Choices Part 6

Choices Part 6

SETTLING FOR LESS?

By Rayola Kelley

        We are constantly making decisions throughout the day. Decisions are to bring clarity, but to have clarity you have to know where you are and where you are going. Today there are many wandering in confusion and fear, aimlessly trying to find their way through what appears to be a maze that has only one way in and no way out. Nothing seems real as everything becomes surreal, unrecognizable, and for the most part senseless.

      As a nation we are facing tyranny at every level, lawlessness at its height, violence in its most brutish forms, and insanity taking hold of people in the form of fear, hatred, and greed. We are watching kingdom rise against kingdom within our own nation as the tares are clearly being defined for future separation from the wheat. We observe as the so-called “heroes” and “examples” of our day take a knee to Baal to maintain some flimsy status while selling their soul and dignity for a temporary bowl of gruel that in the end is going to become bitter to their souls. 

      And, what about our “so-called” leaders? Many are taking refuge behind titles, false promises, vain rhetoric and/or hollow silence in the hope of crossing some winning line without running the race to keep their image untarnished, while their hands are muddied by their utter corruption and wicked compromises. We are being divided by cheap masks that will cause some people to become lost in the masses of the unseen, all of it to dehumanize by robbing many of any real individuality, while those who dare to maintain their individuality and rights are unmercifully judged, incessantly mocked, put down for not complying, and persecuted for not letting the insane, senseless propaganda and agendas behind it remain unchallenged.  

      We see the memorials of our great struggles and victories of the past as a nation being ignorantly pulled down in complete disregard for our humble beginnings, the intense birth pangs that occurred for a Republic, based on an incredible Constitution, to emerge as a nation forged in fire. As a nation we do not hide our failures; rather, we show how exceptionalism rose out of the lessons of our failures because exceptionalism never wants to settle for less than that which is excellent.   

      In spite of what has caused some to begin to faint in their minds, others to grow cold out of fear and indifference, and a few to hide in an insipid corner, the Lord is exposing the present character of this nation. We are being weighed in the balance, and guess what? We are found to be wanting. 

      The problem with greatness in humanity is that it becomes arrogant and begins to digress into utter decadence.  If you add abundance to it, it clearly sees itself as being self-sufficient, where like the Laodicean Church in Revelation 3:14-22, it does not see itself as lacking. However, such blindness reveals its foolish judgment for it will inevitably become wanting in the scales of God. He will see it as poor, wretched, and miserable.

      Self-sufficiency is a snobbish, indifferent attitude. It perceives that it is in control, on top of it, and holding the reins of life, but it is also the great board in the spiritual eye. It swings so high in its haughtiness that it is incapable of seeing or hearing the warning signs. It sits back on the laurels of past fading glory, while ignoring its spiritual bankruptcy, and if not humbled and repented of, it becomes deluded about the future judgment that awaits it (Matthew 7:1-5; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Galatians 6:3).

      As a nation we are living in perilous times, and it is not necessarily because man has suddenly become lawless, but because some of God’s people have become indifferent towards their spiritual legacy, complacent towards their service towards God, and are compromising with a doomed world, which creates a spiritual vacuum that is being filled with every foul and wicked thing imaginable.

      Some of you are probably ready to throw up your hands because of the realities of today, but I want to encourage you to realize the days we are living in have been prophesied and are pointing to the blessed hope of Jesus’ coming. The truth is the days we live in are not calling for us to throw our hands up in the air; rather, it calls for us to soberly consider the times we are living in while vigilantly preparing ourselves to occupy until He comes. We need to make sure our lamps are full of the oil of the Holy Spirit to walk through the darkness of this dangerous season that is now upon us.

      It has taken me a few years to understand how desperate we must become in this world to properly prepare for the next. The more man recognizes his vulnerability and need for God, the more desperate he becomes to see the Lord. This desperation only comes when our love for Him grows. The Apostle Paul put it this way in 2 Timothy 4:8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” We need to long for Jesus’ appearance, not to escape our present trials, but to see the One our heart so loves, our inner being desires, and who we are just plain “homesick” for.

