A Turned Back

 A Turned Back

    Welcome to another blog post! It is always a privilege and blessing to be able to encourage others and just post what God put on my heart. Today the blog post will be around a passage from the old testament. I am reading through Ezekiel right now and wanted to share some of the thoughts that I had on the passage and a call to action. 

    Ezekiel 8:16-18 "And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. 17 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their[c] nose. 18 Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

    To get a little bigger picture of what is going on here, a form that had the appearance of a man showed Ezekiel different abominations that Israel was doing. This is the last abomination that this form has shown Ezekiel; which was one of the greater abominations. Anyways, this is crazy to even imagine. It makes sense to worship the sun or something else someplace else, nope, they do it right by the temple of the Lord. It would still be an abomination if they did it someplace else, but it is even worse doing it by the temple of the Lord. 

    They had their backs turned against the temple of the Lord. The Lord’s presence, holiness was right behind them. They worship the sun. You see, many “Christians” so to speak, do the same exact thing today. Go to church. Read their bible’s once in a while. Prayer? Who does that any more? If I don’t forget before I get into my comfy bed and go to sleep, I’ll say a quick prayer so God protects me, and saves me, and he would forgive me if I did anything wrong, so if I possibly die, I would end up in heaven. I put on a mask. I live as if God is fine with me and is cheering me on. I live a miserable life. I live a hypocritical life. But, who says God sees? In Ezekiel 8:12 we read; Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’” The reason I live the way I do is because the Lord does not see. If he did, he would do something. Nothing happens. Day by day goes by… 

    Who do I worship today? Where does the majority of my energy, time, and thought go towards? What are my priorities and goals in life? Where am I heading? We need to get this figured out. All the way. There is no “what ifs” and “buts”. If I call myself Christian and go to church and do all of these religious things, I need to think everything through. I need to know what my intentions are. Ask God to reveal to you the things that he hates. The things that stand between you and God. Things that God will not compromise with. If we truly love God and want to honor him and glorify him, we will listen and obey. We will respond correctly to the response of God’s. Let us not make the same mistake Israel made. 

    Isaiah 65:12 

I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in

    How do we turn our backs to the Lord? Just like that. By doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Doing what God prohibits. Doing what God does not delight in. How will I know if what I am doing pleases or displeases God? When I spend time with Him. And yes, I know this sounds very vague, common, and same-old. But, it literally comes down to that. He speaks today, do we listen? The question today is not if he speaks, it's if I am able to listen. When God speaks to us, do we take it to heart and take it as the word of God? Do we take it seriously knowing what kind of authority God has? 

    Some of us by the way we live, turn our backs to God. We are not interested in what God has to say to us nor has planned for us. It’s like we don’t care. I call us to repent and to hurry for the day of the Lord is coming soon. Today is not the time to indulge in sin, the prosperity of today, and live for ourselves. It is time to wake up. Today is the day of salvation. I want to call us once again to urgency! We know little what goes on in the spiritual world, but I want to say that it is real and it is getting tenser. The devil knows that he has little time left so what does he do? We can read this in Revelation 12:12  "Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short!"

    Also, we turn our backs to God by our sinful lifestyle. So, let us not make peace with sin! We know the story of Samson. A great strong man who let sin enter into his life. It all started from the beginning when he allowed himself what was not allowed by God. Just a little of that and this. What will this thing do to me? It's not that big of a deal. God will understand me. The Spirit of God left him and we can read this in Judges 16:20-21. This is after Delilah set Samson up and finally cut his hair. She kept asking Samson where his strength was and he finally disclosed that to her. I don't know what Samson was thinking. 

    Judges 16:20-21

And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison

    How scary would it be to go to the battlefield thinking God still got your back and this and that when truly, God isn’t with you. This happens when we turn our back to God. People turn their back towards God when they get bored with God. When they don’t get what they want often. The god in their imagination isn’t the real God, so they leave and live their own life. They might still do religious rituals and everything, but their heart can be far from the Lord. Just like the Pharisees. We can read this in

    Matthew 15:7-9 

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men

    If we haven't noticed yet, God takes this really seriously. God does not care as much about our income, how famous or not we are, what car I have. What house I live in. God cares more about my relationship with Him and how I interact with God. Do the way I live provokes God to anger? According to the word of God, God is a jealous God. He will not stand idols in our life. It is either fully Him or none of Him. God will not compromise with other things in our life that take our attention from Him. Anything that takes more of our time than time spent with God is an abomination and provokes God to anger. 

 

    If today, I am living a hypocritical life that does not please, glorify, or honor God, then I need to turn towards Christ. Not turn by back on him, but turn my back to this world. I know for a fact that when people turn their backs towards God, it is done intentionally. It is not like they didn't 'see' God or whatnot. People willingly reject God and what he has to offer. I want to ask a question to make us think a little more; What good is there if I have my back turned to God? Think about this carefully and biblically. Don't hurry to answer it. 

 The only thing that I can think of from the word of God is that the wrath of God is coming on those who reject God. On those who don’t worship God in the Spirit and the truth. We can read something similar to this in Psalms 73. Asaph had the same struggle and the same thoughts. Why do the wicked prosper? Why does it seem like their life is all good and they don’t have any sufferings? Have I really kept my heart clean and my walk before the Lord pure in vain? All of this changed when Asaph went into the sanctuary of God. I highly recommend you reading this psalm if you haven't yet. I will pick up from verse 16-20.

    But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. 18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. 19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! 20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

For Asaph (verse 28) it was good to be near God because he has made the Lord God his refuge, so he might tell of all of his works. 

    Can we say the same thing? Can we truly from our hearts say that it is good for me to be near God? It is good for me to spend time in His word, prayer, and worship. It is a pleasure for me to do so. I find satisfaction and joy in doing so. Have I made my Lord my refuge? Or do I still trust in my finances, the president, some laws, etc? Finally, do I tell of his works to others? Do I share with others what God has been doing in my life? Do I tell others about what God has been teaching me? 

    Let us look over our lives in the light of God's word. No pointing fingers except to yourself. In what aspects of my life have I not given up to the Lord yet? What idols dwell in me? What are the things that I hold on to that don’t glorify God? Do I have my back turned towards God? 

    Let us know and believe Psalms 16:11 which writes: You make known to me the path of life; in your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

    With God, there is a purpose to live. When you give your life into the hands of God, He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is a faithful creator. Knowing what Christ has done for us on the cross and beyond, let us live according to His word. Let us give God the honor, glory, and time he deserves! No more scraps. No more fast-food style time with God; where we are in a rush and we gotta go. Let our time with God be: 

    1) Daily

    2) Unhurried

    3) Uninterrupted

    (Dr. Charles Stanley)