Falling Away

(This is just my thoughts from the last post continued). Let me say before you read on that all I am doing - in my own studying and in sharing with you - is laying out the process I've gone through in studying this - laying out what the Bible says. I will continue to pray on this topic and seek God for clearer understanding and revelation. I encourage you to do the same.

Falling away - I mean, really turning your whole heart away from God - is a dangerous thing. This next set of Scripture I read stunned me. I was a little at a loss because I had never read or heard anything like it before (clearly I've not spent much time in Hebrews, either...LOL). I think I reread it several times trying to find a way that it might not mean what it says. I think once I even said, God, are You sure that's right? But I was quickly reminded that it's His Bible, not mine. It's His truth, not mine. If I believe God, then I must also believe His Word - the way He wrote it, not the way I imagined it should have been written. I was/am still trying to get my head around the severity of the consequence for one who walks a path of turning from God.

Hebrews 6:4-6 - For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

It is impossible to bring back those who were once enlightened who then turn away from God. That's scary dangerous! If you look at the passage in Hebrews, it's clearly talking about a mature believer, and not someone who has newly come to Christ and is just learning to walk. It refers to someone who has been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, been filled with the Holy Spirit, and has felt the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of heaven.

It is not backsliding. It is not mistakes. It is not the regular types of sin that we struggle with every day. It is the continual, habitual, intentional turning away from Christ that makes a mockery and a disgrace of Him and His perfect and beautiful sacrifice. There must be a heart change. Until I read this, I've always thought sin is sin. And I guess this is mostly true. All wrongdoing is sin. Whether we tell a white lie or commit murder, it is sin that needs to be confessed, and 1 John 1:9 tells us that when we confess our sins He is faithful to forgive us. But 1 John 5:16 - 17 draws a distinction between sin that can be forgiven and sin that results in spiritual death.

If anyone sees his brother [believer] committing a sin that does not lead to death, he will pray and God will give him life - yes, He will grant life to all those whose sin is not one leading to death. There is a sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin which does not involve death that may be repented of and forgiven.

So what is the sin that cannot be forgiven? That seems to be the next logical question. What is it that is so bad that God tells us not to even pray for one who has committed such a sin because that person cannot be forgiven? I don't have all the answers, but I would say this is part of it: just a few verses after the one above, it says this (in 1 John 5:21):

Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false gods)--from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life. Amen (so let it be).

Consider this...

1. The first commandment: You shall have no other gods before or besides Me. (Exodus 20:3)
2. Further in Exodus 20, God tells Moses to tell His people this: 'You shall not make gods to share with Me My glory and your worship' (verse 23)
3. When Jesus is asked, 'What is the most important commandment?' His response is this: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:37-38)
4. And Moses said to the people, Fear not; for God has come to prove you, so that the reverential fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin. (Exodus 20:20)

The Bible clearly shows us the condition of heart we are to have toward God. He is to be first. He is to be the ONLY one who captures our heart. We are to love Him with everything we are. And we are to have a reverential fear of Him...that we may not sin.

I looked again at Romans 1. The people in Romans once knew God, but stopped glorifying Him. They stopped thanking Him. They allowed other things to take priority in their lives. They replaced Him as god of their lives. They no longer loved Him with all of their heart, soul and mind. They had no remaining reverential fear of Him. And the entire process of falling away from God began when they ceased to give Him glory and thank Him.

God's Forgetfulness

Well, Monday was an interesting day of learning for me. It actually started in church on Sunday. Our Pastor started a new series on worship, and his focus on Sunday centered quite a bit around misdirected worship. We are designed to worship, so we all worship something. Our worship is just not always directed to the proper person. When we replace God with other people, activities, hobbies, possessions, or whatever else, as the central focus of our lives, that's where our real worship is directed, rather than at God where it belongs.

Well, a friend of mine and I have started doing a short Bible study together once a week (and it just happens to usually fall on Monday). We've started an online study done by Beth Moore on the book of Romans. I'll admit, Romans has always been kind of dry reading for me, so I tend not to read it. But so far (and we're only on Chapter 1 still), it's been much better than I could have ever thought Romans could be (LOL).

Monday, the focus of the study was on Romans 1:18-32. That's a lot of verses, so I won't copy them all here, but here's a link for you if you want to check it out (you can change the Bible version at the top if you'd like). In the NIV, this section of the Bible is titled God's Wrath Against Mankind...yikes! We spent about 45 minutes studying it and talking about it. It was eye-opening, and I learned a lot, but I honestly didn't think much more about it after we finished our study.

Until Monday night when I sat down to read the book I've been reading, and the chapter was titled 'The Great Falling Away.' My mind went immediately back to Romans 1, because much of that chapter is discussing the consequences of God's people falling away from Him. So, I gave it another look in conjunction with this chapter of the book. Here's what I learned.

Romans 1:18-32 refers to a people who knew God and recognized Him as God (right away these words stood out to me after my study of the word KNOW a few weeks back). So, they, at some point, had some level of intimate, personal relations with God. But, it says they no longer glorified Him or gave Him thanks. In other words, they no longer had a heart of worship, thankfulness, and adoration for Him that they had once had. The language of the entire passage seems to indicate that they consistently failed to recognize and thank God; that they had had a change in heart attitude toward Him. As a result, they fell away from God; they became foolish; their minds were darkened; and they replaced God with other things. The result: GOD GAVE THEM UP.

