God stopped me from playing the Harlot!
"Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your jewels, and will leave you naked and bare...Then I will stop you from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer pay your lovers. So I will calm My fury against you and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be pacified and angry no more." (Ezekial 16:38-39, 41b-42)
I love the way this passage teaches the irresistable grace of an Almighty God who chooses His people out of the dregs of society. His people Israel, in Old Testament times, repeatedly served idols and "played the harlot". They "sold themselves to other lovers" when they entered shrines, and built high places to bow down to false gods. The great God who had chosen them as His people gave them over to their enemies for a time and ordained that they reap dire consequences for the sins they committed against Him. But God, in His infinite mercy and for His own glory, decided to STOP THEM FROM PLAYING THE HARLOT! Wow! I mean, isn't that amazing? They never would have stopped on their own. They loved mixing in with the pagan crowds around them and integrating the pagan gods into their worship. They loved worshipping Baal and Ashteroth, and loved taking for themselves pagan wives.
Even now, the church who professes to love and serve Christ Jesus, commits the same sin as Israel. They mix in a little Santa Claus and a little Easter Bunny, and they continue to marry unbelievers, unequally yoking themselves against the counsel of God's Holy Word.. May God purify His church and stop her from playing the harlot! May He give her eyes only for Himself that she may not sinfully divert her gaze from her husband, who is Christ, to another.
At one time I myself served other gods. They weren't little golden statues and I didn't go to high places, but I held myself in a very high place. I served my own flesh, money, possessions, and individual earthly people rather than the Risen Godman. God stripped me of all the things I trusted in and brought me to a low place where I felt "naked and bare". I remember the day that God "stopped me from playing the harlot" and He turned my eyes toward Himself. God's fury against me was satisfied in Christ when He died on the cross. I was changed from an object deserving of God's wrath into an object of His unending mercy. God, in His infinite grace toward me, included me in that blessed number called "His people". Praise His merciful name!
Sometimes, even now, as a changed child of the King, I enter into moments of idolatry when I choose to serve anything other than Christ. Now, rather than this idolatry being a lifestyle, there are moments when I serve my flesh and put a cheeseburger, or sleep, or possessions on the throne where only Christ should sit. Imagine that for a minute...have you ever placed anything in the place of Christ on His throne? It seems so silly to picture a powerless inanimate object on the throne of the Creator, but we do it every day. Knowing the majesty and power of the risen Christ, I'm amazed and dumbfounded at myself sometimes but extremely thankful for the grace and mercy of God who is faithful when I can't be. He's made a covenant with me...that He'll be my God and I'll be His child. He'll keep me faithful to the end though I will fail---often. He promises to discipline me as He does all His children. Like I've said before, that discipline proves legitimacy and I'm thankful for each spanking He gives in His love.
"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him."
(Nahum 1:7)
I love the way this passage teaches the irresistable grace of an Almighty God who chooses His people out of the dregs of society. His people Israel, in Old Testament times, repeatedly served idols and "played the harlot". They "sold themselves to other lovers" when they entered shrines, and built high places to bow down to false gods. The great God who had chosen them as His people gave them over to their enemies for a time and ordained that they reap dire consequences for the sins they committed against Him. But God, in His infinite mercy and for His own glory, decided to STOP THEM FROM PLAYING THE HARLOT! Wow! I mean, isn't that amazing? They never would have stopped on their own. They loved mixing in with the pagan crowds around them and integrating the pagan gods into their worship. They loved worshipping Baal and Ashteroth, and loved taking for themselves pagan wives.
Even now, the church who professes to love and serve Christ Jesus, commits the same sin as Israel. They mix in a little Santa Claus and a little Easter Bunny, and they continue to marry unbelievers, unequally yoking themselves against the counsel of God's Holy Word.. May God purify His church and stop her from playing the harlot! May He give her eyes only for Himself that she may not sinfully divert her gaze from her husband, who is Christ, to another.
At one time I myself served other gods. They weren't little golden statues and I didn't go to high places, but I held myself in a very high place. I served my own flesh, money, possessions, and individual earthly people rather than the Risen Godman. God stripped me of all the things I trusted in and brought me to a low place where I felt "naked and bare". I remember the day that God "stopped me from playing the harlot" and He turned my eyes toward Himself. God's fury against me was satisfied in Christ when He died on the cross. I was changed from an object deserving of God's wrath into an object of His unending mercy. God, in His infinite grace toward me, included me in that blessed number called "His people". Praise His merciful name!
Sometimes, even now, as a changed child of the King, I enter into moments of idolatry when I choose to serve anything other than Christ. Now, rather than this idolatry being a lifestyle, there are moments when I serve my flesh and put a cheeseburger, or sleep, or possessions on the throne where only Christ should sit. Imagine that for a minute...have you ever placed anything in the place of Christ on His throne? It seems so silly to picture a powerless inanimate object on the throne of the Creator, but we do it every day. Knowing the majesty and power of the risen Christ, I'm amazed and dumbfounded at myself sometimes but extremely thankful for the grace and mercy of God who is faithful when I can't be. He's made a covenant with me...that He'll be my God and I'll be His child. He'll keep me faithful to the end though I will fail---often. He promises to discipline me as He does all His children. Like I've said before, that discipline proves legitimacy and I'm thankful for each spanking He gives in His love.
"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him."
(Nahum 1:7)
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