meditations for an everyday relationship with Jesus

Do the right thing

Leviticus 19:11-14 "You must not steal. You must not act deceptively or lie to one another. You must not swear falsely by My name, profaning the name of your God; I am the Lord.

"You must not oppress your neighbor or rob [him]. The wages due a hired hand must not remain with you until morning. You must not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you are to fear your God; I am the Lord.

Funny that God’s concern about what is truly vile and dishonoring doesn’t necessarily line up with our list of worst violations of His commandments and our social mores.

We assume that homosexuality and murder are the worst of the worst, but in the “10” homosexuality is never mentioned and murder is pressed down under envy, deceit and blasphemy.

So, where did we get these ideas? Hint … it wasn’t from God.

The problems we face

Matthew 24:6-8 You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these events are the beginning of birth pains.

The challenges we do have are two-fold:

1.) consequences of our own actions

2.) the fulfillment of end times prophecy.

What makes this all seem so overwhelming to us is that we are experiencing the consequences of our actions (both individually and as nations) and the fulfillment of prophecy simultaneously Are these signs of the [ending] times? Yes, I believe that they are.

The Scripture passage from Matthew goes on to say that we are to take heed, be aware, and to behave in an upright manner, even as this era comes to a close. But we should not give up, or quit fighting, just because the odds seem overwhelming. I fact we need to fight harder together to make this a better place until the “kingdom comes.”