More from "The Air of Heaven", "Why This Book Now", "Planted Seeds"

There is much distress these days over the destructive path our world seems to be on. In some ways we appear to be heading into a type of “dark age” or, as some believe, the end-times. Truth and, therefore, knowledge suffer increasingly at the hands of those of station and power. Freedom and peace are being replaced by control and fear; and life, itself, has been dramatically devalued.

Take, for example, the case of evolution and life. If man is no more than an elevated ape and life only begins when we quantify it as such, then what once was murder is now no more than a culling of the herd. Now, evolution is a highly unsubstantiated hypothesis, but by declaring it the origin of man, man’s value is remarkably diminished. He is not “made in the image of God”, because – by evolution’s reasoning – there is no God. So, man becomes just another animal like any other beast in the forest. And life, by this same reasoning, becomes expendable because where there is no God there is no great Maker to take offense at the destruction of His creation nor any Holy Supreme Being to fear – a very dark age, indeed.

As Christians we know this argument to be baseless and delusional, but it is representative of the type of logic being pressed upon us daily. As I’ve already noted, many say this perversion has come about because we are in the end-times. I believe the answer more directly relates to reaping what we have sown. We may well be in the last days, but I think our crops are producing as ordered.

With the freedom we’ve grown accustomed to disappearing like vanishing ink, natural disasters multiplying around us, relentless inflation, catastrophic unemployment, and strangling debt; I think it beneficial for us to take inventory of what we’ve seeded our lives with. A truly honest look will, I believe, reveal a fairly sobering reality.

Like ancient Israel – which fell away from God during Solomon’s reign -- we have abandoned our God – at least publicly. I don’t believe it a conscious choice – at least not by professing Christians; but rather, an attempt to present God as agreeable. In most cases this has resulted in ignoring the truth where it might be considered offensive, omitting or overlooking Scriptures that might alienate, and/or treating sin as immaterial. While it has been considered acceptable for Christ to have died for our sins, in some circles it has been deemed unreasonable for us to be required to abstain from those sins. Many focused on His love while ignoring His holiness altogether. Others seemed to want God to be viewed as some Spiritual rock star, forgetting that His presence far exceeds the need for such earthly embellishment. Ancient Israel did not even realize that God was angry with them, for the most part, neither do we.

Since His holiness is what resulted in our salvation, it is not an aspect we should even want to ignore nor will He allow us to. Given that we are to confess Him before men, our silence is, also, unacceptable. Again, it simply isn’t something He will long tolerate. Yet, we stood silently by while the seed that led to His removal from our public life was firmly planted in our institutions, our workplace, and our government.

Many even had the audacity to affirm and confirm publicly that their god had no real effect on anything other than their most private lives. Think for a moment about the politicians who have brazenly declared their ability to keep their personal beliefs separated from their very public choices. This silenced-idol-in-the-closet approach allowed them to appear righteous to a blind public while engaging in some seriously wicked dealings. Not only did they step away from God, but they slandered Him by implying that He would in any fashion tolerate such double-minded behavior.

Education is an excellent example of how those seeds of silent agreement have born fruit. At one time school began with prayer. The halls were safe, the level of education high, and the atmosphere one of respect. One ridiculous argument later, and our God was marched right down the hall and straight out the door. Soon after, History books were re-written to omit all reference to our Christian foundation. Science was degraded from the study of God’s creation to the desperate denial of any and all things God related, regardless of evidence – or, more accurately, lack thereof. Achievement levels were lowered, then lowered again. Sex-ed became more important than simple math and schools became combat zones where children struggled to survive, let alone learn.

Our founding fathers believed that children could not be taught without the Bible. One reason is that God’s word teaches respect. They knew that raising children to respect and fear God leads to a moral and responsible citizenry. Yet, we allowed the Bible to be removed from our public schools, because we did not want to offend unbelievers. Now most do not understand Who this Holy God really is or what He is capable of. We don’t fear Him. We don’t know Him. So, we don’t have the sense to fear Him.

Today students are actually punished for bringing their Bible to school, harassed for wanting to pray at school functions, and maligned for believing in God. The planted seed bore fruit matching its nature. That’s the way it works. We don’t get corn by planting broccoli and we don’t get freedom from emulating an ostrich. We planted a lack of respect for God and that’s exactly what is coming up in our fields – an utterly horrific lack of respect for our awesomely, all-powerful Creator. A lack of respect that is far more dangerous than all our worldly weapons combined.

And, our public life is not the only area suffering from a bad case of dandelions. Our churches have been over-run as well. Many pastors are more interested in filling the offering plate than reaching the lost. The same can be said for deacons, elders, and others in the ministry. Some churches are so fixated on prosperity that their focus has completely shifted away from God altogether. They try to trade the blessings of God for earthly riches, as if God could be fooled. These, weeds-in-the-pulpit, live lavish lives on the back of those hoping to cash in on God. They should have been plucked out like the tares they are. Instead, many flocked to them and the seeds that greed has born are both plentiful and devastating.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. – Gal 6:7-8

The need for opulence led to more turning away from the truth of God’s word and a rejection of the established church by many who truly belong to the body of Christ. (Of course they did not forsake Christ, Himself; but rather, the established church.) Obviously, this is not the only thing that emptied the churches, but it is one of the problems behind failing church attendance. And believers aren’t the only ones who fled.

