done" for them.
     Probably the most recognized and memorized verse in the bible is John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  Many people focus on the latter part of the verse, but I want to draw your attention to the first part - "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son..."  God loved everyone that has lived, is currently living, and will live so much that He sent His only Son to die for them.  God sent His only Son to die for you and me.  Just take a moment to think about that.  God sent His Son to die for us.  Jesus willing died on the cross for us.
     In Romans 5, Paul wrote to the Romans concerning Jesus' death.  In verse 7, he points out that people usually won't die for others.  Rarely will someone die for someone else, but only if that other person is a good person.  In verse 8, Paul tells us why Jesus' sacrifice for us was so incredible - "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  Every person on earth is unworthy of the gift of salvation, but God sent His Son and Jesus willing died for us anyways.
     I know it's hard sometimes to live a true Christian life these days.  And sometimes we might complain about how hard it is.  I know I have done my fair share of complaining.  But whenever I do, I remember Jesus, I remember the life He lived, and I remember "everything He has done" for me, and those complaints suddenly disappear.  It's when I remember the sacrifice made for me that I begin to understand exactly what Jesus means when He said, "For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." (Matt. 11:30).  Jesus has done the hard part for us.  How can we not rejoice and gladly obey Him "after everything He has done" for us?