repent

Come Back 

pjimgallagherLeave a comment

Hosea 6:1
“Come, and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.”

The mercy of God is so great that He not only invites us to come to Him for salvation, but invites us to return to Him if we have wandered. After describing the spiritual condition of the nation, as though they had been involved in spiritual prostitution, God does not cast His people aside, but pleads with them to return and be restored. No matter how far you have wandered and what consequences you are facing, the Lord wants to restore your relationship with Him. He promises to heal what has been torn, and bind up whatever has been stricken.

With such a great promise, it would seem logical to read that the nation accepted the invitation, returned to the Lord, and was restored to its former glory. Sadly, that was not the case. Despite the mercy of God, and His continued pleas, the people continued to rebel against His word and ultimately suffered the consequences. While the mercy of God is new every morning, and we have an open door to return to Him, we must take advantage of it. We must get off the road that is leading us away from Christ, and put ourselves under the authority of His Word.

Will you return to Him today and allow Him to restore to you the joy of your salvation?

Pastor Jim

 

Departing 

pjimgallagherLeave a comment

Ezekiel 10:18
“Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.”

The day Solomon’s Temple was built was one of the most glorious days in the history of Israel. It marked the completion of many of the promises God had given to His people down through the centuries. From a single man with a barren wife, a mighty nation had been formed, that now occupied the land that was promised to them. Their enemies had been defeated and held at bay, the people were experiencing a prosperity they had never dreamt would be possible, and the Tabernacle that spoke of mobility, was now replaced with a glorious, permanent Temple. On the day the Temple was dedicated, something quite remarkable took place. We are told, “the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.” God’s presence was so “thick” the priests had to stop their ministry. It seems all they could do was fall down before the glory of God. Ezekiel lived about 300 years later and he too saw the Temple and the glory of God. This time, however, the glory was not filling the Temple, but rather was departing from it. He watched as the same glory that once filled the Temple, began to rise from it and slowly depart.

The sin of Israel and Judah had many devastating consequences. The nation was divided, the enemies they once conquered, began to conquer them, the witness they had in the world was lost and the people began to suffer many unnecessary consequences for sin. However,  the greatest tragedy of their sin was when the glory, that once filled the temple, was removed. This happened on a personal level with King Saul. He had once been filled with the Spirit of God, in such a powerful way, that he “became another man.” He was still Saul, but there were striking changes within him that were brought about by the work of the Spirit of God. Years later, as a result of persistent sin we read that the Spirit departed from Saul (1 Samuel 16:14). He lost the peace and presence of God, and when he needed it most, had lost the ability to hear the voice of God.

If you are a believer in Christ, then you have been filled with the Spirit of God. You do not need to fear that He will forsake you, but it is possible, through persistent sin and disobedience, to lose the benefits of fellowship with God. Sin can harden your heart and deafen your ears. Sin can make it seem as if God is far from you, and even make you feel forsaken. The remedy, however, is quite simple. All you need to do is confess your sin and return to following Christ. You may feel miles away from God, but in reality, you are only one confession away. If you turn to Him, He will forgive and restore, and you will begin to once again experience the sweetness of fellowship with God.

Perhaps praying something like this, “Jesus, I am sorry for my sin. I ask that You would forgive me, cleanse me and help me lay this aside and return to walking with you.”

Now that it is laid aside, don’t pick it back up. Instead, get plugged into reading the Bible and a healthy church.

Pastor Jim

 

Secrets

pjimgallagherLeave a comment

Ezekiel 8:8-9
“Then He said to me,’Son of man, dig into the wall’; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door. And He said to me, ‘Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.’”

Some of the imagery of the Bible is designed to get the attention of the reader. This passage certainly does that. Ezekiel explains, while he was sitting in his living room surrounded by the elders of Israel, he was suddenly lifted out of his chair by his hair, and transported hundreds of miles away to the city of Jerusalem. There he was shown a series of scenes that exposed the wickedness of the people, and in particular the leaders. One of those scenes took him to the the Temple where he dug a hole in the wall, found a hidden door, opened it up, and exposed the hidden sins of those who were supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the nation.

This passage has been preserved for us for two primary reasons. First, it gives insight into the real cause of the fall of Judah. The nation was defeated by their enemies, not because of military weakness, but because they had departed from the ways of God. This is true on every level. A person, church, or nation who turns its back on God, will find they no longer have the ability to stand, and will soon be defeated.

