Saturday March 17, 2012

Read Deuteronomy 8:19-20. Heb 2:1-3

 

Picture yourself driving along in your new Lamborghini Diablo.  As you cruise down the highway at unmentionably sinful speeds, you see a sign that reads, ‘Bridge out. Detour.’ Would you keep driving and avoid the sign? Would you just ignore the sign and plant your foot on the accelerator? Seriously? Of course you wouldn’t! To save both yourself and your ridiculously expensive new car you would observe the warning sign.

 

God’s threats about destruction and removal from the Promised Lands are literally warning signs to encourage the Children of God to change direction or to avoid a certain road. Just as we would be silly to ignore a ’bridge out’ sign, so Israel would be silly to forget her God. Israel would be silly to attribute her wealth, her success, her victories etc to herself rather than to God. Ignoring the warning signs would lead to a loss of blessing and great damage to both the land and the nation.

 

God still warns us today. He still holds up warning signs for us. But all too often our health, our wealth and our “be comfortable at all costs” mentality has blinded us to the signs. The signs whizz past us and we plant our foot on the accelerator of life thinking that we know better. Sickness, stillness and quietness from God, unproductive quiet times, hard and trying life situations, financial  stress etc can all be God’s warning signs to us.

 

Maybe it’s time to stop and listen. Maybe it’s time to look at the signs and to heed the Lord’s warning. Maybe it’s time to reassess our lives to see if it’s still on God’s path.

 

Prayer:

¥ Spend time praising God for 15 things that happened last week.

¥ Spend time praising God for 5 things that you really appreciate about God.

¥ Pray that we as a congregation would be faithful with the Word of God, the Bible, and diligent in applying it to our own lives. Pray that we would love the Word and the Lord who gave us the Word more than we love our own lives.

 

¥ Pray this for our brothers in Sudan and in Somalia where they face extreme persecution for believing in Jesus.  Pray that God would grant them courage and  strength to stand strong through the storm. Pray that they would brightly shine the light of Jesus.