      When man is comfortable in what is considered normalcy, indifferent in self-sufficiency, and living the high life of decadence in abundance, he is not desperate. He may be lean in his spirit, dissatisfied in his soul, and display fickle, unbearable moods, but he is not desperate for the Lord. He still perceives he has some life to live here on earth and he does not want to be cut short in it.   

      In order to prepare and occupy, we as believers must learn the lessons of our times. The question is how can a society such as ours, fall into great disarray? The answer is that we as a people and a nation have been relying on the honor of our past glory to stand, while letting the promise of future glory slip through our hands as we squander what remaining glory we have on false promises and vanity. We want to hear the lies instead of the truth of what is. We want to be comfortable and not inconvenienced in any way. We want to be happy living our life and not have it disrupted by the reality of the miserable state of affairs of our country, society, and homes.

      However, much of the miserable condition of this nation will ultimately be flung at the feet of the visible church in America, just as the coats of those who rushed to stone the first martyr, Steven, were flung at the feet of Saul (Paul) who was present. (Acts 8:58.) I want to make a distinction. God has called a people, but in many cases, He ends up with a remnant who remains true to Him. Like Israel, there were, and are, many people who made up the nation and likewise there are many who make up the church in America, but the real church will probably prove to be a remnant. Remember, many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16). The  chosen few are those who will ultimately stand on, for, and with truth regardless of what is going on.

      This is not something we like to hear or read, but as we watch the great separation taking place in our world, we must note it will happen in the visible church as well. Sadly, much of the visible church is now a system that plays to the tunes of this world and government to maintain worldly kingdoms that simply have tacked Christ onto their activities to legitimize them. The real church will eventually be forced to come out of the system and be separate in order to keep the light of its testimony going. Again, this is something we may not want to hear or read, but the Apostle Peter made it clear that judgment begins in the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).  

      Let us face it, as humans we want to be made comfortable in our present vanity so we do not have to face how hollow our lives have become. We want to get along to avoid conflict, but we are now being embroiled in it in every arena of the world. We just want to be left alone to live our lives, but the tyrants and the despots know nothing of peace and will not be content until they have made the comfortable miserable, the peaceful afflicted in soul, the casual stirred up, and the non-committed cowering in some corner, while the fickle, ignorant activists march in the streets for their wicked cause, only to be offered up on an unholy altar marked by foul graffiti. The reason for this conflict is so they can swoop in with their wicked communistic agendas and be the “saviors” of the disruption they created, with the intent of making us utter slaves to their whims.

      The question is how did the real church allow Satan to take control of the visible church? All you have to do is read books on Nazi Germany before and up to and during WWII. The church in Germany wanted to continue to play church regardless of the times it lived in, and as a result the leaders committed spiritual whoredom with Hitler to keep the doors open. No doubt they convinced themselves that having some semblance of religion was better than having none at all. However, if they understood the character of God, they would have recognized that God will never accept, condone, or approve of such unholy agreements. God’s main concern has never been to keep some type of spiritual semblance going in the name of religion; rather, His heart has always been to see a people remain true to their true calling of holiness. 

      We are called to be a holy and separate people. We are priests of the most high God, saints with a clear calling, soldiers of the cross, believers of that which is marked for eternity, and as His people we must not allow our garments to be muddied by compromising with the corruption of the world.

      We come back to the question of how did we digress into such a state? In many cases it is one decision at a time and one step at a time. Each step is walking on a path that subtly descends into that which makes sense to the carnal mind, seems normal to the flesh, and will justify self-serving whims and emotions, but will be rejected by the Lord. This spiritual slide away from the center of what is true causes a person to lose all sense of direction. It is important to point out that each little deviance in decision dulls the person down, robbing him or her of discernment.

      Although such a spiritual detour is nothing more than a slight turn from what is right, it puts one on the broad way (Matthew 7:13-14). And, what is the decision that will cause one to take what seems like an insignificant detour? It is to settle for less.

