V.O.D.: For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame-who set their mind on earthly things.—Philippians 3:18-19
M.O.M.: Ephesians 4:31
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.(English Standard Version)
Today's reading: OBADIAH 1 REVELATION 9
Tears
A.W. Tozer, in his book God Tells the Man Who Cares:
"The psalmists often wrote in tears, the prophets could hardly conceal their heavyheartedness, and the apostle Paul in his otherwise joyous epistle to the Philippians broke into tears when he thought of the many who were enemies of the cross of Christ and whose end was destruction. Those Christian leaders who shook the world were one and all men of sorrows whose witness to mankind welled out of heavy hearts. There is no power in tears per se, but tears and power ever lie close together in the Church of the First-born....The whole Christian family stands desperately in need of a restoration of penitence, humility and tears. May God send them soon."
Our V.O.D.(verse of the day), Philippians 3:18&19 voices Paul's grief over enemies of the cross. But please don't miss both reasons for his grief. The first reason is that the lost are enemies of the cross and we get that immediately. The second reason is probably skipped over.
"Their end is destruction". Paul was not weeping just because these people were enemies of the cross but also that these people had no other end but destruction. People who are not believers will be in everlasting destruction and Paul was broken for this.
Paul wrote in his letters about the dangers of those who were against the cross and said this in Galatians 1:9:
"As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse!"
But, Paul wept over their future destruction. Why? Love. Paul did not just write about love, He knew love and his heart broke over the lost and the end of all their ways.
Proverbs 14:12 ►There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.
How many times have you wept over the death of someone you loved because you knew they were lost? Or, have you ever been glad to know someone is 'getting what they deserve'?(a horrible thought) That is the worst, yes, but all of us are in between somewhere.
So on a scale of 1 to 100-one being weeping over a lost soul and one hundred being the worst, where are you?
1____________________________________________100
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35
(Jesus said) "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:13
(Jesus also said)
27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Luke 6:27-36
All of us who are guilty must confess before God that we have not wept over the lost. OK, but what do we do then? We must pray that God breaks our heart for the lost. But, again, I say, be careful what you pray for. Remember Jonah? After he got out of the belly of the great fish and preached to the lost as God had told him, he was furious because the people of Nineveh repented.
In 1 Corinthians 13, God had Paul write that if we do everything we think God wants but have no love, we are nothing.
If we are born again, we have God's love in our hearts. But we cannot lock it away like cattle in a barnyard-it must be loosed to roam everywhere-to touch all-especially those we do not like.
1 John 4: 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
The turning point for most of us is when we realize and confess to God that we do not love Him as we should. Confess it and move on in Jesus.
...because He loves us...
Father in Heaven,
I confess, I do not love you the way the Bible says in Matthew 22:37-39. Move me to weeping over the lost people in this world.
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