The second is much more personal. This passage illustrates the fact that God sees into the hidden chambers of the heart of every man. No sin is really committed in secret. Everything we do is done in the open before the eyes of God. Think about any secret sin you might be practicing, and think about doing it on a stage in a room filled with people. In reality, our sins are performed in the very sight of God. It is as if we have ushered everyone else out of the room, set up a private stage, and performed our secret sins for an audience of God. The writer of Hebrews put it this way,

Hebrews 4:12-13

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

Notice the final line in that statement, “all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Every action we perform, no matter how careful we might be, is done openly in the sight of God. As frightening as that may be, the verse before it gives us the solution. We are told of the ability of the word of God to act like a sword that cuts into our lives and makes the appropriate changes.

Instead of hiding sin in a secret chamber of your heart, take the time to confess your sins to God, receive the forgiveness He offers, and look into His word for help and strength to put those things behind you.

Proverbs 28:13

“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”

Pastor Jim

 

Times Up! 

pjimgallagher2 Comments

Ezekiel 7:2
“And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel:
‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.”

Ezekiel is declaring to Judah a message that everyone will one day hear. That message proclaimed the end of the road had been reached, and they must now give an account to the Lord for the lives they lived. For them, this day was a sorrowful one. All of the investments they had made were earthly and unable to provide deliverance from divine judgment. Like Belshazzar, they had been weighed in the balances and found wanting (Daniel 5:27).

The Bible declares there will be a day of reckoning for every man. We will all stand before God to receive the wages for the life we lived on earth. If we have made no investments into eternity, that will be a frightening and horrible day. If we have taken the time to prepare in advance, that day will be one of great celebration and reward. The question we must answer is, “How do we prepare for eternity?”

First off, we must deal with sin. Sin means we have violated the law of God, and is a crime committed by all. The Bible declares the penalty for violating the law of God is judgment, but God has provided a way of escape through the cross of Christ. It will not be your wealth, charm, or benevolence that delivers you in the day of wrath; rather, if you have received Christ, your sins are forgiven and eternal life is granted.

Once a person has received Christ, he can begin to store up treasures in heaven. These treasures are given for faithfully following and serving Christ. When we put the things of God above our own desires, we are rewarded. When we take the time to invest in the spiritual well being of others, we are rewarded for that, too. Essentially, spiritual rewards are granted to those who live for Christ.

It is easy to become consumed with the details of life. We can spend almost all of our time tredding water just to keep our head up, and make it to the end of the day. It is important that we look at life through the eyes of eternity. This will enable us to store up eternal rewards, even in the mundane details of life. A young man, faithfully accomplishing his science project, as a witness to his parents of the reality of his relationship with Christ, becomes a means of spiritual reward. The same is true of a young mother caring for her infant son, or an employee seeking to do his job the best it can be done, to impact his co-workers for Christ.

It is time we look at life through the lens of eternity.

Pastor Jim

 

Visual Learner 

pjimgallagherLeave a comment

Ezekiel 4:1
“You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem.”

Some people are visual learners. They seem to have a difficult time processing information audibly, but the moment they can see it, things become perfectly clear. Most of the pre-exilic prophets relayed the same message to Judah. They warned of coming destruction by the Babylonians and exhorted the people to turn to the Lord. Ezekiel will share that same message, but will do so with some very powerful imagery. This chapter alone gives three such illustrations.

First, Ezekiel is told to make a model of the city of Jerusalem. When he first began this project, I am sure those who stood back and watched were wondering what he was building. As each day passed, the image became more clear, until it was obvious to all that it was Jerusalem. It must have been quite a shock when he began to fill the surrounding hillsides with foreign troops, and build siege walls outside the city. Even the most casual observer, would have no problem understanding the message.

Once completed, Ezekiel used another approach to get the same message across. Each day he would enter the public square, lay out a bed mat, and lie down on his left side. He remained there throughout the day, and repeated this for 339 consecutive days. One the 340th day, he turned over and laid on his right side for another 40 days. This was done to illustrate the coming judgment on Judah for their iniquities.