      As Christians, there is only one right choice and that is the excellent ways of God, and the ways of righteousness. To choose the ways of righteousness is not an easy choice to make because a person will have to deny the world of its demands on him or her in order to press forward toward the high calling he or she has in Christ. The believer will have to avoid giving the pride of the self-life any platform by denying it any audience, and it will have to apply the cross to the lusts of the flesh in order to stay the narrow course of excellence (Matthew 16:.24-26).

      It is easy to see the people in the Bible who settled for less. We have Abraham and Sarah settling for less when Sarah gave her handmaiden, Hagar, to Abraham in order to raise up his seed. The result was the son of a bondwoman mocking the promised son. Ishmael represented the flesh and could not share in the inheritance with the promised son, Isaac, and the result was conflict, separation, and sorrow (Genesis 16:1-12; 21:5-13; Galatians 4:28-31).

      This example of Abraham and Sarah teaches us that when we take matters into our own hands, we end up with less, and at times miss the real blessings of God. The reason we end up with less is because we do not trust God’s timing in a matter. Granted, we might believe His promises but when we try to bring those promises forth in our own power, in our own way it turns out to be what it is; fleshly and a disaster because we fail to trust that His time and ways are perfect.

      We have an Esau, who settled for the world by selling his spiritual legacy for a bowl of lentils (Genesis 25:29-34). It was clear he was hungrier for the world than for the reality of God. He was a man of the earth,  lived off of it, and was content with it and saw no need for that which was eternal. At the prospect of suffering a bit of discomfort due to physical hunger, he was quick to cast aside the burden of the high calling and inheritance attached to it. 

      In the case of Esau, he settled for less because he did not value what was unseen, eternal, and of God. He trusted what he physically saw, relied on what he knew, and was self-sufficient in what he could do and was content with this present world and had no need to prepare for the next.

      Sadly, some Christians are quick to cast aside their spiritual legacy to maintain aspects of their lifestyle on earth. They may console themselves that such an action is not all that important and that in the end it will all work out. However, the blessings and inheritance are attached to our spiritual legacy and if we do not value it enough to pursue it, we will end up losing the blessings attached to it and fail to see that which is associated with our inheritance 

      We have Isaac who was willing to accept less by blessing his oldest son, Esau, because of a worldly tradition and the fact his son knew how to satisfy his taste buds, while ignoring that the spiritual legacy belonged to Jacob. We see questionable intervention taking place to bring forth the promise, ensuring that Jacob, who valued the spiritual legacy, received the earthy blessing that rightfully belonged to him (Genesis 25:21-26; 26:34-35; 27:30).

      As believers, we settle for less because we ignore the heavenly promises concerning the glory to come. We can become shortsighted by the world as we bow before our own personal fleshly preferences. It was clear that Esau was Isaac’s preference, but Esau was not the one who would carry on the spiritual legacy. It is also clear that there are those who prefer seeking the riches of the world over gaining the riches of heaven. The flesh wants to taste the things of the world, but the spirit wants to become rich as it grows in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:3; Philippians 3:7-8; James 2:5).

      We see Jacob’s son, Reuben, gambling away his standing as the oldest son, heir to the blessing that was to automatically come down to him, when he fornicated with one of his father’s concubines. He lusted after the temporary, while risking the place of honor to taste of forbidden fruit. Even though he might have perceived his action was hidden and would remain so, in the end he discovered it was not so and that he had to settle for the consequences that came with it. His father was aware of his son’s sin and passed the blessing on to the oldest son, Joseph, who was of his union with Rachel (Genesis 49:3-4, 24:22-26).

      There are religious people who believe God will not see questionable actions or that it will be worth tasting of the deadly fruit of sin regardless of the consequences. However, we know God sees all matters, whether it is in light of physical darkness or not. The reason God sees all things is because He is the light. Nothing can be hidden from Him, and as believers we need to remember that whatever we compromise in darkness will be exposed and declared from the roof tops (Luke 12:3). It matters little what excuses you try to justify wrong actions with, they will be exposed for what they are in the light and in the end the reproach it brings will prove it was never worth it.

