The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
September 27, 2009
In
This Issue:
What
if America was the Promised Land?
by
Steve Klein
What
am I Thinking?
by
Wes Gossett
What If America Was the Promised Land?
What If the Lord wanted His people today to conquer America like He instructed the Israelites to conquer Canaan? This question came up in a Bible study recently, and I think that it is worth exploring further.
The Lord commanded the Israelites to utterly destroy the pagan inhabitants of the Land of Canaan! Both the people and every vestige of their pagan culture were to be completely annihilated. Notice the explicit instructions that were given to the Israelites:
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"And when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them" (Deuteronomy 7:2).
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"But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire" (Deuteronomy 7:5; cf. Numbers 33:51-53).
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"You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 7:25).
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"But you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 20:17-18)
The Lord was concerned that His holy people remain holy (Deuteronomy 5:6; 20:18). He did not want them to be influenced by the vile people of the land.
What if the Lord commanded us to conquer the U.S.A. in a similar way? What or who would we be called upon to annihilate? We might imagine that much of Hollywood would need to be destroyed; its influence is responsible for a lot of the moral degradation of our society. The same could be said for most of the music industry and the morally liberal news media. Judges and courts that have legalized the murder of millions of unborn babies and have forbidden us to teach our children about God in the public schools would have to be eradicated. Financial institutions and their leaders who have built fortunes through greed, avarice and covetousness, and who have swayed many Americans to develop those same character flaws, would have to be completely overhauled at the least. Those who've ruined families and communities by pushing illegal drugs like meth and cocaine, as well as those who push certain legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, would also need to be wiped out. It would be quite an undertaking that would no doubt result in a tremendous boon for those in the undertaking business.
But the Lord has not called upon us to literally slay these influences. Rather, we are to put them to death in a spiritual sense. Individual Christians in America should be living as if we had put these things to death! The Lord commands us to "put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. . . .But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds" (Colossians 3:5-9).
In Galatians 6:14, Paul says that "the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Could we say the same? I'm afraid that the world is completely alive and well in the lives of far too many Christians. As Wordsworth wrote,
"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"
May God help us to crucify the world and set our minds on things above
-- Steve Klein
This morning at a Bible study, we talked quite a bit about the thoughts that go through our minds at worship service. On Sunday morning, one might be thinking about his Sunday afternoon nap. Another might be thinking about all the yard work he has to get done in between services. Or, another might be thinking about getting on the road for vacation or a business trip.
Although we all have these thoughts from time to time, we often recognize that, when our mind is in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is a problem. And, because of that, we often try our absolute hardest to control our thoughts, especially during worship. But is it only in worship where we need to control our thoughts?
I can't help but think of the story of the paralytic healed in Matthew 9.
Remember, this is the story when the man was brought by his friends to be healed by Jesus, but the house was so full of people that they could not even get the man into the house. But demonstrating their faith in Jesus, they carried their friend up to the top of the house and cut a hole in the roof and let the man down into the house.
When Jesus saw their faith, He told the man to take heart that his sins were forgiven. (Matthew 9:2) This statement by Jesus set the scribes and Pharisees off thinking that Jesus had just blasphemed. (Matthew 9:3; Luke 5:21) And the following verse really hits me between the eyes, "But Jesus knowing their thoughts, said why do you think evil in your hearts?" (Matthew 9:4)
Isn't that amazing? Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking without them ever saying a single word. I don't know about you, but that scares me!
From time to time, my mind wanders into areas and dimensions it does not belong, and sometimes I try to rationalize it.
My rationale is this: It was just a thought! I didn't say it! I'm not actually going to do it! While there is some admiration in not verbalizing or acting out our evil thoughts, evil thoughts should not even be entering our minds.
"But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person." (Matthew 15:18-20)
Do you notice that a person who has evil thoughts is no different than a murderer, thief or adulterer? And it's all because his heart has been corrupted. Remembering this helps me to understand why loving the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength is the greatest commandment. (Mark 12:30)
If I truly love the Lord with all my heart and mind, I will not be having evil thoughts. I don't know about you, but that is an area that I need to get fixed. I would boldly verbalize that I love the Lord with all my heart, but my thoughts don't always match my words.
Let's not think that our thoughts don't matter in determining our eternal destination. Our thoughts are an indication of where our heart is. If you are having some inappropriate thoughts from time to time such as anger, lust, jealousy, realize it's a heart problem, not a mind problem. Give the Lord your complete heart and the evil thoughts will go away.
That's easier said than done, right? So, how do we do it?
I would suggest that we need to pray more. If an evil thought surfaces, pray immediately. We are to be praying constantly anyways, (I Thessalonians 5:18) but this is a great time to take our mind from the evil thought to the proper thought.
I would also suggest that we need to control what our eyes see and our ears hear. So many times, our minds wander because of the TV shows and movies we watch, the magazines we read, or the music we listen to. Often, these messages are very ungodly and influence our thinking. Let's have the courage to turn off the immoral things our eyes see and ears hear.
However you choose to deal with the secret things of your heart, know this: "God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." (Ecclesiastes 12:14)
-- Wes Gossett
Via www.embryhills.com