The more I study Scripture and put it in the context of today, the more disturbed I become. There is just something wrong with so many people claiming Jesus with no passion to live in his righteousness. I look around and see everyone doing what they think is best and their best is sometimes evil. By evil I mean that it is contrary to the character of Yahweh, who is holy. How can we say that we love Jesus and lack great passion for his name?
I know we all go to great churches and we sing loud, with great joy, and we feel in our hearts that we love Jesus. That is really great and I am glad for that passion but what about the passion to walk right before him, all the time? What about the passion to know what pleases our LORD and to do those things, all the time? What about the passion for his holiness and to live according to it, all the time? It is far too easy to know of Jesus, think we are okay and yet not be known by Jesus because we are not united with him.
There are many who call upon Jesus' name for all kinds of things and who do great things in his name, who will be rejected by Jesus on the day we stand before him. It is too easy to look like we are walking with him and yet in our hearts live an evil life; things contrary to his character. It reminds me of Eli's sons and later Samuel's.
These boys had great father's who served the LORD holding nothing back, but this passion and dedication was not passed on to the sons. This sort of thing cannot be passed on to someone else unless it is first birthed in their heart. Yet, these sons stood in positions of spiritual responsibilities and did evil. How is this possible?
Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord. (1 Samuel 2:12)
It was possible because they did not know the LORD. Their great sin was that they changed the regulations of the sacrifices to their own advantage. They took from sincere worshipers the sacrifices being made to Yahweh and used them selfishly. The end result was terrible:
Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. (v. 17)
Their actions turned people away from Yahweh; they made something of beauty and love very ugly and unattractive to the sincere worshiper. This is why it was very great before the LORD because they were interfering in the relationship. Remember Jesus' harsh words for those who would prevent the children of Yahweh from approaching him.
We don't get to do whatever we want. We have clear instructions to walk in the righteousness of our LORD. We need to be checking ourselves to see that our faith is sincere and understand that our Father does test the sincerity of that faith from time to time. It is better to be tested here then to find out as we stand before Jesus that it was not genuine.
We need to understand that any insincerity on our part can be a stumbling block to others. It is also important that we do not put anyone in authority who does not have a sincere faith. They may have all the words, know all the ceremonies, know the key Bible passages to quote but have a heart possessed by evil, selfish thinking, jealousies and pettiness; things contrary to the character of Yahweh.
The bottom line is that we should all have a constant desire and passion to increase in our maturity, to grow into the fullness of Jesus. There is never a time that we can afford to sit back and relax, to be entertained, to retire because there is no retirement for the children of Yahweh in this place. If we are not pushing forward we are losing ground. If we are not growing in our relationship then our passion is growing cold. We should have a growing desire to have more of Jesus and he should be our constant thought and motivation. Never should we see the blessings of the Lord simply for our use because they have been given to us as tools to do the work we have been given to do.
Lord Jesus, change our perspective and thinking. Change our heart that we would shake off the lullaby sung over us by this world as it tries to put us to sleep spiritually to rape us carnally. Open our eyes to you, that we would be caught up in such passion for your name that our great desire would be for your righteousness. Strengthen and encourage us to live for you and you alone, pouring all that we are and all that we have into your mission. Forgive us for our failures and help us to walk the highway of holiness where nothing can prevail against us.
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