Finally, Ezekiel was instructed to bake the bread of affliction. God wanted the people to understand that serving false gods meant becoming slaves. Jesus taught the same truth when He said if we serve sin, we become a slave of sin (John 8:34). Slavery brought affliction and affliction, personal suffering. To deepen the impact of this illustration, Ezekiel was told to cook the bread using human waste as fuel. This proved too much for the prophet, who pleaded with God, and was instructed to use cow dung, instead.

I find it interesting the great lengths God will go, in order to insure that the message gets to everyone. He is still in the business of doing that today. I have heard testimony after testimony of a person who seemed to suddenly be surrounded by believers. They were invited to church, witnessed to at work, and came to realize that an old friend or family member had turned their life over to Christ. It is clear, God desires each of us, and will go to great lengths to reveal His love for us, and our need for Him.

Pastor Jim

 

The Good Old Days

pjimgallagherLeave a comment

Lamentations 1:7
“In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old.”

Lamentations is a book of mourning that has been compared to a funeral durge. Jeremiah is not weeping over the death of a family member, but over the fall of a nation. We know that, although Judah fell, they would be restored. Seventy years after the captivity began, a remnant of believers would return to rebuild the Temple and the city. Within a century, Jerusalem would be bustling again; cured of idolatry and actively worshipping the Lord. In our text, we see the first step that led them back to the Lord.

“In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things That she had in the days of old.”

The first step back was to remember; a word that implies the use of our minds. For them to return to Jehovah, they had to think about how much better life was when they were walking with Him. This was true of the prodigal son who “came to his senses” and remembered what life was like in his father’s house (Luke 15:11-31). It was also true of the church of Ephesus, who had left their first love and needed to remember from where they had fallen (Revelation 2:1-6). This is also true of us. Those who will take the time to consider how much better off they were when they were following Christ, will take the necessary steps to return to Him.

Sin has a way of blinding us. We get so caught up in what we are doing, we fail to simply lift our heads, look around, and see if we truly want to be living like this. Most backsliders are not happy. They are guilt ridden because of their failures. The things that allured them away from the Lord no longer provide the pleasures they once did. It is time to take the Psalmist’s advice and look up. Get your eyes off of what you are doing, look around, and determine if you are better off since you wandered from the Lord.

Just as remembering is a thinking word, so is repentance. It means to change your mind. To repent, we simply decide we are no longer going to live in the things that keep us from walking with Christ. We then set those down and begin to follow Him once again.

“In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old.”

Pastor Jim

 

In The Pig Pen 

pjimgallagherLeave a comment

2 Peter 2:22
“But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’”

A few years ago, I was in northern Ghana with a group of people from our church. Our purpose was to bring the Gospel to remote villages that had yet to be reached for Christ. Just as Paul developed a custom of going first to the synagogue, then to the market squares, we too, had developed our own custom. Because of the practices of their culture, it is customary, when a traveler arrives at their home, to gather the family, offer the traveler a drink and ask “What brings you here and do you have a message for us?” As you can imagine, this provides a wide open door to share Christ.

On one particular day, as we were walking through a village, going from hut to hut with the gospel, I turned a corner and startled a large pig. He immediately arose from his mud hole and walked off. When he stirred up the mud, the stink was so strong it almost knocked me over. I continued down the path, then turned back, thinking of this verse in 2 Peter 2, wondering what would happen next. Sure enough, as soon as he thought it was safe, the pig walked back to the mire and plopped down.

Peter explains, while it is expected for a pig to return to its mire, you are not a pig. Once you have come to Christ, it is unnatural for you to turn back to the sins from which He saved you. He writes that returning to our past lives, results in being in a worse condition than we were prior to being saved. That worse condition is caused by the hardening of our hearts.

Each time we take a step away from the Lord, the Holy Spirit convicts us, reminding us of the promises of the Word, and the danger of that course of action. When we ignore His warnings and continue to move toward sin and away from God, our hearts become just a little harder. Soon we are able to sin without feelings of guilt or remorse. That is in no way a sign of freedom, but of extreme bondage. When sin no longer shames us, we are shackled by its deadly grip.

A good application from this text would be to take inventory. Are you allowing things back into your life that might lead you away from the Lord and back into your old life style? Turn those things back over to the Lord, before you find yourself neck-deep in the mire.

Pastor Jim

 

Excuses Excuses 

pjimgallagherLeave a comment

Jeremiah 49:4
“Why do you boast in the valleys, Your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? Who trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come against me?’”