      We see Moses initially settling for less when he contended with God about his calling. He was to go to the court of Pharaoh and declare it in his courts, “Let my people go so they may worship their Lord.” However, Moses saw himself inept to be such a voice and the result was God unhappily sent Aaron. Aaron may have had a good voice, but he did not have the conviction and calling. As a result, he led Israel into idolatry by forming a golden calf and then told a “little white lie” to throw any consequences away from himself. He sided with Miriam in a revolt to overthrow Moses. Since he was a High Priest, he was spared from paying consequences, but Miriam became leprous and had to spend seven days outside of the camp as an example (Exodus 4:10-16; 32:1-7, 20-25; Numbers 12). 

      Christians have been entrusted with a high calling and all the tools they need to carry out their calling have been made available to them, but they look at self and see their ineptness and settle for the arm of the flesh instead of the arm of God. Every place the arm of the flesh is behind something, it will prove vain, inept, or cursed (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

      The ails of the church in America come down to Christians settling for the base ways of the world instead of pressing forward to obtain the excellent ways of God. The problems plaguing this nation are due to the people settling for man’s best and not demanding the standard of God’s righteousness be upheld in every arena. The chaos of our society is that man settled for a liberal, convenient idea of morality instead of insisting on maintaining what is moral. And, when it comes to our homes, parents settled for trinkets of the world to gauge success and happiness instead of healthy relationships in families, while often allowing others to nurture and form the character of their children.

      It is obvious we as a society have dropped the ball and now the consequences are not only angrily pounding on the doors of our institutions, they are knocking them down while ushering in destruction and hopelessness.

      Next month I will be dealing with more examples of settling for less, but right now I want to challenge the reader to consider if you have settled for less, and if so, in what way? It is never too late to turn and face God, to find the courage to pick up the ball and trust Him to put you back on course, proving that the latter can indeed prove to be greater than the former.   † 

  

Part 6

SETTLING FOR LESS?

By Rayola Kelley

        We are constantly making decisions throughout the day. Decisions are to bring clarity, but to have clarity you have to know where you are and where you are going. Today there are many wandering in confusion and fear, aimlessly trying to find their way through what appears to be a maze that has only one way in and no way out. Nothing seems real as everything becomes surreal, unrecognizable, and for the most part senseless.

      As a nation we are facing tyranny at every level, lawlessness at its height, violence in its most brutish forms, and insanity taking hold of people in the form of fear, hatred, and greed. We are watching kingdom rise against kingdom within our own nation as the tares are clearly being defined for future separation from the wheat. We observe as the so-called “heroes” and “examples” of our day take a knee to Baal to maintain some flimsy status while selling their soul and dignity for a temporary bowl of gruel that in the end is going to become bitter to their souls. 

      And, what about our “so-called” leaders? Many are taking refuge behind titles, false promises, vain rhetoric and/or hollow silence in the hope of crossing some winning line without running the race to keep their image untarnished, while their hands are muddied by their utter corruption and wicked compromises. We are being divided by cheap masks that will cause some people to become lost in the masses of the unseen, all of it to dehumanize by robbing many of any real individuality, while those who dare to maintain their individuality and rights are unmercifully judged, incessantly mocked, put down for not complying, and persecuted for not letting the insane, senseless propaganda and agendas behind it remain unchallenged.  

      We see the memorials of our great struggles and victories of the past as a nation being ignorantly pulled down in complete disregard for our humble beginnings, the intense birth pangs that occurred for a Republic, based on an incredible Constitution, to emerge as a nation forged in fire. As a nation we do not hide our failures; rather, we show how exceptionalism rose out of the lessons of our failures because exceptionalism never wants to settle for less than that which is excellent.   

      In spite of what has caused some to begin to faint in their minds, others to grow cold out of fear and indifference, and a few to hide in an insipid corner, the Lord is exposing the present character of this nation. We are being weighed in the balance, and guess what? We are found to be wanting. 

