Moses' brother Aaron helped lead the nation of Israel. This morning I was struck with the highest point and the lowest point of his life, only a short time apart, and how great his fall actually was.
Aaron's highest point had to be the account recorded in Exodus 24. "Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank" (24:9-11, emphasis mine). Imagine that--they SAW the God of Israel and ate and drank in His presence! That is an honor that only a few people have ever had.
Then we have a number of chapters in which the Lord gives the Ten Commandments to Moses, along with clear instructions for the building of the tabernacle. If I'm reading Exodus 24:15-18 correctly, after Aaron returned to the people, Moses was on the mountain another 46 days.
During that month and a half, the people of Israel convinced Aaron to build a new god, representative of one of the gods of Egypt. Worse, Aaron led in sacrifices and worship to this god in place of the true God of Israel. We read about all of this in Exodus 32:1-20.
Still more, when Moses confronted Aaron about his sins, Aaron both lied and tried to minimize the sins he had committed (Exodus 32:21-24). He even said that the calf just magically popped out of the fire when he threw in the gold jewelry brought by the people (see Exodus 32:24)!
Aaron went from being in the very presence of God to worshiping a golden image (and lying about it) in just a few weeks' time! How high was Aaron's high, and how low was his low!
Reading things like this makes me all the more determined to be ever-vigilant to follow Christ closely EVERY DAY. I--you--we are all quite capable of committing horrible sins that dishonor our Lord. Even when we have followed Him closely and experienced His work deeply in our lives, our sinful hearts can deceive us and cloud our memory and lead us into any of a number of sins. Our enemy, the devil, would love nothing more than to cause God's children to fall into grievous sin. First Peter 5:8-9 tells us, "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." The devil wants to pull us away from God, but we can effectively resist him as we stand firm in our faith.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, please join me in being faithful to God and watchful against any sin that could dishonor our Lord. Where we might have a particular weakness for one sin or another, let us be extra-vigilant. Let's not make the kinds of mistakes Aaron did, nor commit even smaller sins. Rather, let us stay faithful to our Lord every moment of every day.
Lord, please grant myself and every reader the grace to do this. Amen.
Showing posts with label Spiritual Warfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spiritual Warfare. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
A Battle Worth Fighting
Far too often we waste our time and energy fighting worthless battles in life. I know I get sidetracked with many things that are not truly important in the light of eternity. But allow me to define one of the most important battles we Christians should fight every single day: the battle to read God's Word.
This spiritual battles may indeed be one of the hardest to fight. But it is vital to our lives as Christians.
At one time in my life I thought I was a bad Christian, because I struggled so hard to get time in God's Word. I thought that perhaps I didn't love God's Word enough, or that I lacked self-control; the enemy worked heavily on my guilt-ridden mind for far too long.
Then I realized something that changed my perspective forever. It will ALWAYS be a battle to get time in God's Word. Why? Because the enemy of our souls works overtime to keep us away from this life-giving, life-sustaining, message from God to His people. The devil doesn't want our minds to be shaped by God's thoughts; he wants to pull us away from God any way he can. The most important thing the devil can do to accomplish his goals is to keep us away from God's Word.
It will always be a battle. So we must fight back. Hard.
Some days it's truly comical to see how hard the devil fights to keep me away from reading the Bible. So many days when I get up to read before the kids awake, one of my precious children will stumble out into the hallway inside the first two minutes of my reading time. Or something in the house will draw my attention as suddenly seeming to be more important than reading. Or I get into a sneezing fit and have to keep getting up to get tissues (it doesn't happen like that any other time of the day).
I don't think any of us would dispute the value of reading God's Word each day. We all know scriptures like 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work," and Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." But how do we overcome the barrage of temptations to skip reading the Word?
Speaking from my own experience, I have to employ an element of sheer determination to get time to read my Bible each day. My alarm goes off insanely early, after which I have to fight the desire to snooze "just a few more minutes." But if I don't get up before my children awake, I will lose the best possible time to read my Bible. If they do get up while I am reading, I am trying to train them to wait to ask me things because "I'm listening to God right now."
Then I follow a reading plan. Personally, I have found tremendous value in reading through the Bible each year, so I follow a reading plan I developed for Highland Community Church, with a checklist for each day's Old and New Testament readings. Starting in October I plan to begin a chronological reading of the Bible, my first time doing that. If you want to develop a personalized reading plan and don't know where to begin, I suggest starting with www.bibleyear.com, where you can tailor a reading plan to your Bible version and the way you want to read it in the time frame you desire.
Perhaps you prefer to follow a slower read of the Bible, taking time to read study notes or other aids to help with understanding. Perhaps you follow a devotional guide like Our Daily Bread or another equally valuable tool to help you get into the Word.
No matter when or how we do it, we must fight the battle to get into the Word every day. Pray for God's help in fighting this battle--it's a battle He wants you to win.
Dear brother or sister in Christ, will you join me on the front lines?
This spiritual battles may indeed be one of the hardest to fight. But it is vital to our lives as Christians.
At one time in my life I thought I was a bad Christian, because I struggled so hard to get time in God's Word. I thought that perhaps I didn't love God's Word enough, or that I lacked self-control; the enemy worked heavily on my guilt-ridden mind for far too long.
Then I realized something that changed my perspective forever. It will ALWAYS be a battle to get time in God's Word. Why? Because the enemy of our souls works overtime to keep us away from this life-giving, life-sustaining, message from God to His people. The devil doesn't want our minds to be shaped by God's thoughts; he wants to pull us away from God any way he can. The most important thing the devil can do to accomplish his goals is to keep us away from God's Word.
It will always be a battle. So we must fight back. Hard.
Some days it's truly comical to see how hard the devil fights to keep me away from reading the Bible. So many days when I get up to read before the kids awake, one of my precious children will stumble out into the hallway inside the first two minutes of my reading time. Or something in the house will draw my attention as suddenly seeming to be more important than reading. Or I get into a sneezing fit and have to keep getting up to get tissues (it doesn't happen like that any other time of the day).
I don't think any of us would dispute the value of reading God's Word each day. We all know scriptures like 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work," and Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." But how do we overcome the barrage of temptations to skip reading the Word?
Speaking from my own experience, I have to employ an element of sheer determination to get time to read my Bible each day. My alarm goes off insanely early, after which I have to fight the desire to snooze "just a few more minutes." But if I don't get up before my children awake, I will lose the best possible time to read my Bible. If they do get up while I am reading, I am trying to train them to wait to ask me things because "I'm listening to God right now."
Then I follow a reading plan. Personally, I have found tremendous value in reading through the Bible each year, so I follow a reading plan I developed for Highland Community Church, with a checklist for each day's Old and New Testament readings. Starting in October I plan to begin a chronological reading of the Bible, my first time doing that. If you want to develop a personalized reading plan and don't know where to begin, I suggest starting with www.bibleyear.com, where you can tailor a reading plan to your Bible version and the way you want to read it in the time frame you desire.
Perhaps you prefer to follow a slower read of the Bible, taking time to read study notes or other aids to help with understanding. Perhaps you follow a devotional guide like Our Daily Bread or another equally valuable tool to help you get into the Word.
No matter when or how we do it, we must fight the battle to get into the Word every day. Pray for God's help in fighting this battle--it's a battle He wants you to win.
Dear brother or sister in Christ, will you join me on the front lines?
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