Some things never change. The sun will always rise in the East and set in the West, water will always be wet, and a person in a backslidden state will always deceive themselves, about their spiritual condition. This was true 2600 years ago in Ammon, and it is true today.

When we drift from the Lord, we develop a skewed perspective about our spiritual condition and the reasons for it. There are a number of pretty common deceptions that keep a person from turning back to the Lord.

It is not uncommon for a person, who has backslidden, to have a list of excuses for their sin. They might have an elaborate story about how another Christian, or the church in general, let them down or treated them badly. In reality, by doing this, they are simply blaming their actions on someone else. This did not work for Adam in the garden, and it will not work today. Sometimes, the first step to getting things right with God, is taking ownership for what we are doing wrong.

Another common deception is thinking we have gone too far and God is no longer interested in us. I have even known backslidden believers to quote obscure verses out of context, convincing them it is too late for them. Keep in mind, the entire underlining message of the Bible is that God is in the business of bringing wanderers back to Himself. You may have made some big mistakes and gotten way off track, but the Cross provides forgiveness for that, and the Lord is waiting to restore you to Himself.

It is also typical for backsliders to think they have time to put off getting things right with God. We often realize we are not where we should be, and we have intentions of returning to the Lord, but we think it is something we will do later. Either we are enjoying our backslidden state, or we are not willing to do the work necessary to return to Christ.

The thing we are forgetting is, the longer we stay in our condition, the deeper our roots go, and the more difficult repentance becomes. Don’t put off repentance for another day. Keep in mind, that while the trip may seem far, it is really as simple as turning to God, and recommitting yourself to Him.

Pastor Jim

 

On Second Thought

pjimgallagher2 Comments

Jeremiah 34:10-11
“Now when all the princes and all the people, who had entered into the covenant, heard that everyone should set free his male and female slaves, that no one should keep them in bondage anymore, they obeyed and let them go. But afterward they changed their minds and made the male and female slaves return, whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection as male and female slaves.”

As proof of true commitment to the Lord, the people were called upon to obey the Word of God by setting slaves free. Because of the intensity of the situation they were facing, the people quickly obeyed and emancipation began. Sadly, this obedience did not last. We read, after the slaves were freed, the people changed their minds. Perhaps setting the slaves free had intruded upon their lifestyle and they did not like it. Having to make their own beds, cook their own meals, and clean up after themselves, was too great an inconvenience. It caused them to choose instead, to disobey God and turn back to their former lifestyles. It is common for Christians to come to the altar, confess their sin, and leave it behind. Unfortunately, it is also common for Christians to turn back and get involved in the sins they had once left behind. As time takes us farther away from our initial conversion, we can forget how empty life apart from Christ really was. We can have a romanticized view of life before Christ. The devil is a master at making disobedience look like something that brings pleasure, satisfaction, and purpose to life. The reality is, life is really found in obedience to the Lord and His Word. Don’t turn back.

Pastor Jim

 

Wrong Way 

pjimgallagher1 Comment

Jeremiah 15:6
“‘You have forsaken Me’, says the Lord, ‘You have gone backward…'”

When I first moved to Florida I was introduced to a surf spot called “Monster Hole.” The wave breaks about 1/4 mile offshore on a sand covered reef. To reduce our paddling time, we jumped into the water and road the outgoing current from the nearby inlet. Since this spot only breaks with a good swell, a few months went by before I was able to surf there again. I parked my car, ran north to the inlet, jumped in the water, put my head down and began to paddle with all my strength. What I did not consider was that the tide was actually coming in not going out. After a few minutes of vigorous paddling, I looked up only to find that I had been sucked backwards. Still determined, I stroked harder and harder, but after about 10 minutes of going backwards, I realized my only course of action was to turn around, go into shore, and find another route to take.

Judah had been traveling in the wrong direction. Instead of walking with the Lord and seeking to please Him, they lived however they wanted. This course took them away from God and the blessed life He desired for them. Jeremiah’s voice echoed the prophets who had gone before him, as he pleaded with the people to change their route, and once again, follow the Lord.

Perhaps you have been traveling the wrong direction. If so, allow me to encourage you to change your route. Start by changing your destination. If we make it our aim to please the Lord with our daily living, we will find ourselves looking into the Word for guidance. We will also find, we are interested in what He has to say about the circumstances we are facing, and the decisions we need to make. Let’s stop moving backwards!

Pastor Jim