How Serious Are You About Jesus?

I don`t think we take Yahweh seriously. I don`t think we know who we are to him and I don`t think we know how to respond properly. If we did then we wouldn't act the way we act, speak the way we speak or be involved in the things are are entangled in. We look to Israel`s history and criticize them for their stupidity and yet we are doing the same thing. We are half-hearted in our love and service to Jesus. We have no discipline to speak of and we treat the Lord of lords as if he is our "get out of jail free" card. Our lives are filled with idols, distractions and emotions have over run our devotion.

Pretty harsh? Not as harsh as the justice of Yahweh.

The Law of Moses was a simple thing; love and be devoted to Yahweh. Everything flowed from that just as it does today. In explaining the essentials of this Law to Israel Moses said:

Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 10:14-15)

So the Creator of all things looked upon a man and loved him, setting him apart, and grew a nation from him. He delighted in them. What a privileged place to be. What he asked for in return is that same love and devotion:

Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. (v. 16)

So often we think that the circumcised heart is a New Testament thing but the circumcision of the flesh was only a symbol of what really matter: the changed heart that said to Yahweh, I belong to you and am devoted to you, to obey you and serve you out of my love for you.

There should be no one sitting in our churches feeling obliged to be there. No one can ever be coerced or manipulated into faith. No one can ever hold a gun to someone's head and say love Jesus. Love is a voluntary thing; a thing of devotion and dedication, of wanting to please the other person. There has to be a circumcision of the heart, when we declare our love and devotion because of our response to the Father's great love for us. And this love changes us.

By this circumcision we recognize that we belong to him, that we are his people and his people's great desire is to obey him. His commands are not a burden but a delight. We cut out of our life anything that does not add to the relationship, anything that interferes and we guard it with a jealousy because he is our first love. We check ourselves often to insure that no idols have crept in, that we haven't set up any high places, and if we discover we have, we destroy them immediately. We belong to Yahweh, God of gods, and Lord of lords, and our love for him have us fastened fast to him. Nothing can move us our pursued us to turn away.

Now understand that everything in this world works against that love and there is an army out to destroy it in you. But they can't touch you. The only one who can disturb that relationship is you and your negligence. Consider your life, your goals, desires, activities, words, actions. Do they reflect those of a people who have circumcised their hearts in great love for Jesus, the Father and the Spirit? I don't think we take Yahweh seriously.