      The problem with greatness in humanity is that it becomes arrogant and begins to digress into utter decadence.  If you add abundance to it, it clearly sees itself as being self-sufficient, where like the Laodicean Church in Revelation 3:14-22, it does not see itself as lacking. However, such blindness reveals its foolish judgment for it will inevitably become wanting in the scales of God. He will see it as poor, wretched, and miserable.

      Self-sufficiency is a snobbish, indifferent attitude. It perceives that it is in control, on top of it, and holding the reins of life, but it is also the great board in the spiritual eye. It swings so high in its haughtiness that it is incapable of seeing or hearing the warning signs. It sits back on the laurels of past fading glory, while ignoring its spiritual bankruptcy, and if not humbled and repented of, it becomes deluded about the future judgment that awaits it (Matthew 7:1-5; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Galatians 6:3).

      As a nation we are living in perilous times, and it is not necessarily because man has suddenly become lawless, but because some of God’s people have become indifferent towards their spiritual legacy, complacent towards their service towards God, and are compromising with a doomed world, which creates a spiritual vacuum that is being filled with every foul and wicked thing imaginable.

      Some of you are probably ready to throw up your hands because of the realities of today, but I want to encourage you to realize the days we are living in have been prophesied and are pointing to the blessed hope of Jesus’ coming. The truth is the days we live in are not calling for us to throw our hands up in the air; rather, it calls for us to soberly consider the times we are living in while vigilantly preparing ourselves to occupy until He comes. We need to make sure our lamps are full of the oil of the Holy Spirit to walk through the darkness of this dangerous season that is now upon us.

      It has taken me a few years to understand how desperate we must become in this world to properly prepare for the next. The more man recognizes his vulnerability and need for God, the more desperate he becomes to see the Lord. This desperation only comes when our love for Him grows. The Apostle Paul put it this way in 2 Timothy 4:8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” We need to long for Jesus’ appearance, not to escape our present trials, but to see the One our heart so loves, our inner being desires, and who we are just plain “homesick” for.

      When man is comfortable in what is considered normalcy, indifferent in self-sufficiency, and living the high life of decadence in abundance, he is not desperate. He may be lean in his spirit, dissatisfied in his soul, and display fickle, unbearable moods, but he is not desperate for the Lord. He still perceives he has some life to live here on earth and he does not want to be cut short in it.   

      In order to prepare and occupy, we as believers must learn the lessons of our times. The question is how can a society such as ours, fall into great disarray? The answer is that we as a people and a nation have been relying on the honor of our past glory to stand, while letting the promise of future glory slip through our hands as we squander what remaining glory we have on false promises and vanity. We want to hear the lies instead of the truth of what is. We want to be comfortable and not inconvenienced in any way. We want to be happy living our life and not have it disrupted by the reality of the miserable state of affairs of our country, society, and homes.

      However, much of the miserable condition of this nation will ultimately be flung at the feet of the visible church in America, just as the coats of those who rushed to stone the first martyr, Steven, were flung at the feet of Saul (Paul) who was present. (Acts 8:58.) I want to make a distinction. God has called a people, but in many cases, He ends up with a remnant who remains true to Him. Like Israel, there were, and are, many people who made up the nation and likewise there are many who make up the church in America, but the real church will probably prove to be a remnant. Remember, many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16). The  chosen few are those who will ultimately stand on, for, and with truth regardless of what is going on.

      This is not something we like to hear or read, but as we watch the great separation taking place in our world, we must note it will happen in the visible church as well. Sadly, much of the visible church is now a system that plays to the tunes of this world and government to maintain worldly kingdoms that simply have tacked Christ onto their activities to legitimize them. The real church will eventually be forced to come out of the system and be separate in order to keep the light of its testimony going. Again, this is something we may not want to hear or read, but the Apostle Peter made it clear that judgment begins in the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).  

