Devotions

Judgment — I am not accustomed to writing messages on this subject, and you may be surprised by this one. I prepared it with great reservations; in fact, it took me far beyond my comfort zone, even though I am dedicated to preaching the whole counsel of God.

Right now I am compelled to speak because of something I see happening in our culture. I have grown convinced that America now stands on the brink of one of the most extreme judgments it has ever faced. And in this bleak hour God has something to say to His Church that may begin to turn the tide.

When I grew up, it wasn’t unusual to hear this kind of difficult message in the denomination my family was part of. Occasionally I heard my father preach on the subject of judgment. What I’m talking about is a prophetic message (although my dad was adamant about not being called a prophet). He said he was a “watchman.”

LOVE TO HEAR HIS VOICE

These days I better appreciate the messages my dad preached and the anguish they caused him. I know he spent hours wrestling with God over the difficult sermons he delivered. As a pastor, I appreciate A. W. Tozer’s lesson that God loves to speak to the man or woman who loves to listen. Yet I fear the church has lost that practice. God wants to speak to us about our family, our marriage, our life’s direction, but our ear is inclined less and less to His voice and more to the world’s.

The Bible calls this condition a famine of the Word of God (see Amos 8:11) — a lack of knowledge of God and His ways. In times of chaos He will use the famine to get our attention and He has my full attention right now! And if He is speaking hard messages about society to grace-oriented pastors such as I am, it tells me He is up to something.

In the eighth chapter of Acts, an angel of the Lord told Philip to stop what he was doing and start out toward the road between Jerusalem and Gaza. At the time, Philip was busy preaching and healing in Samaria. The Lord gave Philip no explanation, and he had no idea why he was being sent. Yet he obeyed.

PROFITABLE DETOUR

While traveling down this road, Philip was passed by a chariot and the Holy Spirit told him to stay near it. When he caught up to the chariot, he heard a man inside reading from Isaiah the prophet. The man, a eunuch from Ethiopia, was an important official of the queen. Immediately Philip understood why the Spirit had led him to this place in the middle of nowhere. He was able to witness to the eunuch and bring him to Christ (Acts 8:26-35).

Had Philip not been listening to the Spirit’s leading, or had he chosen not to heed His direction (or worse yet, failed to acknowledge that the Spirit actually speaks to us), he would have missed out on this divine appointment.

UNDERSTANDING GOD’S AUTHORITY

The truth is, had Philip stayed in Samaria preaching, he probably would have reached many more for Christ during this period of time. Instead, God diverted him for the sake of one soul. It would have been easy for Philip to question this mandate, to second-guess God’s wisdom in leading him away during a successful and busy time in his outreach, but he didn’t. Philip understood God’s authority and knew better than to question His ways.

THE VALUE OF LISTENING

What does it mean to trust God and walk in the Spirit? Jesus offers us a perfect description:

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with every one born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

When and where God leads may not always make sense to us. But a true disciple learns to listen and obey, regardless of his or her own opinions or agenda at the moment.

Nicky Cruz, internationally known evangelist and prolific author, turned to Jesus Christ from a life of violence and crime after meeting David Wilkerson in New York City in 1958. The story of his dramatic conversion was told first in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and then later in his own best-selling book Run, Baby, Run. 

Over the years we who have known the Lord intimately have experienced many miracles. We have been blessed by His deliverance from great trials and temptations.

Decade after decade we have proven God faithful in the midst of dire circumstances. We have known Him as our source of strength; we have been touched often by Christ’s healing hand; we have known the comfort and guidance of God’s Spirit at all turns. We have great knowledge of the Lord’s many precious promises because we have seen Him fulfill them to us faithfully over the years.

THE UNTOUCHED YOUTH

Yet, the fact is, our preaching and experiences have not touched the youthful generation behind us. These young ones haven’t been enamored by the beauty of God’s Word because they haven’t heard it preached in purity. Instead, they have mostly been enticed into church with the lure of flesh-centered activities and entertainment. Once inside, the only gospel they hear is one that is easy, noncommittal. And that easy message has totally failed them.

I know there are a few churches reaching young people in significant numbers. But by and large the upcoming generation has not known, seen or experienced God’s miracle-working power. Tell me, to whom can they turn? To me, their plight is captured in a recent newspaper headline THE WORLD HAS LOST ALL TRUST.

GOD HEARS OUR CRY

The prophet Isaiah spoke of a coming day when the world would be eating “the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction” (Isaiah 30:20). Isaiah predicted that out of this adversity and affliction a cry would arise. And when God hears that cry, “He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, He will answer thee” (Isaiah 30:19).

“Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men” (2 Corinthians 3:2).

I have a question for you: What is your life saying to those around you? How does the book of your life read? What kind of teacher is your life?

So many testimonies pour into our office. We read stories about those who are filled with hope despite job loss; who have peace in spite of physical sickness; who walk with courage in the face of endless suffering. And they all have this in common: They pray.

PRAYER, THE COMMON DENOMINATOR

One such servant is a devoted woman of God undergoing a grinding trial. Daily she has the desperate task of caring for both a mentally challenged son and an elderly mother-in-law with dementia. This woman has to be on guard round the clock because one or the other of the two might run away or burn down the house. She tells of how weary she becomes at times, wondering if she can make it through another day.

What it all boils down to for her is simple: She prays. This woman knows firsthand how to go boldly to God’s throne of grace daily to find mercy in her time of need.

BOLD TRUST

Such teachers are living epistles, God’s love letters to a hopeless world. And they have become so by being in constant communion with the Lord through every trial and struggle. They wholly trust Jesus to renew their strength to go on, and depend on the Holy Spirit for direction and grace in their time of need.

I ask you: Do you minister to others by your example? I urge you, go to the Lord daily for all the mercy and strength you need. He is calling you forth as one of His teachers!

In Deuteronomy 11 we find Israel at the Jordan River about to cross over into the Promised Land.

Before God’s people went into Canaan, Moses called them together for a special message from the Lord. Remember, this wasn’t the generation that was doomed to die in the wilderness for their acts of disobedience. Rather, this was the generation that followed those faithless ones. When their fathers crossed the Red Sea, these people were still young, ranging in age from infancy to twenty years old. Now many of them were over fifty, and their own children comprised the third generation.

LISTEN TO ME

Moses began his exhortation to this “middle generation” with the following words:

“Know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm” (Deuteronomy 11:2).

Moses made it clear: “The message I am about to speak to you is not directed to your children. It is not meant for those who haven’t seen the miracles you’ve seen. It is not for those who haven’t known the discipline of the Lord. And it is not for the untested, those who haven’t experienced God’s awesome might in the midst of their trials.”

A CLEAR MANDATE

God was telling this middle generation, in so many words: “Here is your full-time calling as My servants. You are to be steadfast always, never wavering in your trust in Me. In this way, your children will see My mighty hand at work in your life. They will be emboldened by the peace you have in the midst of your afflictions.”