Sunday, 15 July 2007

Sunday School Class: Proverbs 24:3-7 'Wisdom' builds the house... 'understanding' gives it stability, and 'knowledge' fills its rooms with treasures.

Choruses: Shine Jesus Shine (F); I will bless the Lord, He is worthy to be praised (F); Come bless the Lord (F); I will bless the O Lord, with a heart of thanksgiving (F)

scripture reading: #652

Sunday evening - The life of Christ chronologically in a 'harmony' of the Gospels: “A kingdom divided against itself…”

July 18th: Wednesday Study Class 7-8 p.m. Developing a consistent biblical worldview The difference between being a Christian and merely being religious is acquiring the ability to extend Christian thinking, based on biblical principles, to every arena of life.

Why There Is Swearing

Hosea 4.1 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.

 2. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

 3. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.

The 4^th verse says don’t bother to blame anyone else, not your friend, not your brother, not the priest…all are accountable. This is everyone’s fault.

Where does it all begin? It says, “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God…”

What is the result? “…cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery;” there are no boundaries acknowledged and there is bloodshed after bloodshed.

The result of this state of society is that the land mourns;

·        there is disease associated with the great travesty of a society run amuck…

·        pollution and contaminants causing the beasts of the field

·        and the birds of the air

·        and the fish of the sea to die.

The “LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land…”

Hosea had heard from God a mandate that would affect everything from Global Warming to Endangered Species to Strip Mining to Child Abuse - if only all of God's children were living like they should!

The greatest travesty of evangelicalism is that churches are so focused on baptizing converts and adding more folks to the church role that they don’t do even passable lip service to sharing the precepts of God’s oracle to mankind regarding our responsibility to the world He has given us – and our responsibility to mankind.

“There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God…”

The concept of ‘faithfulness’ is defined theologically by the Apostle Paul to Philemon as ‘usefulness.’ [Philemon, this former slave of yours, Onesimus, who once was useless to you – is now useful to you and to me.]

There are plenty of notions as to what ‘love’ is…most of those are wrapped up in thoughts of ‘romance.’ Love is commitment, care, compassion, gentleness, kindness, grace, mercy, forgiveness…

Hosea said, ““There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God…”

No ‘faithfulness’ – our society, including most of Christianity, just aren’t ‘useful’ to the world around them. This mandate

·        would eliminate the problems of pollution and waste – even if we were to still be in a global warming cycle

·        We wouldn’t be swallowed up in trash and waste.

·        We would still be able to drink water from rural wells and springs, creeks, and rivers.

·        We would be able to breathe the air without more children suffering from pollution-induced asthma.

·        We wouldn’t have many of the diseases that are ravaging neighborhoods because of industrial pollution: heavy metals, chemical & radiation contamination.

No ‘love’ – have you noticed the lack of commitment, caring, compassion, gentleness, kindness, mercy and forgiveness in our society? This mandate, alone,

·        Would eliminate the abuse of women and children in our world!

·        We wouldn’t have many of the wars that are being fought over idiotic religious ideations.

·        We wouldn’t have had many of the other wars caused by greed and power seekers.

‘Love’ doesn’t do that!

‘No acknowledgment of God’ – The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” There are many Christians playing the fool and living as though

·        God doesn’t care how they trash up the world.

·        How their greed might affect somebody.

·        Whether or not they are useful to their neighbor or their town or state or country.

There is a God and He not only cares about this world He created and called paradise (Garden of Eden – paradizio according to the ancient Persians), He is going to hold us accountable.

Verse 4? God doesn’t want to hear us blaming the Chinese, or those in India or Mexico. God doesn’t want to see us pointing the finger at corporate America when we are throwing trash out our car windows, grabbing the first can of chemicals we come to instead of using some other means at our disposal.

God is expecting of us, and each generation, faithfulness and love; and an acknowledgement that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.