      Let us face it, as humans we want to be made comfortable in our present vanity so we do not have to face how hollow our lives have become. We want to get along to avoid conflict, but we are now being embroiled in it in every arena of the world. We just want to be left alone to live our lives, but the tyrants and the despots know nothing of peace and will not be content until they have made the comfortable miserable, the peaceful afflicted in soul, the casual stirred up, and the non-committed cowering in some corner, while the fickle, ignorant activists march in the streets for their wicked cause, only to be offered up on an unholy altar marked by foul graffiti. The reason for this conflict is so they can swoop in with their wicked communistic agendas and be the “saviors” of the disruption they created, with the intent of making us utter slaves to their whims.

      The question is how did the real church allow Satan to take control of the visible church? All you have to do is read books on Nazi Germany before and up to and during WWII. The church in Germany wanted to continue to play church regardless of the times it lived in, and as a result the leaders committed spiritual whoredom with Hitler to keep the doors open. No doubt they convinced themselves that having some semblance of religion was better than having none at all. However, if they understood the character of God, they would have recognized that God will never accept, condone, or approve of such unholy agreements. God’s main concern has never been to keep some type of spiritual semblance going in the name of religion; rather, His heart has always been to see a people remain true to their true calling of holiness. 

      We are called to be a holy and separate people. We are priests of the most high God, saints with a clear calling, soldiers of the cross, believers of that which is marked for eternity, and as His people we must not allow our garments to be muddied by compromising with the corruption of the world.

      We come back to the question of how did we digress into such a state? In many cases it is one decision at a time and one step at a time. Each step is walking on a path that subtly descends into that which makes sense to the carnal mind, seems normal to the flesh, and will justify self-serving whims and emotions, but will be rejected by the Lord. This spiritual slide away from the center of what is true causes a person to lose all sense of direction. It is important to point out that each little deviance in decision dulls the person down, robbing him or her of discernment.

      Although such a spiritual detour is nothing more than a slight turn from what is right, it puts one on the broad way (Matthew 7:13-14). And, what is the decision that will cause one to take what seems like an insignificant detour? It is to settle for less.

      As Christians, there is only one right choice and that is the excellent ways of God, and the ways of righteousness. To choose the ways of righteousness is not an easy choice to make because a person will have to deny the world of its demands on him or her in order to press forward toward the high calling he or she has in Christ. The believer will have to avoid giving the pride of the self-life any platform by denying it any audience, and it will have to apply the cross to the lusts of the flesh in order to stay the narrow course of excellence (Matthew 16:.24-26).

      It is easy to see the people in the Bible who settled for less. We have Abraham and Sarah settling for less when Sarah gave her handmaiden, Hagar, to Abraham in order to raise up his seed. The result was the son of a bondwoman mocking the promised son. Ishmael represented the flesh and could not share in the inheritance with the promised son, Isaac, and the result was conflict, separation, and sorrow (Genesis 16:1-12; 21:5-13; Galatians 4:28-31).

      This example of Abraham and Sarah teaches us that when we take matters into our own hands, we end up with less, and at times miss the real blessings of God. The reason we end up with less is because we do not trust God’s timing in a matter. Granted, we might believe His promises but when we try to bring those promises forth in our own power, in our own way it turns out to be what it is; fleshly and a disaster because we fail to trust that His time and ways are perfect.

      We have an Esau, who settled for the world by selling his spiritual legacy for a bowl of lentils (Genesis 25:29-34). It was clear he was hungrier for the world than for the reality of God. He was a man of the earth,  lived off of it, and was content with it and saw no need for that which was eternal. At the prospect of suffering a bit of discomfort due to physical hunger, he was quick to cast aside the burden of the high calling and inheritance attached to it. 

      In the case of Esau, he settled for less because he did not value what was unseen, eternal, and of God. He trusted what he physically saw, relied on what he knew, and was self-sufficient in what he could do and was content with this present world and had no need to prepare for the next.

