Our Lord Has Spoken!
This country is on the verge of something we’re not going to like. How much longer will we have freedom of speech, freedom of the ability to go from place to place? I could go on. Okay, I will! How much longer are we going to have freedom to worship as set up by our founding fathers? We need to pray, and we need to stand up for those freedoms. We need to pray!
But instead, we are stuck on the mindset of, “If it feels good, do it.” And money ain’t no problem. Just charge it! We want a new pickup, we finance it. We think we need a boat, a new horse or a saddle we just buy it. Yep, we live in a material world. And the church is caught up right in the middle of it, too. And if something or someone doesn’t come along to slap us on the back of the head, then, at the end of the proverbial day, we are going to be very disappointed.
God still give me a thump or two now and then. But what does God want from me? It seems that we fail to notice a few things that really do matter. We must trust in God.
Back in the Old Testament book of Daniel, along about ch. 5, Belshazzar, king of Babylon, decided to throw a big party. Rich food and deserts and… there was lots of wine. Yep,, alcohol everywhere. They had the musical instruments playing, they had exotic seductive dancing girls, but that just wasn’t enough for Belshazzar!
Belshazzar ordered that his food and drink be served in golden vessels taken from the Temple of Jerusalem. Now understand, these weren’t just any gold containers. They were part of the plunder the Baylonians had taken with they captured Jerusalem. These containers belonged to the house of God, but Belshazzar no doubt thought the worship of the God was something of a joke. He didn’t care, so they filled them containers with wine.
His philosophy was materialism, his goal in life was to enjoy everything that could give pleasure never considering the cost.
Now this next part might kind of freak some of y’all out. A human hand appeared at the party and began writing on the wall. The fingers wrote: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. Belshazzar’s magic conjurers and interpreters, nobody had a clue how this “hand” could write. Nor did they understand “the (hand) writing on the wall.” The queen reminded Belshazzar of Daniel and how he had interpreted dreams for his father. So Daniel is invited in to look at that handwriting on the wall, and he agrees to interpret it. Because of Belshazzar’s actions regarding God and his holiness, Daniel told him that God sent the hand and this is what it means:
“Mene” - your days are numbered, “Tekel” – your have been weighed. “Pharsin” – you have been found wanting. Numbered, weighed, and found wanting, said the handwriting on the wall. This is how God finds us if we obsess on the trivial and don’t turn our full attention to that with truly matters. God has spoken!
Without Christ, you may consider yourself a pretty good cowboy, but you will be found numbered, weighted, and wanting.
We as the church must pay attention. Do we use the church for our own purpose, and not for the purpose he created it? The church is not some sort of Christian country club. We are not to come together as a mutual admiration society; we are to come together to pray for and give our all to a world that is broken and bleeding. We are not here for ourselves. We are here for the others. We are ultimately here to give our worship to God! He is the creator, He is the sustainer,
He is our all in all!
Choose Jesus, choose life and let your light shine! And find a Bible believin’ church where you “fit in” and know, grow, and follow Christ! Tell others! See y’all at church and keep PRAYIN’ for HIS HARVEST! Pray for the rain! Amen.