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Waverly, IA
Luke 4:21-30
Isn't this story funny?
Here is Jesus reading the scripture and telling the people that it has been fulfilled in him. And then He says that the scriptures shows that the prophet is not accepted in his own country, and he agitates the people as if telling them, "Alright, I am here, I am the one that is foretold, I am the prophet to be rejected, come on now, reject me." And so the people did. Throw him out of the synagogue to kill him. Little did they realize that right then and there, Jesus proved that he was the anointed one and the rejected one.
John 3:18. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
In places where the love of God, the gospel of Jesus who died on the cross is preached, rejection is a terrible thing. The Father will forgive those who do not know what they are doing, but for those who reject Him, it will be terrible.
Places where there are voodoos, faith healers (there are many in the Philippines’ flooded cities), idols and images being paraded like in New Orleans, places where’s there plenty of superstitions… these are places where Satan enjoys himself to inflict thousands of death… flood, tsunami and earthquake.
He who does not believe is condemned already. And those who are being pulled by Satan, those who are implying in their actions and life, and those who are growing in quiet disbelief of God are slowly rejecting God and they are also getting close to condemnation.
The Bible has plenty of stories of what happens to a people or nations that replace God with idols.
Their enemies win the war over them like when Northern Israel was defeated by Asyria and Jerusalem was taken by Babylon. Destruction and death strike upon them like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Their people get sick but instead of God healing them, God would heal the Gentiles instead… like Naaman.
WE are thinking that it will never happen to us.
That's how Israel was thinking when they were world power. That’s how the Roman Empire thought. And that’s how Germany thought.
The truth is it can happen to any city or any nation who succumbs to idolatry and superstitions. It can happen to America.
When the pilgrims came, this nation embraced God.
The dollar believes in God… “In God We Trust”
The Pledge of Allegiance says we are one nation under God.
And God blessed America.
But Satan is at work to destroy this nation. And that is what I am afraid of.
Satan is trying his best to boot God out of the government.
We have seen many news wherein the markers of 10 Commandments are taken away from Public Buildings…
There were attempts to take away the words “Under God” and “In God We Trust.”
"Americans United for Separation of Church and State and other organizations may not stop until the VERY MENTION OF GOD in public places becomes illegal!" declared American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).
If you are a devout Christian, and your passion is to be a judge, you might get discouraged.
Satan is trying to boot God out of the schools.
Today, if a school teacher initiates a prayer in school, the American Civil Liberties Union or Americans United for Separation of church and state will sue them in court.
Satan is trying to boot God out of the children’s minds.
Long time ago, parents read Bible stories for bedtime stories.
Now, Walt Disney characters have taken over the bedtime stories. They don’t relate with God’s miracles anymore, but they can relate with the magical fairies. The Toy story… has lassoed the parents into commercialism instead of holy values. Christmas is losing its meaning as a worship day; Christmas is pulled strongly into commercialization with glittering decorations and Walt Disney Characters.
Satan is trying to boot God out of our teenagers… putting up propaganda in the television and in movies that church thing is not cool. They laugh at and ridicule teenagers who go to church.
And here’s the witty portion: Satan is trying to divert the churches into idolatry.
In the Philippines there’s a yearly disaster of flood and the Christians are lifting up icons of Sto. Nino Jesus or wooden image and plaster images of St. Mary, St. Joseph and St. Peter. Before Christians came Satan has planted paganistic wooden images. What irony it is that when Christians came they just reshaped them into images of the saints. They bow on them and kiss their wooden feet.
When I look back at New Orleans and Haiti and the tsunami disasters. Aren’t these please replete with Sto Ninos, or Voodoos or Buddhas. You may say it is coincidental but the Bible has very clear objection to any image that is a subject of worship. Check ISAIAH 44.
Now, how about in our own backyard, how is Satan pulling us into idolatry that is bringing our economy down?
When the people decrease their faith in God, they also decrease their confidence in investments, the stocks fall, the businesses closes down. Economic crisis has something to do with good faith and confidence. When business leaders are pulled down by Satan into greed and corruption and their businesses go down.
“The downfall of a group of people like a city or a nation is the quiet and unwitting rejection of the one true God.”
It starts as something cool, something magical, something politically correct… until it becomes something dangerous… but you are grasped by it and you call it “my precious”…(remember the Lord of the Rings?) “my precious…” and unwittingly it becomes an idol.
Idolatry is any symbol or object that resembles a rejection of God.
Idolatry is a violation of God’s command, “Thou shalt not have any other Gods before me.”
Idolatry is any actuations that resemble a rejection of God.
It can be in the form of centering on a carved image, it can be faith in the printed money, the insurance, it can be a job, it can be popularity, it can be a position, it can be an authority, it can be a trigger, or a nuclear bomb button… anything that replaces trust and dependence in the one true God who is creator and provider of all that is and that will be.
It’s not easy to identify. WE need help from the Holy Spirit. And right now, I am praying for the Holy Spirit to help you and to help the people, and our children to identify these things that quietly replace God in their hearts and minds.
It could be our ego that we can be passionate about … and it creeps into our minds and burns in our hearts and it consumes our soul… until it is able to grab us in the throat, and we could not yell out to ask God’s help. Why?
Because our hearts are in the tug of war between acceptance or and rejection.
Satan uses the public tide, the public propaganda to slowly pull our hearts away from God’s far from God’s salvation.
Political correctness can pull the lawmakers and judges away from Biblical correctness.
The teenagers’ hype and coolness will pull them away from the holy life of Prayer and obedience to God.
Revenge and anger will pull our young soldiers from the Jesus’ teachings of love.
The assurance of money deposits, properties and stable jobs pulls us away from believing in a God who is the provider of our daily bread.
Quietly… slowly… but forcefully… Satan reels in the individuals, the homes, the school, the government and finally the nation.
Isaiah 55:6. Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon his name while he is near.
Yes, that is the formula to keep this nation strong, keep drawing nearer to God, nearer to God in repentance, accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord, coming nearer to Him in prayer, nearer to God in abiding in his Word,
Keep pulling towards God, Keep pulling the children and the teenagers towards God, and keep pulling the homes, the churches, the schools, and the government, the nation nearer and nearer to God.
Because when we are a people or a nation directly under God, then and only then can God protect and deliver us from our enemies and from the calamities.
Jesus said,
“I will never never leave. I will never forsake you.
For lo, I am with you always until the end of the age.”
That is if you will accept Jesus wholeheartedly.
Amen.
Fax: 319-352-1776 Email: vetter@humcwaverly.org Site Support: stummek@humcwaverly.org