      Sadly, some Christians are quick to cast aside their spiritual legacy to maintain aspects of their lifestyle on earth. They may console themselves that such an action is not all that important and that in the end it will all work out. However, the blessings and inheritance are attached to our spiritual legacy and if we do not value it enough to pursue it, we will end up losing the blessings attached to it and fail to see that which is associated with our inheritance 

      We have Isaac who was willing to accept less by blessing his oldest son, Esau, because of a worldly tradition and the fact his son knew how to satisfy his taste buds, while ignoring that the spiritual legacy belonged to Jacob. We see questionable intervention taking place to bring forth the promise, ensuring that Jacob, who valued the spiritual legacy, received the earthy blessing that rightfully belonged to him (Genesis 25:21-26; 26:34-35; 27:30).

      As believers, we settle for less because we ignore the heavenly promises concerning the glory to come. We can become shortsighted by the world as we bow before our own personal fleshly preferences. It was clear that Esau was Isaac’s preference, but Esau was not the one who would carry on the spiritual legacy. It is also clear that there are those who prefer seeking the riches of the world over gaining the riches of heaven. The flesh wants to taste the things of the world, but the spirit wants to become rich as it grows in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:3; Philippians 3:7-8; James 2:5).

      We see Jacob’s son, Reuben, gambling away his standing as the oldest son, heir to the blessing that was to automatically come down to him, when he fornicated with one of his father’s concubines. He lusted after the temporary, while risking the place of honor to taste of forbidden fruit. Even though he might have perceived his action was hidden and would remain so, in the end he discovered it was not so and that he had to settle for the consequences that came with it. His father was aware of his son’s sin and passed the blessing on to the oldest son, Joseph, who was of his union with Rachel (Genesis 49:3-4, 24:22-26).

      There are religious people who believe God will not see questionable actions or that it will be worth tasting of the deadly fruit of sin regardless of the consequences. However, we know God sees all matters, whether it is in light of physical darkness or not. The reason God sees all things is because He is the light. Nothing can be hidden from Him, and as believers we need to remember that whatever we compromise in darkness will be exposed and declared from the roof tops (Luke 12:3). It matters little what excuses you try to justify wrong actions with, they will be exposed for what they are in the light and in the end the reproach it brings will prove it was never worth it.

      We see Moses initially settling for less when he contended with God about his calling. He was to go to the court of Pharaoh and declare it in his courts, “Let my people go so they may worship their Lord.” However, Moses saw himself inept to be such a voice and the result was God unhappily sent Aaron. Aaron may have had a good voice, but he did not have the conviction and calling. As a result, he led Israel into idolatry by forming a golden calf and then told a “little white lie” to throw any consequences away from himself. He sided with Miriam in a revolt to overthrow Moses. Since he was a High Priest, he was spared from paying consequences, but Miriam became leprous and had to spend seven days outside of the camp as an example (Exodus 4:10-16; 32:1-7, 20-25; Numbers 12). 

      Christians have been entrusted with a high calling and all the tools they need to carry out their calling have been made available to them, but they look at self and see their ineptness and settle for the arm of the flesh instead of the arm of God. Every place the arm of the flesh is behind something, it will prove vain, inept, or cursed (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

      The ails of the church in America come down to Christians settling for the base ways of the world instead of pressing forward to obtain the excellent ways of God. The problems plaguing this nation are due to the people settling for man’s best and not demanding the standard of God’s righteousness be upheld in every arena. The chaos of our society is that man settled for a liberal, convenient idea of morality instead of insisting on maintaining what is moral. And, when it comes to our homes, parents settled for trinkets of the world to gauge success and happiness instead of healthy relationships in families, while often allowing others to nurture and form the character of their children.

      It is obvious we as a society have dropped the ball and now the consequences are not only angrily pounding on the doors of our institutions, they are knocking them down while ushering in destruction and hopelessness.

      Next month I will be dealing with more examples of settling for less, but right now I want to challenge the reader to consider if you have settled for less, and if so, in what way? It is never too late to turn and face God, to find the courage to pick up the ball and trust Him to put you back on course, proving that the latter can indeed prove to be greater than the former.   †