He moved from there to the
mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai
on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the
Lord. —Genesis 12:8
“Bethel is the symbol of
fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram “pitched his tent”
between the two. The lasting value of
our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our
private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of
worship is wrong every time— there is always plenty of time to worship God.
Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily
quiet time with God. That is why we must “pitch our tents” where we will always
have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There
are not three levels of spiritual life— worship, waiting, and work. […] They
were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a
discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.” CHAMBERS
(Luke 6:45) “The good man
produces what is good and honorable and moral out of the good treasure in his
heart; and the evil man produces what is
wicked and depraved out of the evil ; for his mouth speaks from the overflow of
his heart.” I am certain you are
familiar with this verse. People reveal their
hearts by the fruit they bear in their lives and by the words that they
say. Here is an example. A person comes to church on Sunday. They sing, maybe shout, pray, and listen to
the sermon, and then look at their watch.
You see they have given God 2 hours on Sunday and not a minute
more. Sunday is not for God, it’s for
them. They have given up two hours to
God. Not even 10% of the day, well maybe
if you count travel time to church. I
have been asked on more than one occasion when I spoke at a church to not go
past 12:00, the people would not be pleased.
Think about it. What have those
people revealed by their words? They are
more interested in their bellies than the Bible. One of my “sayings”, at 11:45, the
congregation is more interested in the meat in the oven than the meat of the
Word. Even the time they spend at church
is all about them. We want the Lord to provide
for us, we want Him to save us, we want Him to heal us, we want Him to
intervene in our troubles, but we don’t want him to encroach on our schedule
and time. (The same can be said about our daily time with Him.) We are more interested in checking the “Went
to Church” box than in hearing from God.
I make it a point to listen
to people carefully. Eventually they
will reveal their hearts .. whether for the good or the bad. I don’t judge them, but I do pity those who
have chosen poorly. They spend their
lives pursuing vain religion, refusing to lay the sum total of their lives down
at the altar. Considering themselves to
be on point … spiritually on target because they go to church. The Pharisees went to Temple, religiously,
consider what Jesus had to say about them.
So my point for today is to caution you about robbing time from God and
withholding your devotion. Not only on
Sunday but every day of the week. Love
equals relationship and relationship equals time. ELGIN
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless
You)
Charley Elgin
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