I will not be mocked! [Gal 6:7-10]

As many of you know, I was laid off back in March and I’ve had some time on my hands!

During my down time I attempted to read through the entire Bible (Genesis thru Revelations) in 30 days. All 66 books…All 31,101 verses… (which is 1192 chapters)…

As it turns out it’s around 40 chapters a day – for me about 2-4 hours, depending on how many mini-notes I jotted down – nothing in depth – no studying, just reading… I didn’t get it done in 30 days, but I did get it done in 40. It was an amazing experience and God spoke some very amazing and powerful things with just a read through.

Because there was no studying and digging in, is one of the reasons I’ve not written in a while. During my read, I took about 80-100 pages of references and one-line thougts to go back and dig into. This should provide LOTS of blog topics and bible studies for some time to come! It was an awesome experience and I will do it again sometime. Papa spoke a lot of different things to me in those 40 days.

However, I think the next time I do it, I’m going to buy a chronological Bible. That would really be interesting to read those historical books (1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicle, etc) with the Major and Minor prophets and the Psalms sprinkled in – in historical context…

One of the biggest impressions in this read-through was how idolatry got entire peoples, cultures, cities, and races wiped off the face of the earth. God dealt with lots of other sins, but in other ways. Time and time again, however, “the detestable worship practices” of other religions resulted in total annihilation. It really made me wonder how I worship Him.

Exodus 34:10
¹⁴ You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.

Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. “Text edition”–Spine. (2nd ed.) (Ex 34:10). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

Thank God for his grace! I know I have had some detestable worship in my days. Some out of ignorance, some out of rebellion – knowing full well what I was doing. In my past, I have kept God relegated to my little comfortable box and only let him out when I needed him. I treated God like a genie and terribly abused His grace and His mercy. I have used the name of the Lord as a talisman.

Thank you Lord for not striking me dead in my foolishness, ignorance and pride! I’ll tell you this, Paul warns us in Galatians about this casual (or malicious) attitude – this mocking of the Lord…

Galatians 6:7-10 (NLT)
⁷ Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. ⁸ Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. ⁹ So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. “Text edition”–Spine. (2nd ed.) (Ga 6:7-10). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

So again I say, “Thank you, LORD!” that He didn’t strike me dead in my tracks with my irreverent and casual attitude about Him and His holiness.

I used to judge Israel… How could it be that only one month after witnessing the most amazing exodus from Egypt, seeing all the amazing miracles of God’s power, watching The LORD free them from the bonds in Egypt by utterly destroying the most powerful army in the world at the time – How could they build a golden calf and worship it! Me – in my prideful, judgmental, attitude – looked down on them (in that passage) with what must have been the same arrogance as the Pharisees and Sadducees of the New Testament.

But I’ve learned this – we are all human, we all sin and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). I’ve watched, witnessed, and seen how easily we, as human beings, walk right back into the very things that God has set us free from. God set Israel free from Egypt and in a very short time their hearts turned back to Egypt; the golden idols, all of it. Later, they yearn for the “good things” they had in Egypt – the fruit, the meat, the food they had in Egypt because they’re “bored” of the manna and quail – they take their eyes off the miracle God is performing in their midst and focus on the things of old. This is interesting that they don’t remember the whips, the work, the heat, the back-breaking heat, the slavery and abuse – yet that’s exactly what they wanted to go back to!

We need each other. Hebrews 12:1 talks about “… the sin that so easily ensnares us…” Our God knows that when we don’t encourage each other (Hebrews 3:13), when we don’t sharpen each other (Proverbs 27:17), when we don’t hold each other accountable and pray for each other (James 5:16) – WE WILL BY NATURE DO WHAT ISRAEL DID and turn our backs on God and go back to our idols.

I’ll close with the following questions:

1. Who is in control of your life?
• Do you make all the decisions? Do you listen to the Holy Spirit in your life in your decision making? Do you pray about every choice – regardless of how insignificant it may seem?
2. Do you have ANY idols in your life?
• Truth is – Most of us do.
• Look at your calendar, look at your checkbook, and look at your daily life. What are those things that are most prominent, frequent, time-consuming, money-consuming? Prayerfully consider and ask the Lord if any of those things are “idols” in your life. He will tell you IF you ask and IF you listen.
• Examine everything you “love” doing. If God asked you to lay it down – either permanently or for a season – how would you respond? That would be a great test to determine how highly you esteem it vs. how highly you esteem God.

< p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;">Running after Papa…