It’s practically impossible to grasp the selflessness of Christ when presented Him by someone who clearly relishes an over-abundance of earthly treasure. Comprehending God’s holiness isn’t simplified by a leader’s milk-them-dry approach to personal finance, either. The fact is God just isn’t well represented in these churches – at least, not the God of the Bible. Greed is. Greed, selfishness, idolatry . . . but, not the holy God we seek. So, some who went to church looking for God just moved on. They were looking for holiness and holiness isn’t found in the greed of man.

Greed wasn’t the only well-tended seed in the church field. Ignoring the truth of Scripture was also tolerated to the point of bearing fruit. Denominations were more interested in arguing with each other than holding hard ground. However, much of that also ties back to the love of money, because most churches completely ignored major issues in order to keep members that might otherwise have strayed. In doing so, they kept some who only wanted their ears tickled and maintained their tax-free status, but separated themselves from God.

Obviously, these are not the only areas where what we have allowed to take root in our lives has born undesirable fruit, but you can see where this is going. This book is about those areas, Who He is, who we are supposed to be, and what we should be doing about it. It is also about the love of God and our love for Him. So, it is part love-song and part reality check.

The Holy God we claim to worship and serve has been seriously defamed and very publicly humiliated. We did not regard Him enough to keep Him or, perhaps, we just loved our sin so much more? Whatever the case, spurning Him publicly has led to a private and public separation. The idea that the jealous God of the Bible would tolerate a private relationship that is denied publicly is ridiculously delusional.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in Heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” – Exo 20:4-6

It helps to understand that since there is no sin in God, He and sin cannot cohabitate. The type of seeds we’ve been planting prove that we are neck deep in sin and the tolerance of sin. If we expect to spend eternity with God, we must be cleansed and live holy. If we want a nation blessed and protected by God, we must be a nation that embraces and honors His laws wholeheartedly. We cannot just say we are His and go on allowing His laws to be ignored. He simply won’t tolerate it. If we insist on acting like He is irrelevant, He will walk away from us. Much of the distress we’re witnessing is due to His hovering on the edge of abandoning us to our sins. If He does leave us, we can be certain He will also punish us -- as much as sign to others as a statement that, even though we rejected His authority over us, He is still the great I AM.

And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” – Exo 3:14

The relevance of this statement is, of course, that He is the great Creator, the God of all time – past, present, and future; the God of Abraham and Isaac; the God that each of us -- whether we recognize it or not -- will answer to; the ultimate, supreme Authority over all, forever. It stands to reasons that if Supreme, His law is law whether we accept it as such or not.

In the Scriptures just prior to this proclamation, He gave Moses this beautiful, if sobering, insight regarding His holiness:

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, “I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”

When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!”

And He said, “Here I am.”

Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” – Exo 3:1-5

I absolutely love the clarity of this piece of Scripture. Even the ground was made holy by His presence. Dirt! Common, ordinary, everyday dirt became holy when He drew near. We should take note of this, because being close -- obediently, spiritually close -- to God leads us to holiness, too.

I’m convinced that if we could get a handle on just how holy He is we simply would not rest until we made sure He had removed every single weed in our garden. I can’t say that that would straighten this world out, but I can assure you that it would make a very big difference in how we live in it. It would make a big difference in how we view our circumstances and it would make a big difference in how we deal with those circumstances. The holiness of God is no little thing. We’ve treated it like it is, but it isn’t.

This lack of regard for His holiness has led to confusion over what He expects of us and a disregard for His laws. We need to get reconnected to the reality of how that holiness affects us and our world. We need to seek Him. We need to turn from our everyday troubles and put His priorities first. We need to return to Him and commit to Him. We need revival. But we cannot and will not have it until we are honest about where we stand before Him, ready to give up our comfort for His call, ready to be broken, ready to be shown where we’ve missed it, and ready to understand where we’ve failed. Until we’re ready to ask Him to convict and prune us into fruitful vines, revival will not be ours.

Understand, I’m not talking about the “feel good” revival; but rather, a return to genuine closeness to God and the renewal of His protection. Some are seeing “feel good”, but few are seeing a return of His protection. No, what we are seeing is the unrelenting removal of His hedge of protection. Ask yourself this, do you feel safer today than you did 20 years ago? If you do, you’re not paying attention.

Before we can draw near enough to Him to breathe the air of Heaven, we need to acquire a deeper appreciation of Who it is that called us. We need remind ourselves of the true nature of God. Further, we need to explore who we are before Him and the nature of our relationship to Him.