Monday, January 12, 2015

A VERY PRESENT HELP...

"God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in time of trouble.

Therefore, WE WILL NOT FEAR,
Even though the Earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling.          Selah.

There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.

The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

THE LORD OF HOSTS IS WITH US!
THE GOD OF JACOB IS OUR REFUGE.                 Selah.

Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has made desolations in the Earth.
He makes wars cease to end of the Earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariot with fire.

Be still and know that I am God;
I WILL be exalted among the nations,
I WILL be exalted in the Earth!

THE LORD OF HOSTS IS WITH US;
THE GOD OF JACOB IS OUR REFUGE.                  Selah."

- A Psalm of the Sons of Korah to the Chief Musician. (Psalm 46)


Fear is rampant. Terror has saturated our national consciousness. Civilization is under attack by evil men who have bastardized the concept of religion (regardless of the specific tenets) and twisted the idea of submissive commitment to a deity figure into a vile and disgusting abomination baptized in the blood of innocents.  With every terror attack by fundamental extremists in the name of their gods, the cry against religion in all of its forms grows.  It's a natural reaction; especially with the 'blame-game' mentality that our culture has become immersed in within my lifetime.

This is the part where I come to the defense of religion as a concept.  If that's what you're looking for, you'd better keep surfing.  Anyone who knows me or has heard me speak on this subject knows my viewpoint on religion is not a positive one.  That may sound strange coming from a professing Christian minister. After all, preaching and religion go together like bacon and eggs, peanut butter and jelly, politics and corruption, death and taxes.  I can keep going if you wish; I've got a million of these.

Allow me to define the word 'religion' for you.  Webster's dictionary defines religion thusly:

Religion (noun) - 1. The belief in a god or in a group of gods.  2. An organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or group of gods.  3. An interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group.

I've looked up the word 'religion' in every dictionary I can find. They all basically say the same thing. Religion is a system of traditions, rules, and ceremonial activities used to worship a deity figure or a group of deity figures.

Doesn't that definition make you want to rush out and find the nearest church of your choice?

If that doesn't do it for you, perhaps this sample of a typical religious service that most people associate with the word 'Christianity' will convince you of the power of religion.

Please understand, I'm not attempting to slag any particular denomination in favor of a different one. What I'm stating here is religion, as defined by the dictionary, practiced by most churches, and hated by a growing number of people is as far removed from what God intended for His people as the Earth is from the end of the universe.

Generally speaking, religion is quite often an empty, vacuous exercise designed by man to control the masses with guilt, fear, and threats of divine judgment.  We've already taken a look at God's desires from mankind; but to put it simply, God did not create mankind for the purpose of inventing religion.  He created man to build a kingdom founded on a relationship between the King and His people.

Take a look at the psalm quoted above.  What you are reading are the heartfelt words of people who desperately need God to defend them against their enemies.  They are not praying empty words of religion.  These words are not part of a powerless and boring ceremony that will be forgotten before the final 'amen' is whispered in the congregation. This psalm was not written to fill some book of religious liturgy to be read and chanted in a church service.

These words are the faith-filled cries of an oppressed people who have come to know God at a deeply personal and experiential level.  These words are not words of a faithless hope that some mysterious power out there in the celestial realms will hear them and act on their behalf.  These are the words of a people who KNOW who they are talking to and declaring what they have already experienced with Him.  These are words of relationship; not religion.

The travesty of religion is its power to render God powerless in our daily lives.  For far too many people, religious ceremony has replaced developing a relationship with God. The attitude of many church attendees is not unlike the attitude of those called to go to jury duty. Church attendance is seen as some sort of obligation to stay on God's good side 'just in case'. Instead of becoming the source and the foundation for our lives, God is often viewed in the same light as the fire or police departments. He's our first responder in times of trouble and our religious practices are our 'get out of jail free' cards.

Now I realize I'm painting with a very broad brush here. I do know of people who benefit greatly from a tradition-heavy, regimented church service. If that sentence describes you, then rejoice in your walk with God. Again, my purpose in writing this blog is not to put one type of church service over another. The point of this blog is to identify a huge gap between honoring God with our religious activities while keeping our hearts far from Him.

God's desire for us go far beyond our Sunday activities. His plans for us have little to do with what church we attend or what denomination we affiliate ourselves with. When we stand before our creator at the end of our days, He will not be quizzing us on our religious activities. He will be looking at our investment in His kingdom.

In other words, God's priorities and ours are not the same.

If your faith in God is based on your religious activity, then when you find yourself in a "time of trouble", chance are pretty good that you will not be able to rest in your experiential knowledge of "The Lord of Hosts".

When the Goliaths show up in your life to destroy you, it's a safe bet that your religious experiences won't have the same affects on your faith that a relationship with God will have.

When you find yourself in need of a savior, it won't be the prayers you prayed, the songs you sang, or the sermons you heard in a church service that saves you.  It will be your relationship with your "refuge and your strength".

What am I saying?  I'm telling you from personal experience that knowing ABOUT God is powerless in times of trouble. It is only in knowing God from a practical, experiential relationship with Him that we find out just how accurate the Bible is. It is only when we know in whom we have believed that we understand what the psalmist was talking about when he declared "The LORD is my refuge and my strength..."

It is only when we embrace a relationship with God that the words in the Bible truly become The Word of God.

The world is a scary place. If you have any tenure on this planet you know the need for rescue from overwhelming problems. The world is begging for a human leader to rise up and save us from all of our social, economic, and political problems. If you're looking to a politician to be your refuge and your strength, you need to prepare yourself for eternal disappointment.  Man cannot fix the mess our world is in; they can only add to it.

There truly is only one source for happiness for our lives and it isn't at the bottom of a liquor bottle or the end of a needle. There is only one source for the solution to our needs and it isn't with doctors, lawyers, or politicians. There is only one place where you can truly find refuge and strength in the middle of the worst that life can throw at you and it isn't at a bar or a casino or even in most of our churches.

There is only one present help in time of trouble. Do you know Him or do you just know about Him?

The answer to that question is the difference between life and death...




Selah.