It says three times in a row (paraphrased):
v. 23-24: They had exchanged the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God for idols. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their own hearts.

v. 25-26: Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped creation rather than the Creator, God gave them over and abandoned them.

v. 28: Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind.

The result of God abandoning them is that their lives became full, permeated, saturated with sin and destruction of every kind. They hated God. They were without understanding. And though they were fully aware of how God viewed their actions, and what He said the consequences of such actions would be, they not only continued to do them, but they also encouraged others to behave that way as well.

Look what Ezekiel says about the righteous who turn from God:
Ezekiel 18:24 - But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die.

This verse, like Romans, refers to someone who knows God. Yet, it says that when such a person chooses to turn away from God, all of his former righteousness will be forgotten. When God forgets something, it is as if it never happened. This is a characteristic of God that we celebrate when we think of salvation - He forgets our sins and washes us clean. But we must also be aware that He is equally as forgetful when we turn away from Him. God's forgetfulness is prompted by a change in our heart-attitude toward God. Whether we are turning away from sin and toward God, or turning away from God and toward sin, He is faithful to forget our former ways.

Astronomical Grace

If you have the time (about a half hour or so), watch this: Astronomical Grace. It would definitely not be a waste of time. I can't even begin to watch this without feeling overwhelmed by worship for our awesome God. Hope you enjoy it! If you don't have 30-ish minutes, then try the mini-version in the YouTube video posted below.

May we never go through a single day without realizing the extravagance of our God. May we never take for granted the detail and the expansive variety in every aspect of His creation. May we never fail to see Him for all that He is, and never sell Him short on power, glory, or majesty. May we encounter moments like this that fill us with awe and worship for our God, our Creator. He is awesome!

Hebrews 1:1-3 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Indescribable

Love God.

I've been absent from my blogging for a few weeks, and there's a good reason for it. As usual, when I'm away for a while, God's been working through some things with me, and I was waiting to see where it was leading before I shared any of it. This is still a work in process, but He put it on my heart to share this with you.

About 6 months ago - maybe longer - someone who is very dear to me, and whom I love very much, asked me what you have to do to get into heaven. At the time, my answer was very simple, because I didn't feel like I had the ability to communicate a complete answer, and I didn't want to misspeak.

About a month or so ago, I shared with you that God showed me that we as Christians, collectively speaking, do not give enough weight to some very basic truth's of God's message - first that the Bible is TRUE, and secondly, that heaven and hell do, in fact, exist, and are, in fact, eternal. We may speak of the truth of the Bible, but many of us do not live our lives as though we believe in the Bible. We all like to think about going to heaven, but we never seem to be willing to consider hell as the alternative, and we definitely do not live as though an eternal judgment is approaching.

That was the start of the studying that I'm doing right now. The first book that I was led to was 'Driven by Eternity' by John Bevere. It's not a long book, and I thought I would be through it by now, but digesting this book has been a slow process...and has been the catalyst to some serious reflection on where I really am with God. If nothing else, I have become acutely aware of the fact that my decisions must be more motivated by eternal matters.

Through the course of reading this book, I have been continually challenged to check my own heart. Am I really what I say I am? Do I serve God for the right motives? Do I really love God? Or will I be like those who Jesus talks about will who stand before Him on the day of judgment, shocked to be turned away from heaven because He says He never knew them?

John Bevere very clearly illustrates the heart conditions of many who believe themselves to be Christians, but who are, in fact, deceived. That's scary! Imagine being so sure of your eternal destiny, only to find out, after it's too late to change, that you were wrong! To stand before God and be sentenced to eternity in hell because your heart wasn't right toward Him.

Do I serve God because He's worthy? Or do I serve Him for personal benefit? I mean, we all like to think about the blessings of God, and the promises of God, and what a change He can make in our lives here on earth. And it's not wrong to ask for blessing, or to ask Him to show you favor. But what's wrong is serving God for the purpose of getting those blessings. Am I willing to endure hardship and trials and difficulties and winter seasons, and still not be offended by God if His blessings don't seem to be pouring down? I had to take a long hard look at my heart. If I never see the benefits of serving God in this lifetime, would I still love and serve Him? I took my time, prayed about it, and gave it a lot of thought and consideration, because I wanted to get down to the true condition of my heart. I would rather know now, and work with God to change, rather than finding out the truth when I'm standing before Him and it's too late. This was not something I took lightly. But what an awesome process to go through.

Today I sat down and opened my book to read some more, and I got stuck at the first paragraph I read. And it just seemed to be the next step to this process.

'But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him' (1 Corinthians 8:3). Just like the last verse I talked about, this one seems pretty simple and straight-forward. But there's that word KNOW again. The amplified Bible expands on this verse, and it's very cool what it says.

But if one loves God truly [with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience, and grateful recognition of His blessing], he is known by God [recognized as worthy of His intimacy and love, and he is owned by Him]. This verse gives us a benchmark for where our hearts are with God. If we love Him, we affectionately revere Him. We promptly obey Him. We recognize His blessings in our life, and we are truly grateful. And the result of loving God this way is that He opens up to us and reveals Himself, and His nature to us. He deems us worthy of His intimacy and love. He calls us His own. So, when we love Him- when our hearts are right, and we really LOVE Him - we are known by Him. And when we stand before Him, He will not say to us 'I never knew you.'

It's that simple..... It's that simple. My answer to the person who, so long ago asked how we get into heaven, is this: 'Love God.'