Pastor's Pen June 18, 2011
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The Deadly Mixture
“So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD’S house; and...women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.” Ezekiel 8:14
God allowed Ezekiel to see the idolatry of His people Israel. The interesting thing about this idolatry is that it took place right in the temple of the LORD, the place dedicated to the worship of Jehovah God. Ezekiel saw “every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols” portrayed on the walls of the temple (vs. 10). The elders of the house of Israel were worshipping idols in the dark in various rooms of the temple (vs. 12). Ezekiel saw women in the temple weeping for Tamuz, a Sumerian fertility god (vs. 14). He saw twenty-five men in the inner court facing the east and worshipping the sun (vs. 16). What a strange mixture! Going into the temple of the one true God and worshipping idols there. Their actions caused God to say, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing...to make Me go far away from My sanctuary?”
I see more and more evidences of this same strange, deadly mixture today where people who claim faith in Christ are at the same time bowing down to various idols. One glaring example is seeing people go to church and sing praise songs to God (bowing to Him) and then going home to climb into bed with someone they are not married to (bowing to the idol of lust and immorality). And the nationally known gospel singer who continues to claim allegiance to Christ and the Bible while promoting and exonerating a homosexual lifestyle. And a nationally known evangelical who takes a compromising stand on abortion and gay marriage.
The enemy offers a cup full of this deadly mixture and those who drink of it fall into a spiritual stupor where missing faith with immorality is justified and any word of correction is met with defensiveness and anger. Like the men who worshipped their idols in the dark during Ezekiel’s time saying, “The Lord does not see us, He has forsaken the land”, so those who are drunk on deception’s deadly mixture today find a way to believe that either the Lord doesn’t see it or He no longer cares how we live.
Please understand...all of us who aspire to follow Christ struggle with temptation and sin. But when we cross the line and choose to live in sin without remorse we are drinking from a cup full of a deadly mixture.
The only thing that will sober up a person drunk on the enemy’s deadly mixture is a good dose of the truth. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Galatians 6:7-8). Like a hammer God’s word smashes our misconceptions. Like a fire it burns up the dross that has polluted the gold. And in love God orchestrates consequences that will shake out the lies that have become imbedded in our minds and our spirits. If you are experiencing such shaking now, bow your head and thank God! He is in the process of rescuing you. The hound of heaven is chasing you down. He is relentless in His desire to sober you up from your spiritual stupor and bring you back to a single-hearted devotion to Him.
Stop drinking the deadly mixture of spiritual compromise. Ask God to fill your cup with the purity and righteousness of Christ. Wake up and return to God!
Pastor Dan
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