Musing – Was the spiritual decline of the USA foreseen by Moses & Hosea?

Hebraic Musing – Was the spiritual decline of the USA foreseen by Moses & Hosea?

An interesting question after celebrating Thanksgiving – Can blessings become a curse?

We Americans have enjoyed unprecedented prosperity, just as the Israelites did after entering the Promised Land. But even before entering, Moses predicted that …  When you have eaten and are satisfied…  you will (not might) … forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees. Why? Because … then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God…

Then Moses said words that sounded strangely familiar to something I heard a presidential candidate say recently. Moses said … You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”  I had heard someone say recently that the government made us wealthy.  UhOh! We serve a jealous God.

Then Moses, inspired by God, used the ‘if’ word in Deut. 8:19-20  “If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.  Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God”.

And after Israel enjoyed God-given prosperity, they became proud and predictably went into decline. Hosea had to remind them with words from the Lord … when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.

While we go through the switch from a day of Thanksgiving to celebrating prosperity by counting Shopping Days till Christmas, it seems to me that prosperity has become the ‘reason for the season’.

Has our nation forgotten that our blessings and prosperity were conditional? Have we ignored His conditions for the sake of our own convenience?

Point to ponder

How can we as a nation begin to not forget the LORD your God
 and begin to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                 November 27, 2012

The Biblical excerpts quoted above are from -

Hosea 13:5–6  I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. NIV

Deut.8:10-17  When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.  Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,  and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,  then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.  He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.  You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” NIV

Musing – Do you consider yourself faithful?

Hebraic Musing – Do you consider yourself faithful?

Is a car that starts once out of seven times faithful?

Is a refrigerator that quits for a day now and then faithful?

Is your paperboy faithful if he misses you with the paper every 3 or 4 days?

If you fail to come to work 2 or 3 days each week, would you be faithful to your job?

If your hot water heater greeted you with cold water 1 or 2 mornings a week, would you say it was dependable?

If last Sunday your class or your department did not have a teacher or superintendent, were you being faithful?

How long would your boss or the one who works for you keep his job if he was not faithful?

Do we serve a faithful God?   …Deut.7:9-10 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.   (Is God’s faithfulness conditional? Continuing in v.10)   But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.  So, while His love is unconditional, it seems His faithfulness is conditional. Hmmm….

Do we expect God to be faithful to us?   

Points to ponder

Is it fair to expect God to be faithful to us if we are not faithful to Him?

Should we be encouraging others to faith or faithfulness?

Which is more important –
To be faithful to your church?   Or to be faithful to the Lord?    Or both?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                             November 20, 2012

To be added to distribution -- Yosef1@cox.net

Special thanks to Rev. Dean Newberry, my neighbor, friend and inspiration, for the initial questions.

Other verses to consider regarding the conditional nature of faithfulness:

Psalm 18:25-27   To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.  You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.

Psalm 25:10  All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

Proverbs 28:20  A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 28:9  If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.

Matthew 25:23  ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!’

1 Corinthians 4:2  Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

Revelation 2:10   Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Musing – Post election: What should we pray for?

Hebraic Musing – Post election: What should we pray for?

I was listening to a Christian radio talk show on election morning, November 6^th. The commentator interviewed a Christian enduring heavy persecution living in the Middle-East. They described in detail the sufferings, persecutions, dangers and tribulations we frequently hear that Christians in those places endure. To conclude the interview, the commentator suggested the audience should pray for the protection and safety of the Christians in that country. The Christian from the Middle-East interrupted and told the commentator he would rather the listeners “pray for their faith to endure”.

So which is more important, to pray for protection?  Or pray to hold on to the faith?...to endure?

Consider that persecution, dangers and tribulations are coming as part of our stand as ‘peculiar people’ who do not, or are not supposed to, succumb to the world’s ways. The election results show that we are succumbing! Christians supported a party and candidates with anti-biblical stances that accelerate our moral decline. Will those who call themselves Christians endure to the end?

·      When the Israelites scorned God, Ezekiel admonished them - Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.  Ezek.22:14

·      Paul and the Christians in Lystra and Derbe faced serious persecution. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe… Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”, they said. Acts 14:19-22

·      James used the word ‘when’ not ‘if’ in James 1:2 - Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials…

·      Peter gave us the reason to endure - In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7

There are many views on the ills and direction of our nation, and the world. The election results revealed the challenges to us, and sensitized us as to the division between the sheep and the goats. The fragile nature of the moral/biblical compass of the Christian church has been laid bare. Who knows when, where and how the trials and tribulation(s) will come, but we do know the question is when, not if.  So what can we do about it?  

Point to ponder

Does it make sense to pray for protection and safety from the inevitable?

Or should we be encouraging one another to faithfulness?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                             November 6, 2012

Musing – What is God’s will for my life?

Hebraic Musing – What is God’s will for my life?

A favorite teasing statement I’ve enjoyed proposing over the years – “I know how you can have anything you want, anything your heart desires! … Know how?”  Obviously this catches people’s attention. The answer I then give is “Have the mind of Christ”.

I was not aware that Judaism has a similar oral tradition that says “Align your will with My Will, in order that I will align My Will to your will” (Ethics of our Fathers 2:4). In other words, when we want what God wants, then God wants what we want. When we dedicate our lives to doing God’s work and His will, we become partners with Him. We play for the same team, and who wouldn’t want the Master of the Universe as their teammate?  I think God wants us to have the desires of our hearts, just as parents want their children to grow up doing what they enjoy doing; and are good at, and that ‘pays the bills’.

The reaction from many Christians seems to be that they must drop everything and wait for the Lord to tell them what to do. My suggestion is that the Lord can and will bless us as we fulfill the desires of our heart (as long as it is a respectable activity; not to drive a Budweiser truck for example). In other words, we do not have to quit our day jobs to serve Him as preacher, teacher, scholar, evangelist, etc.  We can be fully committed to God’s will and still be a doctor, a business owner, a teacher, mechanic, father or mother. We teach and we minister by example as we live out our daily lives affecting the lives of others around us. I spent many years traveling around the world ministering in diverse businesses, board rooms and shop floors as a consultant or member of management. And I enjoyed many ministry opportunities that Pastors never get to experience.

I can relate to Ezra.  "For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel." Ezra 7:10. What is fascinating is the way the king of Babylon supplied all that Ezra needed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The world around us provides what we need to minister the gospel wherever we find ourselves planted.

Point to ponder

How can you bloom where you are planted?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                             November 6, 2012